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I agree with a lot of things mentioned by the OP
Just make sure to do your research before moving
The grass is always greener on the other side
Agreed. After 40 years of thinking we'd never leave Texas, the last two or three changed our minds. So we left. There's going to be good and bad no matter where you go... but where you end up might not change as fast as Texas seems to be.
You are less likely to be shot by a cop for minding your own business.
And you are more likely to get loan application, job application, or housing application approved or accepted than someone with equal qualifications who is black.
I was not asked what color I was on the last truck I financed. They only asked me about financial info, sorry. It is illegal to discriminate for housing or auto loans only based on race.
People get shot by the cops because they fail to comply...not because of their skin color. All of those high profile cases you are probably referencing involved people with long criminal histories and NOT doing what the police told them to do. Go watch the cop's body cam....George Floyd had MANY chances to stop what eventually happened to him but he did not choose them.
Also, you provide no hard stats of "people minding their own business" that are shot by cops.
Was Jacob Blake "minding his own business?" not even close. I could keep going but NONE of those cases involved people "minding their own business." LOL
Again...your arguments for me having advantages over you ONLY based on skin color are beyond flimsy, sorry!
Four New York City police officers were acquitted today of all charges in the death of Amadou Diallo, the immigrant from Guinea who was fired on 41 times as he stood, unarmed, in the vestibule of his apartment building in the Bronx.
The shooting occurred about 12:40 a.m. on Feb. 4, 1999, when the four officers, all in street clothes, approached Mr. Diallo on the stoop of his building and fired 41 shots, striking him 19 times, as he retreated inside. The officers, who are white, said they had thought he had a gun. It turned out to be a wallet.
Rest of the story ...
Spoiler
At about 12:40 a.m., the four officers, all members of the Street Crime Unit, were patrolling in an unmarked car and dressed in street clothes when they turned down Wheeler Avenue. The unit had been established to patrol high-crime areas in an effort to prevent robberies, rapes, murders and assaults.
Officer Carroll was the first to notice Mr. Diallo on the stoop of the building. He testified that Mr. Diallo was acting suspiciously, peering out from the stoop, then ''slinking'' back. Mr. Diallo, Officer Carroll said, fit the general description of a serial rapist who had last struck about a year earlier. But he acknowledged on cross-examination that he could not see Mr. Diallo well enough even to determine his race.
Officer Carroll said he also suspected that Mr. Diallo might have been a lookout for a push-in robber. In any case, he told his partners he wanted to question Mr. Diallo.
On cross-examination, he acknowledged that he never considered that Mr. Diallo might have had a legitimate reason for being where he was, or that he might have lived in the building. And Officer Carroll and the other officers acknowledged that they never considered the situation from Mr. Diallo's point of view. Mr. Diallo might have been frightened, Mr. Warner said, by the sight of a car driving slowly down his deserted street in the middle of the night, and by ''four big men getting out of a car with guns.''
While acknowledging that they had made a mistake, the officers said Mr. Diallo was largely to blame for his death. He did not respond to their commands to stop, they said, and did not keep his hands in sight. Instead he ran into the vestibule of his building and began digging in his pocket, they said, and then turned toward the officers with something in his right hand. They said they thought it was a gun and began shooting, setting off a chaotic hail of ricocheting bullets and muzzle flashes that made it seem as if they were in a firefight.
When Mr. Diallo finally slumped to the floor, his wallet fell out of his right hand. There had been no gun.
In his closing argument, Mr. Warner suggested that Mr. Diallo may simply have been reaching for his wallet to hand it over to what he thought was a gang of robbers. Or perhaps, Mr. Warner said, he was trying to show the officers his identification. The officers' snap judgment about Mr. Diallo when they first saw him from their car, and their failure to think through the situation, showed a recklessness and complete lack of concern for Mr. Diallo's life that made them culpable for his death, Mr. Warner asserted.
''Amadou Diallo was unarmed, doing nothing wrong, and he was minding his own business,'' Mr. Warner said. ''In the mindset they had, that man was doomed from the minute they saw him.''
Four New York City police officers were acquitted today of all charges in the death of Amadou Diallo, the immigrant from Guinea who was fired on 41 times as he stood, unarmed, in the vestibule of his apartment building in the Bronx.
