Being white, and a minority, in Georgia

[KamaAina]

http://www.bostonglobe.com/news/nation/2016/09/10/being-white-and-minority-georgia/PpBh8303fUVlfkYUDgQeuN/story.html

A generation ago, this Atlanta suburb was 95 percent white and rural with one little African-American neighborhood that was known as “colored town.’’ But after a tidal wave of Hispanic and Asian immigrants who were attracted to Norcross by cheap housing and proximity to a booming job market, white people now make up less than 20 percent of the population in Norcross and surrounding neighborhoods. It’s a shift so rapid that many of the longtime residents feel utterly disconnected from the place where they raised their children.

“It’s not that much anger, but you don’t feel comfortable knowing that all this is around you,” said Billy Weathers, 79, who has lived in the area for his whole life and doesn’t speak a lick of Spanish.

Many say they feel isolated in their own hometown, pushed to change their ways, to assimilate to the new arrivals instead of the other way around. They resent the shift, even knowing it’s nobody’s fault, really. And they have mostly kept their feelings to themselves. Who, they wonder, would listen to folks like us, anyway?

But this year, in Norcross and places like it, resentment has found its voice. The concerns of a white citizenry feeling displaced have been reinforced by the rhetoric of Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump, who swept most of the state in the Republican primary.

[BronxBoy]

1. Bullshit Article

Norcross is a vibrant emerging community

[KamaAina]

2. Tell it to Billy Weathers.

He obviously doesn't see it that way. And he probably votes.

[BronxBoy]

6. And I live next door to Norcross

Neighborhood in transition but not what's depicted in article. Their farmers market is being developed as a model template for the state. I've never seen the Biston Globe down here Ever!!!

[JI7]

3. i wonder if they ever thought how things were for the black population in the

Good ole days he misses.

[Matrosov]

4. 'What are all these brown savages doing here?!'

I'm guessing all the white people whining are planning on voting for Trump to make America Whi.. er.. Great again.

[Divine Discontent]

5. when I went to Miami Beach (been to little Little Havana in Miami, too, but this is different) I was

shocked how I couldn't get anything accomplished at 2 businesses by each other. It was just at those businesses, because I'd been to numerous other ones. The restaurant employee was rude to me because I didn't speak Spanish, and yelled 'no English' at me. LOL I was nice nonetheless and pointed. I can understand how dealing with change isn't fun, but there's not much we can do. We're becoming truly a melting pot where even small towns now are very densely mixed cultures. It used to be that way only in cities of 100K or more.

I will say, I loved Little Havana area in Miami better. They were all nice to the places we went, and even when they spoke to us in broken English, they were friendly. I appreciate that they knew English well enough.

[BronxBoy]

7. Fucked Up Article

Norcross is a mixture of many cultures. White...Black...Asian (mainly Vietmenese). Article is total bullshit.

[KamaAina]

10. I suggest that, as a local, you write them an LTTE explaining why.

Post a draft here if you'd like.

[BronxBoy]

12. Nawww.... Not Interested

I will if the Gwinnett Daily Post, the Atlanta Journal Constitution or Norcross Patch publishes some crap like this...

FUCK THE BOSTON GLOBE!

[Yo_Mama]

17. I've got to agree. Article seems weirder than all hell.

But hey, GA is only used as a foil for someone's preferred narrative. They couldn't care less about the real GA.

[romanic]

8. Demographics never stay the same.

It happens to white suburbs and black city cores alike. It's part of the market I guess.

[ladym55]

9. Well, the long-time residents of Norcross don't come across very well

I really found myself not wanting to know any of them. OMG. Not too racist, were they?

Yikes. As I retired English teacher, I truly wish those who screech loudly about immigrants learning English would learn to read, write, and speak their native tongue before chastising others whose birth language is not English. Often the yahoos screeching about English can barely speak their own language and are totally monolingual, and the recent immigrants may speak and write multiple languages.

[NightWatcher]

11. I used to live in Norcross, right off I-85 at Indian Trail.

I got tired of car break ins at my apartment and when they found a body in a trunk I took White Flight and moved to Gainesville.

[BronxBoy]

13. Yep.....

South side of Norcross is a fucking train wreck. But lots of good things happening in town

[Skittles]

14. what is it they don't like

the new people, or the noise and the trash?

[hunter]

15. I'm a minority white guy...

... in my own house even!

40% of the kids in the elementary school down the street don't speak English at home.

Most of my neighbors, and my wife, are bilingual.

I'm not sure what's wrong with my own brain, my language skills were apparently set in concrete when I was a kid, but I'm entirely comfortable in situations where the languages are flowing seamlessly between English, Spanish, or anything else.

I've lived most of my life now in places where I'm a minority white guy.

I grew up in a place that was Ivory Soap 99 44/100 pure white and kept that way by cops whose favorite sport was issuing DWB citations, shopkeepers who'd follow non-white people around as potential shoplifters, and real estate agents who'd go cold on anyone who wasn't white. I'd never go back. My siblings all fled, as did my parents when they retired.

Many of my high school classmates who stayed claim they are "colorblind." The liberals among them may be a bit clueless and inexperienced talking about racism, but they voted for Obama and they'll vote for Hillary. Still, far too many of them are flat out racist. I attended one high school reunion but never will again. The same people who bullied me until I quit high school, calling me "queerbait" and beating me bloody, are still in town and will probably vote for Trump.

[Person 2713]

16. Whatever, then the world turns without you that's all. I've lived in areas that have been gentrified

or changed otherwise. That's life in the big city where I live.
Resentment like theirs is just destroying their souls clinging to trump and missing colored town.
Life goes on without them
No rec