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Old 04-06-2014, 03:59 PM
 
6,295 posts, read 11,011,614 times
Reputation: 3085

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Quote:
Originally Posted by JimboPGH View Post
For the record, Appalachia has a fraction of the institutional and economic racism that continues to exist in much of the deep south and northern cities alike. I'll put West Virginia's racism record up against Chicago's, Boston's, or Philly's any day.

Also, "Duck Dynasty" is a bunch of preppie dudes from Hilton Head putting on a Hillbilly Minstrel Show. Reality TV my ass!

Just a word of advice: any time you discuss any "underclass" of people, regardless of race, it's best to take into account the history and economics involved, and not just view them in a vacuum.
Interesting note about WVA and alleged racism. A couple of years ago a former NYC resident now living in WVA told me he saw virtually no signs of racial problems in rural WVA. Yet, when I told him I was living in Missouri (at that time I was) he mentioned just how bad the racial problems are in its cities and to some degree the rural areas.

The KKK and their Grand Lizard held a rally in Carnegie early in the 20the century and were not made to feel very welcome there. A riot ensued and it seems as though the KKK did not waste any more time with Carnegie.

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Old 04-06-2014, 05:26 PM
 
4,176 posts, read 2,922,149 times
Reputation: 3072
Quote:
Originally Posted by zip95 View Post
Embarrassed... What the???

Dude, unless you are blinded by racism you should be able to see that African American culture has probably been the strongest cultural force on planet earth for the past 100 years. The invention of jazz, rock, blues, r&b, techno. Some of the greatest poets ever to grace this planet with their presence have been rappers. Fashion. How much of our modern speech originated in the ghetto (you go girl). The countries most popular comedians. The worlds most popular athletes. Some of the most recognizable names in this world are products of your "gangsta thug" ghettos... The entire world flocks to American culture because the ghetto produces people like Beyoncé and Whitney Houston. The day you see a Korean version of Hill-billy style, instead of
gangnam style is the day you can start telling black people to be embarrassed by their culture.
Thanks Zip95! I never knew that some segments of our society view "thugs" as black culture. I was raised in a artistic family where culture was any type of artstic expression.
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Old 04-07-2014, 11:57 AM
 
5,110 posts, read 7,112,335 times
Reputation: 3116
Another potential area.
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Old 04-07-2014, 06:00 PM
 
1,901 posts, read 4,357,562 times
Reputation: 1018
Regarding Wilkinsburg & Mt. Oliver (Borough) here's my opinion.
In all honesty neither besiness district is that nice. Shootings have gone down on both Penn Ave/Wood St/other streets & Brownsville Rd. Both have their fair share of loiters who are gang-affiliated indivuals and drug addicts; although on the flip side, they also serve the lower middle class from near by areas & poor families and happy people coming together. Plus they're more intact than Frankstown Ave, 2nd Ave, Lincoln Ave, etc so I guess that's a good thing.
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Old 04-07-2014, 08:04 PM
 
Location: ɥbɹnqsʇʇıd
4,599 posts, read 6,690,656 times
Reputation: 3521
Wilkinsburg has a higher violent and total crime rate than Compton (as I posted earlier). You surely don't hear that in the papers. I know people wilk try to spin that or deflect it in some way but you can't. It's not a good place to be.
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Old 04-07-2014, 08:29 PM
 
1,653 posts, read 1,577,844 times
Reputation: 2822
I think Penn/Wood looks a lot different depending on what time of day it is, but it is not somewhere I generally tarry when I have errands to run in the area. I could see where a person driving through at late morning would think it looks better than anyone who's ever had to wait for a bus there in the evening, and Hopes has a higher tolerance for blight than average so that explains the difference of opinion. I also think there are a lot of people working on turning things around, approaching it from a lot of different angles like rehabbing buildings and making it easier to buy a house and garden/art projects and afterschool stuff, and the school board finally has their gloves off. It's a slow process, but then it always is. Is that deflecting, maybe, I don't know.
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Old 04-07-2014, 09:56 PM
 
55 posts, read 100,870 times
Reputation: 61
Quote:
Originally Posted by eschaton View Post
As others have noted, Wilkinsburg is fairly large for a Pittsburgh-area borough (nearly 16,000 people) and has around a dozen different neighborhoods. Saying all of Wilkinsburg is bad because where you lived is bad is kind of like saying that Point Breeze is a bad place because you lived in Homewood and it sucked.
I don't recall making an argument that "all Wilkinsburg is bad." I offered a general statement regarding Wilkinsburg's crime rate, which I am perfectly able to do without having to provide a "block-by-block" analysis of the crime present on every street in the borough.

