White Mother Fears for Biracial Child

+1

Expecting the South to be tolerant is funny in itself. You would think after Jena 6, the Judge that wouldn't marry a IR Coupe a month or so ago, that people would fear their Bi-Racial Grand Child's safety? All they have to do is look at the White House, where the media often gets it WRONG, he's Bi-Racial, he could identify with being Black and that's fine, but of course there's that bothersome "1 Drop Rule" in America.

So in the end, there's nothing to fear, according to American Culture he/she be Black anyway.

 

I grew up in the South, but I've lived in New York for several years. I've also traveled all over the country. IMO constantly trashing the South for racism at this point is ridiculous. That's not to say that there aren't still a lot of issues down there, but you'll run into bigots and bigotry all over the country. A lot of rural areas in the Northeast are just as bad as rural areas in the South.

 

The old "other people do it too" deflection. If the writer had mentioned Washington State or Oregon your comment would be relevant. We are talking about the South, focus

 

Agreed. My cousin has a biracial son that will be 18 in a few months. They have lived in small towns in KY, TN and MS. They have never experienced any racial problems that I am aware of. The South gets a lot of unfair bad rep; but as you pointed out, racism can be anywhere.

 

I have met many tolerant, sophisticated, friendly Southerners in my life. I by no means would paint them all with the same brush.

But I have never set foot in the South, and I never will. I love my husband.

Are there bad spots in the North? Yup. Believe me, I'll never set foot in Bridgeport, either (you Chicagoans know where I'm talking about). But that's one neighborhood in a whole city. The sense I get of the South is that it's the reverse -- there are spots here & there that don't even notice interracial couples, surrounded by much greater areas of places where one is likely to encounter racism.

I don't mean to insult anyone Southern, but it would be dishonest of me not to admit that I don't think it's even. The North is not "just as racist" as the South. I live in what has traditionally been called, as MLK himself said, the most segregated city in the North. Still, I see interracial couples everywhere. The only white people who seem to care are police officers. Once in awhile, we'll run into some white guy who tries to act an ass, but we've never had a white person say anything to us about being interracial.

When we travel to small Northern towns for the first time, we are often on our guard -- we'll travel with other couples, for instance, sometimes. But we've found that many Northern small towns cling to their Civil War history just as the Southern ones do... and even if they haven't seen a Black person in town this year, they don't react negatively when they do. We were very well treated in Union, Ill, for instance.

We took a trip across the country, only through Northern states, a few years ago. We got no trouble from anyone.

I hear all the time from Southerners who say it's just the same down South, but I hear stories all the time of things that simply could not happen in a city like Chicago. I have friends who went to college down South, and they say it's not really racist... but when I ask them how a couple like my husband & I would be treated, they fall silent.

As a Woman who is in love with a Black Man, I don't ever want him to be in the presence of someone who would attempt to demean him. As a White Woman, I don't want to have to put up with racist idiots trying to befriend me.

I've got nothing against those Awesome Southerners that I have come across here and elsewhere.

But I'm really glad to be in the North. It's big, it's wide, and I see no reason to leave.

 

This is the last thing I will say about the South -

Its simple if the people down there wouldn't constantly line up behind Conservative/Republican/Tea Party candidates for public office or join known White Power organizations under the guise of opposing the Bank Bailouts (watch the whole video) then the rest of the country wouldn't have a raised eyebrow every time something racial comes out of the South.

This whole nonsense about an All White Basketball League doesn't help your cause of trying to deflect blame. Praying to God for it to rain in Atlanta is ridiculous, until recently Southern California had extreme drought and we didn't publicly ask God for it to Rain.

So the South (Bible Belt) is deeply misguided, far too defendant on religion to solve deep social and cultural issues and is easily pitted against one another in battles over say Mountain Top blasting for Coal.

Own up to your problems. If you want people to stop bad mouthing one section of a very large country, then vote known racist out of office, marginalize White Power to the point of not being able to march in even the smallest town because its socially unacceptable and stop pointing fingers back at the much more liberal Coastal areas about "it happens there too".

