A Promising Development

Considering that Los Angeles is one of the most racially segregated cities in the country, it would seem evident that it is good news that more whites are rediscovering the charm and value of some of the long-established neighborhoods of Central and Southwest Los Angeles. Slowly but surely, white buyers in search of well-built, spacious homes are returning to the neighborhoods they fled after the Watts riot--back to View Park, Baldwin Hills, Lafayette Square, Leimert Park, West Adams.

But with their return comes anxiety for some of the black homeowners who already reside there. When one hears a black View Park resident say in a Times article that she worries about the effects of a white influx, some might wonder if her reaction is rooted in prejudice. For the black middle class, the answer is not that simple.

The civil rights movement shoved open doors of opportunity and lifted more blacks than ever into the middle class. But they have a precarious hold on middle-class status; they are disproportionately concentrated in public-sector jobs or professions that depend heavily on government contracts. Like whites, blacks worry about getting ahead and staying ahead. But the black middle class is also worried and directly affected by the scourge of drugs and violence in the broader black community. The casualties of the urban drug and crime wars are not statistics to them: They are cousins, nieces, sons of friends. The black middle class is wrestling with it all, and its members derive strength in knowing that their peers and neighbors share their concerns and commitments.

So some in View Park may worry that new white neighbors could further isolate them from the rest of the black community and that former suburbanites might not care about the problems that exist just a few miles from their lovely tree-lined streets of Tudor and Mediterranean-style homes. But those fears will not materialize if the whites who move into “ethnically diverse” areas make the effort to educate themselves not only about the houses they are moving into, but also about the neighborhood and its environs. And that means those who already live there must be willing to help newcomers learn and understand.

Change naturally brings with it some tension. The re-integration of View Park and other areas can be a positive step toward a type of neighborhood that is all too rare here: where blacks and whites live together, where their children play together and where fears about each other subside.