Virginia Medean - On Racism and a Progressive Town (clip)
Interviewed by Ella Wise and Rachel Mossey on March 19, 2010
Virginia Medean: That place where I went to live for a few years in Halifax County was still as segregated as ever and was a very uncomfortable place to live. As a white person, it was very uncomfortable to be around other White people there because of their racism.
They have learned not to say the n-word but it comes out. My landlord said to me one day, “Well now I have this man Michael who is coming to paint the house. He’s alright. He’s Black, but he’s alright.” I was flabbergasted. This is a man who has been living in the community his whole life, who rents to people of all color, and he’s still telling me that I don’t have to be afraid of a Black man to paint the house. Seventy percent of the people who live in this community are Black. I would expect that the likelihood that the person painting the house would be Black.
Interviewer: So, coming back to when you moved back to this area, how did it compare?
Virginia Medean: Oh this is a very well to do area. There’s one thing about Chapel Hill—there is a lot of progressive thinking here. Some people have a hard time putting that into practice. It is actually easier if you are below the median income to not be so segregated because economics forces you to be in groups of people that are multi-ethnic. I see a problem with the language barrier for Hispanic people. That’s a huge problem here and I see racism there. But this is such a fun place to live. You don’t have to go anywhere to do anything. There’s a zillion things to do. I can’t afford to do any of them, but I know that they are there and that someday, I can probably do them.
