Screw you, We're from Texas!

[bluzhammer]

I was stationed in Texas in the early 80's and found it to be a state of immense pride and friendly to a fault at times. I loved the wide open areas and it had an untamed feel to it. What I really like about it is, that Texas can legally vote itself out of the Union. If that day ever comes in my lifetime..... Well, I'll be a movin' to Texas.

[djroge1]

There are a lot of nice people in texas but not all of them.... in fact a lot of them really are only superfically nice on the surface. I've seen a LOT of hate from people of texas.

 

And that texas pride thing is totally arrogant and I can't stand it. In fact they tried indoctrinating my kids into that prideful thinking thru their texas history classes in school... I say classes because they teach texas history in elementary, middle, and high school. I learned my state's history but it wasn't taught that much.

 

I for one and glad to have left texas and I don't care to return.

 

However, texmex food is great so they're not all bad. The state is just not for me.

[Californiaman]

However' date=' texmex food is great so they're not all bad. The state is just not for me.[/quote']

 

The food isn't the only good thing about Texas.

Lots of great guitar slingers there. Lots and lots.

[djroge1]

The food isn't the only good thing about Texas.

Lots of great guitar slingers there. Lots and lots.

 

Good point. My favorite guitarist was from there. There are other good things, but unfortunately too often the bad sticks out more than the good.

 

Thanks for helping me remember that.

[Californiaman]

I was watching a movie called The Great Debaters.

In one scene the gang comes across a negro being lynched.

When the youngest member of the debate team, the son of a black preacher from a small town in Texas, got his turn to debate against Harvard Universities finest he said, "In Texas, they lynch negros."

They won the debate.

Great movie.

I'm sure things are no longer this bad in Texas.

[djroge1]

I was watching a movie called The Great Debaters.

In one scene the gang comes across a negro being lynched.

When the youngest member of the debate team' date=' the son of a black preacher from a small town in Texas, got his turn to debate against Harvard Universities finest he said, "In Texas, they lynch negros."

They won the debate.

Great movie.

I'm sure things are no longer this bad in Texas.[/quote']

 

The following took place about 10 years ago. However, this attitude and thinking is alive and well especially in East texas where this took place. It is also alive and well in west mississippi. I has a deacon in my church that had this attitude and hated that I invited people of color into the church and invited them to join... he was supposed to be a Christian, but I doubt he was with that attitude.

 

Black Man Fatally Dragged In a Possible Racial Killing

 

 

By CAROL MARIE CROPPER

A black man was dragged to his death on Sunday from the back of a pickup truck in a rural section of Texas known for racist and Klan activity, and today three white men were charged with the murder.

 

The broken body of James Byrd Jr., 49, was discovered on Sunday morning by residents of an area just outside the East Texas town of Jasper, population 8,000. As he walked home from his parents' house on Saturday night, Mr. Byrd was apparently picked up by the men sometime after midnight and taken to woods, where he was beaten, then chained to the truck and dragged for two miles.

 

Guy James Gray, the Jasper County District Attorney, called the killing ''probably the most brutal I've ever seen'' in 20 years as a prosecutor. Mr. Byrd's torso was found at the edge of a paved road, his head and an arm in a ditch about a mile away, according to an affidavit.

 

The police charged Shawn A. Berry, 23, Lawrence R. Brewer, 31, and John W. King, 23, with murder. The District Attorney said Mr. Brewer and Mr. King had racist tattoos and were Ku Klux Klan supporters, leading investigators to believe the killing was racially motivated.

 

The three were apparently roommates in a Jasper apartment.

 

R. C. Horn, Mayor of Jasper, said the victim came from a ''beautiful family.'' Mr. Byrd's sisters said he had been on disability and did not have a car but often accepted rides from acquaintances or walked around Jasper, where the number of blacks almost equals that of whites.

 

Source: http://www.racematters.org/nytarchjb161.htm

[Californiaman]

I remember this.

The entire nation was in an uproar.

[NeoConMan]

I think we may have a misunderstanding here' date=' "NeoConMan".[/quote']

Understood.

 

 

 

 

Sorry

No need.

 

 

:-

 

 

 

My Mom lived in Jasper when that happened.

