Part II: Future for Black Women: Old Women vs Teenage Boys
Friday, October 1, 2010 at 7:00AM The Blogmother We joke a lot about ESSENCE magazine's editorial philosophy being that we're all going to die old and alone and be eaten alive by 9 cats, but seriously, what is life going to look like for all of these single Black women when they are 85 years old?
In this case, an elderly woman who lived alone found herself the target of the neighborhood bully... a 12 year old boy. YES the neighborhood allowed itself to be terrorized by a pre-teen who apparently lead a gang of other teens. they tried to set her house on fire, they cursed her out, she called the police and nobody came and apparently this little group of URBAN TERRORISTS were terrorizing the entire neighbohood... and he's only 12. Of course the "grandmother" of the 12 year old says he and his friends were ....just. walking. by.... AT 11PM AT NIGHT. Notice they didn't say the mother or father, but the GRANDMOTHER. I would be embarrassed to admit, my child ran the streets at night.
Neighbors said an elderly woman was fed up with constant harassment from a 12-year-old boy, so she took a gun and shot the child after he and his friends threw bricks into her home.
Apparently this was part of a pattern.
Neighbors said the boy was the ringleader of a group of kids, and had been holding his own little reign of terror on the block – especially targeting Matthews.
"I call him the little bad boy," said another neighbor, Hilda Brunt.
McCoy said the boy had been breaking windows, breaking items on Matthews' shed house, and setting her garbage on fire.
"I would say they were bullying her," added neighbor Frenchie Johnson. "She was an older lady. She stayed there by herself. They know that. And she's one of the ladies that, she stands up for herself."
Asked if he supported Matthews' actions, Johnson emphatically said, "Yes."
Now perhaps this story ends the terror, but I think not. In four years this boy will be 16 and if he is still living in the neighborhood, I fear for this woman's life on account that her neighbors appear to be allowing this boy to act with impunity.
I need a volunteer to call around Chicago and find out if a local window and glass company could replace that broken window with brick resistant glass. I'll post about them if they do. Leave a comment or click the contact link in the menu bar above. I can't move her out of that neighborhood, but at least we can replace her window.
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Reader Comments (47)
If only the bullet has gone a little lower and towards the left quadrant of the body little "prefix-avious" might not have lived to terrorize this person another day. That a 68 year old woman had to shoot 2 "boys" to protect her property and defend herself, lets me know that her neigborhood is a hellhole.
68 year olds are supposed to be going to ice cream socials, playing bridge, eating tea sandwiches, and regaling me with tales about how good things useta be. Instead, this woman is having to fight for her mortal life and the one person who should be the MOST sympathetic to her plight is in denial about her won stupid, worthless, grandson.
I'll see if I can get an email to cover the story. Replacing the windows is a great idea, Gina.
Do any WOAD readers have a membership to Angie's List? We could find a highly recommended Replacement glass company that way. Also, Tami, from whattamisaid lives in Chicago. I can inbox her on Facebook.
Just sorry the boy is still alive.
Now. Now. Let's not wish death on the child.
I think what is troubling is how the police never came. Another glaring example of who the police protects. It is typical for police in urban settings to "allow" mayhem to exist where blacks are terrorizing black people. Now, if this 68 year-old woman was a white lady, now...she would be heralded as a hero and his little black butt would be charged as an adult for setting her home (or items near her home) on fire. I ask why the citizens in the neighborhood have not filed a greivance against the police?
I live in chicago and was just horrified watching the news with this on. the blatant black male apologists were in FULL effect with all of the black women they interviewed from there. "he was just walking by, she didn't have to shoot him! he's not that kind of boy" righhhhht, they never are "that kind of boy". I didn't even know it was 11pm! what kind of walking around are they doing? Up to NO good
The little girls were all "she shouldn't have shot him, they were just chillin out! She wrong for that" starting young, must empathize with the black MALE criminals over any black women/girls. sickening
http://www.socialitedreams.com/
alll right..Patricia...we can save the bullet for the "parent" or "family". Watch them on the videos!
