Vidor, Texas - A racist town? Don't "mingle" with Blacks

[Erika]

According to a resident you can talk to Blacks, be friends with them. But mingling and eating with "them" is where she draws the line.

http://www.cnn.com/2006/US/12/08oppenheim.sundown.town/index.html

The woman resident has no clue to the bigot she actually is. I'm shocked by naivety that whites would refuse to eat with blacks.

I hope this is not too controversial to discuss.

[Warpy]

1. I don't suppose they've got a municipal swimming pool

I mean, the horror! Some of that black stuff might get into the water!

[snowbear]

2. I watched that too..

The mayor of Vidor and the dude standing with him sure weren't very convincing when they swore their town wasn't racist..

[moc]

3. Is the Pope Catholic?

eta:

Sorry, for someone who grew up in Texas, a question about whether or not Vidor is a racist town gets a "Well, duh" response. Common knowledge around here.

[Erika]

6. Do they kid themselves that separate but equal

has substance?

[moc]

8. Beats me. I just know that when I was growing up it was common

knowledge that a black driving through Vidor better crouch down and hope not to be seen.

[Erika]

11. Didn't any of the whites stand up and say "this is wrong"

Why not? The Klan was active in 1993 in Vidor as the article says. It just amazes me.

[Selatius]

14. Many Whites "don't want no trouble" from the Klan or anybody perceived as the majority.

So they chose the safer route of remaining silent. Is it easier to remain silent than to take a stand and risk the consequences?

I'm not saying it is right or wrong. I'm simply saying how I see it, and I guess when you live here in Mississippi like I do, you see it one too many times. The Justice Department still sends poll monitors to places like Neshoba County and other counties to ensure minorities are not intimidated or disenfranchised when they go to vote.

[Erika]

19. This is so sad for so many reasons

It also makes me very angry. Thanks for all the responses. I'm trying very hard to find or understand a basis for bigotry.

[SmokingJacket]

35. You have no idea how evil it is down there.

Some of the most openly racist people in the country live along the Texas/Louisiana border. It's the backbone of their culture. Remember when those people dragged that black guy behind a truck? When I heard about that happening, I said, "If that didn't happen in East Texas, I'll eat my hat."

I haven't been back in ten years or so, but the Klan was active then, members were in positions of power in every damn town. I was personally threatened by them. Of course, it came to nothing, because they're a bunch of cowards.

The basis of their bigotry is this: they need to have someone to look down on. Period.

[BlooInBloo]

22. LOLOLOL!!! Good one!

[Bridget Burke]

32. No, they packed their bags & left.

Vidor is not exactly an economic or cultural powerhouse.

[Saphire]

29. Yup...I grew up about 30 miles from this place...always has been, always

will be!

[Erika]

4. The article can still be found on the CNN home page

Sorry the link no longer works.

[HiFructosePronSyrup]

5. Heh.

we were just talking about this sort of attitude in another thread.

[KingFlorez]

7. Fixed the link

http://www.cnn.com/2006/US/12/08/oppenheim.sundown.town/index.html

[Erika]

10. Thanks for the link fix.

I simply can't fathom refusing to eat with a another ethnicity or refusing to "mingle" with them.

I thought the twin blonde racist sisters were freakish
but Vidor has 5,000 kids in their schools and 13 are black?

[Sapphocrat]

9. Some people are so hopeless...

...the best you can hope for is to outlive them.

What a sorry excuse for a human being that Peggy Whatserbutt is. Probably considers herself quite the "Christian," too.

[DemoTex]

12. "East Texas" and "Racist" are almost synonymous: James Byrd, case in point.

3 whites indicted in dragging death of black man in Texas

July 6, 1998
Web posted at: 11:07 p.m. EDT (0307 GMT)
Trial not likely until 1999
JASPER, Texas (CNN) -- Three white men were indicted Monday on capital murder charges in the death of a black man who was chained to a pickup truck and dragged to his death on a rural East Texas road in early June.

One indictment issued by a Jasper County grand jury accuses John William King, 23, of Jasper and Lawrence Russell Brewer, 31, of Sulphur Springs of capital murder. A second indictment by the grand jury names Shawn Allen Berry, 23, of Jasper.