The shooting occurred about 12:40 a.m. on Feb. 4, 1999, when the four officers, all in street clothes, approached Mr. Diallo on the stoop of his building and fired 41 shots, striking him 19 times, as he retreated inside. The officers, who are white, said they had thought he had a gun. It turned out to be a wallet.
Rest of the story ...
Spoiler
At about 12:40 a.m., the four officers, all members of the Street Crime Unit, were patrolling in an unmarked car and dressed in street clothes when they turned down Wheeler Avenue. The unit had been established to patrol high-crime areas in an effort to prevent robberies, rapes, murders and assaults. Officer Carroll was the first to notice Mr. Diallo on the stoop of the building. He testified that Mr. Diallo was acting suspiciously, peering out from the stoop, then ''slinking'' back. Mr. Diallo, Officer Carroll said, fit the general description of a serial rapist who had last struck about a year earlier. But he acknowledged on cross-examination that he could not see Mr. Diallo well enough even to determine his race. Officer Carroll said he also suspected that Mr. Diallo might have been a lookout for a push-in robber. In any case, he told his partners he wanted to question Mr. Diallo. On cross-examination, he acknowledged that he never considered that Mr. Diallo might have had a legitimate reason for being where he was, or that he might have lived in the building. And Officer Carroll and the other officers acknowledged that they never considered the situation from Mr. Diallo's point of view. Mr. Diallo might have been frightened, Mr. Warner said, by the sight of a car driving slowly down his deserted street in the middle of the night, and by ''four big men getting out of a car with guns.'' While acknowledging that they had made a mistake, the officers said Mr. Diallo was largely to blame for his death. He did not respond to their commands to stop, they said, and did not keep his hands in sight. Instead he ran into the vestibule of his building and began digging in his pocket, they said, and then turned toward the officers with something in his right hand. They said they thought it was a gun and began shooting, setting off a chaotic hail of ricocheting bullets and muzzle flashes that made it seem as if they were in a firefight. When Mr. Diallo finally slumped to the floor, his wallet fell out of his right hand. There had been no gun. In his closing argument, Mr. Warner suggested that Mr. Diallo may simply have been reaching for his wallet to hand it over to what he thought was a gang of robbers. Or perhaps, Mr. Warner said, he was trying to show the officers his identification. The officers' snap judgment about Mr. Diallo when they first saw him from their car, and their failure to think through the situation, showed a recklessness and complete lack of concern for Mr. Diallo's life that made them culpable for his death, Mr. Warner asserted. ''Amadou Diallo was unarmed, doing nothing wrong, and he was minding his own business,'' Mr. Warner said. ''In the mindset they had, that man was doomed from the minute they saw him.''
You had to go back to 1999 and find ONE case. 1999....one isolated high profile screw up by a large municipal police dept....that's it?
Sorry, that is not solid proof that I have advantages over you based on skin color.
In fact, this is further proof that you do not live in as racist of a country as you THINK you do. Having to rely on Jim Crow, slavery and other things that happened decades or centuries ago to make you point means that yeah...sorry...I have no advantage over you today because of my skin color.
Dang...I really wish being white lived up to the hype some of you give it. LOL
What most Americans miss in that equation is the fact that local governments invest in the suburbs and not in the inner city.
People move to the suburbs because they have better public service (schools, police, roads, etc)
You go to the inner city and in many places look like a ghost town.
In the past I would agree but today I don’t think that is the entire case. Many core areas today are choosing not to improve road infrastructure (especially in the case of pushing mass-transit or walkability) and sometimes even public schools. The money is definitely there today with the influx of urban revival… which brings me to another issue. Living in the core of an urban area today is a lot more expensive than it used to be in many major cities due to large (often singles) millennial demand and not enough housing supply. A lot of people move out for affordability reasons, that or when they have a family they also opt for a larger home which is harder to obtain in a core area.
After having traveled through much of the continental USA, including much of my home state of Texas, I find that I am having trouble appreciating Texas as a place to live longer-term. I want to share some of my opinions and see if there are any others out there who feel the same or who can convince me otherwise.
