  Lilpup Member Username: Lilpup Post Number: 4759 Registered: 06-2004 |
quote: his follow up writings next week could prove interesting http://freakonomics.blogs.nyti mes.com/2008/07/22/what-is-the -most-racist-city-in-america/ | ||
Jerrytimes Member Username: Jerrytimes Post Number: 145 Registered: 04-2007 |
I'd say Detroit is at the top of the list for most racist city. | ||
Detroitrise Member Username: Detroitrise Post Number: 3090 Registered: 09-2007 |
Probably some tiny town in Georgia.  | ||
Lilpup Member Username: Lilpup Post Number: 4761 Registered: 06-2004 |
Read the comments section. Detroit wasn't mentioned anywhere near as much as some other cities. | ||
Jerrytimes Member Username: Jerrytimes Post Number: 146 Registered: 04-2007 |
I'm sure that there are a bunch that are worse. I guess with all of this new news with Kwame I thought that I may be one of them. | ||
Rickinatlanta Member Username: Rickinatlanta Post Number: 169 Registered: 07-2006 |
Sorry DETROITRISE, northern "towns" are just as racist as anywhere in the states. You just HIDE it better. Don't recall anywhere in Georgia having RIOTS like the one I lived through in 1967 in SW Detroit. Plus Atlanta doesn't have a City Council of fools like Detroit! | ||
Flyingj Member Username: Flyingj Post Number: 270 Registered: 08-2006 |
You guys don't mean Reverse Racism? Otherwise, I guess you'll have a list heavy on old Sundown Towns But how can you measure what's more or less a State Of Mind? | ||
Mackinaw Member Username: Mackinaw Post Number: 5177 Registered: 02-2005 |
Well hiding racism is much better than acting on it, no? That was an impressive comment. | ||
Detroitrise Member Username: Detroitrise Post Number: 3091 Registered: 09-2007 |
God RickinAtlanta, lay off the liquor (or alcohol, whatever...). It was a joke. Besides, no one said anything about the *ATL*. *forgive me Lord* | ||
Detroitrise Member Username: Detroitrise Post Number: 3092 Registered: 09-2007 |
BTW, racism is racism, no mater how you flip it. black on white racism is simply racism. | ||
N7hn Member Username: N7hn Post Number: 28 Registered: 02-2008 |
I have'nt been there in about 10 years, but then Chicago was pretty hung up race. It wasnt anything too unusual to hear someone yell out "stick to your own kind" at ya on the streets. And all sides were yelling it. I love chicago otherwise. To be fair I had a boss at that time in Detroit that wouldnt let me promote people of color ....So it its most anywhere i guess. I just think it gets masked as something else to the public and rasist people are more out there with it to people they think would agree with them. Also I think it may be more apparant when you travel as you dont have the normal social ties that can commit people to good behavior. (Message edited by n7hn on July 27, 2008) | ||
Rhymeswithrawk Member Username: Rhymeswithrawk Post Number: 1355 Registered: 11-2005 |
Read the comments section. Detroit wasn't mentioned anywhere near as much as some other cities. I mentioned it in that comment section. Milwaukee and some of the others mentioned can't hold a candle to metro Detroit. Not even close. | ||
Eastsidedame Member Username: Eastsidedame Post Number: 457 Registered: 12-2006 |
I love Chicago, too. Planning a trip next May; can't wait! A broad generalization, I know: But, I've found that Southern blacks have a 180-degree different attitude toward race, particularly toward whites, than Northern blacks. That's my experience, anyway, as both a Detroiter and Texan. Maybe I'm off the mark, but you'd think that Southern blacks would be more resentful, militant and hostile, considering what they'd been through as a people, say 1865-1965. But, oddly, it's just the opposite. Southern blacks are more likely to judge you on your own merits and leave their baggage in the last century. The downside is that Southern blacks are increasingly resentful of hispanics, particularly threatened by recent arrivals. The tension here seems to be between those two groups, esp. younger ones. "Stand back and let them kill each other." said my neighbor, an engineer from China. That raised an eyebrow or two at the BBQ! Any body with "dual citizenship" like to comment? | ||
Rid0617 Member Username: Rid0617 Post Number: 229 Registered: 03-2008 |
"The downside is that Southern blacks are increasingly resentful of hispanics, particularly threatened by recent arrivals. The tension here seems to be between those two groups, esp. younger ones." That is a major true statement. There is a general statement down here that the blacks and whites better get along better cause the hispanics will end up on top if we don't. I have found very few blacks racist down here but plenty of whites are. | ||
Rickinatlanta Member Username: Rickinatlanta Post Number: 170 Registered: 07-2006 |
