The day I got the living shit beaten out of me.

[WilliamPitt]

Her name was Heather, I was 13, she was Black, and she was my first real girlfriend. We were together for two weeks when the Boston Marathon came along. I grew up on the Newton/Brighton line, right by Boston College at the top of Heartbreak Hill. Heather had never been to the Marathon for real before - cheering the runners as they defeated Heartbreak Hill while the BC keg parties howled and cheered - so I showed her the show.

While I was walking her back to my house for some lunch, a car filled with upperclassmen from my school passed us. The car windows were stuffed with astonished faces that, as they faded from view, became twisted in palpable rage.

And person after person after person after person looked daggers at us as we walked arm in arm down Commonwealth Avenue in unabashedly liberal Boston, Massachusetts. I rode the Green Line with her to the Orange Line - the metropolitan version of walking your girl home - and five older men in the traincar stared at us with open loathing as we held hands.

The next day, I went to school, and the upperclassmen from the car that had passed us - joined by several of their friends because apparently word of my racial heresy had spread - waylaid me in a hallway. "What are you doing with that n****r!" they screamed, and I mean SCREAMED, utterly unhinged. "Did you dip your wick with that n****r? DID YOU FUCK THAT N****R? DID YOU?"

And then they beat the shit out of me, right then and there, for the crime of squiring a Black girl to the Marathon.

It was a formative experience on a variety of levels...so all of you husbanding this idea that the North is superior to the South on issues of racism can go pound sand. You're wrong, and once upon a time, I had the bruises to prove it.

[murielm99]

1. I have black friends from the South

who feel that Chicago is one of the most racist places in the country. MLK thought it was bad there, too, all those years ago.

We are not perfect. We just hate in a different way.

[Dan de Lyons]

27. Profiling in Chicago is real

Two nights ago I sat next to a fellow who is an educational consultant. He trains people in rules and methods. Wouldn't say in what world. But he did say that when he takes a contract up on the North Side, he travels by public transportation. "If I drive north twenty times, I can expect to be stopped about two times," he said. Even if he drives his mom's Buick.

Never been arrested, never even ticketed. Just stopped for "probable cause".

Encouraged to stay here on the South Side, where he "belongs". By our own fckng police!

The police enforce segregation, here in Rahm's "City That Welcomes All". Here and now, in 2015.

[Dan de Lyons]

28. and yes, he is a person of color...

[appalachiablue]

40. A lot about housing, the segregated neighborhoods, brick throwing that MLK knew I think-

I visited Chicago in June 2006 and was so impressed, what an amazing American city.

[KingCharlemagne]

59. MLK said he encountered the worst racism in Skokie, IL, if I remember correctly. I think this was

during the fabled "Poor People's Campaign" in the late 60s when MLK marched there with other black leaders, but couldn't swear to it.

[MaggieD]

2. The plural of anecdote is not data

But, if you want to speak anecdotally, here is my take. Having lived extensively in both areas of the country it is clear to me that racism and bigotry are much more prevalent in the South.

After moving out of the KY/AL/TN I still had extensive business there. I used to count the trips there where I heard some form of racist comment during the trip. Typically the n-word. Different people, different places, but all in the south. I stopped counting after 89 trips in a row of observing some form of racist behavior.

Just don't see that in other places in the country. Not like that. So, no thanks. I will not be pounding any sand "up my ass."

[jtuck004]

30. "much more prevalent in the South"> No, just different. I have been around more than 60 years,

lived in many of these states and been halfway around the world a couple time. They are just as bigoted in Seattle and New York as they are in Texas or Georgia.

It's just different. But a lot of folks would rather pretend they aren't part of it all, that it exists "over there".

You choose not to see it because you are part of the problem. For that matter we all are. It exists because we are enabling it, every day, feeding it every time we choose to keep the plantation going another day without fixing it, perhaps murdering another person of color along the way.

Those bodies laying on the ground, the lack of investment in people by our government, the tragedy - those aren't anecdotes - those are people's lives.

