Headline: THE
FLAMES OF RACIAL DIVISION THREATEN TO CONSUME AREA'S HOPES FOR PROGRESS
Reporter: By Gregory Freeman
Publication: ST.
LOUIS POST-DISPATCH
Last Printed: Tue., Jan. 7, 1997
Section: NEWS ANALYSIS, Page: 9B, Edition: FIVE STAR LIFT
A FIRE is smoldering
in our community.
The
smoke is visible for miles. We try to ignore it, but its sickening smell forces
us to gasp for air. We try to flee, but it's ever-present.
The flames of
racial polarization in this community are licking at our feet while too many
of us are doing our best to ignore them.
Don't
see them? Maybe it's because so many of us have become so accustomed to them
that they seem commonplace. What's abnormal is accepted as normal. The unusual
has become what's expected.
Newcomers
to this area often recognize it right away. There's a palpable tension here
between blacks and whites that doesn't exist everywhere. People of different
races are looked upon with more suspicion and, in some cases, scorn. The segregation
here is shocking to people who move here.
The
polarization here is deeply embedded in our society.
Witness:
St.
Louis was ranked the 12th-most segregated of 219 metropolitan areas in a 1992
University of Chicago study. That study also showed the level of housing segregation
in the St. Louis region is consistently above the national average for large,
racially diverse metropolitan areas. Drive through almost any neighborhood or
subdivision in the area and see for yourself.
With
the exception of the year that former Cardinal Ozzie Smith was selected, the
Man of the Year award would perhaps be more appropriately called the White Man
of the Year because apparently there are no black men here - other than an athlete
- who are worthy of such an honor. (We won't even mention women.)
Socializing
among blacks and whites here is at a minimum. We make blanket assumptions that
we have nothing in common with people of other races without taking the time
to find out if we have something in common with an individual of another race.
A fire is smoldering
in our community.
It's
in our schools. This newspaper reported Monday the sharp differences between
how black teachers and white teachers in the St. Louis Public Schools view teacher
performance. Nearly 60 percent of the black teachers surveyed said the schools
are doing an excellent or good job; six out of 10 white teachers believe that
they're doing a poor job. Schools Superintendent Cleveland Hammonds Jr. suggests
the differences reflect other racial divides of the area.
It's
in our politics. Where else could we have a mayoral election where one of the
key issues developing among two black candidates seems to be who is black enough?
It's
in the decisions that we make. An unspoken factor in the defeat of a proposal
to extend MetroLink to St. Charles was the concern by some whites that it would
result in more blacks moving into that area.
The
race issue even factors into opposition to the concept of a merger of St. Louis
and St. Louis County.
All
of these are reasons why this community has such difficulty in getting together
on so many things. We're much too hung up on race.
A fire is smoldering
in our community.
From
time to time, cadres of volunteer firefighters run in and do what they can to
try to beat back the flames. These folks work hard. They interview. They research.
They produce reports and recommendations about racial polarization and do what
they can to keep them from becoming dusty tomes on shelves. Confluence St. Louis.
The Metropolitan Diversity Coalition. Sigma Pi Phi. Harris-Stowe State College.
The Danforth Foundation. All of these organizations have done volunteer firefighter
duty in the last 12 years. But they can only do so much.
We need to listen
to each other. It's time for us to stop talking at each other and start talking
to each other. We need to figure out what has brought us to this point and determine
what we can do to handle our problems together.
We
don't need tokenism or patronizing. We don't need closed minds. We need to realize
that our futures are irrevocably tied. If we can't figure that out, none of
us is going to reach our potential. That would be a real shame, because the
potential is here.
A fire is smoldering
in our community, folks, and a thick blanket of smoke is slowly but surely engulfing
us.
Someone
had better begin to take the polarization seriously - and soon - or we're in
for some very hot times ahead.
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