First person account of racialized human interactions in community

Race in My Community of Davis

Growing up in a small, suburban college-oriented town, the Pleasantville type of existence is pretty much in my blood. I no longer notice the complete uniformity of the one and two story buildings that occupy the few acres of concentrated retail area called almost euphemistically a downtown. The parks and green belts that dot the landscape, nestled in between the houses that are still far too expensive for what they provide despite the falling housing market elsewhere generally slip past my eyes unnoticed. Everything fits in here; it was designed to be that way and somehow through the hundred years of my hometown's existence the population of human inhabitants -- many of whom came for the college and stayed for the atmosphere -- have managed to keep it that way to a remarkably surprising degree.

While the town continues to grow, the city planners have ensured that as little additional development as possible -- of housing, retail, and infrastructure -- is allowed to occur. This is all in an attempt to maintain the small town feeling that many of the city's planners and leaders recall as the reason they relocated here in the first place. One is hard pressed to find a true native of the community here -- that is, one that was born here and continues to live out their adult life in the area. Such people do, of course, exist, but for some reason they do not appear to be drawn to the politics of the town. These matters are left to those who actually have the time and money to deal with them. These same financially endowed citizens also happen to be the people who care about controlling the town's direction, and the significance of this narrow cadre of leaders is only apparent when one begins to notice the things slipping by.

One of the most conspicuous things about my community, when one stops to peer beneath the Pleasantville exterior, is the issue of race. The town does not have a problem with race or racially motivated crimes. It does not suffer from gang violence, which is often racially affiliated and motivated in other parts of the country. There is not a significant underprivileged minority population living here. In fact, there is not a significant minority population here at al. This is the race issue that my community faces -- an utter lack of diversity.

It is unfair to suggest that all of the people in this community belong to one race. They primarily belong to two general classes -- white and Asian. By Asian, it is also important to understand that this generally means Japanese, Korean, and some Chinese -- that is, they come from countries that are already well developed and did not suffer from civil war and European occupation in the same way as much of the rest of the continent. Census data does not reveal how long they or their families have been in the country, but given the many I know and interact with, it is safe to assume that many if not most were born in the United States, and many of their families have been in the country for three or more generations (U.S. Census Data 2000).

Even with the strong Asian presence in Davis -- over seventeen percent of the total population in 2000 and the second-highest racial demographic by a margin of nearly eight percent (Hispanics and Latinos, the third-largest demographic group, comprised less than ten percent of the total population in 2000; African-Americans, the next largest groups, came in at barely over two percent), an overwhelming seventy percent of the town listed their race as white only (U.S. Census Data 2000). This matches the personal experience s I have had with the faces in my neighborhood -- everyone in my apartment building, without exception, is white.

With so much white and so little else, it might be expected that racial tensions and racialization in general do not pose many problems in Davis. After all, these things are problems that typically occur in diverse cultures, or in encounters with people of a different race. Because such interactions are so rare in Davis, it would seem that there is little opportunity for race to cause any kind of disturbance. And indeed, as noted above, there have been no instances, to my knowledge, of any racially motivated crimes in the community, nor any sort of official or even individual (on a large scale) conscious racialization of policy or behavior.

This does not mean that the town is not racilaized, however. In fact, far from it -- it is my belief that the town is so overly-racialized that it has completely lost its view of the problem. Being populated with (generally) upper-middle class white people with college educations (read: liberal arts schools like UC Davis itself), the citizenry here prides itself on its forward-thinking attitudes and political correctness. At the same time, they are largely spoiled and materialistic. These hypocritical traits have led to some amusing -- or maddening, depending on your perspective -- incidents, such as a lone woman driving to a global warming rally in her brand new SUV (something I actually witnessed; she struggled reaching up into the vast empty back seat for her sign). They have also led to larger institutional issues of racialization.

It is an unfortunate fact that the issues of race and socio-economics are still completely linked in this country. White people (and certain Asians, in certain areas), tend to be more affluent. Hispanics and African-Americans, though there are many examples that do not fit such broad statements, tend to be poorer, less educated, hold worse jobs, and become incarcerated more often (FactFinder 2009). Akthough Hispanics made up a sizeable seventeen percent of the population of Davis in 2000, it is rare to see them on the streets. Thre is a certain neighborhood -- actually a very long street -- where many Hispanic families live, and they generally keep to themselves. This area of town is also the poor part of town, home to Davis' only trailer park and running for a mile along the railroad tracks that are still in use several times a day.

While the bulk of the Asians and white people in Davis hold white collar jobs, or work in retails at the very lowest, almost all of the Hispanics of working age have jobs in kitchens or in other service industries such as house cleaning and construction -- often as day laborers. Though this racialization can not be put solely on the shoulders of the city's leaders and citizens, the policies formed and adhered to by the City Council over the past few decades have certainly contributed to the racial schism that exists in Davis at present. It can also be shown to be at least partially responsible for the dearth of diversity that exists within my community.

First, it might be important to note the racial makeup of the city's leaders. Traditionally, the city council of Davis (like that of many smaller cities, I expect) is made up of many very big fish that come, however recently, from what is essentially a very small pond. Of course, they must be whitefish -- or possibly Asianfish. Currently, of the five members on the council, two are Asian and three are white (City of Davis 2009). The same basic makeup, less the Asians in many years, has existed for several decades, with only a very rare Hispanic or African-American face coming up (City of Davis 2009). Of course, this accurately reflects the voting citizenry of the town, but it could also possibly create many issues.