Just because people don't wear hoods and sheets doesn't mean they aren't rotten under their dresses and suits. Heck, they may even be more dangerous, acting as infiltrators and spies among the decent people.

Sounds like you agree with the bigots on this. Your choice, of course, but odd to hear it here.

[bvar22]

46. I have had the privilege of living (NOT "vacationing" but "living") in most parts of the country.

The most virulent racism I have seen has been in North Dakota, Idaho, Montana, Utah, & Eastern Washington State (Spokane area).... and this doesn't even include the racist attitude toward Native Americans who are still in internment camps in those areas.

After all the traveling, my wife & I chose to retire in the Deep South.
Ignorance, Bigotry, poverty, and Fundamentalism ARE still big here,
but are in decline.

Most of the younger generation here are on-line,
and this diminishes the monopoly of the preachers and parents from the last generation.
My hope is in the youth, but us old people sure fucked things up for them....
OR
us old people moved the ball, and are now handing it off to the younger generation.

Take what you want, and leave the rest.

[MaggieD]

95. Sorry, that rings totally false to me

I have lived in the north, the south and the pacific northwest. And IMO, the south is by far the most racist area of the country. It's not even close.

I'm not saying that racism does not exist in all part of the US; certainly it does. But it is pervasive in the south, and more importantly, it is acceptable to the vast majority of the white people that live there. It is not acceptable to most people in other areas of the country.

And no, I am NOT part of the problem. What a rude, nasty thing to say about someone you do not even know.

[jtuck004]

96. Since there are few if any black folk up here, it's tough to prove or disprove your

hypothesis. You are certainly entitled to your opinion.

Otoh, a pastime of where and who is more racist seems like a leisure pursuit of a particularly nasty nature. Like something Bored White People would do.

Sorry, that ain't me.

Btw, I was really concerned with rude and nasty treatment of people of color.

You appear to be more concerned with, well, you.

Perhaps you should start another thread. Wait there and I will look you up.

bye

[MaggieD]

97. There you go again

You know nothing about me, and nothing in my post has anything to do with "me." But man oh man, you apparently think you have a crystal ball and can make up all kinds of nasty assumptions about me in your head.

And what is your excuse? Because I, having lived in the north, northwest, AND south (and traveled extensively all over the country) find a clear pattern of pervasive and overt racism in the south, have the temerity to voice that experience?

And then tell me to start another thread if I want to say the OP is full of baloney?

Damn, you are one rude person.

[phylny]

54. Northwest Indiana.

By far one of the most racist places we ever lived.

Northern Virginia, not so much. All types of people there.

[MaggieD]

5. Now there is some data!

Thanks.

[Orsino]

11. Depending on time, place, and particular measurements, the North may not be as racist, overall.

I would only object to the use of the word "superior" because American racism in almost any region is nothing to feel superior about. Anyone pointing at the South because of a particular incident or phenomenon must realize thar he can probably find something very similar going on in his own neighborhood. Or region.

Being superior to the American South doesn't necessarily make anyone or any place superior.

[appalachiablue]

41. No, no. Don't you understand that the South is INFERIOR, to the North, West (& everyone)?

Always was, and always will be. You should know your place. And you should know your betters. The South is morally inferior, socially inferior, intellectually inferior, culturally inferior and backward in every way. The North is superior, got it? The US North (East & West) and Northern Europe and 'North' all over the entire globe. The South in every hemisphere is nothing but backward, dirty, low intelligence, worthless animals who are too 'emotional', lack all reason, and like to eat, dance, drink, smoke, sleep and play music a lot. They lack the work ethic, industry and purity of Northern culture. Sub-human Cretons, really.

I almost dropped a class in US landscape growth and urban studies at GW Univ. in DC years ago, c. 1995 cuz when the good, bright young prof. asked where students (it was a nite class) thought the best colleges & universities were located in the US, the dominators- largely women from Bethesda, MD and matrons from close- in, well off Montgomery Co., MD started raging that ONLY schools in the NE area were good, naming the Ivies, etc. When I brought up UVA, Duke, Rice, even Tulane in New Orleans, etc. they started shrieking no! Nothing below NY (even an Oxford) would qualify to them. It was rather funny now that I think of it. (Most were newer transplants from NY and Boston, the typical demo. that makes up much of that area).

