Is racism in the southern U.S. different than other parts of the country?

@empanadas I definitely believe it. My parents bought a house in the suburbs in 1966, two years after it had been forced to integrate due to the Civil Rights Act. The renters on either side of us broke their leases and moved out. I heard the realtor ask my father to keep us indoors while they showed prospective tenants the vacant houses. Pop smiled and nodded, then invited friends with children to come over the weekend of the showing. They put deck chairs on our front lawn and we all greeted the people brought to see the houses. The realtors were annoyed, but what could they do ? my folks owned our house.

@bijouxbroussard @empanadas I agree with tacobell that racism against Latinos in the parts of California I grew up, and particularly in the era I grew up, was quite blunt. But in general I would say the Jim Crow laws were more subtle, primarily in the racial redlining of real estate and de facto segregation of schools that many whites conveniently chose to be oblivious to. Very real, but not as "in your face" as clearly labeled separate drinking fountains and restrooms, or move to the back of the bus laws of the South.

I can relate to bijouxbroussard's story. When my brother sold his house in the Oakland hills about that same time I was appalled to hear him say he felt guilty selling to a Black couple and wanted to complete his relocation to Seattle quickly before his neighbors found out. When it came my turn to buy, I bought in the flat lands of Oakland, part of a re-integration of the neighborhood after the White flight. Needless to say, my brother and I were of different generations and different world views.

@dancingtongue My best friend’s family were among the first blacks to move into Montclair. Both of us have Louisiana roots, but unlike my family, her parents are younger than mine and were born in California.