I live in Seattle, and I can tell you from the few times I've been on NextDoor, even in a blue city like ours, I was surprised at how racist people still are, albeit subtly.
It is mostly a story perpetuated in the press that racism is a Southern thing. Similar to how stories of dog fighting were the South. It is one part stereotype and one part comfort, comfort in the idea that where you live; outside of the South; possibly cannot have similar issues.
Tacoma here. I kept getting hand typed notes in my mailbox for a few months to join NextDoor. Looked it up once and never went back. Too many dogwhistle posts about "undesirable youth" causing all the city's problems.
Why don't you call it out? Like it seems that this stuff gets going because nobody ever raises their hand and says something, so the people who are left just get into a feedback loop.
Because all that will do is create high school style drama about who's more correct.
But if you want to get into an eternal hate match between your neighbors full of passive aggressive backstabbing, there is no quicker way than to call them out on their causal racism.
There is far more racism in Seattle than southern cities and Midwestern cities that I've lived in. I perhaps have a different perspective on it since I am a POC, but that is certainly my feeling on it all.
Yeah, there's a lot of subtle racism. But there's also some pretty overt stuff. Look no further than our local conversations about homelessness and housing affordability, right?
