West Michigan actually has some towns with a high percentage of blacks (Muskegon Heights, Benton Harbor), and some rural areas like Baldwin, settled in the early years of the 20th Century as a resort for blacks. Oddly, conservative bastion Grand Rapids had a black mayor as early as 1971

Yes–it is true that the one demographic group it is still perfectly OK to stereotype are Southern whites. Even the most “open-minded”, “progressive”, “liberal” people will still make comments presuming that ALL people from the South are uneducated, Bible-thumping, racist, and talk like Granny on The Beverly Hillbillies.

The media, of course, perpetuates this–when is the last time you saw someone on TV who “just happened to be Southern” versus embodied a “Southern stereotype” (even if the show is set far from the South?)? Designing Women is the last (only?) TV show I can think of that shows “incidentally Southern” characters as thinking and intelligent; otherwise you only hear a Southern accent (outside of the VERY rare characters such as those played by Emily Proctor on CSI: Miami) is in a walk-on role where the character is meant to be Uber-religious, bigoted, or (most of all) uneducated and rubish. I challenge anyone to find a “left wing” blog other than those actually written by Southerners that does not,at some point, make derogatory, stereotypical comments about people from the Southern states.

Sorry, but stereotyping is stereotyping; Assuming that someone from Alabama is going to be a bigot and preach to you about Jesus is NO different, than assuming an African-American is going to steal your iPod out of your desk drawer.

“I always wondered if that particular use of the N-word was similar to the use of “Queen” among gay men - “Queen” embodying all of the worst stereotypical behaviors of gay men.”
A better comparison might be “I like gay men, but I hate faggots.” I’ve heard that a lot from gay men.

Actually, as a gay man, I agree with the first one–we oftne use “Fag/faggot” as a “homeboy” sort of way, but “queen” implies specific (negative) stereotypical traits. Though I guess there are also those who use them in the other direction.

Azatlan maps from the CCC? Oh yah.
Leprosy myths? Yep.
Refusal to integrate? Higher crime rates? You got it.

So yeah, maybe only 0.5% of the population dresses up in sheets and nazi costume, but unless you do you’re not “racist”.

Ms Kate
March 24, 2008 at 4:38 pm

But is this sort of thing new? I’m white, and I despise white trash with a passion.

Congratulations! You have what is known as CLASS PRIVILEGE.

Now that we are in CLASS, please turn to the section on examining one’s own class privilege - and how having money, connections, access to healthcare and education, and role models contribute to a sense of entitled superiority at having attained certain goals from a head-start position.

dear ms. kate,

as proud white trash with bad teeth and cheap tattoos, i must inform you, i now love you.

—-

as to pat’s b.s about pell grants and medicaid, i glow in the dark like casper and i currently very much enjoy my pell grant, my illinois state map grant, and if my appeal goes through i will enjoy my medicaid even more. oh, and my pasty white dad has spent his adult life getting medical care at the VA hospital, and living off of unemployment until he was able to go on disability, and he supplemented that income by dealing drugs and growing pot in our backyard.

poor, on some type of public assistance, and criminal can come in all colors.

Wright controversy is also a FOX fabrication

Please do yourself a favor and spend a few minutes of your time to see and hear the FULL SERMONS of Obama’s Pastor and then let your conscious speak. As a Christian this is your moral duty. Hope fully you as FOX EXECUTIVES will then pass this on to Hannity & Co-conspirators.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RvMbeVQj6Lw
Re: God Damn America

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QOdlnzkeoyQ
Re: The chickens have come to roost

I read watch your TV on a regular bases Yes! in Politics (people, newspapers etc.) often differ in opinions. This is natural human trait. BUT to manipulate and give out false news and info is very distressing especially when it concerns ones faith.

I am a non-christian & it does bother me when Christians bash other Christians with false accusations. May God bless you and open up your heart. If you have to say something, do it —but do it without a prejudiced mind.

As reporter you will do what is right. - Blog this email to as many as possable!

PS: VERY IMPORTANT : Worth checking this out
Neo Nazi/White Supremacist Hal Turner Confirms Friendship And Kinship With Sean Hannity of FOX NEWS.
Reported by Ellen —Just Google “News Hounds”

In contrast, my sisters live in ultra-white suburbs, work in 90%-white settings, and can go days without interacting with people of color in any meaningful way. They’re liberals, and they would bend over backwards not to be racist as they understand the word, but their actual real-world interaction with people of color, and especially black people, is limited to: service workers, former (social work) clients, and other generally poor and poorly-off folks.

That’s a long and meandering way of saying that I think that the a partial remedy for thoughtless racism is lots and lots of exposure to people from different ethnic backgrounds, such that you don’t think of any one of them as The Black Guy or The Jewish Woman. And the more people buy houses and send their kids to school to avoid poor folks, and the more poor = proxy for black, the less likely that is to happen.

How we talk about this: I think one avenue has always been to get people to recognize the exceptions they make. Black people are scary - but not that guy I work with: he’s one of the good ones. Gay people are out to destroy society - but not Uncle Dave (or the guy who does my hair), or the “girls” who live across the street - I actually kinda like them. It’s got to resonate that often our “exceptions” aren’t all that exceptional. And doG knows it doesn’t help to switch in counter-stereotypes, like how much worse “white trash” people are. In the Detroit area, there was always a certain amount of contempt for the “Ypsituckians” (Ypsilanti plus Kentucky) - white Southerners who came north to work during WWII and stayed. If we could just get it that after observing the requirements of basic human respect (a great leap forward, that), it’s a case-by-case assessment.

Sometimes all I want to do is give the whole world a snack and then put them down for a nap, while I watch over them.