How Prevalent is Racism in Your Town?

[Vile Atheist]

Bill Cosby struck by N.L. rescue story

21 Feb 2012

Sometimes the most timeless, heartwarming stories are born from tragedy. Three days ago marked the 70th anniversary of one of Newfoundland and Labrador's greatest marine disasters - the sinking of the USS Truxtun and USS Pollux. What is remembered today, is not so much what the sea took, but what one rural community gave to a rescued African American sailor who had never before experienced kindness at the hands of white people. To commemorate the anniversary here's a great CBC article from 2009...
CBC
August 27, 2009
View source article


Comedian Bill Cosby is bringing attention to the story of a small group of Newfoundlanders whose actions taught a black American decades ago that racism didn't exist everywhere.


Cosby recently brought Lanier Phillips onstage to tell his story, after he heard about the experience Phillips had in Newfoundland nearly 70 years ago.


It was during the Second World War, in 1942; Phillips was a 19-year-old African-American deckhand on the USS Truxtun when it and another ship, the USS Pollux, ran aground near St. Lawrence, on the province's south coast.


Phillips, who had known only racism to that point in his life, was one of only 46 people to survive the wreck.


He feared he would be lynched when rescuers brought him ashore, but instead, he was taken in to local homes, and the women of the community cared for him until he was well enough to leave.


He said the kindness he was shown when he was hauled ashore taught him that racism could be overcome.


Cosby told CBC News that he was intrigued when he heard the story.


"I wanted to know more because I thought it was the story of this black man and these women who had never seen this colour skin before," he said.


The story of how Phillips was treated in Newfoundland has been told in documentaries and television programs.


One of those programs was seen by Cosby, who this summer sent a limousine to the retirement home where Phillips lives near Washington, D.C., to bring him to a show Cosby was performing in nearby Virginia.


Cosby then brought Lanier onstage to introduce him to the audience and tell his story.


Cosby — who was stationed at a U.S. military base in Newfoundland for a brief time in the '50s — said he was especially struck when he heard Phillips say that the women of St. Lawrence tried to scrub him down after he was rescued, because they thought the colour of his skin was dirt from the shipwreck.


"But trying to scrub it off and clean it," Cosby said, "which it turns out to be not a novelty story as much as a story about a change that comes to a human being because of a difference in the way the human being is treated, and how it opens up very positive feelings in a human being."


Phillips is 86 years old now, and he has often said that the people of Newfoundland didn't just save his life, they changed it.


"To experience instantly love and humanity that I didn't think existed between the races — it just changed everything for me."


After Phillips was rescued, he had a 20-year career in the navy and became an active member of the U.S. civil rights movement.


He credits the people of St. Lawrence for his success.


Cosby calls it a wonderful story.


"There's no way when you listen to his story there's a superiority of anything except human beings helping human beings," Cosby said. "Just about human beings and the power that human beings have when they work to save each other."


A U.S. film producer is now hoping to turn the story of what happened to Phillips into a full-length film.


The Latest - News - Bill Cosby struck by N.L. rescue story


How prevalent is racism in your town?

 

[Trey of Diamonds]

Enough to be noticable.

 

[dyanaprajna2011]

Living in the Deep South, racism is still pretty common. It's not uncommon for you to hear, in the same sentence, a white person use the "N" word, then talk about how they're not racist. Then they go onto to talking about how blacks and Mexicans are destroying our nation. Then, there's still people here who's openly racist, and see no problem with it. The county just west of here, the whole county, has one black family, one, and one Mexican family. That's it. And it's like that everywhere here. In the rural areas, it's hard to find people who aren't white, and the white people like to keep it that way. In the bigger cities, you can find blacks and Mexicans, but other groups, such as Asians, Indians, and such, are pretty much non-existent.

 

[Vinayaka]

More common than I would like to believe. Its hidden, for the most part, and in a sense, that's nastier than if it was right out there. Racist politicians pretend they're not, because they want the ethnic vote.

 

[Vile Atheist]

In my city in northern Ontario (~130,000 people), it's mostly white with a significant large Aboriginal minority. There are some blacks, Arabs, Asians, etc. but there are relatively few of them and from what I have seen, these groups don't experience much racism.

Canadian history lesson!

