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I doubt that. Atlanta is the black mans mecca and is home to several hip hop labels. Go to any gas station on Roswell Rd ( well outside city limits) and it looks like they're filming a 50 cent video.
Last time I was on foot deep into downtown I was on jury duty and I remember sitting outside the courthouse and a 10 minute stretch of time went by where I didn't see a single non-black person.
I'll be visiting Tampa in October so I'll get a good glimpse of it.
I don't actually live in Atlanta, but rather 20 min N of it. I used Atlanta as a reference point because most people know where it is in Georgia.
I used to live on Roswell Rd in Marietta and have NEVER seen what you are talking about. Marietta is in Cobb County, and is largely Republican. So, no, it does not look like a 50 cent video is being filmed at any time, any place. The only places in Marietta that have heavy police traffic are those where Mexicans live because they are constantly being harrassed by the boys in blue.
The only places that carry on the way you mention are the heart of Atlanta (inner city) and virtually any place in Fulton County. But it's not much different from what I saw downtown Daytona Beach.
Isn't "white trash" kind of like the "n"word for white people? Who gets to decide when someone else is trash?
So sick of all this race baiting.
No, referring to someone as "white trash" is not the same as calling someone a ni66er.
White trash would be the equivalent of calling a black person ghetto or ghetto trash. I am not one to judge, but trash is trash. Plain and simple. Black or white.
I am a 33 y/o black woman married to a 35 y/o white man, with no children.
Although I've never been to Pensacola, I have visited Orlando, Panama City Beach, Cocoa Beach, and Daytona Beach, FL.....and let me tell you, Daytona Beach was the ONLY place where we felt entirely welcomed as if we belonged.
That's not to say we were mistreated or ignored elsewhere, but we did feel like second class citizens INITIALLY each time we arrived.
We enjoyed ourselves very much and had a blast every time except in Panama CB, and I'll get to that in just a moment.
PCB and Cocoa beach are predominantly white, with an approximate 6% minority population...AND WE FELT IT. The stares were endless; not stares of curiosity, but of disapproval and disappointment. Cocoa Beach was by far our favorite place (great seafood and beautiful sandy beaches), but we had to work our way into enjoying the place initially and here's why. We visited nearly a month before the presidential election (Obama's 2nd term) and the place was so politically charged. We went to dine at a restaurant and no one wanted to wait on us. The place wasn't crowded, the servers looked like they needed work, yet we were left standing at the entrance podium waited to be seated. One of the workers in the back yelled, "It ain't my turn to seat guests!"
Whoopie woo. Any other time we would have left, but we were starving so we chose to stick it out. Eventually we were seated at a table near the bar, where all monitors were covering the election. Great. One guy looks at us and yells out, "I ain't voting for Obama!" .....which was great, but why he felt WE gave a F I'm still clueless.
The waitress......intelligent. Open-minded and empathetic. She was the ONLY person who we thought had any class at all and we were prepared to tip her our life savings.
The old white couple behind us.....constant whispers and stares, and complete disgust when the waitress offered to take a photo of my husband and I (as if to say how dare they!). It got so uncomfortable for my husband, he turned around and told the 70 year old guy he would come across the table if necessary. Now, I would have never let him do that NOR would he have, but it was nice to see my white husband feel this undeserved frustration. I wish I could have inked that moment in history!
Oh....and the old biker guy who kept a close watch on us from outside the back door to make sure we paid our bill AND tipped well (which we always do). As soon as the bill was paid, he decided he no longer needed to "watch" us and it was safe to retreat to whatever he was doing previously.
Cocoa Beach is a small town, so news travels real fast. Once people saw how nice and respectful we were at the grocery stores, beach, etc, AND that we tipped well, it's like they rolled out the red carpet for us. Well, I wouldn't go that far, but let's just say we didn't feel like 2nd class citizens anymore. I guess that's a good thing. At least a start :-)
Now, PCB - a complete time capsule into WTF am I? Racist as hell, and all the black people work as servers, hotel housekeepers, etc, and they seem to have an inferiority complex which WE certainly don't. A young white male, between 18-23 I suppose (not sure he was even legal but...) aparently had too much to drink and was knocking on everyone's hotel doors screaming N's aint gone be s**t. It was the craziest thing I'd heard in a long time and then I remembered where I was. Demographics are everything....because had this kid been in Atlanta saying that, he would not have made it. Guaranteed.
