Former Slavery Strongholds Harbor Majority Of Nation's Racists, Study Shows

[coldmountain]

Former Slavery Strongholds Harbor Majority Of Nation's Racists, Study Shows

150 years has done little to shift anti-black attitudes in the some parts of the country, new analysis of census data and opinion polls shows.

In what is believed to be the first report to quantitatively demonstrate the lasting effects of slavery on contemporary political attitudes in the American South, a team of political scientists from the University of Rochester examined party affiliations and views on race-related policies such as affirmative action of more than 39,000 southern whites.

What they found: That a "slavery effect" persists among white Southerners who currently live in the Cotton Belt where slavery and the plantation economy thrived from the late 18th century into the 20th century. Residents of those counties are much more likely today to express more negative attitudes toward blacks than their fellow Southerners who live in nearby areas that had few slaves; are more likely to identify as Republican; and are more likely to express opposition to policies like affirmative action, the study authors concluded.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/09/20/slavery-strongholds-harbor-nations-racists-infographic_n_3962959.html

[gopiscrap]

1. what a surprise

[defacto7]

2. Gasp!

[raging moderate]

3. Maybe this will, someday, turn into Abe Lincoln's revenge.

Imagine their ancestors' horror at having Republican descendants. Especially if the moderate Republicans regain the upper edge. Well, I can dream, can't I?

[Bluenorthwest]

29. Moderate Republicans, Unicorns, whatever.

As if there was any such creature!

[Skittles]

4. imagine that

[underthematrix]

5. The racism problem may be getting an old fashioned Darwinian fix.

Caucasians have the lowest reproductive rate in the US and Europe and represent the largest aging population in the US. Persistent racism may be unique to groups who lack melanin. I don't think white racism has much to do with hating black people. And I say this as a black person. I think it has more to do with the obvious. Blacks can reproduce offspring with different degrees of melanin, in contrast to whites who can only reproduce offspring without melanin. Gingrich has spoken about the genocide or attempted obliteration of white people. I think what passes as white racism is actually fear of annihilation. If you listen carefully to Republicans, you can hear how they are using this fear of annihilation to foment hatred and fear of President Obama, his policies, our government, etc. I think the Republicans are the most dangerous home grown terrorists we have ever had in the US.

[diane in sf]

13. I agree with the fear of annhilation, it's conservative culture and attitudes that are dying out.

The white people who are its main proponents are getting old and watching it die off. This is what freaks them out so badly, they are furious and terrified--and this is why they are so hateful and murderous. This is also why they don't believe in evolution--they haven't been able to evolve. The white race isn't dying out, its conservative members are.

[coldmountain]

18. Look up "folk Darwinism"

[Fumesucker]

22. Are you saying that Obama is not the offspring of his mother?

Because I don't see any other way to read your statement about blacks, whites and offspring.

[Bluenorthwest]

30. White people have melanin, the only humans who do not have albinism, they are albinos

and albinism is most frequent among Africans and people of African descent. If your post was not so riddled with ignorance it would be offensively racist. As it is, it is a cry for remedial reading on the subject.

[giftedgirl77]

6. Well thank you CPT Obvious....

I wonder what major undertaking this conclusion was met with. You can drive along the back roads or try & hold a conversation with some of these yokels & it will scare the crap out of a sane person.

[Lint Head]

7. I was born in South Carolina. They needed a study? Give me a break.

http://www.democraticunderground.com/?com=view_post&forum=1002&pid=881923

I also worked in a cotton mill during my teen years. Hence my ID.

[NBachers]

9. I always wondered what that was about. Thanks for clearing it up.

[Lint Head]

11. Lint head was a put down back then. The north side rich folks put down the textile mill

folks by calling then that name. I wear it proudly.

[AAO]

16. I'd rather be a lint head than a fuck head.

[Lint Head]

17. LOL!

[raging moderate]

8. I hope my descendants are darker than me.

In fact, I suggested to both my children, as long as they're running out to get more chromosomes for the genome, be sure to pick up at least a little melanin for us in this generation. I have remote Native American ancestors both sides (Algonquin and Mohawk). Because of scandinavian ancestry, you would never guess it. Should I feel sad that my descendants won't look like me? No, I rejoice in the physical advantages they will enjoy, like not burning to a crisp after only ten minutes of summer sunshine (my childhood was miserable because of this melanin deficiency). I look nothing like my Algonquin and Mohawk ancestors, but I feel them inside me every day, and I never forget them. I donate money to Native American organizations, and I look for opportunities to speak up for them. Last week, once again, in Sunday School, I educated a nine-year-old boy with a Mohawk haircut on the true meaning of that haircut, and I challenged him to live up to the principles of honor, courage, and self-discipline which my Mohawk ancestors required of young men who wore that haircut. Whatever good qualities my family has had will survive in some form. Change is Life.

