COLUMN: Fear and loathing in W. Philly

From Malik Wilson, "RosZ," Fall '98 From Malik Wilson, "RosZ," Fall '98Beyond 40th Street, there is a disturbing danger. Beyond the peaceful enclaves of Beige Block to the north and Pine Street to the south, this danger threatens your livelihood and your way of life, possibly even your life itself. The women are less threatening but equally reprehensible. They walk the streets barefoot and heavy, their children unkempt, barely able to feign speech. Fortieth Street is not only the end of "campus proper," it is a demarcation boundary, both in reality and in metaphor, where you end and they begin. The idea of West Philadelphia involves far more than simple questions of "safety." Entangled in our conception of the neighborhood are troubling issues of race, sex and class. These shape our notions about what makes us feel safe, where we feel safe, when we feel safe and whom we feel safe with. Why you fear traveling deep into West Philadelphia has nothing to do with the question of safety. How is it possible to know something about an area you have never visited? The information that you receive, unless you have researched actual crime statistics yourself, has to do with "what you have heard," the sum total of all the preconceived notions accumulated over a lifetime: Poor black people are inherently dangerous, are inherently (fill in the blank) -- evil, corrupt, violent, diseased, perverted, etc. Safety is less about the reality of a situation and more about the subjective idea of a situation. We feel safe in places we know, with people who are similar to us. You join your sorority or fraternity because the men and women are of similar social class, ethnicity, race or religion as you. Or because you all are on the wrestling team or the swimming team or the track team. You wouldn't join a fraternity in West Philadelphia or a Latino fraternity if you felt you didn't have much in common with that group of people. At the University of Pennsylvania one in four women will be raped. Most by men that they know. Every year, the administration investigates numerous incidences of gang rape on campus. Yet this does not stop thousands of women from drinking themselves into a drunken stupor at 3 a.m. at a party. You are a thousand times more likely to get raped on campus than off, but you won't walk off campus at night because of "the safety issue." They are certainly dangers in the surrounding neighborhood. When I walk to my house at night, I'm much more aware of everything around me than I am when I'm on campus. I don't think everyone should jump up and move to 46th Street. I don't even think there is a problem with saying, "I'm more comfortable here in this environment than in that environment." But instead of shuffling your feet and mumbling when you explain why you've never gone past 42nd Street, and offering up vague statements about "the safety issue" when you explain why you've never gone to Billybobs, call it for what it is. Instead of using shadowy code words like "sketchy" or "shady" to describe where people live, just say, "I don't feel comfortable around large numbers of urban African-Americans and I carry a host of negative associations about them. I feel both slightly uncomfortable and strangely justified in these feelings." The fact of the matter is that every single person who lives on campus or far off campus carries some form of these negative associations. Whether black or white, middle class or working class, we are all victims of the 11 o'clock news and the demonization of the poor. The difference is that some of us believe that it is worth the risk to learn for ourselves where the dangers lie and to explore the gap between the real and the perceived. In such explorations, hundreds of students, through community service and by living off campus, have found a community. A community with problems and challenges, but more importantly, a community with an undeniable spirit and real treasures only a few blocks away. But you don't have to believe me. Penn provides a fine shelter from the worrisome world a few blocks away. Why would you want to leave a place where everyone dresses like you, talks the same way as you and listen to the same music as you? You don't have to be the different one, you don't have to learn anything new, you don't have to put yourself at risk. At 11:43 on a Tuesday night I grab a bite to eat at 46th and Baltimore. Here at the frayed edges of civilization, the hoagies are still the best.

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