hopey
Since no one has opened a new thread, I’m posting my comments on this one…
Let me tell you a story about when I first moved from Chicago to Seattle. When I lived in Chicago, I became accustomed to shopping at mexican grocery stores from time to time, because my ex-husband had spent significant time living in Mexico as a child. (He also introduced me to the joy that is paletas, and taught me how to order them in Spanish, to the immense amusement of the paleta cart guys! But I digress…) When I moved to Seattle, the acquaintances I knew here all lived on the north side — Cap Hill, UDist, Green Lake, etc. I asked them: “Where are the Mexican grocery stores? Anybody know where I can go to buy really fresh tortillas?” Nobody knew. Not a single one. According to them, there wasn’t a Hispanic district or anything like that.
Imagine my surprise when my fiance and I decided to move to West Seattle, on the southernmost part of the peninsula. We started exploring White Center and Burien mostly out of convenience. And holy crap! THIS is where all the Mexican grocery stores are! You practically can’t spit without hitting one!
This was quite eye-opening to me. Why didn’t they know that White Center/Burien has a large Hispanic population? Was it the quality of my (white, middle-aged, female, mostly single) acquaintances? Was it because of provincialism — anything that’s not north of Lake Union isn’t worth knowing about? (In Chicago, locals may not know every neighborhood intimately, but for the most part people can tell you the “flavor” of the major neighborhoods — i.e., Pilsen is where the Puerto Rican Day parade is held, so if you’re looking for PR goods in Chicago, try there.) Or is Seattle truly passive-aggressive racist as folks here are suggesting? I don’t really have an answer for that, but I will simply remark that none of those “friends” will visit me in my new digs.
Edited to add: to address the “White Center has always had crime” idea… Again, coming from Chicago, it’s not challenging for me to think that a neighborhood which was high-crime in my youth could — and naturally WOULD — improve as time goes on. People change, neighborhoods change, sometimes for good and sometimes not. Maybe this goes back to Chicagoans having a baseline knowledge of the city’s neighborhoods. If you are not aware of the neighborhoods, then how could you possibly be aware that this one’s improving, that one seems to be taking a dive, etc?
Be aware of your city. Know the lay of the land, without being judgmental about it. White Center/Burien is where the Hispanics live right now. Okay, cool, nothing wrong with that! Maybe ten years from now they’ll have shifted over to Beacon Hill. Maybe ten years from now West Seattle will be known as the new gay district. Who knows — but the lack of awareness here does suggest at best simple provincialism and ignorance, and at worst an unacknowledged racism.