Palm Beach County/Racism & Antisemitism

[jiacinto]

A&E is having a documentary about it. I thought it was a quite progressive place. Am I wrong?

They are talking about clubs that discriminated.

[jiacinto]

1. No one here?

nt

[jiacinto]

2. anyone here

nt

[tom_paine]

3. No one here from Palm Beach County, apparently

[SlavesandBulldozers]

4. Palm Beach

uhh, Palm beach county - by my understanding - is a land of retirees -- and you know what that means. They hate black people.

[DemVet]

6. WHAAAAAAAT?????

All retirees are racist? :wtf:

[jiacinto]

8. That's my reaction

Palm Beach Co. strongly supported Gore.

[HFishbine]

11. Catually, Buchannan -- remember?

Riiiggght.

[The Backlash Cometh]

15. You can't handle the truth.

I might also add that the demographics of West Palm Beach is entirely different than Palm Beach.

[jiacinto]

7. But

it is so progressive. Gore thrashed Bush there in 2000.

[Jim Sagle]

5. Of course no one's here.

You mentioned the magical all-weather DU repellent - antisemitism.

Remind me again just why I'm a Democrat? :shrug:

[Malikshah]

9. I think it might be the city of West Palm Beach/Palm Beach

This is different the PBC as a whole. Historically, the city of Palm Beach was the area for the extremely wealthy, etc. And yes--there is a history of anti-semitism, elitist views. Nowadays it isn't as blatant, but...

PBC though is another issue. Boca Raton, Boynton Beach...etc. not the case.

[jiacinto]

10. Ok

Maybe I misunderstood. Is a City of Palm Beach in addition to the County of Palm Beach. I always thought there was only W Palm Beach.

[tkmorris]

12. I live in Palm Beach County

Frankly I have no idea what A&E is talking about. I haven't seen the show you refer to but any anti-semetism here is no more than the sort of isolated incident that could occur anywhere, believe me.

There are more Jewish people in this county than I have seen anywhere else in the country. Being an anti-semite here would make as much sense as being a Klan member in Harlem. There is racism here to be sure (isn't there everywhere?) but it is primarily directed at Haitians.

Tell me more about this A&E program Carlos.

[jiacinto]

13. Well

They were talking about the Breakers, the Country Clubs in Palm Beach County. They were saying that the clubs did not allow Jews or blacks in. They had an example of a child in a school who invited everyone to the party except for three Jewish kids.

[Cheswick2.0]

16. that is the city of palm beach

They are mostly really old eastern establishment types. It makes sense that some would be anti-semetic, but only some. There are also lots of liberals there.

[jiacinto]

18. Ok

Thanks.

[FlaGranny]

19. Ah, yes, the Breakers!!

Palm Beach = Rich folks. Yes, there is discrimination in Palm Beach. Most of the discrimination (both anti-Jewish and anti-black)comes in the form of private clubs, tennis and golf clubs and the like. I'm not 100% sure about the Breakers. It is a 5-star hotel and supposedly is open to anyone with the money to pay for a room. There are cameras on the bridges on the way in to the island to check on who is visiting. Just about all black people living there are live-in house and groundskeepers. Palm Beach is one of the richest enclaves in the country. They also had a law that men (of any color) were not allowed to jog shirtless in town. Lots of "old money" there.

[jiacinto]

20. Well

I've always wanted to stay at the Breakers.

[FlaGranny]

22. I hear it's very nice.

I never had a desire to stay there. I'd have to spend thousands on a new wardrobe so I wouldn't be mistaken for the hired help. :-)
My sister and her husband were there once - a company sponsored Christmas party I think. They do allow the rabble in on occasions like that. ;-)

[jiacinto]

23. Ok

It's a dream taht I will have to save for years to make come true.

[JanMichael]

14. It's relatively Liberal. But like all places there are still bigots.

No area is perfect.

I lived there for 8-9 years back in the late 80's early 90's and can safely say it was more Liberal than most places I've lived.

[Taxi Driver]

17. Untrue.

Palm Beach is just a place for affluent retirees, and there are PLENTY of Jewish ones over there. Still, there are some old gentiles, and old folks tend to be less SOCIALLY progressive which could explain some anti-Semitism. As for the Buchanan votes, the old men probably got confused on the ballot, but I'm sure many of the votes for Buchanan were legitimate because in Palm Beach we're not talking about old people who have trouble paying for their prescription drugs; we're talking about affluent people. They probably liked Pat Buchanan's "old school Republican" platform.

[FlaGranny]

21. Palm Beach is not full of retirees,

Palm Beach is full of rich snowbirds who summer in Bridgeport (?) and winter in Palm Beach. CEO's, insurance executives, etc. Some retired and some not. Few home prices in Palm Beach start at under a millon and go up, up, up from there.

Edit: There are very few Jewish in Palm Beach and those that are there are not welcome in the Palm Beach social scene - the social scene is very "big" in PB. Think of it as a rich, white, club of people of Northern European extraction.