whoops racist

Prince confronts his prejudice:

So I was thinking we are freaking out a bit too much over crime. Yes, it exists. This we can all agree. We need to be aware and we need the MPD to be vigilant. But, thankfully knock wood, it doesn’t really affect our day to day lives (obviously if you have been a victim you may have a different perspective). You know after reading many comments from recent posts, I’ve found myself being a bit paranoid. So I’m walking to Looking Glass Lounge this evening and this big guy with dread locks yells over to me, “Yo!”. And I’m like oh shit. I didn’t think I was going to get mugged or anything I just thought I was going to get hassled. And that is what happens when you are paranoid. So I say hey. And the guy turns out to be the nicest guy in the world. He’s just looking for a friend’s house and we ended up walking together all the way down New Hampshire. And the dude was super cool. His Mom used to live in the neighborhood and he did too as a child. Point is: let’s give the benefit of the doubt when possible. A paranoid life is not a pleasant one. Yes be careful especially in the late hours. But don’t forget to enjoy what makes this neighborhood one of the best in the city - the people!

Prince doesn't say the guy was black. However, he mentions his hair, dreadlocks, and from this readers infer that the "big guy" was a "big black guy" that triggers his paranoia. I think that is an interesting discursive choice. Obviously, hair is a signifier of race & in some societies, such as in the Dominican Republic, hair is the most salient marker of racial identity. I suppose it might sound less racist to say I was afraid of the guy with the dreadlocks as opposed to the black guy, as skin color emerges more significant in U.S. racial constructions for various reasons, including the one drop rule.

Prince's confession inspires some interesting discussion regarding the comments. PoP readers hash out the reasons for violence/crime in the neighborhood, conversation covering the DC gun ban and issues concerning low income housing. One commenter suggests that it is time to reverse white flight, and move others out to the suburbs:

INMHIIYNTYAH Says:
March 20th, 2008 at 12:27 pm
DC doesn’t need anymore low income housing. It needs affordable housing for the middle class. Let the suburbs shoulder some of the responsibility for housing low income residents.

Race and class (gender, sexuality, etc, too) intersect in identity formation. Yet, I think to a certain extent, these people are coding their language to conceal race bias, exclusively talking about class. Prince skipped around it by referencing hair in his confession, the less important marker of race in contemporary U.S. society. Race is never explicitly discussed, yet Obama's recent "race speech" is quoted. DCer co-opts Obama's rhetoric in a response to another commenter that is "ashamed of some of my neighbors responses" that clamor for the removal of low-income housing.

DCer Says:
March 20th, 2008 at 2:39 pm
So we’re supposed to end low-income housing, throw all at risk youth in jail, and esentially tell poor people they can’t have their friends over at their place. This coming from supposedly progressive urbanites? Man it’s rough being on the wrong side of the gentrification tracks!
————
Barack Obama:
“when they’re told that their fears about crime in urban neighborhoods are somehow prejudiced, resentment builds over time.”
So stuff it.

If you don't know Obama's speech inside and out, I'll give you the context where this quote was extracted. The quoted sentence is the last in a paragraph that opens with "In fact, a similar anger exists within segments of the white community. Most working- and middle-class white Americans don't feel that they have been particularly privileged by their race." The paragraph follows Obama's discussion of why some Black Americans harbor resentment for whites -- Obama cites it as generational.

So stuff it. It is okay for whites to be subtly racistand to not be explicit about it, because the violent times of Jim Crow are behind us.