"Is It That The White People Moving Downtown Aren't Scared of Black People?"

(Flickr pic by javazetti.)

Eric from Blogdowntown shares a most unusual conversation he had last week in his neighborhood:

I was walking down 5th street next to the Alexandria around 7:30pm. A guy standing there leaning against a parking meter stops me and we start talking. He's black, maybe 50'ish. After a few minutes the topic changes and he asks me this (and I paraphrase).

This is going to sound racist, but then it isn't. Why aren't you scared of me, standing here and talking? Why is it that the white people moving Downtown aren't scared of black people?

Undoubtedly that's the most random question I've ever been asked on the streets of Downtown. I gave him an answer about just not believing in that sort of thing, etc, but I can't say that's a question I had an answer ready for.

Eric adds that the man was actually happy to see downtown start to gentrify, which made the neighborhood safer for everyone. He also left Eric with a call to action -- read more at his site.