I moved to South Texas from the Midwest shortly after my children were born specifically for the purpose of raising them in a place where they were not the ethnic majority. They have a completely different view of race and of issues like immigration when they actually live these issues in their day-to-day lives.

Do I think everyone should make the same choice? No. Do I deny the priviliges I still enjoy, even here where I’m a minority, because of being white? No. Do I appreciate being made to feel like my choice was preposterous with phrases like “What do you want Trent to do, move to a place with black people?” No. It’s not an absurd idea. It is a potential option.

What is your opinion on the ‘no gifts at Christmas’ idea?

-Nate

Stay healthy! -Al

P.S. I grew up in Iowa, and we got robbed multiple times by white people because that’s basically the only people there. I worked in a pawn shop in Northwest Iowa and the area is full of people pawning mom’s wedding ring for weed and stealing power tools from the neighbors who kindly don’t lock their doors. Trent’s feeling of safety is just that – a feeling.

I would say many many people want to live in a place like Trent described. I don’t know if Trent realizes that the choice to live like that in his town is only a choice for him because he is white. If a POC moved in the area they probably would not have the same lovely experience.

oh my god…

I did suggest that waxing poetic about the beauty and benefit of diversity and then actually saying “But it’s different when I consider where I want to live” is so transparent, it’s laughable. And less than honest. Or rather, less than completely honest. If anyone wants to take his words at face value, that’s certainly their right. It’s also my right to say that something’s rotten in “Little Denmark”, and I can smell it clear out here in SoCal.

I don’t blame anyone for wanting to live in a safe neighborhood and wanting their children to attend safe schools. I just believe that, in many cases, it’s more than that – much more. And that, in Trent’s case, he didn’t even disguise it all that well.

*Please note that the term “Little Denmark” was used – tongue-in-cheek – to refer to the area Trent describes – not any specific Danish community or tourist area, such as Solvang, CA

Where I live, PCness hasn’t remotely got a hold yet – but I wish it would. Instead, we have ‘nationalists’ throwing fire bombs into houses of gypsies/roma. With implicit support of the mayor and community. And national politicians who say things like that ‘companies shouldn’t employ foreigners because then they’ll stay and have children and we’ll have cultural problems’ – that was a former prime minister. And the *hatred* that is detectible even in otherwise reasonable people, towards specific races and cultures! Still, it’s only been 20 years since foreigners have been common here (a friend of mine was almost 20 before he saw a black person) – there’s maybe hope yet in a generation or 2.

I apologize that I assumed you haven’t traveled. I’ve been lucky enough to travel a great deal, and cultures that place a “strong emphasis on hard work, personal responsibility and self-sufficiency” pretty much describes every country I’ve ever visited. I’ve also moved around a lot and I’ve found the values you describe in neighbors of every “descent”.

Courtney also lives in an area with this same population and has noticed the same good qualities in her neighbors that Trent has noticed in his. That’s all! Nothing nefarious going on here.

Also, is it racist when the ultra-liberal Garrison Keillor extols the virtues of Scandinavians? Or is it only racist when the person who says it is not in liberal lockstep with you?

Of course, Garrison Keillor lives in the midwest, like I do – so he’s probably just as unaware and unworldly as I am (see your comment #31) :)

Your “*sigh*” is obviously a way to marginalize the point and make it seem silly, but it’s a reasonable question.

Interesting discussion~ Christine T. just curious-what data/info do you have to back up the statement that only white people have the option of living in safe neighborhoods? Maybe that wasn’t what you meant to imply? I’m honestly not trying to pick a fight- just trying to see the logic.
Thanks!

Pardon me, I’m a very reasonable person, if I do say so myself, and I found nothing racist about her comments. I guess that makes me a racist, too, huh? *sigh*

#49: “Racism is also: “Aren’t white people great? Aren’t they?”

She didn’t say that!!! Gee whiz, some people are just itching for a fight- looking for hidden meanings in the most innocuous of statements. You are trying to twist a nice comment into something ugly. Why, I don’t know.