Posted on 04/24/2008 6:53:31 AM PDT by hemogoblin
The small barren courtyard that separates the apartment buildings of Dwan Dillard and Mohamed Adin in Northwest Roanoke might as well be an ocean, so deep is the dislike that the American-born black woman and the Somali Bantu refugee have of each other.
"That out there is a war zone," said Dillard, whose four children live with her at Maple Grove Apartments, a blighted complex of four buildings with a total of 40 units on Pilot Street near Melrose Avenue. "The African children attack ours. They throw rocks."
Adin, who lives with his wife and nine children, blames "the Americans." Through an interpreter he said, "Day and night they throw rocks at our building. They yell at us. We are afraid. This isn't what we came to this country for."
Graffiti on the Maple Grove Apartments street sign read "Americans only," and "Africans not welcome."
The Catholic Diocese of Richmond's Refugee and Immigration Services office in Roanoke has been placing families from Africa and other countries in area apartments for years, with low rents being a key factor in settling them.
Maple Grove has been a favored destination for refugees from Somalia and other African nations since 2003, said Beth Lutjen, the agency's director. "They have become a community here," she said, walking around the complex Monday after receiving several complaints from her clients. "But now the tensions between the Africans and the American blacks have reached a crisis point."
Lutjen began searching for apartments elsewhere in Roanoke for the African refugees earlier this month, after Adin and other immigrants complained about the rock throwing and alleged that some of their children have been beaten by black American kids while waiting for the bus to nearby Westside Elementary School.
On Monday, the Africans kept 16 of their children home from Westside, Adin said. "We were afraid to let them go outside."
Most of the children returned to school Tuesday.
Police seek solution to residents' complaints
On Wednesday night, Amy Nasta, the coordinator of Virginia Tech's Pilot Street Program, a nonprofit refugee education program that rents a unit at Maple Grove Apartments as classroom space, said she called an ambulance to treat a refugee who said she had been roughed up by an American-born neighbor. "She was seven months pregnant," said Nasta, who said the woman alleged she was injured when the neighbor barged into her apartment looking for his child's missing soccer ball.
Nasta declined to identify the victim, fearing for her safety, as did a spokesperson at Lewis-Gale Medical Center. Her condition couldn't be learned on Wednesday.
Nasta said she also reported the incident to Roanoke police. Aisha Johnson, a police spokeswoman, said an officer recorded the matter as an assault but no arrests have been made.
Police records show 17 requests for their presence at the apartment complex in March, but it isn't clear how many were related directly to the tension among residents. Lutjen said the police community resource officer in the area has scheduled a meeting with her on Friday to discuss a possible solution to the tensions.
Lutjen said she fears more violence and so do some residents.
"I have a gun. If they hurt my kids, I'll use it," said Tricia Arrington, an American-born black woman with five children. Interviewed Monday outside her apartment, she said, "My 9-year-old daughter came in from riding the school bus with those Africans and they had spit all over her face. I ain't about to let them keep doing that."
The troubled atmosphere at Maple Grove Apartments has become too much for Nasta to continue her program there beyond the expiration of her lease at the end of May. "We're going to relocate because of the violence," she said.
Hostilities between black Americans and African refugees aren't new or unique to Roanoke, said Carl Taylor, a sociologist at Michigan State University who studies youth violence. "There's a lot of ignorance on both sides about the different cultures."
For several years the American blacks and the Africans -- many of whom have started the lengthy citizenship application process -- lived in harmony at Maple Grove Apartments, both groups said. Several new American-born families have moved in since the beginning of the year, when the troubles began, but no one is accusing specific families or individuals.
Apartments' condition contributes to stress
A contributing factor of late is the worsening physical conditions of some apartments and the public laundry room. Roanoke city code enforcement officials have cited four apartments as needing repairs since March 19, and one was condemned and ordered vacated.
The owner, Dr. George Abraham, a Roanoke allergist who has a private practice at 1117 S. Jefferson St., met and spoke with The Roanoke Times but declined to comment on the record about either the condition of the apartments or the rift among his tenants. Abraham immigrated to the U.S. from Egypt three decades ago and has owned Maple Grove Apartments for five years.
Lutjen said Abraham "hasn't been very helpful" in responding to complaints about maintenance of the apartments, including one potential health hazard: the ample presence of mold in several units. "You might think an allergist would show more concern about large amounts of mold in apartments he's renting, especially to people with children," she said.
