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I live in the south, but not the deep south. I have never been able to answer that question about racism and the Bible. I have lived in the deep south and hated it. But racism is everywhere. In Calfornia and other States people are just political correct but much racism still exists. When Obama ran for President my CA friends were telling me that racism reared its ugly head. Few religious people have practiced true Christianity. During the days of slavery it was the Quakers that spoke out against salves, not the Christians that believed that the Bible said we could have slaves, and that is very true of the Bible. If you read the laws in the Old Testament you can beat your slave to an inch of death. If he dies right away you have to pay a fine. So maybe I have somewhat answered this question after all:
i know,i know there is racism in the north but there is more in the south from my experience. but the kicker for me is how can that happen when this is the bible belt? or are people hypocrites down here? am i not getting something? what part of love thy neighbor dont they understand?
How little you really know about the south...yes, in small towns and country settings, like any other state including Ca for that matter you might see a lot more prejudice, but too few people really understand the south. At least they are open about their feelings instead of true hypocrites like many in the NoEast, mid Atlantic and some other areas. Did you ever think about all the ways one can be a racist or a bigot? It isn't just a black/white thing..
I for one, am so sick and tired of this crap. I will tell you where we have lived with the most racism. It happened to be in Dallas and it was black against white...not the other way around.
I used to have this book. It demonstrates how people over time have used scripture to support their causes; for example, to support slavery or to support abolition, to support homosexuality or to demonstrate that homosexuality is wrong.
i know,i know there is racism in the north but there is more in the south from my experience. but the kicker for me is how can that happen when this is the bible belt? or are people hypocrites down here? am i not getting something? what part of love thy neighbor dont they understand?
Racism is everywhere. I think that many people who aren't from the South visit the South with the expectation that they will see more racism and it's a self-fulfilling prophecy. If you go to Massachusetts expecting to see more gas stations than you've seen concentrated in any one area before, then chances are that you will see a remarkable number of gas stations. When you expect something, you look for it. And sometimes you even invite it.
I also think that racist incidents are more noticeable in rural areas than they are in urban areas. When you have one million people living in a close, urban environment, you have one million people conditioned to ignore a lot of intrusion, a lot of things they don't agree with or don't like. When you have one thousand people living spread out, that conditioning doesn't happen. And people who don't like something will speak out about it, and sometimes revert to racist language when they do so. Things don't get ignored as much, which sometimes seems like a lack of tolerance, but could also be a lack of conditioning.
There is also a kind of political correctness that is rooted in racial sensitivity that is needed in urban environments but not in rural environments. I'm not saying that we shouldn't all be aware and sensitive to racial slights, but the point I'm making is that people are abrasive. People wear on other people. People's opinions and viewpoints and perspectives rub other people the wrong way. More people, more abrasion. We often talk about the roughness of rural culture, and there is an element of truth to that. The roughness hasn't been worn down, it's still visible to people. There is a smoothness to people from urban environments that makes prejudice and racism harder to see. But if a person is prejudiced or racist at the heart of them, it doesn't matter how smooth the surface is. And every person has a set of pre-judgments about other groups of people. None of us is without prejudice.
Ignorant blacks are very racist and hate whitey, and there are more blacks in the bible belt. Perhaps that answers your question?
I think, when it comes down to it, chatty, that ignorant people are more fearful people. The more fear you have, the more you try to explain that fear. Generalizations and stereotypes make the explanations easier both as to why the ignorant don't like someone, and why they shouldn't like someone.
While I've met some racist blacks, I don't necessarily equate defensiveness, that might be the result of some negative experiences, with racism out of hand. Defensiveness is a wall we put up to protect ourselves. If that wall can be pushed aside, then the black person is not a racist. If the wall is permanent, then perhaps they are.
In my experience, urban dwellers in the northeast are the most ignorant, provincial people I have met in the US (I lived in New Jersey one year). They have rarely, if ever, traveled outside of their region and have no idea about the world outside thier dingy urban life.
Change "urban" to "rural" and this sentence could just as easily describe many southerners.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Rakin
Most people in the Bible belt believe in loving their neighbor and do not make racist comments.
I have lived in the south for 30 years, and I have found this statement to simply not be true (at least in TN). I'm not saying it's any different in the north. I've never lived there so I wouldn't know. But there is still plenty of racism in the south. I hear the "N-word" literally every day, often numerous times. That being said, most of the racist whites I've known wouldn't actually harm a black person simply due to their skin color, and many would even be friendly to them. We southerners have a nasty habit of talking about people behind their backs. I've had jobs where I worked almost exclusively with black people, and every single one of them was nothing but friendly to me. Of course, for all I know they could have been talking about me behind my back, too.
Although the term "Bible Belt" seems to imply people are more holy and thus more compassionate, that isn't the case. The Evangelical/Bible Belt movement is just like any other culture. It has its positives and negatives. It's culture is intertwined with the culture in the South so racist attitudes tend to prevail among these people although they are "Christian." I've always found that contradiction to be interesting. Here you have a group of people who believe in service and charity yet they don't want their children marrying Blacks and harbor intolerance toward other faiths.
It also depends on the audience to which we are speaking of. Southerners are typically very friendly to heterosexual Christian Whites and thus the reputation of "Southern Hospitality" was formed. However, if you talk to minorities, gays and non-Christians, their experience is vastly different.
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