Ferguson, MO Shooting

[MoValley John]

I don't think a lot of that last paragraph is accurate. And I definitely don't think it is fair. Furthermore I doubt there is much difference between rural Kansas and rural Missouri in this matter. Unfortunately there are bigoted folks almost everywhere. I've been all over the Ozarks and through most of Kansas and never really sensed a great difference. I generally respect you as a poster Kung Wu, but I feel you are making an overgeneralization here.

I have lived in Chicago, spent my military time in San Diego and outside of Washington DC and a couple other places. My business travels have taken me across both Kansas and Missouri-extensively. I can assure you that rural Missouri is much more backward and racist than Kansas. I'm not saying this as a slam, a get CaseyGarrisonforpresident thing, or anything else. The riots are serious business and this topic is not the place for that stuff. Just to be clear, there is plenty of racism in both states, so Kansas isn't getting a pass, but small town Missouri is over the top, in your face racist, don't pretend it isn't.

[SB Shock]

There is a report that the officer suffered a "orbital blowout fracture to the eye socket.” I guess when Brown was giving up as he was running away he actually accidentally punched the officer.

[WuDrWu]

I can't believe any involved public official is going to keep their job in Missouri. Sen. McCaskill just buried her re-election I believe today.

[Kung Wu]

I don't think a lot of that last paragraph is accurate. And I definitely don't think it is fair. Furthermore I doubt there is much difference between rural Kansas and rural Missouri in this matter. Unfortunately there are bigoted folks almost everywhere. I've been all over the Ozarks and through most of Kansas and never really sensed a great difference. I generally respect you as a poster Kung Wu, but I feel you are making an overgeneralization here.

Then we have vastly different experiences.

[Kung Wu]

I have lived in Chicago, spent my military time in San Diego and outside of Washington DC and a couple other places. My business travels have taken me across both Kansas and Missouri-extensively. I can assure you that rural Missouri is much more backward and racist than Kansas. I'm not saying this as a slam, a get CaseyGarrisonforpresident thing, or anything else. The riots are serious business and this topic is not the place for that stuff. Just to be clear, there is plenty of racism in both states, so Kansas isn't getting a pass, but small town Missouri is over the top, in your face racist, don't pretend it isn't.

I agree with this. The bigotry in Kansas is much more contained and sort of closet-bigotry. It's reducing with each new generation. The bigotry in the Ozarks (I can't speak to all of Missouri) is open, on full display, and is fully being retained with each new generation.

[SHOCKvalue]

I spent a few years of my childhood in a beautiful little town in the hills of NW AR, and today get down to the Ozarks a few times per year on motorcycle/lake/fall color trips, and I have no idea what you guys are talking about with the references to rampant racism in that area. There certainly is more poverty in rural Ozark AR/MO than rural farm town KS, but I'm not so sure about the more racism claim. Do you have any links or metrics to support the claims, or are we just dealing with conjecture?

As an aside, if I could somehow nod my head like a genie and reset my surroundings and career to NW AR I would do it in a heartbeat. That area is a little bit of nirvana if you enjoy outdoor activities - and the best part is that it is mostly free of enviro-wackos, unlike most outdoorsy regions of the country. You enjoy the rest of your life in flat, treeless, featureless, WT Wichita all the while enjoying those scintillating weekends spent shopping at Town East and dining at Chili's; I'll take the "racist" Ozarks.

[Kung Wu]

I spent a few years of my childhood in a beautiful little town in the hills of NW AR, and today get down to the Ozarks a few times per year on motorcycle/lake/fall color trips, and I have no idea what you guy are talking about with the references to rampant racism in that area. There certainly is more poverty in rural Ozark AR/MO than rural farm town KS, but I'm not so sure about the more racism claim. Do you have any links or metrics to support the claims, or are we just dealing with conjecture?

As an aside, if I could somehow nod my head like a genie and reset my surroundings and career to NW AR I would do it in a heartbeat. That area is a little bit of nirvana if you enjoy outdoor activities - and the best part is that it is mostly free of enviro-wackos, unlike most outdoorsy regions of the country. You enjoy the rest of your life in flat, treeless, featureless, WT Wichita all the while enjoying those scintillating weekends spent shopping at Town East and dining at Chili's; I'll take the "racist" Ozarks.

Conjecture based on anecdotal evidence. Maybe I have just been unlucky.

Edit: Based on your question about metrics I was curious and just put "Ozarks racism" into the Google machine. While the results are no smoking gun, @MoValley John: and I aren't the only ones to have noticed it.

[SHOCKvalue]

Conjecture based on anecdotal evidence. Maybe I have just been unlucky.

Please expound. The use of the racism card requires substantiation.

If you have nothing specific and first person to share then you need to quit.

[Kung Wu]

Please expound. The use of the racism card requires substantiation.

If you have nothing specific and first person to share then you need to quit.

It's 100% first person, and it's _only_ my experience which is why it's anecdotal.

[Kung Wu]

It's 100% first person, and it's _only_ my experience which is why it's anecdotal.

Well my brother and mother have independently come to the same conclusion (both live there), so I guess I can say it's not _only_ my experience. And I guess I could add some second hand experience to my first hand experience, but that's neither here nor there. I trust my own experience.

[SHOCKvalue]

Isn't blatant and widespread racism generally associated with areas of the country where there is a very high proportion of black populous? Where black and white are interfacing with one another everyday - in both good and bad contexts. This is true of the Deep South is it not? I mean you don't hear much about blatant racism in white bread UT, but it seems we still do in places like LA and MS. Well, the Ozarks are certainly not the Deep South; from a racial breakdown perspective the Ozarks are extremely "white", just like UT (excluding the Hispanic influx seen everywhere).

[SHOCKvalue]

Conjecture based on anecdotal evidence. Maybe I have just been unlucky.

Edit: Based on your question about metrics I was curious and just put "Ozarks racism" into the Google machine. While the results are no smoking gun, @MoValley John: and I aren't the only ones to have noticed it.

Google will give feedback to support any inner narrative a person might have. You could query whether or not it is advisable to marry your pet cat, and come away with the conclusion that humans married to other humans are the social outliers.

If you need to go to a search engine to support a point, it generally means you don't have one.

[WuDrWu]

Pants up, don't loot! seemed to be a successful battlecry last night. Hopefully things are beginning to calm down now.

[Kung Wu]

Google will give feedback to support any inner narrative a person might have. You could query whether or not it is advisable to marry your pet cat, and come away with the conclusion that humans married to other humans are the social outliers.

If you need to go to a search engine to support a point, it generally means you don't have one.

I wasn't supporting a point. I was curious based on your question. I have fully admitted that my argument is based only on first person experience and nothing more.

[SHOCKvalue]

Kung, I like you, I just despise the race card.

It seems like this forum piles on the Ozarks due to some perceived connection to the Bares, but Springfield has about as much to do with the Ozarks as Wichita does the Flint Hills. Springfield and MSU are not IN the Ozarks.