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Dialogue: 0,9:59:59.99,9:59:59.99,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,\NImagine a place where your neighborsgreet your children by name;\Na place with splendid vistas;\Na place where you can drivejust 20 minutes\Nand put your sailboat on the water.\NIt's a seductive place, isn't it?\NI don't live there.\N(Laughter)\NBut I did journey on a 27,000-mile trip\Nfor two years, to the fastest-growingand whitest counties in America.\NWhat is a Whitopia?\NI define Whitopia in three ways:\NFirst, a Whitopia has posted at leastsix percent population growth since 2000.\NSecondly, the majority of that growthcomes from white migrants.\NAnd third, the Whitopiahas an ineffable charm,\Na pleasant look and feel,\Na je Ne sais quoi.\N(Laughter)\NTo learn how and whyWhitopias are ticking,\NI immersed myself for several monthsapiece in three of them:\Nfirst, St. George, Utah;\Nsecond, Coeur d'Alene, Idaho;\Nand third, Forsyth County, Georgia.\NFirst stop, St. George --a beautiful town of red rock landscapes.\NIn the 1850s, Brigham Youngdispatched families to St. George\Nto grow cotton becauseof the hot, arid climate.\NAnd so they called it Utah's Dixie,and the name sticks to this day.\NI approached my time in each Whitopialike an anthropologist.\NI made detailed spreadsheets of allthe power brokers in the communities,\Nwho I needed to meet,where I needed to be,\Nand I threw myself with gustoin these communities.\NI went to zoning board meetings,\NI went to Democratic clubsand Republican clubs.\NI went to poker nights.\NIn St. George, I renteda home at the Entrada,\None of the town'spremier gated communities.\NThere were no Motel 6'sor Howard Johnsons for me.\NI lived in Whitopia as a resident,and not like a visitor.\NI rented myself this home by phone.\N(Laughter)\N(Applause)\NGolf is the perfect seductivesymbol of Whitopia.\NWhen I went on my journey,\NI had barely ever held a golf club.\NBy the time I left, I was golfingat least three times a week.\N(Laughter)\NGolf helps people bond.\NSome of the best interviews I ever scoredduring my trip were on the golf courses.\NOne venture capitalist, for example,invited me to golf in his private club\Nthat had no minority members.\NI also went fishing.\N(Laughter)\NBecause I had never fished,this fellow had to teach me\Nhow to cast my line and what bait to use.\NI also played poker every weekend.\NIt was Texas Hold 'em with a $10 buy-in.\NMy poker mates may have been bluffingabout the hands that they drew,\Nbut they weren't bluffingabout their social beliefs.\NSome of the most raw,salty conversations I ever had\Nduring my journey were at the poker table.\NI'm a gung ho entertainer.\NI love to cook, I hostedmany dinner parties, and in return,\Npeople invited me to their dinner parties,\Nand to their barbecues,and to their pool parties,\Nand to their birthday parties.\NBut it wasn't all fun.\NImmigration turned out to bea big issue in this Whitopia.\NThe St. George's Citizens Councilon Illegal Immigration\Nheld regular and active protestsagainst immigration,\Nand so what I gleaned from this Whitopiais what a hot debate this would become.\NIt was a real-time preview,and so it has become.\NNext stop: Almost Heaven,a cabin I rented for myself\Nin Coeur d'Alene, in the beautifulNorth Idaho panhandle.\NI rented this placefor myself, also by phone.\N(Laughter)\NThe book "A Thousand Places To SeeBefore You Die" lists Coeur d'Alene --\Nit's a gorgeous paradise for huntsmen,boatmen and fishermen.\NMy growing golf skillscame in handy in Coeur d'Alene.\NI golfed with retired LAPD cops.\NIn 1993, around 11,000 families and cops\Nfled Los Angelesafter the L.A. racial unrest,\Nfor North Idaho, and they've builtan expatriated community.\NGiven the conservatism of these cops,\Nthere's no surprise that North Idahohas a strong gun culture.\NIn fact, it is said, North Idahohas more gun dealers than gas stations.\NSo what's a resident to do to fit in?\NI hit the gun club.\NWhen I rented a gun,the gentleman behind the counter\Nwas perfectly pleasant and kind,\Nuntil I showed himmy New York City driver's license.\NThat's when he got nervous.\NI'm not as bad a shotas I thought I might have been.\NWhat I learned from North Idahois the peculiar brand of paranoia\Nthat can permeate a communitywhen so many cops and guns are around.