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4/25/2008 9:37:31 AM

bump

9/18/2009 2:55:08 PM

I spent two years in little Washington and Bath here in NC. Boy, was I glad to get the fuck out of there and back to more cultural diversity and less "twang"...

And I'm a honkey.

but I did not fit in with that brand of cracker. Lots of small minds...

9/18/2009 3:21:57 PM

I made a mental note to revisit this thread a year later. Looks like I was a bit off

Anyway, I wanted to kind of compare notes... In a way to assess what I was thinking a year ago, and compare that to what I think now based on the living experience... so here goes:


I could not have anticipated the cultural dynamics of this area. It's unlike anything that I've ever seen, read of, or been told about.
While it is true that :
1. There are very few minorities in this area
2. There are very few minorities that hold professional jobs
3. This area looks like it has the basis of a small community that has expanded, but is still small and confined in beliefs, etc...

I still don't see blatant racism that I originally guessed might be a possibility. Don't get me wrong, I see get the occasional look from people as if to say "Oh man! Look at that! It's a black guy... I read about them once". But the people are relatively nice, and/or open. I still watch my back when I need to go to really REALLY small and isolated areas. For the most part, my neighbors are pretty happy as long as I keep my grass cut, haha. There's even a black guy that lives across the street from me. He has a daughter, and she has a pretty nice donk... but I'm pretty sure she's still in high school, so I pretty much turned on that internal "I'm going to ignore your existence... cause I'm too pretty to go to jail".

I've even seen quite a few interracial relationships here, going both ways... Black woman - white man. White woman - black man (*).

I have noticed that a lot of people have been in this area for a very long time, as in, they have family roots here and take pride in that. There are a lot of Italian families and neighborhoods here, as are there Catholics. (**)

Overall, it's not too bad I guess. People stay out of my business, which I like. Also, many of the people that live in this area are transplants like myself. Just up here to work... They're from much bigger cities like myself, so I think they have a pretty open mindset.



(*) I don't really know the cause of this. I don't know if it's the black woman that sees that there is a very limited selection of black men in this area... so they go white. Or if they just like white guys... or vice versa.
I don't know if it's s status thing.
I don't know if the black women in this area are FROM here, and there are different social norms.
I really think that it is this: (***) Because of this, everyone is thrown into the same category, and race is completely ignored.
The funniest thing is when I see white women here dating black men (who are usually muslim). The white women then start dressing like muslim women are supposed to dress... Scarfs covering their head and mouth, long dresses, sunglasses, etc...

(**) There's an entire neighborhood right down the street from me called Little Italy. A bunch of italian kitchens, parks, etc... It's fucking crazy. I'm talking people that STILL don't speak english. It's really weird... like a time warp to the past when immigrants were still coming over en mass. There are others that tell me that they have never left this area. It's very isolated. I think that a lot of culture just hasn't made it's way up here... which blows my mind. My only explanation of this is... SNOW IS COLD, AND IT KEEPS PEOPLE AWAY.

(***) There is no middle ground here. You're either in the dirt poor category, or in the upper middle class and/or rich category. No one else. There are mechanics working at jiffy lube. There are part time workers at CVS. Then there are engineers, doctors, lawyers, etc.

9/18/2009 3:23:35 PM

interesting. i had a similar experience when i lived in erie, pa. especially in regards to the working class vs middle/upper class.

less of an emphasis on race in my experience. for me it was more about "you're 21 and you think you can run the university bookstore?" even at a university, older adults routinely questioned my ability to be a professional. i only had a few that were downright rude about it, but most everyone over 35 were hesitant the first time they worked with me

you mentioned little italy, erie had a lot of cultural neighborhoods too. lots of italian and polish neighborhoods

[Edited on September 18, 2009 at 4:10 PM. Reason : .]

9/18/2009 4:09:26 PM