"Many white people like to think that racism is really just a Southern problem. Sure, there are ignorant people everywhere, and yes- occasionally- racist incidents happen in California or New York, but those are exceptions. The South was the place that wanted slavery, and the rest of the country fought to end it, right? So how bad can it be once you leave the South?
The answer is very bad. Rodney King was not beaten in the South; he was beaten in Los Angeles. Eric Garner was not choked to death in the South; he was choked in New York. Laquan McDonald was not shot sixteen times while walking away from police officers in the South; he was shot in Chicago. I could, to my great despair, go on for quite some time.
Although white people in our progressive cities and towns may pat themselves on the back for having never called anyone a nigger, many of them also hope we will not notice the strict racial segregation of neighborhoods and schools, the overpolicing of Black and brown neighborhoods, the job discrimination, or the persistent racial wealth gaps.
The concept of race in America was created for the subjugation of Black and brown bodies for the seeming benefit of white Americans. There are no pockets of America that are exempt from this. There is no liberal utopia that got a different memo. The story of hardships that people of color have faced in this country does not end when Black people left the South, and the story of white supremacy doesn't stop at the Mason-Dixon line."
Chapter 4- Mediocre, Ijeoma Oluo
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