The Sept 11 edition of Utne Web Watch Daily points to an essay titled, Crossing Division Street by Jim Schutze from The Dallas Observer. It’s included in a new anthology just published titled, “When Race Becomes Real: Black and White Writers Confront Their Personal Histories.” It’s an insightful piece. Utne’s Abbie Jarman writes:
Schutze spent first grade as the only white kid at Jones School in Ann Arbor, Michigan. After a few fights, Schutze actually acclimated to his bizarre surroundings and was crushed when he was forced across town to the all-white Angell School. But the worst was yet to come, when Schutze entered junior high and the two schools merged. Schutze felt the pressure of his white peers to ignore his old friends from Jones — and he did. That was the hardest part for Schutze then and now, knowing that his racism — as with many — “was not guileless or unwitting. It was learned, decisional, and willful.”