# African American Couple in Sedona, AZ



## agape78 (Nov 18, 2008)

This question is not intended to offend anyone, so I apologize if that happens. My DH and I would love to visit Sedona summer 2009.  As an african american couple would we be welcomed or should we look at some other areas of Arizona?


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## T_R_Oglodyte (Nov 18, 2008)

agape78 said:


> This question is not intended to offend anyone, so I apologize if that happens. My DH and I would love to visit Sedona summer 2009.  As an african american couple would we be welcomed or should we look at some other areas of Arizona?



I don't think anyone will take any offense, and I believe you have found a good place to ask such a question.  If you have reservations or concerns, it's certainly appropriate to try to have them allayed.

I'm not the person to respond to your question, because I haven't spent time in Sedona, but I know others are familiar will provide their input.  But I do want to extend a welcome to TUG!


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## DeniseM (Nov 18, 2008)

Hi!  I am not familiar with Sedona either, but in general, the western states are  very ethnically diverse.  I can't imagine you having any kind of problem!


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## Jbart74 (Nov 18, 2008)

I'm a white guy.  And gay.  I have spent a couple of vacations with my partner in Sedona.  As African Americans, you will be _visibly_ in the minority, but in no way do I think you will feel uncomfortable.  We are an openly gay couple and never even felt for a minute that we were not welcome.  This is NOT the case in most US locales, so it was great for us.  Sedona has a very welcoming, warm feeling.  We loved the art galleries, spent way too much money on the local artists, and loved every minute of it, as I'm sure, did the local vendors.  

Put your fears to rest and have a great vacation!


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## mamadot (Nov 18, 2008)

You should have no problems.


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## Leeman (Nov 19, 2008)

agape78,

My wife and I are African American, and we have been to Sedona a few times and have never had any problems what so ever. Sedona is a very nice, you will enjoy it.


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## Fletcher921 (Nov 19, 2008)

Sedona is a very welcoming community.  I cannot imagine you would feel anything but comfortable.  Race is a non-issue there (as it should be!) from what I can tell.


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## agape78 (Nov 19, 2008)

Thanks to everyone for responding.  We are definitely looking forward to this vacation.


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## AwayWeGo (Nov 19, 2008)

*Would Be Pleased To See You At My Timeshare Or Any Timeshare.*




agape78 said:


> Thanks to everyone for responding.  We are definitely looking forward to this vacation.


It would be a privilege to meet you anywhere. 

Have a wonderful time in Sedona. 

-- Alan Cole, McLean (Fairfax County), Virginia, USA.​


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## DaveNV (Nov 19, 2008)

You'll be fine.

I was just in Sedona last month, and saw a wide variety of people from a variety of races, as well as cultures.  Everyone was treated equally well.  Since the economy there relies heavily on tourism, you will have no trouble enjoying your vacation.  The city is known for its cultural and spiritual diversity, tolerance, aliens, vortex energies, mysticism, and angels.  Your race would be a complete non-issue. 

I saw a (stereotypical) "hippie" man about 60 years old with wildly grizzled shoulder-length hair and unkempt beard walking across the main street in Uptown Sedona wearing only a woman's mini-dress.   He wasn't a transvestite or drag queen or anything else, he was just a guy in a dress.  Nobody batted an eye.

Sedona is beautiful.  Have a great vacation!

Dave


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## thinze3 (Nov 19, 2008)

BMWguynw said:


> ... He wasn't a transvestite or drag queen or anything else, he was just a guy in a dress.  Nobody batted an eye....



I don't care who you are, that right there is funny. :hysterical:


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## pedro47 (Nov 19, 2008)

I have x-co-workers that are African-American that have retired in Sedona and they "loved the area".

The gentleman belongs to Kappa Alpha Psi Fraternity (KAY) and his spouse is an Alpha Kappa Alpha (AKA).


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## nightnurse613 (Nov 19, 2008)

And, I would add, that, as a cultural mecca, Sedona would be your best bet in Arizona.


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## chellej (Nov 19, 2008)

nightnurse613 said:


> And, I would add, that, as a cultural mecca, Sedona would be your best bet in Arizona.



I have not been to Sedona but it sounds like a similar community to Sante Fe New Mexico and Sun Valley Idaho.

I worked in the Santa Fe area for a number of years and at one point a friend told me about someone who had a wolf hybrid that they were looking to find a home for.  I already had one wolf hybrid so my friend hooked us up and I agreed to adopt Bapa.  Well before I picked him up, he had to have certain shots for flying back to Texas so his current owner took him to a "Holistic Vet".  I thought - only in Santa Fe but it got better from there.  Once I got home - about 3 weeks later I got a call from the woman and she informed me that she had been talking to a dog Pychic in New York and that Bapa was not happy. :hysterical: The Pychic said  that there was a conflict with a female in the house. He apparently did not like my daughter who was 4 or 5 at the time.  All I could do was shake my head in amazement.  I certainly could think of better things to spend my money on than a dog pychic


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## UWSurfer (Nov 20, 2008)

chellej said:


> I certainly could think of better things to spend my money on than a dog pychic



I wonder if she does paw-readings too?