You wanna dose of that stuff - live' date=' up close and personal?

Let me introduce you to some of the more diseased branches of my family tree.

 

I can tell you some stories - let's just say that stereotypes don't do them justice.

These people are capable of some [i']dark[/i] sh!t, I'm telling you.

Thank God they are more self-destructive than anything else, their own family usually suffers the worst....

 

 

Flip side?

There are LOTS of worthless human beings in East Texas, and it knows no limits such as skin color.

 

What happened to James Byrd was inexcusable, those three all deserved the death penalty that very day.

 

But do you wanna talk about the 14 year old kid who tried to rob my Mom in broad daylight at a car wash?

She's white, and he's... um, not.

 

Her .38 in her front pocket changed his mind, but no charges were ever pressed.

Seems like it's just too much trouble for the police to deal with 'low-level kid-stuff' like attempted robbery.

They figured she scared him bad enough, he probably learned his lesson.

Huh?

 

 

My Mom was in her late 60's at the time.

This was within a couple months of the Byrd death.

 

Which brings us to vigilante justice, and the circle begins anew....

That is a microcosm of what poverty and social conditioning does over generations.

No different than Gangstas in Compton or Harlem.

 

Go a little further west into Texas, it gets MUCH better.

And you won't run into any of the Hooper/Ezell clan....

 

[milod]

Well, next week Mom comes home from Texas where she's spent since Thanksgiving with my little sister, my sister's kids and grandkids. Yeah, kinda depressing that my "little sister" is so old she has grandkids, but anyway....

 

My feelings on Texas, however, is that it's a fine place with great folks if you like crowded country. And a lot of humidity.

 

I know this may sound prejudicial, and it certainly is in ways, but the nice thing about places where there aren't very many people and where the weather can kill you faster than most other stuff, is that folks seem to have a built-in courtesy most of the time.

 

More so like the past couple of weeks. First, the lights went out to 3/4 of the town with -20 F wind chills. Then a day later on Christmas we ended up with a two-day blizzard with drifts 12 feet or more (4 meters). Then the temps really got chilly at somewhere worse than -20 and another blizzard.

 

When the temps dipped into the -20 F range (-30 C), or below, it seems as if a lotta people figure the other folks around them might keep them from getting dead, so they tend to be courteous regardless of race, creed, color, sex, national origin or whatever.

 

Either that, or as an old friend theorized, the chill keeps the riffraff out. I'm not so sure he doesn't have a point.

 

Yeah, Texas is crowded. Take the two Dakotas, Wyoming and eastern Montana and you've got more than the area of Texas with about 10 percent of the population and I still sometimes think it feels a bit crowded.

 

There's some good pickers here, too, percentagewise; there just aren't the crowds to develop a "name."

 

m

[Izzy]

Whoa' date=' hold on there pardner!

 

Wonder what them Good Ol' Boys might think of [i']you[/i], eh?

 

Didn't think if would become an issue 'cus I assumed everyone would know what I was referring to, but since I said that Texas is filled with "backwards thinking morons" I'll give ya'll an example of the bull certain people have to deal with:

 

Now in the BIG cities this ain't as much of a problem, though you still might see it here and in every state, but in many little towns:

 

My mom is Mexican, as am I, but I don't have an accent. People look at us differently in little towns, and in little diners on long hauls across the highways (which are VAST through the heart of Texas). As a foreigner with an accent (and this obviously don't mean English accent or German accent...I mean 'lesser people' accents) you get scared. My mom doesn't get polite greetings. Hell, she was denied service by a lady selling some arts and crafts. She shoed my mom away as if she were an animal. I'm not an idiot, I know it has to do with us being Mexican born (we are now American citizens came in legally and everything). I have it WAY easier than her cus I have no accent. All the same, I go into some these little town gas stations and smile and politely leave ASAP cus you can feel the, "you ain't from here, GTFO vibe."

They still have klan meetings not far from where my mom lives. To me, that is their right and I won't complain but I do believe the label, "backwards thinking morons" totally fits. Maybe not 'filled', but there are plenty. Just my opinion o.o

 

As I said, it is more of a travelling through little towns thing, and in cities its not as common, but yes, being dark and having an accent...you'd get a different perspective.

