I'm not going to cast aspersions but that has NOT been my experience visiting the Boston area on numerous occasions over the past 5 years.
On Thu, Jun 7, 2018 at 11:25 AM, Floyd Thursby via Mercedes < mercedes@okiebenz.com> wrote: > Interestingly enough, I found the most racist/ethnicist place I have ever > lived to be liberal Massachusetts. The "race" aspect was sorta secondary > to the ethnic aspect, kinda as in you don't look like me, you aren't like > me, your family did not come from the same place as mine, you're a > different religion, etc. I found that almost everyone disliked<->hated > (somewhere on that spectrum) everyone else, at least those who were more > than one generation in the area. Being very stereotypical here, but I > found that whites disliked<->hated blacks, and anyone else of a darker > shade in general, (white) Irish and Italians hated one another, Catholics, > Jews, Protestants, Muslims, whatever. I had a Haitian neighbor who was > really black, who viscerally hated the "American" blacks who lived up the > street from us and would go off on them sounding like an old klucker, it > was pretty bad but was also somewhat curious and mystifying but I realized > it came down to cultural values not color so much. > > It seemed to come down whoever had arrived more recently than the other > group, and the ones later on were like monkeys in a tree, with the ones > above "trickling" down on the ones below, so that created this sorta > cultural/ethnic/racial animosity. Asians, specifically Vietnamese and > Cambodians, were the latest groups to arrive, so everyone else looked down > on them. It was really strange. As an outsider I was never fully > "integrated" but did eventually make some more-or-less "local" friends but > it took a coupla decades. > > Living here at ground zero for slavery, I find that of course there is > still fairly strong racism ( the area is not particularly > racially/ethnically diverse, though hispanics are becoming a larger part of > the community) but at least where I live folks mostly get along while both > sides maintain some self-segregation due to historical issues (slavery, Jim > Crow, KKK, etc.) that are still very present in family experiences as this > stuff was quite present up until fairly recently. The disliked<->hated > aspect is not nearly as up front as it was in "liberal" Massachusetts which > I find kinda strange. > > All that said, it seems to be human nature that we divide ourselves into > cohorts based on race, ethnicity, culture, beliefs, interests, or whatever, > and that becomes a basis for a "community" of thought or attitude, in some > cases established generations ago, and it gets reinforced and accepted as > "normal." I just read a book called Hillbilly Elegy that lays out very > clearly how the Eastern Kentucky culture continued through a diaspora in > the 50s (or earlier) to what is now the Rust Belt, and is still quite > apparent today. So there are these subsets of cultural behaviors even > among the white population that I find quite off-putting and they don't > really involve any racial aspects. > > Musings... > > --R > > > On 6/7/18 9:48 AM, Donald Snook via Mercedes wrote: > >> Mountain Man wrote: >> >> "That is what I want - nice country area, no racism, but "boys" that are >> people to be with, that are people to teach how life is. Life is more than >> what the city stifles us to be. Does anyone know if this is possible? - or >> is this a mere city slicker dream?" >> >> I'm not exactly sure what you are asking. Are you seeking an out of the >> way rural country life? If so, you can go to a lot of places other than >> Mississippi. But, the state certainly offers plenty of places where you >> won't see much other than farms. >> >> Mississippi has a population around 3 Million. It is a fairly large >> state in terms of geographical size. The urban (or semi urban) areas are >> located on the coast, around Jackson, and to a lesser extent: Hattiesburg >> and the college towns of Oxford and Starkville. Oxford is a Beautiful >> town. It is home to "Ole Miss." Because it is a college town, it is >> probably one of the more liberal areas in the whole state. Of course, >> "liberal" in Mississippi is much different than Liberal in Illinois or >> Massachusetts. >> >> The least populated county in the state is Issaquena County. It is far >> west and central. It is notable because it had the highest concentration >> of slaves (before the Civil War) of any County in the Country. 40+% of the >> county is in poverty and the county has the highest unemployment in the >> state. >> >> Hinds and Jackson Counties are the most populous. >> >> _______________________________________ >> http://www.okiebenz.com >> >> To search list archives http://www.okiebenz.com/archive/ >> >> To Unsubscribe or change delivery options go to: >> http://mail.okiebenz.com/mailman/listinfo/mercedes_okiebenz.com >> >> >> > -- > --FT > > > _______________________________________ > http://www.okiebenz.com > > To search list archives http://www.okiebenz.com/archive/ > > To Unsubscribe or change delivery options go to: > http://mail.okiebenz.com/mailman/listinfo/mercedes_okiebenz.com > > _______________________________________ http://www.okiebenz.com To search list archives http://www.okiebenz.com/archive/ To Unsubscribe or change delivery options go to: http://mail.okiebenz.com/mailman/listinfo/mercedes_okiebenz.com
