I went to a half black, half redneck high school. It was a cauldron of racism against each group.

I once lived a year in what was about four blocks too far into the hood in a second-tier american city, think Durham but a little larger. Plenty of material there.

(http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=5129075&forum_id=2#44679545)

Every black dad (almost all of the kids had fathers or grandfathers in their lives) worked on cars. Somehow, every damn one of them had a car shop behind their house. That was a place you did not go as a white kid. There were fucking dogs chained up everywhere. There always seems to be a fight brewing over someone not paying a bill. I once ran back to one of the shops on a dare. It was the first time I saw a picture of a woman naked. It was a magazine centerfold model - pretty black woman, poofed out Afro, sitting on a couch flashing her hairy pussy with nearly as much hair as her head. I’ll never forget that image.

(http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=5129075&forum_id=2#44679592)

Shoes were a huge fucking deal on the bus. If you get on the bus the first day with Payless shoes on, you were fucked for the year. Kids got burned for this in first fucking grade. They all had Payless shoes! As we got older, Payless shoes gave way to Reeboks. When the Pumps came out, Jesus Christ, it was annoying. Everyone was pumping each other up. They would make it a part of the announcements - “if you are caught repeatedly pumping up your shoes, you will have them taken from you for the rest of the day.” And you know what? Every fucking day four or five kids would be walking around in some dirty ass socks.

I once really wanted a pair of shoes everyone was talking about on the bus. I begged my parents for them. So when Christmas can around, I salivated stay the wrapped present about the size of a shoe box. It sat under our tree for five days before Christmas. Five days of waiting. Anticipating. Hoping it was a RC car in a box. On Christmas Day I opens that box first. Inside were horrible knock-off-Payless looking pair of the shoes I wanted. Now, I was fucked. Kids knew the deal in the black neighborhood. You got shoes once a year. You either got them at the start of the school year, or if your parents were poor, you got them on layaway come Christmas. And by Christmas your shoes were so fucked up, you had to wear what you got. So first day back to school form break, I step onto the bus. A bus full of black kids hooting and hollering. I thought I could sneak on and keep my head low. Nope. Everyone gets quiet to see what shoes I had on. Now, I am not fucking lying about this next part. The bus driver said: “dem bo-bos!” The entire bus erupted into laughter and kids yelling “he got bo-bos!” “de bo-bos!”

(http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=5129075&forum_id=2#44679684)

In elementary school I was one of the first on and last off. In middle school I was the absolute last on, but then we had a 30 minute drive to school. So not only was the bus ripe by time I got on, there was no where to sit because I went to fucking public school in the 80’s and they didn’t give a fuck if they put to many kids on a single bus route. Especially my bus route. I would have to walk up and down the isle while we drove, trying to find a place to sit down. Usually there were seats, people would just be using the whole bus seat as a bed. Finally I had enough and I cried about it to my mom. Bad idea. She called the bus driver at his house and demanded that he save me a seat on the bus so I didn’t get bullied by the other kids and have to stand the entire ride. Thanks mom. So when I get on the bus the next morning, the bus driver gets over the loud speaker and said, “shut ‘em up, I got something to say. See this boy here. We are saving him a special seat. Just for him. Right up here where he belongs on the front of the bus.” Everyone cracked up laughing. I had no idea what that meant but was embarrassed beyond belief anyway.

On the highway, on the bus ride, kids would drool over cars. Most of the cars around there were shit. Lots of trucks, which they didn’t care about. But every once in a while a Mustang would zoom by and some kid would say “that my car.” First one to say it makes it their car. It was an unwritten rule of black bus culture. To have the car meant nothing more than to say that was your car. But kids would get in fucking fist fights if someone said it wasn’t your car. Like, someone would claim an Audi. Another kid would say, “that ain’t your Audi, your cheap ass momma got her car repo’ed last week.” Fights would break out. It was hilarious. Sometimes a station wagon wagon would go by and someone would say, “that white boys car” and everyone would laugh and yell “she said that white boys car lol”.

One time one of those tractor trailers carrying like 20 cars on the back was driving in front of us. They all yelled to the bus driver to speed up to catch the truck. As we got closer it was a truck full of shitty 80s sports cars that looked flashy back then. The bus broke into mayhem. People were yelling “dat my car!” “dat my car!” Claiming whatever car they could without regard for the rules. Fights broke out. Multiple fights. I was at the front of the bus so I was able to stay out of it. Save for one kid that just sucker punched me in the gut for no reason then he jumped into the bigger fight. The bus driver stopped on the side of the road and shut that shit down quick. You did not fuck with our bus driver.

