Race_and_Your_Community_Eth125_Week9_Final_Paper

Race and Your Community Misty L. Charnesky ETH-125 March 20, 2011 Gregory D.S. Bascomb Abstract Race and Your Community Welcome to Johnstown, Pa, residing in Cambria County and connected closely by Somerset County. Decades of racism have been documented in the area including both Cambria and Somerset Counties; the state of Pennsylvania alone has been a location of many discriminatory and racist accounts. Johnstown and surrounding communities are still working to overcome racism in the area, as most areas are small towns and rural areas with many, what we call, “rednecks.” In the more rural areas of our communities, there is still a high occurrence of racism. I have lived in both Cambria and Somerset Counties and would have to say that Somerset County is the worst. Personally, I deal with racism commonly from friends and even relatives against African American or Black ethnicity. Truthfully, my boyfriend is racist against almost every ethnic group or race except for a select few. Trying to break through to my friends and family that other cultures are just different but still people is just about impossible. I have many friends and relatives who say they are not racist, but when it comes down to it they use racial slurs and look at others differently if they are of a different culture. In my community, there are mainly two groups, White and Black. I do have to say there is many more White than Black here in Somerset and Cambria County. Johnstown itself is a depressed area. We used to have one of the strongest steel industries at one time. After the big flood of 1977, which is well known, and the reason Johnstown, referred to as “Flood City,” businesses were lost and it took almost everything to rebuild. The steel industry remained strong for a number of years but as the economy here dramatically decreased, so did the jobs. Many of our population look about the same. I do not see people running around in business attire much, mainly I can tell by the people and buildings, as can visitors, that we are depressed and have more depression on the way as jobs are increasingly nonexistent. There are similarities in dress around town. Many residents are wearing jeans and T-shirts, most not in good shape. Many second-hand stores around carrying name-brand clothing but are still unaffordable for many. Between the ethnic groups, there is not much difference in appearance or finances. I do have to say that many of the jobs within the school districts are mainly white, more than they were years ago. I believe this is mainly because many of the welfare families stay on welfare. They keep birthing children in order to collect. Johnstown has many big families locally and of those, many are Black. Proven in the Sarah Palin rally on October 13, 2008 racism is still very much alive. One person even held up a monkey and made racial slurs. Many people can find the video of this almost everywhere on the web. There is documentation from visitors and residents of Johnstown stating the economic depression and racial events. One particular visitor commented, “Johnstown seems like a nice town, though seemingly economically depressed.” (Matthew E. Miller) Matthew also commented, “Even for rural Pennsylvania, I saw a shocking lack of diversity.” A high percentage of leaders in the community are White as is the population percentage as well. I have seen instances where Blacks get easier access to welfare and other programs. This is just a way to pacify them as well as keep them at a lower status without forcing them out of town as they did in 1923. I am an average American composed of many ethnic and cultural groups. I personally call myself a “Heinz 57.” In my lineage are Polish, American Indian, German, Italian, and French, among others. My lineage is hard to trace but much of the information in the text about the American Indians interested me. I may only be a small percentage of Blackfoot Indian, which is rare, but I have feelings for these people. Taking land that was rightfully belonging to the Indians still bothers me. The suffering that all American Indians had to endure to be considered Americans upsets me. In my area, there is a small cultural diversity, as was said before. Johnstown has a few cultural events surrounding the Polish and Dutch culture but not any for African Americans. I guess you could say that my area is a “closet” racist area. Many people here do not say what they believe out of fear of riots or racial fights. In the rural regions, you can still find members of the KKK, which is still active in some parts. The local media here does not seem to veer one way or the other when it comes to racism. However, maybe I am not seeing something that others are. The crimes reported do seem to be mainly Black but there are also many White crimes reported on the local news. Depressed areas bring more crime; some people rely on this to support families instead of leaving town for work opportunities. Once you get into Johnstown, you cannot get out. This is