Why are all the "men" who are now boarding up the houses not jacking up this crew (why haven't they chipped in for a new window, surely there is a builder among them)? Why isn't the pastor stepson having a "talk" with these kids? This pastor should have "Gawd" to make him strong amirite?
Are the "men" in this neighborhood truly afraid of this kid?
They have documented that the police (1) don't respond; (2) there is a revolving door for juveniles and (3) most importantly...the "family" does.not.care. They aid, abet, excuse, defend this criminal.
This neighborhood needs to do for self. Get together in a mob, march down the street and explain to those people that they need to be out by sundown.
The neighbors have been very supportive, the cops are the ones who aren't being responsive. Someone even volunteered to bail her out if she got arrested. Grievance against the police? In the hood? Good luck with that. Maybe this national attention is just what they needed b/c many times the police don't even respond to these type of complaints in black neighborhoods.
If they come they don't even come right away.
These bad azz kids are trifling and will pick on either gender. My grandfather was a victim of a robbery years ago. He was living alone (he had a girlfriend who lived in her own house) and all his kids left the state. Elderly people sometimes like to stay put where they have been all these years.
There is always some pathetic mother or grandmother taking up for these kids, but according to the anti NWNW crowd, a delusional grandmother is a substitute for father.
Clearly, the "war" on women is across the world, and the 12 year old is a "child soldier", fighting for what though? :( :( :(
I won't even ask where are his parents. Sad! :(
*sigh* This is a textbook example of shoddy parenting. Earler this week in Atlanta, a 94 year old man was robbed and BEAT IN THE HEAD WITH A ROCK in his own home by an 11 year old and an older child. Last I heard he is still in the hospital clinging to life. I think one of the suspects turned himself in, but of course his family is making all the usual excuses.
I am hoping, no, PRAYING that geting shot and being allowed to live will motivate the little Chicago terrorist to change his ways before his antics "graduate" to more heinous acts like the one above or a Dunbar Village. Age 12 is still a baby, so there is still hope for him. But only if HE wants to do better.
My biggest fear is that there may be retaliation against Mrs. Matthews. I hope the police and the neighbors will take that into account and be more vigilant. I'm sure that the fear of retaliation is the reason other neighbors did not step up and do something about those little terrorists sooner.
I apologize in advance for the length of this comment.
This sort of thing is exactly the reason why I've been strongly urging AA women to run for their lives, and FLEE Black residential areas. The distinction isn't between city and suburb. I'm not saying to run to or from cities or suburbs. I'm saying that Black people who want to survive and thrive must evacuate Black residential areas. In short, we must run from places where there are heavy concentrations of other AAs.
And you need to get out before the peace walls go up. The day will come when outside (i.e., White male dominated) law enforcement gets tired of even pretending to protect AAs from other AAs. We complain about police brutality when they do respond to what's going on in Black residential areas. We complain when they don't respond. At some point, the police and the non-Black (White and emerging Latino) political elites that control them will decide to put up physical barriers around violent Black residential areas and call it a day. And have the police patrol the perimeter to make sure that the inhabitants stay inside those violent, crime-ridden neighborhoods at night.
These "peace walls" have already been used in Northern Ireland and by the US Army in Iraq to quarantine certain neighborhoods from other neighborhoods. Look at the photos at the follwing Wikipedia article about these walls. It's a sneak preview of the walls that will be surrounding you. You'll be living behind one of these peace walls (and walled in with the AA thugs in your neighborhood) if you remain within Black residential areas. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Peace_wall
And before anybody starts talking the "we's too poor to move" talk--NO, it's NOT cheaper to live in the 'hood. Not at all when you factor in the redlining and inflated prices you're paying for goods and services. And even if is was, I would have to ask folks the following question:
How much is your life worth to you, anyway? My life is worth much more to me than any amount of money. My life is priceless.
I question the sincerity of these "poor mouth" statements I hear from AAs: Because we have a tradition of buying what we want and begging for what we need. I notice that questions of price only come up when it's something that's productive, uplifting and life-saving. Nobody questions how much the Gameboy, etc. costs. I've even heard of some jeans favored by (poor and working class) AAs that cost hundreds of dollars!
