ABOUT "BEING WHITE IN PHILLY"

Over all I think the article appears to reflect the attitude of the writer and his individual experience. 

I lived in West Mt. Airy in the 1970-80 and earlier in the Fairmont Section of Philly in the 1960s well before it was "gentrified". 

Both areas were great very interesting places to live. When we moved in most of our block was black. One black neighbor said he was very happy that we bought a home there, because the police would come when they called. A black Philly PD officer already lived there. Later a white plan clothes Philly PD officer moved just in back of my house. No problems with calling police. 

As far as being "overly polite" and the "dance I do when I go to the Wawa on Germantown Avenue" (I went to the same Wawa); Robert Huber might think I am overly polite. But I'm polite to everyone. it's just natural to me. I've been that way as long as I can remember. I say hello to a lot of people who might wonder who that was. I think I know them but I'm not sure. It embarrasses my wife. She usually knows they aren't who I think they are. 

But then I grew up in a multi-racial area of Coatesville. All of Coatesville is now multi-racial. Back in the 40s and 50s it was not. Sometimes as a child I would be in the back of a car and the driver would say "Roll up your windows. This is a bad neighborhood." That was odd to me because I walked there every day. 

Young men are easy for higher up drug dealers to recruit, no matter their color or location. Teenagers and young men are by nature risk takers no matter what their color. "What if" is not part of the young man's brain and they don't consider the risks in drug dealing. Right now drug dealing and the violence that goes with it is in all states, towns and rural areas across the USA. 

I think Robert Huber hasn't spent enough time in the suburbs, like in Chester County or Montgomery County. The drug business in Montgomery County areas with single family homes on 1/4 acre or more lots is every bit like Coatesville's drug business or North Philly's drug business; it's just spread out more. Drug dealers, violent people come in all sizes, shapes, colors and genders. You can't judge any book by its cover. 

"Confusion, misread intentions, bruised feelings—everyone has not only a race story, but a thousand examples of trying to sort through our uneasiness on levels large and trivial. I do, too. My rowhouse in Mount Airy is on a mostly African-American block; it’s middle-class and friendly—in fact, it’s the friendliest street my family has ever lived on, with block parties and a spirit of watching out for each other. Whether a neighbor is black or white seems to be of no consequence whatsoever. 

Yet there’s a dance I do when I go to the Wawa on Germantown Avenue. I find myself being overly polite. Each time I hold the door a little too long for a person of color, I laugh at myself, both for being so self-consciously courteous and for knowing that I’m measuring the thank-you’s. A friend who walks to his car parked on Front Street downtown early each morning has a similar running joke with himself. As he walks, my friend says hello and makes eye contact with whoever crosses his path. If the person is white, he’s bestowing a tiny bump of friendliness. If the person is black, it’s friendliness and a bit more: He’s doing something positive for race relations. 

On one level, such self-consciousness and hypersensitivity can be seen as progress when it comes to race, a sign of how much attitudes have shifted for the better, a symbol of our desire for things to be better. And yet, lately I’ve come to fear that the opposite might also be true: that our carefulness is, in fact, at the heart of the problem."

FROM: 

Being White in Philly

Whites, race, class, and the things that never get said.

By Robert Huber