Quote:
Originally Posted by Atowwn
I think the phrase"crime epidemic" is a bit loaded. That being said anyone not willing to acknowledge that Durham has some serious issues. Isn't being honest with themselves. Five months into a new year. How many innocent children have be shot or killed? Just saying oh it's just those people killing each other,gang members,drug dealers etc. Is fine until some innocent person get hurt or killed. Just to chalk it up to that happens in every city is bs too. Tell that to the mother of this child that was just killed. These are real people not numbers or pieces on a chess board.
Durham is a cool city. I love what's going on Downtown. Overall it's a cool city. I think of it as the soul of the Triangle,for obvious reasons. Btw I like live in Raleigh. Was born and raised here. I have lived in Durham on two separate occasions,for a little background. I remember going down in the basement on NewYears,afraid I'd catch a stray bullet,seriously!!!!! I couldn't imagine a child having to live like that day in and day out.
When judging Durham remember the people of Mcdougald And Few. Not just the hipsters and there coffee shops Downtown.
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I'll bite real quick and try to keep things on a civil track...
No one is saying there aren't issues in Durham and there's no room for improvement.
But what we struggle with is just a mirror of America's issues as a whole. We are a traditionally working class city set in the South that has had a large & historic black community. Look at similar cities here in NC: Winston, Greensboro, Fayetteville and even parts of Raleigh and Charlotte.
This is not some old news. Just because of lot of people have come in from out of state for decades doesn't mean our history is irrelevent. We live and breathe it everyday and are just a continuation of it. Segregation, ghettoization, mass incarceration, and poverty are all real things - and like any other trauma, child/spousal abuse for example, it can become a cycle for those involved.
Choice and Segregation in Durham, North Carolina
"As a result of these policies, charter schools in the state are more segregated than traditional public schools. Researchers at Duke University have pointed out that 20 percent of all charter schools in the state are 90 percent or more White. Durham, a district with less than 40,000 school-aged children, now has 13 charter schools with number 14 scheduled to open this fall and number 15 already approved for the future.
The net result of the growth in charters is that they have concentrated poorer children of color in the district schools and complicated district planning with unanticipated student movement. According to the 2010 census, 40 percent of Durham County’s population is White.
As of last school year, only 18 percent of Durham Public School students were White. Meanwhile, four Durham charter schools are 54-67 percent White. Essentially, since the growth of charter schools beginning in the 2007-08 school year, approximately 1200 White students have disappeared from Durham Public Schools.
Both research and anecdotal evidence tells us that White parents prefer schools where their child will be in the majority, often as a more important factor than school quality. Research by Helen Ladd at Duke University on White parents in the state found that a 20 percent Black population was the threshold that White parents preferred."
I was born and raised in Durham. My family is here. I don't feel a need to stand on a soapbox and preach to everyone on how great my hometown is. I love my city and my state.
But I dislike when folks want to pass judgement on a place/area that they don't have a strong understanding of. If you aren't from a diverse, (formerly) industrial area -- especially in the South -- then you have to be open to the fact that you don't have a real picture of our history and how it still effects us.
Passing judgement and sticking your head in the sand, trying to pretend that if you aren't around it that it won't impact you, does nothing constructive. That's why it's irritating to see people make ridiculous claims like Durham is some sort of a warzone.
All of my immediate neighbors have lived in their homes for over 50 years. Raised whole, happy, and healthy families. I know this website caters to people new to areas and most here are transplants, but that doesn't mean there aren't plenty of people who are happy to live, work, and raise families in Durham. And not just the neighborhoods that meet the certain quotas of avg. income, school "ratings", and demographics that make people breath easier. We're still here. If Durham isn't for you and your family - cool. No one is saying you need to. But please don't pretend that you have some deep understanding of what it's like to grow up and live here (even if you're from Raleigh and spent two "tours" here).
Anyways, that's my piece. RIP to the young boy, Kamari Munerlyn. I don't think either he or his family deserve to have his death used as an argument point on some website.
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