Cordial discussion on the experience of racism, page 1

I hesitate to reply to this thread but here goes:

In about 1961, my father bought a restaurant near a small town in Western Kentucky. I was about 14 and so I spent my summers for a couple of years making life miserable for the people working at the restaurant.

We never had any black customers which I didn't really think about at the time.. but one Sunday afternoon two black men knocked on the kitchen door and wanted to eat... in the kitchen. I told them to just come around and come inside..but they refused. So I got a couple of chairs and sat them down at a prep table in the kitchen. That happened a couple of more times, and I remember thinking it was awful and could not understand why they would not come in and eat with the regular customers. I had at that time little experience even seeing any black people and in my hometown they all lived in an area of town down around 5th street. The other name my father used for the area I will not mention here but you can guess.

By the time I got to high school we were fully integrated. The black high school in the west end of town was closed down. I was not one of the "in-crowd", was the silent and keep to myself type. So I observed the conduct of the white "jocks" and the male black students from as much a distance as possible. I did not like what I saw out of either crowd, however what I saw out of the blacks began to form my opinion. They were arrogant, in your face, disruptive, rude, and seemingly could care less about studying. I do not know any other way to say it. Their conduct in classes made life miserable for me and the teachers.

After high school and some time in college, I went into the military. Basic training 8 weeks at Fort Knox living in a barracks with probably about a third blacks. The nicest guy there was my black drill sergeant. The black trainees however were again arrogant and disruptive however there was no friction between the black and white soldiers that I saw, however I did observe the blacks were just plain mean to each other, constantly fighting and yelling at each other... calling each other names that would have gotten any of the white guys beat up had they used them.

Later in life I owned a sailboat and lived on it in St Thomas in the Caribbean islands. The population there was at the time about 80% or more black. There is a joke about St Thomas... for 2 weeks its paradise...any longer and it becomes Hell. While I was there, in 1987 the Mayor of D.C. Marion Barry and the Governor of the Island were banned from the Frenchmen's reef Hotel for doing Cocaine with whores in the lobby. Needless to say Barry's arrest a couple of years later did not come as a surprise. A close friend of mine was de-capitated with a machete, she was being chopped up into small pieces and was being thrown in the ocean when the police arrived. The guy who did it had killed two other people that morning. It was the most dangerous place I have ever lived. Two weeks after my friend was killed, I packed up and left.

I now live in Moldova, a former Soviet Republic. The only non-white faces I ever see here are on Television. Moldova is the poorest, most densely populated country in Eastern Europe. I can walk in any town or village any time of the night or day in areas, the looks of which would make the average American pee their pants with fear, and I walk in perfect safety. I have also been to Moscow where I have walked alone at night both in the center of the city near the Kremlin and out in the suburbs. The capital city of Moldova, Chisinau has a population of about 800,000. The only crime I ever hear about which is person against person.. are drunks in or around a bar who usually know each other. A murder is a big deal and as I can tell a rare occurrence. I cannot think of any city in the West and especially in the U.S. where I would feel safe walking alone at night.

I think the honest fact is that people who share similar cultural or racial characteristics are just more comfortable together. I know it will be called politically incorrect at best to say it but I think it is an honest fact.

Some people may call me racist for my attitude, however in every instance where I personally have had an unpleasant interaction with a member of another race it has been them who was the source of the problem. I choose not to subject myself to the stress and therefore I chose to live where I am comfortable and safe.