What is the least racist major US City?

Are we including satellite communities and suburban sprawl here? What kind of weight to we give to state enforced racism (i.e., police) when that's a sort of national incidence? I mean, I daresay that Detroit or Cleveland are some of the least "racist" if you can omit the gargantuan white flight and continual racism on the part of those who no longer identify as being part of a city "like that" and just look at the core population. But for Detroit, once you bring the wealthy white people in areas like Ferndale into it, well...
 
I have not personally observed much racism in NYC.

Place where I've heard the most racist comments is probably Florida. So many ordinary folks there are closet racists.
 
I've spent a combined seven years of my life on Oahu so maybe I have insight on Hawaii.

Are there any black people in Honolulu? Serious question.

Very few and I'd guess almost all of them are fairly well-off active duty military personnel and their families. They mostly live on the bases or in suburban neighborhoods around Pearl Harbor or on the island's west side away Honolulu. Most discrimination they face is probably from within the military but I think most of them are fairly integrated with military culture and I'd doubt (though I could be wrong) there's much animosity in the ranks between blacks and whites. At least not compared to most of the country. From my experience, white and black military children who live off base will tend to band together due to their shared military background and common "mainland" heritage.

Japanese-White-Native racism? Gentrification? I know nothing about Honolulu.
There's definitely gentrification in certain ways but it's different. For instance, Ewa, on Oahu's west side, has several historic and somewhat impoverished neighborhoods predominantly populated by the descendants of Filipino plantation workers. For the last 15-20 years, these neighborhoods have been increasingly encroached by tract housing developments that have created an obvious sense of wealth segregation. There are streets where on one side it looks like a poor Filipino village but the other side is guarded off by ornate knolls and fencing with multi story $700,000 + homes looming over. The people who inhabit the developments are far more likely to be white and Japanese but there definitely some Filipinos and mixed race white/Japanese/Filipino/Pacific Islanders too. The developments come with the expected more upscale shopping centers and have screwed traffic on the side of the island, all of which have probably reduced the community's livability for the historic Filipino inhabitants.

In general, the main race-related conflict is between "locals" and "haoles" which I think everyone expected. By locals, I mean Filipinos, Puerto Ricans, Pacific Islanders (Samoans, Native Hawaiians, etc), Japanese and people of mixed descent who've been on the island for at least a generation or too. The haoles are mainly military people, tourists, or got located to the state for some sort of white collar work. Among the people of partial or total Native Hawaiian ancestry in particular, the haoles are (as you'd expect) often seen as foreign occupiers. Other locals somewhat ironically adopt this view as well but it rarely leads to violence. If you're white and not a dick, you can easily be accepted by the locals. Among the locals themselves, some view Filipinos as the island's "Mexicans" or think the Japanese are self-centered, etc.

Overall, I'd say that when it comes to race problems, everything I've discussed is very benign compared to the rest of the country and the state fairly harmonious. Even to whites, people are usually friendly and the fact that they pride themselves in the Aloha spirit undermines a lot of bad will.
 
Are there any black people in Honolulu? Serious question.

Does racism only happen to black people? Serious question.

There's one particular white guy who is suffering from racism. He keeps saying he hasn't had his balls deflated but no one believes him.
 
Are there any black people in Honolulu? Serious question.

I remember when I was working in a supermarket in Hawaii and Barack Obama came in. He was a teenager at the time. The reason I remember is because there were virtually no black kids in Honolulu. They were all kids of service people, and so lived in the Pearl Harbor area. Total black population is Hawaii at that time was under 1%,
 
Why is this thread so American-centric ???

Why not "the least racist major city in the world"?

That's a good point. But it's always this way. And most Americans don't even have much awareness of the outside world at all.

Let's not forget that GW Bush (the President of the most powerful nation on Earth!!!) thought that Wales was in a US state.

http://www.boreme.com/posting.php?id=31543#.VXAGQsbh7MI
 
That's a good point. But it's always this way. And most Americans don't even have much awareness of the outside world at all.

Let's not forget that GW Bush (the President of the most powerful nation on Earth!!!) thought that Wales was in a US state.

http://www.boreme.com/posting.php?id=31543#.VXAGQsbh7MI

But maybe he confused Wales with New South Wales?

