Why the Hate?

On Monday, around 5 p.m., my roommate of two months was assaulted in front of my home on E Street. I am hesitant to give specific details relating to our identities, other than to state that three of us rent a townhouse, and are younger residents of the neighborhood.

I have lived in this neighborhood, in this house, since August 2003, and this is the first incident of violence that I have directly been a part of. I am shocked, scared and, most of all, confused — not because of the crime itself, but because of the tone of the incident. Please bear with me as I try to express my feelings.

A single African American male assaulted my roommate, 20 feet from our home (see story at left for details).

The disturbing part of the incident was that during the beating, the assailant repeatedly stated, "I hate white people" and "stay out of our neighborhood." These comments have elevated the incident, in the eyes of the police, to a hate crime.

I am not white, nor am I black. From such a position, I am often either oblivious to racial tensions, or at the most confused by them.

What causes this sort of incident? My roommates and I are young people, living paycheck to paycheck, working hard to make it. We do not own our home; we rent it from a well-respected African American who is active in the community.

Though some may feel that we come to the neighborhood with some sense of racial privilege, in reality we simply strive to be a part of our community with no sense of a color barrier. Everyone in our neighborhood — white or black, male or female, young or old — has up to this point been kind to us. So now, why the hate?

Is there something about our neighborhood that creates a racial divide, something that engenders the type of frightening behavior my roommate suffered from? Though I am familiar with this neighborhood's history, it seems that it has been becoming more and more integrated as time goes on. So why does the racial friction persist?

From the perspective of an "outsider," the only effect I can see from such incidents is that they bring down the optimism and camaraderie required to make a neighborhood cohesive. Is there something I'm missing? I understand that logically addressing an ugly incident like an assault is difficult, if not impossible — but is there a context to this sort of event that can, if not excuse, at least explain?

Despite Monday's events, I enjoy living on E Street. On Saturday afternoons, I enjoy seeing the families out, working on their lawns and sharing stories. Frankly, I like to come home to a neighborhood where I can park and walk with little to no fear for my safety.

Perhaps my naïveté in regards to the realities of our neighborhood has been bruised, but being the eternal optimist I will still believe that this incident was an exceptional case, the actions of someone who was simply misguided. But then again, I haven't even been on E Street for a year. So tell me, neighbors: am I wrong? §