When it's something we really want, we don't ask questions about the cost. And we figure out how to get it.
I'm not saying to flee Black residential areas in order to simply be around non-Blacks. I'm saying to flee to non-Black areas because non-Blacks (especially Whites) still have the will and the common sense to protect themselves and their areas from predators.
Somewhere along the way (in the 1960s), AAs became confused about the need to defend ourselves against predators. We adopted an ideology of coddling and caressing criminals. Now things have reached a point that many AAs will defend and minimize absolutely ANY atrocity that Black predators commit (see the many inappropriate responses to R.Kelly, Dunbar Village, etc.). Most of us have lost the will to defend and maintain safety in our own areas. We are mostly NOT willing to do anything that is likely to be effective in combatting crime.
I still have a soft spot in my heart for the fantasy of resurrecting the healthy, all-Black middle class neighborhoods like the one I was blessed to grow up in (which is not far from where this unfortunate incident took place). The places that have since been defiled by the AA Section 8 invaders that came like locusts after Da Mare decided to tear down the public housing projects where they had previously been quarantined away from everybody else. This had the effect of dispersing the Section 8 criminals and their violence throughout previously stable, working and middle-class AA neighborhoods. Thereby destroying these neighborhoods.
But the problem is that confused, decent Black folks resist anything that would really work to reclaim these areas: We don't want to hire private, armed security. We don't want to take up arms ourselves. Much of the time, we don't even want the predators arrested and imprisoned! Instead, we want to recite slogans about mostly non-existent and totally ineffective "alternative solutions" to imprisonment.
Since AAs have become too confused to take the actions needed to safeguard our own lives, we need to "borrow" the benefits of other people's common sense and will. We need to flee to non-Black areas where the residents have the common sense and will to do what they must to protect themselves against predators.
Leave Black residential areas while you can. To paraphrase the old Jackson 5 song, the life you save might be your own.
What are the police supposed to do if the delinquent's own family allows this behavior? If the neighborhood REALLY wanted to stop these roving bandits they would. The violence is only going to increase. In all honesty these are the future next Dunbar Village-style gang of 10. Stop them NOW or else an unprotected woman or girl will pay the price - and by that time it will be too late.
Well, Khadija said everything that I was going to say, so I will only add that I am afraid for this grandmother's life. I can only pray that her children (wherever they are) will pool their funds and get her OUT of there.
There is no hope for a people who refuse to police themselves, and also resist outside policing. Those who will embrace the social contracts that are necessary to live a civilized life must get out of these hell holes, and cut off father, mother, sister, brother, and children who will not do the same.
I am only realizing now that my parents did exactly that -- they moved their 5 little kids to a new country to escape being indoctrinated by a family culture that had much fewer problems than the ones that we are describing now. It can be done.
I posted this on the NWNW site. Thanks Faith for sending it over Twitter through the #NWNW hashtag (which is now a mess with apologists, BTW).
I have no problem with what the lady did here.
I grew up on a block that had at least one, maybe as many as 4 (depending on what you opinion on how bad is bad), pre-teen terrors on it, who were all between 3 and maybe 6 years older than I. The thing was, three of those four had fathers - 2 were brothers and they had the whole nuclear family thing going on. Another one of the 4 was only ever around because his father lived on my block, not his mother.
I try not to think about them or those days, and therefore I've never spent much time contemplating what was behind their bahavior, or the baviour of children and teenagers who terrorize. My suspicion is that it was a mixture of their own connate personailty traits and whatever they were getting at home. The boy who'd visit his father used to drink Miller Highlife on the porch, so I already know that house was a clusterf*ck. The other two were just mean. Maybe their parents thought it was cute to have mean, aggressive sons. Or maybe there was an Eddie Haskel thing going on. I don't know.
As far as this lady goes, when Palestinians shoot rockets into Israel, Israel brings the pain on all of Gaza. If that's what works there, it shoudl work here too.
