http://www.nbc29.com/story/35465848/albe-co-farm-owner-offers-insight-on-race-in-viral-facebook-post
Article quotes Newman’s statement:
For those who live in or around Charlottesville and/or attend UVA, what have you noticed with respect to this? Are white people there prone to aggressively racially profiling black people to call the police on?
There have been a couple incidents involving race and law enforcement using borderline excessive force that have risen to the level of being covered by WaPo in the last year. One in particular involved ABC (Alcohol Beverage Control) and an alleged fake ID - the kid (very well regarded black student at UVa) was taken down by force when not resisting, and noticeably injured. ABC in particular has a rep for this state wide. Lawsuits have been filed and I think ABC has been judged to have used excessive force by an internal investigation. Don’t remember how specific the findings were about the racial component, think it was mentioned but not the central focus of the investigation.
As far as Charlottesville, recently one of the candidates for Governor (we’re in primary season) made a big splash in town this spring by frankly grandstanding about Civil War statues and Confederate flags being removed from the town when they should be embraced. Big kerfuffle, didn’t exactly show C’ville in a nice light. So it’s fair to conclude that something’s going on but hard to put in perspective without being there more.
From 2016-17 Common Data Set, UVa enrolled almost 28k undergrads, of which 67% are white, non-hispanic.
Wow. We lived in C’ville for 6 years while my husband got his Ph.D., and it never occurred to me that it was a segregated place that did racial profiling. But then again, why would it, as a middle class white woman? Hate to have to think about it differently from now on, since I have fond memories of living there, but we have to start taking our blinders off about this stuff.
…" recently one of the candidates for Governor (we’re in primary season) made a big splash in town this spring by frankly grandstanding about Civil War statues and Confederate flags…"
That candidate is originally from Minnesota and lives in Northern VA. He has fewer than 19% of his party’s votes so he has no chance of winning the primary. He’s a nut IMO and he has no relation to Charlottesville.
I have never seen the Confederate flag on display in C-ville other than on someone’s personal vehicle or home and that is not common.
Corey Stewart is a carpetbagging loudmouth and perennial publicity hound. He is just like Spencer. Outsiders who want to cause trouble.
I think you are going to find anecdotes of racist events/attitudes in VA especially the further away from the DC burbs. I moved here 6 years ago and have been surprised at the blatant racism - I kind of had it in my mind that VA was above that. There are definitely lots of folks in VA who “embrace their southern heritage” and everything that goes along with that sentiment.
In ordinary daily life, was it typical there to see black and white people in the same place (walking down the street, shopping in the store, etc.)?
@b1ggreenca If you didn’t have kids at the time you may not have seen things that I look at such as: school boundaries and how that relates to home prices, charter schools and their demographics, private schools and their demographics…
I don’t live in VA. Even on my own street I have been dismayed at how the elementary students are being driven/bussed to a rural charter school when we have an elementary school that is a 5 minute walk away. The local school has a larger latino demographic than in the past but mostly the teachers are the same as when my kids and all the older kids went (and got a good education.) Diversity is ok but not too much diversity!
No.
I live just south of Cville (Lynchburg) and go there all the time to shop. Yes you see all races everywhere which may be MORE common in the South than in the more segregated North. That’s why I had to laugh when some claimed Liberty U does not have black and other minority students. Much more interaction here than in Seattle or Chicago or LA
To wit
If it is common to see people of all races in daily life situations, then who are the people who seem to call the police whenever a black person walks or drives by? Seems like the police would eventually consider such callers to be nuisance callers if they keep calling the police about a perceived threat of a black person who is of no threat.
@JustGraduate “From 2016-17 Common Data Set, UVa enrolled almost 28k undergrads, of which 67% are white, non-hispanic.”
Are you implying that UVA is racially imbalanced? The demographics of UVA seem to match those of the state of VA almost exactly. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Demographics_of_Virginia
And I saw the YouTube of the man who is suing the ABC at the time it happened. He is the one calling the officers “white MF’rs.” “You can’t arrest me I go to UVA.” The ABC agents weren’t disciplined and there was testimony that the under age man in question had consumed a bottle of liquor earlier at a party. He still has a civil suit which HIS lawyers recently postponed. I’m not sure this is entirely a racial incident although it has been called one.
According to the College Board, UVA is 7% African-American. https://bigfuture.collegeboard.org/college-university-search/university-of-virginia
The wikipedia demographics article has the state at 19.6%.
Relatively few of that 19.6% are remotely qualified for UVa.
One could wonder why that is.
My cousins who grew up in a close rural VA town would say he is accurate in his assessment. One still lives near there.
Charlottesville is not rural. Earlysville , where his farm is, is 11.5 miles north. Unfortunately, there seems to be some degree of racial profiling in many places. And class profiling as well . Some people are hyper vigilant and quick to call the cops if anybody is in their neighborhood that seems out of place.
He was not commenting, as far as I could tell, about downtown Charlottesville or about the university. He was talking specifically about the well-heeled suburban/exurban areas.
It fact he specifically said that he was concentrating more on delivering to restaurants, which presumably are more likely to be in town.
I think that the university’s diversity stats are irrelevant to his point.
If you look at their kick starter page, they say they married in 2011 and the initial goal with starting their farm was to service the restaurants in the Charlottesville/DC and Richmond triangle. . They lived in DC for awhile. The wife states her husband is of Choptico-Kanawha heritage. His points about progressives, race, hip hop, etc. are interesting but not sure are all that unique to Charlottesville. But it never hurts to advance the dialog in a community about ways to further better relations.
“One could wonder why that is”
Different state but probably pretty telling. Doubt Richmond and Tidewater are that different from WI cities