South gets a bum rap for racism

Damocles said:
Well, I do remember people saying "N***er-lipped" when talking about somebody wetting the end of a shared cigarette. I had friends who were black though, and we used "fish-lipped" because one of the guys was sensitive, understandably, to the word...

I had never, in that context, heard that word. Specifically referring to people by race like that, in any conversation growing up. People here just don't speak that way.
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I heard it ALL the time in Alabama used as a derogatory term towards black people. Hell, my grandparents said it all the time. In collage it was a term thrown around amunst white people, when they thought they were not around black people very commonly...
 
It would not be uncommon to hear someone say...

Those *****'s think they own the world.
Bill Clinton aint no better than the *****'s he loves so much.
This ***** in my class thinks she knows so much.

Of corse my Fraternity got in big trouble for dressing up like Klansmen and black people for halloween one year. This was a few years after I graduated. They never did anything like that while I was there, however I was not too suprised to read about it in the paper.
 
several still say it here, but they do glance around first now ;)
Mostly some of the older ones my age.
I guess that is a bit of improvement ?
 
Jarod said:
It would not be uncommon to hear someone say...

Those *****'s think they own the world.
Bill Clinton aint no better than the *****'s he loves so much.
This ***** in my class thinks she knows so much.

Of corse my Fraternity got in big trouble for dressing up like Klansmen and black people for halloween one year. This was a few years after I graduated. They never did anything like that while I was there, however I was not too suprised to read about it in the paper.
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What was the name of that religion err... fraternity jarod ?
 
Dixie said:
Living in the South my entire life, I have certainly witnessed racism. I have never stated that there was no racists in the South, and this would be a totally absurd viewpoint. There is not an area or state in this nation, that doesn't have racists.

It does disturb me, the way some people apply a stereotype to the South. Perhaps it stems from the Civil War, or the Civil Rights era, or maybe both? I can understand that, but in all honesty, I can't understand how people can be so bigoted and stereotypical about their views on racism. It's almost a contradiction of principle, in my opinion... it's not okay to be prejudiced and bigoted about race, but let's bash hell out of these people because they are racist for being from the South!

I have articulated this thought before, but this seems to be a good time to revisit it. I personally think the level of obvious and abhorrent racism in the state of Alabama, is far less prevalent than other places, simply because of the history. Every school kid educated in Alabama, has learned of our past, we've studied the state history regarding racism, segregation, and civil rights. We have had it ingrained into us from a very early age, that this was shameful and embarrassing, and wrong. This level of guilt simply doesn't exist in places where there has never been a history of racial turmoil. Precisely because of our past, we've come to have an understanding unlike people who never had to face that.

I grew up in the heart of Birmingham during the 1960's. The nights of rioting and fire hoses are a vivid memory I have to this day, even though I was only 4 years old at the time. My father was afraid there would be a race war, and he spend many a night on our front porch, with a shotgun in hand, ready to protect his family and property from potential attacks. He wasn't a racist, he was a realist though, and he knew that things could get ugly.

I've recalled before, the times my Mother took my sister and me to the matinee at the Alabama Theater, we always took the bus downtown, and I can vividly remember seeing black people on the bus, and along the way to the movies... they would never really look you in the eye, as if they were ashamed of something, or they were afraid to speak. Little did I know what was going on, why they seemed to be so distant and cold toward me. I would try to strike up a conversation with them, only to have them uncomfortably disengage from the social interaction and withdraw. I didn't understand this, I couldn't imagine why they didn't want to speak to me, or even look at me, for that matter. Of course, it was because of what was going on at the time, and I was too young to understand. This made a profound impact on me as a child, and I suspect that people who weren't in the middle of civil rights, had no clue of this, and were never effected this way.

I can remember where I lived at the time, it was a small middle class neighborhood, 3 blocks down the street from a housing project... my grandmother called it the "colored quarters" and it was where all the black people lived. One of my best friends was Jewish, he lived right at the "border" between our neighborhood and "colored quarters" and when I would go to his house to play, there were a couple of black boys who would join us in the yard and play. We were just kids, we didn't see each other as different, other than the obvious difference in our color. I remember the Jewish boy's mother always made us pink lemonade, I had never known of pink lemonade before this, it was new to me. When she would call us to come in for a glass of lemonade, the black boys would get this look of fear on their faces, and decline to come inside the house, they would leave and go back to their house, without any explanation. I just figured it was because they had been raised to not go in the house of a stranger or something, I had no idea it was because we were white people. I can remember my 6th birthday, I had invited one of the boys to my party, and they didn't come. Later, I asked them why? They just said their mom wouldn't let them. I figured it was because their mother didn't know my family or something, I never understood it was because they were black and I was white, and it was Birmingham in the 60's.