[carolinayellowdog]

55. Globalizing it really provides context-- fits my observations of India, Europe, Mexico

Whiter is better, richer is better, the further south you go the darker and more benighted "they" are. IF ONLY the US South-bashers at DU would EVER say "I just hate those rednecks, I don't mean to spew hate at black Southerners too" it wouldn't seem quite so egregious. I've even given several opportunities to make that exception, but not one has ever agreed to make any distinction. (e.g. Southern+Baptists= fair game for hate whether they are SBC or various black denominations.) "Those people" in the South are poor and ignorant, and if "we" could only get rid of "them" ("let" them secede) "we" would be so much richer and better all around. The implicit racism and classism in this rhetoric never seems to register in their holier-than-thou sanctimony.

[JustAnotherGen]

83. You nailed it - as usual

Good to see you! I know you are quite busy these days.

[mountain grammy]

90. My Marine dad was stationed in NC, 1957 and 58.

First time I saw signs over doors to public buildings, churches, stores, in fact everywhere except the base, that read "white only" and "colored only". One day I saw a young black boy headed to a door marked "white only." He was dragged by his ear to the "proper" door.
So do you think that child was just as impressed by his education as you were? I wonder if he thought it was funny?
But yes, tell us all how everyone beats up on the poor superior south.

[treestar]

4. the resistance to busing/desegregation was pretty bad there too IIRR

I was in high school during the days of that debate. I remember being all for it, but graduated before it took place. Now this area has been declared by federal court to be "de-segregated." Which for what it is worth, does feel like it's the case. And many other varieties and ethnicities not there at all in the 70s.

[WilliamPitt]

6. Boston is the most segregated city on the Eastern seaboard.

[appalachiablue]

43. That is very rarely if ever heard from people in the North, unfortunately. Spent most of my life

in the Mid-Atlantic and NE- DC, Balto., Phila., NY, Boston, and traveled all over. Stunned recently when a black woman panel guest mentioned that she had experienced more racism in the North- and then the white, male, progressive host (very Midwest/Northern US) told HER, 'No. it's the degree'. Whoa. The silence or obstinacy of many Northern people is, curious. There are many remarks to the contrary here though.

[1StrongBlackMan]

85. And, by far, the Northern states were more resistent to change ...

the biggest, loudest out cry to Title VIII (the Fair Housing Act) was not from the southern states and cities; but rather, the north.

[Art_from_Ark]

99. I remember watching the news about the Bosting busing controversy

around 1978 or so, I think. It was pretty ugly.

[Martin Eden]

7. I grew up near Midway Airport on the SW edge of Chicago

My parents, and especially my elderly Aunt, were active on the far Left in their younger days. The N-word was absolutely forbidden in our home, but was quite common in my neighborhood. One morning when I was 12 years old I woke up to see my aunt weeping inconsolably. That's when I learned Martin Luther King had been assassinated. When I went to school that day the prevailing attitude among the kids on the playground was celebratory.

We had a classroom mock election in 1968. I was one of two who voted for Humphrey. 6 voted for Nixon, and 18 for Wallace.

[redruddyred]

32. have attitudes changed any or are ppl just better at hiding their racism?

in your opinion.

[Martin Eden]

44. I moved out of that hood 30 years ago

So it's hard to say. I'd wager there's still plenty of racism but not quite as prevalent or out in the open.

Some of it comes from the fact that a lot of good working class white ethnic (Polish, Italian, etc) neighborhoods turned into slums after blacks started moving in. White flight ensued, and those who didn't get out quick lost a big chunk of value when they sold their house. I'm not pointing fingers here, just stating a scenario that occurred in many parts of the city. The blacks moving in were also working class folks looking for a better life and a place to live. The deterioration of neighborhoods had a lot to do with discrimination and lack of economic opportunity.

