Embarrassed of my homestate, Vermont

[AshleyJo]

My fiancé and I came home to the small state of Vermont in late July of 07'. My fiancé is black and I am white. Our little girl, 9 month old Nhaydia, is of course mixed. I grew up in this state for 18 years thinking that everything is peaceful and we are not like other states that have problems as in taking care of their people. Well I left the nest to the military just after my 18th birthday, floated around to different places, ended up in Austin met the love of my life and started a family.

So we have been up in VT for 6 months now and it has been a horrible experience. Not only am I treated differently for having manners, as having a child that is darker then me, but my fiancé is pin-pointed out because of his race. VT has the lowest population of black people in the country. Not even 1 percent of the population is black, and VT has the highest incarceration percent among all the states for black people. It has not been a welcoming experience at all. For the most part people are rude and speak to us differently just because we are an interracial couple. He has already been called the "n" word here and been stopped by the police 6 times!!!! 6 times, come on give me a break. I've only been stopped once in this state and that was when I was 16. The funny thing here is that he has not even received a ticket from anyone of them. He was never at fault; they just wanted to make sure he didn't have drugs, weapons, or is a convict.

Now were facing the court because him and, needless to say, a public intoxicated white person had got in a quarrel. This was the person that threw a snowball at his vehicle, called him the "n" word, and spit on him. Yet, who went to jail for a weekend and is facing charges. My fiancé because he is black, plain and simple. We called the South Burlington police to file against the white person, but Sgt Demore was very rude and disrespectful towards him and said he was not filing because he was the aggressor and the white person was the victim. My fiancé has a clean record, never been in trouble before, and is a great person and father.

Don't worry, state of Vermont, you will never see anyone of us again after the court situation is cleared. We are moving to a state that welcomes people with open arms. We are possibly moving to Australia next year, to a much more peaceful country. I never planned on staying in VT and I now know why. I will never put my daughter in a situation where I feel she will always be treated by her color and not by her character. I will always take with me now that Vermont is racist. At least other states or places claim and show to be racist, Vermont is an undercover racial profiler state. Meaning people may say they aren't racist, but deep down when they see a black person they are so quick to lock their doors and hide and talk behind their backs.

I knew there was a reason I decided to become a resident of another state in 2005. I'm not saying everyone in Vermont is racist, because my family couldn't be happier with my fiancé and our daughter, but watch out there is a lot of punks in the state of different ages, sexes, and orientation that are.

  

[JulieJacobKyle]

Jan. 24, 2008 at 5:44 PM I live in Las Vegas, where pretty much anything goes.

[trepsica]

Jan. 24, 2008 at 5:51 PM i live in north idaho, racist central. well it was, but then the aryans got kicked out. now we are considered the human rights state. but minimum wage is well BELOW the federal poverty line. so now we can all just live in the same type of box.

[jenrafus]

Jan. 29, 2008 at 3:23 PM I am so sorry that you've had a bad experience being back home.   I live in Southern Vermont and I'm sure black people are treated the same way down here since they are the minority.  I think sometimes people "fight" what's not like themselves.  I have a white friend that is married to a black man, they have 2 kids, I'm curious what her take is on this.  Thank you for bringing up such an important topic.  Good luck to you and your family where ever you move.

[MythicMMM]

Apr. 5, 2008 at 3:05 PM I endured 15 years of that as a mixed child. I am so happy to be out of vermont.