
How black people still need to outwit racists in rural America - DanBC
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2018/feb/11/green-book-facebook-black-motorists-racist-america-road-trip-pitstops-safe
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scarface74
I don't disagree with the article but let me give a more positive anecdote.
I'm Black and live in Forsyth County GA.

Yeah this Forsyth:

[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WErjPmFulQ0](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WErjPmFulQ0)

We were looking for a house and were welcomed with opened arms by the builder,
I can still go to pick up my son from a teen group where no one knows me and
ask any random person have they seen my son and they know exactly who I'm
talking about. But I've never felt the least bit of hostility and my son made
friends quickly. He's dating a White girl - if he wants to date anyone in his
school he doesn't have too much of a choice - and I've met her parents and
they are perfectly supportive of it.

I've never experienced anything that I could perceive as racist here and
neither has my family. There is probably still some of the old guard around
but the county has bern growing fast, and probably is drowning out the old
guard.

~~~
ggg9990
My guess is that your household income is at least $150k? Wealth can be a
partial vaccine against discrimination.

~~~
collyw
Or maybe people are discriminating against poverty / class rather than race.

~~~
scarface74
No it's definitely both. But, while there are a lot of studies showing
discriminitstion, to a point, depending on what part of the country you are
in, how well connected you are, status (not necessarily income) and how well
you can "fit in", it can be less of an issue.

~~~
collyw
Where I come from in the UK there isn't a lot of racism (that I am aware of)
but I do see huge similarities in the way that classes treat each other to the
way races treat each other in the US.

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istjohn
One terribly insidious aspect to racism in America is how invisible it is to
white people. We are so segregated that most white people will not learn about
black people's experiences with racism organically. It's only through articles
like this and cell phone footage of violent police interactions that we become
aware of this cruel alternative reality so many people live in. The disconnect
exists within city-limits, but so much more so across regional divides.

~~~
Clubber
You are absolutely right about that. I was brought up that racism was for poor
white trash and anyone who is racist shouldn't be associated with. Of course I
live my life that way, so all the people who I interact with aren't racist.
Honestly, even people on the street I talk with don't say things like that.
The last time someone said something like that was some old bumpkin in a truck
at a gas station said something about Michelle Obama several years ago.

I know racist remarks were quite casual in the pre-Boomer generation, but they
don't seem that way now, but I wouldn't know because I'm not around it.

I assume it is a lot better than the 80s, but I could never know. Of course I
want to believe that racism is only a rarity today and limited to offshoots of
society, and I assume many others want to believe that too.

~~~
mnm1
I think such rose-colored beliefs are dangerous and cause major harm so I do
not want to nor do I believe them.

~~~
Clubber
You should believe what data tells you and not what I say or what any
newspaper says. I was just having a conversation.

------
rangersanger
I had never heard of sundown towns before this article and plan to read the
book they link to in the article [1]. One silver lining of the last year or so
for me, personally, has been a sort of awakening to the real issues that have
persisted in the shadows of the US for marginalized populations. There has
always been some level of awareness, but the very concrete and contemporary
stories that seem to be pouring out currently have forced me to reconcile that
much of the US population doesn't live within my progressive, city living
bubble, and just how much worse things are in some places. I don't think I'm
alone here.

Some other things I've heard that have reinforced this:

Democracy in Chains: [https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/30011020-democracy-
in-ch...](https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/30011020-democracy-in-
chains?from_search=true)

When the Welfare People Come:
[https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/29633687-when-the-
welfar...](https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/29633687-when-the-welfare-
people-come?ac=1&from_search=true)

[1][https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/52444.Sundown_Towns?ac=1...](https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/52444.Sundown_Towns?ac=1&from_search=true)

~~~
kiliantics
The progressive bubbles are still rife with racism, it's just not as obvious.
Think of stop and frisk, school district segregation, gentrification, modern
day redlining, etc. "Progressive" people often still hold subtly racist views.
The kind of thing you see black people point - say like in "Get Out" and
"Insecure" \- is completely common place, where well-meaning liberal people
perpetuate racist systems.

~~~
aaron-lebo
Poor whites don't have any more power than poor minorities. Was watching a pbs
doc about the rise of the klan in North Carolina. One of the big attractions
was that the wealthy whites looked down on the poor whites, and by joining the
klan they could at least be above someone else.

The wealthy whites condoned and fought the Civil War. The poor didn't own
slaves. They were probably racist and bigoted, but it was the kind of behavior
learned form their masters.

It's incredibly frustrating to see people with the "correct" views gloat in
their correctness and do nothing to actually fix racism or inequality (they
are the benefactors of this inequality). I used to attend a small baptist
church. One of my dad's friends _loved_ to make off color jokes. That same man
is friends with and has done more for illegal immigrants and minorities than
some of the most progressive rich folk ever have. They'd probably tar and
feather him and make a big show about how good they were for doing it.

School districts are a great example. Rich kids go to nice private cools and
their parents often live in communities that don't pay taxes that support
public schools. I've met good upstanding Republicans and rabid Obama
supporters who do this, and somehow don't see the contradiction.

~~~
leetcrew
> parents often live in communities that don't pay taxes that support public
> schools

how? pretty sure in the US everyone pays property tax (directly or
indirectly), some of which is used to fund the school system. you can't just
opt out of paying into that system at all.

~~~
aaron-lebo
Highland Park is a city within a city that pays no taxes to DISD.

Zuckerberg grew up in Dobb's Ferry, which is just outside of New York City's
limits. He ended up at a private high school with an endowment of 1.15
billion. Now he's worth 70 billion. Not to pick on him (just an example), but
there are many ways the elites segregate themselves.

