View Single Post
Old 05-04-2008, 04:12 AM   #11 (permalink)
mixedmedia
has all her shots.
 
mixedmedia's Avatar
 
Location: Florida
A few months ago, my 19-year-old daughter and I went to an old neighborhood in downtown Orlando called the Parramore district. I had driven through it several weeks before and thought it looked like an interesting place to take pictures...I'm always on the look-out for that. Of course, Parramore is a distinctly black neighborhood, and largely poor.

So we went down there, parked on the street, got out and started walking. It was early, probably 10:30am or so and a really beautiful, sunny day. We walked for 8-10 blocks and every person that passed us smiled and said hello and we'd just smile and say hello back. Very pleasant. One man stopped and asked if we were with the newspaper or something because of the camera, but I told him it was just a hobby. He was very nice.

So we keep walking and right when we passed this old pink church I had been taking pictures of I hear a voice coming from the screened-in patio of the house next door. 'What are you girls doing down here? Do you know where you are? Are you from out of town' And I turn to look and it's this middle-aged white guy. I'm not sure if he lived there, worked there or what.

And I laughed and said, 'Yes, I live here and I know exactly where I am.'

Then I looked around and said, 'It seems to be pretty quiet around here and everyone's been very nice.'

'You're in the hood, you shouldn't be down here. It's not safe.'

And I wondered, you know, is he going to tell me some stories about a rash of attacks on white people down here? Surely if this were true, I would have heard something about it. But apparently that was all he had to say so I just looked at him, smiled, told him to have a good day and we kept walking without a lick of trouble. I got a few neat pictures that day.

When I was very young and living in Atlanta, our neighborhood was largely black. All the kids went to each other's houses, all the parents knew each other. It was never treated like a big deal and this was the late '60's/early '70's. My brother, sister and I were taught outright to reject racial stereotypes as insidious fictions and I think that is why I have so little kneejerk racial bias today. I do believe that many, many people carry around these biases, though, and that is does have a profound effect on race relations today.

I really liked this tidbit...it's a point I've tried to make on at least a dozen topics around here.
Quote:
Subtle sociocultural signals may carry particularly insidious power.
I'm surprised more people aren't commenting on this article.
__________________
Most people go through life dreading they'll have a traumatic experience. Freaks were born with their trauma. They've already passed their test in life. They're aristocrats. - Diane Arbus
PESSIMISM, n. A philosophy forced upon the convictions of the observer by the disheartening prevalence of the optimist with his scarecrow hope and his unsightly smile. - Ambrose Bierce

Last edited by mixedmedia; 05-04-2008 at 04:16 AM..
mixedmedia is offline  
 

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 34 35 36 37 38 39 40 41 42 43 44 45 46 47 48 49 50 51 52 53 54 55 56 57 58 59 60 61 62 63 64 65 66 67 68 69 70 71 72 73 74 75 76 77 78 79 80 81 82 83 84 85 86 87 88 89 90 91 92 93 94 95 96 97 98 99 100 101 102 103 104 105 106 107 108 109 110 111 112 113 114 115 116 117 118 119 120 121 122 123 124 125 126 127 128 129 130 131 132 133 134 135 136 137 138 139 140 141 142 143 144 145 146 147 148 149 150 151 152 153 154 155 156 157 158 159 160 161 162 163 164 165 166 167 168 169 170 171 172 173 174 175 176 177 178 179 180 181 182 183 184 185 186 187 188 189 190 191 192 193 194 195 196 197 198 199 200 201 202 203 204 205 206 207 208 209 210 211 212 213 214 215 216 217 218 219 220 221 222 223 224 225 226 227 228 229 230 231 232 233 234 235 236 237 238 239 240 241 242 243 244 245 246 247 248 249 250 251 252 253 254 255 256 257 258 259 260 261 262 263 264 265 266 267 268 269 270 271 272 273 274 275 276 277 278 279 280 281 282 283 284 285 286 287 288 289 290 291 292 293 294 295 296 297 298 299 300 301 302 303 304 305 306 307 308 309 310 311 312 313 314 315 316 317 318 319 320 321 322 323 324 325 326 327 328 329 330 331 332 333 334 335 336 337 338 339 340 341 342 343 344 345 346 347 348 349 350 351 352 353 354 355 356 357 358 359 360