New South Wales is in Australia, but at least the continent starts with "A".
 
And most Americans people don't even have much awareness of the outside world at all.
Fixed that for you. :lol: In all seriousness, though, I do think it's a global topic. I think that European countries are having issues with race, in their own ways more serious than the United States. I've heard that race is a concern in places like China, Australia and Brazil, which aren't the first places one might think of when one thinks of racism.
 
I guess if we define "least racist" 100% by residential segregation levels. I bet that's a huge factor, but I don't think it's the only one.

Yeah but I can't really imagine a metric that would overturn residential segregation, at least on the levels that Whomp's graphic demonstrates.

I guess it would have to be a city that doesn't even have members of a certain race and super-hates on any of them that come through.

Come to think of it, Portland, OR may fit that bill. Oregon was founded as a White Man's Paradise and kept out Blacks and Asians from settling there almost completely well into the 20th Century. Even today the state is 78% white, with only 2%, but 11% Hispanic.

EDIT: Obviously referring to MOST racist here, not least.
 
Place where I've heard the most racist comments is probably Florida. So many ordinary folks there are closet racists.

From my experience older people tend to be on average more racist than youngins. That's a generalization based on anecdotal experience, so take it for what you will, but Florida does have a bit of an older crowd.. so...
 
From my experience older people tend to be on average more racist than youngins. That's a generalization based on anecdotal experience, so take it for what you will, but Florida does have a bit of an older crowd.. so...

It is anecdotal but it also makes sense. I think in today's culture it would be unlikely to train racism into the child of non racist parents, and that a fair number of offspring of racists are disappointing their parents. If we can continue that trend for a few more generations we should see distinct improvements. Well, we won't see them, but they will be there.
 
LA is about 100x worse than SF. LA riots anyone? No way LA wins the not racist crown.

Remember the LA riots? Rioters were black, hispanic, white, etc. It was a very integrated riot. I remember newschopper shot showing a limousine pull up in front of Fedco, which was being looted, and white guys jump out and join in.

For an analysis of LA racism, I'd make a distinction. First, there is the population in general. They get along well. Folks have come from all over. Last I heard, 106 languages are spoken in the home.

But then there are the cops. Chief Darryl Gates wanted L.A. to have the smallest ratio of cops-to-citizens. With so few cops, the way they keep order is to come down hard, especially on minorities.
 
Remember the LA riots? Rioters were black, hispanic, white, etc. It was a very integrated riot. I remember newschopper shot showing a limousine pull up in front of Fedco, which was being looted, and white guys jump out and join in.

For an analysis of LA racism, I'd make a distinction. First, there is the population in general. They get along well. Folks have come from all over. Last I heard, 106 languages are spoken in the home.

But then there are the cops. Chief Darryl Gates wanted L.A. to have the smallest ratio of cops-to-citizens. With so few cops, the way they keep order is to come down hard, especially on minorities.

It should be noted that during the Ferguson riots the protests in LA were also very integrated affairs, unlike a lot of places. A lot of people attach more racism to the LA riots than is probably warranted. LA had a very severe blue problem, which is what really set things off even more than the racial aspect of beating up Rodney King.
 
First, there is the population in general. They get along well.

A couple years ago I was somewhere in Los Angeles and was trying to use public transit to get to Magic Mountain. I was standing at a bus stop and this big Latino looking guy walks up right beside me.. Tall, bald, muscly, with tattoos, gangsta-like clothing (from what I remember, can't really describe it, that's what it made me think of).. looked like a guy you wouldn't want to mess with..

And.. he chats me up. I forget why or how, but maybe I looked lost. And he was the nicest guy... He helped me figure out exactly how to get where I wanted to go, and we chatted until the bus came. Friendliest guy possible.

Did not expect that at all in Los Angeles, a foreign place I was still getting used to.. a place where the traffic seems to make people into crazy honkers.. A place where I didn't really expect great hospitality from random people on the street. and I mean, I especially didn't expect it from an intimidating looking guy.

So that's my anecdote about Los Angeles and its inhabitants.
 
Let's not forget that GW Bush (the President of the most powerful nation on Earth!!!) thought that Wales was in a US state.

Wales is part of the UK. The UK is part of the USA - de-facto speaking. They just lack representation.
 
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