week 7

This week I commented on James Lee's blog. You can find it here: http://jimmyinlosangeles.blogspot.com/2012/11/blogging-in-city-of-angels-week-6.html?showComment=1352750281527#c4772056218399597750


My comment is posted below.


Hi James,
I found your comments about safety to be interesting. You mentioned that as the bus traveled through different areas you were able to see a change in the kind of people who were riding the bus. I would like to acknowledge that since you traveled through a large cross section of Los Angeles, you likely passed through many ethnoburbs. I wonder, what about going through these said areas made you feel that it was unsafe? Did it make you feel unsafe because of race or class differences? More specifically what about these differences felt threatening?

I would like to introduce an article from the LA Times that was written about riding a bus through the neighborhood you mentioned, Inglewood.
http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/lanow/2012/11/bus-rape.html
It seems that others are voicing the same feelings that you did about safety in this area. Just this week a young girl was raped while riding a bus through Inglewood. This brings in to question the kind of people who ride this bus regularly and raises true safety concerns. I find it interesting that without prior knowledge of the area, you were able to observe the differences and feel differently while passing through. Class differences are the basis of all difference according to Marx, yet often these differences coincide with race. This leads us to form prejudgments about a persons class, which may not be visible, by examining their race. It is likely that you felt unsafe due to class differences, as opposed to race differences, yet since these two have such an indivisible relationship, it is easy for this to go unrecognized.

When we begin talking about race and prejudice, we tend to become uncomfortable. No one wants to be accused of being racist. However these issues are still affecting daily life. Even though we have come a long way, race is still a dividing factor in many cases. Coates addresses these issues and highlights their relevance in today's society in "Fear of a Black President." Despite the prominence of race as a dividing factor, we are able to see our progress often, like just last week when Obama was reelected.
Race and class differences can lead to feelings of compromised safety in public situations, as you illustrated in your post.