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Anger
For two days, I could look southward about 20 blocks from my office window and see smoke still rising from the smoldering remains of a torched warehouse. It was a stark reminder that, for all the outward signs of progress in race relations here and elsewhere, much of the change remains superficial and not very deep. In South Central St. Petersburg, just as in South Central Los Angeles about four years ago, a lot of innocent blacks were victimized, but the real rage was directed at non-blacks who owned neighborhood stores (Koreans in L.A., whites here) and at the police. At what could be called "ground zero" of the riots is a locally famous institution called Atwater's Cafeteria, whose fried chicken, pork chops and black-eyed peas have been staples of South Central St. Pete for three generations.
These days, Atwater's is run by the grandsons of the founders (a sepia photo of the elderly couple decorates one wall). Elzo, 40, is the executive chef of the catering company and 29-year-old Michael manages the cafeteria as well as four music shops he owns.
A smart, gregarious, hard-working entrepreneur, Michael has emerged from the crisis as a kind of self-appointed voice of his people. You can drop by Atwater's any afternoon and hear Michael hold forth, often joined by a couple of local ministers and anyone else who might stop by for a glass of lemonade and a dish of Atwater's patented peach cobbler.
Pointing across the street to the pile of rubble that once was white-owned Badcock's furniture store, Michael asks: "If that building hadn't burned, would you be here at Atwater's today?"
To which one of the ministers chimes in, "Until they deal with economic, social and political violence, the physical violence is going to take place."
It's troubling to these anglo ears to hear a reverend thumb his nose at the moral aphorism that the end must justify the means. It's also a measure of the anger one hears among many blacks these days, not just in St. Pete but most places. Indeed, that anger is so intense that it enables Michael and the others to compartmentalize the violence of the riots. Sure, most of the looting, arson, gunfire and bottle-throwing came from people they have no use for - crackheads, radicals, out of control thugs. But because the power structure seems so formidable and resistant, Michael and others sympathize with those who must attack it with anything it takes - even violence.
"Let's not deal with the reaction to the problem," says Michael, "let's deal with the problem."
To be sure, there are many different views among blacks in St. Pete and all across the country about what "the problem" is. Bill Maxwell, a columnist for the St. Petersburg Times who often is a lonely voice of reason in a cacophony of recriminations, believes that blacks must look to themselves to seek solutions to the problem. "Black neighborhoods will improve only after black people understand that the lives of people everywhere improve in proportion to their willingness to take the long view of life and accept personal responsibility," he wrote in a column. "Black people are not exempted from this universal law."
Michael, in his strivings to succeed, certainly fits the profile described by Maxwell. But he also shares the feeling, prevalent in minority communities, that no matter how hard he tries, the deck will be stacked against him by what he repeatedly describes as The System - the white system. "When we get to spread our wings," he sighs in frustration, "the system cuts them off."
He thinks that the reason there aren't more black bankers, brokers, chief executives of huge conglomerates is simply that the white male establishment wants those jobs for themselves. (Interestingly, next month Trend will publish some rather startling statistics about women that further support that view.)
I voiced the opinion that if he ever expected to break into the establishment, he had better be ready to play by its rules. That brought Michael to his feet to denounce any rules set by the white establishment. "You came here from Europe, just as I came from Africa, so why should we follow your rules?" And the reverend added, "You all keep rewriting the book, changing the rules whenever you want to."
Not easy to take, but important to hear. I guess those of us in The System should find an Atwater's and listen for awhile. But be warned: even the sweet lemonade won't help those angry sentiments go down.
