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I'm about to move to Gainesville

"Well in my 20+ years here I've never seen it and how am I acting crazy?"

I've never seen a KKK rally, but I've seen the racism stuff.
 
Well in my 20+ years here I've never seen it...

Congrats?

There's racial segregation in just about every town or city, it's not unique to Gainesville or the south.

To not offend your sensibilities I won't discuss my experiences as a black kid in Gainesville and why I thought Tallahassee and Gainesville were different. Only pooping jokes and talking about golf. I think the LR has a great group of intelligent people here that offer unique insight from their POV. One that is important to me that I try to share is what it was like being black. But hey, it's race baiting because you didn't experience it and therefore it's not true.
 
Rhinos is insinuating that the whole town of 'whites' is at war with the 'blacks'. It's a 'Southern' and no different from any other. It should come as mo surprise that the Country Club set has it's share of racists.
 
"That's a load of bull right there. I've lived in Gainesville for twenty years and that is definitely not the case. Now if you're talking about the 1,000 kids that live in Haile Plantation, go to Oak Hall or St Patrick's and WANT to be segregated then yeah, I'll give you that. But if your kids go to public schools, which mine do, it is not the case at all.

Not sure what you're trying to accomplish race baiting all the time?"

I don't think Rhino race baits. That's kind of a BS criticism in my opinion. In any case, yes, the public schools, even the highly rate ones, are quite diverse. I've looked this up. My son is 3 so we haven't attacked that yet. But, he's at "baby gator" (shudder) and, even there, there is a lot of diversity (to the point, I think, at least in his class, he's one of only a few white, American born children). The fact that your kids are at diverse student body schools doesn't negate the fact that communities around Gainesville are stereotypical poor Southern towns. As I do have some clinical contact with the local population, I can say, amongst that group, I have encountered more racism (N word spewing, back woods, types) than I have anywhere else I have lived. But, this is the closest I have ever lived to a poor Southern population. I lived in affluent areas in Miami, Boca Raton, and Chicago. Thus, I am not surprised at all that this is the case regarding local communities around Gainesville.

Yeah I'm not saying the school systems are segregated. I'm not saying rich white kids going to expensive private schools is some racist thing that only happens in Gainesville. The schools were very mixed, GHS was mixed and all the other public schools I played ball at were mixed. Gainesville was the first town I ever experienced "the other side of the tracks" in. Where poor black kids lived, went to school and didn't mix.

It would be like over lapping Quincy with Tallahassee. There was some good pick up games and I could never get either group to cross the tracks sorta speak.

The Klan stuff was what sets it apart. I've experienced a more segregated town in Washington State then anywhere in Florida.
 
Congrats?

It's not like that man, you're a good dude. I'm just saying, from what I've seen, where I work, where I go and where my kids go to school and hang out, race relations are very good and certainly a lot better than when I was a youth...
 
"But hey, it's race baiting because you didn't experience it and therefore it's not true."

Yep. Was hoping he was joking. It's very easy as a white person to not see racism or notice it.

I'd say there is a big schism between the local, no different than any other Southern town, poorly educated, locals and the University/VA/startup culture. This is especially true of the groups that see Gainesville as the "Big City" which includes your surrounding communities that often float into Gainesville (e.g., Hawthorne, Lake City, Waldo, Starke, and myriad other hole in the wall places that seem to be surrounding Gainesville). You very quickly enter Deliverance style mindsets.

Though, I guess Rhino was reflecting on something different than me, namely the University people not wanting to interact with the local black population. That's troubling. But, I kind of doubt those people were attending KKK rallies. More likely, the University/professor rich kids didn't want to interact/cross the tracks to play with the local black kids AND there were KKK rallies from the Deliverance sect. Not the same population.
 
Rhinos is insinuating that the whole town of 'whites' is at war with the 'blacks'. It's a 'Southern' and no different from any other. It should come as mo surprise that the Country Club set has it's share of racists.

What? This is the crazy I'm talking about.
 