*Long inhale*
I will preface my potentially unpopular opinions by saying five good things about the state.
The Good:
1) The Big Bend National Park has the most breathtaking, untouched scenery in Texas. West Texas is diverse topographically (rivers, canyons, mountains, plains, etc.) and rich with wildlife and history.
2) Affordable real estate.
3) No income taxes.
4) High generation of solar power.
5) The BBQ in Texas is quite possibly the best in the United States. The mandatory vinegar-based BBQ sauce and smoked brisket are superior to any other state.
The Fugly:
1)The Texas abortion law is an obsolete reprehensible law that employs Stasi tactics.
2) The public education system has made many students victims of educational inequality. The majority of student groups in Texas are low-income and/or do not speak English. The state's education system needs to be reevaluated and reformed to ensure school districts receive equal resources.
3) I could complain about the traffic, but that's inconsequential for cities and is not likely to change soon. However, Texas's air and water pollution is a burden (https://www.lung.org/media/press-rel...exas-sota-2021). And despite Texas producing a lot of wind energy, there is hardly any environmental responsibility.
4) High property taxes to compensate for the lack of income tax. This fact also feeds into fugly point #2.
5) Anyone over 21 can purchase a gun without a license or training.
6) Texas has some of the UGLIEST real estate in the U.S. Geez, the Texas Triangle is bursting at the seams with neighborhoods full of McMansions and cookie-cutter homes. The architecture has nothing distinctive or defining because curb appeal is practically nonexistent. Just about everyone's house has the same architectural design; the only difference is the size. Suburban developer housing is common across the U.S., but most of Texas's suburbs are teeming with bland, monotonous housing. At the right angle, the neighborhoods in Texas are indistinguishable from a Monopoly board.
7) Although there are a few charming towns that support local businesses, Texas is rampant with big-box retail and grocery stores. There are rows of bland shopping plazas that look no different from one another across the state. There is hardly any advocacy for local businesses. I mean, how many shopping plazas are needed with the same urban planning and stores like Walmart, Ross, Kohl's, T.J. Maxx, and (fill in with any big-box store).
8) Although the Triangle Cities boast of being trendsetting metroplexes, there isn't a cultural mosaic. Sure, there are a lot of Hispanics and Latinos, but the memo in Texas is assimilation.
9) Why do so many people have to be tied up with MLM's in Texas?
10) The social scenes in the cities are centered around sports bars spilling with alcoholic yuppies who think Chris Stapleton and Luke Comb's are god's gift to country music. Alright, this point isn't entirely true but I stand by it nonetheless.
Thanks for reading my jaded opinions. Any disagreements? Agreements?
Ok bye,
If you find more reasons to leave than stay, then just leave. Its that simple.
So basically, the more Texas gets filled with non-natives...the worse it gets? More crime, less friendly, more expensive, declining schools and infrastructure.
I have thought this for a very long time, as one that was born and raised here. The people making Texas and Houston worse have mostly come here from other places. People on both side of the aisle like Dan Patrick AND Lina Hildago.
Even tho I'm a Texas immigrant (Originally from FL) I would have to say this is somewhat true, but I wouldn't particularly say that its coming from say Californians like everyone in Texas like to say its coming from...
I tend to experience most of the more aggressive people come from Louisiana (Or I like to call it Loseriana, I'm a Carolina Panther and like to poke fun at Aints fans)
In terms of passive aggressive / unfriendly / and just flat out aggressive behavior I've noticed it from my own workplace from the people I've worked with and the amount of phone calls I get at our call center. It is rare at times to find people I've had a good solid interaction with from that state.
I blame mostly Hurricane Katrina for destroying most of their homes, and Louisiana just being a poor state like Mississippi, and Alabama for having the people to uproot from there to move to the great friendly state of Texas. Houston is a perfect example with the 5th ward area with displaced Louisanians. Louisiana just off of the reputation alone is one state I REFUSE to EVER VISIT.
So in regards that, its not particularly that we have a mass influx of people from different states that move here. Its just the environments that they came from with issues they haven't resolved personally is the main issue.
I think you would like New Mexico. It may be more your vibe.
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