"I Have Never Been Racist"

Many of my friends have lived in Northern California all of their lives.  Northern California is defined as Sacramento north to the Oregon border.

The farther north you go, the whiter it gets (both with snow and with skin color).

Residents of  what used to be called "Superior California" do travel to "the city" (San Francisco and to Sacramento,  where a diverse population resides.

But many do not move there, choosing to stay in a basically rural and often remote environment of Superior California.  A major reason for no north south migration, is housing values are so much higher the more south you go.

This relative isolation has manifest itself in a hard core conservative outlook on politics, race and society in general.

Northern California was logging country from 1940 to 1985.  Towns like Weed, Elk Creek, Mt. Shasta, Hayfork, Burney; ;etc., were developed around mills and logging centers.

Men worked in those mills, which were union jobs after the war, and made very good money for unskilled labor (in some cases).  Skilled labor made even better money.

And then something very bad happened, that caused even more of a shift to the right.

The lumber ran out is one story, that is mostly ignored by most Northern California residents.  The second story is the spotted owl was labeled as endangered, so vast areas of forest that could still be harvested, were declared off limits, and killed the lumber industry.

The second story is what many Northern California residents believe.

And they blame the Democratic Party.

Never mind that the EPA was signed by Richard Nixon, or that Ronald Reagan was President when the logging industry really declined.  Never mind that "clear cutting" had reduced old growth forests tremendously.  It was those damn liberals fault.

So Northern California swung hard right.  The huge resource development projects, the Central Valley Project; etc., had brought millions of dollars to the North State.  People forgot about that, electing exceedingly conservative Republicans to Congress and to the state legislature.

And the North State got redder, and poorer.  Even though still rich in natural resources and scenic wonder, the rural reactionary nature of the people turned off entrepreneurs , who elect to stay in the Bay Area, or locate to other states and leave the more accessible North State out of their business expansion plans.  

Racism is also prevalent, because the further north you go, the fewer people of color you encounter.  But, you hear from many, "I have never been racist".  The truth is that is seldom tested, because people of color are relatively scarce.  There is a solid and quiet racism, almost latent, but not tested because there hardly minorities around.

The "boat people" after the Vietnam War challenged this; many moved to Northern California.  And, predictably there were several nasty racist incidents.  But the influx was fairly small, and dwindled with time.

And education shortcomings  hurts the North State as well, because the educated elite in this country is getting more technicolor all the time, and don't want to locate businesses (especially technology) in Redneck territories.

So my home town's biggest issue right now is what to do with the thousand or so homeless people, who are a product of a cheap retail economy, with very little economic growth in evidence.

In short, the statement "I have never been racist" also goes along with..."and most of my friend up here are poor and getting poorer".

Superior California is becoming the Appalachia of California.