One of the First things I remember wondering about when I came into our town were the No Racism signs they have. I had never seen anything like them before.
Well..........I have seen No Racism signs, but they were huge billboards that were up temporarily......or they were a logo type sign that was placed on a business that works on equality for everyone.....that kind of thing. I had never seen a simple sign that was similar to a STOP sign or a YIELD sign. I thought it was a nice thing. Must have meant that the town was pretty even minded about their racism - or at least forward thinking about addressing it.
Few years later we moved here. Then I had to pay more attention. Our family had grown and it was more of a mixture so we had to look at more then one side of racism now. The stats on the town leaned way white - by 84%. The first realtor we met at an open house offered up that the town is very liberal in the belief of equality. I mentioned that the town didn't offer statistics that presented a very diverse population and she said something along the lines of, "Well town statistics change and we have a very large Hispanic population. If you go to any restaurant and look in the back you will see Mexicans there."
It was so blatant I think I blanched because I remember BigGuy turning to look at me and giving me the "Let it go" look a spouse gives you when they know you are about to react. Needless to say we did not choose her as our realtor.
The next sign of the NO RACISM signs not working was during the search - so many people told us to stay OUT of the donut hole. See there are 2 school districts - one is maybe the original (? help me local friends) and it is in the center. However, the outer rim area of town has grown through the years and that school district is now encompassing the other one. Thus creating a donut & donut hole type appearance. The donut HOLE has more diversity - maybe more lower income (although I haven't searched that) - and perceived to have more problems (due to diversity and income). That was clearly racism...........and we searched pretty hard to find a home that was in the donut HOLE. Nothing in our price range and size need at the time. Now there are some really GREAT houses. I would move if the change didn't mean moving schools - that would be pretty not be fair to SuperStar.
This spring there was another sign the signs were failing. BigGuy was in the school volunteering with popcorn making for a special "Movie" day they were having. He was in the teachers lounge prepping popcorn and listening to people talk. One teacher was saying (now you need to know that we have a high poverty level in our school - but not much diversity - most all of our diversity is due to first generation Hispanic kids being bussed in so they can put all the money into supports in one place) that a white student in her class was making a ruckus because his parents told him to stay away from the Hispanic students to ensure he didn't get the Swine Flu. Seriously!!
My most recent experience of the NO RACISM signs not working has not been color related - directly. Which is why I find it so disappointing. This is within our school district. They are redistricting. And it tends to lean that the schools on the South side of town have more lower income families then the North side. The stats are very tilted - 60% lower income in our school - to 3% lower income at a friends school. That is a huge difference. And some people in the schools with more lower income (there are basically 3 out of 17 elem. with more then 50%) would like to see the numbers of low income more evenly dispersed through the district. And the local town paper has published article after article about the redistricting on line...........and there are these people who post comments............and they are so racist it is crazy!! It is stomach turning..............
I want to ask if they haven't see the signs? There is NO RACISM here. The signs say so.
Oh, I fear the signs are not working.
I mean these people post about how they have purposely moved to the North side so they don't have to live near "those people". They say things that are so mean that I wish we weren't in this district because I don't want any of my kids bumping into the kids of these parents!!
Why does it bug me so much? I think because we are so white here (84% remember) that I see this as a direct reflection of my own person. I don't want to be grouped in with these people. It makes me crazy that even though we have so few minorities most of these goofballs think that poverty ='s some shade of brown skin - and it can't possibly because we don't have that many non-white kids in the district.
How can they be so crazy as to think that our small percentage of minorities can make up all the poverty?
How can they NOT want to help? That makes me really crazy. How can they feel that they do not have any responsibility to give back to the world - let alone to KIDS??? It is not like they are giving money away to adults who are ungrateful.........these are kids in schools.............what is the cost to them?
The signs are just not working..............we need billboards.......no we need - gosh I don't know what we need.............we need help.......we need to work together more...........we need to be less selfish.................we need to see the world as our responsibility instead of our own world as the whole world..........we need to pray......a lot.
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