Taking off from mordenti's post yesterday, here is a link to a great bit of conversation about what it feels like to be a white woman moving into a majority non-white neighborhood and being pressured by her white friends not to live there.
http://stuffwhitepeopledo.blogspot.com/2008/07/go-along-with-racism-instead-of-calling.html
Here's an excerpt:
“Well, it’s obvious now, and it really bothers me how we didn’t come out and just SAY it to each other. I mean, we’re all good, well-meaning people, or we think we are, but we’re really white people who are afraid of black neighborhoods. And Mexican people. We don’t want to be around those people if we don’t know them. And we sure don’t want to LIVE around too many of them. So their reactions to my neighborhood were racist. And instead of calling them on that, instead of pointing it out to them, I went along with this kind of unspoken racism. I played right along with it. Without even realizing I was doing that.”
My friend C’s voice had begun to shake, and then she started crying.
I should note that absent from the entire conversation in this post is any discussion of gentrification. Most of C's distress stems not from her own role in gentrification (which she could perhaps control), but rather from her racist feelings and thoughts and the racist feelings and thoughts of her family and friends.
I also find it a bit odd that, given that the author has already abbreviated C's name to a letter (if in fact it is an abbreviation and not a mere substitution), that they have to further anonymize the situation by describing C's move as "from a rather bohemian, largely white part of her Midwestern American city to a largely non-white area". Are there so few white people whose names begin with "C" in this neighborhood that the author is afraid that providing this additional detail will identify her?
I suppose the fear is that her neighbors might recognize her from this description and will take offense at the fact that she has racist thoughts. But fear of having one's racist thoughts made plain seems like exactly the kind of closeted-ness the author and C have come to realize is contributing to racism rather than undoing it, no?
Photo: Color Your life by Capture Queen
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1 comment:
Hey Ming, it's Mel. I'm enjoying this blog btw. I do like the main point you are making in this post. Also, maybe it's worthwhile to add there is a short-ish gentrification discussion in the comments to the original post.
So I find myself in a similar situation as this C person does so I actually would be interested in hearing your thoughts on gentrification in general. I dunno if it's something you plan to write about in the future. Anyhoo - it's something I think about on a daily basis since I am technically part of the problem.
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