something I have said many times myself and heard from other friends and even acquaintances. The local media can only report what they receive and find in the community, and I have not seen bias within the media itself. According to the census done of Cambria and Somerset County in 2000, the region is predominantly White. In Cambria County in 2000, there were 95.8% White, 2.8% Black, 0.9% Hispanic, 0.4% Asian, and 0.4% other races. Of the entire population, there were only reportedly 0.6% of residents consisting of two or more races. I*n Somerset County the numbers were similar for 2000. Somerset County reported 97.4% White, 1.6% Black, 0.7% Hispanic, 0.2% Asian, 0.4% other races, and 0.4% of two or more races. Many of the leaders in our community have relatives that were in high positions in various levels of government or community before them. Seemingly, the area only allows those with higher ranking community members in their families to be accessible to these higher positions of leadership. I would have to say that this accounts for at least 90% of the leaders in the community. Looking at the Welfare and other help groups in the community, you can see that help is available to the low income and many minority groups take advantage of this help. As for work programs or recreational programs within the community, I can think of only a few. The town is just too much in debt to afford the programs needed to jumpstart the community for any member of the community regardless of race or culture. I found that a Black person has an easier time getting Public Welfare than White people in our town. I have many Black friends who get assistance immediately when they apply. In my experience I have to “jump through hoops” to get assistance when I need it. As of today, I do not even have medical because they Assistance Office keeps denying me although I have medical issues that need attention. If I could change the community, the first thing I would do is request more minority groups to be hired into the high status community jobs. There needs to be a change somewhere to make everything equal. Although the community claims not to be prejudice, there is much of it around. Many times racism shown by Whites is disregarded or the person is given a warning or even a simple disorderly conduct for something that should have got more. Only two Black officers are employed in the city of Johnstown, not including the surrounding areas of town. In the past few years, there has been a dramatic change over in the officers. I think that the police stations are one place to start. Recruiting more Black police officers, even if they come from other areas may help in the criminal aspect of being convicted on race alone. Most of the surrounding areas do not even have one Black officer. Many minority people in Cambria and Somerset County have had to assimilate themselves to fit into the community. One article I read called it “integration,” but the meaning is still the same. Jeffrey Wilson said, “An African-American young person in this city has a greater opportunity to mingle in the white community, out of necessity” (Jeffrey Wilson). This tells me that many of the Black community are unhappy of the treatment and conditions. Many Black people dress different from Whites as a rule, but here the Black dress similar to Whites to avoid discrimination. I sat and talked with my mother-in-law on this subject for a while. Rita said that years ago racial slurs were accepted more readily. Today people watch their tongues because of the people coming from out of town are more violent. There is an up-shift of population of Blacks in the Projects. Most come from bigger cities such as, New York, Philadelphia, and Pittsburg that carry illegal guns and sell drugs. This is not something you can pick up just on the news but from other community members as well. At one time, it was mainly Blacks doing the drug dealings but as the economy gets worse here many Whites are resorting to it as well for income to support their families. I remember one case a few years back were an 80-year-old man was convicted for selling Heroin to support his wife’s medical bills. Things like this disturb me that people have to resort to illegal doings to survive in this town nowadays. Personally, I know the crime community as I used to be a drug addict, but clean now two years. In my experience, I have seen the exposed side and hidden side of racism over my 33 years of life. I lived most of my life in the rural areas where the KKK is strong yet. I only moved into the small city 10 years ago two experience the rest. References Federal Reserve Bank of Philadelphia. (2011). Cambria and Somerset County Community Profile. Retrieved from http://philadelphiafed.org/community-development/community-profiles/johnstown/ Griffith, R. (2011). Black adults recall racism. Retrieved from http://tribune-democrat.com/homelands/x966814478/Black-adults-recall-racism Miller, M. E. (2010). RACE 4 2012. Retrieved from http://race42012.com/2008/10/a-report-on-the-johnstown-pa-rally/