Upon arrival in Baton Rouge I remained unaware that I rode here from New Orleans in a Silver DeLorean DMC-12 with the Doc adjusting the time travel dial to the 1940s until I checked my calendar.
I hadn’t actually traveled back to the time of segregation.
I had only arrived in Baton Rouge, more specifically, on LSU’s campus.
Using the 2010 Summary File 1 dataset from the U.S. Census Bureau, demographic researcher Dustin Cable produced an insightful map of the continental Unites States, marking the approximately 316 million Americans with dots colored according to a specific race.
The freckled map is a stark illustration of segregation in major cities across the U.S.
Buzzfeed, the best website to rot your college-educated brain on, featured certain major U.S. cities such as The Big Apple, L.A. and the nefarious Houston. Buzzfeed author Natalie Morin chose to place Baton Rouge next to these big contenders.
So why would such a large website include our lackluster capitol city?
Because Baton Rouge is a perfect example of residential segregation.
Baton Rouge’s terrible integration comes as no surprise due to the socioeconomic boundaries created in part by America’s history of racial oppression.
Florida Street on the map provides a line between the African American community and the White community.
The blankets of solid color are broken periodically with little pockets of the Asian and Hispanic community.
The effects of racial segregation in the form of clustering are prevalent here on campus as well.
Segregation can be found whether you are walking through the center of the quad where a coterie of young African American students regularly enjoy a little people watching or perhaps while enjoying the particularly blanched view of University Lake provided by the LSU sororities and fraternities.
Unless we are completely ignorant to all unconventional ways of life, we should not by any means fear or hesitate to associate and even live with people of different races.
That’s right. Just because someone dresses eclectically, speaks in a manner not similar yours or is of a different race does not mean they are not equivalent.
You should not fear people who are different from you. Embrace them.
Yesterday, while making my way across campus I was intrigued by loud music while the scent of grilled meat lifted me by my nostrils and carried me over to the Parade Grounds.
Interested in the festivities, I approached the group of African American students stepping in hopes to catch a decent glimpse of the excitement.
After about five minutes, I was approached by a fellow bystander and was reassured that the barbecue was open invitation and that it was safe for me to approach the group.
Unfortunately, a peer of mine assumed I was afraid and perhaps threatened to approach the group based upon both of our races and the stereotypes that match accordingly.
All too often White Americans deem African Americans as threatening.
The opening scene to the Academy Award winning movie “Crash” becomes a regular real life occurrence.
I have witnessed it multiple times.
A white female sees an approaching African American male and become increasingly cautious.
She then clings to her significant other and insists on crossing the street to avoid an approaching African American simply based on his passing.
White flight should be a sickening thing of the past.
We need to realize that if we do not overcome social boundaries created by the evils of segregation and bridge social gaps, we as a city — or even just a campus — can never come together and invest in a converged culture.
If we could even have the predominately white East side of campus encounter the predominately non-white West side of campus on a friendly basis, that would be a start.
Justin Blanchard is a 19-year-old international studies major from Harahan.