Friday, July 17, 2009

Segregation, Why Should I Care?

I was talking to one of my friends about my latest blog post and he said something interesting to me. "Why should I care about Western Louisville?" He liked what I wrote, and he understood where I was coming from. He just didn't see why he should care. So, I thought I would explain why he should care, or at least take an interest.

I can some up why you should care in one word. Demographics. If you care at all about this city then you should care about where the demographics and what they mean. In the not to distant future there will be more Black and Brown folks than White folks. The vast majority of kids under 13 are either Black or Brown. That's even true in Jefferson County. Did you know the US is the 5th largest spanish speaking nation in the world?

The city can't keep ignoring the neighborhoods in which the vast majority of these populations live. Why? Because they are the future of the city. The future of the country. If things don't change then more and more young Black and Brown will do like most of friends have already done. Move.

Almost every black kid I knew growing up has either moved to Atlanta, Charlotte, Dallas, Houston, and Chicago. Most of them to Atlanta. They moved because they wanted to be around other young black professionals. Something that you really don't see a lot of in Louisville.

I know a lot of young white kids move as well. We need to keep all of our young, bright, and talented professionals. The only problem is that the pool of young white talented kids are shrinking while the pool of young black and brown kids are growing. We can ignore the black and brown kids like we have been, but that would put us at a serious disadvantage going forward. Why do that yourself?

The other problem is that we don't treat all people the same. The years of racial and economic segregation have taken their toll on the Black community. This means it's going to take great resources to improve those communities. These are resources that we are going to have to spend if we want to remain competitive. Not just Louisville, but the nation as a whole. If Louisville can start now then we will have a HUGE leg up on every other community.

It's not hard to attract to young black professionals. You just have to make us feel wanted and that we have the same opportunity as everybody else to compete. The city may have to start to black chamber of commerce, or an arts center in Western Louisville. We have to do our part as well. It can be done.

When I was in high school and college all of my friends were telling me that Atlanta was the place to go. When I went to Atlanta for college i could see why. I had never seen so many young black professionals in one place. A few years later the hot cities were Charlotte, Houston, and Dallas.

Louisville can do the same thing. The West-End is a beautiful part of town. It doesn't have anywhere near the blight that black communities in other cities have. The foundation is here or are we afraid that Louisville may become to poor, old and black?

1 comment:

  1. Hello,

    I discovered your blog via the Consuming Louisville website (My First Guided Neighborhood Tour: Michelle Goes to the West End) and I'm really enjoying it! I'm a middle aged white female living in Old Louisville. I couldn't agree more with most of what you say in your blog: we ARE a segregated city, and we definitely COULD do more if all the segments of Louisville worked together.

    I love the West End, much to the astonishment of my more fearful friends and acquaintances...they think I'm in danger if I venture past 9th St (then again, some people think I'm taking my life in my hands by living where I do). Maybe it's because I'm not a fearful person in general, or maybe it's because I never, in the 3 years I worked in the West End (38th & Garland, then Neighborhood House on 25th), had a single negative experience that I could attribute to location or race - whatever the reason, I'm as comfortable there as I am anywhere, and MORE comfortable than I am a lot of places. It is indeed a beautiful part of the city, and those who shy away are missing out.

    I'm Shelter Manager at the Kentucky Humane Society, and we've been looking for ways to get the word out about the Pit Fix program at our low cost spay/neuter facility, the S.N.I.P. Clinic. We offer FREE, no-strings-attached pitbull spay/neuter, but have had very few takers.

    It really is a community service, and we offer it for 2 simple reasons: spay/neuter is good for pets, and it's the most effective way to deal with pet overpopulation. There are unaltered Pits all over Jefferson County, but the greatest concentrations are in West and Southwest Louisville. If you'd be interested, I'd love a chance to talk with you about our program, and maybe some ways KHS could spread the word and get more people involved.

    Come visit me over at http://confessionsofasineater.blogspot.com/. and leave a comment if you'd like to talk!

    : )
    Susan

    ReplyDelete