I don't know if it makes a difference, but it certainly IS institutionalized in the North, even today.
There wasn't any where I grew up (NJ). I've posted several times that I grew up in an immigrant environment. That was back when Italians and Eastern Europeans weren't quite white and the Irish had barely gotten their noses under the tent. My block had one genuine white family by the name of Painter. The rest were one each Greek, Dutch, Slovak, and German. There was a black family one block over, the only black family in town, a daughter one year ahead of me who was best friends with the Painter girl and a son two years older than his sister. I don't know when they moved in. I was unaware of them until high school. My dad worked occasionally with their dad and he came by a few times for a beer. No one seemed to think them any more different than any other ethnic group. If there was any prejudice towards them it was no different than that towards us light skinned non-whites. (Me, a blue eyed blonde.) There was most definitely no sign of institutionalized racism. Their dad couldn't join any of the nearby country clubs. But then again, neither could mine. A scratch golfer, he was ethnic and Catholic--not a WASP. He used to caddy to get playing time off hours on the private courses.
Thomas Sowell, who was recently disparaged on this thread, wrote a book in the early 80's called Ethnic America. That was my first knowledge of him. I was very impressed with how perfectly he captured the experience of the immigrants of the time.
FWIW. |
