Many years ago - around the spring of '64 I was doing some volunteer work out of an inner city Freedom House with some friends ... Our job was to get people in 'the community' to sign a petition. We were trying to get a civilian review board to oversea Chicago cops ( yeah, I was a liberal years ago)... So we go door to door. And EVERY door we knock on refuses us.( two white kids - two black kids) No one will sign the petition. The adults who answer the doors don't believe in what we're doing - they weren't on our side. One old black woman wagged her finger at me and gave me a mini lecture about crime. I tried to tell her about police brutality. She came back saying gang members should get their heads bashed in... those weren't her exact words - but close. It was my first experience with the reality that radicals often don't represent the people they say they're representing. We went back - turned in our blank petitions - and were told it wasn't a problem - that we would just say we were representing the community. And everyone bought it.
I guess that's my way of saying that I know what you're posting is true. Lots of people hide in their homes "praying racism from both sides will stop". They pray for their children...
I feel that if we get all this out in the open that maybe we can stop it. It'll be rough for a while - white people need to tell their side - even if the truth is painful. Everyday black citizens need to speak over the racebaiters and the white liberal elites who want to put words in their mouths. We're not going to solve this if we have no idea what's real - on either side.
I was born in early 30’s.
I grew up in a Boston neighborhood that required a change from a bus to the subway in Central Square,Cambridge in order to get into the city.This was a black neighborhood,
From the mid forties to the late fifties,when I left the area, I often waited for the bus at night.I am female and I was never afraid,never-—it was a family area and many women traveled alone through that area,often fairly late at night.
The fear of black neighborhoods started in the 60’s and it has only become worse.
Lots of things needed improving but the pendulum swung too far and it’s become a pathetic joke.