(http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=5129075&forum_id=2#44679836)

Next time I’m on the road, I’m gonna claim my car

(http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=5129075&forum_id=2#44679848)

Family reunions are a huge deal in the black community. During the summer, there was a large family reunion at the local park almost every weekend. Since I was friends with a lot of kids, and I lived near the park, I would end up at a lot of these events in the summer. Always the only white kid there, which led to lots of jokes. I remember one in particular. I was maybe 10. An old black man, probably the patriarch of the family, was holding court near the bbq. I went to get some food and had to navigate all of the guys standing around listening to the old man jawing on about some nonsense. Anyway, I get my hot dog and the old man called me out - "who is this white boy? Jerome, you been stuffin' your bosses wife again?" I had no idea what that meant so I sheepishly walked away.

T-shirts were a big thing at these reunions. But the families were so intermixed, when you went to one reunion, people were wearing shirts from all different family reunions they attended. I always found that interesting. Also, the basic shirt had the family name and the year of the reunion. But sometimes they would get creative and put the face of one of the family members that recently died. But they were all the cheapest shirts you could get screen printed at the local shop. So the pictures were always fucked up somehow. Can't remember any good fucks off hand, but I do remember the quality of the shirts were always a source of fighting at the event.

(http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=5129075&forum_id=2#44682683)

https://res.cloudinary.com/teepublic/image/private/s--swy8RFPO--/t_Resized%20Artwork/c_crop,x_10,y_10/c_fit,w_442/c_crop,g_north_west,h_626,w_470,x_-14,y_-12/g_north_west,u_upload:v1462829015:production:blanks:mtl53ofohwq5goqjo9ke,x_-409,y_-337/b_rgb:eeeeee/c_limit,f_auto,h_630,q_90,w_630/v1465405743/production/designs/536933_1.jpg

(http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=5129075&forum_id=2#44683309)

During law school I moved in with a friend that recently bought a rehabbed house that was about four blocks north of where the neighborhood had been gentrified. It was dirt cheap and he was hoping that the neighborhood would improve as more yuppies moved into the city. Never happened.

I was scared to death at first. I would park my car, sometimes a few blocks away, when I got home at night and ran at full sprint, with my backpack on, to my house. The people on our block, at least our half of the block, knew us and looked out for us - the only two white people that lived anywhere near their world. Four blocks is like 20 miles in the hood.

We made friends with our neighbors. The couple next door, a retired trash collector named Man and his wife, were fucking riots. The first time we met them, my buddy made Man a Mojito and he loved it. He was a strict beer drinker until then. They would sit on the front stoop and ask for Mojitos whenever they saw us. It was like we had discovered some magic elicer that was exotic to them. Man was maybe 65 years old. He would go to a local club/bar on Tuesday nights to dance. His wife didn't dance, so he went alone, would get fucking wasted, and come home to tell us about all the "cunny" he could have had there if he was younger.

Across the street lived a young black girl maybe 16 years old. She was pretty, a little overweight, and a high school drop out. Her dad was not in her life and her mother was a drug addict. I think her brother sold drugs in the alley behind their house. She would come hang out with Man on the stoop sometimes. I came home one day and was hanging out with Man when she came over for the first time. I was fairly attracted when I was younger and when she found out I was in law school, she immediately cozied up to me. She was rubbing on my arm, said I was cute, asked for my number, etc. While she was 16, you got to remember that she would likely be pregnant before turning 18, which ended up happening (not by me). Anyway, she would come over to our house all the time to play Madden on PS2 (I think it was PS2). I always hated when she would come over because she would be all over me. And she would say some of the nasties sexual stuff I've ever heard. She talked about getting shit on, pissed on, beat up during sex at 14, etc. Turns out she had a boyfriend that was a drug dealer one neighborhood over. He would come by a few times a month, bang her out, and leave not to be seen again until he couldn't find someone at home to fuck. One time he came over and she was at our house. He walked across the street and walked right into our house, no knocking. I was upstairs avoiding the girl. He grabbed a drink and sat on the couch like he owned the place. When I came downstairs, I don't think he realized he was in a white person's house. He flipped the fuck out. First about why I was there, then why his girlfriend was there. It was the closest I ever felt that I would be killed by another person. He could have pull a gun without a second thought. While I never got him to completely to chill out, he did calm down enough to talk for a while. He told me about being a drug dealer, killing people on the street and running from the cops. He was proud that his dad was in his life... his dad had been in prison since he was 7 but his dad "taught him to fight" before he got locked up, so he felt like that was good parenting. Of course that made me feel really safe now. He eventually left with the girl and told her "bitch don't be hanging out with these crackers, they fuck you up in the head." Not sure what that meant, but I strongly avoided her after that and kept the door locked at all times.

