Structural Racism is Alive in Lubbock

By Dr. Brian Carr
Lubbock Board of Health

While Fox News and Local Hate Radio spew outrage over President Obama’s use of the “N-word” the real intolerance is completely missed. While our language and use of symbols such as the “Stars and Bars” are a part of our national conversation it is important that the real injustices not be overlooked. This is not just an issue in South Carolina but right here in my hometown of Lubbock.

Growing up just east of College (now University) Avenue and 59th Street I don’t recall any minority neighbors or playmates. I don’t recall any African-American peers in Cub Scouts or in my Sunday School class at First Methodist Church downtown. I remember two African-American student peers who graduated with my class (with 720 students) from Monterey High School in 1975.

My primary contact with different ethnic groups growing up in Lubbock was limited to community events such as participating in the Goodfellow’s Christmas gift event where young people showed up early Christmas morning at the South Plains Fair grounds to be given gift boxes and addresses for delivery over on the east side of Lubbock. My Methodist youth group would participate with neighborhood cleanup efforts on the east side. I recall working as a Boy Scout setting up cots at the coliseum for fellow citizens, many minority, who had been left homeless by the 1970 tornado.

While enrolled at Texas Tech University I began to develop friendships with Hispanic and African-American peers in the Marching Band. Outside these cross-cultural opportunities I continued to experience a primary white exclusionary life. Few African-Americans were in my classes and none were in the college fraternity I joined. Separate and usually unequal standards formed a divide between my life and those who had a different skin shade.

Read more: http://lubbockonline.com/interact/blog-post/dr-brian-carr/2015-06-23/structural-racism-alive-lubbock#.VYnPLEYT91M