Re: Driving & Race Relations (Homewood: crime, school, to live)
Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
The only thing I could think of with respect to race is the fact that for so long housing was so cheap. This has almost never been the case in Boston or New York. At least in Pittsburgh folks across racial lines have had the opportunity to become homeowners. As such it takes the edge off of the resentment that can breed. Maybe, I'm way off. Another example is, I'll see on the news or in the Docket Sheets blacks and whites cooperate in doing criminal activities like the home invasion in Forest Hills. This isn't always the case in other metropolitan areas where the criminals are more segregated. What's the scoop with Churches? I'm not Christian so I can't attest to the integration or lack thereof on Sunday mornings.
There's a lot of resentment from the socioeconomically-underprivileged and academically-underachieving subset of the African-American community in Pittsburgh towards whites, attributing their ailments to race instead of poor life choices, so I wouldn't necessarily say race relations here are that great. With that being said there are also socioeconomically-underprivileged and academically-underachieving whites in this country who blame "dem der illegals" (a.k.a. "all brown people") for their ailments instead of looking in the mirror.
Most underprivileged black folks could care less about white people. Most are too busy and involved with their daily lives raising children and trying to stay ahead. You speak as if you are involved in or part of the black community. You probably know fewer than three black people in this city. Or some of your Polish Hill neighbors are shoving this BS down your ear hole.
I've had African-Americans launch a boycott against our business last year because I disagreed with them closing local streets to protest the Michael Brown slaying in Ferguson because, apparently, if you disagree with street closures while you're in the business of getting things from Point A to Point B in the most efficient manner, then you're an adherent to #BlackLivesDon'tMatter. I later learned the leaders of that boycott were proponents of boycotts against other white-owned businesses in general, which irked me even more.
I believe you fabricated this. If there was a organized boycott of any company in this city it would have been announced in every black church. There are many white business that depend on black dollars. There are many black neighborhoods that depend on white business.
A few weeks ago a woman from the Homewood area became nasty on the phone with me because she was told she was outside of our delivery radius (due to crime-related reasons---not race-related reasons). Nevertheless she pulled the race card in a diatribe until I finally politely told her to have a nice evening and hung up because I was done being verbally harangued.
I dont believe this story either. From the tone of your post I truly believe that you set the stage for the altercation.
I've actually, sadly, become more racist---not more tolerant---since moving here because I'm tiring of this subset blaming me, a struggling white guy, for their problems that are mostly NOT attributed to race. Homewood being the way it is today with weekly shootings, carjackings, etc. isn't my fault. It's also not the fault of white people at-large, either, despite what the upper-middle-class educated East End whites on this sub-forum like to perpetuate due to their "white guilt". I refuse to keep apologizing because prior generations of my race were hostile, aggressive, or downright racist towards members of other races. How can you be held accountable for problems that occurred decades before you were even conceived?
You have always been racist. You just did not know it. There are several different types of racist. Download BDP's hip hop song titled " The Racist". I think you went from an unconscious racist to a conscious racist.
What happened in this country's past was certainly egregious, but if people keep pulling the race card at a moment's notice, then healing will never occur. I was labeled a racist for hypothesizing from the beginning that Michael Brown was NOT gunned down by Officer Darren Wilson with his hands up while pleading "don't shoot" simply because it didn't make any sense for an officer to gun down a person with their hands up pleading for their life. The DOJ recently vindicated me, as it further substantiated the fact that the "hands up; don't shoot" thing NEVER even happened. Where's my apology from those who were wrong?
WTF is a race card? Anytime a black person speaks their truth it considered a race card? There is institutional racism in this city and across this country. The racism has an impact on every aspect of black lives. From morgage rates to public transportion, education, and health care. A spade is a spade ^!&&@.
I'm gay. I was bullied for being gay. I hear homophobic remarks on a regular basis. A former boss of mine was homophobic and contributed to my departure from a position I loved. Prior generations of homosexuals were beaten, sexually assaulted, discriminated against, etc. much worse than current generations of homosexuals in this country. Videos recently surfaced of homosexuals being thrown from their deaths from rooftops abroad. Guess what? I'm not "pulling the gay card". I'm bootstrapping myself and working as many hours per week as I can to achieve my life goals without harboring any resentment towards heterosexuals at-large because a subset of heterosexuals are homophobic. Speaking of homophobia, I've met more Christian blacks who are against same-sex marriage than Christian whites who are against it.
You admitted that you are racist. With that admission why would you care if another group hated you in return? A gay racist??? Are you kidding me? I seriously doubt that you have met enough black christians to make your assumption. Black people (especially black baptists) are ultra conservative when it comes to ulternative lifestyles. They do not agree with gay marriage but will not confront you about it.
