Sort of a delicate question about racism. (Pittsburgh, Penn Hills: house, school)

[safak]

Originally Posted by hinsey86

Pittsburgh is much more segregated than I was used to..coming from the south.

i don't know about that. the living areas yeah it does seem that way. but i have lived in a few different areas, and one in virginia was way more segregated. there was a mall i went to with my (now) wife and was the only white couple there..we were told, nicely enough, this was the black mall and given directions to the white one.

growing up in monroeville, where the mall has alwasy seemed a mix it blew my mind. i can go to a lot of bars or clubs in pittsburgh and see blacks and whites getting hammered in harmony, but down there i couldn't.

[bradjl2009]

Originally Posted by candycorps

As a young african american female who moved here last summer all I can say is I hate it here and can't wait to move back closer to the east coast. There is alot of covert racism I encounter everyday and I'm sick of it. Just the other day I had a patient (I work in healthcare) ask me where I lived and when I told him he said "Oh I thought you lived ___ where they shoot people". I was so mad and it confirmed to me why I kept getting asked a thousand time a day from older white patients where I lived, only to have them seem disapointed when I say a nice area (no I don't live in a ghetto). Not to mention my coworkers are horrible to new African Americans that start on the unit, it was so bad one girl didn't even last a month, they've nicknamed another who works in housekeeping "molasses". And because these girls have probably never been around a black female in their life and only ever been exposed to Hollywood's negative steorotypes of the "angry black female" and "Luquisha" I have to work twice as hard to show that I am college educated and that while I do sometimes lose my temper its due to human nature and not some inherit trait of my race. Anyone who doesn't see that Pittsburgh is racist is deluded or has never lived anywhere else to see how shocking it is for those who have moved from other areas of the country where it isn't as bad.

While I am white, I went to a high school that was half white and half black and I do feel like my black classmates had more of a dislike of Pittsburgh and wanting to move out than my white classmates. I never asked them why however but I do agree there is some covert racism here. Become close or good friends with some people and you'll hear them say things you'd never hear them say in public. However, I know for a fact there is stuff like that everywhere you go but I have no idea how much better or worse it is in other cities.

[ferraris]

I'll just chime in that I have been in an interracial (white-black) relationship in Pittsburgh for over 5 years now and don't have a single negative anecdote to share about it. In fact, I don't have a single positive anecdote to share about it, either. People have never made a comment on it one way or the other, which is the way I like it.

Perhaps it's different because I'm a white male, and most interracial relationships are the other way around, or because we don't spend much time in homogeneous/uneducated areas, but It has been an irrelevant point of my Pittsburgh life for 5 years running now.

[Blackbeauty212]

Pittsburgh is no better no worse than anywhere else in the North as far as Race Relations go....

Blacks from every city in the North, swears up and down their city is the most Racist...NYC, Philly, NoVA, Boston, Cleveland, Chicago...every city. I mean NYC and Chicago aren't losing bucket loads of Blacks to South because of the warmer weather. Most Blacks in the North like to throw around the term "Racism" because they think they're owed something from local society, while being irresponsible, lazy and uneducated...Most have never seen Racism in its truest form and to be honest a good visit to some southern states will really put things into perspective.

One thing about Pittsburgh its Less Segregated then many other bigger cities...I've seen this with my own eyes. Cities where segregation is sooo thick you can cut it with a deli meat slicer, "Blacks over here, White over there, Latino's up there, Asians Down there"...

I mean some people champion Enclaves, I do not, its a form of Segregation....

[Q-tip motha]

Originally Posted by chef.sunny22

First off, I am White, but I don't want to live in a racist area.

That being said, I lived in Central PA (near Harrisburg) in 1994-95 and the people were VERY racist. I didn't like that, and we wound up moving because we didn't want to raise a family with people who felt this way.

I also found them very ignorant and they made a big deal about us coming from NY like we were hoods or something.

We've been considering the Pitts. area (along with a few others). Can anyone tell me if the Pittsburgh area is more welcoming to people from other states/races/ways of thinking?