(http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=5129075&forum_id=2#44682830)

One time drug dealer boyfriend was hanging out with Man on the stoop and either 16-year-old girl’s brother or the drug dealer behind me starting talking shit about him being on their block at night. During the day was fine? But at night it was fighting words. So drug dealer boyfriend calls his boys, and other drug dealer calls his boys to show up to rumble. I’m upstairs reading CivPro cases for class. My roommate yells to me that a fight is brewing outside. I went downstairs and looked out of the front window. Shirts were flying everywhere. Blacks take off their shirts before they fight. It is entire ritual of disrobing, beating their chests, yelling curse words, etc before a fight happens. Saw it happen several times. Just as drug dealer boyfriend is taking off his shirt, right in front of my window, a guy on the other team took out a .22 handgun and shot drug dealer boyfriend in the shoulder two times. I drove for the couch. Everyone runs from the scene. Roommate runs downstairs, opens the door and drags a bleeding drug dealer boyfriend into the house. I call 911. Drug dealer boyfriends friend comes in with gun drawn and tells drug dealer boyfriend to “sit yo ass down, dem .22 shits move around inside you.” He turned out to be fine after a few days in the hospital. Cops never found the shooter but everyone knew who it was (except us).

(http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=5129075&forum_id=2#44684001)

But like all of us, your actions speak far, far louder than your words. You don’t want to live among them either.

(http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=5129075&forum_id=2#44680949)

Niggers are shit, this isn’t controversial

(http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=5129075&forum_id=2#44681161)

there are some nice black neighborhoods that are friendly and safe. but there are also many that are worse than the third world.

(http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=5129075&forum_id=2#44681286)

The liquor store had bullet proof glass and you didn’t want to go there after 9 PM if at all possible. I’d see a nice grandpa there every Friday with his grandson. He’d get the kid a happy meal and a 40 and flask of vodka for himself. The local fried chicken joint had the same setup and a bullet proof drive through.

Chinese restaurants didn’t just sell Chinese food, but also catered to black people by selling fried chicken, french fries, etc.

If you heard loud noises on the street, you would get the fuck out of there. Every fight (including a shooting I saw) was preceded by yelling between two individuals/groups.

If you left anything out and unlocked, it was liable to be stolen. There was no sense even buying a decent bike because locks were routinely cut. Same for BBQs. One day, my car was broken into in my own garage. I normally was meticulous about never leaving anything in the car, but I’d just come back from a road trip and ran inside to shit for 15 minutes on a Friday afternoon. During that time, my passenger window was smashed and some CDs and a few board games were stolen. I hope those motherfuckers enjoy Scategories…

I stayed out of the alley if it was dark out. There aren’t enough streetlights and there are so many places for someone to hide and jump you. And there were routinely smashed up drug vials in the alley.

The supermarkets all advertised that they took WIC and people would be selling shit outside of them like laundry detergent etc. that I think was stolen or purchased with WIC money.

Trash was just thrown wherever more or less. It wouldn’t be uncommon to see chicken bones, corn cobs, and shit just thrown on the street. Nobody gave a shit or ever picked it up.

People generally were more pleasant and outgoing than in white neighborhoods, but you didn’t want to get talking too long. If you stopped to get gas and the guy next to you liked your car, you would be worried he was going to follow you home and rob you.

Violence was mostly between criminals. Though a few weeks before I moved out, a clerk was shot dead during a robbery at the local video store. For no real reason.

The local pharmacy sold booze. All the Hennessy and Gray Goose had to be locked up. I never saw anyone ask for it, but there were always Henny and Remy bottles on the street or in the garbage near take out restaurants. And oddly Moet champagne too.

(http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=5129075&forum_id=2#44682798)

if anything, it was loud, but the dominicans and puerto ricans were just as likely as the blacks to be making the ruckus.

i dunno...it was hood, but it was fine all things considered. the danger was in going into strange neighborhoods where you don't know anybody. the people around you were fine and i remember everyone talking to everybody. like all the adults knew each other. i kinda miss it.

(http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=5129075&forum_id=2#44683569)

Generally speaking...

The bane of whites, Percy said, is everyday life.

The bane of blacks, Percy said, is governing themselves.

(http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=5129075&forum_id=2#44685138)