But yeah, some people (Chicago and elsewhere) are still just racists whether or not they sold their home for a loss. My sister's father in law (retired Chicago cop) said he's a Republican because the N's vote for Democrats. He's a fan of Bill O'Reilly.

[redruddyred]

71. I'm noticing a strong correlation between bill o'reilly fandom and casual use of the n-word

The blacks moving in were also working class folks looking for a better life and a place to live. The deterioration of neighborhoods had a lot to do with discrimination and lack of economic opportunity.
I never thought of it that way, white privilege hola. thanks for sharing.

I lived in chi-town briefly and felt that ppl actually confronted racism there rather than sweep it under the rug and pretend it doesn't exist as they do in the south. just my 2 cents.

[FailureToCommunicate]

8. Powerful account of a formative experience, Will. I too was beat up, but by some black kids in

my neighborhood, not whites, for having the temerity of dating Yolanda, a lovely African American girl.

This was junior high, in White Plains, New York, and the kids were from a different part of town from where we held our dance club.

All my -our - friends were cool with "us"

The relationship didn't last long, sadly for me, but the message of intolerance sure did. I wish I could say those kind of incidences were a thing of the past, but of course they aren't.

[notadmblnd]

22. My husband and I never experienced anything like you and Will.

Oh sure, we could feel the intolerance. It was often expressed on some people's faces and it wasn't only the looks on white people's faces. But I think that our demeanor expressed to them that we were ready for whatever anyone might say or do to us.

My husband was a bad mother (Shut your mouth).

[FailureToCommunicate]

42. I imagine Will's experience was worse. I always sorta thought those boys were jealous of me dating

very popular, attractive Yolanda more than strictly it being about a black/white issue. At least that's how I've framed the memory in my mind. We had a pretty tight, mostly black, circle of friends and a VERY cool dance hall in a church basement that we ran. So maybe part of it was those kids were even jealous that we seemed to have a cooler scene in our part of town.

(btw, I like the Shaft reference)

[LiberalEsto]

9. I'm not surprised, to be honest.

I lived in Worcester during the summer and fall of 1971, though I was born and raised in NJ. During that time I was appalled at how racist people seemed. I had never encountered so much of it, especially the anger at interracial dating.

I quit one sales job because my supervisor started bitching about an interracial couple we passed on the street. I pointed out that it was none of his business, told him I quit, and got out of the car at the next stop light. He was utterly bewildered by my attitude.

[aikoaiko]

10. So I moved to Malden in 1992 -- just two doors down from Ed Markey's "residence"

My new neighbors (not the Markey family) told me that they were glad I wasn't black. Stunned. I didn't know how to respond.

Later on I walked up the Malden Center Orange line stop and asked the T attendant in her secure box if the all the Orange lines trains stopped at Ruggles Station (I needed to go to Northeastern). Her response, this uniformed public servant said, "why would you want to go there? That's where all the n****rs are". I was so stunned I really didn't know how to respond.

So Boston, like a lot of places, is or at least was very complex when it comes to racial prejudice.

[rhett o rick]

12. "and once upon a time, I had the bruises to prove it." The bruises never really go away. nm

[C Moon]

13. Man. That's awful.

And I agree with you: when I was in my teens I went to visit my relatives (in the "North&quot , and that was the first time I heard the N word used so nonchalantly to describe black people. It was freaky to me.

[alphafemale]

14. It is very mixed.

I grew up in Ohio and dread trips back because it is so backward and racist.

The coastal south, where I live is wonderful, people wise. Even if idiots are somehow elected.

Don't go too far inland tough. Aside from some big cities that gets scary as hell.

White may even be a minority where I work. I don't care enough to count.

[mountain grammy]

15. And not so many years ago in the south

Your girlfriend would have been lynched, and, maybe, you too.

[NuclearDem]

16. Slavery in the South not only had to be forcibly abolished

but they seceded and fought a war to preserve their "right" to own human beings as property.

