# Race Wars **URL:** \ **Category:** The BBQ Pit\ **Created:** [May 16, 2005, 10:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/race-wars/304152 "2005-05-16T22:59:49Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 12\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![kidchameleon](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/898d66/32.png) [@kidchameleon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kidchameleon)\ **Post date:** [May 17, 2005, 6:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/race-wars/304152/21 "2005-05-17T18:32:54Z")
> [@tomndebb](#): > > Actually, Massachussetts was the accident; I was aiming for M states containing an I. Wasn’t it Mariland briefly in the '80s? 😛 ---
**Author:** ![LindyHopper](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/ebca7d/32.png) [@LindyHopper](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LindyHopper)\ **Post date:** [May 17, 2005, 6:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/race-wars/304152/22 "2005-05-17T18:35:43Z")
> [@Weirddave](#): > > What are we, chopped liver? > > MD = Maryland > Carry on. (I’ll let you Big Sky folks stand up for yourselves) > > 😛 OK then. MT = Montana. Heh. ---
**Author:** ![John\_Carter\_of\_Mars](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/2bfe46/32.png) [@John\_Carter\_of\_Mars](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/John_Carter_of_Mars)\ **Post date:** [May 17, 2005, 7:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/race-wars/304152/23 "2005-05-17T19:06:45Z")
I go to and through Mississippi a lot. I like it there. Nice people and nice places, for the most part. Let’s take a little tour around the country, counter-clickwise: Miami, Washington, D.C., New York, Chicago, Portland, San Francisco, Los Angeles, Phoenix, Houston. No gas station robberies in any of those places? No racial problems? No cops that don’t want to get involved in neighborhood disputes that could turn out to be racially explosive? _RIGHT!_ :rolleyes: The OP’s situation is bad, but hardly unique to Mississippi. If this situation was in Chicago, how many of you would immediately jump on a bandwagon saying “Chicago is ass”? I’ve been to Chicago, and liked it there just fine. Let’s not paint the whole state of Mississippi with a broad brush just because the OP lives in a tough neighborhood. Y’all have some tough neighborhoods in your towns, too. You know it and I know it. ---
**Author:** ![Hamlet](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/hamlet/32/2818_2.png) [@Hamlet](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hamlet)\ **Post date:** [May 17, 2005, 7:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/race-wars/304152/24 "2005-05-17T19:17:49Z")
MH = Marshall Islands [sub]_damn state-ists_[/sub] ---
**Author:** ![Ponder\_Stibbons](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ponder_stibbons/32/343_2.png) [@Ponder\_Stibbons](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ponder_Stibbons)\ **Post date:** [May 17, 2005, 7:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/race-wars/304152/25 "2005-05-17T19:32:37Z")
Race Wars, huh? OK, how about … _NASCAR_ vs _Formula One_ … what? ---
**Author:** ![Frank](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/3d9bf3/32.png) [@Frank](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Frank)\ **Post date:** [May 17, 2005, 7:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/race-wars/304152/26 "2005-05-17T19:38:29Z")
MB - Manitoba ---
**Author:** ![drachillix](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/48db29/32.png) [@drachillix](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/drachillix)\ **Post date:** [May 18, 2005, 2:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/race-wars/304152/27 "2005-05-18T14:56:21Z")
> [@tomndebb](#): > > Other avenues, if you are not getting served, would be to get hold of whichever TV station is most likely to act as muckrakers and ask them if they would come out and video you phoning in a complaint or following you to the precinct station to file a complaint. (Unfortunately, you just missed sweeps month when you’d have had a better chance of getting them to look for dirt.) If the TV stations don’t seem to care, try the newspaper. A digital cam with video clip and audio capabilities could also be worth its weight in gold. News shows love dramatic home video, if anything heated or emotional crops up . If you prefer a more static arrangement there are several web camera security systems out there that are childs play to set up and will capture anything that moves in their field of view. You already have a PC so the expensive part is done. ---
