Haha. I think you are talking about Schnucks on 64. I shop there too.
Well, I have had some very open conversations with my black friends (one is black for generations here in the States, and the other came here from the Islands, I cannot remember which island, when he was in his teens) and they don’t have much tolerance for black people who try to use being black to get ahead or black people who are paranoid. They are both very successful in their careers.
I really think race relations is more of a socio-economic thing than race. That is, I always thought that until I came to the south. I don’t know what the hell I think now. I notice that white people here, even if they work with black people, rarely are friends outside of work. Do you find that?
Honestly, from my white perspective I believe the vast majority of whites (really high percentage, like 95% of people) are happy to accept black people as equals, but they expect blacks to “conform” to a certain extent. If that makes sense. All of my friends didn’t think twice about Obama being black, really it is a non-issue, it was more of an issue for black people I think, which I understand, but if he had sounded like a black preacher (this goes with what Harry Reid had said) then he would have probably lost. It is not that he should “sound white,” it’s that educated, successful people, in America sound that way. All these things count I think.
And, you cannot deny the crime in Memphis is ridiculous! How do we fix it? How do we get these kids to stay in school? To stop having 4 babies by the time they are 25? Should we ignore that, and just focus on the blacks who are a positive part of the fabric of our nation? Maybe? We ignore the poor white people up in Applachia (although I am not sure if they have the crime, I really don’t know) but that does not address the fact for me that I hate the “war zones” these black neighborhoods have become, I want us to be able to turn that around.