What does the future hold for race relations in America?

I don't speak for all black people
I speak from my perspective of what I have lived
and what I have seen and experienced.

At Texas A&M . . . all the black folx on the South side of campus
[most] use to sit at a couple of tables near the return plate rack
once
in a racial seminar . . . .a well meaning white girl [woman] asked
'Why do you segregate yourselves?"
our response
"Let me get this straight 40 000 white folx sitting with 40 000 white
folx is not segregation but 100 black folx sitting together is. . ."

The point is perspective. . . from hers . .we were standing out and away
from ours . . .we were excluded. . . .
As hard as it was for a single white person to approach those tables
and sit down and start up a convo . . and trust me. . NOTHING would
have happened to them but some different conversation that maybe
they use too . . . . . .it was still a hard thing to do
from the black perspective
it is just as hard to sit a table of a group of white folx and be
[as we say] the only raisin in the milk.

The moment I sit down . . the whole mood changes.
Not only am I on my Ps and Qs. . . but so are they
we are all a little more nervous and careful in our conversation
is it because they have demonstrated Racism? No
Is it because i was pumping my fist with a black muslin and black panther shirt on? No

Is it because we have learn to . . .be on guard? YES

When it comes to racism . . . I have no reservations about answering
questions from my perspective and Ideals

Let me say this
Though I work as a Computer Tech . . my field of study was Sociology

In one class - The professor stated that most crimes come from people
in extreme and drastic circumstances
a guy steps up and say . . .I don't beleive that . . most of them are on dope or drugs or something

I thought. . . IS BEING ON DOPE *NOT* AN EXTREME AND DRASTIC CIRCUMSTANCE????

but that mentality prevails. . . that it is not me. . so i have little sympathy
about it. . .

I have little problem with people questioning what I say . . .
I will say it as i feel . . .
in all honesty. . the debate in the D&D over the last few weeks
has been Fantastic. . .and stimulating .. .
and not overly politicize . . .people actually seem to be seeking Answers
I like that . . . thank you D&D

Rocket River

 

I am saddened by what Katrina means for our immediate future. However, I also hope that some good might come from it...just because issues are coming up now.

What is going on has a great deal to do with race and racism. Class, as well, but we are talking about a city that is almost 70% black with almost 40% of those blacks being below poverty. This goes back and it basically points to the fact that these people have been ignored for many many years. New Orleans has been all about "The Big Easy" and the French Quarter...maybe a little voodoo mysticism. That image has hidden the rapidly deteriorating conditions many people could not escape. As in a place such as Cancun, a large amount of jobs in tourism (maids, bus boys, service industry minimum wage), and not too much else for the non-elite (read - college educated) leads to a really bad lower class.

Things will get worse due to the reality and due to the perception on both sides (don't think there aren't plenty of white people watching the news and thinking such things are typical of the bad blackies). No clue how bad or for how long.

 

that's true, the situation in new orleans was getting pretty bad over the last couple of years.

i know alot of Tulane students were getting robbed and raped and they weren't reporting it...

 

I agree with RR that this country has a long way to go with racism and thanks for your interesting and compelling posts.

On a side note I found Anne Rice's piece interesting and also wanted to add a little known fact about New Orleans is that it also had one of America's oldest Asian population too. In the 18th C. after the Philipines became Spanish Colonies Philipinos were often pressed into serving on Spanish galleons that did the Manilla Acapulco run. Sometimes the Philipino sailors would escape and many of made their way to New Orleans.

 

It will mean nothing, they will remain as bad as they aLways were and people will continue to ignore it while our elected representatives concentrate on whether John Roberts thinks that gays can get married or not or that a vegetative corpse can be kept alive and other such matters which are most important to them.

 

The problem with race relations in America is that Americans are too inexperienced at being "politically correct." In many of my travels overseas or even Canada, people there are more exposed to others from varying backgrounds. I can openly have conversations about racial topics without blinking an eye. And people rarely stay stupid things in return.

For example, my wife has some Jamaican background and I had a full conversation with a white woman about her dealings with poor Jamaican immigrants. Neither of us had to parse words and we openly discussed problems and she expressed her fears and experiences which were all VALID and informed opinions. Not once did she say anything even close to offensive. I couldn't have such a conversation with a typical American who beleives Jamaica is only full of poor beggers, drug runners and people that say "Irie, Mon" and therefor would only dream of staying at an all-inclusive resort.

