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Yep, a change is not gonna come to Haley Barbour’s peeps any time soon. Does this news suggest Kate and I aren’t going to see a welcome mat rolled out for us if we drive down to Mississippi? (TPM):
Americans nationwide are evenly divided over the issue of same sex marriage. But Republicans in Mississippi are divided over a wholly different wedlock issue: interracial marriage.In a PPP poll released Thursday, a 46% plurality of registered Republican voters said they thought interracial marriage was not just wrong, but that it should be illegal. 40% said interracial marriage should be legal.
It was also noted that a Gallup poll rated the state’s residents as the most conservative in the nation. I wonder how that aligns to the poverty rate and level of education. In the PPP poll referenced above:
If Barbour makes a bid for the White House, he would have home-state support. His 37% in an eight-candidate field puts him at almost a 2:1 advantage over the next contender, neighboring Arkansas’ Mike Huckabee, who earns 19%. Newt Gingrich and Sarah Palin each get 10%, with Mitt Romney back at 6%, Michele Bachmann at 5%, Tim Pawlenty at 3%, and Ron Paul at 2%, with 9% undecided or preferring someone else.Without Barbour in the race, Huckabee gets most of Barbour’s supporters, jumping up to 35%, followed by Palin’s 20%, Gingrich’s 18%, and Romney still way behind at 8%, and the others pretty much running in place. Romney has typically done poorly in Southern state primary matchups in recent PPP polls, but this is his worst performance yet.
While on the topic of interracial relationships and racism in general, I think the problem is that there is still more visible and outlandish cultural tolerance of racism in the deep South.
But that doesn’t let the North off the hook. I’ve said many times that the most segregated place I’ve lived is NYC (during the 80s). Bensonhurst, Bay Ride and Howard Beach were Sundown Towns. If you were black or brown, you knew not to be there after dark. Beatdowns and murders for not being where you belonged were not uncommon.
However, you’ll see many interracial couples of all kinds in NYC, and many down here in my part of NC. That doesn’t mean racism is over here in the Mid-Atlantic South, but in general interracial couples are not socially disapproved at a level that prevents individuals from seeing a more diverse dating/marrying pool. That comes from having more diversity overall in metro areas here.
There is more cultural resistance in the deep South, which is less secular; this attitude would be inline with it being the most conservative state overall.
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and never mind re: marriage equalityThe major problem with parts of the deep South is that we’ve definitely gotten “the eye” from both black and white people in Birmingham (and that’s a large city in Alabama) when Kate and I have walked around. It’s the gay thing and the race thing. We experience none of that here in Durham. Interracial couples are all over the place. I see much less of it in Birmingham. I can’t speak for Mississippi, but I imagine there are still plenty of Sundown Towns that would make it uncomfortable to be as an interracial couple when your car breaks down.
Sorry Pam, but when those 46% of Miss Republicans were contemplating the horrorof interracial marriage, you’d best believe they were thinking of the “traditional” kind involving one man and one woman of different hues. I’m positive that 98% would be against the type represented by you and your wife.
LOLOLOf course, that was the point of mentioning my marriage. The irony is in MS, no one would know we were married, but they most certainly would see is as an oddity for socializing with one another. When in Birmingham it’s pretty clear, based on several experiences there, that some people, black and white, can’t quite figure out why we are together, as in “what is their relationship” and it’s not because they are thinking “gay.” There is still so much self-segregation in the deep South that it’s almost a cross cultural problem to deal with us. They don’t see how it “works.”
It was pretty mind blowing for Kate to see it play out.
This is not unique to the South!It happens here in the northern states too, especially when you get away from the larger cities. I live about 60 miles from Chicago, yet except for the climate and the dialect of English spoken, it’s not that much different from Mississippi or Alabama, as far as race is concerned.
Locally, many were recently opposed to an expansion of Amtrak service to our area because it was thought it would bring “those people” into the area. Another community, not too far from here recently had commuter rail from Chicago extended to their area. The station was placed at the very edge of town and you have to drive a circuituous route to get to it, as opposed to having trains come right into the middle of town. Again “those people” were the underlying concern.
When I was a kid in the early to mid 70′s, my mother (white, non-custodial) was dating a black man. She wanted to be close to us kids in the ‘burbs, but she had a helluva time finding apartments locally, because once landlords found out she had black visitors, they wouldn’t rent to her, or if they did, they’d find a reason to not renew a lease or break it!