King and Brewer are expected to be tried together, but officials said that Berry's charge may be reduced in a plea agreement. Berry has been a key witness in the investigation.

If convicted, the men could face the death penalty in the June 7 slaying of James Byrd Jr.

[DemoTex]

17. BTW: Racist East Texas was where Bu$h/Rove beat Ann Richards in 1994.

Issues? Guns and queers. The apocryphal Ann Richards bumper sticker for East-Tex:

I AM THE QUEER THAT ANN SENT TO GET YOUR GUNS

[Erika]

21. Do these people in East Texas consider themselves Christian?

Can anyone explain how good Xtians justify being bigots?

Thanks.

[SeattleGirl]

13. That woman who won't "mingle" with blacks had better not come

to my street. My husband and are are two of only 3 whites who live on our block. Everyone else is black or Asian.

The woman would probably go into convulsions. What a sorry waste of space she is.

[babylonsister]

15. I live in Houston and my neighbors are black, Mexican,

Asian, Cuban, with a generous sprinkling of older Christian couples. So near and yet so far, thankfully.

[Starbucks Anarchist]

18. My neighbors are African, African-American, Hispanic, white, and I'm Indian.

Hell, that's just in my building. :hi:

[SeattleGirl]

23. SA!

I love "mingling" with different races and cultures. Especially because I came from White Bread, America.

[Starbucks Anarchist]

24. Hey, SG!

I live in the most diverse county in the most diverse city in America, if not the world.

Standing outside and watching people pass by is like witnessing the elevator ride at the UN. :D

[derby378]

16. Not far from Vidor, there's the town of Anahuac...

...former home of a secret Klan survivalist training camp.

[951-Riverside]

20. God Damn It! I hate political correctness. its not racism its separtism....

God You blacks are so uptight about everything and you're always playing the race card. Lets not forget the rappers... do this stuff all the time and and and what about BET hmmm?

:sarcasm: :eyes: :puke:

[Catherine Vincent]

25. I drive to the casino in Louisiana once or twice a year and you

have to use I-10 East which puts you through Vidor, Texas. Whenever I see the Vidor, Texas city limit sign, I always make sure not to stop and pray that I don't have a flat tire.

[Erika]

27. Their bigotry is so wrong in so many ways

and it was this district who gave the governor election to W over Ann Richards?

[BreweryYardRat]

26. I posted a thread asking something similar a while back.

Heard of it on another site, went :wtf:, came here for confirmation.

I'm only half-joking when I say that place ought to be a nuclear testing site.

[seize the time]

28. This is so sad...

sometimes people's attitudes make it easy to get discouraged, but together we have the strength and vision to make a difference.

[Ron Green]

30. Hmm... the page is not working Wed. morning. I wonder what happened?

[Bridget Burke]

31. Vidor is notorious in Texas

From The Touchstone, "the only left/liberal/progressive political journal produced within an eighty mile or so radius of Texas A&M University."

Vidor is located approximately 10 miles from Beaumont across the Neches river. The river and nearby swamps made the logging town of Vidor an isolated and unpleasant place to live for much of its history. The surrounding thick forests provided some cover for secret meetings of the Klan. With improved transportation and the draining of some of the swamps, Vidor became a haven for Beaumont racists in the 1960's and 70's who were fleeing that city because of the inchoate civil rights struggle there, school desegregation and the rising power of the black minority. The unpleasant living conditions in and around Vidor insured that only people from the lower economic classes would make the move. Vidor was known for two prominent hand painted signs on the outskirts of town. One read, "Niggers read this and run. If you can't read, run anyway." and another that simply said "Nigger don't let the sun set on you in Vidor."

