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The use of the phrase "high crime area" in this context, when just referencing child safety, is itself problematic. Everyone who is reading that phrase right no
by jehb 4y ago
The use of the phrase "high crime area" in this context, when just referencing child safety, is itself problematic. Everyone who is reading that phrase right now is forming a mental picture of what it means, and I guarantee it's not a picture of illegally burning garbage in the yard while drinking raw milk, sitting on an unpermitted deck, listening to an illegally downloaded MP3 while making a trade on their phone based on an insider tip they heard from their brother.
- ethbr0 4y agoI was in a college class that had a mix of inner city and suburban kids. Ask the suburban kids to describe the inner city? Dangerous. Crime-ridden. Ask the inner city kids to describe inner city? Community. Know their neighbors.
- scruple 4y agoMaybe try asking the kids who didn't go to college in both places what their opinions are next time.
- ethbr0 4y agoWhy would their opinions differ?
- AnimalMuppet 4y agoBecause people have different opinions? And because college sometimes changes them? Mind you, I'm not necessarily with the GP. It seems like a question of only marginal relevance. But the parent reads like a low-effort dismissal that doesn't actually address the point.
- ethbr0 4y agoI just can't see college-or-not influencing perceptions enough to be relevant. As someone who grew up in the suburbs, and has since lived in a rough part of the city, it also resonated with my personal experience. In the suburbs, nobody generally knows each other. In the city, due to density, you just have more neighborhood interactions. Sometimes inner city interactions are uncomfortable or with crazy people, but they're generally non-violent. If I had to peg percentages, I'd say: Inner city: 30% awesome/interesting/helpful strangers, 55% ambivalent strangers, 10% unpleasant strangers, 4.5% crazy strangers, 0.5% potentially violent strangers Suburbs: 15% awesome/interesting strangers, 70% ambivalent strangers, 15% unpleasant strangers, 0% crazy/potentially violent strangers
- seanmcdirmid 4y agoAsk the inner city kids to describe the suburbs? Dangerous, get pulled over by cops.
- ummonk 4y agoThere is nothing problematic about having a phrase for areas with high risk of crime that negatively impacts the quality of life of local residents and visitors. (And that includes neighbors illegally burning garbage in their yard)
- jehb 4y agoI'm objecting to the parent comment where this originated, where the author juxtaposed the safety of a child growing up in a "suburban or rural" setting with living "near a highway though, or a high crime area." Crime is not an urban phenomenon, and when we describe it as one, we're flaming stereotypes. I don't think it was intentional and my point was not to denigrate the parent comment, but to encourage us to avoid accidental constructs like this.
- yadaeno 4y agoAccidental construct of what exactly? Crime might not be an urban phenomenon in other countries but it certainly is more visible and prevalent in US cities. At least in west coast cities, visible crime is just a fact of life. It borders on gaslighting to suggest that its not.
- strix_varius 4y agoThe data clearly supports the parent comment: https://www.city-journal.org/violent-crime-in-cities-on-the-rise https://www.city-journal.org/violent-crime-in-cities-on-the-...
- jehb 4y agoCherrypicking violent crime in a discussion about child safety is misleading and fearmongering. More children die from non-violent crime. The person who drives 10 over the speed limit down a suburban street is a child-endangering criminal, but so many people think the crimes they commit aren't "real" crimes. If you want to look at data, overall rural child mortality exceeds urban child mortality in the United States; some of these causes are criminal, others are not. Motor vehicle death are the leading cause of child mortality, and for children under 18 exceed deaths from murder 2:1. Within vehicle deaths, for example, seatbelt usage is one of the predominant differentiators between rural and urban outcomes, and guess which areas have the lowest seat belt usage, and a disproportionately high number of deaths as a result? Yep, those "low crime" rural areas. Those parents who don't buckle up their kids are all criminals, too. I'm tired of seeing the label "crime" only applied to people committing certain crimes, in certain areas. It's applied in the most racist possible way in this country.