Would be an excellent followup question whenever someone says they thinkmarriage is just one man/one woman (at a time). The next question in any credible survey from now on should be “Do you think marriage between members of different races should be banned?”
Would certainly point out the level of hate and bigotry of those claiming to “protect marriage” at a whole different level to the moderates.
Agree. Put this question in every marriage poll from now on.Finding a baseline of bigotry for all marriages would be most informative.
I agreeI see it in upper state NY when we visit my wife’s family. I hear her family comment on mixed race couples from Fort Drum shopping off base.
None of this is really shockingWith the staggering level of racist language and imagery that has been openly used by Republicans since we elected a black President…that the same people have problem with interracial relationships is not exactly news.
Something like 43% or Republicans think that the President is a Kenyan born, militan, mau mau supporting marxist despite ample evidence to the contrary. These are the same people that, despite being surrounded by white people by choice, thinks that he “hates white culture.”
Thus its not surprising that these people have more general racist tendencies. What’s funny is that they’ll call YOU a racist if you point out their racism.
This country has some very serious issues with race that will have to be dealt with eventually. That white conservative population in the South is going to completely come unglued in a few years because come 2019, whites will no longer be a majority when it comes to children. 25 years after that and they won’t be in the majority at all. You better believe that there are people that are not going to be able to deal with that new reality and are going to start lashing out in all directions.
Better tell Maggie Srivistav to stay out of Mississippi.Wouldn’t want her followers there to take away their precious money when they find out about her Indian husband.
FantasyWouldn’t it be great to see Clarence Thomas and his wife be treated the same, Pam? Maybe it’d shock the bastard out of his complacency and his assimilationist mindset?
In many ways, the midwest is at least as racist as the southAs I recall, the harshest official responses to the civil rights movements — police dogs, fire hoses, etc — occured in Chicago and Detroit. Racism in the midwest is not as institutionalized as in the south, but it is definitely a large part of the cultural mindset.
Why do you think she tries so hard to hide her marriage?Still uses her maiden name, never wears a wedding ring…. she know the kind of people she’s trying to recruit.
I’m about 20 mile from ChicagoIt’s pretty bad here too. There was an interracial family who moved into our neighborhood in the 70′s and were harassed but they are still there. The father passed away in the late 80′s but the mother, one daughter, and grandkids are still there. People still freak out about interracial marriages, but mostly black and white. There is a large Asian population around here and people don’t seem to give that a lot of thought, although apparently my sister’s friend (who I didn’t actually know) decided to give me a hard time all through high school about my two closest friends being Taiwanese and mixed Chinese/Austrian. If she only knew that one of our other closest friends was gay she would have had a field day but we never gave it much thought. We usually just laughed at her when she started stuff because she was just ridiculous.
I have never shied away from the interracial stuff myself but when talking to other mixed couples it seems like as long as the man is white there’s none of that “they’re stealing our women” added into it. While that doesn’t apply to same sex couples, I find it to be weird. A nice black, Asian, Hispanic, etc guy vs a loser who just happens to have pink skin? They don’t seem to realize that it’s them chasing women away. Contrary to what they believe, we can make our own decisions! After reading Pam’s post and writing that I’m wondering if what she and Kate are experiencing is something along the lines of loser guys thinking that lesbians hate men and there’s a woman-stealing element mixed in. Who knows with the bigot types, they are just so beyond bizarre that I can’t fathom what they find offense in. It’s kind of like a fetish to them, isn’t it?
Well…I think that tye of non-institutionalized racism is all over the place.
It’s defintely in New England (can’t get much harsher than the Boston desegregation riots) and out west.
So…If a Mississippi couple get divorced, are they still siblings?
Sort of OT, butI’m guessing the community opposed to the commuter rail expansion was either Elburn or Manhattan. Am I warm?
That’s odd, PamI thought — per your own words — that Kate identifies as Lebanese, and not as white?
Now she’s white?
Radical racial transformation if I’ve ever seen one!
No, you have it wrong (again)Kate identifies as Lebanese, but our government allows those who are of Arab descent to classify themselves as white, an irony considering Kate’s dad and that side of the family is darker than I am.
Also, you neglect to realize that an interracial relationship isn’t always black/white. What about Asian/black, Latino/White, etc. In fact back in the good old days of slavery, even two black people couldn’t marry; they had to jump the broom.