Originally posted by mahayana
Interesting that you feel so defensive about the Southland. The reason so many of the battles of the Civil Rights movement took place there was because segregation was enforced by State law.

Defacto segregation was the norm throughout America; the largest black ghettos were then and are now in the North. Racism exists everywhere. Even though the Klan was begun in Pulaski,TN , the Nazis and the Aryan Brotherhood certainly cannot be characterized as Southern.

Incidently, all of my people are from Georgia and Texas.
Maybe I was misunderstood or possibly I don't understand your point? I think you are responding to my post, but I'm just not clear on your meaning. Segregation of all different kinds of races was enforced by state law all over- not just south of the Mason Dixon line.
If you reread my post you'll see I was accounting my *personal* experiences as a southerner in the past quarter century adn how that stereotype felt wrong in comparison to my experiences when I moved.
I can only personally account for the south I know- not what took place before my lifetime. Clearly, all areas of our country have a bitter past when it comes to racism- not just the slavery issue of blacks and whites- but all forms of racism going back centuries.
I was simply pointing out my own personal accounts growing up in North Carolina. Possibly you have personal experience with civil rights wars that you could share, but I'm only able to account what I know first hand.