God RickinAtlanta, lay off the liquor (or alcohol, whatever...). It was a joke. Besides, no one said anything about the *ATL*. *forgive me Lord* Sorry it's only a JOKE if others laugh. You need to take care of your own problems, i.e. Detroit governance, before you call out others. Besides, "it's only a joke". | ||
Detroitrise Member Username: Detroitrise Post Number: 3118 Registered: 09-2007 |
^Heh, at least we're not short on water. | ||
English Member Username: English Post Number: 757 Registered: 10-2003 |
Most Northern blacks ARE Southern blacks, 1-3 generations removed. Northern blacks are more militant precisely because our ancestors were the ones who left the Jim Crow South for one reason or the other. Southern blacks stayed put and adapted. Southerners of all races had direct experiences with the Civil Rights Movement, which Northerners (unless they were students or activists) watched on TV. I'm not sure if any Southern cities experienced the 1960s riots that the cities of the North and West did. A word should also be said about the differences between the white populations by region. In the South, whites were much more used to black people, before and after slavery. Even with Jim Crow, there were stories of mutual friendship, respect, and the like (as much as there could be in a relationship of non-equals under the law). In the Northern cities, there was a far higher percentage of immigrant white workers with no former direct experience of blacks. They did not view blacks as servants and sharecroppers, but as competitors for a slice of the pie (jobs, housing, etc.). Different race relations for different regions. | ||
Bearinabox Member Username: Bearinabox Post Number: 753 Registered: 04-2006 |
^Interesting post, English. I never looked at it that way before. | ||
English Member Username: English Post Number: 758 Registered: 10-2003 |
I've done a lot of thinking about this issue, Bearinabox. As a Northern girl at an HBCU, I learned a lot. Back when I was there, 10-12 years ago, the cultural divides between the Northern, Southern, and West Indian students were much greater than I expected. | ||
Grumpyoldlady Member Username: Grumpyoldlady Post Number: 181 Registered: 06-2005 |
I think the small towns in America, that have few or no minority residents, are the most racist. Here in our rural Minnesota community, there are no black people. I've heard many horrible comments about the white girls in town that have little "pickaninny" babies. Not sure of spelling, but I hate that term. Those who did not grow up with/around minorities, or at least work every day with them, tend to be much more racist in my opinion. I've seen our small town folks refuse to shake the hand of a black man, yet shake the hand of the white man standing next to him. Or shake the black man's hand and then wipe their hand on their pants. Just plain ignorant people! And it doesn't stop with race. Our town is primarily made up of people of Norwegian descent. They don't care for the Finnish people in the next town, or the Swedish people from another town, and if you are of Scottish ancestry as we are, you are treated as an outcast, unless you want to buy their merchandise. So I really think that racial and ethnic prejudices are more prevalent in the areas that have less diversity of population. That's it...over and out! | ||
Lmichigan Member Username: Lmichigan Post Number: 6165 Registered: 10-2003 |
English, that was a very interesting post and take on the difference between Northerners and Southerners. I don't buy either that the South is more racist, which has been thought a fact for so long that it's become faux common knowledge, or the lesser held view that the North is actually the more racist of the two historic American regions. I think that the racism expressed from both sides and both regions is simply expressed in different ways, no one expression more or less racist than the other. As for the small town vs. urban racism, my personal take is that the latter is worse for the very reason the races have been living side-by-side, and some times intermixed throughout an urban area for so long, that you can't talk it up to simple ignorance. At least in small towns the racist views are held mostly out of ignorance. In urban areas, it is often because of their knowledge of the other side (if even not a complete knowledge or even warped knowledge) that they hate the other side. In my personal experience, living in the North, I've often been much more successful in killing stereotypes held by rural white aquaintances and friends, than killing stereotypes held by urban/suburban white aquaintances and friends. From what I've been able to gather from small town folks is that more than being racist, they are simply resistent to outsiders in general before all else. This may be different between the North and the South, but I haven't been in the South enough to get a feel of its small-towns. | ||
