No. of Recommendations: 1
Is that a function of race or a function of poverty? "Safe" is in the eye of the beholder, but are there any poor communities regardless of ethnicity where you would feel "safe" walking the streets? And if there is, would that be because you are the same ethnicity as the majority of the population, so you wouldn't feel so much like you have a target on your back?
Good question.
I'm sure the knee jerk reaction from many is that I am a racist, but I think it's a function of both.
It's hardly possible to find an
all white, or all Hispanic, or all Asian poor community in California. But a few come close. For example:
I have been to majority-white RV / mobile home park (to visit a Black friend, ironically) a few times. Never felt unsafe. Ditto one of the few remaining drive-in theaters, 99% Hispanic audience. Ditto many parts of Hemet, 99% Hispanic. Then again, many other parts of Hemet also full of Hispanics that I, or other Hispanic people or anyone, would not go into if you paid us a billion dollars.
Cannot say the same about majority-Black cities in California.
Maybe it is a California thing because I was also the only non-Black customer in a Chilis in Maryland, and one of the few in a Bourbon street restaurant, but that was OK. Normal atmosphere, just people who looked different than me.
On the flip side, Black people are definitely "over-policed", pulled over too often for no reason, given the stink eye by cops in general. Not disputing that.
On the flipper side, the Innocence Project notwithstanding, the court system rarely puts people in jail, at least in California, unless they have actually committed a crime. Black people are disproportionately represented. I don't know what to tell you.