Being politically correct is not nearly as difficult as Americans make it. It is okay to openly talk about black people or anybody else. But in this country we have so little tolerance of celebrating other cultures. Undertones of racial tensions are VERY high here.

I don't think I ever realized how much effort I put into mincing words on a daily basis so I can dumb down or avoid certain topics that make others feel uncomfortable. In my travels, I can freely talk about any topic and not worry that the conversation will go in a weird direction.

Katrina is at least forcing America, if just for the time being, to have open and frank conversations about issues that involve race . We'll see how long that lasts. As soon as crime is perceived to get "bad" in Houston, I suspect things will resort right back to seperationist tendancies rather than dealing with the issues (like poverty and education) head-on.

 

Unrelated to your story, but if we are talking about Jamaicans...

I had a good friend in grad school who was Jamaican. They first settled in California and then she went to the ATL. On the drive accross the country with her brother they were stopped by a cop in Mississippi. He was giving them a bit of a hard time and then (I guess) asked them where they were from (their accents are not thick at all and only really come out when they are angry). So they say Jamaica and his response is something along the lines of "Oh, so you weren't born here? OK, good" and then that was it. They could move on. She told me how confused they were because he thought it was better that they were from Jamaica. Even though they were black, it was better to be foreign black than local.

Anyway, Sam, you are most likely right but I just hope people get angry enough eventually.

River,

Meant to comment on your post before. I went to an ~80-85% white university. The small black percentage was basically athletics with a few exceptions. In public places (cafeteria, student center) they always stuck together apart. Sometimes they would even "act out". I, of course, heard comments from whiteys about them similar to what you heard - pretty much blaming the blacks for not fitting in, or sometimes the "animals" types of comments, etc.. I saw a lot of racism in the three years I was on campus (on year abroad). It was culture shock for me, coming from a middle and high school that were majority black, then hispanic, then white.

I also remember there was a good article in the school newspaper (written by a black student) that outlined some of the race problems on campus. Huge white backlash resulted, of course. How could they complain after all whitey has done for them?

 

I was listening to some Mississippi folks on tv last night. They were saying that in Mississippi everyone was helping everyone, black people helping white people, and white people helping black people, just people helping each other. Ironic and encouraging when you consider its Mississippi.

Look at Houston, people of all races helping the mostly black evacuees.

The future isn't all bleak.

 

Call me a “Silver-Lining” guy but I see an amazing opportunity in the rubble that was New Orleans. I see a chance for a cyclically impoverished segment of America to start over with no apologies. The direness of their situation pre-Katrina is gone. It has been replaced with a new and difficult state but it is a state with hope. Their destitution has been exposed. And the entire country is standing there with their arms wide open saying, “Come in. Eat. Rest. Cry. Then let’s get you back on your feet.” I don’t want these people to go back to the projects. They have no projects to go home to. I want them to get educated en masse. I want them to learn self-sufficiency and break the cycle of class control that the current system of welfare allows. They must start over. There are white people with vestigial racism opening their hearts and homes to desperate African-American people. I have seen this with my own eyes. I've seen people standing in lines to get the opportunity to volunteer. The work of the churches has been monumental. Katrina could be the catalyst to permanently eradicate some of the latent racial uneasiness and more importantly, to right a ship that has been off kilter for 300 years.

 

I think it won't be an issue because what we're gonna find is that it Blacks won't be the overwhelming majority of victims of this disaster. New Orleans is a very segregated city, its Downtown is mostly surrounded by Black neighborhoods and ghettos. Therefore the people who made it to the Superdome are black. But we haven't even begun to see the victims of the outlying areas where the neighborhoods are gonna have more White residents and I think when we start seeing people pulled from these houses where the levees broke you are gonna see a lot of White people and there will be less focus on race. That's obviously just a guess but I would put money on the overwhelming majority of victims we haven't seen will not be Black.

 

I'm thinking that you may see the greatest voter turnout ever in the next elections if the dialogue continues as is. Which, in my opinion, is great. I wish we had 100% turnout in this country.

