I went to high school in a town bordering East St Louis.
My childhood impressions were that in Detroit the blacks hated the government/cops. In southern Illinois they hated anyone not black.
East St Louie? Wow.
A buddy of mine said he felt safer in Iraq/
I grew up in the same area... the whites whose ancestry led back to Dover TN were no better....they brought their nastiness with them.
The mound site between East St. Louis and Collinsville was used by the KKK to hold large meetings and to burn crosses and rail against Catholic immigrants and blacks the local union thugs feared were competition for jobs.
Most towns in the area were Democrat-run union sundown towns where no black dare stay past sundown.
It predates me, probably you as well but there is some reason for them to develop the attitude you saw- they could say the same for whites of a certain ilk.
“Progressives” - just made it worse. No one fears a black person [or white trash from west Granite] will take their job so long as the EBT cards, etc., hold out.