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I'm a complete outsider from New Mexico who recently moved to South Carolina to be closer to my family and younger siblings who moved out here a couple years ago and currently work at retirement home just outside of Columbia, while my family lives in Newberry. One thing that bothers me I've noticed it spite of SC being just as diverse as NM is there still remains a contention between races here. Actually contention is probably the wrong word. I'll try misunderstanding. Not mention when I was in Greenwood recently visiting a friend at Lander some guy from his car yelled out me "get a haircut '****!"(I'm a Hispanic guy with curly hair). I was wondering if anyone has hope that old wounds will finally heal. I don't see this much in urban areas like Columbia, but more in the rural parts of the state. Should there be more open dialogue?
I'm a complete outsider from New Mexico who recently moved to South Carolina to be closer to my family and younger siblings who moved out here a couple years ago and currently work at retirement home just outside of Columbia, while my family lives in Newberry. One thing that bothers me I've noticed it spite of SC being just as diverse as NM is there still remains a contention between races here. Actually contention is probably the wrong word. I'll try misunderstanding. Not mention when I was in Greenwood recently visiting a friend at Lander some guy from his car yelled out me "get a haircut '****!"(I'm a Hispanic guy with curly hair). I was wondering if anyone has hope that old wounds will finally heal. I don't see this much in urban areas like Columbia, but more in the rural parts of the state. Should there be more open dialogue?
You'll find the south to be much more integrated than our brothers and sisters to the north.
While we don't talk about it as much, we have cultural and race melting pots in our homes and our lives. We live it.
I'm sorry but if you find a "contention between races" you are going out of your way to look for it.
You'll find the south to be much more integrated than our brothers and sisters to the north.
WHAT?!?! More integrated??? Not a chance. The south is the FURTHEST behind and the most segregated places I've ever lived. I live in Columbia and I swear thier still fighting the civil war on my street. Not with canons and muskets but you get the point!
WHAT?!?! More integrated??? Not a chance. The south is the FURTHEST behind and the most segregated places I've ever lived. I live in Columbia and I swear thier still fighting the civil war on my street. Not with canons and muskets but you get the point!
What an ignorant post. No one is still fighting the civil war here. Do me a favor and lookup the most segregated cities in America, notice how none of them are in the segregated racist south.
Mostly everywhere in the south you go you will see black people, even in rural areas. This is their home. Same cannot be said for rural Illinois or rural Massachusetts that are virtually 100% white. We are more integrated than what you and others think.
As for the OP, I am sure that was an isolated incident but for the most part you will be fine here. It is very unlikely that someone would yell something directly in your face we are mostly polite here.
WHAT?!?! More integrated??? Not a chance. The south is the FURTHEST behind and the most segregated places I've ever lived. I live in Columbia and I swear thier still fighting the civil war on my street. Not with canons and muskets but you get the point!
I think they mean that we, in the South, have a much greater diversity. Only New York has an equivalent percentage of white persons in their state as South Carolina. NJ is a close second. When a state only has 6% of minorities, sure it feels more integrated.
I grew up and lived most of my life in SC. When the poster says more integrated, I think it is a misnomer. There are more black people in the south than in the northern states, but in terms of integration, I don't think that is true. Most places I have been to in SC have a pretty clearly defined white area and black area. Black and White people don't worship, shop or hang out together. I don't think it's significantly different in the North though.
What I do think is that you see more overt racism in the South. Since there are so many minority people, you are more likely to see tempers flare and nasty incidents come to light. In northern states, the racism is still there, but it's a lot more insidious.
I really don't know why I stepped in this minefield, but there you go.
The person who nailed it best, IMHO, is travel writer Bill Bryson, who made this observation while spending several months traversing the continental United States, including the Deep South and the extreme northern states:
"It struck me as notably ironic that Southerners could despise blacks so bitterly and yet live comfortably alongside them, while in the North people by and large did not mind blacks, even respected them as humans and wished them every success, just so long as they didn't have to mingle with them too freely."
--Bill Bryson, "The Lost Continent"
Based on my experiences, I couldn't have said it better myself.
Also, to the pp who made the astute observation that the rural North is almost 100% white, the reason for that is simply that historically blacks populated the South almost exclusively until they began to move to the Northern cities during the Great Migration of the early to mid-20th century. They moved north to get away from sharecrop farming and try to better themselves with manufacturing work wages, so of course they didn't move to the northern countryside, since the factories tended to be in the larger cities, not to mention that they often moved north without a dime to their names to buy any land or farming implements with, but it isn't as if there are barbed wire fences keeping them out or anything, they simply moved to the cities and stayed in the cities. And today's almost 100% black, high crime, poverty-infested, cities of both the North and the South are the true barometer of just how much overt racism still exists in all parts of this country.
I have black people in my family. My husband was raised by a black woman. Both of my neighbors on either side of me are black. One of my best girlfriends is black.
Am I an exception? No, I'm the rule. The only time I hear racial slurs are from transplanted yankees or rap music.
No one hates black people as a race outside the KKK.
I have black people in my family. My husband was raised by a black woman. Both of my neighbors on either side of me are black. One of my best girlfriends is black.
Am I an exception? No, I'm the rule.
Clearly not everyone in this country is discriminatory. I'm glad you are above that.
Quote:
Originally Posted by blueherons
The only time I hear racial slurs are from transplanted yankees
I take that back.
Quote:
Originally Posted by blueherons
No one hates black people as a race outside the KKK.
And that simply just isn't true. And it's not just black people. There is still plenty of discrimination in this country.
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