When Britain conquered New France and begun ruling Canada, it started signing treaties with the indigenous population. They would basically secure title to huge swaths of land in exchange for like..."5 pounds of gold to be delivered by canoe on the bank of the Fish River" (obviously archaic language written in terms of hundreds of years ago). In exchange for these lands, the indigenous population was given a small, economically useless parcel of land in the middle of nowhere and were forced to live there. They were given limited rights to hunt and fish for subsistence anywhere but on private lands. This reserve system actually inspired apartheid South Africa. In fact, only until fairly recently in history could they leave their reserve at will, otherwise they would have had to seek permission from the government to leave the reserve.

In Canada, there is no official separation of church and state. So around the late 1800s, early 1900s, these "residential schools" were set up, mainly by the Catholic, Anglican, and United churches (with support from the Canadian government) to try to "turn the Indians into white men". Kids were taken from their parents against their will. They were beaten for speaking their native language. They were forced to adopt Christianity. They were physically and sexually abused.

The amount of pain and suffering this inflicted on the indigenous people in Canada was immense and spawned an intergenerational problem. Survivors of the residential schools would beat and sexually abuse their kids, and abuse drugs and alcohol. The last residential school in Canada only closed down in 1996.

Since then, we've been trying to get on a road to recovery. In the more economically-developed parts of Canada (such as southern Ontario), the indigenous population had greater access to infrastructure and services and thus, mostly got rid of their addictions and social problems, got jobs, and are living a decent life, at least compared to their counterparts in less economically developed parts of Canada.

We turn to northern Ontario where I live. Northern Ontario lacks a lot of infrastructure and job opportunities and services. The main highway running through the southern portion of northern Ontario is mostly one lane in each direction, undivided. A lot of the highways are dirt roads. A lot of the reserves are "fly-in", meaning that there is no all-weather road connecting these communities to the outside world. Everything must be done with expensive flights to small communities of a few hundred people in the middle of nowhere. There's little in the way of addictions or mental health treatment, and what little there is is located in my city and nowhere else. Even many of the larger towns do not have a hospital. Anything more serious than a papercut and people need to be flown to my city.

An ice road every winter is built to truck in supplies, but with global warming, the road lasts a shorter and shorter period of time, making them extremely isolated. The communities are powered by diesel fuel and if the diesel doesn't come in on the winter road, there is no power for the community. Hundreds of reserves across Canada are under boil water advisories. Most reserves have a housing crisis with sometimes as many as 20 people living in a bungalow. Disease has festered, sewers are open, garbage is in the streets. The most notable recent case is Attawapiskat, Ontario (in my neck of the woods). These communities typically have 90% unemployment and 70-80% addictions rate to drugs like Oxycontin. There is also little police presence there. The communities are almost lawless in a sense. The few police that are present keep their prisoners in substandard facilities, often with a simple wooden beam across two arms over a door (like in the medieval age). There is no high school, except for an Internet one. Elementary schools are underfunded and are not managed by the province of Ontario. Education and healthcare are the responsibility of the federal government. Schools are often condemned for mold or burned down by kids.

A lot of the residents of these communities come to my city a lot for basic services. As well, there is a significant minority population that permanently lives here. They are subject to extreme racism, often by people who don't understand the cause of these problems or are unsympathetic to them. They are stereotyped as uneducated, drunk bums who guzzle Listerine, huff hairspray, sniff gas, and rob convenience stores.

Aboriginal people in my city are subject to, as they walk on the streets, people yelling racist obscenities at them from cars, and often, people throwing things from their cars. There are many Aboriginal prison gangs who operate in the city, and that makes things worse because "white" vigilante groups pop up. One of the gangs, who I shall not name, comes into town from Winnipeg to do their initiations, which involve raping a white girl. When this happens, the racial tensions flare up. There is a widespread belief that Aboriginal people don't pay any tax and that they get wheelbarrows full of money from the government, whereas the "white man" has to work for everything. This leads to great animosity between those racists who think they're the only ones who work for a living.

But it's not all bad news. Our Mayor is working on a path towards reconciliation and harmony. He has admitted to saying racist things in the past about Aboriginal people and has apologized and sought forgiveness. He has set up an Aboriginal liason team for the City to deal with Aboriginal affairs. He works with nearby reserves. The City has implemented anti-racism campaigns.

I think we're on the beginning of positive change, but it's not going to come easily. We've at least acknowledged the problem and are trying to make significant steps going forward.

