Or not. You be the judge.

Follow up:

I've spent the last four days in Shreveport, where we've stopped at convenience stores, gone shopping, and eaten at restaurants. Everywhere we go, there are lots of brown people. These brown people are happy, professional, and friendly. They don't seem bothered that I'm white. It's wonderful.

I'm thinking about this because, in 3.5 years in Alabama, I got a very different racial view of the South. In Alabama, we'd go to eat at IHOP, say, and we'd be seated and left there with nothing but water for 45 minutes or better while all the black families around us were served, ate, and left. This happened at the two IHOPs in Montgomery more than once. We finally simply swore off IHOP because the aggravation of trying to be served--let alone served happily--simply wasn't worth it.

I hung out with a black man named Curtis in Alabama. He was 6'6" and built...nicely (but told everyone I was his bodyguard.) I learned a couple of things from our experiences. One: people looked at us strangely when we'd go to eat together (something I doubt happens much here at all); two, he told me about his experiences with overt racism in the area (from whites). I could believe it. He wasn't terribly racially sensitive--he had a good head on his shoulders and didn't have a problem with white people, in my experience--and I'd had too many experiences with anti-white racism to confirm that the animosity between the races in Alabama was palpable.

I wonder if this doesn't have something to do with the histories of the two states. I may be fetching here, but hear me out. Alabama boasts the origin of the second rising of the KKK (Stone Mountain, 1915), and the Civil Rights Movement (Selma) in 1965. With these and, no doubt, more factors, it's no wonder that the whites and blacks in that area look askance at one another, or worse.

Not that that excuses it, of course. It's just that, when I notice such differences, I seek a good reason for them. Here in Louisiana, however, I feel as though the black people I meet don't even notice I'm white. It's wonderful.

Louisiana has a unique history, though. They had what were considered very lax Slave Codes in this state, much to the chagrin of their Southern compatriots. Slaves here were allowed to carry firearms for hunting. The law required that the master provide for any slave who was too ill to work. Masters didn't have the right to do more than whip their slaves; if an offense warranted more (by the Slave Codes), they had to take their case to the courts (and masters who killed or mutilated slaves without the approval of the courts were themselves brought before the courts). In many cases, husbands and wives (and their children) could not be sold separately.

I don't mean to suggest for a minute that it wasn't Southern slavery, and it wasn't horrible, but there was certainly more leniency and fairness offered to slaves here than in any other Southern state.

Add to this mix the fact of Creoles--free-born blacks--and Haitians, from whom many (if not most) blacks in the area today are descended. Again, even a partial history of freedom would greatly reduce the mutual animosity.

It's possible I'm completely off base. In the military, I'm used to interacting with black people on an equal level, laughing and joking and being easy with one another, but enjoying the same ease with Southern civilians is new to me.

And just awesome.

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