Comments

2
Are Black People allowed to live in Maine.....?? I am from Arkansas and have lived with the slur of being inherently racist all my life. The stereotype of the SOUTHERN racist bigot is a clever camouflage created for the NORTHERN racist bigots to hide behind while they claim to be "holier than thou"". Some of the most virulently rabid racists that live come from above the Mason-Dixon and this fact is even more true now than 40 ears ago.!!
3
"Where did that happen?" In several towns that I won't name, and don't ask me for photos or video either.
4
@ 2, that kind of happens when your state's or region's history is as ugly as it is. Racism is just that much louder down South than it is anywhere else.
5
@3 they never can name where it happened. Where was the voter fraud? Nearby. Where? In the country. What country? The USA.
6
"Where did that happen?"

"In several rural Maine towns."

Guy can't even remember which towns it happened in.
I'm not from Maine but don't voters have to sign in and find their names on the voting rolls?
Or something similar?
7
Racism knows no reason. @2 you are right, there is a huge amount of racism in the northern states which have smaller populations of minorities, it is like a fart in church, silent but deadly. It appears that these days people are willing to proclaim themselves the ones who dealt it.
8
@4 Ugly histories are an unfortunate side effect of having any history at all. The western US only sports minor blemishes like Japanese internment camps, race riots, Pine Ridge reservation, and Ronald Reagan because your history didn't really start until after 1865. As for New England, that land was settled so long ago that we've had the chance to forget the heinous fate of its nearly extinct Indian nations.
As the old saying goes, "everybody poops."
9
@2 @7 - you two, and Paul for that matter, need to get fucking real. Tally up the quantifiable aspects of racism (job/housing discrimination, hate crime statistics, gerrymandering etc) in Maine over the last decade, you wouldn't even approach the average year of an Alabama or an Arkansas.

I've lived in the south, I've lived in the north. There's no comparison. Imagine statues of Hitler in every town in Austria - that's what the south is. One never ending series of monuments after monument dedicated to their fight to continue their genocide, a traditional mindset a majority of the inhabitants continue to this day. It's a disgusting place to live, one I hope I never have to move back to.
10
@ 8, all true, but that doesn't really address @ 2's complaint. That's rooted in the unique history of Southern racism, something which may still be a problem, if the study of racist tweets by state was accurate.

The West (and Midwest, and North) all had far fewer minorities than the South. The battle for Civil Rights was waged in the South. The GOP's plan for winning elections by appealing to white racism is called the Southern Strategy. And the desire to go back to a time of white supremacy is most openly on display in the South.

That's what I meant by saying racism is louder there. That doesn't imply that it's their exclusive domain.
11
I think it's more productive for everyone to take a minute to notice their own racism and the racism around them than the racism in some far away place. This is the United States. There's enough racism around for everyone to take their fair share.

12
@9 Reading comprehension check. Firstly I said racists are unreasonable people. After that I said that racism in northern states has traditionally been sub-vocal and is now outing istself. Why did the Aryan Nations feel comfortable settling in Idaho? Why do they have huge clan rallies in Minnesota? Why are there so many neo-fascist skin heads in Oregon? I think it's because there are fewer minorities here, yes I live in the Northwest, so racism isn't on the radar the way it is in the south and their (white) neighbors don't call them out on it. Oregon had laws forbidding settlement by minorites well into recent times. People with racist views in northern states have, up until now, apparenty felt enough shame to keep it to themselves.
13
@12, @2, etc. Yep, there are certainly racist people everywhere. The most racist people I have ever met were from Japan...holy shit. But guess what, the south is REALLY fucking racist, and in a way that is a social norm and is completely acceptable. Don't have to spend much time there to see it, feel it, and be creeped the fuck out by it. Claiming otherwise is just stupid.
14
First off, Maine is not a swing state. Democrats wouldn't need to risk voter fraud to win a presidential election there. Second the state went to Obama by hundreds of thousands of votes. How many black people does this guy think secretly slipped into Maine just for this election?
15
"This Charming Maine"
16
Vacationland.
17
@13 nobody is claiming that the South isn't racist and that it is not a big problem. What I have been pointing out is that a great deal of covert racism exists all over the North. Some people in the north are just suddenly being less covert, as though coming out as racist is somehow OK. Way to streotype an entire country and its people (Japan) BTW.
18
I moved to Maine from Pennsylvania 13 years ago, and I feel so bad for the denizens of the other 49 states. Maine is simply wonderful.

And Paul, you'll be happy to know that Lewiston and Portland both have large African populations, and to no one's surprise, they are breeding rapidly. Just hang in there, buddy.
19
@18 'To no one's surprise' the 'Africans' are 'breeding'? Jesus... Talk about proving the point.
20
@17 - Settle down, son. It's entirely defensible to say that you met with the most racist attitudes in a certain place; it's a statement of fact that does not immediately insinuate that the place in question is in toto racist. The most virulent racists I've met are from Indiana (mainly because I spent so many years there, I had the better chance to meet them), but some of the most courageous moments of anti-racism I witnessed in my life were committed by Hoosiers, as well. I appreciate you wanting to keep people on the up-and-up and your correct call-out of Northern BS, but don't be too trigger happy.

Please wait...

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