**Author:** ![LonesomePolecat](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/a88e57/32.png) [@LonesomePolecat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LonesomePolecat)\ **Post date:** [May 18, 2005, 3:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/race-wars/304152/28 "2005-05-18T15:26:07Z")
> [@Merijeek](#): > > Amazing. I’ve been here for five years, but, whenever I point out on the SDMB what a sewer Mississippi is, I’m a bad guy. > > Ah well. > > -Joe The sewer’s in your head. You’re a bigot. ---
**Author:** ![Tristan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tristan/32/18058_2.png) [@Tristan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tristan)\ **Post date:** [May 18, 2005, 3:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/race-wars/304152/29 "2005-05-18T15:47:46Z")
> [@LonesomePolecat](#): > > The sewer’s in your head. You’re a bigot. Really? Sounds more like he doesn’t like Mississippi. Not sure where being a bigot comes out in that. Now, if he said “All them darkies make 'ol Miss a sewer”, you might have something. But he didn’t. He’s just stating that he hates the place he lives. If I were still stuck in Montana, I would probably be saying the same thing. ---
**Author:** ![NinetyWt](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/cc9497/32.png) [@NinetyWt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/NinetyWt)\ **Post date:** [May 18, 2005, 6:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/race-wars/304152/30 "2005-05-18T18:06:58Z")
Have you considered talking to the Mayor, or the Aldermen? [Here’s](http://www.vicksburg.org/city/index.htm) a link to them. Vicksburg’s public image is very important to them since it is linked directly to tourism. I think you will find that any of these three people would be happy to talk with you about the problem. Also, it’s been my experience that you CAN find Mississippians who are working for change; as mentioned already, there are probably groups in your area similar to Mission Mississippi who would love to work with your neighborhood re: racial reconciliation. Everybody knows that it’s not a PLACE that is a “sewer”, or kills people at gas stations, but it’s the folks who live there that are/do. (please excuse the awkward construction of that! 😛 ) And, again obviously, Mississippi is no different from any other place on Earth in that we have the good, the bad, and the ugly here all cheek-by-jowl with one another. However, I see that more and more Mississippians are committed to weeding out the ugliness of the “race war”, and that gives me hope for the future. And **Anaamika** , I’m sorry to hear about your uncle’s murder. ---
**Author:** ![MisterThyristor](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/ecccb3/32.png) [@MisterThyristor](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MisterThyristor)\ **Post date:** [May 18, 2005, 7:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/race-wars/304152/31 "2005-05-18T19:47:43Z")
> [@Patty & Chuck](#): > > I don’t know any neighbors on this street we live on. My grandma lives on a street right up from ours, and I know her neighbor. That still might help maybe. But my grandma’s been living here longer than my mother and I have, and she’s tried multiple times to have the police help her, but they never do. I’m not trying to judge or anything, but isn’t it possible that the fact that you don’t know any of your neighbors part of the problem? If your neighbors know you, it’s possible that might help you a lot, you wouldn’t be the “other”. A few years back, when I was still married, we lived in a community which was appoximately 80% African-American, and we were the minority there. But we connected with our neighbors, conversing with them almost daily, trading recipes, etc. My wife stopped a buglary in progress by reporting it when she noticed a window open in a home where she knew the residents were on vacation. We tried to help keep order by reporting to the police when a group of teenagers was hanging around our cul-de-sac, drinking and throwing the bottles on the ground. And yes, we suffered minor repercussions for the last one (our car was egged), but we had the support of the neighbors. And when it was time for us to leave, we had visits from many of them trying to convince us to stay, that the neighborhood would be worse without us. I don’t want to bring a Pollyannish unreality to the situation or try to say that everything was perfect in our case or would be in yours, but I think that reaching out to neighbors is usually a good thing. ---
**Author:** ![MisterThyristor](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/ecccb3/32.png) [@MisterThyristor](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MisterThyristor)\ **Post date:** [May 18, 2005, 7:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/race-wars/304152/32 "2005-05-18T19:50:06Z")
“buglary” = burglary [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/race-wars/304152.md?page=1)