these past few days have been very revealing as discussions i’ve had with friends and family, reading comments on shaquanda cotton’s issue, and articles i’ve stumbled across have thrust a common issue back into my mental space: race.

being in london for the past 6 months has also given me an ‘out-of-body’ experience with reference to how americans are obsessed with race. if you’ve been following the comments on our post and shaquanda’s blog, you’ll see that visitors are coming from all over. a few perplexing comments have been around how ‘others’ do not like america because of their racial obsession. while i no doubt believe race has weight in all parts of the world (read: apartheid and aborigine), the history of america, coupled with images like katrina, amadou diallo, and strom thurmond flow into a concept i was introduced to (and spoke about) in high school: affirmative action for whites.

in certain markets, pbs and california newsreel are running an acclaimed series in the study of race and its illusion. one of the attached articles is an analysis of affirmative action for whites. here a few notes that i wanted to pull out of the article:

• affirmative action, despite its unpopularity among many privileged white americans, actually originated in the 17th century when european immigrant indentured servants (read: italian, polish, irish) demanded ‘rights’ after enslaved africans replaced them. the outcome was 270 million acres of american indian land ‘handed over’ in the homestead act of 1862.
• although it still takes money out of my paycheck in 2007 (and everyone else’s for that matter), the social security act of 1932 was written with provisions to exclude agricultural workes and domestic servants. let’s see, who predominantly had those jobs in the 1930’s (and even today): blacks, mexicans, and asians.
• many know that home ownership is the path to financial independence and wealth. when the federal housing authority (fha) poured $120 billion into the economy between 1932 and 1962 to allow the working class to own homes, 98% went to white families with provisions to allow ‘racially diverse’ neighborhoods as a financial risk.

let’s break that last part down to the numbers so that we can wrap our brains around what that means.

120 billion * .98 = 117.6 billion, or 117.6 for simplicity. as of july 2006, there were 300 million people in the united states, with 82% of those being white. 300 million * .82 = 246 million white people. if you take the 117.6 billion given to them and divide by 30 years, it comes to about $16,000 a year to start owning a home. would anyone here like $16 grand for their first house?

coupled with the entire pbs video series, the idea of race becomes simply an excuse for one set of people to psychologically feel superior to another. the result of this ‘im better than you’ attitude is a mosh pit of insecure adults vying for most superficial advantage that they can get. these same adults run the businesses that make-up our world economy, legislate government that create laws, and police our citizens to enforce these laws. the ‘ten things everyone should know about race‘ reiterate this sentiment.

as a young black professional, the simple answer is to understand this reality and lead a purposeful-driven life to enact change. while the world may not reach the utopia of equality and fundamental logic in our lifetime, the exposure of this reality in 2007 should allow us to see the path still being plotted from ghana to obama.

when i moved from kansas city to chicago, i was able to find an apartment in the heart of lincoln park, with no money down, new appliances, 700 sq. ft. with hardwood floors for $1000 a month. the complex included a concierge at the front, roof deck, a convienent store in-front of the building, built-in dry cleaners, and across the street from a hospital.

i didn’t use a service. i didn’t sign up for any apartment finding service. while i will admit that being a native of chicago helped, i had never lived in the lincoln park area. so what was my secret tool?

craigslist.

craigslist is a no-frills search engine for classifieds. remember how your parents or grandparents always told you to look in the classified ads of the newspaper to find good deals? craigslist is the web equivalent. no fancy graphics, gimmicks, ads, or sign-up process. it’s just text, links, and a few pictures.

it is these simple characteristics that make craigslist so popular. the first you’ll do when on the website is pick your city. for the newbie, its as simple as <your_city>.craigslist.org. for me, it was chicago.