 

an accent is a black person's best friend in some places
Sammy Sosa isn't black . .he's cuba. . he's hispanic

Generally speaking . .. . Like South Africa back in the day
their is a bigger issue with your HOME GROWN blacks

Most Foreign blacks are seen as the Go Getting BootStrappers
who work hard and make it. . . unlike the lazy sorry home grown black
folx

Also . . .I think their is a refreshing feeling of
dealing with a black person without the baggage
of the american history

As for you college Experience. . . I would not be
surprised if that conversation has not happened
on every Major university at one point of another

it is really kind of . .. sad
because it is more talking AT people than to them
As a black person . . I felt . . like. .
ok I'm telling you why I don't feel comfortable and I don't
feel i fit in and i end up withdrawing to my 'group'
and
the response is. . . DON'T DO IT . . . no attempt
to address my feelings or concerns but more a
blaming me for even having them . . .
and
Vice Versa. . .

There were alot of really Kewl white boys
that hung out with us. . . could always come down
and play dominoes with us. . .
We taught them how to play bones
they taught us how to play 42 [STRANGE GAME . . . . HEARTS WITH DOMINOES!!! ]
but it was all fun . . .
even their friends would just come by can chat [only with them]
for a few moments and move on . .
I was dismayed that their friends could not be incorporated
and vice versa . .

Would have made for a better TAMU

Rocket River

 

I <3 42!

 

I was watching Nightline last night. There was a story of 4 refugee families, all of whom were staying with a woman here in Houston...they were strangers to her, but she took them all in.

They asked each refugee what they had learned through this...what changed about them. One black lady said she saw so many white people helping out, she couldn't believe it. She said she used to blame white people for all her problems...but she said she now realized how unfair it was to do that, since she encountered so many who were giving so much.

That's progress, folks. A silver lining to this. I hope.

 

you know the other day in the Times online page when I was reading about the hurricane and I noticed another story about Chicago's notorious (largely black and hispanic) public school system, crumbling down and out of money, same old story, etc. Meanwhile the schools in nearby northern suburbs like Highland Park etc, (you know, the breakfast club high schools) have swimming pools and dvd players . It doesn't have the dramatic visible impact of a hurricane, but the fact that generation after generation of children in chicago have basically no chance, save for maybe a lucky few, of getting a proper education causes at least as much misery. It is the same story all over again - a long time ago, in many major urban centers, whether based on race, class, coincidence or whatever, people all over America, with a few notable exceptions abandoned the interior of their cities to the underclass, who just happened to be predominatly non-white, for the suburbs and exurbs.

The New Orleans situation is only an example of what happens in an extreme situation when you have a permanent underclass, left to its own devices. For better or worse, the well off in this country abandoned the worse off to stew in urban centers (with exceptions in certain cities) a long time ago, and the political socioeconomic changes last 20 years has done nothing but accentuate that divide - and as a side effect, race and class are now inextricably linked in most american cities.

I don't think the shock, horror, and shame of what happened is going to change that - it is too difficult and complex of a problem for a nation that wants to be left alone and not confronted with such unpleasantness.

This is the America that we made. I get sick of hearing railing against the government sometimes - WE are the government, it governs in our image, according to our poll numbers. It's great that we're generous in providing aid and comfort to victims - but we fail miserably when it comes to preventing victims in the first place.

 

SamFisher I disagree. New Orleans can be a model for other communities to follow. The leaders from the New Orleans black community that emerge can have national spotlight to teach other leaders in the projects, the barrio, and the trailer park the proper way to rescue a segment of society.

 

damn, i have to agree with chance. sam paints a grim , if logical picture. reality, however, is that black america is as culpable for their plight as anyone else. sometimes you just have to bite the bullet, ya know?

 

And this is why alot of the black people from New Orleans will end up staying in Houston. Alot of them are getting better treatment here, then they ever have back home in N.O. I am really impressed by how all the people of Houston, especially white have opened their hearts to these people. This is the America that I want the world to know about.

Rocket River: This is so true, something in the community that we have to correct. It pisses me off when I see this. Its the nature of the beast I guess..

 

Interesting article here - everyone has misconceptions...

link

 

In three years at UT I never attended one White social event, and I hardly ever saw a white person at the black social events I went to. I talked to whites in my classes but that was about it. And I can tell you it was probably like this for most of blacks there at the time. But I think it may be different at UT and TAMU now.