/re: #205 DaddyG

No doubt. The same went for Illinois (my wife had the local Grand Dragon of the KKK living in the house behind hers). But in general the stereotype that the South is the home base for racism is just that. A stereotype.

Ugh. I was reading somewhere recently that NJ is teeming with white supremacist groups. I know there are places in NJ, Long Island, and upstate NY, that I’d avoid the same way I avoided places in TX. Me, I’ll stick to the urban areas, thank you very much. :)

I think maybe it’s just more out in the open in the South, though I realize one person’s experiences don’t count as incontrovertible proof.

It’s also possible that I’m hyper-sensitive about it. I encountered my first bigot in at age 6 in elementary school. Up until that point it had never occurred to me that someone might automatically despise me based solely on my appearance. My parents had agreed that I would be “raised white” (culturally speaking) along with my younger brother and other half-siblings, however no one bothered to inform me that not everyone out there in the wider world would judge me based solely on the content of my character, to borrow from the esteemed Dr. King.

So anyway, here I was this shy, sheltered little thing with brown skin on the outside and a New England WASP-ish upbringing on the inside. I can’t even begin to tell you how utterly shocked, angry, confused and dismayed I was to be called “messkin” by that kid*. Of course, I didn’t know exactly what it meant, but I knew it was bad. I doubt the little boy who said it really knew either. I wish people wouldn’t pass their hate on to their children.

*Messkin is equivalent to the N-word, but reserved for people of Mexican (or really any type of Hispanic) descent in TX.