This is why I started CHOTR, to combat this type of ignorance

By Michael Brissenden

Updated Tue Feb 16, 2010 12:36pm AEDT

Washington DC is split by class and economics, and in the US that inevitably means race.


A few days ago I met a woman who, like me, had been navigating her way to a children's sporting event in Washington DC with the help of her GPS.


Ferrying children around to suburban tournaments is a regular weekend exercise and if you're new in town a satellite navigation device is one very helpful tool in making sure you get your young sports star to the game on time.


The trouble is letting a satellite chose the shortest route can sometimes present some challenging outcomes and my new acquaintance was only half joking when she told me she'd be a lot happier if she could just program her machine to "avoid south-east DC entirely".


It's a sentiment that sums up the stark divisions in this city. This is a city - like many in this country - split by class and economics and in the US that inevitably means race.


Of course there are no building codes or apartheid rules that prevent anyone of any colour living anywhere they like and there are middle-class black neighbourhoods, poorer white areas and groovy gentrified inner-city enclaves that truly do reflect the great melting pot of race that is America.


But on the whole the south-east of Washington DC is black and Hispanic, poor and deprived and the white middle class fans out in a wedge of relative privilege to the north and the west.


The maisonettes and quaint terrace houses of Georgetown and the leafy suburbs of Maryland and Virginia are only a few kilometres from the urban decay that is the reality of Anacostia and Congress Heights but they are worlds apart.

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