\NIn North Idaho, in my red pickup truck,\NI kept a notepad.\NAnd in that notepad I countedmore Confederate flags than black people.\NIn North Idaho, I found Confederate flags\Non key chains, on cellphone paraphernalia,\Nand on cars.\NAbout a seven-minute drivefrom my hidden lake cabin\Nwas the compound of Aryan Nations,\Nthe white supremacist group.\NAmerica's Promise Ministries,the religious arm of Aryan Nations,\Nhappened to have a three-dayretreat during my visit.\NSo I decided to crash it.\N(Laughter)\NI'm the only non-Aryan journalistI'm aware of ever to have done so.\N(Laughter)\NAmong the many memorableepisodes of that retreat...\N(Laughter)\N...is when Abe, an Aryan,sidled up next to me.\NHe slapped my knee, and he said, "HeyRich, I just want you to know one thing.\NWe are not white supremacists.We are white separatists.\NWe don't think we're better than you,\Nwe just want to be away from you."\N(Laughter)\NIndeed, most white people in Whitopiaare neither white supremacists\Nor white separatists;\Nin fact, they're not therefor explicitly racial reasons at all.\NRather, they emigrate there\Nfor friendliness, comfort,security, safety --\Nreasons that they implicitly associateto whiteness in itself.\NNext stop was Georgia.\NIn Georgia, I stayed in an exurbnorth of Atlanta.\NIn Utah, I found poker;\Nin Idaho, I found guns;\Nin Georgia, I found God.\N(Laughter)\NThe way that I immersed myselfin this Whitopia\Nwas to become activeat First Redeemer Church,\Na megachurch that's so hugethat it has golf carts\Nto escort the congregants aroundits many parking lots on campus.\NI was active in the youth ministry.\NAnd for me, personally,I was more comfortable in this Whitopia\Nthan say, in a Colorado, or an Idaho,or even a suburban Boston.\NThat is because [there], in Georgia,\Nwhite people and black people are morehistorically familiar to one another.\NI was less exotic in this Whitopia.\N(Laughter)\NBut what does it all mean?\NWhitopian dreaming, Whitopia migration,is a push-pull phenomenon,\Nfull of alarming pushesand alluring pulls,\Nand Whitopia operates at the levelof conscious and unconscious bias.\NIt's possible for people to be in Whitopianot for racist reasons,\Nthough it has racist outcomes.\NMany Whitopians feel pushed by illegals,\Nsocial welfare abuse, minorities,density, crowded schools.\NMany Whitopians feel pulled by merit,\Nfreedom, the allure of privatism --privatized places, privatized people,\Nprivatized things.\NAnd I learned in Whitopiahow a country can have racism\Nwithout racists.\NMany of my smug urban liberal friends\Ncouldn't believe I would goon such a venture.\NThe reality is that many white Americansare affable and kind.\NInterpersonal race relations --how we treat each other as human beings --\Nare vastly better than inmy parents' generation.\NCan you imagine me goingto Whitopia 40 years ago?\NWhat a journey that would have been.\N(Laughter)\NAnd yet, some things haven't changed.\NAmerica is as residentiallyand educationally segregated today\Nas it was in 1970.\NAs Americans, we often find waysto cook for each other,\Nto dance with each other,\Nto host with each other,\Nbut why can't that translate into how wetreat each other as communities?\NIt's a devastating irony,\Nhow we have gone forward as individuals,\Nand backwards as communities.\NOne of the Whitopian outlooksthat really hit me\Nwas a proverbial saying:\N"One black man isa delightful dinner guest;\N50 black men is a ghetto."\NOne of the big contexts animatingmy Whitopian journey was the year 2042.\NBy 2042, white people will no longer bethe American majority.\NAs such, will there be more Whitopias?\NIn looking at this,\Nthe danger of Whitopia isthat the more segregation we have,\Nthe less we can look at and confrontconscious and unconscious bias.\NI ventured on my two-year,27,000 mile journey\Nto learn where, why, and howwhite people are fleeing,\Nbut I didn't expect to haveso much fun on my journey.\N(Laughter)\NI didn't expect to learnso much about myself.\NI don't expect I'll be livingin a Whitopia --\Nor a Blacktopia, for that matter.\NI do plan to continue golfingevery chance I get.\N(Laughter)\NAnd I'll just have to leave the gunsand megachurches back in Whitopia.\NThank you.\N(Applause)