[charlie brown]

Well, "backward thinking morons" are not limited to Texas! They're everywhere...

All over the World! One just has to do one's best, to steer clear...or, deal with them,

as best you can, when needed/required.

 

CB

[freak show]

Understood.

 

Glad we got that cleared up.

 

My mom is Mexican' date=' as am I' date=' but I don't have an accent. People look at us differently in little towns, and in little diners on long hauls across the highways (which are VAST through the heart of Texas). As a foreigner with an accent (and this obviously don't mean [b'']English[/b] accent or German accent...I mean 'lesser people' accents) you get scared.

 

That hardly gives you the right to call Texans "backwards thinking morons".

 

Have you ever heard of Mallorca? It's a Spanish island in the Mediterranean where many Germans and English have bought property. The situation is so extreme that the primary languages on this Spanish island are actually German and English. If a person were only to speak Spanish, he wouldn't get very far on Mallorca.

 

The Spanish people there hate this situation. They resent the intrusion of the hoards of foreigners who come to their country and ignore the fact that they are in Spain. There have been protests, there is open hostility, and there have even been attempts to pass laws which would make it more difficult for the foreigners buying real estate in Spain.

 

Does that mean these Spanish people are "backwards thinking morons"?

 

In my opinion the answer is "No".

 

And if millions of Americans, Germans, English or Navajo Indians were to move to Mexico and then insist that the Mexicans should learn their respective language, what do you think would happen?

 

Do you really think the Mexicans would react differently than the Texans (or the Spanish)?

 

Just curious...

[Izzy]

Glad we got that cleared up.

 

 

 

That hardly gives you the right to call Texans "backwards thinking morons".

 

Have you ever heard of Mallorca? It's a Spanish island in the Mediterranean where many Germans and English have bought property. The situation is so extreme that the primary languages on this Spanish island are actually German and English. If a person were only to speak Spanish' date=' he wouldn't get very far on Mallorca.

 

The Spanish people there hate this situation. They resent the intrusion of the hoards of foreigners who come to their country and ignore the fact that they are in Spain. There have been protests, there is open hostility, and there have even been attempts to pass laws which would make it more difficult for the foreigners buying real estate in Spain.

 

Does that mean these Spanish people are "backwards thinking morons"?

 

In my opinion the answer is "No".

 

And if millions of Americans, Germans, English or Navajo Indians were to move to Mexico and then insist that the Mexicans should learn their respective language, what do you think would happen?

 

Do you really think the Mexicans would react differently than the Texans (or the Spanish)?

 

Just curious...

 

[/quote']

 

I am a Texan resident (been for over ten years) and an American citizen. I can call my neighbor a backwards thinking moron if he doesn't respect my mother for simply being Mexican.

 

Clearly the fact that I said "accent" escaped you. My mom speaks English VERY well, just has an accent. We learn the language of any place we go to. My mommy also speaks Italian and some Portuguese.

What now of your, "Majorca" example? Please read the posts closely before you talk about what if people went to Mexico and the Mexicans were expected to blah blah blah...nothing to do with my post. Please read before responding.

 

Did you just miss the entire part about us travelling and being frightened because some backwards thinking morons who STILL have Klan meetings exist and intimidate people? Or are you deliberately ignoring it?

 

Honestly, its my opinion that every state has backwards thinking morons. Every country has them too. Then again, is it just not possible that these populations might concentrate in certain parts of the world?

 

So I will say it again. I love Texas even if there are backwards thinking morons who don't respect English speaking American citizens who happen to be of a race that isn't of their liking. I chose to live in Texas, but I'm not gonna say it is super-friendly to everyone all the time, good lord.

[Cruznolfart]

you're right it was too fun. and the hopping jalepeno' date=' or whatever it is, dancing in time with the music, was great!

[/quote']

 

Glad you enjoyed it, jannusguy, and that you noticed the jalapeno. It wasn't until I saw my own post that I noticed his moves seemed in time to the rhythm. LOL! I took the song as very tongue-in-cheek. Interesting to see the resulting social commentary. We humans are so tribal sometimes. :D

[flyingarmadillo]

...

