Working full time and updating the blog don't really get along well, especially when I work until late and night and go home and pass out. Anyway, I was reading my book last night and read something really interesting that I wanted other people to read as well. The book is A Death in Belmont by Sebastian Junger. He's an excellent writer, he writes really beautifully and really molds an interesting story. This book is non-fiction about the Boston Strangler and one murder in particular. It's also about race-relations. He balances it really well. Anyway, here's the passage:"Jesse Jackson once described walking through a dangerous neighborhood and whirling around in fear when he heard footsteps behind him. It was a white man, though, not a young black man, and Jackson said that his sense of relief was one of the most painful things in his life."
I'm not going to try and say that I have it all figured out, in fact, I'm going to almost leave this statement alone. Junger follows it up by saying "If Jesse Jackson is capable of thinking that way about young black men..." It's really sad that our society is this way and has been this way. It's terrible that circumstances have ensured that the ghettos and the projects are a majority black population. It brings up a question about how to remedy this. Are these people stuck there, are there no opportunities for economic advancement? Are their criminal ways a result of their placement or the cause for it? Is there a solution??
I'd like to think I'm pretty progressive and not racist. I don't think I'm racist at all, in fact, if I were walking alone in a dangerous neighborhood, turning around and seeing a white man wouldn't calm my nerves at all, but I'm jumpy... haha. Well, I hope whoever reads this is made to think, because when I read Junger's words, I stopped for a minute to think about what he just said. I think that's the best thing an author can hope for. Oh, and go read the book, it's very good.
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