smack dab in the middle of the page is a category for ‘housing’. [tip 1] decide whether you what type of housing you want. if you sublet an apt, you more than likely will not have to make a downpayment. this is because subletting is like assuming someone’s lease that they have already put a deposit on. in most cases, you’ll have to pass a simple ‘can i afford this place’ background check. sometimes the current tenant (person living there now) wants to recoup their money, so they may ask for a little something. [tip 2] if choosing a sublet, make sure that you can renew the lease once it is up. some of the postings under ’sublet’ are actually just temporary housing for a couple of months because the tenant is going out of town. if you’re planning to stay in the apt, make sure this is not the case.

craigslist does a good job of letting the shopper know to avoid scams. they usually post a general message in bright red and yellow on each post. if something is a scam, it can be flagged and immediately removed. no fuss.

while the craigslist search isn’t revolutionary, it is simple enough that with a few keywords, it can be manipulated. [tip 3] search by amenities or apartment type. if you’re looking for a loft, type in ‘loft’. i know it sounds straightforward, but sometimes using the amenities as a keyword may open up surrounding areas since most searches start with a particular area in the city. once you find a particular area and get a few of the street names, use those terms as search phrases too. [tip 4] don’t use too many search criteria off-the-bat. sometimes you can get discouraged when you try to type in a key phrase and nothing comes back. browsing through a set of results based off of one criteria may yield some interesting results.

another neat feature of the search is the ‘has image’ checkbox. when checked, this will pull back posts that have images attached to it. sometimes these can be misleading, as a ad agencies add non-descript or their logo to posts since most people like to ’see’ what they’re looking for. [tip 5] don’t necessarily limit your searches to ‘has image’. some of the coolest places don’t have images directly in the post, but have links to a website that has a ton! you may miss it if you filter by this option. [tip 6] no image can replace actually seeing the apartment. your mother always told you not to judge a book by its cover. the same goes for apartment hunting. while a place may look great, do not hesitate to go and check it out in person. talk with the renter. ask questions like ‘why are you moving’ and ‘how friendly is the staff here’. nothing can beat first-hand impressions.

[tip 7] use the neighborhood search links at the top. most listings will be grouped into parts of the city. this is helpful if you don’t know the city too well, but want to be adventurous. [tip 8] find listings that have been mapped on google. when someone posts a listing, they also need to add the details of where the apartment is. when that happens, a link will appear at the bottom of the post directing you to google maps so you can ’see’ where exactly the place is. this is probably one of the better features because from google maps, you can type in ‘restaurants’ or ‘groceries’ from that location and see what is close to address. i can’t tell you how convienent it is to be able to walk across the street to get a half-gallon of milk!

[tip 9] contact the person who placed the ad. craigslist does an excellent job of protecting people’s email address because it assigns a temporary address for people who want to be contacted by potential renters. don’t be afraid to use it! a simple ‘copy’ and ‘paste’ into your favorite email program, i suggest gmail, can get a lot of your queries answered.

[tip 10] be patient. as with any big purchase, being patient about finding a place and getting the best deal go hand-in-hand. if time permits, start perusing a couple of months (i usually go about 4-5 months) before you plan to move. usually, you’ll see the same listings pop-up again and again. this can be used to your advantage since the person is obviously trying to get out of their agreement. when i found my apartment, the guy was willing to pay half of the first month’s rent because he HAD to move.

you’ll notice that craigslist also has many other categories of shopping goodness. don’t be afraid to check out a new table or even car because local businesses post deals there too! here is a link to another craigslist tip on lifehacker.

craigslist: bargain shopping made easy.

Hypothetical question for you:

Would you live on MLK Drive?

Is it just me or is it very perplexing that when I’m looking for a new place to live, MLK Drive is not the street I want to be living on. As Black History Month comes to close, I wanted to point out the cnn.com article that proposed this same question.

Historically, MLK Drive symbolizes the divide between affluent neighborhoods and poor neighborhoods. This is a direct parallel with Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.’s struggle of trying to unite whites and blacks together during the Civil Rights Era. As the article points out, there are many streets in the United States named after the slain civil rights leader. While it is admirable that many of these neighborhoods still hold their symbolism especially in this day of apathetic black mindset, the question still remains. Would you live on MLK Drive? Do you feel that there is anything wrong with that sentiment?