Guess what I just witnessed?

[Ripley]

This is for all those *red states are all racist* believers of DU.

As I drove into the grocery parking lot I noticed an abandoned Honda over in the grass. When I got out of my vehicle a black man approached me with a gas can in his hand. He said "Mam, please can you help me, that's my red car over there and I need help." I said, "Oh, you need gas money?" He said "Yes, please, can you help me?" I gave him the dollar in cash I had on me (I rarely carry much cash - use credit cards wisely my friends). As I walked away I saw he approached an old white guy sitting and smoking in his pick-up with a Bush/Cheney bumpersticker.

Oh this is gonna be interesting! I thought.

The white guy gave him something, don't know what it was. But Mr. Out of Gas nodded like "thanks" and put it in his pocket. I was curious so I went into the store that has big windows in the front and watched him for a minute. He went up to one other car where an elderly white woman was getting out of her car. She handed over something to him as well.

When I came out of the store a short while later (small purchase) I saw Mr. Out of Gas walking away from the Exxon across the street from the grocery store toward his car (apparently with his gas can full).

This is a story about how people treat other people. This should not be unusual anywhere...people help other people. However, this is Alabama. And here you have a story of 3 white people giving money to a black man asking for it as they get out of their cars.

Only an anecdote, but I wonder how many white folks in LA or NYC or Boston would have given the guy money?

[wtmusic]

1. Where in Alabama? n/t

[Ripley]

4. A county store outside a small city.

Does it matter? Hell people broad brush all people in the South as racists here on DU on a daily basis.

I just thought I'd enlighten them. :)

[Ian David]

7. I am not surprised by this at all

1) Statistically, only between 40-70% of people in the red states are bigots.
2) Even if people are bigoted, they often help those in need, even if it is someone they scorn.

Granted, I am willing to assume that the nice white folks that gave the black gentleman gas money weren't bigots.

What did surprise me is that someone with a Bush/Cheney bumper sticker gave him money.

But then I realized that they must have known that all money spent on gasoline may as well be a donation to the Republican party :)

It's nice to know that good folk live everywhere.

Sometimes they have to desperately cling to the deep sea thermal vents of decency in the cold abyss of intolerance.

Or eke out a meager living in the lichen under the rocks of Democracy amid the cold permafrost of bigotry.

[Ripley]

18. You have some very colorful language there!

Apropro (sp? me dummy) in light of Historic tsunamis, hurricanes, mudslides, glacier melting, ahhhhhh the smell of Global Warming in January!

My little hyacinths are so pretty!

[Carson]

39. Statistically, only between 40-70% of people in the red states are bigots.

Being a Southerner, I'm curious where you found such a statistic. Actual data or purely anecdotal evidence?

Please post a link. Thanks.

[pnb]

48. I was about to ask the exact same question

n/t

[underpants]

2. Since when did Alabama get credit card machines?

Just kidding. Really meant this as a :kick:

ON EDIT- I'm in Virginia

[okieinpain]

15. hahahahaha, oh shit, man that was funny. woooooo.

[Ripley]

17. When did Virginia get indoor plumbing?

BBBWWWWWWWAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA! :D

[Jim__]

3. My guess is not many ...

... but, in big cities, if you give money to everyone who asks for it you can go broke.

I'm curious, was this in a city, small town, rural area? My impression is that in small towns people are more willing to help one another out. I think its a lot more personal. In a big city, there are too many problems, and really all you can do is refer people to specialized places that can help them.

It is good to hear about things like this.

[BiggJawn]

9. That is true.

" if you give money to everyone who asks for it you can go broke."

I used to get pan-handled when i was working in my yard, even had people knock on the door and try to sell me possibly "warm" items.

The last straw came one day when an older fellow asked me for money because his car had run out of gas and he didn't want to leave it in front of the nightclub down the block. so I gave him $5. He climbed in his car, started it, and drove off. I jumped in my iron, caught up with him as he was pulling into a LIQUOR STORE 4 blocks away, passing TWO gas stations to get there.

