General Discussion
In reply to the discussion: From a resident of "one of those states" like AL, KS, TX, MS etc. [View all]mbfromnm
(5 posts)I am white and have done race work for 20 years across the country. The best work we ever do on race takes place in the South (I live in the Northeast). It is my experience that the hardest place to get whites to do good race work (speaking statistically; this does not mean every individual white person) is in the Northeast or in California.
I remember that Alexis de Tocqueville noted in his 1837 book Democracy in America, that "antipathy toward blacks is strongest in those states that have never experienced slavery."
The Black codes that denied free blacks the right to serve on juries, testify in court or hold office began in Ohio and spread across the mid-west into the west beginning in 1820.
James Loewen's book Sundown Towns documents how prevalent these were in the north, west and mid-west.
Since all of us, both white and of color, get the same messages about race, prejudice is everywhere. In the north, whites still move whenever the proportion of blacks gets close to 10%.
In the south, folks acknowledge that we have a problem. In the north the denial (and I live in a college town) is pretty ubiquitous.