Southern schools had to be forcibly integrated. Southern election commissions had to be put under the watch of the Department of Justice.

That racism exists in the North does not change the fact the South has long been the bastion of anti-African American bigotry in this country, and has largely only made progress by virtue of the intervention of the federal government.

False equivalences can go pound sand.

[bvar22]

48. Time to get off the moral High Horse.

After defeating the South in the Civil War to "free the black man",
the Army of the North turned West and waged a War of Genocide and Ethnic Cleansing against the "Red Man" in order to make it safe for White Men to steal their land.

Many "Red Men" are STILL in internment camps.
If you travel across the Northern boundaries of the US (N Dakota, Montana, Idaho, Eastern Washington) the residents still don't "see" the remnants of the ethnic cleansing, even thought they are living on land the less than 3 generations ago was stolen from the Native Americans.
The Native Americans are invisible to them.

[NuclearDem]

50. And this what exactly to do with the Confederacy's defiance in the face of abolition?

Oh, and before you reply, please note how my post didn't say the Civil War was fought to abolish slavery.

[mountain grammy]

49. Yes, I agree.

This OP is a false equivalency.

[NancyDL]

17. In the US...

...wherever you find Republicans, you will find racists in the same proportion.

[2banon]

18. Onslow County line Billboard sign read: Welcome to KKK Country!

that was in the 60's where I lived in North Carolina. It was just part of the scenery. Didn't know or understand it's significance at the time. I also lived in Hawaii and Southern California - my dad was in the Marines so that's why i traveled and lived in different parts of the country, except for the north.

My family is/was bi-racial and we obviously had close friends of mixed races. It was often pointed out that racism was far more wide spread in the North, just "hidden" so it was worse. I was verbally attacked and accused of being a "Freedom Rider" but never physically assaulted. I should say, I didn't even understand what that meant or what historical events that term referred to until years later.

The racism in the south was all around me but out in the open. When I left in '70's and came to live in the San Francisco Bay Area, I haven't returned but for one brief visit and a funeral in Atlanta where I was born, and haven't returned since. I just never missed it. This place has been my home for most of my life now.

Sorry about what happened to you.

[WilliamPitt]

20. In the North, we don't put up billboards.

You just don't get the job if you're Black.

And GOD HELP YOU if you wind up in the wrong neighborhood.

[Spitfire of ATJ]

19. Boston was the flashpoint for rioting over busing in the 70s....

This iconic photo was from that time.

[WilliamPitt]

21. That second photo won the Pulitzer.

Iconic.

[irisblue]

29. and still a repulsive horrid act & image

[Duval]

23. We need to let go of the notion

that racism only happened/happens in the South. Thanks for your post, WRP.

[kjones]

24. My story

I'm a white mid-20 something dating a girl, black mid-20 something.
It's been a few months, things are going pretty well. I'm from Indiana
originally, Michigan now. One of the first things she said to me
when we got into talking deep, and about stuff like this, "You don't
seem like someone from Indiana." I guess she expected someone
uneducated, "hickish." Haha. Anyway, I think we are both pretty comfortable
with who we are and such, and if it wasn't for other people in the
world, we probably wouldn't think about...well, what other people might
think, what we think, etc.
My parents have been supportive....actually, no. They have been neither
supportive or supportive...they've treated it like any other relationship I've
ever been in....which is far, far better than being supportive even. The only
time I can recall it being brought up is when my dad was joking about having
visited my grandpa (an old man, set in his ways. Not an evil racist...just a bit
bigoted. Product of his origins, you know.). My dad said he was going to tell
my g-pa I'm dating a black girl, but he decided to save it for a later day when
he had four or five hours to listen to grandpa's crazy and inevitable responses
haha.
Interestingly, her parents seem quite a bit supportive, and for whatever the
reason, it seems to be a sore spot. Not a spot I've felt it the right time to
disturb either, so, I'm not quite sure what the nature/degree of it is. Both
our families live in other states, so we have not met each others families in
person yet. Her and I talk about race related stuff sometimes, I mean,
the way things are in the news now, it's hard to avoid. However, asking
if her parents disapproval is explicitly race is something race related I haven't
yet got up the courage to probe about yet.

