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?"
This title, and the comments of Larry Andrew in the first couple of paras, say volumes more about the culture of the undeclass in New Orleans than it does about anybody in the entire state of Utah.
Welcome to the 21st Century, Larry, you freakin' moron.
"his appearance with dreadlocks and a goatee still worked against him"
I don't care what color a guy is, his dreadlocks and goatee will always work against him. Yuck! He should shave his beard and cut his hair. People will then take him seriously. After he makes his first million he can grow all the hair he wants, but he probably won't want to then.
You'll be judged by your words and actions. How you are accepted will be up to you.
That won't play in Utah. Get the chip off and they'll be suprised how well they can get along in most red states.
Heck, there is the Utah Jazz with a number of black basketball players.
6'-10" Karl Malone tells the story of standing at the Salt Lake City airport one day when she heard an elderly white woman addressing him.
"Young man, young man", she called unaware who he was. "Will you pick up my bags?" She assumed because he was black and standing around an airport he must have been a baggage handler.
Malone, rather than making a scene, picked up the lady's bags and took them other to the check-in counter.
Uh. I'm "from there". Black-white interracial relationships, while not common, aren't rare. I don't see a big social ostracism attached to them.
My wife's Danish great-grandparents never liked your Swedish great-grandparents.
Don't ask me why. I never had a dog in that fight.
My take is all he wants to date is caucasian women.
Unless you are a student, an artist, live in NYC or Los Angeles, or work in Starbucks, this appearance will generally work against you. Same thing goes for my black sisters with the 'unique' hair styles and colors.
I have interviewed a number of younger black people for para-professional jobs. They tried to better themselves by getting a certificate or community college degree and yet never learned that if you want to play the game, you have to wear the uniform.
Well, sounds like you better not get your wife and me in the same room together or the long dormant Danish/Swedish Wars might FLARE UP AGAIN!
If I took you to any number of inner-city neighborhoods, there are people who would shoot me (a white guy) if they could. I know where your boyfriend's coming from.
We don't see people by their color out west - that's generally something practiced by people of color, not whites. Anymore, the only racists I know or read about are black.
Humidity difference? How about altitude: SLC altitude 4,266 ASL. I guess learning to breathe would be a good start.
Unfortunately that applies to all colors. Too much Britney Spears influence.
Yep. I was trying to make a point about this fellow, but the inability to recognize what is appropriate work dress crosses all color lines.
Utah will be a Nirvana then. Not only are most Utah women overwhelmingly Caucasian but their culture strongly encourages them to get married to a man, no less too!
How about Blue Skies and Stars instead of smog and haze? or CLEAR water. A couple who evacuated came through here and stayed in the campground.. interviewed in the paper one of the comments was about the lake -- couldn't belive the water was so clear you could actually see through it!!
"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."
And there are many black neighborhoods where whites cannot go in every big city of America (LA, Detroit, NYC) because they will be physically attacked by blacks who HATE whites. There may be some whites who would physically attack blacks in a few places, but not near as many places where blacks will attack whites. The south is not full of lynch mobs as everyone paints it.
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