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?"
And I'm sure if they make positive contributions to society, Utah will be more than happy to embrace them.
Will anyone call this racism?
I would find the climate change the hardest thing.
The lack of humidity is opressive.
they are part of Utah already. New Orleans Jazz/Utah Jazz.
Give me an F'in break! The Jessie Jackson victomhood mentality kicks in again.
I think maybe this is what Jesse and Al fear the most. People getting out of the slums and realizing it's not the "white man" that hurt them as much as the race baters.
Maybe they weren't picked up earlier because they were busy looting a tv?
susie
I have a business here in SLC.. I'll hire one for handyman, and I'll start him at $10.00 per hour with benefits.
Looks like I'd better get in touch with Camp Williams.
They have to pass muster with Robert Redford first.
I feel his pain. As a 4th generation American of Swedish descent, I too feel uneasy since Americans of Swedish descent are not 50% + 1 of the United States' populace.
My boyfriend is black (i'm white) and he's from Mississippi. He was raised in a great, middle-class family. His mom is an English teacher and his dad was the superintendent of food service at the school district in his little town. He had a good life, a full scholarship for track to MS Valley State, but he is very self-conscious still about being black.
Blacks from the S.F. Bay Area are quite different because they are used to being accepted. But my boyfriend told me, "If I took you back to Mississippi, there are people who would hang me if they could. There are still places Blacks can't/won't go - because of the intense pressure."
It's getting better everywhere, but there is something about the deep South that I don't think many of us can understand, unless we were from there.
Yeah, wait until NO folks find out that the humidity can be less than 90%. Culture shock.
Were I an evacuee, I would take for granted the kindness of those who offered me a place to live, and put my focus on being worthy of those mercies.
You just hit town, man. Why don't you worry about finding a job first?
Sheesh.
Maybe the helicopter didn't stop by because they couldnt' fit the freakin' TV in there. I know if I'm starving and desperate, the three things's I'd loot woudl be food to eat, a boat to escape in, and a TV to watch football on.
By a strange coincidence, groups of Mormons who visit New Orleans have many of the same questions.
"Any time you go in where you are in the minority
now he knows how whitty felt in NO.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.