I absolutely understand your point. I am from New Orleans, born and raised, and we are very well integrated, in terms of geography. Because N.O. is sandwiched between the Mississippi river and Lake Ponchartrain, a distance of about 10 miles with no way to expand to the east and west because of the opposing swamps, even when we try to segregate ourselves, via neighborhoods or limited access roads, we can not help but constantly bump into one another doing our daily chores or commuting to work, whatever. This has the effect of a sort of forced integration, and in many of the older neighboorhoods, the class distinction lines are as close as the neighbors backyard or even your next door neighbor. It is not unusual to have a multi-million dollar mansion, next to a section8 mansion divided into 10 different apartments with 10 families running around next door. It forces the people to interact and sort of fight out their differences. This has the pleasent affect of, after people go through the cauldron of heated exchange and fighting about your shortcomings or racial stereotypes or whatever, allowing one to arrive to the conclusion that after all has been said and done, that we really are all the same people with the same hopes and desires. What is more is that after this dynamic operating for several generations,each succeding generation is taught these lessons by the previous generation, right from the jump. It is not artificially inscribed in you by sacharine political correctness. It is just their hovering over life in New Orleans, and you can immediately sense one who does not obey it. Racism in New Orleans is like nowhere else in the world. Do we hate the way the others play their music, or the way the other complains about noisy kids running around? Yes, of course, but at the end of the day, we all love each other and respect the differences and even celebrate the other. When America learns that lesson, and I do think all this fighting and arguing is going a long way towards that outcome, we will have come a long way towards equality. That lesson I learned in my hometown has made me more sensitive and underatanding to the so-called “other”. I will take it with me until the day i die.

Just my two cents…..thank you