 

[Kathryn]

Living in the Deep South, racism is still pretty common. It's not uncommon for you to hear, in the same sentence, a white person use the "N" word, then talk about how they're not racist. Then they go onto to talking about how blacks and Mexicans are destroying our nation. Then, there's still people here who's openly racist, and see no problem with it. The county just west of here, the whole county, has one black family, one, and one Mexican family. That's it. And it's like that everywhere here. In the rural areas, it's hard to find people who aren't white, and the white people like to keep it that way. In the bigger cities, you can find blacks and Mexicans, but other groups, such as Asians, Indians, and such, are pretty much non-existent.

Wow, considering that African Americans are mostly concentrated in the Deep South, I think it's amazing that you have so few African Americans living in your community.

CensusScope -- Demographic Maps: African-American Population

 

[InformedIgnorance]

I haven't noted much in my local area, though I am aware that in some of the poorer sections of the suburbs there are areas where racism is more prominent (particularly in the north) from what I have heard; and there are some difficulties in the city centre on occasion with one group or another (mainly either alcoholism from Australian Aboriginals or violence from some of the African nationals, the former being much more common than the later) - but overall very little I think (coming from a white male in a predominately white population though)

That said in my own family I know that my mum occasionally states racist things without even being aware of it, mainly sayings that have incorporated themselves into her vernacular - we usually tell her off for this. Despite that, I and several of my brothers do tell rather inappropriate jokes (though only in limited company) - some of which are racist or have significant racial overtones... less than a week ago I noted that I told one which was unnecessarily biting and have since then been a bit more aware of that influence on my humour - which has always instead been dry rather than racist; something I intend to get rid of (because racism has no place in the appreciation of lovely ladies)

 

[Caladan]

I live in a city in central Israel. the population is pretty diverse when you break it down, many have various European roots, others have various middle eastern roots, and a few other groups have arrived as well at a later stage.
growing up here, I can't say that I experienced racism. for the most part by the time I was born, the ethnic tensions and favoritism of a younger Israel have worn off, and an Israeli culture was created. many families are mixed, like mine. and I didn't feel like it was a serious issue. we were just Israelis, and growing up we were not even that aware that when our grandparents were younger there were ethnic tensions and favoritism. when people refer to their older roots today, it is usually tongue in cheeck.
ironically though with the last immigration from Russia, many none Jews arrived, some of them still holding anti-Semitic ideas back from Mother Russia. I remember one night a couple of years ago, I drove back home and saw a 'White Pride World Wide' graffitti in the entrance of my city, and there have been a couple of attacks by these 'WP Russian youngsters' at the time. of course its not a wide spread phenomenon, but the irony of immigrating to a 'Jewish country' for economic reasons while you still have traditional anti-Semitic sentiments is absurd.

with all the progress and maturity of the other communities of Israel, the new arrivals, immigration from Ethiopia, and also the immigration from Russia are not without facing challenges. and sometimes prejudice comes up on the surface, and even discrimination by certain bodies. as a whole, on a national level the Europeans have comprised the elite, in politics, the academy and other areas. but slowly the communities who arrived from poorer countries have been catching up. today people of middle eastern descent are found everywhere, have been serving as the top leadership of the Israeli military, have started to have a better presence in the academy, etc. slowly the Ethiopian and Russian communities are doing the same.

But to answer my question in short, no. I think I was very lucky to grow up here. no racism by peers, teachers, or strangers. for a long time I can say that my generation was not even aware of it, until we started to read between the lines from what it was like for our parents and grandparents. being part of an immigrant community is never simple, and its something I have noticed when Russians and Ethiopians started to immigrat to Israel.
Israel today is still a reminiscent of a European establishment which showed favoritism and discriminarted based on ethnicity, the typical political leader or academic is a male from European descent, but its not the same Israel of those days. the secular aspects of Israel has created a vibrant society of the two Jewries: Ashkenazi and Sephardi. or European and Middle eastern, in fact secularization has made obsolete many old divisions. to my generation society is a fusion of European, Iberian, North African, and Middle Eastern Jews.

 

[Kathryn]

I think it's important to note that we are most likely to hear racist comments from "our own kind," and may not even be aware of racism from other ethnic groups. So - if we're white, we are more likely to hear other white people making racist remarks than we are to hear African Americans or Hispanics making racist remarks.

