Hey, White People with White Kids

[Boom Sound 416]

43. I'm talking about traditional neighborhood development

But yes, I hear you, and to an extent agree with you.

My southern experience, growing up in an intensely segregated city, does not, however.

Yes the very poor white and black lived in some proximity to one another and their were, of course some pockets of integration, the rest were segregated by some conventional boundary, be it an interstate or water way or some type of non residential zone.

President Obama touched on this a few years ago and the predicables act accordingly, but he talked about a federal 'push' to integrated zip codes.

But, sadly that's as far as it went I suppose.

Real estate. And not just 'housing' but traditional neighborhoods are the key. From there so many barriers begin to fall away. First and foremost the scary black man. Second, classrooms. Third small business.
(Please google 'traditional neighborhood development and mixed use zoning)

One of the great obstacles is (a New York term. (Specifically 5th ave)) "their goes the neighborhood," a frankly criminal, mentality that integrated neighborhoods lose monetary value.

It's the protection of that value where we need a new set of civil rights laws. That people can't discrimate on the house value due to integration. We need the Feds on this one.

But while I'm speaking somewhat in the abstract, please don't mistake for naivety. I spent more than a decade in 35 US state documenting the realities and crimes. I've listened to the conversations up and down the income spectrum from The Mission to Montauk.

You hear a lot holding a microphone for a living.

We know the children aren't the problem. We need to get them together. They will lead us out as a human race.