Friday, August 04, 2006

For Whites in Prince George's, a Mirror on Race


For Whites in Prince George's, a Mirror on Race:

"County's Black Affluence Reverses Roles
By Lonnae O'Neal Parker
Washington Post Staff Writer

The swimming pool in Abby Hopper's Bowie development was already crowded when Hopper, her husband, their two toddler girls, her sister-in-law and her two young kids arrived in a cloud of plastic buckets, kickboards and Cinderella floaties. Just settling in was a huge production. Then, sitting in her lounger, Hopper finally looked around. There had to be 75 people at the pool.
They were the only whites.

Hopper, 35, felt that stab -- call it acute self-consciousness. She didn't know the people around her, and they didn't know her. What if Madeline made a splashy mess or Ellie took another child's floatie -- because that's what little kids do. What if the other moms thought her girls were some entitled-feeling white kids, with their entitled-feeling white mother looking on?

Pause.

Okay, what would happen ?

Long pause. "Well, nothing physical," Hopper says slowly. Maybe just a bad scene.

The pang passed as fast as it came. Hopper recognized a mom from the neighborhood toddler play group she helped organize and saw the family from down the street in the baby pool. Everything was back to being all good; just a regular these-are-the-people-in-my-neighborhood kind of thing.

Two years ago, the Hoppers moved from a nearly all-white neighborhood in Baltimore to Prince George's County, where Abby Hopper had grown up around all kinds of people. She says she wants that for her kids. Her husband, Greg, also likes that they got a lot more house for the money
"

2 Comments:

Anonymous Anonymous said...

Just found your blogsite, Gregory, and wanted to provide you with a shout out. Looking forward to reviewing the previous and upcoming excerpts.

3:59 PM  
Blogger Greg L said...

Hi Walee,

Glad you made it over here. I'll be doing my best to keep this current with articles of interest I run across. Thanks for stopping by!

11:15 PM  

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