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## alanraycole (Nov 22, 2008)

*Inquiring minds want to know...*

Are there really areas in the United States where you would feel uncomfortable or unsafe? I know there are individuals out there that may want to cause you problems, perhaps in any area, but I am truly shocked that there would be enough in any area for you to need to avoid the area. If there are any, I would really like to know where they are. I am not challenging your assertion. Rather, this is a sincere curiosity.


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## Cathyb (Nov 22, 2008)

We just spent a week in Sedona and we saw a mixture of races -- you will just love the red mountains!


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## Phill12 (Nov 22, 2008)

It is sad that even in this time period some family would worry about something like this! 

 I would hope as americans we are way past this issue. 

 Have a great vacation! 


  PHIL


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## Liz Wolf-Spada (Nov 22, 2008)

It is sad, that people would wonder about their comfort level somewhere based on race or any other factors.  Hopefully, our new president and his wife will make being African American a glamorous definition.
Liz


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## eal (Nov 22, 2008)

I live in Calgary and I have an African-Canadian friend who has always felt uncomfortable in the US, but particularly in Idaho, just to the south of us.  Her favourite US destination is Hawaii.


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## pianodinosaur (Nov 23, 2008)

agape 78:

Welcome to TUG. You are welcome to visit my TSs with Hilton any time.


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## Mydogs2big (Nov 24, 2008)

I also wonder if there are really places still out there that treat African Americans worse than say American Indians, Mexicans, Asians, Redheads?

I live in Portland and I never even knew of racism (Of course I heard of the KKK and the Black Panthers and read about slavery).But it wasn't until my daughter married an African American and I started hearing the stories from him and his friends/family.  And now even my daughter tells me of all kinds of things that my grandkids must suffer at school etc. "because of the color of their skin" or at least that's what she is sure is the cause.  I happen to think that we all have had many of the same experiences, I just never thought that it could have been from my red hair or American Indian Heritage.

I certainly don't take light of your feelings and I've never walked in your shoes, But I have to admit that if I'm looking for something I will most certainly find it and if it is something as stupid as someone not liking you because you are darker than them or because they are afraid of girl kooties or they see your height as a giant or your weight as a freak or your manners atrocious or you have too much hair, etc.  I say just laugh it off and Thank God that you don't have those hangups!

It is childish to say "Better to be dead than red in the head" or "Hey four eyes" or "Fatty fatty two by four." or the possibly illegal adult versions of Chink, Spic and Honky, etc.  Anyway, if these sorts of things are still going on you have to hold your head up high and look down your nose at such foolishness.  You should never let your own mind put up barriers and if others are doing these kinds of things to you, don't give them the benefit of affecting your life in any way.  Never allow others to let you question your worth.  

Sorry for going on, but this is an important issue to me for my grand kids, who I believe are learning more about racism from their parents than from the world.  Many people are not nice, but it is usually about them, not us, and especially if we don't even know them!


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## JudyS (Nov 24, 2008)

BMWguynw said:


> ....The city is known for its cultural and spiritual diversity, tolerance, aliens, vortex energies, mysticism, and angels.  Your race would be a complete non-issue...


It sounds as if "species" and "planet of origin" are also non-issues in Sedona!  



chellej said:


> .....about 3 weeks later I got a call from the woman and she informed me that she had been talking to a dog Pychic in New York and that Bapa was not happy. :hysterical: The Pychic said  that there was a conflict with a female in the house. He apparently did not like my daughter who was 4 or 5 at the time.  All I could do was shake my head in amazement.  I certainly could think of better things to spend my money on than a dog psychic


Ah, but how did the dog psychic KNOW there was a problem with a female in the house, _hmmmm???_  (Actually, my guess is that it was based on something the former owner told the "psychic.")



Mydogs2big said:


> I also wonder if there are really places still out there that treat African Americans worse than say American Indians, Mexicans, Asians, Redheads?...


Well, this thread may get into forbidden political areas pretty fast, but I am a social scientist and there is a _lot_ of evidence that many White Americans are still uncomfortable with people of African descent.  With my college students, I often do a demonstration based on the party game "telephone," where one person whispers something to another person, who whispers it to another. What I have them whisper is a story in which a White man with a knife threatens a Black man with a briefcase.  I have *never* had a case, after over a dozen times using this demonstration, where the last person in the chain hears the story correctly.  Instead, it generally winds up as a Black man with a knife threatening a White man with a briefcase.  (Although sometimes, the racial information just gets lost entirely.)