I will like to add that she needed to protect herself. They were interveiwing her as if she did something wrong. Black women nust go quickly. The BM are attacking us not everyone else.
Some apartments in the run you around 1000.00 and there are no stores and all the other resources that other neighborhoods have. Black people make a thousand and one excuses and we are the ones who are affected by it . Black Women, go, go ,go and do it now because the truth be told Police are getting fed up and they will say we will not go in those communities and let them fight it out.
Black Women, if you have to work 2 jobs do it for your safety and your children.
“And before anybody starts talking the "we's too poor to move" talk--NO, it's NOT cheaper to live in the 'hood. Not at all when you factor in the redlining and inflated prices you're paying for goods and services.”
This is true. I know when I moved from the hood into a “wealth adjacent” neighborhood I saved hundreds of dollars a year in auto insurance alone. I was shocked at difference in premiums. That’s just one example.
You tell BW to run, but they are the ones who usually have custody of the bad azz kids, so it seems we would be running from ourselves
Back in the day a 68 year old women in the neighborhood would whip a little 12 year old's arse for being disobedient. Back in the day 12 year olds were in bed by nine o'clock.
oh what a web we weave when the bc allow media whore community activist and reverends scream, nag, threatening lawsuits, and criminal action at police departments for doing their job by clucking a dyfunctional bm and blk boy upside the head for commiting heinous acts on innocent people.
This lady has got to move, b/c DBR bw and thug in training little blk boys have a strong dislike for bw and blk girls who stand up for themselves and who don't fall in love with the being a gangsta keepin it real hood nigrah.
My grandparents raised me. Our neighborhood was flooded with bm who were drug addicts and/or thugs who terrorized the neighborhood. Slowly, mexican immgrants started moving into the neighborhood and they would terrorize them too; some stayed some moved. More and more mexican moved into the neighborhood and they have litterally wiped these savage bm and boys out or have intimadated them into little girls.
Perhaps Chicago may need an infux of mexican immmigrants to clean up house.
If you are serious about leaving I would also recommend using the internet to find affordable housing or apartment in good or affluent neighborhoods. Use an apartment hunter website, find out what neighborhood you would like to live in and then look for the cheapest rents in that area. I did the same thing. There is a affluent neighborhood that I just loved but was always told by others that it was to expensive. If funny because I was just looking for an apartment that didn't allow pets. I found this wonderful apartment that had more amenities that my previous apartment and was about $120 less in rent. Like I say , let the internet help you.
Blkchik,
You said, "You tell BW to run, but they are the ones who usually have custody of the bad azz kids, so it seems we would be running from ourselves"
The difference is that when AA women move to NON-Black environments and import their favorite Black male criminals with them (baby daddies, thug children), these creatures quickly get the police called on them, arrested and locked up. Problem solved as far as the neighbors are concerned.
Because other people won't coddle and caress these creatures the way AAs do. They also won't put up with these creatures' antics. Other people want to keep their nice neighborhoods nice, and they're willing to do what it takes to keep them nice. Other folks don't have a widespread "stop snitching" philosophy.
What I've observed in such situations is that the BW who harbors her favorite BM criminals after moving to such environments starts whining about how the police are "picking on" her son, cousin, baby daddy, etc. After her favorite BM criminal has been stopped on the street by the local police and arrested a certain number of times, said BW moves back to a Black residential comfort zone/hovel where nobody will interfere with her favorite BM criminals' activities. Again, problem solved for the people in the nice area.
The police are paid to respond to calls. To tell people to move near whites to ensure police protection is still not remedying what the issue is. The woman who shot the boy sounded like someone who is willing to fight for her neighborhood. Hopefully the media attention will give the other residents the courage to stay on the police and mobilize. I've been in a situation like hers where police seldom responded to teen pranks (rocks at my window) and was able to see turnaround in my DC community that is now gentrified and too expensive for me to live there. I think it's sad that we haven't heard of men taking the lead to defend this woman, but do we know the details fully to say that black men are totally inept in this situation. That blanket assumption is unfair.
Where were the police?
