Jake Warshaw - Day 19

Blog
6/28/09
Jake Warshaw

Today we went to Greenwood Mississippi. It was very interesting to see how segregated it was, Saint Louis is segregated, but it gradually changes per area, this was an immediate change that was visible. Our tour guide said that Greenwood is like the Great Wall of China, or the Berlin wall. This is very true. The neighborhood on the “poor” side of town was in horrible condition. I did not see any white people. As soon as you cross a bridge, you are in a very nice neighborhood; it was even nicer than my neighborhood. It is sad to look at that segregation, because it truly shows that our system isolates African Americans. I saw a lot of social and economic injustice. However we made the point of eating dinner at a restaurant owed and run by a young African American couple. We wanted to support those individuals working to break out of the system. At the restaurant, we ate and discussed issues with other teens working for the William Winter Institute for Racial Reconciliation. One of the issues that my group discussed at the restaurant was: would a colorblind society be good? My response was that it is a nice fantasy, but it is not a reality, the only way that it would work is if EVERY parent taught their kids to see people, not race. That is very unlikely. Another issue that goes hand-in-hand is the issue of tolerance and to tolerate. A colorblind society would be to tolerate, but not tolerance.

It was a very interesting day for me. It was also a very upsetting day. I really want to see change within the Greenwood community. I feel like the government keeps the rich people rich, and the poor people poor. This is the way the system works. It is sad to see that most people are not trying to fight the system, but rather play its stupid game. If you don’t challenge the system, the system will control you.