Racist White People Everywhere?
After a long day swinging hammers on a Chicago construction site, I grabbed dinner with two Mexican coworkers. One had been my friend for nearly 20 years—we played music together. He’d just earned his citizenship papers. The other guy I barely knew.
At the table, the newcomer lit up with history questions. I answered. Both grew enthused, then suspicious. “Where’d you learn all this?”
Suddenly the new guy declared: “I’ll never buy books by white people. Nothing from white people. All racist.”
I laughed. “You serious?”
My old friend leaned in. “You don’t know what we go through in Chicago.”
I pointed out Chicago’s majority non-white neighborhoods and Latin American dominance. They insisted white racism made the city hell.
“Take me outside right now,” I said. “Show me.”
They got angry. Silence. Weeks later, my 20-year friend blocked me.
One meal. One ideology. Two friendships torched by tribalism. Sad how quickly shared history becomes “white” history.
The Essence of Chicagoland Areas 