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Arizona, New Mexico, Texas, Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama, Georgia, Florida, North and South Carolina, Tennessee, Virginia - fear these places.
by zacinbusiness 13y ago
Arizona, New Mexico, Texas, Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama, Georgia, Florida, North and South Carolina, Tennessee, Virginia - fear these places.
- ItendToDisagree 13y agoAny state south of the Mason-Dixon line is portrayed as a cartoonish land of religious fanatics, racism, and overreaction. In truth it is not exactly so, but I personally wouldn't want to live in any of those places. I probably wouldn't be happy living in the mid-west either though. It generally holds true that these sorts of things can happen in any state now. If you 'threaten' to shoot up a school (no matter how jokingly) you're likely to get reamed for it. Context no longer matters... There is a zero tolerance policy on certain words and ideas now it appears.
- zacinbusiness 13y agoI've lived in the south my whole life. It's a hell hole of backwards racism, fear. I stay here for my family and my wife's job. But it's hard.
- nervousvarun 13y agoLived in the south my entire life (currently in Nola). There's definitely an I don't know...afterglow effect? with this stereotype at play in the south today. It certainly used to be highly isolated culture with it's own weird problems ("fanatics, racism, and overreaction"). These days though thanks to television, the internet, decades of immigration etc. it's pretty much the rest of the US...with better weather.
- jff 13y agoDon't tell people that, or the Californians will move in and ruin it.
- fnordfnordfnord 13y agoThe weather isn't that nice.
- spacehome 13y agoI was hoping to live in some of these places in the future. Would you mind clarifying why the states on this list are especially bad rather than others?
- zacinbusiness 13y agoMost of it comes down to the fact that you have extremely geographically isolated people. Communities in the mountains of the Carolina's for instance may not even have a bank or a post office. These people are extremely paranoid and fearful of change, and thus they elect politicians that share their views and that, worse, feed into them with religious and political rhetoric about how the bad man with dark skin is going to take away all the things they care for most.
- jessaustin 13y agoBut the Western USA is much more geographically isolated. Slavery broke the entire nation, and while much of the rest of the nation has recovered, in important ways the South is still broken.
- throwaway344 13y agoNot a criticism but how much time have you spent in the South?
- zacinbusiness 13y agoMy entire life. I've met some of the most viciously racist people that exist. And not just poor and uneducated people. Wealthy, educated people as well. There is an institutionalized racism that permeates most of the south. Not all southerners are that way. Some of us try to lift the south up into the 21st century. But it's a hard fight. And the resistance to change is strong.
- throwaway344 13y agoThanks.
- marvin 13y agoA Norwegian tourist was sentenced to seven years in prison in Arizona for accidentally running over some guy's foot with his car. The incident happened after he took a wrong turn onto a one-way street and was about to turn around, when he was crowded by a group of people at a nearby music festival, apparently angry with his traffic violation. One of them punched him in the face through the car window, upon which he sped off (accidentally running over a foot in the process). The charge was assault with a lethal weapon (the car), the case went to trial and he was convicted. It's a circus. [Edit: Turns out the guy was not a tourist. Here is the story, written right before the sentencing: http://www.democraticunderground.com/1002601538 http://www.democraticunderground.com/1002601538]
- deleted 13y ago[deleted]
- jessaustin 13y agoI wouldn't put New Mexico in that company, and much of Virginia isn't too bad, but yeah. I think it's important to remember a fact of humanity: you're generally safer on familiar ground, around people who are similar to yourself. It can be very interesting, exciting, and rewarding to be "the foreigner", but at the same time you should never forget when you're in that position. Of course one of the horrible things about Texas is it does this sort of thing to actual Texans, in addition to other people. It's really an indictment of the people of the state: could you form a decent jury, judiciary, legislature, or police force if it had to be made up of Texans?
- gyepi 13y agoI think it's important to remember a fact of humanity: you're generally safer on familiar ground, around people who are similar to yourself. It can be very interesting, exciting, and rewarding to be "the foreigner", but at the same time you should never forget when you're in that position. This is generally true. However, the United States is a multi ethnic country. So the question is, does this statement apply to all ethnicities, everywhere? The fact is, for a large number of Americans, they are "the foreigner" exactly in that position most of the time.
- dctoedt 13y ago> It's really an indictment of the people of the state: could you form a decent jury, judiciary, legislature, or police force if it had to be made up of Texans? It wouldn't be hard to find prejudiced ignoramuses who would say the same about the people of any state (or religion, or ethnic group, or occupation).
