When Kanye West said, "George Bush doesn't care about black people," I agreed, but thought it would have been more accurate to say, "George Bush doesn't care about poor people."
I feel fairly certain that our president is just as happy to take money from black people as from white, and to advance their interests, as long as those interests coincide with those of other wealthy people. It's about money, not race.
But. That's what most white people think. Most black people disagree. Why is this?
There's talk of putting a WalMart Super Center fairly near the current Wal Mart in our area, on the site of a deserted mall in Livonia. I knew people were up in arms about it, because Wal Mart is notorious for killing surrounding small businesses. Maybe people don't like it, I thought, but something there is better than a big empty nothing.
I couldn't believe it this morning when I read an article in the local paper that said, "Bypassing the common practice of using code words or euphemisms when speaking critically of African Americans, some white residents expressed fears about people from mostly black Detroit coming to mostly white Livonia to shop and work, and suggested that Livonia would become a ghetto."
HUH? Where did that come from? And how is it that I keep forgetting that so many people feel this way? When I hear about local hate crimes, I feel sad, but know that it's the work of lone hateful idiots. Normal, rational people don't feel this way, right?
During the first mayoral debate, standing mayor Kwame Kilpatrick said, "In Birmingham, in Bloomfield Hills and all these places they do more meth, they do more ecstasy and they do more acid than all the schools in the city of Detroit put together." No one disputes that drugs are everywhere, but the comment was unsubstantiated and looked like he was trying to shift blame. (For the record, I am not a fan of Kwame Kilpatrick, and I hope Freeman Hendricks kicks his ass in the election.)
Still, some people aprove of his remarks and feel that he stands up for them. I think there are some who think that Freeman Hendricks is a puppet of the suburbs.
Another controversy is that Grosse Pointe school districts have recently required its students to reregister in order to prove they live within district boundaries. I understand that many feel this is a "keep the blacks out" move, but I see it as a sincere attempt to relieve overcrowding. My aunt used to use my grandmother's GP Woods address so that her daughter could go to a Grosse Pointe school. It bugged me then. If I'm paying higher taxes so my kid can go to a better school, I don't want 5 extra kids in the class from families who aren't contributing, and that includes white kids from St. Clair Shores as well as black kids from Harper Woods.
Several years ago in college, one of my friends posed the hypothetical question, "If you were walking down the street, and saw a black man walking toward you, would you cross the street?" I told her that I was too shallow to deal with skin color, and would probably look at what they were wearing first. "If I saw a bunch of rowdy white guys with tattoos & motorcycle gear on one side, and one black guy wearing a sweatshirt and carrying a backpack, I'd probably stick to the side with the black guy."
Maybe I just don't get it. I grew up in white bread Grosse Pointe (though I did go to school in Detroit for kindergarten & 1st grade). I graduated high school in ultra white bread Idaho. I currently live in a multi-racial neighborhood, but most of our immediate neighbors are white. Sarah had a couple black girls in her dance class over the summer, but I can't remember if any of them are in her current class. A few of our neighbors are elderly, and I'm curious about what kind of new neighbors we'll get when they move. I'm more concerned about "will they have kids the same age as my kids" than "will they be black or Middle Eastern or whatever."
Confession: one time, I told one of my friends that over the summer, she'd gotten brown as a "nigger." I still can't believe I said that, but I wanted to see what kind of reaction I'd get. Neither of my friends said anything about it, then or ever, though I saw them exchange a shocked look. That's a hard (embarassing, shameful) confession to make, and it's hard for me not to delete this paragraph.
There's no real point to this entry. I just don't understand why this is still an issue. I know that it's natural to see similarities and differences when you first meet people, and to try to categorize them, but doing that is getting in the way of living and prospering. Sadly, I don't see things turning around on a large scale. At this point, I don't think my kids notice skin color. I hope I can keep it that way.
No comments:
Post a Comment