A Reminder of Continuing Racism

A few evenings ago, my sister, brother-in-law and I were walking from downtown back to our street, a poverty-stricken area which has long been a center the of the African American community in our town. As we approached our street, a white man in his car stopped and said to us, "you all should be careful... you know you're in the hood, right?" My sister and I answered in unison, "we live in the hood." The man nodded his head and drove away. Surely he thought he was being helpful, but as we walked home, we couldn't help but comment on the odd incident. If we were three black adults, would this gentleman have stopped to warn us of the impending danger of our neighborhood? It seems as though this man cared to stop only because we were white, and because we were, in his opinion, in the "wrong" place.

I think that incident pretty much speaks for itself, no analysis needed.