Bay Area Racism vs Southern Racism (San Francisco, Oakland: home, movies, college)

[Motion]

Interesting article.

His expression made it clear that this was no mere hyperbole spat out so as to get a reaction. He meant every word and proceeded in about twenty minutes to lay out the case for why indeed this place where we were talking — San Francisco — was far more racist, in his estimation than any of several places he had lived in the South.

Worse than Birmingham.

Worse than Jackson, Mississippi.

Worse than Dallas.

San Francisco. Yes, that San Francisco.


Tim Wise » With Friends Like These, Who Needs Glenn Beck? Racism and White Privilege on the Liberal-Left

[Atlanta_dude]

This would only be surprising to people who rely on ignorant stereotypes and movies to judge a place/people. The south is most integrated region of the country.

[Curmudgeon]

And this would be the umpty-umph thread begun by blacks regarding racism. What are y'all, a freakin' tag team? Concentrate on making your lives better! In this country the glass is still half full.

Oh yeah! For the record. I truly believe that political correctness has done and continues to do this country significant harm when compared to the bit of good it's done in some isolated areas.

[04kL4nD]

As someone who grew up in the South, I can say that it's far more openly racist than the Bay Area. People throw around racist slurs like it's no big deal and they won't hesitate to tell you how opposed they are to interracial dating and affirmative action. I'm still embarrassed whenever I go home to family gatherings and I have to sit and listen to relatives and acquaintances spout off ignorant remarks. I used to go off on them, now I just keep my mouth shut- it's a waste of time and energy. Not everybody in the South is a racist, but a lot of people come up with a laundry list of justifications why "things are the way they are". The civil war might have ended a long time ago, but the anger and hatred is still there. I have never been called a cracker or a honky in the Bay Area by a stranger on the street, I certainly have back home.

With that said, there is definitely racism in the Bay Area. With such diverse ethnics groups living on top of each other, I really don't see how there couldn't be any. I just don't think it's as open and hostile.

[Motion]

Tim Wise's article does touch on the Bay Area but it's more about how liberal style racism plays itself out in general.


Here's a video that talks about how housing patterns in SF were shaped by race.



http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Jnt81...layer_embedded

[mayorhaggar]

[llowllevellowll]

As someone who actually came from the South, like Oakland says, it's far more intentionally and openly racist in the South and anyone who argues other wise either doesn't come from there, has their blinders on, or is overcompensating for the fact that the South always gets blamed for being so overtly racist (or all three).

That isn't to say, however, that there isn't racism in Bay Area - through policy or through interaction. Humans are racist. This shouldn't surprise anyone. Although I think a lot of liberals tend to think they're more open-minded and caring or whathaveoyu, and while they may be slightly less racist, they're not free from it.

This article and plenty like it just reminds me that people talk themselves up too much. Some socially liberal people pretend to be free from racism and give off a false sense of reality and others, like the author, were at one time lead to believe something about humanity that wasn't true and when he found out SF wasn't quite what he had built up, he's now trying to make SF live up to unrealistic expectations that he never should have had in the first place.

The other thing I think is important to remember are the amounts of people in the Bay Area vs the amount of people in states like Alabama, Mississippi, etc. Whenever you have a ton of people in one area, you're going to have a mix of things happen - in part, people will generally feel more tolerant of others and of diversity - I think that's evident here, and in part, some people will feel more irritation and possibly nervousness and as life changes for them, they sometimes blame others and many times, those others are people who aren't quite like them, and I think that's also evident in the Bay Area.

But to break it down politically and attempt to say that liberal racism is worse than neo-con racism is the exact type of sensationalism I think this county would best be served by not reading.

[Heidi60]

A local college HR office I worked at called their hiring practices "non-white bias", which is just another term for racism only against whites.

[City Data Guy]

Let me guess...This Tim "Wise" thinks only European Americans are racist, right?

If you're one of those ignorant people that thinks only white people are racist, please shoot me in the head.

Racism and double standards can burn in the darkest, hottest, deepest pit of Hell.

It doesn't matter what region of the United States you are in when it comes to racism. Racism is hate, prejudice, and intolerance for other human beings based on such a trivial trait as skin color. What a dumb ****ing reason to hate other people.

[allenk893]

San Francisco racism is DEFINITELY worse than southern racism according to countless posts I have read.