Headline: ABC
PROGRAM SPARKS SPIRITED VIEWS OF RELATIONS BETWEEN BLACKS, WHITES
Reporter: Greg Freeman
Publication: ST.
LOUIS POST-DISPATCH
Last Printed: Fri., Oct. 4, 1991
Section: WAR PAGE, Page: 1C, Edition: FIVE STAR
MAKE NO MISTAKE about it: Last week's airing of ABC's ''Primetime Live'' touched off a flurry of sentiments among St. Louisans, many of whom felt they had been directly touched by it.
A column that
I wrote last week sparked numerous letters and telephone calls from people from
all over the spectrum. Several radio call-in shows here showed that many people
had strong opinions - on all sides - on the television broadcast. The program
took a black man and a white man with similar backgrounds and sent them to St.
Louis to find out if they would be treated differently when placed in similar
situations. What they found was a long list of differences in the way the two
were treated.
Car
dealers offered to sell cars to the black man at higher prices than to the white
man. The black man found police slowing down to watch him closely while they
ignored the white man walking on the same street, just feet ahead. Apartment
managers appeared to be less willing to rent to the black man. The black man
found himself ignored at store counters while salesmen fell over themselves
to accommodate the white man.
Post-Dispatch
columnist Bill McClellan wrote in Monday's paper that fear of crime made some
whites respond negatively to blacks, even though the great majority of black
people are law-abiding.
''The bad news is that racism will not totally
disappear until some of the problems of the black community are solved, '' wrote
McClellan, who is white. ''As long as crime rages out of control in some black
neighborhoods, all young black men will be seen as potential criminals.''
That column prompted
Andre Jackson, a black reporter here, to write a memo. He gave permission for
it to be reprinted in part here:
''. . I've lived a great deal of what the show supposedly
presented.
''Having grown up in St. Louis, I well remember the
taunts of 'nigger' this and 'nigger' that, yelled by white motorists when I
ventured to the South Side.
''Personal experience tells me that, for several reasons, the same treatment probably would not happen to whites on the North Side. On any given day, white construction contractors, repair or service people, etc., work in north St. Louis without serious incident. As long as they make money there, there seems to be no problem with fear. Many is the time I've walked into a ghetto tavern and seen white faces enjoying a drink with no problem.
''The reality is that, for reasons too numerous to mention, the majority of crime in this city is black-on-black. The question to address might be just why - good liberal crocodile tears and faux concern aside - is crime so high in certain black neighborhoods? Forgive me if all this is personal, but I've often found myself in the position of writing about criminals who are people I've grown up with. My best friend from grade school is doing life for a murder in which even the prosecution will admit that he wasn't the triggerman.
''The near-universal
perception - bordering on myth - among many whites is that they are often the
victims of black criminals. Whites are less likely to be victimized if for no
other reason than that the courts might view such activity more harshly.
''Still,
the perception is there and the Post-Dispatch today lent it credence. So, in
the forseeable future, I will continue to walk down streets and watch whites
run for the opposite sidewalk or slam down their car door locks as I approach.
''A
final question: Would the cops have been so concerned about crime if a black
had been following another black on the street?
''Perhaps it's
no big deal if it never happens to you, but I've known what it's like to look
down the barrel of a stainless-steel .357-caliber Magnum in LaClede Town as
a patrolman frisks you as a suspected robber. It's no fun wondering whether
he'll squeeze the trigger and make you an 'accident.'
Or try being 12 years old on the South Side and
having a detective tell you ''he'll beat your God---- head in.' The crime -
giving a middle-finger salute to a resident who had called you a 'nigger.'
Or being able to smile when a cop in Warson Woods pulls
up to the car carrying a 9-year-old you and your uncle and accuses us of casing
a store for a robbery until your uncle pulls out his police badge.
''Maybe racial stereotyping isn't fading as much as some think; rather, it might just be taking a more sophisticated, 'politically correct' form. I've known plenty of whites who have accepted me, yet seem to openly dislike other blacks.
''Finally, as far as the assertion [by one white shown on ''Primetime Live'' that blacks are lazy, what incentive have we ever been given to believe in the capitalist 'work your way to the top' creed? Hard work usually has not been rewarded from the 244 years of free labor during slavery to the 'glass ceilings' of today.''
Jackson's comments are pointed. But his feelings are shared by many blacks who believe that others are unfairly blaming them for discrimination against them.
Perhaps much of the dialogue that has been sparked will lead eventually to better relations among all of us. If it does that, it will have done St. Louis a great favor.
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