Chicago is a place known for high winds, tha Bulls, dirty politics, and great blues. But one thing outsiders fail to understand about this great town is the all-too-nasty racism. If you ask me, the racial separation in Chicago is probably worse than the South in the 1960s. Chicago is more segregated financially, racially, and educationally than any other city that I have visited in this country. The reason I am saying this is that if you leave it up to politicians or the media, a problem doesn't exist until a tragedy occurs. So this only makes the situation worse because it makes the racism blind and unseen.
This racism that I speak of is the same racism that created the Cabrini-Greens, the Henry Horners, and the various other decrepit public housing development in this city. The same racism that allowed three white teenage males to beat a 13 year old African American boy into a coma.
I'd like to pose a question: What if this crime had been committed by three African-Americans from Stateway Gardens? What if they beat a white teenager of Bridgeport? Let's just say this: It would have been handled in a different way.
I have had to ask myself this question: is racism a genetic inheritance or is it something that's taught in the home? I ask if these teenagers are racist because its just in their nature, or are they only acting out on their upbringing. Just like dogs breed dogs, will racists breed racists? Or do parents reinvent racism through their children? Maybe that's how racism has lasted so long in this society.
I'd like to say that it's going to get better, but what real evidence do you see of this happening in the immediate future? The problems at Brother Rice High School and in Bridgeport are coming from teenagers, not some old Southerner who wants to keep the NIGGERS from eating in his store or interfering with his way of life. I really think racism will be here as long as ignorance exist.
When you look more in depth at where different groups live in Chicago, you rarely find communities that are diverse. Where do African Americans, Whites, Hispanics, Asians, and other ethnic groups live together or even close to one another? The only place that comes to my mind where I can see such diversity is in the Kenwood-Hyde Park community, and the only real reason for this is the University of Chicago (not saying that there aren't others).
I wonder if we knew more about one another from the beginning, would the world be in this situation of African-Americans against Whites, Irish against English, Jews against Arabs. The tree of racism bears only rotten fruit whose seeds pollute the earth.
A lot of people say that prayer is the answer. But this is a problem that human beings created, and we must create the solution. All of us must look at the things that divide us, put them out on the table, and find out where we can mend them. Either we will die in the ignorance and the darkness of our individual worlds, or live in the celebration of the whole world and each other.
LeAlan Jones is a senior at King High School and the co-author of Our America, which will be published by Scribner's in June. He recently won a Peabody award for his radio documentaries on All Things Considered.