Leannam1989 Member Username: Leannam1989 Post Number: 25 Registered: 06-2008 |
I live in a town of less than 400 in southern Missouri. There are basically no blacks here, very few other minorities. In High school you would hear all kinds of racist slang, although some of that may just be kids seeing what they can get away with. I don't think anyone in this town would try to hurt anyone because of race, but they talk. We've had black kids at our High School in the past (just one right now - a sophomore next year) and they don't seem to be outcast by any means. But I would think they need thick skin. Again, I don't think any white kids would hurt black kids, but they use racial slurs sometimes without even thinking about it. Even older people have certain prejudices they've grown up with but didn't grow out of. | ||
Lmichigan Member Username: Lmichigan Post Number: 6166 Registered: 10-2003 |
To be fair, at that stage in development (middle school/high school) things are incredibly insular, and anything outside that society of that particular high school gets ripped apart. Hell, the high school across town is seen as negatively foreign and negatively exotic. I can say comfortably that whites at predominately-black urban high schools gets picked on and talked about just as much as the other way around. I think you can start making distinctions of differences in how ethnicity and races are treated, however, once you get out into the real world. Then, there really are differnces to be noticed in the larger society. | ||
Iheartthed Member Username: Iheartthed Post Number: 3335 Registered: 04-2006 |
It shouldn't really be a surprise that former industrial centers of the North like Detroit, Chicago, Boston and even New York register as being the most racist. Racism has it's roots in economics... | ||
Themax Member Username: Themax Post Number: 964 Registered: 09-2005 |
How do you quantify racism? The number of race on race crimes? The number of all-white or all-black or all-hispanic neighborhoods? Do you take a survey and ask people how many times they have used a slur at another person of a different race? And in the end, does it really matter which is the most racist? Any amount of racism is no good for a society. BTW, it's great to see a freakonomics blog. I hope it's as good as the book. | ||
Detroitnerd Member Username: Detroitnerd Post Number: 2772 Registered: 07-2004 |
There are different kinds of racism. There's the angry, ugly street racism, expressed publicly. There's the quiet, personal racism, where people feel that way but don't express it publicly. Then there's institutional racism: Where police, insurance companies, banks, courts and government have racist tendencies. I'd say that's the worst kind of racism there is. | ||
Detroitrise Member Username: Detroitrise Post Number: 3126 Registered: 09-2007 |
"There's the quiet, personal racism, where people feel that way but don't express it publicly." This form of racism is more common than we think (probably the form of northern racism everyone is discussing). For example, a person serving your food (let's say you're black & they're white) may pretend to be friendly towards you, but actually hates your guts. | ||
Danny Member Username: Danny Post Number: 7550 Registered: 02-2004 |
What Is the Most Racist City in America? ALL OF IT! | ||
Charlottepaul Member Username: Charlottepaul Post Number: 2618 Registered: 10-2006 |
"I have never been in an environment as racially integrated as Detroit." Beth Ashley, "Delighted and dazzled by Detroit" http://www.marinij.com/ci_6954 422?source=rss | ||
Lodgedodger Member Username: Lodgedodger Post Number: 117 Registered: 05-2008 |
I love this city, but on more than one occasion my color has been commented upon. I saw a young woman at a home tour last year wearing a shirt that said, "I >>heart<< black people." My Hubby turned to me and said, "I guess we're not the target demographic here." At the City Fest a guy was wearing a shirt that read, "Obama: A BLACK man in the WHITE House!" Call me naive, but who cares if Obama is black or white? I sure as heck don't. I've been called a white woman in the hallway at the city building on more than one occasion. I've been accused of being one of the "whites" trying to take over the city. I realize this mayoral issue has people on edge, but I'm really tired of being judged by my color. I'm not a white person trying to take over the city, I just want a effective, fully-functioning city government. Okay, I'll shut up now... | ||
Lefty2 Member Username: Lefty2 Post Number: 1592 Registered: 07-2007 |
San Francisco. | ||
Hpgrmln Member Username: Hpgrmln Post Number: 518 Registered: 06-2007 |
New Orleans. Nagin's speech about being a "chocolate city" said all that needs to be said. |