- jessaustin 13y agoHarder than you might think, pard'ner. Only you can change you.
- Larrikin 13y agoI take offense to Virginia being in that list
- esw 13y agoI never thought of Virginia as being a part of the cultural conservative south until the ultrasound bill.
- Larrikin 13y agoI take offense to Virginia being in that list
- bitexploder 13y agoI have lived in Georgia all of my life. It is fine. Cases like these are outliers and can happen anywhere. Look at what happened in Illinois when someone recorded a cop with a helmet cam. These types of generalizations have no place on HN.
- zacinbusiness 13y agohttp://m.gastongazette.com/news/local/kkk-trying-to-recruit-new-members-in-area-1.139784 http://m.gastongazette.com/news/local/kkk-trying-to-recruit-...
- bitexploder 13y agoI have traveled a lot. I have met small minded bigots all over. I grew up on a moderate sized city in the deep south. There is still a very small population of bigots in almost any rural area. No need to down play it, this is a very small amount of the population. It is still a problem, to some extent: (http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2428103/Majority-Americas-racists-live-areas-slavery-common-says-new-study.html http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2428103/Majority-Ame...). A few more generations and people won't even have living memories of Jim Crow. It takes time to heal wounds like this and that is very certainly the trend (improvement).
- batbomb 13y agoOh fuck off, you obviously haven't been to half of these states, especially considering you dumped New Mexico into a list with Mississippi. How that would ever make sense is beyond me. What would you even be fearing? Burritos and Barbeque?
- zacinbusiness 13y agoI wouldn't fear anything. But I'm white. If I were not white? I'd fear the corrupt cops, the corrupt legal system, and the corrupt banking system to name a few.
- arbuge 13y agoBanking system? How is the banking system in those states different than the one in the others?
- zacinbusiness 13y agoBecause the man at the desk that's in charge of giving personal and small business loans is more likely to be a daddy-tells-me-how-to-think redneck.
- umanwizard 13y agoHave you ever been to the Southwest? (California counts for half credit at most.)
- code_duck 13y agoI'm from New Mexico, and it's a grand place. However he might be thinking of the backwards and corrupt policing of the state. For instance, http://www.latimes.com/nation/nationnow/la-na-nn-new-mexico-police-search-20140116,0,186240.story http://www.latimes.com/nation/nationnow/la-na-nn-new-mexico-... http://www.elpasotimes.com/latestnews/ci_25024804/new-lawsuit-alleges-illegal-body-cavity-search-new http://www.elpasotimes.com/latestnews/ci_25024804/new-lawsui...
- MrZongle2 13y agoArizona, New Mexico, Texas, Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama, Georgia, Florida, North and South Carolina, Tennessee, Virginia - fear these places. Well, if you're going to paint with such a broad brush, go ahead and list the other 38. I hear there are bad people in San Francisco, Madison, Boise, Olympia, Reading and Topeka too. Then you should start listing Canadian provinces, because surely they've got some bad apples. And don't forget Mexico, since they've had issues with murderous drug cartels. At that point you should also mention the bloodthirsty populations of Central America as well as the black-hearted people of Iceland. Really, I think only the Moon is reasonably safe but the place has gone downhill since 1969.
- sixothree 13y agoI grew up in Louisiana. The police here are just plain awful. But as young adults we were always warned about dealing with and avoiding dealing with police in Mississippi. Police in the deep south are not the same as police in other places.
- bglazer 13y agothat's just incredibly asinine. Vanderbilt Duke UNC Rice Georgia Tech Virginia Tech University of Virginia That's a partial list. PLACES TO BE FEARED! It's legitimately damaging to the American South to perpetuate stereotypes like this. It makes smart people want to leave, or never go in the first place. I've lived in Memphis Tennessee for my entire life and I can guarantee you that it would be a better place if people didn't spew closed minded horse-shit like this.
- einhverfr 13y agoI think there are places to be feared everywhere. The wrong neighborhoods in Seattle may not be so safe. Ditto with Houston, LA, Detroit, NOLA, etc. The secret is simple: ask locals. That's the best way to be safe wherever you travel.
- zacinbusiness 13y agoAnd add Kansas to the list: http://www.slate.com/blogs/outward/2014/02/13/kansas_anti_gay_segregation_bill_is_an_abomination.html http://www.slate.com/blogs/outward/2014/02/13/kansas_anti_ga...