Can you spare me some CHANGE please
Living in London for the best part of a decade teaches you how to communicate with people from a hotchpotch of different races and cultures and wealth – at least I hope it does.
The first thing you notice when living in the US is how greatly racial segregation still pervades every city. This is in spite of the country having elected its first African American president and, I guess, why people see his election as so monumental. A lot of African Americans still live on a separate side of the city from their white, Asian, Latino and other counterparts – and people still refer to this side of town as “ghetto”. Many people in my neighbourhood earn very little and have very little compared with those in more affluent areas of the city and the rest of the ethnic "ghettos".
I’ve lived in this kind of area before in London with its share of poverty and disproportionate number of African/Carribean population. I used to see people hold up the line on Sunday afternoons in Tesco supermarket drawing up food stamps and vouchers to buy their entire weeks’ groceries. I also used to see police cordon off the road every Sunday after a fatal stabbing. Here I am, 3000 miles away in a different country and I see the same thing, again people holding up the food line at supermarkets paying for their entire Sunday shopping with child benefit cheques and vouchers (at least they have child benefit). I also see a lot of broken down housing, fresh from arsen attacks and also police warnings of recent murders.
My guess is – and this is a GUESS because I don’t know their plight - the people living in my area want to be represented more in every sector across America, especially in the places of power, the Senate, Congress and the White House. Of course they are naturally inclined to pin all their hopes on Obama – they want to be thought of as upwardly mobile just like anyone else in the country. Will they be disappointed after the Obama administration has finished? Well, let’s face it, as President, Obama is not likely to be able to answer to most of their demands. The Obama election campaign time and time again referred to representing the middle classes, but did not once mention the underclass.
America is fundamentally conservative and the government, in the name of protecting its people, will act to protect the rich, or moderately rich, no matter who is in the White House. Conservative America does not believe in placing race above issues of preserving its power and certainly does not believe in placing the poorer Americans anywhere close to where they live. Change cannot happen for people in my neighbourhood unless the richer people in the suburbs decide to give up everything, come here, live with these people and start a dialogue with them. Let’s face it - racism is inherently a human problem. Not a state, national or government one.
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The first thing you notice when living in the US is how greatly racial segregation still pervades every city. This is in spite of the country having elected its first African American president and, I guess, why people see his election as so monumental. A lot of African Americans still live on a separate side of the city from their white, Asian, Latino and other counterparts – and people still refer to this side of town as “ghetto”. Many people in my neighbourhood earn very little and have very little compared with those in more affluent areas of the city and the rest of the ethnic "ghettos".
I’ve lived in this kind of area before in London with its share of poverty and disproportionate number of African/Carribean population. I used to see people hold up the line on Sunday afternoons in Tesco supermarket drawing up food stamps and vouchers to buy their entire weeks’ groceries. I also used to see police cordon off the road every Sunday after a fatal stabbing. Here I am, 3000 miles away in a different country and I see the same thing, again people holding up the food line at supermarkets paying for their entire Sunday shopping with child benefit cheques and vouchers (at least they have child benefit). I also see a lot of broken down housing, fresh from arsen attacks and also police warnings of recent murders.
My guess is – and this is a GUESS because I don’t know their plight - the people living in my area want to be represented more in every sector across America, especially in the places of power, the Senate, Congress and the White House. Of course they are naturally inclined to pin all their hopes on Obama – they want to be thought of as upwardly mobile just like anyone else in the country. Will they be disappointed after the Obama administration has finished? Well, let’s face it, as President, Obama is not likely to be able to answer to most of their demands. The Obama election campaign time and time again referred to representing the middle classes, but did not once mention the underclass.
America is fundamentally conservative and the government, in the name of protecting its people, will act to protect the rich, or moderately rich, no matter who is in the White House. Conservative America does not believe in placing race above issues of preserving its power and certainly does not believe in placing the poorer Americans anywhere close to where they live. Change cannot happen for people in my neighbourhood unless the richer people in the suburbs decide to give up everything, come here, live with these people and start a dialogue with them. Let’s face it - racism is inherently a human problem. Not a state, national or government one.
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This week, Lost In Americana has restarted his Blogspot blog after a two and a half year hiatus to finish his PhD and move country/get a job. He also goes home to DC to see his Mum, celebrate Chhiese New Year and collect some jade trinkets that she brings back from her three month sojourn to China. While in DC he develops an inflamed gum and suspects he has a wisdom tooth waiting to gouge its way up angrily against his premolar, making his only enjoyable activity of eating oily dumplings everyday a painful nuisance. The joys of moving country involve losing friends from the old country and seeing yourself overtaken on Facebook by old not-so-internet savvy friends suddenly gaining a lot more friends for yourself - beating you down to a pulp in Facebook popularity, in a sense.
posted by Lost in Americana at 3:11 am
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