The following Featured Post comes from Relationship Group 3, Thread 5.

1. How does your geographical location effect racial/religious/cultural issues that you face
Tue, Sep 14, 1999 - 1:51 PM/EST
bethanie

One of the things that struck me about the ALS series is that
the Simms family chose to live in NY city in order for their
daughters to have better opportunities. My husband and I
thought long and hard over this issue. Two years ago he got
out of the Coast Guard and we had to decide for ourselves
where to live. Most of my family lives in Mississippi, and I was
mostly raised in the South, I have one brother who lives in NJ.
But I didn't want to raise our child there, nor did he, so we
chose Seattle which is where his mother lives. We have found
a lot of acceptance and tolerance here, living in a very diverse
community, with people of all races.

A few weeks ago, I had
my daughter down at the park by lake Washington watching
the ducks. Not three feet from me, and Asian man sat with his
daughter and a big bag full of crackers. Without a second
thought, he passed some crackers over to us so we could
have a part in the fun. It kind of made me think of how lucky
we are to be living in a place where our daughter will have an
opportunity to interract with and know so many different races
and kinds of people. We would never find that in the South,
where my parents are from there is so much open hostility
right now, and has been for years, I feel it would have been
very stressful for us as a family to live near my family. Just
wondering if anyone else has faced this, and how they feel
about where they live.

2. Location.....location......location
Tue, Sep 14, 1999 - 2:39 PM/EST
sebastian

Living in the city where people black and white died for civil rights never lets me forget how location effects how we interact with one another. There are places in Alabama in which I might would think twice about taking a white female friend for both of our sake. It is not nearly as bad as things were in the past, however it is still here among on both sides of the fence.

I feel lucky to have a wide variety of friends and sometimes their acquaintances allow me a brief glance into how they were brought up. The old south is alive and well so those who view interracial dating as I do always have to keep in mind that things are much better than they were, but things are not nearly where they should be.

How is it around the world, guys?

3. geographical location
Tue, Sep 14, 1999 - 4:05 PM/EST
mistacia

I feel that this is a very important issue. Especially when you are raising children. It is our responsibility to raise our children in a multi-cultural area. We used to live in a all white community and the stereotyping and overall lack of knowledge is there. Though it is every where there is less of it in our multi-cultural community. Though it may seem like we are sheltering our children from racism, i look at it as i am exposing our children to children like themselves and many other cultures. I believe a small part of racism comes from the lack of knowledge and the unknown of what other races are like.

I am not saying there aren't children out there who have lived in all white communities or one race communities and not thrived into healthy adults. I do have friends who chose to do so and there was a few struggles on the way. And i don't feel i should expose our children to such. Just my thoughts. :)

4. geographical location
Tue, Sep 14, 1999 - 4:47 PM/EST
melissa

I agree with what Mistacia posted. We lived in an all-black neighborhood for six years. When we decided to move it was not because of the racial makeup of the neighborhood, but issues relating to crime, space, schools, etc.

When looking for a new area to live in, we were very conscious of the racial makeup. There were areas we liked that we never considered because they were too white. Not only did I not want to risk having a cross burned on my lawn, or my house vandalized. I also refuse to raise a biracial child in an all-white environment. An all-black environment is not ideal either, but if I had to choose, I'd probably choose a black neighborhood over a white one.

In the Chicago area it's damn near impossible to find a diverse neighborhood or suburb. There are a few but they have other drawbacks. The town we chose is presently mixed, but that's only because the whites haven't all moved out yet, give it a couple of years. It's so ridiculous to me. Since we moved in a year ago, at least five houses on our street have sold. Every one had a white family moving out and a black family moving in.

Ideally we'd be able to live in a multi-cultural, multi-racial, multi-everything environment, but I don't see it happening, there are just too many scared and ignorant people in the world. Or at least around here...

5. Location....
Tue, Sep 14, 1999 - 4:57 PM/EST
sebastian

I agree with both of you ladies on where you live when it comes to children and raising a family. I am somewhat concerned about the challenges my cute little neice will have to face growing up bi-racial and beautiful in the south. Her parents (my bother and his wife) have no plans to relocate at this time.

The "white flight" phenom is happening everywhere in America, so finding diverse communities to live in will become more and more of a challenge. However, I don't want to stay here in the deep south all my life. I think the opportunties to meet and live among people different than myself are more prevalent in the north now than the south.