Why is New England seen as liberal?

I've lived in New England my whole long life and I'm liberal as well as most people that I know here.

[quote]Why is New England seen as liberal

Out of every representative and senator sent to Congress from New England, there is literally only one Republican. Susan Collins.

Any other questions?

[quote]But I've heard of a lot of stories of POC and even LGBT people who have been discriminated or harassed against in these areas

That shit can happen literally anywhere.

New England does have a lot of liberals but it's a stuffy uptight area, like most of the east coast. I would describe the west coast as more authentically liberal and open than the east.

I am in DC, and several black people here have told me that they would rather spend time in the deep south than in New England, because in the south people are very clear about where they stand and in New England, people are convinced that they are very progressive, even as they are passive-aggressively racist and in denial about it.

I heard a fascinating New York Times ‘The Daily’ podcast about why busing failed, and a scholar said that it worked in the south but failed in New England. Because in most of the south, homes are spread out over large areas and schools serve such large areas that schools had to accept both black and white students following the Brown vs. Board of Education ruling. But most of New England is packed closely, and so it was possible to district and employ housing discrimination to keep school districts all white or all black and so integration law had little impact there, leaving New England to remain generally segregated through unofficial means so that white residents can expect that as long as they move into ‘a good neighborhood,’ they’ll never need to worry about mixing in with black families.

There are redneck-y deplorable areas of New England just like everywhere else. Even California has plenty of deplorables.

Princeton is not in New England

My favorite description of Boston is that it’s “just like San Francisco, but racist.”

R7- That is brilliant, and largely true.

I hate that fucking city.

Good catch r6.

Yeah OP, New Jersey (and New York) is not New England.

Agreed. I went to school there any hated. They're just stuffy and pretentious about their disregard for people who are "othered."

When I think of Boston and racism, I always think of this sad photo.

I think the heavy association of the Kennedy family with Massachusetts for half a century has contributed greatly to the idea of New England liberalism.

For much of the early 20th century Boston had a reputation for being priggish and provincial, with the phrase “Banned in Boston” used nationally to advertise risqué amusements which were indeed censored by city officials.

Being of a certain pigmentation, I can confirm the experience passive aggressive racism in New England vs the upfront version in the Deep South. The difference in the South is that non-bigoted folks will look out for you and give advice and tips and chat normally.

Also co-signing that I hate Boston.

It’s the least religious region of the country. By far. And it’s highly educated.

New England is seen as liberal because it is then most liberal region in the country.

It is not complicated.

There's already been repeated thread after repeated thread on this OP. Why did you find it necessary to come here and start another? Why? Why OP? Can you give us an intelligent, honest answer? Can you? Why would you come here and post this kind of shit yet AGAIN when there have already been so many prior threads on this EXACT same subject. Do you really think this is that damned interesting that it warrants another entire thread to be started? DO YOU??

Why couldn't you have done a search first OP? That would have been the polite thing to do. What you demonstrated was just plain selfishness. You have shown that you don't think about anybody but yourself. It's all about you and your own satisfaction. Next time before you post, do us all a favor and do a search. We don't need another duplicate thread just because of your laziness.

There are two sides to everything, often more than two. Part of the problem with POC in New England is that they assume that the standoffishness is racism. No, it is how New Englanders treat everyone. It isn't that New Englanders are passive aggressive racists, it is that they don't accept anyone into their communities for at least five years. To anyone, of any color, New Englanders will be polite, but don't expect to get past the front door for many years. If you are lucky you will get lemonade of coffee on the front porch.

Also, New Englanders are crabs. They have hard shells and tend to scurry away when annoyed. Unfortunately, many people from other parts of the country don't understand that you need to really dial it down. We see the rest of the country as the Ugly American tourist stereotype. You may think you are being warm and friendly, but New Englanders see you as rude and coming on too strong.

Boston Beguine is a hilarious send up of "liberal" Boston.

"That was the story of my one romance there!

Our dream of adventure didn't stand a chance there!

How could we hope to enjoy all the pleasures ahead, When all the books we should have read Were all suppressed in Boston!

Exotic Boston, Land of the Free

Home of the brave, home of the Red Sox

Home of the bean, and home

Of the BOSTON BEGUINE

Better recording....

R17 You sound very unwelcoming and closed minded, to be honest. And unselfaware.

its not liberal in VT'.s " Notheast" Kingdom

Yes, OP, POC and LGBT people have been discriminated against in New England, and yes, New England is very liberal. There's no inconsistency.

R20, unwelcoming was kind of the point. Nobody has an obligation to be welcoming. New England is known for its stone walls for a reason. Regarding "close minded", there is an old New England saying that one shouldn't be so open minded one's brain falls out. New Englanders take pride in that. As to being "unselfaware". New Englanders are very self aware, we just don't care what you think.

