The St. Elmo Chan Chan

There seems to be some misconception with some of the newly arrived residences to the St. Elmo community that all or most all the black families living in the area are recent refugees from Alton Park. Many of us are not. We'e lived, raised our families in the St. Elmo area for a number of years. Personally, I've encountered everything in the past almost thirty years my family and I have lived here, even racism. Yes, even to this date, there are still some diehard racist in the community. And there are others I've come to know over the years who get to know the person before making false and undeserved judgements about them. Here are a few myths I'd like to dispel:

I. Mrs. Ok Hui Brown's tragic death.
A. I feel some in the community are trying to exploit the tragic death of this fine woman. Many who didn't even know her in her lifetime are making false claims of knowledge for selfish reasons. I've noticed the media has tried to imply Mrs. Brown's husband was of another racial background other than African-American. Mr. Brown IS African-American.

II. Another misconception: People who move from Alton Park allgedly into St. Elmo have brought in drugs and violence that is corrupting the "good" children of St. Elmo.
A. For the almost thirity years I've lived in St. Elmo, drugs and violence have always been a backdrop of the community.
1. There was another muder of a store owner back in the '80s. The store presently on the corner of 55th St. and St. Elmo. The store owner was murdered during that period by a young white male who'd once lived in the area and had occasionally worked at the store, doing small odd jobs for the owner.
2. Other violence, my husband and I personally encountered was often of the racial kind. Often when we would take our walks in the late evenings we'd have things thrown from cars at us and racial slurs hollered out the car windows along St. Elmo Avenue. Not to mention the racial grafitti that sometimes littered the streets and buildings that had been spray painted. Not to mention once what appeared to be a cross burning below 56th St. in the '80s some children, black and white, discovered on their way to a swimming hole below the Georgia State line. We took all in stride. We called the police a few times, but they weren't interested. On the cross burning thingy, we were told, "No sense investigating. All evidence was probably gone."
3. Drugs. During many of our walks throughout St. Elmo in those days, it really wasn't all that unusual to happen upon some of St. Elmo's most UPSTANDING citizens standing in their yards smoking pot with their neighbors.
4. Children are children regardless. No matter their family make up, religious beliefs, whatever. Children are designed to TEST THEIR LIMITS. I've known many of the children from otherwise "good" "godly" homes who themselves have dabbled in drugs, satanism and a host of other things in the community. But that's OK, by me, cuz, like I say, children are designed to test their limits.

Why am I saying this now? Because, I see St. Elmo for some slithering back into that mode it was when my family and I first moved here almost thirty years ago. Where neighbor made false accusations against fellow neighbors. Too yellowbellied to just come out and say I DON'T WANT "YOUR KIND" IN THE NEIGHBORHOOD. So they hid behind closed doors and made outrageous calls to the city. Even once went so far as to labe my house a "drug house." I took it all in stride, because for an ignorant person who wish to remain ignorant there is really very little that can be done for them. All we can do is pray for them.

Finally, for the most part, we all try to get along in the community, although there will always be others who will seek to "divide" and "conquer", Some just stay to themselves, like my husband and I decided to do after all the exclusion, ostracizing and isolation. It's been a journey over the years. One I don't care to repeat. I've had to fight a lot of ignorance and biases, but for the better part, however, most have come to respect one another even if we will never be close friends. And that's what it is all about, good people! The ability to respect one another's right to simply exist on this planet. Otherwise, there will come a time when none of will be able to freely "exist."

All I'm saying is, when looking for perfection, first look within. When you realize it's not there, then you will come to realize it is not to be found anywhere in anyone. That in the words of Maya Angelou, "For we are more alike than we are "un-alike."

Shut your mouth, White Boy!

(kidding)

On a serious note, racial issues are so complex, it is often hard for me to decide where to begin describing my feelings on the topic. As a young white girl, I imagine that most people don't really take what I have to say seriously anyway; I wasn't alive during a time where racial discrimination was at its peak, and my experience with racial discrimination, as a white person, is somewhat limited (although not completely non-existant).

At any rate, it is sad that there are some people who just can not let go - both whites and blacks alike. The e-mail above irritates me though, because as someone who truly makes a concious effort to treat people equally, I feel like my efforts and the efforts of people like me are overlooked. No, the fact that I or people like me don't discriminate shouldn't be praised, because really, shouldn't that be the norm or the default? But, to not realize that some people have grown beyond racism and discrimination is applying the old addage "one bad apple spoils the whole bunch," and in my opinion, is racism in itself, too.

Hmm... well, I like the email. Mainly because it real and I was introduced to a neighbor I didn’t know. But I also enjoyed also it because it pointed out some new things to me and reminded me of some core truths that we have to work through.

Other than revealing some local history, she reinforced a very true cultural phenomenon that white folks tend to associate crime done by black folk to be case evidence against black folk - that somehow their skin color was a motivating factor. Those same white folks will look at crime done by white folk and look for other motivating factors.

I know I'm opening up a can o' woop arse on myself from all those who now want to scream "BUT I'M NOT A RACIST!!!" But to me, the cultural truths are out there. As a society we were fed a load of crap about race theory for decades and it tends to leach out into the "cultural groundwater" like industrial pollution. For the most part we cleaned up the main sources of the pollution, but like Chernobyl, I think we've got a few years to go.

I just bought the companion book to the film as a remainder from Daedalus Book. Just got it in last week and love it. The movie's still better though. But fun to read about how it was made, and there are a few great images in there.

Don't know if this link will work, but here goes:
http://www.daedalusbooks.com/Products/Detail.asp?ProductID=50926&Media=Book&SubCategoryID=&ReturnUrl=%2FProducts%2FSearch%2FHomeQuickSearchResult%2Easp%3FSearch%3Dbuena%2Bvista%26Media%3D%26image1%2Ex%3D0%26image1%2Ey%3D0

j- i didn't get her note on the neighborhood
e-chain. can you send me her email address - i'd like to see if she would talk to me for the oral history project. lots of wonderful perspective there over 30 years. she has alot to offer. PLEASE AND THANK YOU! -Mary B (aka "THEY")