Queen Diva, welcome and thank you for your perspective.
This is the first I've been able to get back to this thread. I am always drawn to racial discussions.....probably because of how I was raised and where I ended up afterwards. I grew up in an upper middle class (and climbing) white family in suburban Atlanta not overtly racist. That said even though I was THERE during integration, I was protected from it by attending a small all white private school (started for just that reason). I was fairly protected from ALL racial tension in the 60s by virtue of the circles I was in. My large family that still live in that area STILL 'protect' themselves from 'unwanted diversity'.
When I left at age 18 to come to UGA is when I finally got a glimpse of the REAL world.
I have lived in the same modest neighborhood for nearly 22 years. That is a conscious choice. I could have left years ago. When I moved in I was a single mother with a teenage daughter. The neighborhood was about half white and half black. Over time it has become majority black with a substantial number of other minorities...Hispanic and other internationals. I am in the minority now.
I know the life and the breath of this neighborhood. From time to time it gets a little 'rough' but *WE* always manage to pull it back around.
We've had gangs, we've had (have) drug activity.
I feel very safe here. I've heard others say they wouldn't.
I wouldn't change my life in a diverse 'alive' setting like this for anything.
I'm not saying I've never had a racist thought or pulled away from a preconceived notion of what I thought I was seeing but I am determined to not limit my parameters or those of my daughters.
It's my opinion that if more people would STOP running away from schools and neighborhoods (for example) because they are too 'diverse', we would have more understanding and less hostility.
My daughters' public high school has been ranked very high nationally but it has a high drop out rate, low SAT scores pull the average down, etc. Yet at the same time, it turns out more honor students than the white county schools around us.
One of the main speakers for a recent memorial service for a young murdered white girl who graduated from there, was a young black gay man.
One last point, my daughter and son in law in Atlanta (area) send their children to a charter school run by moslems. It always has a waiting list to get in. It is very international but predominantly black. My grandson is learning Arabic in kindergarten.
I hope this wasn't too off topic.
