Racism really that rampant in Indy? (Indianapolis: income, vs., transit)

[Rumble On Rose]

Originally Posted by shayloure

But it will take people from different perspectives coming together and talking about these issues to continue the change within our city for the better.

Thanks Shayloure for posting your experiences and your perspective so eloquently. As a middle class, 54 year old white man I agree with everything you said. Based on my own experiences in Indy, I don't recall seeing or experiencing racial prejudice. At least not in my little corner of the world. I worked with people of many races and nationalities and had wonderful friendships with virtually all of them. But I also recognize that prejudice definitely still exists. But I do feel (and hope) that it is fading away with each generation. We live in an age of communication and I think that this does help all of us realize that the things we have in common far out-weigh our differences.

[PhrankMartian]

That was a great post, shay. I don't know if I am an activist-y type person but I come from an active group of socially minded folks and it is very rare to see such a level headed, down to earth post, especially from a POC (please understand I do not mean that in any derogatory way). It also gives me a lot better feeling about moving to Indianapolis at the end of the month. Take that all for what it's worth but the post was great and it's nice to see someone NOT ****ting all over indianapolis. It makes it easier to come at it with an open mind.

[shayloure]

Originally Posted by PhrankMartian

That was a great post, shay. I don't know if I am an activist-y type person but I come from an active group of socially minded folks and it is very rare to see such a level headed, down to earth post, especially from a POC (please understand I do not mean that in any derogatory way). It also gives me a lot better feeling about moving to Indianapolis at the end of the month. Take that all for what it's worth but the post was great and it's nice to see someone NOT ****ting all over indianapolis. It makes it easier to come at it with an open mind.

Thanks Phrank. Some people call me a cheerleader for Indianapolis but I'm mature enough to understand what the city is doing right and what it could do a heck of a lot better. Yes there is room for improvement but the city, the residents, and the mindset here has come a long way in my opinion. The city is changing and now is a great time to come and be apart of that change.

[skeedoodle]

Originally Posted by domergurl

There are idiot rednecks everywhere. It's really too bad that you saw that happen, but, unfortunately, it could have happened almost anywhere. I would have said a few things to those guys or asked the lady if she was ok.

It runs both ways, though.

[slim82]

I'm a 32 year old black male and about 10 years ago I was called the N word. Me, my aunt, my cousin, and his girlfriend (who is white) went out to eat. We were on W. 10th street not too far from Ben Davis. But as we were leaving the place and walking to my aunt's car, 2 young white males were driving by on 10th street and yelled it out really loud "Hey N******" and kept going. Talk about a SHOCK. I guess they saw a blonde white girl walking with 2 black guys and it pissed them off.

I thought that was pretty lame. Atleast have the balls to say it to my face and not as you're driving by in one swoop and you don't even brake. That never would've happened though. Me and my cousin are both 6'5 and we had our hands in the air like "what's up?" "Come get some"

My aunt (who is a cop) her jaw dropped and we hopped in her car and tried to go after them but they were already gone by the time we could make it out the parking lot. I remember her saying "I've never had anything like that happen to me."

Indianapolis has an interesting dynamic where we're the most integrated northern city in America. More black and white people live on the same block here compared to any other northern city(that's what I read before but in 2014 that might be different now). But because of that I've found that there are a lot of "friendly racists" here. People from the south probably know what I mean. I have white friends who I didn't even know were racist and ended up finding out later from other mutual friends. I know that sounds crazy but it's true.

I've had other experiences happen to me while being with my ex girlfriend who is white, but on the flip side her parents and brother are the most caring awesome people anybody would want to meet. They accepted me and made me feel comfortable like we were all the same color.

This says it's my first post but I've lurked this board for years and have other names registered I just don't remember the user names or pw's. I def wanted to share my personal experiences. I think Indy is as racist as most other cities in America. I don't think it's as extreme as people not from here probably think it is. A lot of people I talk to from out of state think black people here walk around fearing the klan and I have to explain that whatever city they're from, its about the same level of racism. And no black person living here is even thinking about the damn klan. A lot of these so called liberal cities and big cities, the segregation is worse there.

[kwk337]

Originally Posted by PeteCole84

Great comment. It's complete bullsh*t that cities like Seattle, San Francisco, Austin, and Portland are considered liberal and hip. The black population is below 9% in all those cities and white and asian salaries double blacks in some cases. Indianapolis feels more equal and that's something I appreciate after living a goddamn nightmare in Seattle - which is very segregated and just a crappy place all around for black males. Blacks created hip-hop yet black cities (Atlanta, Cleveland, Philly) aren't considered "hip". That's the racist agenda at work in America.

