Neighborhood Appropriation: The Latest White Trend
Most Caucasians have no business venturing into “the hood.”
Growing up in Philly, I’ve always had disdain for White people.
Not all White people, as I’m not a racist. After all, Philadelphia is the sixth largest city in America. It’s riddled with all kinds of diversity, the type that makes embodying ethnic or racial discrimination highly unlikely. On top of that, Caucasians there LOVE minorities.
I’m not talking about those types of White people. I’m talking about the ones who have opinions of urban environments based solely on conjecture, gossip, and flawed media coverage.
For instance, take my former neighbor, a trans-Caucasian female.
We were having a conversation about zombies, prompted by the hit TV series The Walking Dead. Somehow, we transitioned to talking about “zombie cities,” or places that are both deleterious and dilapidated. She made mention of Skid Row, a neighborhood in Los Angeles, and Kensington, a neighborhood in my home city of Philly, disparaging both environments without having visited either one. When I asked her how she learned about them without going there in person, she told me a friend directed her to YouTube.
