My city
I am a white woman in a predominantly black city.
I am a city worker in a place where most people work for the federal government.
And I am sick of the racism I read in the comments of The Washington Post.
There was an incident this weekend on the Metro at the stop I use most often. I wasn't there, because I tend to walk or take the bus when I can in order to save money. People were injured. It's been characterized as both a brawl and a riot depending on the article and the people doing the characterizing.
The assumption -- which is probably correct based solely on the city's demographics -- is that the young people who started the incident were black. The invective which has been unleashed is sickening. "Untermensch." "Make a coon-skin cap out of you."
Few people see this as anything but young black people making trouble. No one is questioning why they might be disaffected, though you'd be amazed at how many want to know "where are the parents?" Based on my experience in the neighborhood and through my job, the parents are probably working a second job to try to afford school supplies for their kids.
Even fewer people seem to be willing to do anything like mentor, tutor, or volunteer at a school. They are in favor of "shooting hooligans in the face" and going armed into the city.
I lived here in the 1970s, though in the suburbs. I remember the struggles -- real riots over things like the KKK marching. From the descriptions, this was much smaller than the kinds of troubles I used to experience in the early 80s from the soccer fans in London.
I don't in any way condone this type of behavior. I don't like being hassled and yelled at any more than the next person, and I hate being caught in violence. It's happened to me. But I don't for a moment think that race is a proximate cause for a minor eruption of violence on a hot summer's night.
I am a city worker in a place where most people work for the federal government.
And I am sick of the racism I read in the comments of The Washington Post.
There was an incident this weekend on the Metro at the stop I use most often. I wasn't there, because I tend to walk or take the bus when I can in order to save money. People were injured. It's been characterized as both a brawl and a riot depending on the article and the people doing the characterizing.
The assumption -- which is probably correct based solely on the city's demographics -- is that the young people who started the incident were black. The invective which has been unleashed is sickening. "Untermensch." "Make a coon-skin cap out of you."
Few people see this as anything but young black people making trouble. No one is questioning why they might be disaffected, though you'd be amazed at how many want to know "where are the parents?" Based on my experience in the neighborhood and through my job, the parents are probably working a second job to try to afford school supplies for their kids.
Even fewer people seem to be willing to do anything like mentor, tutor, or volunteer at a school. They are in favor of "shooting hooligans in the face" and going armed into the city.
I lived here in the 1970s, though in the suburbs. I remember the struggles -- real riots over things like the KKK marching. From the descriptions, this was much smaller than the kinds of troubles I used to experience in the early 80s from the soccer fans in London.
I don't in any way condone this type of behavior. I don't like being hassled and yelled at any more than the next person, and I hate being caught in violence. It's happened to me. But I don't for a moment think that race is a proximate cause for a minor eruption of violence on a hot summer's night.