From: vmarsch@adobe.com (Vonn Marsch)
Newsgroups: alt.culture.alaska
Subject: Re: Anti-Texan Sentiment
Date: 14 Dec 92 22:12:27 GMT
Organization: Adobe Systems Incorporated, Mountain View

In article <1992Dec11.233721.1@acad3.alaska.edu> fsjfz@acad3.alaska.edu writes:
> 
>It's not that Alaskans don't like people from outside, in fact we kind of like
>people who MOVE here from the outside.  The people we DONT like are the people
>who come to Alaska for a job that could have been held by an Alaskan.  Those
>who come to work on the Slope, but send their paychecks home to their family in
>Texas.  The fishermen from Bellingham who barge their boats to Bristol Bay,
>make thousands of dollars on the fish, then take their boats and their money
>back to Washington with them.
> 
Sure, I can sympathize with this standpoint.  I question, however, how much
of the money finds its way back to the lower 48, and exactly how often an 
Outsider gets a job at the cost of an Alaskan.  Anyway, this touches on a 
broader issue of who the resources belong to, which is not very clear-cut.

I should make it clear, though, that the negative attitude towards permanent
transplants is much more prevelant in Washington state.  What I experienced
in Seattle for three years was enough to make me move to California!

>Texans get singled out because of the oil fields, and companies like VECO who
>have a reputation for not hiring anyone that isn't from Texas if they can get
>away with it (like the saying goes, you'll only get a VECO job if you have the
>right accent.) 

For those of you who aren't clued into Alaskan corporations, VECO == The Devil.

>Your statement ``What these people don't know is that their intolerance is as
>ugly as racism (only more hypocritical) and should be ashamed'' isn't accurate
>for most of the complaining about outsiders. 
[Examples of stupid outisider ya-hoos deleted.]

Yes, we all know a slew of stories like those; I don't want them there,
either.  But still, using individual anecdotes to paint a large group of
people is unfair.
 
>[...] Not to mention the humor aspect of it- my comments about
>Anchorage not being ``real Alaska'' don't elicit complaints from people who
>live in Anchorage, who are used to the jokes.  

Though I was tempted... ;-)

>If they're just coming to send money elsewhere
>at the expense of some Alaskan who also needs to make a living, i say scare
>them off with blatant Xenophobia.

Yeah!  Listen up all you migrant fishermen and oil workers reading NetNews!!!

>If you're ``ashamed to be an Alaskan'' when you see such things on INTERNET,
>i'm ashamed that someone who considers themself an Alaskan doesn't know that
>most Alaskans are very friendly, helpful people, especially outside of the
>urbanized areas like Anchorage-- people who will help out anyone, even that guy
>from Louisiana who has no concept of how to stop a car on ice.

I know that, but how are others supposed to know if they only read about the
opposite extreem?  

My whole point is this:  The kind of people who read NetNews, and are turned
off by provincial attitudes, are just the kind of people that Alaska needs.
Alaska needs more cosmopolitan, educated folks to move up there.

- Vonn Marsch
Newsgroups: alt.culture.alaska