Adventures in a changing neighborhood, part something:
I am Sarah, destroyer of surveys.
My first clue was that she asked for "Sarah Hersild." It was a follow-up on a survey I'd done a year ago (had I?) on attitudes toward the neighborhood, crime and police. Did I think the neighborhood had gotten better or worse? (Better) Am I more or less afraid on the streets? (About the same) Are there there places I won't go day or night (There's no place I won't go during the day, but I'm not likely to wander around the park by myself at night.)
Then: Have you ever been unfairly stopped by the police because of your race? Um, no -- I'm the last person who would get stopped. Huh? Look, I'm a white chick in a Puerto Rican neighborhood -- the police love me. I could probably be schlepping several pieces of electronic equipment down the street and they'd just make sure I got home safely.
"Oh, you're white You're one of the reasons they say the neighborhood is getting better. I don't think so, though."
I don't think so either -- sort of. The mere presence of white people doesn't turn Humboldt Park into Lincoln Park. There are more than enough white criminals and gang-bangers and everything else to go around.
But...when Wendy said she noticed three separate groups of white Hip-Young-Things walking down our street, I saw it as the proverbial Good Sign. The number of your basic tattooed, pierced, grungy 20-something-Artist-types at the local diner is another Good Sign. Would I feel the same way about a group of Hispanic Hip-Young-Things? Probably not. So why are tattooed grungy white people inherently benign or unthreatening when Hispanic people with tattoos are scary?
I guess part of it is the bellwether effect: Hey, there are white folks who think it's ok to live here -- it must be getting better! And to an extent, that's true. There's no way in hell I would have chosen to live here 10 years ago, or even five years ago, when drive-bys and gang shootings were common. And this is becoming a neighborhood that people are choosing to live in. That's great.
So what if it were a bunch of Hispanic yuppie-types who were buying up houses here? Would it have the same "on-the-verge-of-being-hip" neighborhood cachet? If it were black and Hispanic artists and musicians who were hanging out -- would that be a Good Sign also? I don't know.
I want this neighborhood to be safe and friendly for everyone -- and that includes the people who have lived here all their lives. But as the neighborhood gets better -- or at least whiter -- they're more likely to have problems with the police. Yeah, I do think the police stop Hispanics more than white people here. I do think you're much more likely to be harassed if your a young Hispanic male than an adult white female. I don't think it's fair or justified. But... let's face it, there aren't any white gang-bangers here. (They'd never survive.) For the most part, the white folks who live here do so because they could afford to buy a house or because they were making an investment or something. And that makes them less likely to be desperate enough to commit a crime -- right?
But aren't there plenty of Hispanic people here who moved in for the same reason? And they have to deal with suspicion and harassment that I don't, because, on a superficial level, they look like they could be a gang-banger -- i.e., they look like the folks who had little or no choice but to live here even when gang-banging was rife. Therefore, on a really oversimplified level, to be Hispanic is to be suspicious. But that's bullshit. Ridiculous. Insulting to everyone who lives here, white, black or Hispanic. Not something I believe or endorse or would put up with.
But... walking past a group of white guys at night probably wouldn't make me as edgy as walking past a group of black or Hispanic guys at night in this neighborhood.
So what does this mean? Am I as much part of the problem as part of the solution?
Ain't white liberal guilt fun?
I am Sarah, destroyer of surveys.
My first clue was that she asked for "Sarah Hersild." It was a follow-up on a survey I'd done a year ago (had I?) on attitudes toward the neighborhood, crime and police. Did I think the neighborhood had gotten better or worse? (Better) Am I more or less afraid on the streets? (About the same) Are there there places I won't go day or night (There's no place I won't go during the day, but I'm not likely to wander around the park by myself at night.)
Then: Have you ever been unfairly stopped by the police because of your race? Um, no -- I'm the last person who would get stopped. Huh? Look, I'm a white chick in a Puerto Rican neighborhood -- the police love me. I could probably be schlepping several pieces of electronic equipment down the street and they'd just make sure I got home safely.
"Oh, you're white You're one of the reasons they say the neighborhood is getting better. I don't think so, though."
I don't think so either -- sort of. The mere presence of white people doesn't turn Humboldt Park into Lincoln Park. There are more than enough white criminals and gang-bangers and everything else to go around.
But...when Wendy said she noticed three separate groups of white Hip-Young-Things walking down our street, I saw it as the proverbial Good Sign. The number of your basic tattooed, pierced, grungy 20-something-Artist-types at the local diner is another Good Sign. Would I feel the same way about a group of Hispanic Hip-Young-Things? Probably not. So why are tattooed grungy white people inherently benign or unthreatening when Hispanic people with tattoos are scary?
I guess part of it is the bellwether effect: Hey, there are white folks who think it's ok to live here -- it must be getting better! And to an extent, that's true. There's no way in hell I would have chosen to live here 10 years ago, or even five years ago, when drive-bys and gang shootings were common. And this is becoming a neighborhood that people are choosing to live in. That's great.
So what if it were a bunch of Hispanic yuppie-types who were buying up houses here? Would it have the same "on-the-verge-of-being-hip" neighborhood cachet? If it were black and Hispanic artists and musicians who were hanging out -- would that be a Good Sign also? I don't know.
I want this neighborhood to be safe and friendly for everyone -- and that includes the people who have lived here all their lives. But as the neighborhood gets better -- or at least whiter -- they're more likely to have problems with the police. Yeah, I do think the police stop Hispanics more than white people here. I do think you're much more likely to be harassed if your a young Hispanic male than an adult white female. I don't think it's fair or justified. But... let's face it, there aren't any white gang-bangers here. (They'd never survive.) For the most part, the white folks who live here do so because they could afford to buy a house or because they were making an investment or something. And that makes them less likely to be desperate enough to commit a crime -- right?
But aren't there plenty of Hispanic people here who moved in for the same reason? And they have to deal with suspicion and harassment that I don't, because, on a superficial level, they look like they could be a gang-banger -- i.e., they look like the folks who had little or no choice but to live here even when gang-banging was rife. Therefore, on a really oversimplified level, to be Hispanic is to be suspicious. But that's bullshit. Ridiculous. Insulting to everyone who lives here, white, black or Hispanic. Not something I believe or endorse or would put up with.
But... walking past a group of white guys at night probably wouldn't make me as edgy as walking past a group of black or Hispanic guys at night in this neighborhood.
So what does this mean? Am I as much part of the problem as part of the solution?
Ain't white liberal guilt fun?
posted by SAJ at
3:13 PM
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