AMERICAN RACISM AND MY VISIT TO PHILADELPHIA AND CAMDEN

[Morpheal]

I recall my journey into the downtown heart of Philadelphia in the 1990s.
I had a relationship in Philadelphia, but in the suburbs, with a white, Jewish, professional lady.
I am white.

I noticed the racial tension in the better areas of Philadelphia right away.
People of color behave differently than I would have expected, being from much further north.
In fact I live in Canada. We have racial tensions here too, but it is amazing how different the
social atmosphere is.

Oh, everyone was polite, but there was that notable tension.

Then I found out that the old factories nearer to the river were all black, and that whites do
not go there. It's not considered safe for whites to go there. So I was told. Huge multi storey
factory buildings converted into black clubs, and exclusively black.

Then we drove across the river into Camden, New Jersey. What I saw made me think I had
entered a war zone. This is on the road towards Atlantic City, from Philadelphia, liberty city,
right after crossing the bridge. Buildings half destroyed. Maybe commercial structures by the
looks of them. Completely abandoned. They would not have looked worse if the US air force
had strafed and bombed them. Beyond those monumental ruins, there were attached and
semi detached houses, but no windows. Every window was boarded up. Apparently you cannot
maintain a glass surface in Camden. I thought it was an abandoned part of town, maybe
slated for demolition, but then noticed that there were people, all blacks, coming out of
various buildings, and running as if afraid of being shot down by an enemy in mid stride,
from building to building. They ran, like in combat, and disappeared through the doors of
wherever they were headed to. I assume they were afraid for their own lives, when they
stepped outside of those boarded up houses. Those houses were all inhabited by people.
Black people.

Now, I know that in history Camden was the home of the first black regiment. Something
like that. I am not really up on American history all that much now. Did a course in high
school and read the books. Camden gets mentionned right back to the Civil War. It was that
promise of emancipation. Whatever that means. I didn't see anyone in Camden looking
emancipated and it was more than a hundred years later.

Clearly something was wrong. My lady friend simply took it for granted as how it is. No one
stops in Camden, and you hope to heaven that your vehicle never breaks down until you
get out of Camden town.... and yes, people live in those ruins, behind those boarded up
windows, in that miserable war torn condition that most urban guerillas would tend to
want to stay away from.

Yes, there was racial tension in America.

Maybe it was worse in Philadelphia than in some other places, because of Camden. I don't
think that was it. I don't think it was because of Camden.

I did feel that there is a lot of anti white racism among blacks, as there is anti black racism
among whites. It came across as being a racist country, even from visiting Philadelphia. It
saddened me because I am not a racist and had a small bit pawn player part in the
dismantling of apartheid as it existed in South Africa to give blacks more voice in their
own country and its politics. Little interventions are sometimes like chaos theory where
the ripples caused by the wings of an insect over the Atlantic can cause a storm to occur
in the Pacific. It works that way sometimes. But racism disturbs me. I was even more
disturbed by the tacit acceptance of "that's how it is" and 'everyone knows it is that way"
as if that is how it ought to be. My friend had no concept of anything different. It was
simply what white Philadelphians accepted as the "truth" in "liberty" city.

When I think of those solidiers from Camden who fought for "liberty" and gave their lives
in every war since the Civil War, trying to fight their way out of the poverty and
wretchedness that Uncle Sam has never given one tinker's damn about, I feel sick inside.
I want to vomit and I want to punch Uncle Sam right in the nose, because I hate what
he has done. It isn't right. It isn't how it ought to be.

It was worse in Georgia, but it wasn't as much a war torn wasteland. It was more racist,
and more obviously divided between black and white, and there were larger tensions there,
but somehow there wasn't the level of black despair and poverty that there was in
Philadelphia and Camden. There wasn't that repressed, violent, hatred for white America,
evident to this visitor to "liberty" city.

Robert Morpheal

[Morpheal]

1. COROLLARY TO RACISM: CAMDEN MAKES GOOD SOLDIERS

Of course no one had to worry, during the Cold War years about the destruction of that general area
situated as it was near to the famous naval shipyards. It was expected.

That would be one place on the certain target list for nuclear warheads from the USSR.

Not much resolve to rebuild and develop. Not much interest in progress.

And for another reason. Camden, being kept so poor, is a great place to recruit soldiers
already made angry enough about other issues, and looking for a legal target to vent their
anger against. Yes, Camden and the ghettos of Philadelphia, make good soldiers. All you
need to do is point those ready made weapons of destruction at an enemy and they will
kill for you, but they would rather kill you if they could.

Robert Morpheal

[oozingfester]

2. Camden

I read your post, and at first I thought, how silly is this guy, he doesn't know anything about Camden or Philadelphia. Then I thought, no, this is probably his actual assessment of what he saw while visiting the area. Where do I begin... In the first place, never allow a suburban Philadelphian to guide you through downtown Philadelphia. In many cases, except for sports games, and possibly visiting historic attractions, usually as a grade school student, they have been to Philadelphia about as often as the average Canadian. I exaggerate of course, but not too much. Factories by the rivers filled with blacks only? That's not true. The clubs are dance clubs, and they are in converted factories, but plenty of whites go to these clubs.

Why on earth focus on a black regiment from Camden? It has nothing to do with the complete collapse of the manufacturing based economy of Philadelphia and Camden. Philadelphia was the premier manufacturing city in the entire world in the late 19th century. The first industry to be challenged by cheaper imports was the textile industry at the beginning of the 20th century, and after a long steady decline, Philadelphia ceased to be a manufacturing city altogether by the 1970's. The antiquated multi-story factories are abandoned, and the whites, and most blacks no longer live in the tiny cramped row homes that were built in the 19th century, with no indoor plumbing, or electricity. By the late 1930's most had a small addition slapped on the back with plumbing, or were retrofitted to have indoor plumbing and electricity, but the "trinity," home, three floors, each with a 10'X12' room were not appealing in the post WWII era. Highways were built and white folks fled the cities in droves. By the 1980,s and 1990's, many if not most blacks, have also fled the older neighborhoods of Philadelphia and Camden. Camden is very rough to look at because, unlike Philadelphia it isn't as important historically, and doesn't have the wealth of cultural institutions that Philadelphia has. Meanwhile, the area along the river in Camden next to the old sites of Campbell Soup, and RCA Radio, is a huge tourist attraction, with an outdoor theater, aquarium, and The Battleship New Jersey. Sorry, my Canadian friend, but the best we can do is clear out this abandoned inventory of decrepit housing, and defunct factories. By the way, Philadelphia had a population of 2.2 million in 1952, and now is just over 1 million. You don't share the same history in Canada. The picture you paint of total segregation and blacks running from house to house, and living in homes with no windows is false. Most blacks simply do not live under these conditions. You were driving through an area where, in fact, very few people live, of any race. Racism is real in the US, but you did not understand what you were seeing.