You're right. It is class warfare, not racism, but racism plays a part in all of this and how it got so damned bad.
I still own a home in Cleveland Ohio on the east side, in one of those depressed areas. Still have many of the same neighbors and I spend a lot of my weekends there. I grew up in Cleveland in the 70's and 80's, and every week I go home I find something new to either appreciate or decry.
I was one of the first kids who was subject to forced busing when Frank Batisti ordered it, which only increased the rate of white flight out of the city save for the not so fortunate poor whites who quickly became a minority.
The reasons for doing it were legitimate. Cleveland (like Boston at the time) was a sub-surface segregated city, especially after the Hough riots, but forced busing was one of the accelerants.
There wasn't the over-publicized, exaggerated 24 hour news you get today; as a young kid, my neighborhood was pretty damned good. Next door neighbor was a cop, two houses down my neighbor worked on the election board. One of the worst thing I remember happening as a young kid was a neighbor kid dying in an accidental self shooting. My parents didn't want me bused, but they weren't going to move (If you don't think that Cleveland's suburbs for a long time had an insidious policy of making any blacks unwelcome in that area, you're greatly mistaken.I spent tree years post college living in Parma in the 90's which was 90% white at the time. I was pulled over 22 times. Yes, I kept count.).
At the same time, you can't help but wonder what the hell did you do wrong save but be born different.
Where I grew up, the only time I saw anyone that wasn't of my race or Vietnamese was at school, at my dad's/other relatives on the weekend or while out shopping.
Think about that. And then think about it some more as to how fucked up that is.
Once my teen years kicked in it was a whole different world: crack epidemic, infrastructure really crumbling, city exiting default, tax abatements sabotaging the school system (brilliant idea, Mr. Voinovich).
In the early 90's it was home building (more tax abatements) in the empowerment zone corridors, as if that was going to attract back the tax base. Didn't work out so well.
Somehow most of the kids I went to school with turned out to be pretty intelligent productive members of society. And some of the suburban kids I spent summer advanced placement camp time with ended up being clerks who check me out at Target.
There's a constant refrain here, and the causes aren't simple, nor are the solutions. I sat here reading this thread just anticipating when the arguments for class warfare were gonna pop up. Everybody has a simple solution. It's always easy to anyone who only had the option of looking from the outside in.
I live in Columbus now, because that is where work took me. I make a very, VERY good living. My kids spent the first few years here in Columbus public schools which if you listen to the local town criers are hell holes. I had no problem with it because the world isn't a utopia. You have to understand why things are the way they are, and then determine how to do your part to change it.
They don't attend CPS these days. Once again, work and my desire to get from behind the wheel and bike into work took over (Columbus unlike Cleveland has a shit infrastructure for public transport. No train, no all night service...none of that).
But I still have that house up in Cleveland. I still pay taxes there. I still vote absentee there. My family's there, and I don't feel like I'm going to get blasted in a hail of gunfire from my front porch. The city has massive problems no doubt, but just driving by it and just saying how fucked up it is while ascribing to a simplistic solution isn't going to help.
PS: As a side I do appreciate the parent poster's willingness to not post anonymously. When you have something to say and believe it you should be willing to put your name on it. WHile we may disagree I can say I do indeed respect you in that difference. Kudos.