 

My feelings on Texas' date=' however, is that it's a fine place with great folks if you like crowded country. And a lot of humidity.

 

...

 

m

[/quote']

 

You just haven't been to the right parts, once you get west of Abilene it's pretty dry (average rainfall in Midland is 12 inches, El Paso gets less than 10) and uninhabitted. In fact the least populated county in the country is in Texas - Loving County (677 square miles populated by 67 people)

[milod]

Izzy...

 

I think some of the odd looks are a natural small town thing. Heck, I get it too. Around here it's mostly friendly. Not always - although the "not always" isn't necessarily specific to physical appearance or accents.

 

E.g., if you're wearing hats/caps and boots but well-groomed in a small town cafe where you're not known, it'll probably be pretty friendly regardless of appearance or accent. If you're looking "city," perhaps not so much.

 

Actually some of the ethnic communities are the harder ones to break into. E.g., it used to be virtually impossible to have a Catholic priest assigned to several towns I know on the east side of the Missouri if their surnames didn't match the ethnicity of the community.

 

Others... well, even if they lived in a place 40 years or more, were always from ... outside.

 

m

[milod]

Armadillo...

 

A quirk in geography. I'm looking at the area as a whole. <grin>

 

As I said, on average, less than 10 percent of the population.

 

At around 100,000, Billings, Mont., is the largest "city" between Denver and Calgary and between Sioux Falls and Spokane.

 

m

[freak show]

I am a Texan resident (been for over ten years) and an American citizen. I can call my neighbor a backwards thinking moron if he doesn't respect my mother for simply being Mexican.

 

Clearly the fact that I said "accent" escaped you. My mom speaks English VERY well' date=' just has an accent. We learn the language of any place we go to. My mommy also speaks Italian and some Portuguese.

What now of your, "Majorca" example? Please read the posts closely before you talk about what if people went to Mexico and the Mexicans were expected to blah blah blah...nothing to do with my post. Please read before responding.

 

Did you just miss the entire part about us travelling and being frightened because some backwards thinking morons who STILL have Klan meetings exist and intimidate people? Or are you deliberately ignoring it?

 

Honestly, its my opinion that every state has backwards thinking morons. Every country has them too. Then again, is it just not possible that these populations might concentrate in certain parts of the world?

 

So I will say it again. I love Texas even if there are backwards thinking morons who don't respect English speaking American citizens who happen to be of a race that isn't of their liking. I chose to live in Texas, but I'm not gonna say it is super-friendly to everyone all the time, good lord.[/quote']

 

First of all thanks for trying to correct my spelling, but in Spanish and Catalan, the island in question is written "Mallorca".

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Majorca

Since it's a Spanish island, I'll just spell it the way the Spanish do.

 

And no, it didn't "escape" me that you said "accent".

 

The example I gave is based on the fact that a large number of immigrants from Spanish speaking countries don't learn English. That's the reason why everything is now written in Spanish and English. In fact, the last time my dear old mom was in Texas, she was shocked by the fact that it was often difficult to find someone who could speak English. My example isn't "blah blah blah". When the Italians, Germans, Polish, Russians, Chinese, etc. came to this country, no one said: "Let's all print everything in Italian, German, Polish, Russian, Chinese, etc."

Now it's different, and some Americans resent -- just like the Spanish in Spain -- that it is expected of them to accommodate the immigrants. I'm sure that if a lot of immigrants moved to Mexico and expected everyone to speak their native tongue, this group would very quickly become unpopular.

 

And finally: No I'm not "ignoring" the fact that you were frightened or uncomfortable in certain situations. On the other hand, I've spent a lot of time in foreign countries, I've often been in uncomfortable, threatening situations, because I was the foreigner, and still I wouldn't make sweeping generalizations about entire groups of people in the way that you did about Texans. I dislike it when someone says "those ********* are a bunch of morons", because I deal with and talk about people one at a time.

[Izzy]

Izzy...

 

I think some of the odd looks are a natural small town thing. Heck' date=' I get it too. Around here it's mostly friendly. Not always - although the "not always" isn't necessarily specific to physical appearance or accents.