I pulled alongside and while he glared at me, I said "Next time a brutha complains about that white guy next to the club being unfriendly, you think about this and tell him why...."

[Ripley]

12. Yeah, I'll agree about the big city thing.

I used to work downtown in Columbus, Ohio and I had to endure the same panhandlers daily. At first I gave them change. Then I realized it wasn't changing the situation and at the time I needed my bus fare for myself.

My post isn't about panhandling, but about someone needing help in a very obvious manner. This is a fairly busy grocery store in a strip off of a busy highway. It's not like anyone knew this guy. But yes, it is a small city environment compared to LA or NY.

My point is to refute those who claim Southerners are all bigots at heart and wouldn't help a black man.

[alfredo]

31. The malls is where the panhandlers are in this area. Most are older

men, retired or nearing retirement age and out of work.

The only other time I saw adult panhandlers in this town was during the Reagan years.

[Wcross]

5. I saw more overt racisim in Rochester N.Y.

Growing up than I have in Southern Tennessee. (I only live 40 miles from the birthplace of the Klan) Take that for what its worth.

[frogfromthenorth2]

6. Are you sure you weren't on CANDID CAMERA just to see your reaction?

[Name removed]

8. Deleted message

Message removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.

[Solly Mack]

10. Racism in America is more purple than red or blue

It's everywhere in America.

[UdoKier]

11. Sure, repukes sometimes give money or tips.

It gives a lot more immediate ego gratification than actually trying to create a society where poverty like that is a rarity...

[ChairOne]

13. Just in! A amputee dog refutes the notion that dogs are 4-legged animals!

Sheesh.

As if anybody ever claimed that *every single person* was racist.

Learn the English language. The claim "dogs have four legs" does NOT commit one to the claim "every single dog has four legs". The first is a statement about a group, or class, or conglomerate, while the second is a statement about indivdual dogs.

I leave it to you to apply this to the case of the bigoted, gaybashing, illiterate, welfare-sucking redstates.

[Ripley]

16. New here?

Must have missed the slander of the South!

Oops, I forgot!!! The blue states don't have "bigots, gaybashers, illiterates, or welfare-suckers." Silly me.

[ChairOne]

21. So new......

Um, wutever. lol

Welfare-suckers:

http://taxprof.typepad.com/taxprof_blog/2004/09/red_states_feed.html

Illiterates:

http://www.commonplacebook.com/features/smartest_state.shtm

I'll take gaybashing bigots as uncontested. (ok, I confess to not being quite sure how to get stats on those categories...)

The issue is NOT, as your smokescreen attempts to make it, whether or not there exist jackasses elsewhere in the country - of course there do. Nobody ever said to the contrary. What's the point of bringing it up?

O yah - to put up a smokescreen in front of the real issue: that such folks are disproportionately represented in redstates.

It's just true. It's the elephant in the room that redstate-defenders try over and over again to make us look away from. It's too bad that it's true, and it's fixable, but for now, it's just plain true.

[Ripley]

27. Oh Worthy One how is it "fixable"?

What's the point of bringing it up? you ask...

My point is to bring up the facts of life in the South. Life in Southern states today is not the way it is often portrayed by DUers.

What is my smokescreen? Whatever that means...what am I smokescreening?

[BeTheChange]

29. As a california transplantee to TX

I will say that Ive met a great deal of people who will stop to help you out.. who will care about your problems.. who will give you a smile or a hug.

I experienced that kind of interaction very rarely in Cali.

Ive put away my broad brush.

[Ripley]

32. Thanks for doing that!

I sometimes loathe the way I was raised. By NC southerners in Ohio. I had a very split-regional living and it has made me understand alot at the cost of being ridiculed a lot.

Life is not so easy in any Region as some would have it.

[Trajan]

46. Regional hatred is crass and fallacious ....

It is simple ignorance to lambast a region ....

"Southerners" arent anything specific .... if you hate Conservatives, SAY Conservatives .... bashing people from the 'south' reveals more about you than it does about anyone else ...