Things do happen here, the shooting in the back of an unarmed Black Man by Security Officers in San Francisco is one example that comes to mind quickly and another fact that usually gets missed by those without a long ranging thought in their head, the raising of tuition at California State and University of California by 34% effect people of color more than it does the White students, yet Black, Brown and White students all marched and protested about unfair hikes in tuition.

When the South has a United Front against unfair and unjustified and racially overt practices, only THEN maybe they'll get a pass as being the "New South".

Until then its the same old South, just the Jim Crow laws have been banished, but according to Douglas Blackman it went on much longer than that and I believe Tim Wise or the Southern Poverty Law Center would take acceptation to your claim that the South gets unfairly tagged as being Racist and Backwards.

 

Conservative Southerns always throw rocks from a Glass House, they can't help themselves. Is the North racist, yes I believe the most racist city in the Northeast is Boston, you only have to ask Jim Rice and Bill Russell.

Look at areas where mostly Black and Brown people live in New York.

You really only have to look at Washington DC really, one of the poorest and crime ridden part of the country and its in the middle of the Center Of the Universe, it has no Senate or House Seat either, how do you explain that?

I can come up with all types of examples of structural racism in America. What WE are saying, how come when somebody wants to start an All White Basketball League, its only socially acceptable Down South?

Is it just the media being unfair when a Justice Of The Peace refuses to marry a Interracial Couple happens to live in a tiny town in Louisiana?

No, the South being racist is just the gift that keeps on giving....

 

Only in the south will you find high school proms that are still segregated.


I mean, c'mon.


Let's keep it real.

 

Whenever it's something stupid in the news, I'm like watch it's in the South. And it usually is.

Whenever you're reading a magazine and it's a letter to the editor bashing Obama or saying how "smart" Palin is, you don't even have to read to the end to know the writer is from the South.

 

If only this were true, I would be able to die a happy woman. When you reply back to the post I made to you a few months ago in another thread about the South, I'll reply to this one. Be sure to use that superb California education that you keep telling us about if you decide to reply to me. :roll:

 

I like you two so I'm going to make this as simple as I possibly can. Please look at the following statements and see if you both are able to make the connection between all of them.

All black men date fat, ugly white women.

All black men have at least a 10 inch dick.

All black men are good for is sex.

All Southerners are racist.

All Southerners are stupid.

All Southerners are rednecks with no education.


I hope that you get the point that I'm making. Eighteen years of interracial dating in KY and TN and I have never had a problem. I'm not saying that it doesn't happen or exist. Do you think that I'm the exception to the rule? :smt102

 

We love you GG! But admit there are smart people trapped in dumb places sometimes

 

You know that I love you too! I will agree that sometimes people do get trapped in places that aren't the best. For the record though, I could work anywhere. I have the education and experience to make it in any city of my choosing. I'm here by choice not circumstance. If I ever have the misfortune to experience consistent backlash for my dating choices, I will be on the first plane out. So far, so good though. I just hate sweeping generalizations about a group of people and that is the only point that I'm trying to make.

 

Boston is a north eastern city and has been racist as hell.
DC not a southern city but you do not see that much IR going on.
Chicago- a midwest city that has lots of fantastic black culture and even prides itself for providing the 1st blk president, still has some parts being segregated and you notice some racist shit.
Southern Wisconsin (a blue state) like Racine and some parts of Milwaukee prides itself for lots of IR couples (BM+WW) but still you hear and find racist BS all the time. But when I was down in Memphis- I've seen lots of IR couples and ppl told me they try to live in harmony.
I know the south has it's ugly history but these days you can't really label the south as racist and the north as accepting. Racist ppl live every where in America even in Tinsel town and Los Angeles.
Folks, the south begins at Canadian border. Nuff said.

 

Of course racism isn't contained to one location.


When I talk about the South, in a sense I'm joking, as well as being sincere.

 

LOL @ the southern folk getting all defensive

 

Are you laughing at me? :smt108

 

:smt017

 

don't read too much into it. i'm just messin around.

:smt058

 

Aww, I like kissing and making up. :smt058