It has recently come to my attention
that Pittsburgh is still firmly ensconced in the 1960's, and it makes
me profoundly sad. Back in the 60's I was a child who believed that
my generation would fix things. I was sure that by the time that I
was an adult attitudes would
be changed and people would respect each other. I'm all grown up
now, and apparently not a lot has changed. OK, there has been some
progress – progress that I think is measured very differently
depending on your perspective. From a white, middle class background
I recognize the huge differences in the number of minority students
attending universities; the number of highly positioned minority
professionals; minority politicians (yes, even as high as our
president), and I think “things” are different! Then I
talk with some friends and I discover how wrong I am. Those things
only indicate that the nation has been slowly improving in some
aspects. They say nothing of attitudes. To my shock and
embarrassment I've learned that Pittsburgh, in particular, is not a
nice place at all. We think we have a wonderful community. We're so
proud of our Black N Gold, of all our recent positions in those Top
Ten lists for this or that. What a great place this is supposed to
be to move to or visit. Little did I realize that an educated,
professional, black, man is still treated like a second class citizen
on a regular basis here. This is not an aberration. This is not
just a few prejudiced individuals being jerks. This in an ongoing
problem for him and my other educated, professional, minority
friends. Wow. I was ashamed to hear stories of how they're treated
by people that they aren't even interacting with. Walking down the
street or riding a bike and passing motorists yell crude, racist
comments at them. Our local law enforcement officers stop them for
no reason to ask them where they got their bike!!! AND I DON'T MEAN
IN A FRIENDLY 'WHERE-CAN-I-GET-MYSELF-ONE” KIND OF WAY. This is
appalling behavior to me. These are good, law abiding, businessmen
who can't move about our city minding their own business without
being harassed, humiliated or made to fear for their safety.
I don't know how to fix this. Part of
me hopes that my childish beliefs just underestimated how long change
would need to really take root. That now sounds naïve even to me.
Maybe when this generation is my age things will be different, but do
we really want to wait? I'm challenging Pittsburghers to step
up. NOW. Start treating each other with the respect that you want
to be treated with. When you witness someone being a jagoff, call
them out on it. Teach your children and grandchildren to treat
others right. It doesn't matter how much pigment someone does or
doesn't have in their skin – they have a right to basic, courteous,
respectful treatment. Think about it. If you can't treat people
decently you have no right to be proud of yourself or your city.
