Detroiters visiting Marquette

[Eastburn]

Yes, it is someone's prerogative to go somewhere or not, but to base it only on hearsay isn't giving that place a fair shake. Yes, I am sure there are some people in the U.P. and further south that base their opinion of others on skin color, but, I am also sure that those same people might not cotton to me because I am a liberal Democrat. But I won't paint that whole area as backward or racist just because some of them are. It would be like claiming Detroit is an all black city where everybody hates white people and wants them to stay north of 8 Mile.

I still love you, JC, even though you are a liberal Democrat.

[jcole]

I still love you, JC, even though you are a liberal Democrat.

Thanks, EB, and I still love you even tho you're not

[brainwizzard]

Here's an example of this kind of statement.



I love how the barely couched racism displayed in the original post of this thread is A-OK, but my choice not to expose myself to people like the original poster is not only not OK, but I have to stay home and work on all of Detroit's problems so that I can then visit the UP with a clear conscience. Because we are the world, and everything's A-OK. Wow.

And how often do places like the UP hear about their issues and problems, vs. how often Detroiters have to hear about how f---ed up we are?

The two situations are not equivalent.

Pretty much the point im trying to get across is that being from a place that has to deal with getting its problems constantly thrown in its face, one should understand that making blanket statements like that is not exactly accurate. Im not trying to dispute your feeling on it. if you dont want to go there, then don't, nobody is trying to twist your arm into it. just don't go calling an entire region of people racist, especially when you have no personal reference to it other than a few stories you may have heard. all im saying is that its not right to go and talk shit about an entire region of people that you have no idea about.

[lilpup]

Ya know, I could blame all the trash I see thrown in the streets in Ann Arbor and Ypsilanti on Detroiters, too, but it still doesn't keep the goddamned trash from getting thrown in the street.

People who litter are FUCKING PIGS, no matter their skin color or hometown.


[[and that's probably an insult to pigs)

[noise]

Pretty much the point im trying to get across is that being from a place that has to deal with getting its problems constantly thrown in its face, one should understand that making blanket statements like that is not exactly accurate. Im not trying to dispute your feeling on it. if you dont want to go there, then don't, nobody is trying to twist your arm into it. just don't go calling an entire region of people racist, especially when you have no personal reference to it other than a few stories you may have heard. all im saying is that its not right to go and talk shit about an entire region of people that you have no idea about.

Could you please quote where somebody has made a blanket statement claiming an entire region of people is racist?

[guito13]

That's your choice. I'm not frequenting places where I'm called a n---er. Or where it's clear that people are thinking it.

In all these years, even after breaking bread with lots of friends from the UP or with cabins up there, I've never, ever been invited. SEVERAL of my white friends have told me about the racist attitudes of their families and friends, and the good girlfriend said that she'd invite me but I wouldn't be comfortable up there.

Stop acting as if I'm making this sh-t up. I didn't know the first thing about the UP until people who have lived or have ties up there have mentioned it. Why would I go there? Just to prove a point? Why should I pay people who don't want me someplace to prove a point?

I am not telling you to go there or saying you are making it up. There are people with those attitudes up there BUT there are people with those attitudes down here too. I have felt "unwelcome" while in Detroit yet I come here almost every day and have the attitude that I am not going to let a few idiots keep me away.

I was simply sharing an experience I had with you with the hope of adding another angle to your opinion. Ill tell you the same thing I tell anyone who says they dont want to go up there for one reason or another, "More space for me".

[noise]

I am not telling you to go there or saying you are making it up. There are people with those attitudes up there BUT there are people with those attitudes down here too. I have felt "unwelcome" while in Detroit yet I come here almost every day and have the attitude that I am not going to let a few idiots keep me away.

I was simply sharing an experience I had with you with the hope of adding another angle to your opinion. Ill tell you the same thing I tell anyone who says they dont want to go up there for one reason or another, "More space for me".

This is generally my attitude, and despite my typical apathetic view on most things, I'm inclined to expect the worst out of people in these issues.

That said, I'm not black and won't pretend to relate to someone who is in regards to racism.

[brainwizzard]

Could you please quote where somebody has made a blanket statement claiming an entire region of people is racist?

"That's your choice. I'm not frequenting places where I'm called a n---er. Or where it's clear that people are thinking it."

thats the only one I care to dig through in order to find, but there was also one other comment i remember that was another comment something along the lines of if you are anything but white you will probably get your food sneezed on. i think the race issue has sort of been implied throughout this entire subject.

