January, 1965
King: If the South is honest with itself, it may well outdistance the North in the improvement of race relations.
Playboy: Why?
King: Well, the northern white, having had little actual contact with the Negro, is devoted to an abstract principle of cordial interracial relations. The North has long considered, in a theoretical way, that it supported brotherhood and the equality of man, but the truth is that deep prejudices and discrimination exist in hidden and subtle and covert disguises. The South's prejudice and discrimination, on the other hand, has been applied against the Negro in obvious, open, overt and glaring forms - which make the problem easier to get at. The southern white man has the advantage of far more actual contact with Negroes than the northerner. A major problem is that this contact has been paternalistic and poisined by the myth of racial superiority.
The 2000 census confirms a disturbing pattern: The United States is becoming more racially and ethnically diverse but the inner cities are more segregated than they were 40 years ago...... In most Northern and Midwestern urban communities, neighborhoods have become more segregated. Social scientists call this trend "hypersegregation." In the nation's inner cities racial minorities, particularly African-Americans, reside in conditions of extreme racial isolation. (From DelawareOnLine)
....yeah, it was weird, going out last night, aware that with the Holiday, there would be a lot more folks out; but also more keenly aware of how the bars I frequent don't exactly reflect the racial mix of this city. But I rarely do notice, quite honestly. A few weeks back, in a restaurant in Chicago, with a good friend from High School, I had the luxury of not noticing that there was only one black person in the whole place, out of about 35-40 people. He has no choice; he's constantly aware of such things, always has been, and most likely always will be. Don't ask where I'm going with this, I find it troubling, but telling a few old stories from growing up on the South Side of Chicago, when our neighborhood was "changing"; or of going to school in the South, where the students from the North were generally much more racist (a combination of not having "manners" , I guess, plus going to school where they THOUGHT their views would fit in more).......- how does that illuminae where we are now? I can even remember as a teenager, the place I worked at gave King's birthday off, but only to the black folks who worked there - they really didn't get it, did they? Sitting here, barely able to force this coffee in my face because of my hangover, my thoughts on this day are scattered, and oddly angry. What part do i play in this problem; more importantly, what part should I be playing in a "solution" (in quotes, cuz I know there isn't some single, great idea to deal with racial segregation, hypersegregation, etc etc...)
i'll shut up now....(yeah, I know, lame musical choices, but I'm not feeling very creative today)
Happy Birthday
Pride (In The Name Of Love)