It's amazing to me that folks are scared to death of moving to the Midwest and South because they think these places are really white..... so they move to the NORTHWEST. Or Colorado.

Indianapolis was a huge capital for the Klan, IN THE 1920's. The same people who would refuse to move to Indiana because of fears about racism would move to Atlanta, Austin, or Seattle in a second, because for some reason they have this awesome public relations thing going on. Those cities have a dark reality of their own and were no less racist than Indy 100 years ago. And it's a cop-out because they're ground zero for gentrification today, which is the right-hand man of racism.

I lived in Chapel Hill, North Carolina, for six years, probably the most liberal town in the South. College-town, super-activist do-good liberal population.... and also a world-class capital of gentrification, which I don't think Indianapolis really suffers too much from. There are two black neighborhoods in Chapel Hill, which historically had a much higher population of African Americans. One of them is Section 8 housing, tucked away invisibly in the woods on one side of US 15-501. The other is a few blocks from the University of North Carolina and is basically slated to be turned into condominiums and elite swanky housing over the next decade. Already happening. Blacks are priced out. Not sure that it's overt racism, but it has the same effect. Fifty years after the end of segregation in the South, blacks and Hispanics in the highly-educated liberal capital of North Carolina all seem to live in two cheap apartment complexes, which are doomed to be demolished as soon as city planners look the other way, because there's bigger profits to be made out of that land. Right now, those are the only places blacks and Hispanics can afford to live.

Again, I don't know if it's overt, conscious racism, but money and gentrification is the survival of segregation in 2014. It's a far bigger problem in liberal, "hip" towns like Seattle, Austin, Portland, and Raleigh/Durham, than it is in Indy, which has yet to see a ton of gentrification. That's one thing that bothers me about the course Indy might take if it "revitalizes" on a certain model. If it gets on board with the "hip" crowd (a huge, unlikely "if"), and if condos and lofts start popping up in affordable neighborhoods, get ready for some racial problems. It already happened in Columbus, Ohio. Check out the documentary "Flag Wars," about the gay community in Columbus moving into black neighborhoods to spruce them up. Big conflicts there, and I've got to say I side with the black folks. I'm not anti-gay, and I wouldn't romanticize some of the neighborhoods they basically bought up, but the economic effect of their actions had a big human effect.

Short version: "liberal" does not automatically equal "angel" when it comes to race relations.

[kwk337]

Also interesting that Irvington, which in the 1920s was the home of D.C. Stephenson (Grand Dragon of the Indiana Klan and one of the most powerful Klansmen in the U.S.), turned out to be a pretty great part of Indianapolis. I wonder how much that is due to the weird fact that neighborhoods immediately around Irvington were drained by White Flight in the '50s and '60s.

Irvington, historically ground zero for the Klan, is probably way less racist in its own way today than Carmel, Fishers, or even Broad Ripple.

Not entirely sure how it happened, but I'd say Irvington is probably a good model for keeping neighborhoods intact without losing their identity beyond all recognition through the horrors of urban renewal and gentrification. Parts of the Near East Side closer to downtown look like hell, but I live a few blocks away and it's encouraging that blacks and whites at least live on the same block and aren't at war with each other. And we're talking poor whites and poor blacks. On Washington Ave., New York, and Michigan, some of the poorest. Not true of a lot of other towns in the Midwest (Cincinnati, St. Louis, and Louisville still effectively have segregation going on.)

Also a big fact that most people forget is that Klan membership historically had a TON of middle-class prosperous white male churchgoing businessmen in its ranks, who kept their membership secret. The stereotypical "poor white trash" that, in all honesty, make up a lot of Indianapolis neighborhoods today were not actually the brain behind the Klan. It was wealthier whites hiding behind white sheets -- and who hated "poor whites", Jews, and Catholics as much as they hated blacks who'd come into the city. (The Catholic members of the Indianapolis police force effectively undermined the KKK in Indy in the 1920s when they broke into the Klan headquarters in secret and published membership rolls in the newspaper, to the embarrassment of many Indianapolis businessmen who wanted their activities kept secret.) Effectively, a lot the middle-class whites who fled to the suburbs after World War II come out of that history.

[jammwill]

Good posts kwk!

[UKWildcat1981]

I never had a problem with racism in Indy. Indy is pretty socially and politically conservative but that doesn't mean it has race relations problems. Chicago and Detroit are far more liberal socially than Indy and have way worse race relations than Indy

[Memphis2Indy]

This sort of thing makes my blood boil! Wish I was there!