The point I am trying to make is this, I grew up in a very polarized racially divided community, and I never understood it. Much later in my youth, I would learn about MLK and Civil Rights, I would discover the answers to why things were the way they were. It changed me as a person, because I experienced this first-hand growing up. I think that people who grew up in all-white neighborhoods, far away from this conflict, had a completely different perspective of things, and never realized the things I did as a child. This makes a huge difference in regard to viewpoint, in my opinion.

The thing that really troubles me today, is the way people will twist things into "racism" that really aren't. Some innocent comment, or some stereotype is made, and it's portrayed as "racism" when it's really nothing more than an observation or opinion rooted in stereotypes. We all have preferences, we all have our prejudices, it doesn't make us all racist. To me, a truly racist person is someone who believes that one race is superior to another, or one race is inferior to others. If that is the viewpoint, the person is a racist, and it's abhorrent and wrong to be that way. If they simply have a preference or stereotypical opinion of something, that could be ignorance, that could merely be personal preference, it doesn't mean the person believes as a racist. Condemning these people as racist for these things, marginalizes true racism, and diminishes the problem of real racism in our society, in my opinion.

I think we solve the racial divide by somehow understanding that we all have preferences and we all have prejudice to some degree, and this is not racist, just a part of being human. As long as we are unwilling to accept this, and continue to categorize it incorrectly, we can't ever resolve the problem of true racist beliefs in our society.
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By far, the greatest level of blatant racism I ever saw was my four years in Auburn, Alabama.

Ive lived in, Florida, Wyoming, Washington, D.C., Virginia, Maryland, Massachusetts, and Alabama.
 
It does disturb me, the way some people apply a stereotype to the South. Perhaps it stems from the Civil War, or the Civil Rights era, or maybe both?

For me it comes from living in the South. I've lived in Lousiana and Texas. And by far, in the south I saw the most blatant, open displays of racist language and attitues of anywhere I've ever lived.

I've lived in the northeast, the rocky mountain states and the west coast states, as well. There is a lot of racism in the northeast, its just not as institutionalized, and it flys below the radar, compared to the south.

The West and Pacific coast have the least amounts of racism. Although to be sure, it does exist there.
 
I'm not saying that racism doesn't exist in the South, that seems to be what all of you pinhead think I've said here, and it's a classic example of how you deliberately misinterperate what I say, just because you dislike me.

I think there is no more racism here, than say, Champagne, Illinois, LA, California, or Boston, Massachusetts. I think a great deal of the younger generation in the South, have grown up with the stigma of our history, and are far more conscious of the racist views, than people who didn't have this life experience. This is all I am trying to get across, that it is a stereotype of the South which doesn't necessarily apply. Like the premise that all Missourians are stubborn assed hard heads, who have to be "shown" before they will believe you. Like the premise that all Californians are laid back hippies who smoke dope and surf. Like the premise that all New Yorkers are rude and obnoxious to everyone. Like Texans are all tobacco-chewing, truck driving rednecks in cowboy hats. These are stereotypes we've established over the years, and they never apply across the board to all people, nor should we attempt to make them apply by drumming up this sort of controversy.
 
By far, the greatest level of blatant racism I ever saw was my four years in Auburn, Alabama.

This explains why you have such a negative perception of the South, and have formed such a stereotype. Most people who form prejudice, do so because of an experience in life, which made them feel the way they do. The point I am making is, just because you had this experience, doesn't mean the South is predominately this kind of people, you just perceive it that way because of your experience.
 
maineman said:
have you ever spent any time in Champagne Illinois, Dixie?
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Yep, I spent a couple of summers there. I've never been to Boston or LA, but I've read newspapers, and I know they have had racial unrest. What is your point, that no one can have an opinion unless they have lived there? Have you ever lived in Alabama? If not, shut up!
 
Dixie said:
Yep, I spent a couple of summers there. I've never been to Boston or LA, but I've read newspapers, and I know they have had racial unrest. What is your point, that no one can have an opinion unless they have lived there? Have you ever lived in Alabama? If not, shut up!
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There's plenty of it here in L.A. Even if there wasn't, this town is still a living shitbox unworthy of the filthy air and polluted hills that surround it.
 
HipLew said:
i'm in western ny and i hear that n word, among others, quite often. racism, and other fromes of prejudice are rampant EVERYWHERE.
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Bullshit. Western NY, what does that mean? I grew up on LI, and very recently moved to Manhattan.

I never hear that word. I was just thinking as I was reading this thread, wow, you couldn't say shit like this in NY.

Maybe you live in rural NY and hang around with very unsavory people. I mean, that could be.

