The racists move to rural areas to not be around “those people.”
The rest of us in cities are mingling with all sorts of people every day and, mostly, get on fine with each other.
A black person popping up in a rural town would be noticed. A black person in Chicago is just another person and unremarkable (same as everyone).
Back in the 90s I was driving through rural Indiana and I drove through the town where the KKK was founded (I think) and there was a sign at the city limit that said, “N****r, don’t let the sun go down on you here.”
I think that maybe “city racism” is different. I live in a city and I hear a lot of people say all sorts of racist things but an awful lot of them don’t actually act in racist ways. I’m sure sometimes it’s only because they don’t have the opportunity ( you can’t refuse to hire a black guy if you aren’t in charge of hiring) and sometimes it’s because it costs too much. Not in terms of money , but let’s say a racist wants to join an all-white (or all-black) bowling league. Good luck finding one. You’re either going to bowl in a racially mixed league or not at all. Don’t like some racial or ethnic group? What do you do when your daughter marries one?
Which are probably not issues in some rural area that’s 90+ % a particular race.
I won’t dispute that a black person moving into a rural community would face racism.
The point I was arguing was how much racism was a motivation in how people vote.
And I stand by what I wrote; I feel racism is a weak political motivator in rural areas. Rural people, who don’t have any black people living near them, may be more racist than city people in the abstract but their racism doesn’t get triggered on a regular basis the way that happens with urban racists.
Fear of the “other” is behind an awful lot of it. What’s the phrase du jour? Politically correct? Antifa? Critical race theory? Oh wait, it was “woke”, wasn’t it? Or was it “DEI”? Gotta wonder what they use next time.
A few of them don’t even use the dog whistles anymore. Just plain whistles.
FWIW, one main factor connecting those who participated in and were convicted for the January 6th riot was that they lived in areas where the proportion of nonwhites had recently increased.
Original source is a UChicago paper, news coverage is here.
True. But the MOST racist areas, according to a study about ten years ago that looked at voting and Google Search terms, are rural places with a certain, medium level of minority residents. Fewer than this, white folks are okay (not enough diversity to worry about). More than this, white folks are okay (used to diversity).
The overlap of “most racist search terms” and “fewer than otherwise expected voting for Obama in 2012,” with this minority-population middle range, was centered where Kentucky, Ohio, and West Virginia meet.
I’d generalize this. At least Trump voters can make the excuse in 2016 that they didn’t really know who they were voting for: MAGA, a troll, an ineffectual wingnut, a figurehead for Pence? But there is no excuse in 2024 … they knew exactly who they were voting for.
Agreed but one could argue a vote for Trump in '16 was a vote for not-Clinton and a vote in '20 was a vote for not-Biden. By the time we got to '24 and the MAGA-BS for the four years as the disloyal opposition then we should have been at the point where people voted for Harris simply because she was not-Trump.
Yes, rural people are more likely to vote for Trump. But that doesn’t automatically mean that racism is the main motivator in how rural people decide who to vote for.
Absolutely correct. Like @Little_Nemo, I grew up in a rural, farming area. Farmers I knew/know have always voted GOP, for a variety of reasons. But I’m quite sure that racism was not high on that list of reasons, at least when I was growing up on the farm.
Has that attitude changed? Probably, especially when it comes to immigrants, as was mentioned above. But it wasn’t historically so.
I also grew up in a rural, farming area, and I would disagree.
While I agree it’s not a direct, explicit reason to support somebody, it does rank on the list of why they showed up to vote at all.
If it was the only thing he had going for him and it was clear the Democratic candidate would be better for them, then they wouldn’t have changed votes - they just wouldn’t have shown up to vote at all. But somebody saying comforting things while running against a mixed race woman? Yeah, it made a difference.
Having that in his back pocket would just be another reason they saw him as one of their own, despite his obvious disdain for their entire way of life. It wouldn’t be enough on its own but for more people than I find comfortable, it would provide a boost.
It’s an uncomfortable truth of this country that a significant plurality, if not straight majority, are passively racist, often without realizing it themselves, while a small minority are loudly and proudly racist.
While I see some value in debating the best way to engage with those that can be reached, I see absolutely no value in debating whether they exist at all. They clearly do.
My personal anecdata was from a brief stint in NW Indiana. It was - by far - the whitest community I have ever experienced. But the racism was so prevalent and casual - just expressing, “What we all KNOW to be true.” I remember thinking, "How can these folk be so racist against people they NEVER see in their daily lives?
I live in a rural farming community. People are openly and unashamedly racist. They yell racist crap out loud to kind of anyone in earshot including a lot about illegals voting and they wear overtly racist shirts that mix racist, Christian and patriotic messages. They openly display confederate flags.
I moved here from DC. Honestly, I think the people who grew up around it just don’t notice it. Racism is just background noise.
Those are the easiest people to stereotype - the ones you never encounter.
And since they aren’t around, it’s rarely explicitly violent or mouth-foaming, so people don’t even think those attitudes are there. But then, if you spend any time around them, they will say some of the most shockingly racist things like they are normal without even realizing it.
I live in a section of Colorado proud of its farming communities AND proud of its racism. I am convinced the two are related.
One ultra-MAGA I know who said, “It would be fine for him to grab me by the pussy since he’ll get this country right.” also explained that she refused to take a really great job because her new boss would have been brown and “I can’t work for someone like that.” Is there no shame anymore?
I didn’t know we were neighbors. Come over for a beer.