Sorry for the lost post, but I wanted to be as honest and descriptive as possible. You may not be treated bad or in an overtly racist way while you are in Florida, but the racism is there. The stares, whispers, and feeling like you have to prove yourself to be respected.......this was OUR experience in FL.
Daytona, was so diverse on the other hand. Reminds me of Myrtle Beach, SC except wayyyyyyy more mixed couples and such....
WOW!!!! Thank you for taking the time out to explain your situation. Oh man, I feel so bad but, it does exist everywhere. I felt more comfortable in Minnesota. Here in Pensacola I have found it to be great so far People were very welcoming! I have had issues with the AA males though staring and pointing. My husband is present and see it a lot and oh boy I get nervous because he has a really bad temper and calls them out on it. Only time will tell if this is the place for us. As of right now so far so good
I'm a Hispanic/Italian mix breed lol and for some reason all the white and black people felt the need to try and speak Spanish to me! Wtf right? This past summer I ask a clerk at a popular store if they carried footballs, after a long pause she escorted me to the soccer balls! I'm not joking either! This was down in Panama City beach. I mostly blame the media for people's retarted reactions when they see a Mexican. Eitherway these issues are small and for the most part when I'm down in Flordia I'm treated pretty well and the white women love me! Haha I have not been waited on and served many times traveling the south but I always encounter that type of behavior from Louisiana to Alabama. God Alabama is terrible!
I usually ignore it when I encounter it. Cause at the end of the day I'm pretty well off for a Beaner and usually the predator is well not.
Oh but the cops are terrible at profiling! But your a woman you will be fine.
I can't tell you how many "randome" checks I get. Again I blame the media the whole country thinks I'm illegal lol
When and where did you witness "criminal activity" if I may ask?
Wayy too much traffic, I agree.
Urban sprawl? Could you elaborate on that?
Seriously? In which city? Read the dang news from either place. Look at crime stats from both cities. Atlanta is ranked worse, but Tampa isn't exactly a safe place.
What's to elaborate on urban sprawl? You can't drive through either city at any part of the day ond not encounter traffic. Although, again, Atlanta is worse. Both have overwhelmed what were previously neighboring communities. I can remember when they were building Peachtree City. It was in the boonies. My brother has moved from Doraville, to Suwanee, to Cumming and still can't get away from the crowds. But Tampa is similar, it all encroachs on what were previously separate areas.
Maybe I'm showing my age here, but Atlanta used to be cool. Now it's just too damn big. Tampa is the same. To me.
Betsy, to answer your question in the context that you are thinking, NO it is NOT okay for anyone to disrespect another person through acts of discrimination or racism. I don't believe that black people in America can be racist. Prejudiced, YES, but not racist. That may be a conversation for a different thread, but again, NO it is not okay.
The problem I have with conversations like this, is the need to somehow detract from my experience and instead deflect on my comment about the white kid not being able to make racist statements publicly in Atlanta, or any other area where white people are not the majority. I am not implying in any way that blacks in Atlanta are unfriendly to whites, or anything of the sort. But you are glossing over something, the fact that black kids are not running around publicly threatening white people or referring to them in a racial way. I live here and have not seen this. Even in places where blacks are the majority, I have never seen a group of blacks intentionally make a white person feel unwelcome. Now, if some white kid decides not to use common sense and shouts out a racial slur in a public place and is retaliated against, what do you think will happen? I'm not going to go into a stars and bars bar and started proclaiming my admiration for President Obama, am I?
Yes, this may be a conversation for a different thread, but honey, I HAD to respond to the above..."
You said: I don't believe that black people in America can be racist. Prejudiced, YES, but not racist.". I'm responding as an AA woman of 40 + years.....that's an untrue statement. And, until we ALL, face and acknowledge ourselves (yes, because it IS an individual thing) we won't fix this!! Final answer!