 

E.g., if you're wearing hats/caps and boots but well-groomed in a small town cafe where you're not known, it'll probably be pretty friendly regardless of appearance or accent. If you're looking "city," perhaps not so much.

 

Actually some of the ethnic communities are the harder ones to break into. E.g., it used to be virtually impossible to have a Catholic priest assigned to several towns I know on the east side of the Missouri if their surnames didn't match the ethnicity of the community.

 

Others... well, even if they lived in a place 40 years or more, were always from ... outside.

 

m

[/quote']

 

I completely agree. Guess us having the "city look" might have been part of the issue.

I recently went to Lampasas, a small town not far from Austin (and by not far I mean 45 minutes which isn't far to a texan). Everyone was nice to me that I met. Polite and warm. They have one hispanic family in town and it was kind of adorable that a couple people felt they had to tell me about them. Maybe to make me feel at ease o.O

 

Still, its not gonna stop bothering me that they have Klan meetings 20 miles form mom's home. That's just creepy.

Or that in highschool there were rednecks who told racial jokes about Mexicans within earshot of me really loud just to bug me. I mean, if you're gonna be mean and bully people do it for a personal trait, cus you're small, cus you're fat, cus you have bad skin, but when someone makes those jokes they don't just insult you, they insult your mom and your uncle and gramma. I feel like in Toronto this wasn't an issue, in New York they're just rude to everyone. It feels better to be disliked in general than because you're different.

[Shnate McDuanus]

in New York they're just rude to everyone.

 

:- I take issue with that.

[Izzy]

:- I take issue with that.

 

I mean when they are rude.

Oh hell, I'm just gonna not say anything bad about anyone ever again.

 

At least Neo isn't spanking me

[milod]

Izzy...

 

Yeah, you nailed it about NYC. Paris, as far as I'm concerned, is about the same... Seoul, Rio, Chicago...

 

On the other hand, I've met so many nice people in so many sorts of places, and yet a few "pills" in most of those same places, it reminds me of the old sign outside small towns that would say something like, "597 friendly people and a couple old grouches..."

 

We've actually got a fairly significant "Mexican" population here.

 

I tease a longtime Texan friend - who has a "Spanish" surname but claims he couldn't speak Spanish if his life depended on it since his folks had been there almost forever - that we have special names for "Mexican" folks up here: There's Todd, Kathy, Larry, Maria, Cheryl, Nyla, Caitlyn.... <chortle> He chuckled, though, that once he had an appointment in the Northeast and was BS-ing with a guy in the office for a few minutes when the guy told him he'd have to get busy 'cuz "some Mexican is supposed to be here for a meeting." <grin> Yup, he told 'em and yup, got an embarrassed look.

 

In a lot of cities you don't "feel" what others may think of "ethnicity" or whatever 'cuz there are so many folks of so many ethnicities - but pardon my cynicism, it's there.

 

I'll never forget in Korea during the '88 Olympics being told, "All you Americans (are) ugly."

 

Given that we had every shade of color and background one might imagine on the US team... sheesh.

 

m

[djroge1]

I mean when they are rude.

Oh hell' date=' I'm just gonna not say anything bad about anyone ever again.

 

At least Neo isn't spanking me

 

Thumper says "If you can't say anything nice, don't say nuthin' at all"

 

However, I agree with you about texas and I've seen it from people there and I'm not from mexico or other... I'm a full american mutt.

 

I've been thru Lampassas a number of times. I used to live in one of those small towns you describe where you felt like an outsider. It's weird but i was in a town that made everyone feel like an outsider unless you were from norway. Those were some back a$$ people in that town... too much in-breeding I suppose.

 

I'm on your side Izzy. Not that that carries a lot of weight.

[milod]

djroge1

 

Naaaah...

 

I know what you mean, though, about the ethnic community thing and it's true. Many wonderful people there but you're never, ever "one of them."

 

The eastern part of my state has a number of such communities founded roughly between 1870 and 1890. Norwegians here, Danes there, Czechs here, Swedes there...