Sheeesh .....

[pnb]

49. Um whatever...

Because you call it a smokescreen and because you decide that bad folks are overrepresented in the redstates, so it must be. OK. With evidence like that, how can anyone POSSIBLY dispute it then...

[Artemis Bunyon]

33. New here?

What's that supposed to mean? Because he or she doesn't have over a thousand posts, his or her opinion is immediately suspect?

[Ripley]

35. It means: Maybe you are unaware of the South Bashing Threads.

That permeate this board.

Okeydokey?

[Bridget Burke]

55. The Search function is a far better way.....

To get the measure of new DU'ers.....

[Bridget Burke]

53. And ChairOne comes from which state?

Since you've hidden your profile, we're unable to sufficiently envy you for your perfect home....

[Malva Zebrina]

14. I don't know about Boston because I do not live there, but I do feel

comfortable that in Maine, people would have given him money and more than a dollar, for gas, and further, they would have helped carry the gas can. The owner of the gas station may even chip in.

[lukasahero]

54. I can speak for Boston

I give. I see many others give. No, you can't give to everyone because there are more people asking here but many people give money to folks who are just holding out cups never mind those who ask for specific reasons. And it's never, ever occured to me to check the color of the person's skin before doing so.

Personally I've had people ask me for some change because they lost their wallet or something like that and can't afford the train and I've just asked them how much they need rather than force them to ask a ton of people for a dollar here and a dollar there. (Yeah, fine call me stupid and naive, but at least I can respond to threads like this. :))

I suppose there are good people and real a$$holes everywhere. I really wish we could get away from the labels - in either direction.

[Mend]

19. Racists like humble, they don't like uppity....eom

[TalkingDog]

20. I know this sounds mean, but I wouldn't have given him money

However, I would offer to take the can to the station and buy gas for him.

I've done this once and the guy got pissed off and accused me of thinking he was trying to scam money. He refused my help and cussed me out.

A few minutes later the cops show up and he seemed to have no problem driving his "out of gas" car away.

I have no problem helping someone in need. I buy food for beggers, I'd buy gas for the "out of gas man". But I'm not feeding anybody's addiction.

[Minimus]

22. I am often teased for giving money to the homeless standing on

a street corner at a stoplight. Everyone tells me not to do it because "they will use it for drugs or booze" or "this is his full-time job, begging on the corner, he probably makes more money than you"

Regardless, there is something inside me that takes over, and I see if I have a couple bucks in my wallet. If they are holding a sign that says "Need money for food", I believe it. If they are holding a sign that says "Disabled, please help", I believe it.

Call me naive, call me a bleeding heart liberal, call me stupid, I don't care. I hope the day never comes that the "something inside me" decides not to reach into my wallet.

BTW, I live in NC now, but have done the same thing from big cities (Washington DC, Atlanta, etc) to small "Red" state towns.

[Batgirl]

23. In order to cling to a reasonable facsimile of sanity

I have to believe most people are decent at some basic level; this anecdote helps me believe it.

[Bake]

24. Near Natchez, MS, my car broke down.

In the summer (which in S. Miss. is ten degrees hotter than hell). Overheated due to a break in a water hose.

I'm a white man, wearing a suit that day (had been to court). The first guy who stopped and asked if I needed help was a black man. He got on his radio and called one of his colleagues, who was a genuinue Good Ol' Boy. Guess what. Between the two of them, they FIXED my busted hose (cut if off above the break and reconnected it), filled my radiator with coolant and water, and got me back on the road. Oh, here's the kicker: I offered them CASH MONEY for helping me. THEY TURNED IT DOWN! Said, "Thanks but I might be broke down myself sometime and need a hand."

God bless the GOOD PEOPLE -- of all races -- of Mississippi. I'm pretty sure the Good Ol' Boy was "not of my political persuasion."

I wonder, if I had broken down in LA or NYC, wouold anybody have stopped? And if so, would it have been to help me, or to rob me?

I'm just askin'.

