South gets a bum rap for racism

LadyT

LadyT

JPP Modarater
Contributor
I can see why people like Dixie get upset when we rag on the south for their racist tendencies. Its like we pull that $hit out of thin air.


http://www.cnn.com/2006/US/12/08/oppenheim.sundown.town/index.html

"Peggy Fruge told me she'd welcome blacks to her neighborhood. "

One Step for man.......

"........but as far as mingling and eating with them, all that kind of stuff, that's where I draw the line."

back into the stone ages.
 
Vidor, Texas was a scary place. I imagine it was horrible for people of color 30 years ago. To be sure, an undercurrent of latent racism still exists there.

That being said, I used to stop in Vidor for gas and food - I had an black girlfriend then: I never got hassled, though I did note a few stares from people.
 
Ohh rascism is still very alive and well in this country and esp in the old south.
It is just not officially alive ;)
 
That comment about mingling & eating really does say it all. Racism exists everywhere, but in the south, they wear it on their sleeve - they're just more open about it, as opposed to the north, where it has become conventionally more unacceptable to say things like that, so people keep their prejudices to themselves.

I'm always amazed when I'm traveling in the south; it usually isn't too long before I see or hear something that would never happen/be said in the Northeast. We're just not that many generations removed; in some southern families, there were grandfathers & even fathers who took part in lynchings & who belonged to the KKK...
 
Please. The most open racism I have ever seen was in Rockford, Ill. Even worse, family members were all nodding along with the morons...

It went like this...

We were on vacation to visit my mother's family. My Grandmother took me to the grocery store...

As I was walking along I heard a couple talking, rather loudly too, about how they should have realized that today wasn't the best day to go to the grocery store as it was N***er day at the supermarket...

Woman: We shouldn't have come shopping today, how could we forget it was N***er day?!

Man: Yeah, their welfare checks came today didn't they?!

(ugly laughter... as they were clearly congratulating themselves on being so "clever")

Me: (standing in shock, I literally had never heard that word spoken other than in historical movies)

Woman: Well, let's just get the staples and get out of here!

They then turned the corner. As I as standing in shock, my grandmother dropped several steps in my estimation by sagely nodding...

It made me feel sick to know that such things were part of my family. My mother jumped a few clicks as she never even gave the impression that she had grown up with that.
 
Cypress said:
Vidor, Texas was a scary place. I imagine it was horrible for people of color 30 years ago. To be sure, an undercurrent of latent racism still exists there.

That being said, I used to stop in Vidor for gas and food - I had an black girlfriend then: I never got hassled, though I did note a few stares from people.
Click to expand...

Seriously. I can't imagine what that must have been like.
 
Damo, there are always exceptions to any general rule that concerns humans.
Oncelor has the right of it in both my observations and experience.
 
Damo,

You're right. Southern Illinois, and parts of Missouri are culturally pretty much just like the South. My step dad is from southern Illinois. They pretty much consider Chicago and northern illinois to be a bunch of panty-waist yankees.
 
There is a difference w/ Damo's story, as well. A group of family members were talking amongst themselves. Like I mentioned, in the south, they are just more open about it...it's more a part of the PUBLIC life down there.

For example, a woman telling Paula Zahn on national TV that she draws the line at mingling & eating....
 
Perhaps the people Damo were speaking of were relocated Southerners ?
Michigan and Ohio are full of relocated hillbillys.
 
uscitizen said:
Perhaps the people Damo were speaking of were relocated Southerners ?
Michigan and Ohio are full of relocated hillbillys.
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Nah, it was pretty prevalent in Rockford. That was just one example. The place was replete with racists...
 
Onceler said:
There is a difference w/ Damo's story, as well. A group of family members were talking amongst themselves. Like I mentioned, in the south, they are just more open about it...it's more a part of the PUBLIC life down there.

For example, a woman telling Paula Zahn on national TV that she draws the line at mingling & eating....
Click to expand...


This is true. When I lived in Texas, people who were total strangers to me would use the "N" word, when talking to me.

In the north, I've heard plenty of dudes use the N word: but it always seems to be to their friends and family members. I think a nominal attempt is made in the north, to keep racist language and attitudes under the radar, and not totally open in public.
 
I like the west.... Honestly, I had never heard those types of conversations, ever, before going there to visit.

I did see openly racist shops in Virginia though. I walked into one that had a sign that said they supported the KKK... I couldn't get out fast enough.
 
uscitizen said:
Ohh rascism is still very alive and well in this country and esp in the old south.
It is just not officially alive ;)
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True. And it's not confined to small towns or any particular region, either. It's just easier to see in some contexts.

We have made some progress and segregation can no longer be institutionalized now. That doesn't mean racial discrimination is purely a thing of the past, however.
 
I saw this thing on racism last night, one lady in Texas said, I am not racist. I dont have a problem with having them around, but when it comes to mingling with them, thats where I draw the line. I would not eat with them or anything like that.
 
i'm in western ny and i hear that n word, among others, quite often. racism, and other fromes of prejudice are rampant EVERYWHERE.
 
for instance, the hollhywood thing; kramer hates blacks and gibson hates jews; right in the middle of what is supposed to be the most liberal section of our society!!! it's STILL everywhere, adn eliminating it willl take a lot of hard work, but i don't think there are really many who want to do that work. a lot of lip service, but when it come right down to not a lot of REAL support
 
On some level everyone has some racism.

If I were asked if I were a racist... I would not be able to give a simple, no. Id have to ask, what do you mean by racist?

I dont activly think a black person is inheritly less than any other group... but I catch myself making certian judgements in my mind about black people all the time. I have black friends and once I know them dont think anything different about them than white friends... But before I know them I catch myself making these generalizations all the time. I work on it and try not to do it, but in all honestly I do it sometimes. Does that make me a racist? I dont know.
 
I have to agree Jarod, virtually all of us are a touch rascist. We just have to keep working on it and teaching our children.
btw this includes all races ;)
 
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