Racism in Raleigh, NC.?

Question

I am a 38 year old Hispanic female, living in Oregon and ready to relocate to Raleigh, NC. I have a BS in Human services and plan to seek employment within the school district. I'm curious if Raleigh has high race related tensions towards Hispanics? I understand there are many African Americans that reside there as there #1 minority. However, whenever I inquire about jobs, or watch documentaries on this are, it's 99.9% white folks in the presentations. Are people generally accepting of Hispanic people in the area? Any advice is appreciated.

Answer 1

Just because they're white doesn't automatically mean they're prejudiced. If it's anything like Knoxville (in TN,) I doubt anyone will care. You'd have a harder time here in CT I think.

And to the person below me, isn't it pretty bigoted to think that just because someone is Southern, they're racist? How moronic.

Answer 2

I live in Raleigh. We are a very diverse, educated, friendly city with lots of cities around us that are just the same. We have a large Hispanic population with Hispanic grocery stores and aisles of Hispanic items in almost every mainstream grocery store as well. I am deeply offended by the comments on the board implying that since we are in the South you should expect an increased level of racism. I am white and was not raised to think I was any better than anyone else - the stereotyping goes a long way to keep us where we once were, I am ready to have moved past the stereotyping please!...You will be welcomed here!

Answer 3

We have a very large Hispanic population here. A Spanish radio station, many Hispanic grocery stores etc. And how do you know the people are white when you inquire about jobs? This doesn't seem like an accurate way to judge a city.

I'm not sure how to answer this question, as a white "folk." As in most cities, there's the poorer school districts which have more of a minority population. Our school districts try to increase diversity by busing children in, etc.

We do have a large population of illegal immigrants as well, but as their children go up through the school system I'm sure we'll see more Hispanics in positions of authority.

Raleigh is a very diverse area.

Answer 4

I live near Raleigh. I would say that things are a little bit better here because of an extremely diverse population. The Hispanic culture is strong. I don't think you should run into any problems in the Triangle area. The smaller outlying towns, I can't say that much about.

Answer 5

I've lived in NC all of my life, moving from one end to the other. It's my experience anyone as well spoken as you appear to be will be well accepted here. Yes, there are xenophobes here...just like everywhere else. You'll spend much more time dealing with the cultural difference between OR and NC than you will between white and hispanic.

You needn't fear the small towns, either. Outside of the 5-6 largest cities in NC, the most maligned group of people are those Damn Yankees....I hate Bush, but I voted for him to piss off the New Yorkers in my area.

Answer 6

Here's the rub for most US citizens... I think it is that people of hispanic heritage will want a person from the U.S. to speak Spanish, rather than come trying to speak English. It's okay that you have an accent if you are at least attempting to "fit in". If you are speaking Spanish all the time and looking at people to understand you, I believe it rubs people the wrong way. If we go to another culture, we attempt to speak the language. Why shouldn't they respect us the same way?

Since you have a great grasp of the English language, you shouldn't have ANY problem at all. Most Southern men think that hispanic women are hot... So you got that going for you too.

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Answer 7

Because of the Illeagal invasion in the Raleigh area people do tend to group all hispanic's as illeagal.

Answer 8

All I know is that when I went to Wilmington, NC for 3 months and tried to find any Mexican food restaurants ... there were not any. So, my mom and I decided to make enchaladas ourselves (we are not hispanic, but I am from a border town in Texas). Anyway ... the grocery store did not have any tortillas and the cashier did not know what they were and they also did not carry avacados (for our guacamole) either. They looked at us like we had 3 eyes. All they eat out there is PORK. Ugggg! However, the people are very nice, friendly, and down to earth.

Answer 9

Definitely Charlotte.

Answer 10

It is the South!

I'm sure it is not as bad as you are thinking. Raleigh is known as a place of educated people but just as I would say that...I think it would be naive of you to think that you are not going to run into any subtle racism there. As I said berofe...It is the South!