Yes they were. I hope things have improved. It has been 19 years since I lived there so I guess that provides a blip in the long history of the area.
I recall a drive through Mississippi years ago seeing a beat up old pickup driven by what could only be described as a PhD nuclear physicist, or maybe a theoretical cosmologist, sporting a window sticker saying “if I had known, I’d have picked my own damn cotton “. I’m guessing he was not yet entirely reconstructed. --R Sent from iPhone > On Jun 7, 2018, at 11:53 AM, Dwight Giles via Mercedes > <[email protected]> wrote: > > I think things have changed a lot since Floyd lived there. I have worked > there the past > 16 years. Certainly the Louise Hicks anti-busing days were very nasty. > > Dwight Giles Jr. > Wickford RI > > On Jun 7, 2018 11:38 AM, "Andrew Strasfogel via Mercedes" < > [email protected]> wrote: > >> 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 < >> [email protected]> 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 >> >> > _______________________________________ > 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
