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then you know what this kind of living is. There was a time in America before the 1970s when EVERY city of any size was divided up like this.
And there has NEVER been a time when white America has not had the uncontrollable urge to visit (slum) in the black areas, to see how "they" live and enjoy/appropriate "their" music and dance.
Going back in history, I have pictures of folks in NYC in the late 1800s being taken on guided tours through the stinking slums of NY. The women holding up their long skirts and petticoats with hankies over their delicate noses as they came to the forbidden territory that they were so anxious to see as entertainment.
It is a well known fact that famous white artists like Eddie Cantor, Mae WEst, and Al Jolsen got their material from visiting uptown Harlem hotspots.
We all know just how welcome black jazz artists have always been to white artists. Rick Burns did a wonderful documentary about jazz but it was highly critized by white music critics because he gave black jazz artists too much credit for teaching the art form to white muisicans.
It is the thrill of the dangerous and the unknown. But these white visitors always wanted to be greeted as "special" and "accepted" and most black people accomodated them because actually, a great number of black people are just naturally warm and friendly. Does anyone remember when Queen Elizabeth was on a visit to the US and she was taken to the house of a poor black woman, who, not knowing protocol, proceeded to immediately wrap the Queen in a huge loving welcome-to-my-house hug? You could have bought all of those snooty white folks for a penny and got some change. No one is supposed to touch the Queen, but of course, this lady didn't know that.
Before the 1980s you couldn't find a white barbeque joint anywhere in a white neighborhood and white folks grilled only hamburgers and hot dogs, at home not ribs. Tailgate parties consisted of soda and chips - not the huge rib cookouts we see today. Then in the late 1970, Cleveland, Ohio had a big "rib burnoff" in a downtown park and white people came out of the woodwork to see and taste and get recipes. Today, watching the food channel you would think white chefs invented the art of American "q" as well as Chinese food.
So when they re-open NOLA with fewer black folks as residents, a lot of the rich cultural flavor will be gone forever.
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