Greensboro's racial issues
Something is leaving a bitter taste in my mouth about Greensboro and it's not just the water. It's the persistent undercurrent of racial tension in this city that makes me wonder how it will socially accommodate any challenging times brought on by climate change, resource depletion (water) and more expensive oil.
A lot about the city I like: it's big enough to not be parochial, but not too large a city to get lost in. A good arts and alternative medicine community exists as well. But it seems like every time I turn around, there is this real or perceived conflict between whites and blacks that makes me question my prospects of living here over the long term.
In addition reading about it as an issue in city government/police department, I hear about it constantly on the public school level as I cover it for the News & Record. I recently interviewed a black man who said he was so tired of the racism that he was willing to move back to Washington, D.C. Now I have family in D.C. and can tell you it is not the greatest place to live if you are on the lower side of the economic continuum (think children dodging bullets behind trash cans). True gangstas reside in the District of Columbia, not in Greensboro, this man told me.
I've also heard minorities constantly complain about the amount of school construction bids going to white versus black contractors, something that the Guilford County Board of Education is trying to address.
Now, how do we go about incubating creative and innovative ideas and following through on their implementation on a community-wide level if black people can't trust white people to fairly distribute the jobs or if white people can't trust blacks to tow the line? How do we motivate young talent to stay in Greensboro instead of fleeing to more progressive cities elsewhere? If we can ill afford to lose them in this economic environment (post outsourcing of thousands of manufacturing jobs), we certainly can't afford to lose them as the next economic shift occurs.
This is the 21st century, and honestly, I and others I know here would like to move on. Do you see this as possible? And do the residents of Greensboro face any other challenges to building community?
Comments (2)
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Great questions. I think a substantial part of the problem is a generation gap in local leadership. Most local elected officials had their views of race relations formed by the civil rights struggles of the 1960's. In fact, I think "struggle" is a defining term for that generation--one that continues to guide their thinking. And that's not a bad thing. It was a struggle and mountains were moved because people were willing to face seemingly insurmountable challenges. But, the idea of approaching race relations as a struggle brings with it an adversarial temperament.
We therefore have leaders, white and black, who approach race relations with suspicion, certain from their experiences that someone is trying to get something from them or withhold something from them.
In the early 1970's, public schools were integrated (thanks to the generation that struggled), and I think integration brought with it a new generation of people who have a different view of race. Sure, there are still young bigots, black and white, but people who made friendships with people of another race, played sports with them, hung out with them and dated them have a view of race that isn't nearly as suspicious as the previous generations. I look at the support of young white men for Barak Obama as an anecdotal example that I'm right about this.
The problems with race in Greensboro are complicated and I don't mean to ignore the complexity by suggesting that the generational differences explain everything, but I do think it they are the biggest factor. When the local elected officials start to represent the generations that went to integrated schools, either because we start electing some younger people or because time passes and the 50 and sixty year-olds we elect are the next generation, then I think Greensboro will make significant advancements on race relations.
Posted on February 9, 2008 10:13 AM
As always, Roch makes some excellent points but I'd like to add that the vast majority of Greensboro's racial problems are manufactured by the Bobble heads and their ilk as smoke and mirror issues designed to fog our view as they steal from Greensboro's poor to feed their own greed.
By the way, Roch, I'm 50 something... and a product of the 70s integrated Greensboro schools and think you dead on.
Posted on February 9, 2008 11:12 AM