Thursday, March 20, 2008

Reflections on Race in America

Listening to the talking heads go on and on about Barack Obama and the “Rev. Wright problem,” has had me thinking. Obviously, as someone white I will never fully know what it is like to be a black American. However, having bought a run down house that needed significant rehab work and personally moved into what was until recently – and still is perceived by many to be - a majority black neighborhood, I have experienced a small sense of what many blacks likely experience in terms of less than full and proper treatment.

One example is the difference in police presence and protection. In the Ghent area where my office is located, there is a much higher police presence and a much greater effort is made to keep the affluent majority white residents VERY happy. Across the railroad tracks, it is a different world and only after I sent repeated e-mail blasts to all of members of city council, the city manager and made repeated threats to show up at televised public sessions of city council has the police presence markedly improved and vandalism and other issues been reduced by a huge margin. I even have had high level officers come by my office to make sure I was happy with the improved situation. The reality is, however, that but for me being a white attorney with some level of connectedness, things probably would not have changed. Think of the anger on the part of hard working black homeowners with nice homes that it took some whites moving into the neighborhood and raising Hell to get them the level of police protection that they deserved as tax-paying citizens.

Another example occurred when one night around 9:30 PM while my former b/f and I were doing rehab work on the house prior to moving in, we called Pappa John’s Pizza for a delivery order only to be told that they did not deliver to that neighborhood after 4:00PM due to the “demographics.” A nice euphemism for “black neighborhood.” Meanwhile, their delivery vehicles would drive directly through the neighborhood to deliver to white neighborhoods on the other side of my neighborhood. My ex, not being one to take perceived slights quietly, got on the phone the next day and called the corporate headquarters for Pappa John’s as well as Coca-Cola’s corporate headquarters (Coca-Cola supplies all of the beverages to Pappa John’s) and asked both if they would like us to try to get local TV coverage of the ongoing discrimination. Not only did deliveries begin to be made to our neighborhood, but we also received coupons for 12 free pizzas, delivered to us personally by the racially bigoted local manager who had been so nasty to us over the phone.

Are comments like Rev. Wrights justified? Certainly not. Can I understand the anger that some blacks feel? Definitely, after having had a peripheral taste of the discrimination they experience regularly. Sadly, Hillary and the elements of the Right could care less about such experiences and would never stop to think about the underlying causes for statements like Wright's. All they see is a chance for political knee capping of a strong political opponent. It makes me sick to my stomach.

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