[C. Smith]

How does it make ethnic minorities feel when they move into a neighborhood and immediately white people move out?

User Detail :  

Name : C. Smith, Gender : F, Race : White/Caucasian, Age : 22, City : Atlanta, State : GA, Country : United States, Education level : 4 Years of College, Social class : Middle class, 

[K. Lynn]

…’What’s wrong with me? I’ve never done anything bad. Why do these people feel that just because I’m here, I’m going to do something bad?’ This is basically how I felt at the age of nine when I realized why almost all of my white playmates, many of whom I’d known since kindergarten, were no longer around. I internalized this for a very long time, and for years found myself defending myself and my entire upbringing to white people who hollered up and down that they weren’t bigots yet seemed determined to pigeonhole me into inferiority. Fortunately I’ve grown to learn that if white people are that determined to get away from me, that’s their problem, not mine. I’m still a decent person regardless of what they think, and if they don’t want me as a neighbor, it’s their loss! The following may sound like another defense, but I’m putting it in to make a point: The street that I grew up on (in a suburb of Cleveland, OH) is STILL a very nice street AND it’s predominantly black. In fact, because of the old homes and lower prices, there are white people trying to move in. Normally that would be considered ‘gentrification’ except that the black folks there are working-class and middle-class, as they’ve always been, and own their homes, as they always have, and keep up their property, as they always have. I’d like to know why is it that when white people see black people in a neighborhood, they automatically assume ‘ghetto’? ‘crime’? ‘low-life people’?

User Detail :  

Name : K. Lynn, Gender : F, Race : Black/African American, Age : 34, City : Chicago, State : IL, Country : United States, Occupation : Writer/programmer, Education level : 4 Years of College, Social class : Middle class, 

[Peter30382]

It makes me feel good. Here in New Mexico, unlike “back east,” the land was originally owned by the “minority,” the Chicano, the real New Mexican, and in many cases, was stolen by cracker land speculators after 1846, even though the treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo ending the U.S.-Mexican War prohibited this. Many Chicanos have the same attitude of “move on out” when Cubans and Asians move in now, but people are slowly beginning to realize, at least on some levels, that Chicanos and Cubans have much in common and can share and learn from each other. All whites, no matter how liberal or guilty they may feel, are regarded as the enemy, and a special hatred is reserved for them. Welcome to the real world.

User Detail :  

Name : Peter30382, Gender : M, Sexual Orientation : Straight, Race : Chicano, Religion : Atheist, Age : 24, City : Albuquerque, State : NM, Country : United States, Occupation : Student, Education level : 4 Years of College, Social class : Middle class, 

[Arty]

Are you sure your not a Cholo???

User Detail :  

Name : Arty, Gender : M, Sexual Orientation : Straight, Race : White/Caucasian, Religion : Christian, Age : 40, City : Lansing, State : MI, Country : United States, Occupation : self employed, Education level : High School Diploma, Social class : Upper class, 

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