What about your cousins you "dont mess with"?
Chicago has a sizable population of what one would call "affluent" African Americans. In fact there are several known pockets in "Black" parts of the city with millionaires including The Highlands and Pill Hill, Kenwood and Oakland.
There is also Pocket Town, Zircon City, the Wild Wild's, Jeffery Manor, Lakeside and a host of other sections of undeniably poor residents.
Sitting between these two classes of folk both geographically and economically is a fast dwindling middle class, such as the Valley below Pill Hill which itself neighbors a poor area beginning west of Stony Island.
What this entails is exposure vs a marked lack of exposure to what the city offers for many of its Black residents. It is a fact that impoverished residents seldom travel far out of their own neighborhoods for anything other than interaction with city/state agencies and to visit relatives. Lil Man doesnt leave the hood for anything other than court, the Aid office and to see his cousins at NanaNem's house.
Add to this the general lack of inclusion into social circles via the cyber world, as well as a tendency to ignore mainstream news outlets, and VOILA! A 17 year old from 69th and Dorcester has no idea that R. Kelly is performing at the Pitchfork Festival.
Now of course many in the "know" didnt know R Kelly was there but that's a manifest of the poor marketing many in our community undertake and is another story for another day.
So many in life live in prisons made without walls or guards and others look down from lofty perches and assume the less affluent choose to be ignorant but this is not always so. How many times has a promoter skipped a certain "crowd" to promote to because he/she "dont want no straight up niggas" there?
Also in allusion to the economic reality of it all we must ask: YOU GOT GAS MONEY?
Another dirty little issue is the tendency for mankind to magnify social and economic differences intentionally out of ego. This is especially marked in Black communities and is in fact one of the hidden causes of drug dealing- "we're all shit but I got money"...
Also what this Class War means is that the cousin who made it doesn't WANT his other cousins to know what he knows or see what shes,...
Otherwise, how would I be special?
Has anyone at the dance theater your child is training at representing cultured activities beyond that juking "those other kids do" reached out to the children of Englewood ? Some larger churches dont interact with the communities they sit in for anything other than a clothes giveaway. Benzes and BMW's leave mega churches carrying Black professionals who drive past impoverished residents thirsting for knowledge and opportunity.
What about you?
Did you ever think to offer to ask the mothers streaming into your social service agency would they be interested in your storyboard class?
Or do you want them there?
"Also what this Class War means is that the cousin who made it doesn't WANT his other cousins to know what he knows or see what shes,..." You made some valid points that I don't believe that people consider or care about for that matter. You mentioned the ego being the reason behind the magnifying of social and economic differences, I couldn't agree more. I have noticed that impoverished residents seldom travel far out of their own neighborhoods for anything other than interaction with city/state agencies and to visit relatives. How can we change the perception? What do you suggest? Thank you for addressing this.
ReplyDeleteNot sure Atiya other than trying to appeal to the altruism inherent in us all to some extent.
ReplyDeleteMaybe we can try to make altruism the IN THING until it's an INBRED thing. :-)