I am baffled by the racism of the pre-1970s Deep South

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:You know what, OP. People concentrate on the South, but racism is and was everywhere in the US. Check out the book Sundown Towns -- which is the history of towns in the United States in which African Americans were lynched or refused admission after sundown. NINETY PERCENT of them were in the north. Indiana, Illinois, Ohio. Yup. People like to believe that racism was a southern phenomenon, but most Southern towns were integrated.

I agree that racism was and is everywhere, although I think the chances for enormous mobs converging to beat just a few dozen individuals while law enforcement looked away are greatly reduced from what they were. However, Southern towns were "integrated"? I politely disagree. Moreover, southern Illinois and Indiana are more culturally similar to the South.

Southern towns had black and white residents. They may not have mixed socially, they may not have eaten in the same restaurants, but both races lives in the town. As opposed to the north, which posted signs that said "N---, the sun better not set on you in this town." And I'm not talking about Southern Illinois and Southern Indiana. Try Michigan, Wisconsin, Northern Illinois, Ohio, Connecticut, California.

Yeah, but you said integrated. They had those awful signs in the South, too. Where is the ninety percent stat from?

Actually, no. Southern towns did not, for the most part, have "sundown signs" because blacks lived within the towns' limits and were employed there as well. Texas probably the only exception. That is one of the great myths of southern racism vs. northern "tolerance." It is mindblowing to discover that most sundown signs were actually IN THE NORTH.

See the book and the website linked above.

[Anonymous]

Or on this forum about "illegal" nannies.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Can't the same school of thought be applied to Nazi's?

Yes. And Rwanda, Bosnia and parts of Africa where there is ethnic cleansing.

[Anonymous]

I grew up in northern NJ in an affluent suburb. There were many people (parents & students) in/around my high school who were openly racist, used the N word (including shouting it at a player on an opposing basketball team), hated Jews, etc.

No lynchings, but just as much in the way of ugly beliefs.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:You know what, OP. People concentrate on the South, but racism is and was everywhere in the US. Check out the book Sundown Towns -- which is the history of towns in the United States in which African Americans were lynched or refused admission after sundown. NINETY PERCENT of them were in the north. Indiana, Illinois, Ohio. Yup. People like to believe that racism was a southern phenomenon, but most Southern towns were integrated.

Of course, and yet...the Great Migration that took place was from the Deep South to the North. So the existence of outlier cases, while interesting, doesn't change the fact that blacks moved north because of a universal, totalitarian racist legal framework that existed in the South that had no counterpart in the North.

Don't stop there. Afterwards, they unfortunately found themselves not in a "promised land" of racial equality but in a Northern universal, totalitarian racist place with nowhere left to go. Lose the wool from your eyes.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Harlem

Educate yourself. Seriously.

Oh yes, Harlem is a great example of perfect integration!

You made my point for me -- blacks left the south and moved to even more segregated locations in the North.