One last thing I'd like to add is that I'm tired of being told "blacks can't be racist", usually by upper-middle-class white-guilt-perpetuating apologists I've learned to resent. ANY individual is capable of believing their race is superior to another race. Asians can think they're better than blacks. Blacks can think they're better than whites. Whites can think they're better than Hispanics. Hispanics can think they're better than Asians. I guess East Enders never learned that at Harvard or Yale.
Rascism has an economic impact on people of color. Again, I most likely pay higher interest rates do to my color. Do I complain about? No I do not, I just live my live the best to my ability. Most black and brown folks do the same.
Race relations certainly aren't as bad in Pittsburgh as they are in many other cities, but let's not kid ourselves into thinking Pittsburgh is a Utopian melting pot. I make a concerted effort to recruit a diverse workforce at our business, which is now close to representing the demographics of the city at-large (although I wish more females would apply). I've made it a point to speak up when I hear fellow whites making any sort of disparaging remarks towards blacks. Do blacks in this city also speak up in defense of whites when fellow blacks are the ones on the offending end of insensitive racially-inflammatory remarks? I would hope so. If not, then more work needs to be done on ALL sides.
Pittsburgh has never ever been a utopian melting pot. Black people left this city in droves for a reason. Opportunities are not here for the masses educated or not.
I haven't been here long enough to speak on race relations, but Pittsburgh's Black professional class seems much smaller than other cities, which is somewhat troubling.
As far as driving goes, people who complain about Pittsburgh drivers can't have driven in many mid-sized or large cities. Compared to NY, Boston, DC, Chicago or LA, Pittsburgh driving is a leisure activity.
Originally Posted by SteelCityRising
There's a lot of resentment from the socioeconomically-underprivileged and academically-underachieving subset of the African-American community in Pittsburgh towards whites, attributing their ailments to race instead of poor life choices, so I wouldn't necessarily say race relations here are that great. With that being said there are also socioeconomically-underprivileged and academically-underachieving whites in this country who blame "dem der illegals" (a.k.a. "all brown people") for their ailments instead of looking in the mirror.
Most underprivileged black folks could care less about white people. Most are too busy and involved with their daily lives raising children and trying to stay ahead. You speak as if you are involved in or part of the black community. You probably know fewer than three black people in this city. Or some of your Polish Hill neighbors are shoving this BS down your ear hole.
I've lived in mixed neighborhoods almost my entire life, and I can definitively say that a large percentage of the black community has resentment towards whites. I know this because I've seen it, and experienced it many times personally. I would say that (like all races) blacks mature, and care less about whites as they age, but younger blacks tend to have a great deal of resentment towards whites. Maybe you don't see it in your circles, or maybe you willfully ignore it, none the less, it's there whether or not you're willing to admit it.
I've had African-Americans launch a boycott against our business last year because I disagreed with them closing local streets to protest the Michael Brown slaying in Ferguson because, apparently, if you disagree with street closures while you're in the business of getting things from Point A to Point B in the most efficient manner, then you're an adherent to #BlackLivesDon'tMatter. I later learned the leaders of that boycott were proponents of boycotts against other white-owned businesses in general, which irked me even more.
I believe you fabricated this. If there was a organized boycott of any company in this city it would have been announced in every black church. There are many white business that depend on black dollars. There are many black neighborhoods that depend on white business.
A few weeks ago a woman from the Homewood area became nasty on the phone with me because she was told she was outside of our delivery radius (due to crime-related reasons---not race-related reasons). Nevertheless she pulled the race card in a diatribe until I finally politely told her to have a nice evening and hung up because I was done being verbally harangued.
I dont believe this story either. From the tone of your post I truly believe that you set the stage for the altercation.
I've actually, sadly, become more racist---not more tolerant---since moving here because I'm tiring of this subset blaming me, a struggling white guy, for their problems that are mostly NOT attributed to race. Homewood being the way it is today with weekly shootings, carjackings, etc. isn't my fault. It's also not the fault of white people at-large, either, despite what the upper-middle-class educated East End whites on this sub-forum like to perpetuate due to their "white guilt". I refuse to keep apologizing because prior generations of my race were hostile, aggressive, or downright racist towards members of other races. How can you be held accountable for problems that occurred decades before you were even conceived?
You have always been racist. You just did not know it. There are several different types of racist. Download BDP's hip hop song titled " The Racist". I think you went from an unconscious racist to a conscious racist.
Very few people are not at all racist, most just ignore their racism. Nothing turns white people from being an unconscious racist, to a conscious racist faster than spending time around low income minorties.
I always get a laugh at the people that come to this site, and say they are looking for a diverse neighborhood. They almost always end up moving to some of the most disproportionately white, and middle class neighborhoods in the city. I know this will ruffle some feathers, but sometime the true hurts. People should just own their faults, and work to fix them.
