Originally Posted by
kathy2trips
I realize this got long. Sorry, but I love writing about Detroit.
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That said, I found that when most Black people found out I was of Polish and Italian heritage [[especially Polish), they were more receptive and friendlier to me. One girl in my lit class at WSU confided to me that Polish people were persecuted people, too, like Blacks were. Never mind that she had never been a slave or in danger of being lynched, nor had I been in a concentration camp or pursued by Cossacks on horseback.
Recently, I was surprised to find in my mom's class of 1940 Barbour School yearbook that there had been more than a few black kids in her class. This would have been the neighborhood around [[but not IN Indian Village). So there were blacks in places besides the traditionally black areas. Redlining was evidently not applicable in every/all neighborhoods.
Another surprise was that after living in the South for over 30 years, I found Black people down here just want to be treated like everyone else...no worse, but certainly no better, either. Very few people had chips on their shoulders related to race. I personally found this amazing. Racism isn't the first thing on their mind for every slight, real or imagined. My next door neighbor [[from Bermuda) said: "The reality is that sometimes people treat you like crap because you're an insufferable human being and a miserable person to be with and it has nothing to do with race." Wow, what a concept! LOL:p