@Finn dAbuzz,
Finn asked:
Quote:What's your personal experience as respects living in the North and the South, and bigotry.?
Well, I know you weren't asking this of me personally, so excuse me if I'm intruding, but I'll give it a go:
I was born in San Antonio Texas of two born and raised Texan, southern Baptist parents. I will forever be grateful that my father was transferred by the corporation for which he worked to Buffalo, New York when I was one year old. When I was three years old, he was transferred to the corporate headquarters in Manhattan and so they moved us to New Jersey - within commuting distance of New York City. This made the difference for me in my lifetime between me being a little white girl attending segregated schools in Texas to having the privilege of attending school with all races and ethnicities in New Jersey before segregation was outlawed and integration was enforced in the south. Our Southern Baptist church in NJ was also racially integrated by people who really believed the old adage, 'Love your neighbor as yourself- I never heard race enter into it by anyone I went to school or church with. Thus, I grew up surrounded by and appreciating diversity and believing (as I was taught in school and in church and saw enacted in my actual every-day life) that 'all men are created equal' and should be treated as such and I was lucky enough to live in a place where the laws reflected that belief and the people around me acted as if they believed that instead of supporting laws and attitudes that reinforced the opposite.
We did return to Texas every summer to visit the kinfolk. This was the only time I heard the n-word spoken as a matter of course - to the point that I had to have it explained to me by my father what it meant and why it was not good to say it and to try to understand the ignorance of those who would say such a word- 'they didn't know any better because they were raised that way.' What I couldn't understand is why HE and my mother knew better even though they were raised that way too. I understood later that they had no need within themselves to look down on others - despite having been raised in a place where it was legally and socially acceptable to do so.
And it wasn't only the 'n-word' I learned down south. It was also the term 'dirty Mexican' when I dared to ask a Mexican woman in Texas directions in front of my cousin who admonished me for even thinking a 'dirty Mexican' would know anything or be able to answer any of my questions accurately. This young cousin was my age - and all I could think was 'God dang - that'd of been me if my father hadn't been transferred. Thank you Jesus for letting me grow up in New Jersey instead of Texas!'
I went to college in North Carolina - dated a black man and was refused service in a Pizza Hut down there. Having been raised in New Jersey, I had no idea why - I even said, 'We're all wearing shoes and shirts - what's the problem?!' The southerners in the group had to inform me that it was because we were being disapproved of because we were an interracial group of men and women. I went up and protested - telling them that discrimination was illegal. Didn't matter - we never did get served. This never happened to me north of the Mason-Dixon line - I've lived in New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania and Maine....never had any problems. In Texas and North Carolina it was an entirely different story.
There's my personal experiences with prejudice and discrimination in the north vs. the south. My children are interracial. There are very few places in the south I would consider living without thinking long and hard and actually experiencing the vibe. The North is a different story for me...but you know - everyone has a different experience.