[Enthusiast]

72. Your parents are just glad you aren't gay.

I kid.

I thought of several funny things to say when I read your post. I'm from the "All in the Family" era.

I wish you and your girlfriend the best.

[Stellar]

88. Video, PLEASE! LOL

My dad said he was going to tell
my g-pa I'm dating a black girl, but he decided to save it for a later day when
he had four or five hours to listen to grandpa's crazy and inevitable responses
haha.

I'd love to listen to that video response.

I have two beautiful bi-racial grand kids that I just LOVE to death. I could not have them with out both people involved. It's like Obama once said about his kids, I feel about my grand kids - - it's like having your heart walking around outside of your body - - that's what it feels like to me. If grand pa loves you...he'll get over it, believe me. I did.

[kjones]

94. Yeah, I certainly believe so

He sort of, well, an anonymous bigot. He can be bigoted, but not once
he knows someone.

"Well grandpa, do you know any (black/hispanic/etc people)?"
"Yeah."
"And what about them?"
"They're ok."
"Ok, so what's the problem?"

He's a perfect example of a Fox/Limbaugh consumer...bigotry largely
derived from misinformation. Someone who could be re-educated or
informed about humanity. Not someone who is impossibly hateful.

Still, I expect an interesting reaction. haha

[heaven05]

25. American culture, north

south, east(I lived in Boston 5 years, 1970-75, S.Boston, the worst)midwest and west has always perpetuated racism. Nothing new. There is a deeper animosity in the South JUST because the Confederacy NEVER died. Defeated in battle, yes. In spirit, hell no. Yet Boston was a eye opener...Louise Day Hicks.

[jtuck004]

26. " once upon a time, I had the bruises to prove it." < You still do. Lots of us do. But

their value isn't in proving anything to those who will never change. It's what the bruises taught you.

[shedevil69taz]

31. Walking around NY city last year

The only people getting "stopped and frisked" where ones that had dark skin...

[WCIL]

33. Last year, our son visited us in downstate Illinois from Chicago

He was on Amtrak returning home when the trained stopped in Macomb and policemen in that black military style gear they sometimes wear got on and hustled a black man off the train. The man was asleep, and startled, but was threatened and manhandled off the train with no explanation. A few minutes later he was allowed to re-board - they wanted the OTHER black man on the train. The poor man had tears in his eyes, he was so humiliated.

[Enthusiast]

73. That's horrible.

[Damansarajaya]

34. Not sure about that last sentence.

Were you tortured and killed and your mutilated body found weeks later in a swamp like Emmett Till? Were you shot in the back like Medgar Evers? Was your church firebombed like in Birmingham?

But we take your point, and it's a point worth making.

[WilliamPitt]

37. Are you Emmett Till? Medgar?

Your question makes no sense.

[Damansarajaya]

62. You said that the north is just as bad as the south.

It's not just as bad . . . but it can still be pretty bad. Just a small quibble with that one statement, but I'm on your side for all the rest.

[Aerows]

35. Stupidity

and evil don't have a longitude or a latitude. It is someone that wishes to impose on your life a set of constructs that don't fit.

I don't understand why someone wants to impose their views upon others.

Maybe I don't lust for power enough? If that is a failing, it is one I'm grateful to have.

[Enthusiast]

74. Me too.

[1monster]

36. Boston lost its claim to color blindness when they implemented busing in the early '70s.

Those riots were certainly eye opening.

[24601]

67. I remember the attacks on the buses carrying the kids. Yep, Boston - especially South Boston was

color blind only until race issues reached their own back yards.

[FLPanhandle]

38. Watch out, you are challenging some people's "holier than thou" attitude

Of course the North isn't superior to the South on racism, but many people like to feel that way.