~~~
maxerickson
Highland Park and Dobb's Ferry have public schools though:

[https://www.dfsd.org/](https://www.dfsd.org/)

[http://www.hipark.org/](http://www.hipark.org/)

Median incomes in Highland Park are lower than _Detroit_ and the school system
there basically failed a few years ago.

I think there's probably a pretty good argument to be made about how schools
are funded. Just pointing out that not all properties are inside of large
cities isn't it.

~~~
aaron-lebo
That's not the same place.

Yes, they do have their own public schools, but that's ignoring how isolated
and segregated those schools are that tax base is from the rest of the
community.

 _In the 2015-2016 school year, HPISD had a student population of 7,171
people, of whom 2,114 were at Highland Park High School. The areas from which
HPISD draws, Highland Park and University Park, have a reputation for being
affluent, predominantly white areas. The numbers show that although the
student body used to be almost 99% white, by 2015 a lower 86.5% of the
District was white. The next biggest sections are a 6% Asian population and a
5% Hispanic population. In terms of affluence, it is true that 0.0% of the
District 's students are economically disadvantaged. The rate of violent or
criminal incidents at every single campus in the District in 2015-2016 was
0.0%_

Dobb's isn't that bad, but its demographics and income is still well above
many nearby areas. Go through the Dobb's high site and count dark skinned
people. It's an 80% majority community with a family income well over nearby
areas.

------
avar
There's a great and relevant Radiolab episode published just a few days ago.
It discusses the Commerce Clause of the constitution[1].

Something I didn't know is that when the US government ended racial
segregation in privately owned businesses they did so not on any sort of human
rights or equality basis. Rather they argued that businesses being able to
deny black clients service has a depressing effect on the economy, and is thus
something the federal government can regulate under the Commerce Clause.

Today there's still people who think that was a bad call not because it ended
segregation, but because it gave the government precedent to regulate other
things via the Commerce Clause.

1\. [http://www.radiolab.org/story/radiolab-presents-more-
perfect...](http://www.radiolab.org/story/radiolab-presents-more-perfect-one-
nation-under-money/)

~~~
viburnum
The US Constitution is basically obsolete and terrible and you can't run a
decent society without stretching it quite a bit. It does not deserve the
veneration it receives.

~~~
redblacktree
I would argue that this means we should fix the constitution through the
amendment process, not toss the baby out with the bathwater.

~~~
mnm1
I can't imagine a more horrific scenario than a constitutional convention. The
day that happens is the day America dies. Ok, probably a few days later when
they decide to throw out the current ratification rules out and just rewrite
everything. A bunch of un-elected idiots rewriting the constitution. I hope
they use a new name. Calling that new country USA will be confusing.
Regardless, I will not stick around here for that. Third time around is bound
to be an even bigger disaster than the first two.

~~~
redblacktree
Who said anything about a constitutional convention? The amendment process[0]
is not so extreme. We've done it 27 times, most recently in 1992.

[0]: [https://www.archives.gov/federal-
register/constitution](https://www.archives.gov/federal-register/constitution)

------
craftyguy
> “I prayed that she’d look white, and she does,” he says. “She will be safe.”

This is incredibly sad to read. I wish this government would take a zero-
tolerance to racism (like they do with 'terroism'), but we seem to be
regressing lately.

~~~
dreta
You can’t make the law any more strict than it already is without sacrificing
everybody’s basic rights.

~~~
ActsJuvenile
It's more about setting the tone. If top figures in the government and
legislature take an inclusive stance and stamp out any racists issues,
populous tend to pick up on that vibe.

~~~
dreta
What top public figures aren't strongly against racism exactly?

------
FreekNortier
It's interesting how the msm only reports on situations like these when the
victims are non-White. Here is an example of what Whites go through to outwit
racists in rural South Africa :
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IMOmQJCtTek](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IMOmQJCtTek)

------
r3vo
I live in Atlanta and have lived in the American south all of my life.

I don't really appreciate the stereotype that people here are more racist and
backwards than in other parts of the country. It actually seems to me that in
many ways we have superior race relations down here. The amount of blacks
living here is much higher than it is in other parts of the country. Most days
when I walk to work I don't see any white people at all. You notice that when
there are race riots and events of racial tension they never occur in the
south?

I think the fear that a black person would have some sort of wild racist
encounter down here is misplaced.

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LyndsySimon
> They took to heart several recommendations gleaned from the conversation,
> including that they should bypass Harrison, an Arkansas town with a long
> history of KKK activity.

I live in Harrison, AR - in fact, I just moved back here after spending five
years in Charlottesville, VA.

You're far more likely to be harassed for having a Hillary sticker on the back
of your car than for the color of your skin.

------
dave_f
I'm a white guy that prefers not to travel through the inner city, because of
what might happen to me there. Let's stop pretending that this is a one-way
street.

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RickJWag
Are we to infer that racism is less prevalent in urban America?

Oddly, I read not long ago that the most segregated schools in America are in
New York city.

------
DanBC
The full title is _From the Green Book to Facebook, how black people still
need to outwit racists in rural America_.

EDIT: The given title is too long to fit the 80 character limit. And I suck at
picking new titles. Sorry.