They were called...and didn't come.
SO this isn't the case of ayone coddling this boys bad behaviour (parents/guardian) aside. But if you call for outside help and they don't come then what?
The neighborhhod needs to bring the presure sown on the boys grandma and the guardians/parents of the other ids. If the police aren't going to help - they are going to have to police themselves.
As a single woman who lives alone, no matter your age, and no matter how "safe" a neighborhood you live in--you are still vulnerable.
There are a few things you can do about this. One of them is getting an alarm system.
Another, and some times better option, is getting a large or medium sized dog. Just one. It doesn't have to be an aggressive or intimidating breed, either. This is an amazing deterrent to crime-- and can have physical and psychological benefits, too. I know an older gentleman who lives alone and doesn't have a dog--but has placed an ominous "beware of dog" sign on his fence.
I feel for this woman. If, for some reason, she can't move--she can at least get a restraining order against these little thugs. That is the very least that can be done. If other neighbors do it too, they'll find their options limited.
When I was growing up, there was a curfew for kids under 18. (10 o clock, I think).
Just something to think about.
This will be my last comment on this thread...
Moon,
You said, "The police are paid to respond to calls. To tell people to move near whites to ensure police protection is still not remedying what the issue is. The woman who shot the boy sounded like someone who is willing to fight for her neighborhood. Hopefully the media attention will give the other residents the courage to stay on the police and mobilize."
I'm not trying to have a "gotcha" moment, but the situation in Black residential areas is FAR beyond anybody "fight[ing] for her neighborhood." AA women can either continue to beat the protest drums OR they can save their own lives.
Here's a headline from May 20, 2010, about another AA who "fought to take back his neighborhood." The neighborhood he fought to take back is yet another historically all-Black, formerly middle-class neighborhood on the South Side of Chicago. (I'll also note that this young man's mother is one of my mother's former coworkers; this was before they retired):
http://www.chicagobreakingnews.com/2010/05/slain-officer-fought-to-take-back-streets-in-his-neighborhood.html
We need to stop tripping about the level of violence and chaos in Black residential areas. It's gone way beyond community activism slogans and denial. God respects free will; and so do I. If folks want to stay in place in Black residential areas and accept the increased probability of being robbed, raped, carjacked and murdered---as well as risk their children's lives---then that's their choice.
And with this, I'll sit back and listen for the rest of the conversation.
I am not talking about trifling boyfriends, this is about when the little terror lives in your home and is your child. What if people in those new neighborhoods started profiling BW with children (which I am sure a lot of the better places do, most adult women have kids) b/c they felt their is a good chance your kid would have behavior problems and would cause trouble while their mother was at work. I just don't see all this talk about leaving, when sometimes these little terrors live under your roof.
If a glass shop/builder is found to replace this lady's window, will it be possible to donate through this blog to help cover the replacement cost?
@struggling Optimist of course. We've done fundraisers before. i will just put in a chip -in widget, but I'm pretty sure that someone would do it for free based on the facts and the the publicity it would get them.
I couldn't resist one more reply...
Blkchik,
You're working overtime to come up with far-fectched, hypothetical, "what if...what if they start profiling BW with children?" potential problems to justify folks staying in place in Black residential areas. To justify staying and subjecting themselves to known, LETHAL problems such as the current level of violent crime in Black residential areas. Also, my previous comment already covered the situation where BW bring their favorite BM criminals with them---this included their monstrous children and other BM criminals "living under their roof."
I don't understand the emotional attachment to staying in Black residential areas and being robbed, raped, carjacked and murdered while unnecessarily continuing to live there. And risking having the same done to one's children. I don't get it. But like I said, I respect free will. If folks want to unnecessarily risk their own and their children's lives by living in Black residential areas, that's their choice.
The situation has gone far beyond denial and community activism slogans like "fighting for your neighborhood." To stay in most Black residential areas is to risk being subjected to robbery, rape, and an early, violent death. Anybody who wants to stay and die (and have their children die) in Black residential areas is free to stay and die. Good luck and God bless.
