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We moved after MTSU. High school was in an NC county that was 37% white. College nearly the same (the county, not the actual college). Army Reserves was 50/50. Worked/lived til marriage in NC/SC. Mom worked and sister still works in Marlboro county in SC. It’s 50% black. I’ve been around a lot of black people. Not many in my Pilates class, PTA mtgs, or in our rural New Jersey neighborhood these days, though.

I’ve come to realize blacks are a lot like West Virginians, where my husband is from & went to school, where we once lived full time, and still own a house, hunting cabin, and a bunch of land. Can’t lump all blacks into one category, or even two. Can’t lump all West Virginians into one or two categories either: assuming they’re all fat, feral, welfare/disability/meth addicts who’ve served time and can’t read. Even though plenty live in the county around our property. There are also plenty of hard working, really decent West Virginians, too. The decent outweigh the trash 10:1. You just wouldn’t know it by appearances sometimes.

Everyone is different and assumptions don’t usually work in the holler, or in Bennettsville, SC, til you actually get to know someone.

Maybe Tennessee is different. Probably is since I lived there.

Understand that my telling you all this isn’t to try and start a pissing match with you. I’m letting you know my experiences have been different than yours, but also probably pretty similar, and I get where you’re coming from on all this. I disagree with some of it, but that’s life.