I know Philly is not like this (as closed minded) but what about Pittsburgh and the suburbs?

The city proper and Allegheny county doesn't appear to be racist. When you go out to the burbs and beyond it becomes a little more common. At first its the "I'm not racist, but..." crowd that don't realize that the way that they think/make decisions fits the definition of racism. Go into the surrounding counties outside of Allegheny and you'll find the card carrying white supremacists. This isn't a sweeping statement about everyone or even a majority of the people in these areas, but there is a very ignorant contingent that is more likely to be found there.

[ferraris]

Originally Posted by Blackbeauty212

Pittsburgh is no better no worse than anywhere else in the North as far as Race Relations go....

Blacks from every city in the North, swears up and down their city is the most Racist...NYC, Philly, NoVA, Boston, Cleveland, Chicago...every city. I mean NYC and Chicago aren't losing bucket loads of Blacks to South because of the warmer weather.

One thing about Pittsburgh its Less Segregated then many other bigger cities...I've seen this with my own eyes. Every city has been "Blacks over here, White over there, Latino's up there, Asians Down there"...

I mean some people champion Enclaves, I do not, its a form of Segregation....

I agree with this. While Pittsburgh does have some segregated neighborhoods, lots of other cities have entire "sides" of town that are virtually entirely white or black. At least in Pittsburgh the segregated areas are relatively small, and not too clustered together.

[Copanut]

Originally Posted by Gnutella

2. Age-wise, the inflection point is around age 45. You're more likely to encounter racially ignorant people over that age than you are under that age. There are some ignorant teenagers, but that can be attributed to naivete or immature provocation more than anything else.

Gee, I wonder who hasn't turned 45 yet?

Hard to believe that all those Brentwood High School B-ball players were older than 45. Must be a tough place to graduate from.

[hinsey86]

Originally Posted by safak

i don't know about that. the living areas yeah it does seem that way. but i have lived in a few different areas, and one in virginia was way more segregated. there was a mall i went to with my (now) wife and was the only white couple there..we were told, nicely enough, this was the black mall and given directions to the white one.

growing up in monroeville, where the mall has alwasy seemed a mix it blew my mind. i can go to a lot of bars or clubs in pittsburgh and see blacks and whites getting hammered in harmony, but down there i couldn't.

Of course i have not lived all over the south but in the 4 different states, and 10 areas within those states they were all integrated ...at least since the mid 70's. Of course there were areas that were predominately one race or another but all the middle class areas i lived in were integrated. All schools I attended were well mixed. Actually the suburb areas tended to be more integrated than the cities.

[escilade18]

Originally Posted by Blackbeauty212

One thing about Pittsburgh its Less Segregated then many other bigger cities...I've seen this with my own eyes. Cities where segregation is sooo thick you can cut it with a deli meat slicer, "Blacks over here, White over there, Latino's up there, Asians Down there"...

I mean some people champion Enclaves, I do not, its a form of Segregation....

Google Image Result for http://michiganjournal.org/wp-content/uploads/2011/11/welcome-to-detroit-signfrugal-cafecom.jpg
Pittsburgh doesn't have the racial tension that I can feel in many mid-western cities such as Detroit, Cleveland or Cincinnati. There will unfortunately be racial tensions everywhere where there is any diversity in the population, but in the city proper of Pittsburgh it doesn't feel the same as many cities to the west of us. (In Detroit it was so bad it was like you could cut it with a knife)

[I_Like_Spam]

Originally Posted by Blackbeauty212

One thing about Pittsburgh its Less Segregated then many other bigger cities...I've seen this with my own eyes. Cities where segregation is sooo thick you can cut it with a deli meat slicer, "Blacks over here, White over there, Latino's up there, Asians Down there"...

Pittsburgh used to be quite segregated none too long ago, like when I was a kid.

A lot of white people in the 60s and 70s would freak out at the very thought of African Americans moving into certain areas or even working there. People would peek out their windows if the uniformed postal carrier was black where I lived.