[raging moderate]

10. Life is Change.

You have to change in order to grow. And you have to grow in order to live.

Furthermore, anybody who came to this continent expecting to interact only with Caucasian people had rocks in their heads!

[blackspade]

12. This former southerner could have told you that.

[xfundy]

14. It comes down to wanting to be better than someone.

The moneyed elites had slaves, while the rest of the (white) southerners labored and were treated definitely better than the slaves. But, human nature leads ppl to want to find someone they're "better than," and "at least I ain't a N*****r" has long been a comfort zone for rednecks and other victims of the robber barons from the 30s-today.

My ancestors were caught up in this BS, and laid down for the corporations, denouncing unions, watching others suffer while they got little more but at least ate. Cowards, unwilling to see reality.

Of course it's stupid, but they keep buying into it. Thanks, Fox noise!

[LeftofObama]

27. ^^This!^^

My "family" is from the south (Appalachia) and I've heard it time and time again, "At least I ain't a n****r." Even in some of the northern areas where white southerners have transplanted themselves that attitude is prevalent.

[uponit7771]

62. +1

[Spitfire of ATJ]

15. They also believe they can outrun the law and their women all look like Daisy Duke.

[blkmusclmachine]

19. But I thought there was no red America/blue America...

[Nanjing to Seoul]

20. shocked. shocked i tell you.

[grahamhgreen]

21. I do declare the south is still stuck in the '60's

The 1860's

[busterbrown]

23. Whats Huge is the fact that with the Election of Obama these racists in the south......

have lost their last card.. The White Privilege Card... Thats huge. And they are fucking pissed off about that,,,

[bearssoapbox]

24. Well...

It has been only 150+ years.

[dsc]

37. the 1950 map is highly misleading

Boston, Cleveland, Chicago, Milwaukee, and Pittsburg were some of the most segregated cities in terms of housing and school that one could find. To this day both Cleveland and Chicago have vastly more segregated schools than those I have worked in, in NC. They may have hand laws on the books banning segregation, but they sure weren't close to being effective laws. When my dad got his first teaching job in 1964, he worked in Little Washington PA, as a speech therapist meaning he went to several schools. He worked in all the elementary schools which were either all white or all black. The all black school had no principal (the 5th/6th grade teacher was the principal), one teacher for every two grades, and never had supplies. The all white schools had a principal, one teacher per grade, and enough supplies that my dad could take some for the all black school.

[hunter]

39. Yep. I grew up in a "white" community in California.

Not segregated by law, but outside the law.

Real estate agents wouldn't show non-white people houses or apartments except in the "bad" neighborhoods, loan officers wouldn't treat them fairly, shopping they'd be ignored or suspected of shoplifting, and DWBs were a favorite sport of the local police.

There are still plenty of communities in California that are very unwelcoming to people who are not white.

[noiretextatique]

40. segregation is alive and well in california

I remember seeing the white people flee from Carson after black families, like mine, started fleeing from Compton.

[Ecumenist]

54. OMG Noirtextatique, I'm from Compton...lived on South Pannes between Myrrh, Alondra, Paramount and

Atlantic. Started Elementary at Colin P Kelly and went to a private school in Lakewood and then Downey. Was VERY close to Carson. Left @ 13 in 1977 when it started to get BAD. My Neighbourhood was quite nice NOT the ghetto people seem to associate Compton with nowadays. Familiar with this area? closer to Carson and Long Beach than LA proper.

[noiretextatique]

68. I know that area

I lived @ Central and Avalon on Albertson Street. I went to Tibby and Vanguard. We moved to Carson @ 1972 when all hell was breaking lose with gangs and drugs. Compton was a really great place to grow up in the 60...nothing like what it became. A lot of good people came from Compton.

[Ecumenist]

69. Yes, Indeed. I lived there from '70 to'77 and I don't recognise the things that are

said happens in Compton. We had "gang members" BUT they didn't riddle the neighbourhood with bullets in drive-bys. It's changed SO MUCH and it saddens me that people won't be able to see the Compton that we knew. Good to chat with you.