{going back into radio silence}
I just don't see all this talk about leaving, when sometimes these little terrors live under your roof.
I would imagine that the ones who already have terrorists living in their homes are not likely to be thinking about leaving. Typically they think that type of behavior is normal. And yes, more and more better neighborhoods are careful about who they allow to move in. Here in Atlanta some of the homeowner's covenants don't allow you to have guests visit for more than a brief period of time. I think we've all seen what happens when a kid gets in trouble at home and his parents ship him off to relatives who live in a better neighborhood. And he winds up terrorizing that neighborhood as well.
Khadija said: "I'm not saying to flee Black residential areas in order to simply be around non-Blacks. I'm saying to flee to non-Black areas because non-Blacks (especially Whites) still have the will and the common sense to protect themselves and their areas from predators."
When some friends visited me from Canada, that is exactly what their 13-year old daughter said. Sadly she's figured out that non-Blacks (in Canada) live in nice safe neighborhoods and don't tolerate trifling criminals in their midst. Yes, of course, there are still some good milddle class Black neighborhoods (P.G. County, Maryland has a few), but unfortunately, majority Black neighborhoods and crime seem to go hand in hand. Don't see that changing anytime soon.
Some of us talk as if white people are a minority and black people make up most of the country. We are roughly a little over 40 million versus the rest of country topping 260 million. A lot of us are delusional.
We are kidding ourselves thinking that if a few black women move to mostly white areas, an entire ghetto is able to follow. Once we leave most urban areas, or the hood, most of the country is white and other. We are raisins in a football field of rice. Get real.
There are more jobs, better food to shop for, better schools, and less violent crime in most of these non-black areas.
Well actually BW with children are already profiled by many landlords. And there is no "emotional attachment" to staying in black neighborhoods, its simply most people staying where they can afford and that have extended family to most likely help them raise their children. I also know many single people that don't want to live too far from their parents and grandparents.
Ah, yes - the typical "Miz Johnson's grandson", who is a good boy and is simply being singled out for harassment. He says himself he wasn't involved in any of that mess, so what more do you want? I'm certain the grandmother, the grandmother's pastor, the neghborhood community leader, all of the grandmother's friends, and, all of the thugs and thugettes in the neighborhood are frothing with indignation over the poor chile being stopped from doing whatever criminal acts he pleased whenever he pleased. I can hear it now - "we jes need better programs for these kids, and this kind of thing won't happen!"
If money is collected in support of the victim, one of the worthwhile uses of some of that money, IMHO, would be a few sessions of pistol range training for this 85 year-old woman. Or, perhaps the money would be well-spent on a shotgun. I understand it's very difficult to miss with a shotgun.
I know I should be more humane about this, and wish reform and rehabilitation for this troubled boy ("Rehabilitation, not Incarceration! I can hear it being chanted right now), but my patience with this type of junior thug and his built-in support system in black neighborhoods are ebbed out to exactly zero, so pardon me for not caring if anything bad happens to him.
I do, however, hope this wonderful lady, the 85 year-old victim, moves out of that shark tank next week and lives to be 105.
BlkQueenBee, she's not 85, she's 68. I was asking about what would happen when we're all 85.
Apologies - 65, not 85 is the woman's age.
I guess reading and comprehension is still fundamental, and I blazed through that too quickly.
But, my sentiments in my previous comment remain the same.
Hah, I just can't seem to get this right!
Again, apologies. The victim in question is 68, not 85, not 65. I seem to have a mental block about this; my brain just keeps going to the wrong age.
I think I need more coffee or more sleep, one or the other.
@blkchik
Let them stay, then. I'm not going to force anyone at gunpoint to move to a safer area and I don't anyone else is either.
*Watching leaves fall outside my window*
And the ants went on with their work.
This is definitely something I need to start thinking about. I remember the same concerns being mentioned on one of your podcasts as well. I'm not going to specifically look at a community with no blacks, but preferably one with very few children. Not many kids live in my complex now and I love it.
This truly a very tragic situation. This is something that is very difficult for me to process given the ages of both of the people involved, and the fact that potentially deadly force was used against a child.
