Why do you think people become conservatives?

I was born in Huntsville and grew up in TN (just across the state line, still more-or-less in the greater Huntsville area). I wouldn't describe serious overt racism as having been the norm in the Huntsville area growing up; it was more of an "every family's got that one racist uncle" type deal, at least in my experience. I was born late 80s and lived in that area until 2012.

I do remember my first major encounter though, hearing a kid use the n-word directed at the first two black students to ever attend my middle school (would have been circa '97-98, I went to a very rural school and the black family with these two kids had just moved into my subdivision, actually), and it shocked me because it felt like something we had been taught "didn't happen anymore." I was a pretty innocent kid I guess, growing up middle class/semi-suburban in a small town is definitely a certain type of bubble.

There's a privilege aspect too, I mean however few honest-to-god racists there are prowling around out there, they aren't exactly focused on me. So it isn't really a surprise that I could live my life in the south encountering a fairly minimal amount of overt racism.

When the person you're replying to says "whites-only schools" though, it makes me wonder if they were raised much earlier. That seems like a 50s-60s thing.

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