But don't think for a minute that those remarks don't occur in other ethnic circles.

 

[Mathematician]

My town isn't too bad, but if you travel 5 miles east or west you're bound to run into problems. I went on a few dates with a girl who thought it was appropriate to refer to people as "n_____." She also freaked out when I informed her that I've had sex with not one but (GASP!) two African-American women and that my uncle is black. Needless to say that ended soon enough. Well, after I got to roll around in the blankets at least once. She was cute

When I was campaigning a few years ago, the candidates from different towns gathered in a small debate hall to take turns debating the finer points of city politics. I overheard a few of the politicians in an adjacent city referring to all Hispanic people as "illegals." All of the candidates from that town were inflammatory.It disgusted me.

 

[9-10ths_Penguin]

I'm honestly not sure how much racism there is around me. I haven't seen any overt racism, but it suddenly struck me a month or so into my current job that everyone in my office is white. Everyone. And it's a decently sized office (about 50 people), so it shouldn't be a case where a really small sample size creates a wild variance from the population mean... and my town's pretty white, but not *that* white.

So I don't know.

 

[Vile Atheist]

I'm honestly not sure how much racism there is around me. I haven't seen any overt racism, but it suddenly struck me a month or so into my current job that everyone in my office is white. Everyone. And it's a decently sized office (about 50 people), so it shouldn't be a case where a really small sample size creates a wild variance from the population mean... and my town's pretty white, but not *that* white.

So I don't know.

You're in the Toronto area and your office is 100% white? Jesus. You must be on the friggin' edge of the GTA. Ever been to Northern Ontario? I'm pretty sure you can count the number of blacks, Asians, and Arabs on two hands.

Nonetheless, in a city/area as diverse as Toronto where only slightly over half of the people are white and the rest are "visible minorities", and where slightly less than half of Torontonians are foreign-born, I don't think you'd find much racism (maybe I'm being naive).

I think in a more racially/ethnically homogeneous population with a significantly sized minority (like where I live), you'll have more racism because it becomes a sort of "us vs. them" thing, rather than in a highly diverse large city where groups are a lot more fragmented, defined, and interact with each other on a regular basis. Maybe I'm just blowing smoke.

 

[9-10ths_Penguin]

You're in the Toronto area and your office is 100% white? Jesus. You must be on the friggin' edge of the GTA. Ever been to Northern Ontario? I'm pretty sure you can count the number of blacks, Asians, and Arabs on two hands.

Nonetheless, in a city/area as diverse as Toronto where only slightly over half of the people are white and the rest are "visible minorities", and where slightly less than half of Torontonians are foreign-born, I don't think you'd find much racism (maybe I'm being naive).

I think in a more racially/ethnically homogeneous population with a significantly sized minority (like where I live), you'll have more racism because it becomes a sort of "us vs. them" thing, rather than in a highly diverse large city where groups are a lot more fragmented, defined, and interact with each other on a regular basis. Maybe I'm just blowing smoke.

I moved recently and didn't update my location. I'm on Georgian Bay now and only really in the "Toronto area" in the loosest possible sense.

 

[Vile Atheist]

I moved recently and didn't update my location. I'm on Georgian Bay now and only really in the "Toronto area" in the loosest possible sense.

To people up here, everything in southern Ontario is "Toronto". It gets confusing for people like me who work part time as a Canada Post clerk (while in school).

Customer: "Yeah, I want to mail this to Toronto."
Me: "Great. What's the postal code?"
Customer: "N8W 1C5"
Me: "...But that's in Windsor."
Customer: "Yeah. That's what I said. Toronto."
Me: "Windsor is kinda far from Toronto..."
Customer: "Oh, well in the Toronto area"

You live on Georgian Bay? You might as well live on top of the CN Tower as far as us northerners are concerned lol.

 

[Nashitheki]

Living in the Deep South, racism is still pretty common. It's not uncommon for you to hear, in the same sentence, a white person use the "N" word, then talk about how they're not racist. Then they go onto to talking about how blacks and Mexicans are destroying our nation. Then, there's still people here who's openly racist, and see no problem with it. The county just west of here, the whole county, has one black family, one, and one Mexican family. That's it. And it's like that everywhere here. In the rural areas, it's hard to find people who aren't white, and the white people like to keep it that way. In the bigger cities, you can find blacks and Mexicans, but other groups, such as Asians, Indians, and such, are pretty much non-existent.

