As I drove around the city of Springfield last Friday morning running some errands, I turned on a local radio station I enjoy that normally plays music from the 1940s. But this day I tuned in to a talk show, which made me think the music of the era somehow had transported us back to prevailing provincial attitudes of a bygone time.
The two hosts repeatedly discussed what an idiot Mayor Jim O’Neal was for trying to make Springfield a more diverse city. They seemed proud that Springfield is the second-whitest city (of 100,000 or more people), behind only Portland, Ore. Why should a government official want non-whites in their midst, the radio announcers wondered.
“If black people want to move here, go ahead. There’s nothing stopping them,” one of the enlightened pundits bellowed.
Perhaps non-white people don’t feel welcome in Springfield because of that very attitude. It’s only been a half century since blacks could attend public universities here. A little more than 100 years ago in Springfield a white mob lynched three African-Americans. That caused a mass exodus that has kept the “Queen City” one of the whitest cities. I don’t know that Latinos, Asians and other minorities have been made to feel particularly welcome here, either.
What if the shoe was on the other foot? How would I feel if a couple of black radio jocks from an urban inner city said they really didn’t want any white people moving in?
Ethnic and racial diversity is a good thing. It helps us break out of our narrow-minded view, which says our way is naturally the best.
Unfortunately there will always be some that prefer blind hatred to ethnic diversity (or anything that makes them feel the least bit uncomfortable). Our last presidential election was a glaring showcase of that dismal truth.
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