My classroom demonstration is just "anecdotal evidence", but there is plenty of stronger evidence, too. In laboratory studies, the same description of behavior is rated as more violent if the person doing it is described as Black instead of White. White people doing mock interviews are more nervous and end the interview earlier if the person they are interviewing is Black instead of White. Most White participants, if told that the experimenter can determine their true feelings, admit to racist feelings against Blacks.  (There is really no way the experimenter can tell what they are feeling, but most participants seem to believe that the experimenter can.)  Studies designed to tell what concepts are associated in people's minds show that most White people associate Whites faces with more positive concepts than they do Black faces.  (These studies are actually quite accurate -- they depend on reaction time to a pair of concepts, which is believed to indicate how closely the concepts are linked in the person's memory.)  

Moving out of the laboratory and into the real world, the evidence is overwhelming that young White men who get caught selling drugs get far, far more lenient punishment than young Black men who get caught selling drugs.  Both Blacks and Whites get executed in states that have the death penalty, but the death penalty is almost never applied when a murder victim is Black, only if the victim is White.  More prosaically, in studies in which people were given a script and told to negotiate for a new car, the auto dealers charged higher prices to Blacks than to Whites (they also charged women more than men). 

Plus, many of my Africa-American students have told me that they have been stopped for no reason while driving near our college, which is in a virtually all-white area outside of Detroit, yet as a White woman, I have never been stopped by police in 14 years of teaching there.  (The housing around Detroit tends to be very segregated by race, and unfortunately, there are a lot of negative stereotypes linking Black people to the problems of inner-city Detroit.)  One of my African-American students told me that she had recently moved into an all-White neighborhood, and one of her new neighbors said to her, "They let people on welfare live in this building now?"  (She was _not_ on welfare.)  

I hope Obama's election will improve race relations, but we still have a ways to go!


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## AKE (Nov 24, 2008)

Being a Canadian I can't believe that this type of stuff still exists... I can't imagine any race / orientation not feeling comfortable in Canada - its sad that the same apparently is not true in the states. My sons, over the years, have had as many non-white as white friends and I don't ever recall even myself being aware of anyone's 'color' - our dinner table was always multi-cultural and multi-color with every type of joke flying around and no one taking offence.  Now what you will see discrimination in Canada against is teenage / young adult gangs whose race varies, depending on the location in Canada (and yes this includes 'white' non-North American gangs).


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## Jbart74 (Nov 24, 2008)

AKE said:


> Now what you will see discrimination in Canada against is teenage / young adult gangs whose race varies, depending on the location in Canada (and yes this includes 'white' non-North American gangs).



Okay, maybe it's just late, but I'm a little lost on the above description.  Are you referring to British gangs, Norwegian gangs, Irish gangs, German gangs, Russian gangs, or.... what?

I swear, this is just an honest question in reference to "(and yes this includes 'white' non-North American gangs)."

Just curious....


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## Mydogs2big (Nov 25, 2008)

Deleted by author.


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## Mydogs2big (Nov 25, 2008)

JUDYS wrote that there was much evidence to support her thoughts that people don't like people that are darker and that they will even be treated badly because they are darker.

Yes, JUDYS, we can all find LOTS of proof that we are all treated and thought of differently because of our skin, hair, sex, weight, height, shape, body language, speech, etc.  But tell me, is it really proof, or a generalization?

Being a scientist I would think that you would take into account many reasons for a result.  Such as "how likely is it that someone who had been stopped for no reason would complain?"  I've been stopped many times by the police because "they hadn't seen me around there before"  "My type of car had been on the top of the most stolen", "I looked like I was lost" I never thought to question what sex or race the officer was or what kind of neighborhoods I was in. Sometimes perception makes all the difference.

My problem with the some people is not that they can find all kinds of proof that darker people are different and will be treated differently and will have different outcomes.  My problem with these people is that their generalizations and convincing others of their beliefs, grooms paranoia and theories and creates self doubt and makes life more intolerable for people because of skin color.

Even if it may be true that Chinese students get a better education than say American Indians.  We must ask if perhaps it is because the Chinese students have more support and expectations from family and friends to do well in school than the other students. Maybe it has noting to do with how well they are liked as a people. Perhaps their abilities may be biologically different, such as men and women with respect to language.  *Or perhaps they were told that they would not be getting a good education in the first place (self fulfilling prophecy)*

I do not like that some people want to blame so much on skin color, and I hope for my Grandkids sake that instead of people pointing to their skin when anything goes wrong, people will step up and share their own unfair experiences to teach them that there are good people and bad people out there.  I do not want my grandkids to think "why bother" or to be groomed to think that something is wrong with their skin and everything happens due to it.

Teaching people that many of our beliefs should be questioned is one thing, but teaching that a certain group *IS* different is horrible, and even more, to seek statistics and find examples to prove it is pretty pathetic.

A scientist would do more service to find solutions to a problem than to help perpetuate it.  Please consider opening the minds of your student's to find other equal contributors of inequality.


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## swift (Nov 25, 2008)

This thread is spiraling downward so I will now close it.


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