Living in a rural area near the old Confederate capitol it is not uncommon to see the white locals flying or displaying the rebel battle flag. It's around 90% white here and they are bold enough in their numbers to spout off the 'N' word or else 'colored'. When my family and I first moved here, we were sometimes called Mexicans and once, a really stupid redneck type thought we were Moslems, but that was during the height of the Bush administration's weirdness. There are Mexicans here, but they work on farms and really don't attempt to mix with the Anglos. The only Asians are the families who own the two Chinese restaurants in this county. In this county there are only one other American Indian family I know of. In the beginning, I use to get pulled a lot and look at it as being profiled for my skin color and long hair. Having to commute quite a distance to my job in a larger city, I see some of the same racist rednecks, but around so many other people of color, they are as meek as kittens and do not dare spout off the 'N' word or any other racial slurs. I've been in the homes some of these white redneck types and noticed the lack of books and art aside from gun magazines and framed pictures of Dale Earnhardt next to Jesus.

The worse thing that ever happened was having one of these 'goobers' threaten the lives of me and my then 6 year old daughter at a stop light after he saw my John Kerry bumper sticker. Needless to say my hand was on the big 44 revolver under the car seat and good thing for him the light changed.

Anymore instead of Paco or Hoolio, they mostly call me chief these days, but will not hesitate to ask me why I'm not in the casino business back on the REZ.

 

[Nashitheki]

Wow, considering that African Americans are mostly concentrated in the Deep South, I think it's amazing that you have so few African Americans living in your community.

CensusScope -- Demographic Maps: African-American Population

That's true, but the majority of blacks in my state live in and around the larger urban areas. Some counties such as the one I live are mostly white, while others are mostly black. In the Appalachian Mountain part of my state and other states of the south there are not too many black people.

 

[Penumbra]

The story in the OP is pretty cool.

The place I grew up was fairly multi-racial. Caucasians were the majority, but there were large percentages from many races. The city nearby had a large urban population of African Americans, but the towns in the other direction, further from the city were mostly all Caucasian. It's hard for me to judge the level of racism, since I don't know what people say in private, but many members of my family are somewhat racist. One of my parents, my aunts and uncles, and the grandparents, are racist to varying degrees. Like, "openly racist but in private"- they're not going to go out and be openly racist, but in their houses, the things they say!

Where I currently live, Caucasians are a minority. I haven't observed any racist events or problems. But my town is not very good at all, and I have not explored it.

 

[Nashitheki]

The story in the OP is pretty cool.

The place I grew up was fairly multi-racial. Caucasians were the majority, but there were large percentages from many races. The city nearby had a large urban population of African Americans, but the towns in the other direction, further from the city were mostly all Caucasian. It's hard for me to judge the level of racism, since I don't know what people say in private, but many members of my family are somewhat racist. One of my parents, my aunts and uncles, and the grandparents, are racist to varying degrees. Like, "openly racist but in private"- they're not going to go out and be openly racist, but in their houses, the things they say!

Where I currently live, Caucasians are a minority. I haven't observed any racist events or problems. But my town is not very good at all, and I have not explored it.

An even cooler story

 

[Kathryn]

This is the family that I've "inflicted" on several southern towns. I'm not so naive that I don't realize there's racism out there, but it's pretty hard to be hateful when you're faced with these Southern born and bred Americans:

My grandkids

We're just doing our part to eradicate racism and to overturn peoples' preconceived notions and prejudices!

WE'RE ON A MISSION!

And by the way, the mission seems to be successful. We simply have no problems in our towns. Never have.

Sometimes your expectations help create your outcomes.

 

[Nashitheki]

This is the family that I've "inflicted" on several southern towns. I'm not so naive that I don't realize there's racism out there, but it's pretty hard to be hateful when you're faced with these Southern born and bred Americans:

My grandkids

We're just doing our part to eradicate racism and to overturn peoples' preconceived notions and prejudices!

WE'RE ON A MISSION!

And by the way, the mission seems to be successful. We simply have no problems in our towns. Never have.

Sometimes your expectations help create your outcomes.

You and yours must be a big hit down in Texas.