In my experience, the South has dealt with its racial issues a lot more than the North. Not to say that there aren't pockets of racism, but there's been a lot more progress. It's no coincidence that the two most affluent African-American counties in the country are in Metro DC and Metro Atlanta.

3rd highest % population of gays versus 3rd largest population is understandable mistake, IMO, when you're just looking quickly at a chart. Regardless, it has one of the most active GLBT communities in the country.

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Hope is the new black.

I dunno, I'd have a tough time making the mistake of looking at a chart, regardless of what that chart said, and concluding that a state which has a smaller population has a gay population that is so out of proportion it actually dwarfs NYC. Seems like a tough one to reconcile in one's mind. I prefer to chalk it up to idiocy, because this is Joxur who immediately jumps to ad hominem when someone proves him wrong.



I know some people who have an underlying assumption that, in order to transcend or overcome racism you have to live through a pocket of ill-tempered racists. I have a tough time buying it, and I've personally spent a lot of time in the south(having personally visited Georgia, Mississippi, Alabama, Louisiana, Tennessee, Virginia, and I spent time living with relatives in Kentucky). I saw a good load of racism in almost all of those locations, especially Mississippi and Alabama. When I go north, I see little to none. I think there's an exception in certain inner-city ghettos and certain suburbs of every city, but it's more the exception than the norm.

I say it as someone who has spent a lot of time traveling(both in the states and abroad), both because my parents took me everywhere when I was young, and because work has called for it on several occasions.

Oh, and I'm surprised no one has pointed it out... but cmon Sky, SLC Utah isn't exactly a haven among the places we're talking about here =p

Hey now! Sky can finally buy beer without a special license!

Just curious, what proof was presented that Atlanta is an intolerent shit hole?

Who said anyone needed proof on the internet?

I've not spent a great deal of time in the "North," but if their issues are worse than the South, holy fuck.

I'm a West Coast guy, and I couldn't believe some of the shit I would hear on a regular basis in Georgia. People dropped the N word like they were earning a nickel each time they did it. The news was almost entirely about race. You could almost see a line drawn between where blacks and whites lived, just by the condition and size of the homes. Bars and restaurants were pretty much the same, too. Some were black, some where white. Very few seemed to cater to both.

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Most metro areas in the Northeast and Midwest are still very segregated. Most of the root issues around the Boston bussing policies in the 70s and 80s still exist. It isn't just that rich people live in X neighborhoods and poor people live in Y neighborhoods. Poor black people live in Roxbury and in parts of Dorchester. Poor Irish people live in Boston and in other parts of Dorchester. Poor Hispanic people live East Boston. Poor Asian people live in Allston-Brighton. Etc. Whereas well-off people don't really have the same differentiations. So it is a cross-section of both poverty and race/ethnicity.

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Hope is the new black.

If California is anything like Colorado, the racism against blacks gets replaced with racism against mexicans.

Jesus, is a guy who lives in salt lake city really throwing stones about diversity? I just got back from SLC, and I'm pretty sure I saw an ear tag on the one black guy that lives there. heh

Are you shitting me? LA has some of the worst racial tensions and incidents in this country's history. Every city with a large mixed population, whether black, white or latino, has issues, and the west coast is no exception. Where do you live exactly, Tyral?

It's the anecdotal evidence that makes me giggle the most.

Having lived in both, I'm not sure how you can say that. I hadn't seen so many bigots and racists in all my years up north that I see in a week down here.

Right now I'm in Arizona, not far from the Mexican border. I grew up in California, about half of it in the L.A. suburbs and the other half in the High Desert. I've also lived for a significant period of time in Central California (Monterey) and in Washington. And nowhere did I see the level or race issues that I saw in Georgia.

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Remember folks, the plural of anecdote is data!

Yea, but this kind of shit is pretty hard to quantify with data =/ Most you could do is look up how many crimes were committed on a racial basis, or hate crimes. That's not gonna tell you a whole lot, honestly, because a lot of racial bigotry is subtle these days.

For that reason it's hard to draw conclusions either way. All we can do is say what we've experienced.

I think if it had just been one state in the south that I had been to and it was an isolated incident, I'd just as soon chalk it up to coincidence.

