What’s changed?
“Back in the day, black people were never supposed to cross 25th St.”
“Why?”
“They thought they’d get shot.”
“What about today? Do white folks cross 25th St.?”
“Of course not.”
“Why?”
“They think they’ll get shot.”
“So, what’s changed?”
“Not too much, I suppose”
——
Baltimore remains an extremely segregated city. There are certain streets that clearly delineate between white and black neighborhoods. What I have come to learn is that it is not arbitrary. The streets that white people feel unsafe crossing today are the same boundaries that stood in the days of legal segregation. It is true that in many of the black neighborhoods, there is a great deal of crime (although I live in an almost entirely white neighborhood and there have been multiple shootings since I arrived). However, what keeps people from crossing those lines is just as much perception as it is reality. “Troubled area” remains a loaded and racialized term.
