Been under that rock for about fifty years, eh?

[RecoveringKinkoid]

I was gonna post this on CS, but it's just too much like something that will devolve into fratching. So here it is. I don't mean it to be controversial, but it will be, I'm sure. I just howled with laughter when I heard it, so to me, it's just a funny (if squicky) story.

So, this woman from up north is trying to chat with my sister at her son's gymnastics class the other day. There are sort of a bleacher section where the parents hang out. This is in Georgia.

The layout of the gym is like this: little kids nearest the bleachers, teenagers learning to do jumps and flips along one side strip, younger kids on parallels, and way down the other end is cheerleading class.

The entire cheerleading class is, not suprisingly, all black. This is important. Most (but not all ) of the kids in the other classes are white or asian. Given the racial and economic demographics of this particular city, this is pretty much normal.

Anyways, this woman who is trying to talk to my sister and is curious that the cheerleading class is black. She says "What's up with those kids back there in the back part of the gym?"

And my sister says "That's the cheerleading class."

And the woman says, and I quote, "Well, I know that down here in the south there is a lot of segregation."

And my sister was just like

And then refused to get sucked into the conversation further. I can just picture her, cringing, while this idiot prattled on. Man, I wish I'd seen that.

I mean, seriously? Segregation? I keep trying to think she meant to say some other word, but then I can't imagine what word she could have meant that would have been all that much better.

Pure gold. I couldn't make this stuff up, folks.

[JuniorMintz]

Holy Fuck-ola, Batman!


Sorry, I have only my laughter to contribute to the conversation. That totally had me rolling.

[AdminAssistant]

Kudos to your sister for taking the high road and letting it be. I don't think I would have been able to.

[HYHYBT]

We can be a bit backward here, but not THAT backward.

[Rapscallion]

And then refused to get sucked into the conversation further.

This is the only bit that bothers me. Badly incorrect assumptions such as that need to be corrected. She's going to go back home and tell everyone what they saw, and then they'll believe it as well.

Other than that, I have to wonder how some people cannot open their eyes.

Rapscallion

[daleduke17]

That would have probably been my first thought as well, that the groups were segregated. That's a proper term. If you see a group of a certain race all together with few in the other groups, wouldn't that be your first thought?

[BroomJockey]

wouldn't that be your first thought?

No, I'm pretty sure my first thought wouldn't be hey, they're keeping all the blacks together! Segregationists! It would most likely be Huh, I wonder if it's some form of club, or group...

[Rapscallion]

Oddly enough, the 'window ladies' in Amsterdam segregate themselves by nationality - different nations on different alleys. Just happens like that.

Rapscallion

[joe hx]

A couple days ago I walked into one of the cafeterias on campus. After I quickly scanned the room, I noticed that all the black students were sitting in one corner. They took up about 1/4 the cafeteria. Everyone else - mostly white people with some asian here and there - was, well, everywhere else.

Was this segregation? Maybe, but it was self-imposed. Really what it was is that everyone was sitting with their friends. Black people befriend black people, and white people befriend white people. And yes, thankfully, this is a trend I've noticed declining in the last decade or two.

[powerboy]

Honestly, I myself with probably a hell of a lot of people would not think anything about it.

[Greenday]

It's just generally what I see here. Most of the black people at my school won't associate with the white people on campus. We have frats on my campus and the only frat minorities will join is the all-minority frat. They refuse to join any other one so they can preserve their culture (I know this as I'm the only white guy in my 5 person apartment and the other four are in the frat and say so). I don't know many people that would outwardly ban someone because of race, but we segregate ourselves based on how comfortable we feel.

[AdminAssistant]

Yes, but the point is that this person thought, "Well, the South is just so backwards and awful that they're still segregated and discriminating against black people while whistlin' Dixie and drinkin' moonshine". It wasn't that there was some kind of self-separation going on.

[Boozy]

Before someone inevitably pulls out a dictionary definition of "segregation", I think we can all agree that the word as used in the United States very strongly implies de jure segregation (mandated by law). Racial divides still exist (and are indeed more prevalent in the South) but "segregation" just isn't the right word.

[Greenday]

Yes, but the point is that this person thought, "Well, the South is just so backwards and awful that they're still segregated and discriminating against black people while whistlin' Dixie and drinkin' moonshine". It wasn't that there was some kind of self-separation going on.

Perhaps the person had just never been put in a situation where there were large populations of different races. I mean, look at where I'm from. I live in New Jersey, fairly north in the country. But my town itself is, as of 2000, 94.22% white. Until high school, we had ONE kid who wasn't white, and he was half white/half black. Then, in high school, where four towns combined for one school, we had maybe...10 black kids? So if the person is from a town like mine, I can see why they have no experience with people willingly separating themselves by race.

[AdminAssistant]

But she made the qualifier, in the South. Hence, the problem. Racial divides exist all over the country, especially in big cities. I wouldn't say they exist anymore in the South than they do up here in the Midwest/Plains area, from personal observation. Kansas City is a poster child for it.