Just a brief diary, as I am interested more in your input from the community.
I am a Gay white Jewish male, as many of you know. My caretaker is an African American woman, who I am very close to. We talk about everything from religion to politics. She has gone to temple with me, and I have gone to her church with her. We've shared a lot of experiences. She originally is from a small town in Alabama, and I went to a small town, although a very different one, for grad school, in Alabama. I also went, for my Ph.D., to a graduate school in Mississippi. I am originally from Detroit, which is where I am living now. I also spent time in Houston and Chicago, so you can say I've lived all over for various lengths of time.
The question of discrimination comes up at times and she and I agree that we'd rather, all things being equal, deal with what we dealt with it in the south, in which it is open, rather than it in the north. According to her, there is just as much racism in the north, but it is just unspoken and 'hidden'... an example from a day ago....where she goes for a manicure was charging her $40 dollars and it turns out was charging, for the same procedure, to a friend of her, that the lady did not know she knew, $30 dollars.
I,. myself, have encountered anti-Jewish and anti-gay behavior in both the north and the south. however you know who you're dealing with in the south. In the north you have it more hidden and it comes out when people think they can get away with it, or it comes out in more hidden ways.
So I ask my minority friends, do you agree with us, disagree, think we are nuts that there is no way there is as anti-minority behavior up north as there is down south? I'd beg to differ but again, I'd want to hear of your individual experiences, be it racial, religious, on orientation, etc. And that it is "easier" if that is the right word, to deal with the overt racism/prejudice of the south than the "covert" racism/prejudice of the north.