I don't think people sat around and plotted how things are now. I think the way things are now is the result of countless individual choices, and that's the only way it's gonna change.
Have you ever actually been in a store where everything is behind bullet proof glass, and the only way to get what you want is to put money in a little turret-shaped box that spins, and wait for the owner to turn it around and count the money and then put what you want in the little box and spin it back around? I have (in New Orleans), and I don't think people do it because they are "prejudiced," I think they do it because they are terrified. It's not against blacks, per se, because there are places in New Orleans that are also mostly black, and the stores aren't like that. But you've got to agree that no business person in their right minds would want to operate a business in a place where they were terrified for their personal safety. I grew up in a place and time where there were a lot of black people in the neighborhood, and the crime was almost non-existent, except for Saturday night fights.
Everyone says it's about race, and racism. I can't believe that because it's different from place to place. I don't have a solution to the terror. Black people who live in other places than inner cities have a better time of it, and if I were black I'd do my best to get out of the inner city, that might be a good start. |