If you want to use the borough's component neighborhoods as your unit of measure and conclude that some parts of Wilkinsburg are safe, that is fine; it doesn't change the fact that, taken as a whole, Wilkinsburg's crime rate is atrocious.
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Old 04-08-2014, 11:26 AM
 
Location: O'Hara Twp.
4,359 posts, read 7,487,518 times
Reputation: 1611
Quote:
Originally Posted by Uptown kid View Post
Plus they're more intact than Frankstown Ave, 2nd Ave, Lincoln Ave, etc so I guess that's a good thing.
This was my point.
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Old 04-16-2014, 04:33 PM
 
8 posts, read 12,278 times
Reputation: 39
Default A Note from Princeton Park, Wilkinsburg, PA

Hi all, sorry to come late to this just I wanted to chime in as I've been lurking a bit (and reading Uptown Kid's posts about gangs - Thank you sir for all your knowledge and insight). I'm gonna write for a bit, so if you're not into reading feel free to stop now because this might take a minute. My students often write TLDR on my comments: (too long, didn't read. lol)

I don't have an agenda and don't want to convince anyone of anything. I'll just tell you about where I live in Wilkinsburg. I live in Wilkinsburg's Princeton Park and have since 2002, which is a sliver of Wilkinsburg that shouldn't be at all considered the whole of Wilkinsburg, neither the worst nor the best. I am white and when I moved here I was a student at Pitt. I bought a house here because it was affordable for my meager means. But I did so because it was affordable and truly seemed livable when I visited on many occasions to inspect the house. I was not the of the the majority race of the neighborhood but being from the Detroit metro area, this was common. Frankly, it's common many places, but that's a different topic. Since, I've become a teacher here, moved into the middle class here, moved back into the lower class here, published a book here, found a partner who's moved in with me here, and seen all kinds of folks come and go. So what? We're all just people up here, some are good, some are not so good. I believe that if I remove myself from "danger" by moving to a bunker in Idaho than I'll be just that: alone in a bunker. Safety is an illusion, Shadyside, Garfield, wherever.

Some things one can do to improve their chances in this world? I respect my neighbors because they respect me and vice versa. Respect for respects sake, maybe not even because any of us have earned it, just because we live next to each other, space is tight, tempers can flare. As a matter of fact Princeton Park reminded me a lot of a place I used to live around SE Detroit called Mt. Clemens, a mixed race, lower to lower middle income, working class families, all trying to make an existence that was largely safe and better. I must say that when I bought I was 32, male, former military, and white; all zones of privilege when it comes to getting respect and response time from cops. I also realize it's not like that for everyone and therefore some can't make that step. That said, I did. And I've lived here for over a decade. The price was right and I put faith in something other than just me, cops, my neighbors, and neighborhood, something bigger.

Since, I've fixed this house up to be a dream for an affordable payment. As a result, I didn't lose it like lots of people I know who were living outside their means. I have seen shootings here AND seen conflicts resolved. I've seen gang members and seen young men get out of gangs. I've seen gardens get planted then go over to dirt. I've seen drug houses move in, then out, then in again. Heck, I've even seen deer! Now that said, I've also seen all that in Florida, South Dakota, Washington State, even Hawaii (well, no deer I recall there). So obviously it's not just Wilkinsburg's Princeton Park. What I'm saying is that I'm here, Shelbourne Ave. This is where I live. And with that let me add some things that are also true of our little block or four: I know every one of my neighbors on all sides of my house...and by that I mean: names, faces, family, children, jobs, likes, dislikes, former jobs, relatives, et cetera...and they know all of that of me. I've lived in upper middle class ALL WHITE neighborhoods (like Grosse Point in outside Detroit) and rarely, if ever, even saw my neighbors, and when I did, I couldn't tell you their names because they didn't give them. That place scared me.

So, is it dangerous? I don't know. I've heard gunshots on my street. I've had my lawn mower stolen from my garage. That said, I left the garage door open for the mower and the cops response time to those shots was 1 minute 23 seconds. Flat. (Also, my mower was returned to me after two days, unscathed). I guess someone just needed to use it. I've been able to form incredible relationships with my neighbors, almost all of whom aren't my age, race, or socio-economic status) which include long talks over beverages, helping each other with work, and general good cheer, and grieving when loved ones pass.

A note: maybe this is because I'm not scared of black people, brown people, anyone who doesn't exactly look like me or hold my political or religious affiliations. I mean I get fear of people and ideas, but I don't let it cloud and distract my understanding of the general good will I've seen among my neighbors and me. And when I do get a ting of fright, I just have to realize in the grand scheme of things, I got little control. And so, best to be respectful of all and mindful of my prejudices. If I have to pick up someone's garbage tossed from their car at the stopsign, so be it.

I ain't perfect, I'll assure you, but I'm working at it. As are plenty of people in Princeton Park, and those who aren't, well, I get them too. I ain't always been a teacher and a community figure. I'm not too many steps removed from the troubled and the troubling in this here community. So go ahead trolls, I know someone out there is waiting to flame this thread to bits, but that's okay, it will give me more practice with patience, kindness, love, and tolerance. My name is Craig, and I live in Princeton Park, Wilkinsburg, PA.
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Old 04-16-2014, 04:44 PM
 
Location: North Oakland
9,150 posts, read 10,834,053 times
Reputation: 14503
Quote:
Originally Posted by 501 Carthage View Post
So go ahead trolls, I know someone out there is waiting to flame this thread to bits, but that's okay, it will give me more practice with patience, kindness, love, and tolerance. My name is Craig, and I live in Princeton Park, Wilkinsburg, PA.
Actually, Craig, I was going to say it looks like a nice street. Thank you for bringing it to our attention.
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