I have always loved traveling since I was a little girl, it was always the most exciting for me to get lost on my way to Far Rockaway, Queens. It was an adventure when my day camp would walk from 5th street (lower east side) to central park for picnics. Be it by train, cab, mega bus, or plane (not quit yet). I love to travel. A few weekends ago I took a trip to DC/Baltimore and was I so surprised at the blatant segregation. To my dismay I couldn’t really grasp “the chocolate city” being uninformed in terms of diversity. Blacks use to hold 70% of DC’s population and has dropped to 50% since the 80s. What is changing beside the cost of living? If I’ve always known DC for its overwhelming flood of prideful individuals (like myself) what exactly is keeping the city from merging together as one. I felt like an alien as if my color wasn’t seen or welcomed. To throw out a few variables to the weird stares I don’t think my outfit qualified me for evil looks. I think I was dressed at the excepted level of an outsider; a simple skirt and sandals . I wasn’t trying too hard to tone anything down but I figured I was in chocolate city so whatever I did the residents were use to by now. I am still trying to come up with reasonable reasons for anyone to have looked at me funny. This is my second or third trip to DC and each visit I have came up with a different review.
I have been to a community event where I’ve gotten a taste of family and the love that DC has to offer. I thought I loved DC as a whole but I could only reside in a particular areas. Not to say that DC is the only majority black city with segregation. But again I was still surprised at how blatant it was. I was floating around the white house so I will admit that I did expect more, much more. We are TOO far down in our society to still have this much segregation anywhere. And although propaganda is still a serious practice, does having a black president mean anything? There things that are suppose to shift ones mind eventually even after years of brainwashing. Why do I have to walk down a street and still feel like I don’t belong? There is something very wrong with the idea of the only brown people (employees) in a restaurant not wanting to recognize my face and explore what we have in common. That should an automatic.
I would only visit Baltimore because of the sheer stillness and relaxation it brings. I would love to live in DC for a year or two to go into my past experiences and analyze them.
More photos here