I'll admit I haven't been to Boston, but have been to NYC and D.C., went fairly deep into the bad parts of town - and yes, there's some racial tension, but I don't see it as the same brand nor as prevalent as I see in the south. In the ghetto areas, people just form up these gangs around "who is the same as me", and that ends up being based on race or any other innumerable factors. In the south, from what I've seen, there's a genuine distaste(maybe not always hatred) for differing skin color alone.

I mean, they aren't exactly EXTREMELY welcoming to northerners, but I walk into a store and I feel a sense of hospitality - I see a black person walk in behind me, and I see the demeanor change a bit. It's little things like that that added up to a bigger picture, for me at least.

Admittedly I'm from Seattle, and I honestly feel this is one of the more accepting and welcoming cities around(even though we have our share of problems as a culture..). I understand that the west coast is different, and I'm sort of used to seeing that difference when I travel to the east coast and the south.

And yea, no doubt LA has its share of problems, but I think it's more akin to what I described about gangs that it is PURELY about race. Not to mention illegal immigration, which gets translated into a race problem when people take it to extremes down there.

I dunno, I think "visiting" and "living here for several years" are two seperate things.

I've lived in Georgia the vast majority of my life, and I have to say I haven't really seen racism rear its ugly head in anything but the remotest of backwater small towns. In the city of Atlanta itself, racism is almost nonexistant.

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World of Warcraft: Kallaystra, Gweila, Steakumn, Tarathia [ Feathermoon/Horde ]

Well, I lived in Kentucky for a good 6-8 months if that counts. I know it's not the same, but I felt like I got a good feel for the area especially after seeing the same things traveling around the region.

And I will say it's not the 60's, I'm not talking 50's or 60's racism here by any stretch of the imagination. But like I said, it's more subtle now and harder to notice(IMO).

In Augusta it was rampant.

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Augusta is a remote backwater.

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World of Warcraft: Kallaystra, Gweila, Steakumn, Tarathia [ Feathermoon/Horde ]

With 200k people and a larger metro area of 530k that's not really remote and/or backwater.

With the influence that it has from South Carolina, yes, it's a remote backwater.

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World of Warcraft: Kallaystra, Gweila, Steakumn, Tarathia [ Feathermoon/Horde ]

Don't be dumb. No one thinks of a metro area of half a million as "remote backwater."

Augusta, GA is also where The Masters is located.

Isn't kiddie porn and baby rape legal in SLC?

Uh, no? What the hell are you talking about?

age of consent in SC used to be 14, I'm not 100% sure what it is now.

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World of Warcraft: Kallaystra, Gweila, Steakumn, Tarathia [ Feathermoon/Horde ]

http://www.ageofconsent.com/southcarolina.htm

Laws are just a mess.

Yes, and slavery was legal in more than half the US. Women weren't allowed to vote anywhere at one time. In Rome, prisoners were killed by lions in spectator events. Children were kept as sex slaves. What's the point? Someone who doesn't live in South Carolina is inherantly better because of their old age of consent law? Didn't people regularly get married and have kids at 14 in the Middle Ages?

I'm trying to figure out what point people are trying to make here, that's all.

Doesn't Fribur's state have a high concentration of cross dressers?

We just gotta be free.

Well, I wasn't implying that it was a bad or good thing.
I was implying that the laws are impossible for anyone but a lawyer to understand.

Update on the Update:

Got an offer of admission of Emory, as well.

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Hope is the new black.

Congrats! Which one will you pick?

I'm not 100% sure yet, as it isn't a cut and dry decision. They both have very long "pro" lists with a lot of overlap, but their "con" lists are totally different. So over the next couple of days I need to figure out how to weight the cons.

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Hope is the new black.

i lived in stone mountain for about six years when i was 6-12, and that place was racist as hell

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Just had to post this here since there was a debate about this.

http://www.advocate.com/Print_Issue/Tra ... n_America/

Look which city is the gayest omg!

Man, fuck that. Come to Denver sometime! That said, the gay bars here are actually pretty fucking cool.

The only club I've been to in Denver is the Diamond Cabaret once a long time ago while I was there for work.

But I love Denver. Not enough media jobs there for me, though. Denver is one of my top 3 destinations longterm because of the mountains.

Iowa City is #3? *boggle* That is such a tiny town (and a college town) that it has to be skewing the numbers somehow. I lived there for a bit after I got out of school before I made my exit to Chicago.

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