[gazhekwe]

You know, I am a Yooper, too, but have been living off and on in Detroit most of my adult life. I have family and home at Bay Mills and go home often. It has been my experience my whole working life that stereotypes and misconceptions about the UP and its denizens are rampant around here. I even worked for an agency concerned with approving contractors for state jobs, and before I got there, they never went north of Saginaw because they "knew" there were no minorities up there. Not true at all. And guess what, not all the minorities are American Indians, though we have a substantial presence in the UP. There are many college educated people there who studied at universities and colleges downstate, Wayne State even. People have plenty of contact with other cultures and a lot of them even know how to act around people who they may perceive as different from themselves. So, take a chill pill, youse guys, and go enjoy the UP if you like and don't go if you don't like. It's all good. If you do go, do like my family, don't litter, and if somebody else did, pick it up. Our mother Earth will thank you for it.

[noise]

"That's your choice. I'm not frequenting places where I'm called a n---er. Or where it's clear that people are thinking it."

thats the only one I care to dig through in order to find, but there was also one other comment i remember that was another comment something along the lines of if you are anything but white you will probably get your food sneezed on. i think the race issue has sort of been implied throughout this entire subject.

I didn't read either of those statements as an indictment of ALL PEOPLE IN THAT REGION being racist, but I may be the optimist in this thread [[for a change!).

For the record, I absolutely love the UP.

[Det_ard]

What a thread! Looks like we've got our own Archie Bunker, 2011 black female version. The old trick of swapping words in her posts [[replace UP with Detroit, white with black, etc.) makes it look like some outstate racist hillbilly is posting. Kinda sad... At least Archie had an excuse, he was uneducated and ignorant.

[GUSHI]

<---white, 1st gereration of European back round. I been called honkey, white boy, wigger, arab, sand ni**er, etc, etc, etc,...........Been told go back to your own country[[I was born here) Honkey and white boy was mostly by black folks[[ I grew up in Detroit) Arab, sand ni**er, wigger,[[when we moved to the suburbs) go back to your own country was mostly by white folk. There are racist everywhere and you know what Fuk them!

[noise]

As a white American male, I find that there are few things more distasteful than a white American male claiming they've been discriminated against.

[bartock]

What a thread! Looks like we've got our own Archie Bunker, 2011 black female version. The old trick of swapping words in her posts [[replace UP with Detroit, white with black, etc.) makes it look like some outstate racist hillbilly is posting. Kinda sad... At least Archie had an excuse, he was uneducated and ignorant.

I think we have a winner!

[Melocoton]

If people can't see the latent bordering on blatant racism in the original post, then they just don't want to see it. And English obviously isn't a "black Archie Bunker," whatever on earth that means.

PS: This thread is depressing.

[Det_ard]

Its possible to see the racism in both the OP's post and in English's post, unless someone as you say just doesn't want to acknowledge it. And how can you say in the same sentence that English "obviously isn't" something, and then that you have no idea what that thing is?

[donpablo]

What a thread! Looks like we've got our own Archie Bunker, 2011 black female version. The old trick of swapping words in her posts [[replace UP with Detroit, white with black, etc.) makes it look like some outstate racist hillbilly is posting. Kinda sad... At least Archie had an excuse, he was uneducated and ignorant.

What is sad is your statement. You obviously have no idea what it is like to live in racist America as a black person or you dont care. I agree with noise all the way on this statement:

"As a white American male, I find that there are few things more distasteful than a white American male claiming they've been discriminated against."

[bartock]

As a white American male, I find that there are few things more distasteful than a white American male claiming they've been discriminated against.

as a white American male, I find this statement to be ridiculous.

[noise]

as a white American male, I find this statement to be ridiculous.

A lot of ignorant white men agree with you.

[bartock]

A lot of ignorant white men agree with you.

Nice with the name-calling, asshole. While obviously in all your enlightenment you support discrimination, by definition your statement is ridiculous. It exists. For everyone. Everywhere.


dis·crim·i·nate

   /v. dɪˈskrɪməˌneɪt; adj. dɪˈskrɪmənɪt/ Show Spelled [v. dih-skrim-uh-neyt; adj. dih-skrim-uh-nit] Show IPA verb, -nat·ed, -nat·ing, adjective
–verb [[used without object) 1. to make a distinction in favor of or against a person or thing on the basis of the group, class, or category to which the person or thing belongs rather than according to actual merit; show partiality: The new law discriminates against foreigners. He discriminates in favor of his relatives.

[noise]

Cry me a river, David Duke.

[bartock]

Nice with the name-calling, asshole.

[Bigb23]

He discriminates in favor of his relatives.

From the Kilpatrick thread.

[noise]

Nice with the name-calling, asshole. While obviously in all your enlightenment you support discrimination, by definition your statement is ridiculous. It exists. For everyone. Everywhere.

I think everyone else here realizes we're talking about a specific type of discrimination in this thread.

Childish semantic games do not interest me.

[donpablo]

as a white American male, I find this statement to be ridiculous.

Of course you do.