3dee - i am not racist - you are not racist...i am sure many people in GC are not racist...
but regardless of whether or not we are racist, people outside of GC have that perception of GC, and when looking on the past it is again VERY real.
maybe it is just a lingering shadow of a former culture - but my old neighbor on 22nd St. used to fly a Confederate flag on his front porch and i have seen much racism from GC in my life, which leads me to believe that the roots of racism still support a mighty tree which shadows much of this town.
go ask your black friends what they think of a neighborhood they drive in that has confederate flags hanging on the porch.
and it really does not matter what MOST of GC is or is not...what matters is what those who are in control and making decisions think. the old school boys who run stuff...
then again - i also think the school uniforms were implemented because of the large influx of black students and some of their dress apparel.
they did not have them when i was in school - there is no substantial evidence to support that uniforms improve test scores - and i feel the motivation was again racial in nature.
it is not the blatant kind of racism anyone can see - it is the subtle racism you have highlighted in the past - the "behind closed doors" kind of racism.
and machine - all i can say to you post is this...
"Let's turn first to etymology. Nigger is derived from the Latin word for the color black, niger. According to the Random House Historical Dictionary of American Slang, it did not originate as a slur but took on a derogatory connotation over time. Nigger and other words related to it have been spelled in a variety of ways, including niggah, nigguh, niggur, and niggar. When John Rolfe recorded in his journal the first shipment of Africans to Virginia in 1619, he listed them as "negars." A 1689 inventory of an estate in Brooklyn, New York, made mention of an enslaved "niggor" boy. The seminal lexicographer Noah Webster referred to Negroes as "negers." (Currently some people insist upon distinguishing nigger—which they see as exclusively an insult—from nigga, which they view as a term capable of signaling friendly salutation.) In the 1700s niger appeared in what the dictionary describes as "dignified argumentation" such as Samuel Sewall's denunciation of slavery, The Selling of Joseph. No one knows precisely when or how niger turned derisively into nigger and attained a pejorative meaning. We do know, however, that by the end of the first third of the nineteenth century, nigger had already become a familiar and influential insult."
considering the history of the word, it makes sense why the term is offensive. the term has a history of being related to black people, not all people, though it defined in the dictionary as:
on June 26, 2011, 5:31 pm, in reply to "