Posted On: Thursday - July 14th 2022 9:59PM MST
In Topics: Geography Race/Genetics
Early this week, a colleague and I talked with a friendly traveler going the same way. It started with the usual "what are you here for?", "where are you coming from?", and all that, but it wasn't long before the Kung Flu came up. Actually, yeah, I did start it, but I could tell this guy just seemed alright, maybe not so triggerable. Even though he'd told us he was from New Jersey, that was indeed the case. When I asked, he told as that no way was he getting vaccinated.
It turns out that his small town in New Jersey is pretty conservative. It's not way down south Jersey or in the ritzy northeastern townships either - it is pretty close in to NY City. Well, "conservative" is all relative, but also that doesn't keep him away from the ravages of the State of New Jersey. We talked about the politicians there vs. Ron DeSantis, as an example. We all happily agreed that on the PanicFest and other issues, none of us wanted what went on in New Jersey.
As per the meme above, this guy was planning on leaving. (I can't help thinking the Kung Flu nonsense played a part in his decision making.) He was going to an interview the next morning for some academic job, and if he got the job he planned to move his family - they have one child.
My colleague was fairly familiar with the area, so he gave this guy some advice on where the good places in the area to live. He even suggested, for the guy's wife who has a career too, "hey, if you lived in REDACTED, could she tele-commute?" Hmmm, what does one usually mean when you talk about "good areas" and "bad areas"? Yeah, you guessed it.
Here's the thing we did not get to talking about. This location is heavily black. The town where the university is, is over 70% black, and the whole county is only a few percentage points lower. This guy is from a conservative town in New Jersey. Does he know what this means?
You don't know how much you can talk about things like this without knowing someone a lot better, so, of course, we didn't. I saw the guy later though, as he'd gone to the same hotel. I was SO tempted to talk to him about the racial aspects of his plans. That would have been to help him out, primarily, but also to see what the guy already knew. Nope, it wasn't worth the trouble it could have led to.
If this gentleman from small-town New Jersey passed his interview, did he just jump from the frying pan into the fire?
Comments:
Jack Russell
Friday - July 15th 2022 7:09PM MST
PS I was a budding academic once. Until I noticed that the job requirements included things like “demonstrated commitment to diversity and inclusion". I had spent my time learning how to integrate the Planck equation, so I had neglected this critically important factor, thus was unqualified to teach eager young minds how to integrate the Planck equation, so I got a real job. The wokeists have since caught up with me, so my days of integrating the Planck equation for profit and the public good are drawing to a close, I'm just not sure if I'm going to get out before they disembowel me for insufficient devotion to diversity.
Moderator
Friday - July 15th 2022 4:17PM MST
PS: I was ready with a "which exit" sign from the old Saturday Night Live (I think) skits.
Adam Smith
Friday - July 15th 2022 2:37PM MST
PS: What's the difference between a hockey team and a New Jersey hooker? ☮
MBlanc46
Friday - July 15th 2022 12:14PM MST
PS Illinois is pretty far down the tubes, but there are a few places that are worse. New Jersey is one of them.
Moderator
Friday - July 15th 2022 6:01AM MST
PS: Big hair, huh? Do they think they are living in the 1980s still? For lots of northern jersey, it's big dots instead. That are is a dot-Indian stronghold. From looking here:
http://www.justicemap.org/2020/
(It's not so easy to use on a tablet, but I could spend hours on the site.)
I see that only the NW corner county, Sussex, is very good demographically. (However, you have to drill down to voting-precinct level to see where types of people really are.) Then, there's Ocean County about mid-way up the coast and Cape May down in the SE. After you get across Delaware Bay, you get to another very White and very non-black Sussex County, this one in Delaware of course.
I guess "Sussex County" is a dog whistle.
http://www.justicemap.org/2020/
(It's not so easy to use on a tablet, but I could spend hours on the site.)
I see that only the NW corner county, Sussex, is very good demographically. (However, you have to drill down to voting-precinct level to see where types of people really are.) Then, there's Ocean County about mid-way up the coast and Cape May down in the SE. After you get across Delaware Bay, you get to another very White and very non-black Sussex County, this one in Delaware of course.
I guess "Sussex County" is a dog whistle.
The Alarmist
Friday - July 15th 2022 4:54AM MST
PS
I was invited to a couple fox hunts in a conservative part of Northern NJ. NJ is a state of mind. My sister, who lived in Philly at one point, drove up to NYC to visit, and one of the first things she said about NJ was, “I’ve never seen so much big hair in my life.” NJ is a state of mind.
I was invited to a couple fox hunts in a conservative part of Northern NJ. NJ is a state of mind. My sister, who lived in Philly at one point, drove up to NYC to visit, and one of the first things she said about NJ was, “I’ve never seen so much big hair in my life.” NJ is a state of mind.
Hey, at least you can tell your HR people that you are very much pro-integration without lying your ass off.