I just get aggravated when people bring race into everything. I mean I could tell you all at every opportunity about the time in high school when I was jumped by seven black dudes just for being white but I don't...
 
"But hey, it's race baiting because you didn't experience it and therefore it's not true."

Yep. Was hoping he was joking. It's very easy as a white person to not see racism or notice it.

I'd say there is a big schism between the local, no different than any other Southern town, poorly educated, locals and the University/VA/startup culture. This is especially true of the groups that see Gainesville as the "Big City" which includes your surrounding communities that often float into Gainesville (e.g., Hawthorne, Lake City, Waldo, Starke, and myriad other hole in the wall places that seem to be surrounding Gainesville). You very quickly enter Deliverance style mindsets.

Though, I guess Rhino was reflecting on something different than me, namely the University people not wanting to interact with the local black population. That's troubling. But, I kind of doubt those people were attending KKK rallies. More likely, the University/professor rich kids didn't want to interact/cross the tracks to play with the local black kids AND there were KKK rallies from the Deliverance sect. Not the same population.

Like I stated, crossing the tracks was a new experience to me (so was hanging out with rich kids) since where I lived everyone played hoops together. I thought it was interesting that neither group interacted (a life lesson). I'm positive this isn't unique to Gainesville though and the town itself was very mixed around the other areas I roamed.

I was called "boy" several times while in Michanopy but I didn't know if that was because I was black or because I had a UGA shirt on.

The recent Ocala confederate flag rally brought back some memories though.
 
I just get aggravated when people bring race into everything. I mean I could tell you all at every opportunity about the time in high school when I was jumped by seven black dudes just for being white but I don't...

Do you want to talk about it now cma?

I do find the stories of white folks who grew up in predominantly black areas or schools extremely interesting.
 
No man, it was what it was. I was hurt cause I always played ball when I was younger and it was never a thing. We were all just kids. Then I get into high school and there are groups or gangs call them fighting with each other for no good reason. It was stupid then and it's stupid now.

So fast forward to today and things are good from what I see which is primarily my kids at public schools. Then you got the crazy white dudes shooting up churches and ranting about rebel flags, the whole deal just ticks me off. It's like one step forward and two steps back.

So I didn't mean to go off like this, I really didn't, I just didn't see the value of your post in a thread about moving to Gainesville. Sorry...
 
No man, it was what it was. I was hurt cause I always played ball when I was younger and it was never a thing. We were all just kids. Then I get into high school and there are groups or gangs call them fighting with each other for no good reason. It was stupid then and it's stupid now.

So fast forward to today and things are good from what I see which is primarily my kids at public schools. Then you got the crazy white dudes shooting up churches and ranting about rebel flags, the whole deal just ticks me off. It's like one step forward and two steps back.

So I didn't mean to go off like this, I really didn't, I just didn't see the value of your post in a thread about moving to Gainesville. Sorry...

I'm just covering all the basis, just in case the OP was a black dude. ;)

I really wasn't addressing the OP w/ my post, it was more w/ DemocraticNole mentioning Tallahassee and why I liked Tallahassee better (and why I went to FSU) over staying in Gainesville and going to UF. I just remember those two incidents with the KKK at the club and at the mall but that was surely the last vestige of a bygone era in that part of Gainesville.
 
I'm just covering all the basis, just in case the OP was a black dude. ;)

I really wasn't addressing the OP w/ my post, it was more w/ DemocraticNole mentioning Tallahassee and why I liked Tallahassee better (and why I went to FSU) over staying in Gainesville and going to UF. I just remember those two incidents with the KKK at the club and at the mall but that was surely the last vestige of a bygone era in that part of Gainesville.

Right on man. I wasn't trying to call you out or saying you were a liar or anything like that...

And OP, give 025 a call, we can go out for beers, maybe get the whole LR group together like somebody mentioned before...
 
I just get aggravated when people bring race into everything. I mean I could tell you all at every opportunity about the time in high school when I was jumped by seven black dudes just for being white but I don't...


You could and, if it happened in Gainesville and nowhere else, well . . . that would sort of go along with what Rhino said, right?