On the contrary, r20, r17 nails New Englanders

NE was a stronghold of Republicanism until the first Clinton election.

Born and bred masshole and r17 nailed it

Also want to add that POC FROM New England are just as cold and standoffish as everyone else R26

New England isn't liberal, it's libertarian.

Only New Hampshire, R28.

I’d say that New Englanders are “don’t ask, don’t tell” and very much MYOB. Stay in your lane. That kind of thing.

They don’t really care if you’re two confirmed bachelors sharing a farmhouse as long as you don’t gallivant around flamboyantly. If you return that ladder you borrowed and are happy to lend your motor mower, you’re fine. Bring a single moment of drama, though, and you’re persona non grata.

New Englanders are introverts.

R29, you've obviously never spent a minute in Massachusetts, Maine, Vermont, Connecticut, Rhode Island...

I don't know r17 I work with two guys from Mass who proudly call themselves Mass-holes. White guys from there seem to be the standard of douche bros and some, like my co workers are proud of that fact.

Ben Affleck, Matt Damon and Mark Wahlberg are all Mass-holes.

There are no Evangelicals, which is a big part of it. The worst you have to deal with are bigoted Boston Irish Catholics.

Maybe the Mid-Atlantic region (NJ/NY/DE/MD/Northern Va) is really the most liberal, who knows.

It’s not just POC. My mother reserved a lot of scorn for “foreigners”. Especially the Portuguese in our CT city. They were gaudy and smelly and backwards. She liked black people who were respectable and hard-working and considered them as American as anyone. I never heard her say a word against them. She had immense compassion for the “boat people” who arrived, traumatized, with nothing.

Most of her family had been in NE for hundreds of years; she felt a bit of ownership. And then she married a European immigrant. SMDH

[quote] Being of a certain pigmentation, I can confirm the experience passive aggressive racism in New England vs the upfront version in the Deep South. The difference in the South is that non-bigoted folks will look out for you and give advice and tips and chat normally. Also co-signing that I hate Boston.

I have never heard anything positive about Boston from black people. People in New England seem to be really passive aggressively racist towards them. My friend's professor told him that in Boston, white people have their ways of showing black people that Boston is "not for them".

New Englander born and raised and I could never live anywhere else. The rest of the country seems like such an ignorant shithole in comparison. Even California is annoying.

I swear, all you queens have your panties up in a bunch 24/7. You think everybody is racist and homophobic, and everything has to be political. No wonder straight people don't want us around.

I moved to the NE from the SW about 3.5 years ago. The major difference I see is not with politics, but with personalities. People in the NE are more reserved, they aren't as fake friendly as we are on the west coast. It has nothing to do with politics.

On the west coast, its not uncommon for me to go up to a stranger, say Hi, and start a big ass conversation. That does not happen here in the NE. People here will look at you funny at first, then they realize that you are a stranger from the West coast, then they'll play along and be fake friendly too. They're not used to being fake friendly, its not part of their culture.

The NE is not more liberal, its just that people here tend to mind their own business more than anywhere else, and aren't as flakey as people from the West coast.

Talking to strangers in public is a big taboo in New England. When I go to the South or the West Coast and I'm standing in a checkout line or something like that and the person next to me tries to start a conversation I tense up and think "why is this person talking to me?" It makes me nervous and uncomfortable, but I'm always polite and courteous to the other person. New Englanders are SO not used to this and we're always caught off-guard when it happens.

Based on all these comments, I have concluded that Katharine Hepburn is indeed the official mascot of New England.

Relative to the rest of the country, New England is very liberal

It's NOT "the NE," asshole -- it's New England. And no, they're not liberal. But they know it would look bad if they were actually honest about their political beliefs. So they pretend to be liberal. Or, as I always used to say, it's easy to pretend to be a liberal when you live in a compound.

I've never met such stuck-up and unfriendly people in all my life. And I don't GAF if people are being "fake nice" to me -- better to get "fake nice" than have people be flat out rude like they are in New England.

I lived there for three years doing my Ph.D. and I was miserable every single minute I spent there. Even my neighbors that I saw every day wouldn't return a wave. How fucking hard is that?? And don't even get me started on the winters, with the 7 ft. tall piles of dirty snow and highs of 4 degrees F.

I always tell people I didn't leave New England -- I escaped.

You seen so friendly and chill, r42

Here is the old saying:

"In the South, they love the people and hate the race; in the North, they love the race and hate the people.

R41, New Englanders are liberal because they are surrounded by white people who act and look just like they do. They haven't had to deal much with the diversity bullshit and its associated crime that we have to deal with on the west coast.

