:haha:

Jumpy, shall we assume you similarly avoid Germany? They shoveled lime over rather more people there than anyone ever hanged from a tree (or small bush) in the US South.

As a New Englander, I grew up not liking the South much. That said, I'd be willing to bet that current race relations in the US South are pretty good compared to most places on Earth.

How're those "youths" doing in France that we hear about burning cars?

They got those 'bubba'-cops down there in the south. They don't like no east coast intellectuals telling 'em how to do any pho-li-cing. :)

How many times was that Jamaican guy shot in NYC? 43?

The US south is no more "authoritarian" than anywhere else. Shall we also assume that OP is in favor of the devolution of power to avoid authoritarianism, which only thrives with strong, centralized control by the State? ;)

To be perfectly honest, every one of my encounters with police officers - except for two - has revealed them to be true professionals.

one negative encounters occurred in Kenner, Louisiana... where the officer walked up to my car, and only said "Drivers license and proof of insurance"

I handed them to him, he attached them to his clip board, spit on his middle finger and "cleaned" the dirt from over my VIN# on the windshield and walked off to his car - all without any other words other than the original "Driver's license and proof of insurance"

when he returned he had a ticket

"sign here, call this number within 10 days"

i signed it and with no further words he went to his car and drove off

of course... this was a black cop - so sure, i guess it could have been racism (oh wait... theres no such thing as racism against white people, i forgot)

the second negative encounter happened in Barnstable, Mass

this was the longest running traffic stop in history as we were pulled over for some 30 - 40 minutes as the cop checked every light on the vehicle, checked out our IDs, and went through every possible infraction he could think of before determining we were guilty of nothing and letting us go.

He was not particularly "mean" - just ... what you might call "Chicken sh*t"

I can assure you it happens to the north too. I'm sure it happens everywhere. But hey that is the way its been going on for a long time. This isn't new news.

:nope:

:hmmm:




:har::har::har:

Actually you don't to be mentally ill in Portland, or-gone. They've had several fatal police shootings in the last few months. Jessie Jackson even came to protest.:har: Which was really funny because he called the city racist:har::har::har:. Those jack-booted greenies like to kill to ya know.:arrgh!:

Hmm, it appears that everyone goes on with Stereotypes... I guess most havent even been to the south.

Well, I'm from the south, and this statement infurates me. My first best friend was a black kid named Ronald. My familiy has an Irish background, so I bid you... "Bite my potatoes."

ok, for the pedants amongst you I'll be more specific:
Cottonwood tree; genus populus. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Populus_sect._Aegiros

Predictably, some of you also fell for the stereotype and totally failed to see what came next, or my train of thought that followed the line of what the 'stereotype' was all about, and not to pay it much attention, given that it is a 'stereotype' and though based in some truth, anyone with half a brain knows a stereotype for what it is... or do I need to post the dictionary definition of 'stereotype' also, and how it applies here?

I see you don't discount it completely then.

My point was about how the south regards it as unfair (as I understood the situation) to be stereotyped as racist rednecks, when they have a past in which they were exactly that - there was a civil war over (in part) wanting to keep blacks as slaves, as 'untermenschen', with the south demanding that right, was there not?.
Just because these things don't really happen any more now, does not make a stereotype any less valid. My intent was not to make 'the south' out to be some sort of evil place we should all shun and revile above or beyond any other place, as backward and lacking in basic humanity, but to highlight the history of the region and use that to illustrate a point about how people make generalisations based upon truth and in part, irony, and how that relates to the original article and the film posted on youtube and subsequent comments posted both here and in the forum/article linked that we all read.

Surely you can see that (surely you can see that now?) I was not expressing a personal opinion or judgement of the region or its people, but making an observation of its history as it had bearing to the topic?

That goes for you too Flopper.

Clearly there's some quite raw nerves concerning segregation/racism in American history, I suspect the same as there are about the windrush era in the UK and also the influx of pakistani/indian migrants to the UK and today's issues of the BNP and immigration.
I had a mate who once told me that he wasn't a racist, "because one of my best friends is a 'paki'." He never could see what I found slightly objectionable to that statement. But I, like all of you, don't make a distinction over whether or not a friend has a specific skin colour or ethnic background, they are just 'friends'.
I strongly suspect that levels of indignation demonstrated here, stem from that very fact we have in common.

Tater, I think I'm missing something, what do the Germans or the holocaust have to do with parochial northern english towns, where if you're not a 'northerner' you stand a good chance of getting a pasting just because you come from somewhere else and talk/look different?
Or are you inferring that the mechanised murder of millions of innocents is somehow more dastardly than the killing of a few 'slaves'?
I once made a comparison between hitler and stalin and the numbers of people they each had murdered, it made sense at the time as the disparity between the numbers of his own people stalin had 'removed' and those hitler had 'solved', but murder is still murder. The same as there's no real difference between the loss of the life of a child compared to an adult. A life is lost. It's just the perception that a child has more of a future to loose and is therefore somehow more precious.
But I digress, possibly a little confrontationally too, and for that I apologise.

Generally speaking I try to avoid anyone who thinks it's ok to take aggressive action towards an individual or group, just because they are different, either by race/colour or culture or by local or national or other geographic separation. You know the sort: you're minding your own business when you get challenged/accosted by someone who wants to fight you for no clear reason you can understand. Unless you actually want to fight them, no amount of politeness or reasoning will delay the inevitable confrontation, so it's best to learn to avoid such situations before they develop.

Misunderstanding often leads to the same thing... but you have to risk that once in a while or you'd never talk to anyone ever again. :hmm2:

Now we're talking about valid stereotypes, smart guy?

For every situation, there are rules.
For every rule, there are exceptions.

Flopper, you go right ahead and see what you want to see.
I've tried to be polite and explain my intent in a civil manner in order to show there is no ill regard where it is perhaps not immediately clear.
If your only recourse to that is to tell me to bite your balls, right from the outset, then I'll oblige, but with one proviso: I first remove them with a spoon.

:O:

I'm only joking fella.

But seriously, if you cannot see what I'm trying to say, don't engage me with insults because you feel that I'm somehow trying to do the same (I get that impression from you).

I'm not. Far from it. Why else would I go through the trouble to attempt to explain myself in my last post? Certainly not to elicit abuse from you, or anyone else for that matter.

You know, the very concept of this thread's title screams ignorance.

How about this: how about we all post singular, isolated examples of bad things that has happened recently in some region, than go on to expand them into large generalizations to justify a rationale of wishing to avoid said region.

:down: