John Davis, a 28 year old African-American software engineer who has an annual income of $110,000, waits for a real estate agent in front of a beautiful two-story house in Kirkwood. He owns a small software company called Hi-Tex that is located only a couple of blocks from his present North County home. His ten month old business has grown very rapidly and he is ready to buy a more substantial home. As he waits, he looks at the house and visualizes his wife pruning prize-winning roses in the garden that is in front of the house, and his two boys playing in the sprinkler in the front yard on a hot summer day. He stops daydreaming for a moment to look at his watch only to realize that the real estate agent is already a half-hour late. He becomes quite concerned and phones the agent. There is no answer on her cell phone and she does not answer his three pages. She never shows up. John heads for home, now frustrated and saddened, because he knows why the agent stood him up. He was a black man trying to buy a house in a predominately white neighborhood. This is the way that segregation affects John.
I used to hear some of my black friends talk about “how hard it is to be a black man in America.” I
Anderson, J.C. “Getting the Bum Steer: Illegal Practice Still Occurs.” Crisis. 102.4 (May/June 1995): 28.
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