What happened in this country's past was certainly egregious, but if people keep pulling the race card at a moment's notice, then healing will never occur. I was labeled a racist for hypothesizing from the beginning that Michael Brown was NOT gunned down by Officer Darren Wilson with his hands up while pleading "don't shoot" simply because it didn't make any sense for an officer to gun down a person with their hands up pleading for their life. The DOJ recently vindicated me, as it further substantiated the fact that the "hands up; don't shoot" thing NEVER even happened. Where's my apology from those who were wrong?
WTF is a race card? Anytime a black person speaks their truth it considered a race card? There is institutional racism in this city and across this country. The racism has an impact on every aspect of black lives. From morgage rates to public transportion, education, and health care. A spade is a spade ^!&&@.
I'm gay. I was bullied for being gay. I hear homophobic remarks on a regular basis. A former boss of mine was homophobic and contributed to my departure from a position I loved. Prior generations of homosexuals were beaten, sexually assaulted, discriminated against, etc. much worse than current generations of homosexuals in this country. Videos recently surfaced of homosexuals being thrown from their deaths from rooftops abroad. Guess what? I'm not "pulling the gay card". I'm bootstrapping myself and working as many hours per week as I can to achieve my life goals without harboring any resentment towards heterosexuals at-large because a subset of heterosexuals are homophobic. Speaking of homophobia, I've met more Christian blacks who are against same-sex marriage than Christian whites who are against it.
You admitted that you are racist. With that admission why would you care if another group hated you in return? A gay racist??? Are you kidding me? I seriously doubt that you have met enough black christians to make your assumption. Black people (especially black baptists) are ultra conservative when it comes to ulternative lifestyles. They do not agree with gay marriage but will not confront you about it.
One last thing I'd like to add is that I'm tired of being told "blacks can't be racist", usually by upper-middle-class white-guilt-perpetuating apologists I've learned to resent. ANY individual is capable of believing their race is superior to another race. Asians can think they're better than blacks. Blacks can think they're better than whites. Whites can think they're better than Hispanics. Hispanics can think they're better than Asians. I guess East Enders never learned that at Harvard or Yale.
Rascism has an economic impact on people of color. Again, I most likely pay higher interest rates do to my color. Do I complain about? No I do not, I just live my live the best to my ability. Most black and brown folks do the same.
Race relations certainly aren't as bad in Pittsburgh as they are in many other cities, but let's not kid ourselves into thinking Pittsburgh is a Utopian melting pot. I make a concerted effort to recruit a diverse workforce at our business, which is now close to representing the demographics of the city at-large (although I wish more females would apply). I've made it a point to speak up when I hear fellow whites making any sort of disparaging remarks towards blacks. Do blacks in this city also speak up in defense of whites when fellow blacks are the ones on the offending end of insensitive racially-inflammatory remarks? I would hope so. If not, then more work needs to be done on ALL sides.
Pittsburgh has never ever been a utopian melting pot. Black people left this city in droves for a reason. Opportunities are not here for the masses educated or not.
Pittsburgh has never ever been a utopian melting pot. Black people left this city in droves for a reason. Opportunities are not here for the masses educated or not.
My experience with Pittsburgh is there is a lot more open racism towards blacks - in the form of ignorant bigoted comments - than what I was used to. However, there is slightly less "lived racism" here - less of the ignorant fear of any black people in your neighborhood, and even somewhat more interaction socially between working-class whites and blacks.
Ironically enough, the older white people most likely to make racist comments seem to be the ones most likely to have kids who are friends with, if not dating, black people. And the "anti-racist" liberal whites in Shadyside and the like seldom seem to know any black people at all.
Show me any US city that has a " rich" black-white relation.
Boston's have historically been among the very worst. I can't say if that's still the case as I'm neither black nor Bostonian, but the repuation definitely lingers on:
My experience with Pittsburgh is there is a lot more open racism towards blacks - in the form of ignorant bigoted comments - than what I was used to. However, there is slightly less "lived racism" here - less of the ignorant fear of any black people in your neighborhood, and even somewhat more interaction socially between working-class whites and blacks.
Ironically enough, the older white people most likely to make racist comments seem to be the ones most likely to have kids who are friends with, if not dating, black people. And the "anti-racist" liberal whites in Shadyside and the like seldom seem to know any black people at all.
I think this is pretty accurate. The working class neighborhoods tend to be the only racially diverse neighborhoods in this region. The low, and high income neighborhoods tend to be the least racially diverse.
Please register to post and access all features of our very popular forum. It is free and quick. Over $68,000 in prizes has already been given out to active posters on our forum. Additional giveaways are planned.
Detailed information about all U.S. cities, counties, and zip codes on our site: City-data.com.
Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