In 1993 on orders from the Federal judiciary, integration was attempted. Four black families or individuals were relocated into the previously all-white HUD housing complex in Vidor. Within months all four were driven out after enduring many racial taunts, snubs from local white-owned businesses , and death threats -- including "security patrols" around the town by the Klan in a refurbished Texas Department of Corrections bus. Within months all four had left. The last black person to leave was Bill Simpson. Simpson was murdered on the streets of Beaumont in 1993 on the day he moved out of Vidor. Some have said that the murder was retaliation and was arranged through the drug connections of some Texas racists and black Beaumont street gangs.

www.rtis.com/reg/bcs/pol/touchstone/april99/vidor.html

Glad to live in Houston. Sheila Jackson-Lee is my US Rep.

[Catherine Vincent]

38. She's my rep too!

:hi:

[Gruenemann]

33. My experiences with Vidor

I lived in Louisiana for four years and would drive through Vidor frequently on my way to visit family in Texas. That part of Interstate 10, east of Houston, is creepy. Thick woods line the road, and there are three kinds of buildings visible: holy roller churches, liquor stores, and trailer dealers. A friend I had in college who grew up in the area told me Vidor was considered the pits, even by East Texas standards. He told me someone once added to the highway sign "Interstate 10" the graffito "Vidor 0." Many years later the town's racist nature was revealed.

I always hoped I wouldn't break down there. Of course I did, on Thanksgiving Day no less. Being white I was able to get help, but I got the hell out of there as fast as I could.

Recently I had a student who had lived briefly in Vidor. She had moved in from out of state and didn't know how racist the place was. Not being a racist herself, she began to socialize with her black neighbors. Well, the locals noticed and a large group of them came to her door and threatened to do her harm if she didn't stop hanging out with her neighbors.

Vidor is hell on earth.

[Catherine Vincent]

39. That's pretty bad when you have a white person anxious to get the hell out of Vidor.

Much less black folks. :(

[AllegroRondo]

34. Pekin, Illinois

until the late 80's, had a sign at the city limits saying "no blacks allowed in town after sunset"

its not just Texas.

[Texasgal]

36. Vidor used to have a sign

as you enter the town that said something along the lines of keeping your women and N**ggers in place.

Vidor is a nasty place.

[verse18]

37. As a Black person, this why I avoid small rural towns.

I'm a Social Worker in child welfare, and I and my team members, who are all White, travel to rural counties in W Tennessee to testify in court. I had one particular case that I was subpoenaed to testify in a county that was so small that I had never heard of it or the town. I tried my best to get out of testifying because the subpoena was not actually about the case, but about getting one of the attorneys removed. Anyway, One of my coworkers told me how she had been to this area to camp and go white water rafting, and the rest of them chimed in on how I should go down there anyway even if I didn't go to court because the area was so beautiful and so on. Jokingly I said, "I don't think so. This is probably one of those, 'Your kind ain't welcome here' places, and I'll be damned if I go around trying to explore. Ya'll might never see me again." I swear, all of my team members were stunned and speechless when I said that, because they will never have to be worried about their safety simply because of the color of their skin, like I am.

I live on one side of TN and my family is on the opposite side and I drive across the state regularly by myself. I recently drove through to Atlanta from Nashville and I had never taken that highway before. I was running low on gas and I was afraid to stop because it had already gotten dark and I'm well aware that in some places, being Black after dark is hazardous to your health. The last time I drove home, I stopped at an exit to get breakfast, and when I walked into the restaurant, almost all eyes turned towards me, as if the patrons at the restaurant had never seen a Black person before. I got my two biscuits and jelly and got the hell out of there as soon as I could.

[Catherine Vincent]

40. Same here.

I avoid unfamiliar small rural towns like the plague. I plan to visit the Clinton presidential library next spring and I'll be driving there from H-town. I am a little hesitant but I'll have a male friend with me that can pass for white so I think I'll be okay. Clinton is worth it. :)

[Brewman_Jax]

41. I get told that this doesn't happen anymore

and this is the 21st century. I remind them that there are still places that are still in the 19th century and don't like people who look like me. The worse part is the shock and the statement, "wow, I didn't know places like that still exist." I say, "yeah, but that's something YOU don't have to worry about."

This is a major reason I don't like being too far from major metro areas. :scared:

[mattfromnossa]

42. I get told the same thing.

:banghead:

[jarab]

43. Corbin, Kentucky.

Bigotry so blatant that I can't even discuss it.

...O...