 

I get the biggest kick out of the Germans, though. The Catholic Germans on the south side of the river had almost nothing to do with the protestant variations of Germans on the north side. They come from different regions, have different accents, traditional customs and foods. And yet, until WWI, the Dakotas had a number of German-language newspapers and in territorial days (1861-1889), one would here German about as much in the original territorial capitol as English.

 

Sheesh.

 

When I was a young guy some of the "ethnics" in that area had maintained their language and accents so perfectly that others - in Norway, for example - refused to believe they weren't still Norwegians from a specific region of the country pretending to be Americans. That's how "tight" their communities were some century after coming here from there. In fact, the Norwegians from one area of Norway were pretty much clannish compared to Norwegians from other areas of Norway.

 

I never was "one of them," but always got along pretty well regardless - but I smile a lot.

 

m

[NeoConMan]

Oh hell' date=' I'm just gonna not say anything bad about anyone ever again.

 

At least Neo isn't spanking me [/quote']

 

Heh, heh, heh....

Speak your mind.

We are from - and choose to live in - very different worlds.

I don't wanna trade, and I'm sure you don't either.

Respect you will get from me whether you think I'll give it or not.

Chivalry, southern breeding and all that...

 

 

I know the area well that you live in, and let's say it's just a little too close to a Redneck's idea of California

for their comfort - if ya know what I mean.... The whole 'alternative lifestyle' thing is what they aim for when they

target an urban lifestyle they don't understand - and don't want to.

It just ain't their cup of tea, so they look at you the same way you look at them.

Who's right?

 

Think about this for a minute - they wouldn't want to live in River Oaks either.

(Kinda like Beverly Hills for Houston....)

 

 

As far as the race thing, I won't deny it's alive and well.

And my being such a hard-*** when it comes to morons of any type gets me painted as one of "them" much

more often than I would like. Martin Luther King said something that my Dad drilled into me as a child.

 

"I have a dream that my four children will one day live in a nation where they will not be

judged by the color of their skin but by the content of their character."

 

[getuponsoapbox]

 

Yes, a redneck making damned sure his kids saw the big picture the same year King was killed.

 

So, think about a man born in the Great Depression and who grew up dirt-*** poor in The South.

- Picking cotton right beside those hated blacks, Mexicans and Indians simply to stay alive... -

 

Did you ever think he might not want his five children to be viewed by the "smart" or "rich" people as

piss-ignorant and incapable of any work beyond agricultural labor that a mule couldn't do?

Izzy, think about what you posted regarding you and your Mom.

Perspective is everything.

As a child, my Dad couldn't even get food to eat at times because of their "standing" even with blue eyes...

 

My family had no money in the two centuries they were here before I was born.

Some of us picked ourselves up by the boot-straps and got the hell out.

My Dad did well for himself, as did a couple of his brothers.

I have one sister who has done as well as I have.

The rest?

Not so much.

 

 

My Mom's family was 8 children, she married out to escape when she was a teenager.

The ones that are still alive (their offspring included) and aren't in prison live in taxpayer-funded squalor.

 

And a few of them are those types that might be hanging around a Klan meeting in say, Vidor Texas...

Problem is, even the Klan is gonna want you to contribute a little something to the cause.

No money?

They don't want your worthless *** any more than any other "civic" association might.

 

 

Here's another side note while I'm on my soap box.

Tonite at Cracker Barrel there was a couple seated beside us with their toddler boy.

Both Mom and Dad were wearing military uniforms.

 

As is my usual custom with service men and women, I quietly got their ticket and paid for their meal.

Got a quick thank you and went to sit down for my meal.

 

I did this at another restaurant a couple weeks ago for a black man in uniform.

When he started to pay the cashier I quietly stepped up and said "Let me get this."

He looked at me like I was gonna hit him or something.

 

A WHITE MAN buying his meal?

 

I smiled, quickly told him it was the least I could do, and thanked him for his service while I got my change.

He is the ONLY person (out of probably 50 meals I've bought this way) who responded this way.

He looked at me with suspicion until I left.

My heart sank.

 

[/getuponsoapbox]

 

Milod,

Texas isn't gonna touch your part of the country if that's what you like.

I can tell you though, if you stay west of I-35 you're much better off.