this post was submitted on 19 Jul 2023
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United States | News & Politics
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I suspect (based on nothing, really) that most white people in this country are not racist. It's the tiny pockets of diarrhea like this town that are disproportionately racist, and have disproportionate representation in national politics.
I wonder if WFH could change this, as liberal white people from places like California start moving to different states, and begin to turn them blue. Or maybe I'm being too optimistic?
Racism/bigotry is not really a yes or no thing. It is a spectrum. Everyone is at least a little bigoted. Some people are pretty far up in that racism spectrum though.
The problem isn't just small towns like this where the clock stopped 70 years ago, it's huge portions of the South.
Gentrification from blue states isn't happening because the services needed (high speed internet) aren't available in small towns like this, and, because of other problems, nobody from the outside wants to live there.
Alabama ranks #44/50 on a "Best States" list:
https://www.usnews.com/news/best-states/rankings
40 Crime & Corrections
33 Economy
44 Education
20 Fiscal Stability
44 Health Care
36 Infrastructure
47 Natural Environment
32 Opportunity
Haha, at first I read "country" as "county" and was like...wtf are you smoking, this is Dumbfuck, Alabama but on a country-wide level, I agree.
Idk about moving state to state but I noticed people's definition of "reasonable commuting distance" got a little bigger durring covid. Like I'll do a longer drive if I'm doing it 2x a week instead of 5x. People that'd otherwise be in town or a blue suburb pushed a little farther into the exurbs.
I think a lot of people are racist tho so idk if that's helping