re: #345 erraticsphinx

The GOP in other areas of the country is very, very, different. I live in NY, and the Republicans here almost NEVER mention social issues. And none of the “Kenyan!” pseudo-racist nonsense. Of course there are racists everywhere, they are just concentrated in the South.

I KNOW they’re not all racist, but I’m sorry I spent years there and it’s definitely a majority in my opinion. Some of them are more subtle about it.

And to answer your second, there’s a focus on the GOP in the south because that’s what their base is.

To be frank, I think you need to get out more. Far and away, the most racially polarized area in the country that I can think of is the metro Detroit area. Although this isn’t overt racism, exactly, but de facto segregation, with a huge concentration of blacks within Detroit’s city limits and an equally disparate concentration of whites in the surrounding suburbs. It is unlike any modern urban region I have visited in the country in this regard, and it will be decades before it changes significantly.

Moving into more rural areas of the state, we enter serious KKK country; the organization used to be centered here through the 70s and early 80s, until Tim McVeigh and company’s frequent passages through the area drew too much attention from the FBI, and the Grand Pudyanks, or whatever the leaders are called, got a whole lot quieter or left for more private areas, mostly in the western region of the country.

Ohio is another real garden spot when it comes to rural good ol’ boys with a fondness for Confederate flags plastered onto their pickups. It’s the only place I’ve ever been accosted over my beard, despite being in late middle age, and was actually concerned enough to keep tabs on where my cell phone was until things ramped down to a more comfortable though still uneasy level.

And a friend who attended Alfred University could tell you some sickening stories about the yocals in that neck of the woods.

I’ve traveled all over the south and southwest, too, and I’ve never run across the overt racism you’re referring to in anything like the degree you’re attributing to the region.

I’m thinking you’re seeing and hearing what you desire to see and hear. You’d be advised to apply a more objective cast to your observations and make sure you’re not doing more than a little stereotyping yourself.