Omaha in Black and White

I didn't know a thing about Omaha when I flew out there, especially what it's like to be black in Omaha. So I called State Senator Ernie Chambers.

You may have heard of Chambers. Last year, he introduced a bill through the Unicameral to break Omaha's school district into three smaller districts that would roughly correspond to the white, black, and Hispanic parts of town. It passed. His argument was that schools were already segregating and that minority-heavy schools had less resources: why not give the parents of the kids in those schools more control?

Chambers has long been a rabblerouser, back to his days in the local civil rights movement. When the legislature imposed term limits on itself, he was convinced it was just to get rid of him and his filibustering ways. (He's the only African-American in the state legislature.)

When I called his secretary answered, and I asked if I could schedule an appointment. She put me right through to him. I was a little unprepared, so I mumbled something about being in town to report on evacuees and was trying to get a sense of the culture in Omaha.

"Omaha is one of these time warp places," Chambers said. "If you look at the buildings, the streets, the highways, it has the appearance of any city its size. But it is backwards, racist, and very intolerant."

We talked briefly--he had been in contact with the evacuees at first, but he told me what he remembered. As we were about to sign off, he said, "When you say culture...you don't mean arts. If you discover any culture, call and tell me."
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What I learned shortly after arriving is that what most people picture when they think of Omaha--the downtown "Woodmen of the World" building, new roads and housing sprawling out into the prairie and corn fields--is not what most African-Americans experience there. Majority-black North Omaha is pretty desolate. There are some solid middle class neighborhoods, but a lot of it is small, rickety houses with little yards (it actually reminded me of New Orleans in some parts), boarded up storefronts, and a high rise housing tower here and there. It's not menacing; it just looks past its prime. There are few jobs, and the transportation system is ranked dead last out of America's fifty most populous cities.

Actually, maybe the stats will give you some idea. The third highest black poverty rate (40 percent) in America. The highest black child poverty rate: 60 percent. The eighth largest white middle class of America's 200 most populous cities and the fifth smallest black middle class. In July, there were 31 shootings in 31 days. The state got a grade of "D" for its mental health services.

I don't mean to rag on Omaha. Most people I met, white and black, were very nice. In fact, Nebraska ranks number two in the country for frequency of community service and number three for charitable giving. But that almost drives the point home harder: Something's obviously being ignored.

So that's the irony of the evacuees being dropped off in Omaha. Most of the evacuees were poor and black, and although they were also picturing--in the 30 minutes they had to think about it before they landed--corn and Huskers Red and Warren Buffett, they ended up where many of them had been: in the poor black part of town, ignored by the vast majority of middle class whites.

Hmmm...this is getting a little long for a blog post, huh? It's funny--my editor at Weekend America kept telling me to write into my tape more quickly, and this gigantic post is just to introduce this next mp3. I'll learn to rein it in someday.

Anyway, the mp3. I had given Bobby a ride to the grocery store, so I decided to go in and interview him while we walked the aisles. Eventually, a manager saw me with my mic in Bobby's face, and walked up to ask if we were together (mp3). He said he was just concerned that I was walking around interviewing strangers in his store, but both Bobby and I got the feeling there was more to it than that.

It happened on the first trip, too. Bobby and I were at a pizza place, and one of two blonde teenage girls behind the counter looked at us and asked, "Are you two together?"

"Yes," Bobby said, laughing. "Are you two together?"

I don't know that store manager well enough to divine his motivation for approaching us, and even after two trips, I don't know Omaha well enough to say whether Ernie Chambers is right. But I think I can at least say that I don't think it's really different than any place else.
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I do have to give props to the Omaha World-Herald for a series called "Omaha in Black and White." They seem to be putting the resources into this and are addressing the disparities head-on. It's encouraging after seeing some really fluffy articles about the evacuees in both the daily and the alternative weekly.