Bake

[LizW]

44. Have you ever seen the movie "Grand Canyon"?

Your story reminded me of that movie. It's about the random intersections of people's lives and the effects they have on each other, and how acts of kindness add to the sum of goodness in humanity.

[sonicx]

25. Noone believes all red staters are racist...

But people like to stereotype for convience. Not really an excuse, but pretty much everyone's done it to some group.

[Zenlitened]

26. Would it happen in Boston? Yes.

I was filling up at a gas station on my way home from work, a guy asked for cash, but I had none and said "sorry."

He asked a few other people, but got nowhere with them.

Then it occurred to me I could swipe my gas card for him, at the pump where his car was parked. So I did, he put a few gallons in, enough to get him home, and the following odd scene occurred:

Old white lady from the suburbs (me) getting a hug from a young black man and his two friends at a gas station at midnight on Huntington Ave near Roxbury, one of the city's "rough neighborhoods."

As I walked back to my car, some of the other customers in the lot gave me odd looks, but the station attendant, from behind the bullet-proof glass of his booth, flashed me a thumbs-up.

[Sydnie]

43. Good on you Zenlitened

I can agree completely --- it does happen in Boston.

[lukasahero]

56. Sweet!

And way to think "outside the box"! ;-)

[Freddie Stubbs]

28. As an African-American man

I have noticed that some white people will go out of their way to be nice to me.

Why?

I'm not sure, but one theory I have is that they try very hard to be nice so as not to be percieved as racist.

This red state/blue state thing is BS. I have run into just as many bigots in the Northeast as I have in the South.

[Ripley]

30. Thanks Freddie.

I hope others can appreciate your perspective. :hi:

[ChairOne]

34. REALLY. There's just NO difference between N/S to you?

Wow.

As another black man, I can say I've seen quite differently. <shrugs> I guess everyone's experience is different... Spent most of my time in the Vicksburg/Natchez/Cleveland area myself...

I'm a bit shocked that you're of the opinion that there's NO difference tho...

[Freddie Stubbs]

57. I've run into racists in the north and the south

And I must say that rural areas in the north can be pretty bad.

When a guy who lives in Alabama has a Confederate flag sticker on his truck, he may just be proud of his heritage or his great-grandfather who died in the Civil War. But why in the world would a guy in Pennsylvania have one of those?

Another problem with the rural north is that they almost no exposure to African-Americans. In the south just about every community has a significant number of black people. But in the north, there are many towns where there are no blacks, Latinos, or even Jews. When you move to one of these places, you find out real quick that not everyone in the community is happy with your presence. I think that rural whites in the south are more tolerant because blacks aren't concentrated in the cities like they are up north.

[Jackie97]

41. Darn, they're catching on. LOL.

"I'm not sure, but one theory I have is that they try very hard to be nice so as not to be percieved as racist."

Ding! Ding! Ding! That's about right. I don't know if I still do this, but I remember going out of my way to be nice to blacks when I first started college. Before, I went to school with about 99.9% white people, and I wasn't used to being around blacks yet. So, I didn't know how to show I wasn't racist. I'd let black people in front of me all of the time. Now that I've been around blacks more and have taken a couple classes related to race, I'm more relaxed now.

[Aristus]

36. When NYC, LA and Boston fight a war to preserve slavery and

Jim Crow, I'll see your point.

Still, it's nice to see some acts of decent humanism in the "Segregation now, segregation forever" homeland.

[Ian David]

37. Bigoted individuals are everywhere

The difference is when bigotry becomes part of the government.

[pnb]

50. How's about when NYC, LA and Boston do something about their segregation?

Try a comparison on the demographics of neighborhoods of those areas compared to neighborhoods down south and see what you find?

NYC, LA and Boston are just as racist as the South. I've lived outside NYC and in the south. I actually found it to be far WORSE where I come from up north actually.

[agitpropagent9]

38. thanks ripley

for standing up for all of the good people in the south. the south-bashing around, and often the christian-bashing, employs the same tactics as other bigotry (unfair generalizations, caricature, etc) that liberals would never dare engage in otherwise.

