Posted on 09/09/2005 2:35:47 PM PDT by RWR8189
CAMP WILLIAMS, Utah (Reuters) - Asked whether he would relocate permanently to Utah after being brought here as a refugee from Hurricane Katrina, Larry Andrew rattled off a series of questions on Friday on the delicate issue of race.
"How do the adults really feel about us moving in?" he asked at Camp Williams, a military base 21 miles south of Salt Lake City housing about 400 refugees from last weeks disaster. "What if I find a Caucasian girl and decide to date her?
"Will I have to deal with whispering behind me and eyeballing me?" asked the 36-year-old black man.
For the mostly poor, black refugees evacuated from New Orleans, few places are as geographically remote and culturally alien as this corner of Utah, where 0.2 percent of the population in the nearest town is black.
Still, some refugees, especially younger adults, say they are ready to make a new start in the region even though they did not know they were coming until the doors shut on the airplane evacuating them from New Orleans.
"I'm planning a whole new life," said Phillip Johnson II, 23, who has already arranged an apartment in Salt Lake City. "It's an opportunity knocking for me out here."
He said even though the population of New Orleans was two-thirds black, his appearance with dreadlocks and a goatee still worked against him. "In New Orleans, being a young black man, you get harassed a lot, stereotyped a lot," he said.
One of the volunteers at the base, Newton Gborway, who moved to Utah from Liberia in West Africa five years ago, shared his first-hand impression of life in an economically prosperous state with a less than one percent black population.
"Don't be shocked and surprised if you meet someone who is mean to you or doesn't want to associate with you because you are black," he told Darisn Evans. "You don't worry about the negative stuff."
"Everything is going to be okay, but it is just a matter of time."
Evans said he would remain in Utah, and would like to work either as a handyman or as a highway patrolman.
His ex-wife Tanya Andrews, 44, said race played a part in their escape from flooded New Orleans, an adventure which she said included looting food, a television and a boat to get to higher land. She said rescuers picked them up only after a lighter-skinned black woman waved down a helicopter.
UTAH OPEN ARMS
So far the local community has welcomed the refugees with open arms, although they say they face an adjustment to life in Utah, stronghold of the socially conservative Mormon Church.
"Any time you go in where you are in the minority -- and I'm experienced in this -- it's going to be more difficult," said Wayne Mortimer, mayor of Bluffdale next to Camp Williams.
He cited his past missionary work in Canada when he was a relatively rare Mormon. Mortimer said his town of 6,500, a well-to-do bedroom community of Salt Lake City, had 20 low-income housing units available for the refugees.
"When you are an affluent community like we have, the greatest blessing we can have is to lift someone else," he said in an interview.
Larry Andrew's brother Adrian and sister Tanya, despite initial shock about being sent to Utah, say they will remain in Utah. Even Larry, despite his doubts, says the state is offering him a unique chance.
"According to what I see, it will be beneficial to me economically, even socially," he said. "But how would they adapt to me?"
until next time, Tonto! I've got to get back to studying for my insurance test. This is sure a lot more fun. Actually, it's downright addicting!
"there a people in the inner city who would shoot me-a white guy-if they could"
I walked through some very tough black areas in my time and maybe had THREE threatening words thrown my way.I asked a black kid in Georgia one time about the"danger"and he explained it quite well
"Man,these n----- see you or some other white boy and they figure you either the welfare man,the cops or some dude from the college bringing in some weed.They ain't going to f--- with you.Now you BLACK and from Broad Acres or somewhere on the West side and come around here then you got problems"
No, not a good move. I don't mean to be cruel, but most the African American's I know and deal with on the west coast seem way more sophisticated and far beyond those I've seen, heard and read about coming out of the NO region. I'd say they'd have a much better chance of surviving in the regions they were raised in.
Take a walk in a black neighborhood in Oakland or Jackson,Miss and see how the locals accept you"
Don't know a thing about Jackson but I LIVE in Oakland and let me tell you-you are in WAY more danger walking in the ghetto if you are black than if you are white.95% of our murders are blacks killed by blacks or Latinos blasted by other Latinos in gang beefs.
Tell your boyfriend to do what I do, I walk into every room as if I belong there. Learn to conversate with every type of person you come into contact with and do so with confidence. That's what I do. I can talk to Black, White, biker dudes, old ladies anybody. You just keep your good home training tucked in the back of your mind. This is coming from a middle class Black conservative who has been married to the same white guy for 17 years.
You go, girl!
Better hope he's Mormon if that's what he wants. Good luck marrying someone outside the church. Which, in my eyes, isn't necessarily a bad thing. Had a few frends marry outside their religion, and it caused all kind of problems.
Hey,you from the"O"?
My advice-if the"sisters"talk some smack about you vis a vis your boyfriend,cuss them out.Get MAD.They will call you all kind of"white bitches and hos"but they will ultimately give you respect.
Anyway,they're just JEALOUS!
What part of SF are you in? We lived in Pacifica, right above Seramonte, for most of our time there. We were right off of Skyline, just south of where route 1 crosses the hills. I ran a retail store in Weslake in Daly City. We spent a lot of time with friends on Texas Street in the Potrero district and had a good number of friends in the Mission and Marina districts. We spent a fair amount of our time around CCSF doing night classes and also got real familiar with Chinatown.
It broke my heart when I went back and found out that Edsel Fong, from Sam Wo's noodle shop, had passed away. We also dearly loved the Sunset district, particularly around UCSF where I had some surgery (had to spend a LOT of time there). We got to be friends with the director of the SF zoo at the time, as well as Roosevelt, the cook at the Leon's Barbecue right outside the zoo.
There are a good many things about that town that I miss, dearly.
Where in Mississippi is your boyfriend from? I was in Jackson, Mississippi, with family during the "race riots" after the Jackson State Massacre back around 1970. We were only about 5 blocks from the school and fully expected to be killed. My aunt and uncle had a small grocery / general store in an all black neighberhood, kind of near where the big mall is now. Almost all of their neighberhood customers came in and told us they would help protect us, but that we had to understand they couldn't come into the store for a few weeks. We had no problems at all and business was back to normal inside of a week. The incident did kind of focus my attention on the issues, however, particularly as a 15 year old from "liberal New York." I still have relatives scattered from Philadelphia, through Jackson and then on down through Moss Point (so far as I can find out all are OK after the storm).
That is true, just like you can't expect to have blue hair and peircings and get a good job (besides tatoo parlor).
Don't dump your boyfriend, that is his viewpoint.
Funny, I grew up in a family that absolutely despised blacks and I heard about it at every family get together. I don't share their feelings fortunately. I think a lot of concerns of racism by blacks, however, taught cause I just don't see blacks being treated the way a lot of them claim to be. It could just be exposure like they say.
Ask 'The Mailman!'
Does your boyfriend mean there are places that would hang him because he's with a white woman?
Thanks for the advice. I'll let him know!
Well,they may HAVE hated me for being white.I can't read their minds.
Yet they didn't ACT on their hate and thats all that really matters.
Then again,I don't walk the streets with"victim"written into my mannnerisms and physical precence either.
taught=are taught
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