Where Did All of the Children Go?
I’m a holiday junkie. I go all out for every holiday. I’m big on Halloween. I decorated the front porch, purchased a pirate costume and loaded up on candy with the expectations of handing out candy all evening. But I feel victim to my neighborhood.
Let me paint a picture for you. I live in Ladera Heights, an upper middle class, black neighborhood of Los Angeles. It is a beautiful place with beautiful homes. The problem that I have is that these black folks are like none that I’ve ever encountered. They are aloof, distant and snooty. It doesn’t feel like a neighborhood at all.
Ok, so it’s Halloween night and I have over a dozen bags of candy to hand out. I’m expecting a constant stream of children yelling “Trick or Treat”. What do I get? Trickle. There were hardly any kids walking around. More importantly, there was hardly anyone handing out candy. I believe my home was one of only two on out block handing out candy. It was very sad. I did find out that the action was at the top of the hill. But I would have thought my neighborhood would be a gold mine for candy.
Jaimie and I were warned about kids coming from South LA to trick or treat. I did get a lot of kids from outside the neighborhood. But guess what… they were just kids looking to score big. They weren’t rude, pushy or said anything out of the ordinary.
I believe the tension comes from my snooty neighbors treating them differently when the truth is that the kids from South LA want to have fun like other kids. I’m disappointed in my neighbors. Hopefully, the will step up at Christmas.
11:36 PM I know the feeling, we live in a decent hood, A couple of years ago vans would pull up filled with kids and they would hit every house...
Now we probably had 30 kids tops.
I think it's because of the election. The most popular costume this year was Nacy Pelosi.... LMAO
People are enjoying their time with there kids until the world ends after the democrats take over.
They might be building bomb shelters or making lead vests...
Just kidding.
later...
9:53 AM James, I am in LA, so I know exactly where you live.
There are a lot of factors re: The Trick o Treating and the decline of such. (by the way, I was chief trick o treater back in the day). Anyway, moving on:
1. Most children (In LA basin - except for smaller suburban communities) take their children to the mall, or participate in school or church related functions for safety and/or other reasons.
2. The persnickity area that you live in (and it is a beautiful area) is all a pretense. Meaning, that the attitude that pervades crosses age (children) barriers. Meaning, being bougeois is not a matter of what you have materialistically - that doesn't matter. It's a state of mind. An air of "I've arrived". When in actuality, having arrived is relative.
Of course, all that I say, This is a generality. Everyone up there is NOT like that, there are exceptions to the rule, but exceptions prove the rule. . .
James: Y'all ballers? Staying in The LDH.
5:05 PM P,
I'm from the slums of Chicago so I don't know much about LDH except that it is nice and there are a lot of black folks.
I just wish they had more sense of a community.
2:01 PM To Jay (James),
Chance: You live in a good high income type neighborhood good for you JAY, but yes it is true that we in L.A. don’t have a sense of community because certain blacks have made it hard on us. Many of the blacks here a always trying to get into your personal business, they are aloof meaning they try to avoid you in an undercover way hoping that you don’t sense they are trying to avoid you, etc it makes you feel like you just live there and when you see a lot of your fellow blacks in your neighborhood you feel a feeling of inner distance emanating from them this inner distance creates separation from other blacks and other blacks can sense that these blacks want to be distant. They do because of fear that one might be one of those types of negative untrustworthy type of black. Also, during hurricane Katrina many blacks who did not have cars could not get rides with fellow lacks because many blacks don’t trust blacks they don’t know and this is understandable. Blacks we need to raise our collective moral consciousness so when blacks encounter each other there won’t be a lot of un-trust-full-ness. Whites in general trust the average white stranger for blacks it is the reverse the difference is what whites have encountered from the average fellow white who is a stranger the collective moral consciousness of whites causes them to trust each other. Because they have encountered white strangers on many occasions who were very nice too them.
You take care, Jay
By Chance