Forums

[ThurgreedMarshall]

Originally Posted by Hank Chinaski

Even a little isolation/space can be damning.

So i live in a tiny little suburb that is heavily white, 90% easy. And it votes 70% liberal dem. But we are part of a very diverse school district. So if you have kids, and certainly kids in sports, you know black kids. And it is less than a square mile, so there are very diverse streets within a quarter mile of almost everywhere in my town.

The worst thing I've seen was a Next Door thread. The HS football team sends players out to sell stupid coupons. Some old lady writes, "3 young black kids were on my porch, ringing my doorbell. I peeked out the window, but didn't answer. Anyone else see them?"

Someone else, who I know, wrote, "umm, they are just nice kids trying to play football for the HS. Safe, perfectly safe."

So far the thread was bad, but it wasn't too bad. Now understand, ND is open to kids from the HS, white and black kids.

After the first exchange there were a dozen follow up posts by people I know have kids in the school that were generally, "I bought tickets, and introduced myself. They were seniors, one plays CB, one RB and one LB."

After a couple the tone was "I'm brave, look what i did!' which might actually convey how they felt, but boy was it an ugly thing to see, especially given the schools their kids were in.

So I was posting "Please delete this thread!" Over and over, hoping no kids saw how ugly/stupid people are.

It's such a sad thing. The fact that almost every single white person, no matter how sheltered and closed-minded they are, changes their mind as to the individuals they actually meet and know and somehow views them as exceptions to the most ridiculous stereotypes as opposed to the norm, is really very depressing.

TM