The one issue I can point to is the alleged inaction of the police when a potentially frightened and terrorized woman was reaching out for help. If she called and they did nothing that is inexcusable.
My only other point is that are people interested in helping this woman and child and really looking at this issue, not in terms of easy categories, IE. The bad black child/male versus the scared black woman or the innocent angel versus the angry black woman. Categorizing the actions of human beings by rote might fit our ideology or beliefs, but those categorizations often obscure the truth.
To be honest, when I read this my inner voice was like "oh god what if he's a sociopath?" and if it's the case (or even if it isn't the case), he needs some help. To allow any child to run around a neighborhood like this--causing immense terror in his/her neighbor's lives--is a disservice to everyone.
Just a question for Khadija Nassif. What makes you think that white neighborhoods will be safer? I'm not saying you're wrong by telling people to leave violent areas, but just because white people live somewhere doesn't make the place safer.
What Khadija means when she says that white neighborhoods will be safer is that whites and other non-black people DON'T AND WILL NOT tolerate the level of foolishness that you find in black neighborhoods. Even in the poor white neighborhoods, you don't find people standing on the corner all times of the day and night, drug addicts staggering around anywhere and everywhere, children running around all night. Yes, there is still crime but you are significantly less likely to deal with the crime in majority black neighborhoods.
@Eva by simply looking around! I live in Chicago where this happened and darn sure would rather live in white Naperville, Oak Brook, or anywhere else than black Atgeld Gardens, the Wild Hundreds, or the west side. Why? Because the BLACK neighborhoods here made the top 25 worst neighborhoods for violence/crime in a nationwide search, one area ranking as number ONE. So playing stupid and wondering why people would want to live in a more white area is simply unnecessary. You're welcome to come move over if you want, I can escort you to a black neighborhood so that you can feel at home and safe. see how long that lasts
As someone who lives in a "white" neighborhood and predominately "white" city, there are different challenges to deal with (i.e. being isolated, dealing with subtle acts of racism, etc. A black friend of mine was just reeling from a white neighbor who flashed her the other day. He's so ill-equipped at knowing how to interact with black womenfolk, that's what he chose to do instead of just asking her out for coffee!).
Now, if we weren't comfortable in our own skins, we might gladly return to "black" neighborhoods and the social community that interacting with black kinfolk and churchfolk gives you. So, I kind of understand why black women don't readily uproot themselves from such neighborhoods. As the old saying goes, some folks prefer the devils they know to the ones they don't. And, yes, many black folks DO NOT feel comfortable around white folks, even if they are mere "raisins" in a "football field of rice."
But that's another issue. At the very least, we haven't become victims of crimes yet living among mostly whites with a sprinkle of Asians. Which would not necessarily be the case if we lived in black neighborhoods, where, as black women, we are routine targets for violence (especially sexual).
There are no easy solutions to black poverty and criminality, but I do commend the 68-year-old for defending herself and her property.
What should disturb ALL of us is that we now live in an era where a 68-year-old woman felt threatened enough by a 12-year-old boy that she shot him!
Can you imagine growing up in a neighborhood where those kinds of actions would happen? When I was growing up, that 12-year-old boy would have gotten a whipping from the old woman, and a double whipping from his parents by the time she marched him home and told his parents about it.
My, how things have changed.
You can't spank them anymore. So, I say let climb through the window. In fact, leave it open for them, and then put a cap in that &)s! I am proud of her for her good aim. It's no different from what the police do.
I'm not going to specifically look at a community with no blacks, but preferably one with very few children. Not many kids live in my complex now and I love it.
Kids in general aren't the problem.
The REAL problem is a culture in inner city neighborhoods that ignores or worse celebrates kids who commit crimes. Naturally, these kids are SHOCKED when someone like Ms. Matthews shoots them for acting like a terrorist.
In short, we must go drill in kids early to respect the law and human life. Otherwise, they will facing growing numbers of Americans with the mindset of conservatives:
"Shoot first, call 911 later."