[noiretextatique]

73. model city: compton

I have to refresh my research, but back and on the early sixties through mid-seventies. Compton was inhabited by aerospace and government employees like my parents. the introduction of drugs changed everything. I am proud to be from Compton, still. The teachers at Tibby instilled a love of learning and discipline and duty in me that enabled me to compete in the Ivy league. I am forever grateful to those (mostly) black women for mentoring me.

[LongTomH]

51. Oklahoma was a territory in 1859. It wasn't admitted to the union as a state until 1907.

It would have been a "territory open to slavery" before the civil war.

[ErikJ]

25. Former Slavery Stronghold= America

The US has 250 years of institutional slavery in our founding colonies and nation. One of the only nations that tips its slave food servers because we pay them only $2 an hour is only one example. Our employer based health care...... just like the slave masters did for their slaves. The right to bear arms in our constitution etc etc.

[Bluenorthwest]

32. Not sure where you live but here in Oregon food servers are paid at least the minimum wage

currently 8.90 and hour, in addition to any tips they get. So the 'we' that pays $2 an hour is actually not we, it is you. Where DO you live?

[LuvNewcastle]

35. When I waited tables here in Mississippi, I made $2.13 an hour.

Some places pay a little more, but practically no waiters make minimum wage here. The government allows restaurants to pay less in wages because tips are supposed to make up the difference so that a server will make at least min. wage. Some states have their own min. wages that are higher than the national min. wage, and some states also have other regulations about how much to pay waiters. A lot of states just pay the min. wage required by the feds, however, which might be a little higher than $2.13 now, but not by much.

[Hulk]

26. Surprise, surprise.

Is this really news? I do have to tell you though; my experience has been that racism works both ways in the South I visited. Many blacks are just as racist and angry as the whites down there. I'd say it's a mess, and it will be a mess for generations to come. I can't blame them. I'm just saying.

[CreekDog]

33. Black people in those former slave strongholds are just as angry as whites?

well, imagine that.

i guess it's all equal then.

i wonder what could have made both groups equally mad?

thank you for your post saying both sides are equal and both are just as crazy for being mad and racist.

must be hard for you to tell whom is the victim here.

[noiretextatique]

41. please don't make this very false, dishonest equivalency

Black people didn't kidnap, enslave, dehumanize and pass laws to declare white people 3/5ths of a person. It is not s stretch to understand why some black might hate white people. What is more amazing is that so many black people don't hate white people.

[Hulk]

43. You can put reasons to it if you like...

I simply stated a fact. The fact is, there are many racist blacks as well as whites in America. There is no doubt the blacks have reason for their hatred and racism. They continue to suffer today from starting a half mile behind the whites, and they have to struggle with the racism in our police departments and job market. But the fact I stated holds true. It's not a "dishonest equivalency", it wasn't an equivalency at all, but rather a statement that it exists in the South today...and very apparent.

[noiretextatique]

67. when a racist black person

Is appointed to the supreme court, or wins a national election or has the power of the racists in the GOP...get back to me. When enough racist black people have the power to gerrymander in order to remain in power...let me know. When there is a black equivalent of the tea party...please inform me. Per usual on this subject, some prefer to concentrate on individual vs. structural racism, for obvious reasons.

[Hulk]

70. You totally lost me.

End of conversation. Not sure where you are trying to go with this, or why you are wanting to take my statement and make it into something it wasn't or has no intent of being. I won't bother getting back to you, because I see no need. My statement stands. Nuff said. Post at will. I think you have totally missed the point I was making. Have a good day.

[noiretextatique]

72. i lost you?

You do not comprehend the difference between institutional vs. individual racism?! That is not just sad.. it is absurd. Good riddance!

[whopis01]

59. You find it amazing that "black people" don't hate whites?

Well for this "black person", it isn't that hard to figure out people should not be judged by the sins of the ancestors but rather by their own actions.

Or another way to put it would be that this "black person", like many others, just is not as stupid as you might think.

[noiretextatique]

66. hell yes i find it amazing

My great grandparents were run off their farm by a white mob. My father and mother grew up in the segregated south. I have experienced racial discrimination also. So yes, I know reconciling the hateful acts of individuals in an apartheid-like system must have been difficult for the people who lived through it. And the following generations. I am part of the FIRST generation of black people to have the full right s of citizenship in this country, so please do not attempt to tell me how it was all in the distant past. As I type, the GOP is busy with disenfranchisement schemes, with the blessings of the highest court in the country. I think we are a remarkable people because we know first hand the destructive potential of racial hatred.