For those sensitive to molds, prolonged exposure can cause eye irritation, nasal stuffiness and wheezing, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in Atlanta. More severe reactions are possible in people with allergies or asthma. Abraham declined to comment on the presence of mold in the apartments when asked by The Roanoke Times.
The mold in one apartment was cited in March by Troy Coles, a city code inspector. That mold, growing on a bathroom wall, can't be kept under control merely with extra cleaning by the resident, he said, blaming drywall that has been saturated with water -- possibly from a roof leak. "Some of the drywall has to be replaced," he said.
Another factor angering both the Americans and the refugees is that Abraham recently raised rents on many apartments -- which residents said range from $425 to $550 a month. The $25 per month increase is partly to pay for damage such as broken windows caused by thrown rocks, the residents said. "But we aren't the ones throwing the rocks, it's the Africans," Dillard said.
Abraham declined to comment on the rent increase.
Tracy Reyes, one of the few whites living at Maple Grove Apartments, said she sees the causes for anger among both groups. "Everybody just needs to calm down. This is America; there's supposed to be a place for all of us."
“Divide and conquer. Everything looks great on the ground from a Gulfstream jet.”
Yeppers!
Hey, Jorge Bush! Hey, Fat Teddy Kennedy! Hey, Juan MacCain! When the country is riven by social unrest through your weak and cowardly leadership, please don't say there was no one warning you of what was going to happen!
???? Well, first of all, she is not responsible for all her countrymen. As I am not for mine. Second, she is a woman of faith and integrity, and has chosen a high road. However, she does recognize sloth and slovenliness when she sees it.
Africans not “authentic” blacks.
>I wonder why the hell we are letting Somalis into the U.S.<
Check out TED KENNEDY (D) to locate the source of this.
You got that right. I observed the same animosities between American blacks and the Ugandans security forces used in Iraq. They did not like each other...period.
Here’s an update of the story from roanoke.com:
City code inspectors on site today at troubled apartment complex
One inspector finds condemned apartment still occupied.
By Rob Johnson
Three Roanoke code inspectors began an inquiry into all 40 units of Maple Grove Apartments, a blighted complex in Northwest Roanoke where tensions between Somali-Bantus and American-born blacks have drawn the attention of police in recent days.
As reported today in The Roanoke Times, four of the apartments have been cited for various code deficiencies, such as mold-ridden drywall, since mid-March. Residents say poor maintenance of the apartments contributes to tensions that boil over into anger aimed at each other.
On Thursday, Vontina Durham, one of the inspectors, discovered evidence that an apartment unit she had officially condemned April 2 was still occupied – although it had been ordered vacated.
“You need to get out,” she told the tenant, Tricia Arrington, who has five children. Arrington protested that she had already moved and had returned to collect personal belongings. But Durham said the smell of urine, among other things, indicated the apartment was still occupied.
The apartments are owned by Dr. George Abraham, a Roanoke allergist. Abraham met with The Roanoke Times for near an hour on Monday and declined to answer any questions about the apartments on the record.
Inspectors began preparing what seems certain to be a long list of needed maintenance to report to Abraham, who has owned the complex for five years. Inspector Troy Coles told Abraham’s maintenance worker that the exterior of the buildings need cleaning, and promised advice in renting a pressure washer. What’s more, Coles told him, “Pretty much the whole complex will need repainting.”
I guess we can thank the elimination of the “National Origins” section of the immigration laws by that pompous, gun stealing swimmer.
But in the case of MUSLIMS, we can thank Jorge and the current Congress for not stopping their influx.
You know what this is about, don’t you?
The recent African immigrants are, by comparison, highly successful,
and are putting the lie to the “systemic racism” excuse being used by our own several generations old trained victim class.
That’s why American #000000’s hate them. They expose the lie of the perpetually aggrieved that they have to be on welfare and can’t work on their own because of systemic racism.
Of course I know what it’s all about. That’s precisely why I find it so rich.
Apparently, the Catholic Church has found all the “Lost Boys.”
Africans not welcome? Well, then, why are the African-Americans living there? /rhet.
To tell how bad that area is, they were talking of naming it or another street close to it Martin Luther King BLVD. Don’t go down that street at night.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.