[awoke_in_2003]

39. I experienced something similar in Cleveland

Except the girl was Puerto Rican (I've always been partial toward Latinas. I never got beat up, but we received a lot of grief from most of her family (one of her brothers was pretty cool, though). It ended up falling apart a couple months after we became engaged, sadly. I still have love for that woman.

[Enthusiast]

75. Geez.

That would make the foundation for a book.

[awoke_in_2003]

92. ...

back at you. Feel free to write it, just send me an autographed copy

[kcr]

45. I'm sorry that happened to you

But I don't see a lot of people claiming there is no racism anywhere but the south, so I don't see why anyone has to pound sand.

[Generic Other]

47. It shows in your character Will

And it is obvious you have always practiced what you preached.

[msanthrope]

51. Did they call you a POSUCS? nt

[Rex]

52. I've lived in the North and South and both have an outcropping of racists. Yes indeed they do.

However, here in the South...many still have this delusional fantasy that I see lacking in the Northern states.

[carolinayellowdog]

53. My anecdote supports yours

My two sisters are bi-racial and went to college on the South Shore after growing up in the DC area. One now lives in Montana, the other in Maryland. Both report that the only time in their lives that anyone ever called them the N-word publicly was in Massachusetts. This happened in the 1980s when your experience occurred, and Boston has changed a lot since then-- so, FWIW.

But as noted elsewhere, statistics outweigh anecdotes. And as YOU note, statistics show that Boston is more segregated than any other city in the East. California cities are generally the least segregated, but NC and VA do fairly well in those stats, especially metro areas with high military presence. Boston might look bad compared to other eastern cities, but hands down the greatest segregation is in Great Lakes cities.

[HipChick]

56. The I have a black friend thread

Disgusted by this thread..

[KingCharlemagne]

60. I think you are being mighty unfair to Mr. Pitt. This is not a "I have a

black friend" thread; it is, instead, a "I had a black friend and got the shit kicked out of me for having one" thread. I'm not sure what you find so disgusting about this thread. Care to elaborate?

[Damansarajaya]

63. I could never get what was so bad about saying,

"I have black friends." True, it doesn't prove that one is completely non-racist, but it's a heckofa good start.

Are white people NOT supposed to have black friends? If we do, are we not supposed to talk about it? To hide it?

[HipChick]

65. Just the opposite...folks often try to justify their racism

with the but I have a black friend spiel...OP will never come close to what black people have to experience on a day to day basis...the whole thread is offensive

[tkmorris]

68. Was the OP trying to say he understood the what black people have to experience?

Was that his point? No it wasn't.

I don't know what the fuck you are talking about. Actually yes I do, but YOU don't.

[Enthusiast]

76. +1

[WilliamPitt]

80. Epic Sad Fail

[Throd]

93. Having black friends is racist

and disgusting.

(sarcasm)

[the_sly_pig]

57. It is not a North v. South thing....

But it is an educated v. ignorant thing. I like to say smart v. stupid, but that is my own bias shining through. The question to ask is where is the concentration of stupid people?

[hunter]

58. I frequently "got the living shit beaten out of me" because I was "queer bait."

It started in the fifth grade and the physical violence only ended when I tested out and quit high school for college.

I've got humorous stories about being a minor in college. Some of my college teachers didn't like it all, especially in dirty field work. They hadn't signed on to the job of looking after minors.

We minors had a special one-unit mandatory "coping with college" class every semester. I got multiple units for that class and my parents would automatically sign any official college papers.

So, your kid is going to live wild for a month or two in the field with evolutionary biologists and paleontologists. Sign here, no problem. And it never was.

College was heaven compared to the times I got "the living shit beaten out of me" in middle and high school.

Adults who assault minors are rare. I never experienced that.

[irisblue]

70. Thank you for telling us this

the fear of the other....

[Enthusiast]

77. This is why I always say that no one would choose to be gay.

Who would invite a life of persecution. The claim is ridiculous. Of course the religious right always claims that everyone just up and decides they're gay.

When I was in high school I was terrified someone would think I was gay, even though I wasn't. I think that is a common enough experience.