Once diversity sets in, those same liberal white people will turn conservative real quick.

[Quote]Once diversity sets in, those same liberal white people will turn conservative real quick.

What the fuck about your try to rant about r45?

White people who live in diverse cities are the most liberal white voters. Its white people who live in very white flyover areas that are more conservative.

If we must suffer through your racial rants at least make them coherent.

The class divisions and bigotry among white people in New England is pretty intense too.

I remember being surprised to hear camp friends who lived in Boston or the suburbs just outside of it refer to working class locals as "townies" -- it's basically the distinction between people who pronounce the letter "R" and don't use "wicked" as a synonym for "very."

There aren't very many POCs in New England as compared to the South, which means less competition for resources.

The abolitionist movement was started in and based in New England which is likely where the notion of liberal New England came from.

And the generally accepted corollary to that R4, is that busing mostly didn't work because anyone who was middle class or above moved to suburbia where there were no black people and then tsk-tsk'd the blue collar folks left behind when they objected.

R45 is a vile racist. FF

R42 A happy medium is best . While I prefer some privacy, there are definitely places where the constant sullen rudeness starts to get to you. Particularly if you're already going through some shit. That's why I could never warm to MD or parts of MA.

I love r45's bullshit that people on the west coast had to deal with diversity so that's why they are conservative. Has he looked at how people on the west coast actually vote? Do they not teach that at Russian trolling school?

And what's funny is that the racists on the west coast are largely in places like eastern Oregon or far northern Idaho where there are no non-white people.

R51 Not even American Indian people?

[quote]New Englanders are liberal because they are surrounded by white people who act and look just like they do. They haven't had to deal much with the diversity bullshit and its associated crime that we have to deal with on the west coast.

Oh honey you've never been to Hartford, New Haven or Bridgeport, have you?

Lifelong New Englander.

Many racists here, especially in Boston, but also many good, educated people. However, being kind does not come naturally to most of us. In theory, we like equality and liberty and justice for all. In practice, we pull the blinds and pretend we’re not home. It’s only obvious how indifferent we are when we go to other parts of the US and everyone’s so damn nice.

Good, "educated" people.

THAT's New England!!!

I have met plenty of educated racists and bigots.

Fuck education. It means nothing ultimately in breeding a kind person.

Overly friendly people make me nervous.

My husband and I moved to CT in 2017 and have been pleasantly surprised by how kind and accepting our neighbors have been. We got married last month and had a small reception in our cul-de-sac our immediate neighbors were all invited to and they all showed and were very supportive.

I can’t deal with rude or cold people

The frau at R53 is correct in that the cities of New England can be very diverse, but to others' points, once you are out of the cities, New England is very white. That's true for much of the US though, with the South being the main exception.

Lol at being called a frau! Last time I checked I had 7.5" between my legs.

There are also other places in CT that have lots of blacks and Puerto Ricans, not just those three cities. A number of towns these days are pretty mixed.

I want R60 to snuggle with. NOW!

Fuck every single one of you talking shit about New England. This is the only part of the country with an actual social safety net, where the political leadership, even the Republicans, acknowledge and respect the social compact. You’re trying to paint an image of us as uncaring and unsocialized, but if you come here and lose your job, or get sick and need insurance, you will be taken care of.

R62- E-fucking-laborate?

How THE FUCK will we be taken care of????????????

R47 I’m from south of Boston and we refer to anyone who has never left the town they grew up in as a townie. It has nothing to do with blue collar / white collar.

FUCK BOSTON. YEAH R62, HOW ARE WE TAKEN CARE OF IN New England??? YOU MENTIONED THIS?

New Hampshire? HOW?

MAINE?? HOW???

TELL US??

VERMONT???

HOW?? THANKS, BITCH!

[quote] Lol at being called a frau! Last time I checked I had 7.5" between my legs.

But I call other men "honey" (hence the assumption of frau) and when called on it feel compelled to brag to anonymous strangers about my alleged penis size

Yup.

r66 is just jealous. That's okay, it happens.

[R47], like [R64] said, "Townies" are a thing throughout New England. It refers to people who never left the area, and are not interested in leaving. There are people like this around the globe. And, yes, they can be more closed-minded compared to people who have lived in other parts of the country, or have chosen to travel, and have seen how other people live. Other areas may use the term "locals", or something similar.

There's an instagram page called BlackIvyStories which highlight the racism found in these institutions.

This is such a stupid troll thread. The sock puppets are ridiculous.

[quote]I have never heard anything positive about Boston from black people. People in New England seem to be really passive aggressively racist towards them. My friend's professor told him that in Boston, white people have their ways of showing black people that Boston is "not for them".

Seems like it's populated by the cast of Mystic River