Seriously? In which city? Read the dang news from either place. Look at crime stats from both cities. Atlanta is ranked worse, but Tampa isn't exactly a safe place.
What's to elaborate on urban sprawl? You can't drive through either city at any part of the day ond not encounter traffic. Although, again, Atlanta is worse. Both have overwhelmed what were previously neighboring communities. I can remember when they were building Peachtree City. It was in the boonies. My brother has moved from Doraville, to Suwanee, to Cumming and still can't get away from the crowds. But Tampa is similar, it all encroachs on what were previously separate areas.
Maybe I'm showing my age here, but Atlanta used to be cool. Now it's just too damn big. Tampa is the same. To me.
There are always stats, but I've lived in Atlanta virtually all my life and I've never seen a person murdered. Can't recall anyone's home being broken into, or someone getting robbed, or beaten or worse, unless they were already involved in some kind of criminal activity. Like selling drugs out of the home, or simply being involved with them. Sure, there's the occasional crackhead that robs the idiot who didn't have better sense than to walk thru a dangerous neighborhood at 3am, or the infamous Brian Nichols, but aside from that you REALLY don't witness any of that "statistical" crime unless you go looking for it.
I'd never heard of urban sprawl before this. Thanks, I looked it up, and I have to say that I wouldn't necessarily deem it a bad thing, just maybe not one's personal preference. You say Atlanta's not cool because of growth and urban sprawl. I think it's cool for that very reason. And that's what contributes to the diversity, making it a comfortable place for people like me to call home.
Yes, this may be a conversation for a different thread, but honey, I HAD to respond to the above..."
You said: I don't believe that black people in America can be racist. Prejudiced, YES, but not racist.". I'm responding as an AA woman of 40 + years.....that's an untrue statement. And, until we ALL, face and acknowledge ourselves (yes, because it IS an individual thing) we won't fix this!! Final answer!
It is never my intention to minimize your experiences as an AA woman, but consider the definitions of prejudice and racism:
prejudice: (n) preconceived opinion that is not based on reason or actual experience.
(v) give rise to prejudice in (someone); make biased.
racism: (n) the belief that all members of each race possess characteristics or
abilities specific to that race, esp. so as to distinguish it as inferior or superior to another
race or races
My 12th grade history teacher, Mr. Steve Rubino, made a very important point regarding race relations in the US which was, while it is true that anyone can be prejudiced, the term "racist" can only be applied when one's prejudices allow them to unfairly discriminate against another, thus collectively "having power" over them.
Black people are not the forerunners of corporate America. We are not rejecting job applications because of ethnic sounding names or because we don't fit, as I was told, "the profile"
Our opportunities for promotion are so few and far between while positions are created for whites at will. It's called structural racism, and because black people do not possess the authority or resources to stop the advancement of white people at any level or opportunity - NO, by sheer definition, it would be impossible for us to be racists.
maybe VeRy prejudiced, but not racists. There is a difference. btw, Mr. Rubino was a white 40+ yo professor at the time.
WOW!!!! Thank you for taking the time out to explain your situation. Oh man, I feel so bad but, it does exist everywhere. I felt more comfortable in Minnesota. Here in Pensacola I have found it to be great so far People were very welcoming! I have had issues with the AA males though staring and pointing. My husband is present and see it a lot and oh boy I get nervous because he has a really bad temper and calls them out on it. Only time will tell if this is the place for us. As of right now so far so good
I had heard some pretty good things about Minnesota. A friend of mine, a Liberian immigrant married to a white woman, moved there almost a decade ago and loves it to this day. I'm wishing you continued good luck in Pensacola. I haven't heard anything good come out of Florida lately, but I'm not totally sold that it's a bad place. Maybe I just don't want to give up on them.
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People were very welcoming! I have had issues with the AA males though staring and pointing. My husband is present and see it a lot and oh boy I get nervous because he has a really bad temper and calls them out on it. Only time will tell if this is the place for us. As of right now so far so good 
btw, Mr. Rubino was a white 40+ yo professor at the time.
