The Role Of African Americans In Horace Clayton's Black Metropolis

In the book Black Metropolis, St. Clair Drake and Horace Clayton show the lives of African Americans during the Great Depression. In their description, one particular phenomenon catches my attention: The white accept a few black residents in their residential area; however, when the number of black people increase, the white start to move out of the area and eventually the area will become “black neighborhood”. In my opinion, the reaction of the white to the increasing number of African American reveals part of their thoughts about the African American. In fact, during the great depression, most white people are more afraid of the black rather than discriminate them. This fear of the black people comes from the difference in cultural background.
As Drake …show more content…
During the 1970s, a large number of Tibetan migrated from Tibet to my hometown, Chengdu -- a metropolis in south-west China. However, there was a significant culture difference between the local residence and the Tibetan. Growing up pasturing, most Tibetan were unfamiliar with communication skills; some of them can hardly communicate in mandarin (because their first language is Zang language). Moreover, most of the Tibetan believed in Tibetan Buddhism which the local residents in Chengdu knew little about. As a result, local residents started to isolate the migrated Tibetan and the area of Tibetan was formed in the city during that time period. I used to ask my parents about their first impression about the Tibetan after the migration. My father answered: “I simply don’t know what they want. They dress differently and talk in another language in their own group. The only thing I can do is get away from them”. The local residents of Chengdu showed similar reaction to the migrated Tibetan as the white show to the African American. The local residents are unfamiliar with and afraid of the unknown Tibetan culture. Therefore, they refuse to live with the migrated