[carolinayellowdog]

28. this is about counties within the South; whites who are minorities locally are the worst racists

I grew up in and have largely lived in communities with 25-50% black populations. But in the course of travel and research I have found that the siege mentality of whites in places where they are outnumbered by blacks is a whole different level of racial hostility than elsewhere. Shocking remarks from white distant relatives in 70% black counties brought this home to me as a genealogist.

DU seems to be taking the study as being about a shared trait of the South as a whole (presumably as contrasted with other parts of the country.) It's clearly about the differences between places in the South based on racial histories. But regardless of racial histories involving slavery, I think the basic pattern would hold true in counties up north. Whites who are minorities in their local communities in places like Cleveland, Milwaukee, Detroit-- would they be any less negative towards the black majority surrounding them than people in Alabama with similar local demographics? Doubtful since residential racial segregation is most extreme in the Great Lakes states. The study merits replication nationwide.

[LuvNewcastle]

36. Thanks for clarifying that. The white people in the counties here in MS where the black

population is 50% or more tend to be a whole different level of racist. The fear they have that the blacks will start a race war one day and come after them is much the same as the fear plantation owners had in slavery times. That's why they were paranoid about blacks owning weapons and why they were always concerned about groups congregating. They always kept tabs on where slaves were going, too.

Whites in those areas favor harsh punishments for blacks when they commit crimes in order to make examples of them to other blacks. They're saying, "this will happen to you, too, if you step out of line." It's all about asserting power. They think that if they ever let up, they'll have anarchy, and they will be dealt with as harshly as they've dealt with the blacks for all these years. Everybody hates what they fear.

[carolinayellowdog]

46. my roots are in eastern NC counties with black majorities-- and Unionist histories

The cousins I met whose outright racist language shocked me were largely descendants of non slaveholding Unionists. So their being rightwingers now is ironically sad in historical terms, a betrayal of our common ancestors. Their little community is a white enclave in a 70% black county, a town of about 150, all white. It's as if they fear being engulfed, not by race war but demographics, and have a clannish quality not found in rural counties with white majorities. Even the oldest country cousins who had left that area and moved to Raleigh or Norfolk or wherever had long ago lost that "white race under siege" mentality. But even the younger ones who still lived there seemed to have it.

[NuclearDem]

31. Next on eyewitness news, reports that Pope Francis...is Catholic? What we've learned may shock you.

[FarCenter]

34. Probably reflects migration patterns more than anything else

Old cotton growing counties in the south lost lots of population to emigration. They have also not been counties with immigration from the north and growing populations. So you'd expect old rural counties in North Carolina to be more racist than Charlotte metro or Raleigh Durham Chapel Hill and Cary.

The statement that the majority of racists are in those areas seems suspect. The percentage of racists may be lower in other areas, but I'd bet that there are as many racists in Dallas Fort Worth metro (not a cotton growing plantation area) as in Houston (cotton and sugar cane plantation area).

[Jesus Malverde]

38. Can we combine this with the South is violent thread from yesterday

Last edited Sat Sep 21, 2013, 05:44 PM - Edit history (1)

then we can talk about violent racists...

Studies like this are so full of shit.

As if the northern states like idaho or north dakota are bastions of diversity and anti-racism.

Lets look at south dakota

According to the 2010 Census, the racial composition of the population was:
84.7% White,
8.5% American Indian and Alaska Native
1.2% Black or African American
0.9% Asian American
0.1% from some other race
1.8% of two or more races

Seeing as they hardly have minorities, maybe they are the true racists. Knowing how they treat their native population puts it into perspective. If they weren't racists, they would have opened up their cities and farms to our african american brothers and sisters and there population numbers would approach those of other states.

Who is more racist, the southerner with african american neighbors or the northerner with no african american neighbors?

[Jesus Malverde]

50. awesome story on your link

Five days after the brick was thrown at the Schnitzer home, the Gazette published a full-page drawing of a menorah, along with a general invitation to put it up. By the end of the week at least six thousand homes (some accounts estimate up to ten thousand) were decorated with menorahs.

My arguing about northern racists was to point out how silly the premises for these studies are.

Top ten most segregated cities none are in the south....

1 Milwaukee
2 New York
3 Chicago
4 Detroit
5 Cleveland
6 Buffalo
7 St Louis
8 Cincinnati
9 Philadelphia
10 Los Angeles

[coldmountain]

60. 9 out 10 of the states those cities were in voted for Obama

[LiberalLoner]

64. I see! I think there is a problem with racism all over the nation. I keep

Hoping things will get better. Sometimes I feel things might be getting better and then I see how they treat President Obama and the comments people leave on the Internet and I think, maybe it's not getting better, maybe it's getting worse. I don't understand how people can be so hateful.

