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Hello all! I’m a New Orleans native and have lived here my entire life. I’ve been seeing lots of posts about “crime” and many comments and opinions from people who feel they know the solution.

I’ve seen comments from people stating certain “corner stores” should be closed down as a means to rid the regular customers and the people who hang out in front of the stores [poor blacks]. I’ve also seen comments stating certain “home owners” should be held accountable for the violence that takes place in front of their homes. The people who made these suggestions believe these solutions would deter the crime and violence that takes place in these areas.

Now, I’d like to talk about how tasteless and, of course to many people’s disdain of what I will say next, RACIST those suggestions and suggestions similar are.

First of all, nearly all of the neighborhoods who will be able to view this post had been primarily black for decades. These were the areas poor blacks dominated forever. Gentrification has sadly pushed many black people out of their homes and neighborhoods that they’d lived in for generations. To all of the people who are not natives and who have not lived in these areas for many many years, this is looked at as a win. People who are not from here and who buy these expensive homes, that were no where near these prices 15 years ago, just want to feel safe and rid the criminals. Okay.

I look at it like this, anyone who was born and raised in New Orleans knows that crime is just apart of the culture here. In no way am I saying that crime is acceptable, but it is inevitable. Any urban place is bound to have crime. And especially an urban place where oppression is also present. For those who recommended that the stores where blacks hang out or shop at should be closed or the people sho own the homes they hang out around should be held responsible, how racist do you sound? What you’re saying is, get rid of the blacks and you’d therefore get rid of the crime. It’s sickening. I hope you all know that gentrification is a crime as well. It may not be a crime under the law, but it is surely a crime to rip up families from places they have had their roots embedded for years. So many black schools are now in “white” neighborhoods. That is because it used to be our neighborhoods. But we were thrown out in order for richer and people with lighter complexions to enjoy the culture that we created. Well, the price you all pay is crime. Crime is a direct result or socioeconomic oppression.

Louisiana and New Orleans as a whole and as respective entities do not make any of the things that would help poor Louisianians at all. Our health care is dead last. Our education system is dead last. Our maximum unemployment was $247 a week for God’s sake. Please, someone explain to me what poor people are supposed to do when the place they come from and the place they are supposed to identify with centers all its focus on tourism and attracting outsiders for profit and the locals are left behind. Please explain how poor people are supposed to get the education they deserve when the prison system gets more funding than the school systems. Please explain how poor people are supposed to make an honest living when the jobs here don’t even pay enough to afford the cost of living. This city caters to tourists and everything is centered around what brings in the biggest bucks. The locals are left scraps, yet the city feeds off of our culture. If the government is successful and finally gentrifies the last few black neighborhoods and blacks have no option but to find sanction elsewhere, I hope it’s understood that our culture will go with us. Our crime, our music, our food, our indians, our second-lines, our soul and our spirit.

You CAN NOT take crime and black people out of New Orleans without taking the culture with it. Black people have created majority of the culture of New Orleans that so many know and love us for. It all starts and ends with racism and the unfairness of a system that was never created to include blacks.

If we blacks are gone, so is everything you love about NOLA.

Maybe if more people would understand the part systematic racism has played; the school system becomes a primary focus; healthcare becomes a primary focus; minimum wage becomes a reflection of the cost of living; and maybe if hell freezes over, maybe THEN, the crime rates would be allowed to drop.

Other than that, I recommend the people who can’t take the crime go back to where the hell they came from. I surely wish you all would. Then, we locals who originally lived in the neighborhoods that were stolen from us can sleep comfortably at night with the crime going on outside the way we’ve done for decades. This is OUR house.