I know, getting chased by a van (I was on a bike) with guys I didn't know swinging baseball bats at me, along with multiple car chases for no explicable reasons and being at parties where guns were fires was part of my experience growing up in Miami. If someone asked me if Miami was a good place to raise kids, I'd think crime rate would be something that might be salient to me. Tallahassee was first time I noticed overt racism and that was a security guard at Doak Campbell Stadium. It is part of my opinion of Tallahassee.
 
I think Bandit maybe is a self-loathing Nole. Hear me out.

Speaking ill of Tallahassee...
Mildly, though clearly, defending gainesville...

How many times must it be said that you never EVER NEVER EVER speak kindly of the gators in any way, shape, or form? Ever.

This includes speaking well of gainesville.

Troubling.
 
Ha! No I am active in my support of FSU. Just pointing out there is a local southern influence in both towns. And I didn't speak positively of "gators."
 

And here's a Gainesville "Rank'em" for you....



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I think Bandit maybe is a self-loathing Nole. Hear me out.

Speaking ill of Tallahassee...
Mildly, though clearly, defending gainesville...

How many times must it be said that you never EVER NEVER EVER speak kindly of the gators in any way, shape, or form? Ever.

This includes speaking well of gainesville.

Troubling.
And he uses words like "cohort" to refer to his buddies.
Troubling indeed...
 
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My parents have lived in Gainesville since the late 80s, I moved to Tallahassee in 1996 - the two cities are drastically different (to me). I wouldn't call Gainesville a dump and Tallahassee an oasis. My biggest issue with Gainesville was how segregated the communities were away from the university. I had 2 groups of kids I would play basketball with - the white country club kids at their private schools or country clubs and the black kids literally on the other side of the track and never the two shall meet.

Gainesville was easily the most racist place I'd ever lived. Active KKK rallies at the mall and several at various places scattered throughout Alachua.

I guess Tallahassee having a HBC made a big impression on the history of Leon county and black people that stuck around were scattered all around Tallahassee. In Gainesville, it just wasn't like that.

A big positive for me in regards to Tallahassee is that there's a lot of things to do away from the campus, seems like every time I went out in Gainesville, we were always going to the campus. Granted, all of this was back in the late 80s to mid to late 90s.
I certainly respect your experiences and you obviously as an African American male would have a much different experience than me as a white male.

I mostly grew up in Tallahassee and my wife grew up her entirely life in Gainesville. We both went to private schools. Our experiences on racial issues were much different.

I didn't really understand what racism was until I moved from Fort Worth, TX to Tallahassee at age 14. People openly used the n-word at school when I returned to Florida, which is something I never heard anyone utter in Texas. The racism I saw around school and in Tallahassee was pretty rampant. That isn't all that surprising to me for a county that didn't have integrated schools until 1970. Tallahassee has had the racial segregation that Gainesville has had. My wife on the other hand said that she never really saw racism at her private school in Gainesville and that it was definitely not socially acceptable to even joke about such matters as it was in Tallahassee. Again, we were two white people attending private school, so take that for what it's worth.
 
This thread has delivered for a few reasons. Should be an interesting year. On the plus side, FSU and Ole Miss (where I'm moving from) play at Florida this year.
 
They have a strong tax program I am enrolling in. UF was a much less expensive option than NYU or Georgetown and has a much better reputation than the Texas programs.
Same reason I spent a year there many moons ago. At least when I went, the students in the tax program were a pretty tight-knit bunch and hung out together. FSU won the national championship the year I was there, so I proudly wore my national championship t-shirt around campus.
 
Same reason I spent a year there many moons ago. At least when I went, the students in the tax program were a pretty tight-knit bunch and hung out together. FSU won the national championship the year I was there, so I proudly wore my national championship t-shirt around campus.

That's what I'm expecting. A group of people there all doing the same thing. One of my classmates is also doing the program. It's kind of strange. Five students from my class at Ole Miss are doing tax programs at the top 4 schools. That seems odd.
 
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