Thread by @Timcast

Chicago is a truly fucked up place for a lot of reasons

I grew up on the southwest side near midway airport

There were streets that divided up neighborhoods by race

1/

if you crossed 47th it went from mostly white/mixed to almost entirely black

This create insane racial conflict

Then there was cicero which if you crossed started a less pronounced shift from white to latino

2/

We were told by people in our neighborhood that if we tried to cross 47th we would likely get stopped by cops because "there was no legal reason for us to be over there"

it had happened a few times

3/

I think a lot of social justice comes from suburban enclaves where they dont understand what life is like especially in a racially divided city like Chicago

4/

When people are all divided up by where they live and dont consider each other as a part of their community it breeds resentment and conflict

Its easy to think "only white people can be racist" if you have no experience growing up in mixed race areas

5/

What I saw wasn't actually racism but it created a lot of racism

People would distrust each other not because of race but because they knew assumed you didn't live in the neighborhood

6/

Then people being stupid would make the assumption it was about race

Everyone was equally as stupid and blaming the race of the other people when shit got bad

Shit still works that way today and it probably wasn't unique to where I lived

fin/