[coldmountain]

45. Quit defending the South, it's like a drunk saying others drink too

The American South is holding the whole damn world back. Yes there's racists everywhere but the North and the West coast voted for Obama and the South has declared war on Obama.

[carolinayellowdog]

48. thanks from Virginia

nothing we did in 2008 or 2012 exempted us from hate speech here, neither will good news in 2013. I gave you enough credit for good faith to participate in this thread in good faith myself. Only to see that everything here is always and forever about US vs THEM and attacking and humiliating THEM. And nothing any Virginia Democrat or liberal can do can ever make us one of US in your eyes. We, all eight million of us, are THEM.

Twice-for-Obama, 6th-highest-per-capita-income, 7th-most-educated Virginia will never be a place one can admit living and liking, without being subjected to remarks like yours. Instead of being able to celebrate our role in putting Obama over the top twice, we're subjected to more intense hate speech now than when being blamed for Kerry's loss.

DAMN but this is a long long nightmare for Southern DUers, the "they're all alike, get rid of all of them" stereotyping and scapegoating.

[coldmountain]

53. Most of Virginia really isn't part of the "south" anymore because of immigration

Or the city of Atlanta, Charlotte, Asheville but in total it's still trying to be the Confederacy

[carolinayellowdog]

56. major immigration source: black northerners whose parents or grandparents were born in the South

Something largely invisible but hugely important to Democratic demographics-- blacks migrating from NY, IL, MI, OH, CA to the South, especially GA, FL, NC, VA. Georgia will flip D in presidential elections because of this, along with Hispanic immigration. It's not that whites who migrate to the South are all that positive an influence. Plenty of more conservative whites from up North come here because they like the shitty aspects of the South (and the warm weather.) Jim and Tammy were from Minnesota but Heritage USA could only have happened in South Carolina.

[GeorgeGist]

58. Nope ...

Jim was from Michigan.

[cordelia]

49. Really? "the whole damn world"?

Oh, please do provide us some facts, and not another one of these half-assed "studies" you're so fond us using to churn up South bashing.

[coldmountain]

52. Without the South's being the Republican power base, Al Gore would have been president

[Art_from_Ark]

71. The South-bashing gets pretty tiresome after a while, doesn't it?

[cordelia]

47. This. And thank you.

[phylny]

55. I lived in Northwest Indiana for a time, and the racism there was incredible. n/t

[former9thward]

42. What a poor methodology for their "study".

They only look at the South and then conclude the majority of the country's racists are in the South. As if there are no racists in the North. I worked at a very integrated steel mill in Chicago for 14 years. I heard the 'n' word frequently at work. After work I went to bars that were white working class (bars in working class areas of Chicago almost were all white, all black, or all Hispanic). I heard the 'n' word every single day.

I moved to Birmingham, AL and was there a year. Again I went to bars after work. I never heard the 'n' used once in my time in AL. Now, am I going to draw grand conclusions from these anecdotal observations? No. But that methodology is just as good or better that what is presented in this 'study'.

[etherealtruth]

57. Racism is alive and well throughout the entire country

[coldmountain]

61. Lee Atwater called it the "Southern Strategy" for a good reason and it certainly worked

Exclusive: Lee Atwater’s Infamous 1981 Interview on the Southern Strategy
The forty-two-minute recording, acquired by James Carter IV, confirms Atwater’s incendiary remarks and places them in context.

Rick Perlstein November 13, 2012

It has become, for liberals and leftists enraged by the way Republicans never suffer the consequences for turning electoral politics into a cesspool, a kind of smoking gun. The late, legendarily brutal campaign consultant Lee Atwater explains how Republicans can win the vote of racists without sounding racist themselves:

http://www.thenation.com/article/170841/exclusive-lee-atwaters-infamous-1981-interview-southern-strategy#axzz2fajyPV00

[hughee99]

63. South Boston was a former slavery stronghold? n/t

[Johnny Ready]

65. Racism is a technique to divide the voters.

A simple question - Was "racism" ever a news worthy topic before George Zimmerman shot Trayvon Martin?

Is Drake selling millions of c/d's because the country is SO "racist"?

I say bullshit. "Racism" is a technique to divide the voters. Mainly by age.