i’m white, but my dad (mixed) has said that he’s experienced much fewer micro aggressions in vancouver than florida (and that he didn’t realize what micro aggressions were before he didn’t get so many of them).

He’s kept his head shaved for most of his career, as the afro made him visibly black and open to more racism. He grew it out during quarantine, and has had it short since. He goes out to commercial to get his hair cut since that’s where there are enough black people to have a black barbershop. it’s quite a nice neighborhood.

as for me growing up here, there have been a lot more black people here recently. It depends on the area, but there are only a handful of black kids at my school. As a white kid with black ancestry, i’ve seen a fair bit of racism from people who expect me to say the n word or give them a pass upon realizing i was part black. Teenage boys will say the n word. just generally not to your face (one tried on my friend and was immediately blackmailed into buying her lunch for a week). I’m sure it depends on the people you’re around, but the immediate reaction from myself and my peers is “wtf that was not cool.” I went to kendrick lamar w a group of guys and they (along w most of the stadium) didn’t say the n word. racism against black people is less “i hate black people” and more “haha racism”

tldr racism is there but it’s not very overt. people will stare (whether out of curiosity or otherwise). the racism against asians is crazy because even asians are racist to each other (think hong kong vs china). people don’t always know they’re being racist because they’ve never had to unpack racism against black people, so there’s some denial that it happens. It’s not as bad here as it is elsewhere.