[Faryn Balyncd]

61. Thank you, William Pitt, for sharing a powerful, powerful story.

[Depaysement]

64. That episode helped make you the man you are today

That's the silver lining and it's a lot shinier than most.

[WillyT]

66. Thanks Will...

Similar experience... Sacramento, CA.

[graegoyle]

69. So, there is racism throughout America.

Knew that. Thanks, everyone, for your input.



By the way, it's all over the world.

[Enthusiast]

78. Kicked and recommended a whole bunch!

[sakabatou]

79. My own girlfriend is black.

I wouldn't know of any racism coming to the both of us (we're long distance). But when she went through Kentucky, she got hit with a lot of racism. She went back home soon after.

If she got some flak from racists in Connecticut, she hasn't told me.

[RKP5637]

81. The US is full of bigots and racists. It cuts across all states, cities and towns! n/t

[flyingfysh]

82. Cairo, Illinois is a notorious "sundown town"

Blacks have to be out of town by nightfall.

[donnasgirl]

84. I am married to a man

A man who happens to be black, if we stop bringing color into the equation maybe all this shit will stop, start referring people as being human and stop putting a color on someone. A black person= a human
A latino= a human
Asian= human
I hope you get the idea, enough labeling Humans thru color of ethnicity we are all human beings who cry when sad, who bleed red when cut, and laugh when we are happy.

[Triana]

86. Former Michigander here...

...I happen to believe that the rednecks and racists in/from the North are at least as bad if not worse than the ones in the South. It's NOT just a "Southern" thing.

[1StrongBlackMan]

87. The 1st time I was called the N-word ...

was in Boston (1971).

I was 10 year old and on a school trip. We were taking a tour of the House of Paul Revere. I have never been big on canned tours, so when the group went inside, I wandered across the street and was watching some kids (my age) playing baseball in a vacant lot.

The looked up and saw me, and started with the shouting. with me, being me, I stutter to think what would have happened had the tour group not come out at that moment.

[blackspade]

89. Sorry, but this and other similar threads over the last couple of days....

Only seem to give the institutional and cultural racism of the south a pass based on anecdotal evidence. There are racist assholes everywhere, but it is largely perpetuated and celebrated in the south. Does Boston have statues to Bedford Forrest? Jefferson Davis?

[RoccoR5955]

91. As an old hippie from NYC

I can also tell you that the racism has no borders. It didn't in the 70s, it doesn't now. I live about 100 miles north of NYC, and it's the same here. True many are more tolerant here, this disease of racism is far from "cured."
And as an old hippie, I can tell you that the "establishment" had it out for us then, and still has it out for us now.

[maxrandb]

98. I'm sorry, but you're wrong

Not about racism, because you can find it all over the world, but you are wrong about the North and the South. Your experience sounds horrific. What you encountered in MA were assholes. What you would have experienced in AL would have been State Sanctioned assholes. That is a huge difference, and it's why you can't compare the pockets of racism in the North, to the State Sponsored terrorism of the South.

The comparison is so wrong, it's almost the same as saying; "well, there's no difference between the parties".

No, what happened to you was deplorable, but it was NOT sanctioned by the powerful arm of the state.

Did your girlfriend have to move to the back of the bus because it was a State Sanctioned LAW?

Was your girlfriend able to sit in the same diner as you, or was she barred by a State Sanctioned LAW?

Could she drink from the same water fountain as you, or was she barred by a State Sanctioned LAW to only drink from a fountain for blacks?

Did her parents have to pass an absurd literacy test, sanctioned by the State, for the right to vote?

No, there was a reason that MLK marched in Montgomery, AL and NOT Boston. MA.

There was a reason that Freedom Fighters marched across a bridge in Selma and NOT, Dudley, MA.

What you experienced was disgusting, but those people were idiots...NOT idiots with the force of the State behind them

That is a huge difference that should never be forgotten.

So yes, there is racism in the North and the South, but the way the power of the state was brought to bear in the South will always make the racism of the South IN NO WAY COMPARABLE to the North.