Racialism In My Community

Racialism in My Community

Blacks on this side, whites on the other side and everybody else just fit somewhere in the middle. This has been my perceived interpretation of the small community I am apart of in Iowa. I have witnessed and been victimized by racialism in my city. Interactions between groups are very segregated in almost all aspects of the community. Your place in the community is already established before you are even recognized.

There is an array of ethnicity ranging from majorities to minorities. Those who are accepted within the community are the elitist, such as; doctors, lawyers and upscale business people. Leaders seem to appear when they are in need of a vote or when a racial incident happens and they need to be politically correct. These are a few of the examples I will attempt to lay out.

I have recently moved into a new loft in the downtown area of Davenport. This building is the first of its kind, launching a new outlook on the downtown area. Members in the surrounding neighborhood are considered lower class. The majority of drugs, prostitution and violence surround this new complex. When asked if I look like members of my surrounding community, I would definitely say that is a negative. I think moving into this building had an unwritten prerequisite to appear non-threatening and more appealing to the naked eye. The majority of people occupying this particular building are white and middle class.

When trying to clean up the downtown area, I am convinced that the more white people are abundant the more the downtown area is perceived as safe. The reason I state this is because the majority of people occupying this area are lower class and black. Since this area is considered the "ghetto" because of the crime rate, members of the community associate it as primarily the blacks fault.

When comparing looks to the members of the community around me, I see a wide variety of style and taste. Now, let us break this down into detail. Clothes that seem to be more prevalent are extremely baggy, and not exactly custom fit. I think it is a fad around this area to wear your pants sagged passed your buttocks with a t-shirt that is approximately four sizes too large. My style differs because I like to wear tight clothes being an athletic person. I like to extenuate certain features opposed to covering everything with clothes that are too big.

Automobiles in this area without "dubs" will not be looked at twice. Chrome rims seem to be a priority no matter the make, model or year of your vehicle. I have witnessed vehicles with broken windows and rusted out holes, however, they do have some chrome rims. I have not quite found the appeal in this, but I do get a good laugh out of it when the rims are worth more than the vehicle.

Now that I have provided some separation between myself and the members of the community around me, I want to elaborate on how we are treated. I have come to realize that the segregation in how you are treated does not rely on your race. I have noticed that the segregation lies in your sex. I have had to make a statement in the local police station and found that I was treated the same as a convicted felon being arrested for a second charge. I think this is because I am a twenty five year old male. I say this because my lady has never been treated unfairly, in fact, usually treated with more than adequate kindness.

This has not been the only instance where I have felt victimized because of my sex and age. Job searching was no walk in the park for me. On two separate occasions, I was more qualified and better fit for job positions and found out I was overlooked for a female with no prior knowledge of the job at hand. I would have to think at this point that the color of your skin was actually less important than your sex and age.

Members of the community treat my lady and me extremely prejudicially. Race is not the primary prejudice held against us; rather, it is our age difference. We are displayed as outcasts being sixteen years apart in age. White women over approximately thirty years of age seem to have the most difficulty accepting our relationship. Older white men are usually uptight and less willing to even talk to me because of the situation.

Older black males and females are more accepting of the situation; however, black males are much more blatantly disrespectful. Disrespectful comments and pick up attempts are most common among the black males when we are together in public. We have learned to overcome this problem by being more oblivious to people surrounding us. I find it interesting that the public eye has no qualms when the tables are turned and the man is the one sixteen years older in a relationship.

I work for a company called Rent-a-Center which deals primarily with lower class citizens. I have noticed that when training for this job, my focus was on collection of payment or retrieval of merchandise. When training for this, examples are primarily used with black individuals in "ghetto" types of neighborhoods. This is probably due to the fact