KKK in vidor (Beaumont, Lumberton, Jasper: crime, homes, school)

[centexguy]

I'm from the mid-county area and Vidor always stuck out as as backwards town in the area. I can't find the link, but a lot less of the high school graduates go to college compared to the rest of the Beaumont-Port Arthur area. It's location makes it a lot more isolated than the rest of the area where most of the towns bump up next to each other.

And just today in Houston 3 white men attacked a black ice-cream vendor in what is being described as a hate crime. Last month Paris, Tx had protests over a black man getting dragged to death by two white men. Vidor did earn it's racist reputation, but it's slowly fading away while other areas that don't have that bad reputation are still having problems.

[tstone]

Originally Posted by centexguy

And just today in Houston 3 white men attacked a black ice-cream vendor in what is being described as a hate crime. Last month Paris, Tx had protests over a black man getting dragged to death by two white men. Vidor did earn it's racist reputation, but it's slowly fading away while other areas that don't have that bad reputation are still having problems.

That one in the Houston area happened last month, and I just looked at the article for the location and it happened near the Spring area, which is really no shock. That's close to where that teenage boy was beaten and sodomized. You can draw a line east from Spring & Conroe to the Louisiana border to find this element.

[nerdygirly]

I live right up the road from Vidor (my kids actually take gymnastics at a place there) and I can say first hand it is EXTRAORDINARLY backwoods and racist and there is a STRONG KKK community there regardless of how many people want to not acknowledge it. When I first moved out to this area in 2002 there was a KKK hosted bake sale near the Market Basket off I-10, they spoke about it on the news. My son's football team also played Vidors, our team had a couple black children, needless to say by the end of the game three of their players were expelled from several games for racial slurs and the head coach was as well as several parents, it was the saddest and ugliest thing I have ever seen in my life (I'm originally from Las Vegas so diversity is a natural thing in my mind I didn't think people still acted like that I thought it was something out of the 50s!!). So yes it is very very bad in this whole area, but Vidor is most infamous for it.

[JanellP]

I am a Vidorian. I have always lived in Vidor and I have to say we have a bad reputation that no Vidorian I have ever met deserves. As a whole we are no more closed-minded, racist, rude or stupid than any other city in southeast Texas. We are not "backwards". I know for sure that I am not, and that the majority of my classmates and acquaintances are not. Doesn't that count for something? It is in ignorance that entire cities are labeled by the actions of a few.

Yes the KKK was once active here. Yes they used to recruit. I've only seen it once in my lifetime, and I promise you that every Vidorian who saw those idiots blushed and looked the other way. I know I did. I am sorry but nerdygirly, you literally know next to nothing about the Vidorian community. I don't think I know a Vidor football player who would use a racial slur in the course of a game, if only because he has a bad enough reputation as it is.

And FYI, some of my best friends are black. They live in Vidor and go to Vidor High. As far as I know they have never been discriminated against at school, or anywhere else in Vidor for that matter. In fact, they may be more liable to discrimination or prejudice from other blacks solely for living in Vidor.

It really makes me mad to written off so. Not only because I am written off so, but because my family, my friends, my classmates, my teachers, possible my future children are written off exactly like I am in the process. It hurts, truly, it does.

[Cupcake77]

Vidorian? Do you speak Vidorish? Does your city have a like a coat of arms? Sounds like something out of a RPG.

[JanellP]

Psh, excuse me. "Vidorian" is the correct demonym for those who live in Vidor...much like Austin's "Austinite", San Antonio's "San Antonian", or Fort Worth's "Fort Worthians". It is correct language that is more practical to use than "citizen of Vidor" because it takes less time to type.

[Cupcake77]

Originally Posted by JanellP

Psh, excuse me. "Vidorian" is the correct demonym for those who live in Vidor...much like Austin's "Austinite", San Antonio's "San Antonian", or Fort Worth's "Fort Worthians". It is correct language that is more practical to use than "citizen of Vidor" because it takes less time to type.

Never heard of a Fort Worthian before. Sorry but Vidorian is hilarious.

[tstone]

Vidor : Vidorian :: Houston : Houstonian

*yawn*

[Cupcake77]

Originally Posted by tstone

Vidor : Vidorian :: Houston : Houstonian

*yawn*

Wouldn't that be Houstonite?

[portyhead24]

Originally Posted by usc619

I guess I'm a bigoted racist!

hahaha, word for word what I was thinking too.