But you had to work hard to find that kind of crowd.
 
Jarod said:
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.
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Yeah, it makes you a racist. We're all racists. You can't grow up in a racist society and not be racist.

Some people know this, some don't. The ones who don't are the worst, because they will swear to God on a stack of bibles that they're not racist. Because they really believe they're not. Then you have the ones who know it, but who embrace their racism. They suck too, but at least you don't have to deal with their delusions.
 
Yeah, it makes you a racist. We're all racists. You can't grow up in a racist society and not be racist.

You make the typical mistake of assuming prejudice is racism. It's not. I agree, we are all prejudice to some degree, it can't be avoided in humans, it has nothing to do with what kind of society we live in.

Racism is belief that a race is superior or inferior to others, that our skin color makes a difference on our aspects or value as a human. I am not racist in any way, I am indeed prejudiced, but I try not to be prejudiced based on race, religion, sexual orientation, or gender. I'm mostly prejudiced against the ignorant, and those who profess racist views.

New Yorkers tend to be more racist against other immigrant or minority groups, like Italians and of course, Southerners. There aren't a large percentage of blacks in NYC, compared to the rest of the country, so the use of the "n word" is not as prevalent. I'm sure you've heard derogatory names for Italian immigrants, and if you claim you haven't, you are lying.
 
Dixie said:
Yeah, it makes you a racist. We're all racists. You can't grow up in a racist society and not be racist.

You make the typical mistake of assuming prejudice is racism. It's not. I agree, we are all prejudice to some degree, it can't be avoided in humans, it has nothing to do with what kind of society we live in.

Racism is belief that a race is superior or inferior to others, that our skin color makes a difference on our aspects or value as a human. I am not racist in any way, I am indeed prejudiced, but I try not to be prejudiced based on race, religion, sexual orientation, or gender. I'm mostly prejudiced against the ignorant, and those who profess racist views.

New Yorkers tend to be more racist against other immigrant or minority groups, like Italians and of course, Southerners. There aren't a large percentage of blacks in NYC, compared to the rest of the country, so the use of the "n word" is not as prevalent. I'm sure you've heard derogatory names for Italian immigrants, and if you claim you haven't, you are lying.
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I am Italian you fucking asswipe, and no, I don't hear derogatory names for Italians.

I am around black people every day. I don't hear the n word. It is considered beyond the pale here.

There are several definitions of racism, but one of them is, hatred or intolerance for other races, so shove it.
 
They have racism in Boston, I lived in Boston for a while...

Its NUTHING compared to the racism in Auburn, Alabama... Where I met many people from around Alabama... Many Many racist!
 
Jarod said:
They have racism in Boston, I lived in Boston for a while...

Its NUTHING compared to the racism in Auburn, Alabama... Where I met many people from around Alabama... Many Many racist!
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We have racism in NY too Jared. I would never claim otherwise.

But you simply do not use the n word here.

It's more low key. Certainly, on LI for instance, housing segregation is still around. It's weird.
 
Dixie said:
Yeah, it makes you a racist. We're all racists. You can't grow up in a racist society and not be racist.

You make the typical mistake of assuming prejudice is racism. It's not. I agree, we are all prejudice to some degree, it can't be avoided in humans, it has nothing to do with what kind of society we live in.

Racism is belief that a race is superior or inferior to others, that our skin color makes a difference on our aspects or value as a human. I am not racist in any way, I am indeed prejudiced, but I try not to be prejudiced based on race, religion, sexual orientation, or gender. I'm mostly prejudiced against the ignorant, and those who profess racist views.

New Yorkers tend to be more racist against other immigrant or minority groups, like Italians and of course, Southerners. There aren't a large percentage of blacks in NYC, compared to the rest of the country, so the use of the "n word" is not as prevalent. I'm sure you've heard derogatory names for Italian immigrants, and if you claim you haven't, you are lying.
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"New Yorkers tend to be more racist against other immigrant or minority groups"

You just said you've never been to New York, therefore you don't have a clue about their general attitudes


"There aren't a large percentage of blacks in NYC, compared to the rest of the country"

What are you babbling about? NY has a much higher concentration of blacks, than most areas in the United States. Ever been to Kansas? Wyoming? Hawaii? Etc.


"....so the use of the "n word" is not as prevalent."

You've never been to NYC, so you don't know what your talking about. I'll give you a little hint, Dixster. Using the "N" word consistently and openly in public, is widely - almost universally - frowned upon in the major urban areas of the northeast, west, upper midwest, and pacific coast. Its only down there, where Jarod went to school in Alabama, and where I lived on the Gulf Coast, where the N were is still nominally acceptable to be used in public.
 
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