[Jackie97]

40. Of course.

It shouldn't be assumed that a person is a racist just because they're from a red state or even because they voted for Bush.

However, there are different forms of racism.

There's the type where people are openly racist like the KKK. Then, there's everybody else. Most white people down south would help a black person, but many of them might still believe that blacks are more criminal, thinks we owe them from slavery, just wants to live on welfare, etc.

As for LA, NYC, or any other city, the issue is that people are afraid to get too close to a stranger. They fear getting attacked. That's not racism. That's being cautious in the big city.

[pnb]

51. No, that's just a rationalization

I guess in those cities that you mention, all the blacks are herded to separate neighborhoods and separate schools to keep them from attacking whites, huh?

[Sydnie]

42. I did that very thing last week myself here in Mass!

People are people where ever you go. There are good, trusting people and there are lousy, fearful bastards everywhere too.

Karma, my dear, is everywhere.

[mother earth]

45. Quite true, we in the East are not trusting souls & are bombarded

esp. in the city by people who take bumming to new levels, and can make a pretty good living by it. That aside, I'm glad you posted this story. We need one like that every now and then, and don't count us blue staters out, we give, so long as we know what the giving is about, street smarts. Its a jungle out there sometimes, I bet even in Alabama. Take care, Good Samaritan!

[Geek_Girl]

47. I live in the south

But I don't think southerners are bigoted in the traditional sense of being mean and hateful of other races. It's more like an underling segregationist kind of racism where blacks and white should not marry or mix and it's not just whites I've known a few African American southerners who have made comments that white and blacks should not marry.

It's just a weird cultural thing.

[CWebster]

52. Yes

but I only had a 20, so he had to wait outside the store while I went in to buy vegetables and get change, because I wasn't generous enough to give him the $20.

I guess that makes me a mean person in PA.

[proudbluestater]

58. I gave a guy dumpster diving a ten dollar bill one day.

I'm in a blue state. I don't care what color anybody is. If they have to eat "dinner" from a 7-11 dumpster, they need help.

I guess I don't browse that red state bashing threads much as I don't recall a lot of the type of conversations you're referring to.

As another person said, in the rural north it can indeed get ugly. I grew up in a suburb of Detroit where we were pretty happily integrated in my city, but not all cities were integrated. I have moved north, but I see racism now quite often. It is because of the insular upbringing that people become racists, I think. I'm in a small suburb now and constantly question my kids how many black kids are in your school, how many Muslims, how many Chinese? Because I want my kids to meet EVERYBODY. That is what the world is made of. The sooner you learn to get along with everybody, the better.

[noonwitch]

59. If I gave money to every person who approached me like that, I'd be broke

Everywhere you go in Detroit, there are people begging for money, except, of course, in the potemkin village downtown. Gas stations, sitting through a red light, grocery stores, etc. Especially gas stations, however.

It's sad to see, and I will occasionally give someone a couple of bucks, especially if it's a woman holding a kid or two, but I can't all the time. Especially when it's men who are bigger than I.

Although a junkie tried to mug me once when I still lived in the city. I walked up the street to pick up my car from the repair shop, and this toothless, track-marked junkie came out of the ally and said "Give me your money". I told him no, he pulled his fist back to strike me and I told him "If you move that fist any more, you will be picking what's left of your teeth of the sidewalk". He decided to run off at that point.

[Toucano]

60. Nice story

but it doesn't address racism at all.

Willingness to give a black man a dollar doesn't mean they wouldn't prevent that man from moving in next door to them or oppose him being hired to work the front window at their bank. Would they have fought if Mr. Out of Gas was to be buried in their cemetery?

Southern racism is about knowing your place. He was not out of his place, so there was no problem. The point is, they could contribute to his gas fund and still be racists. The anecdote doesn't really prove it either way.

Of course there's racism everywhere. Southerner racists are only slightly more forward that their Yankee counterparts.