Day 1- Birmingham
Today after a long day of traveling and sitting in Atlanta traffic we finally arrived in Birmingham, also known as ‘Bombingham, Alabama’. Before arriving, I had expectations that Birmingham was more of an urban society but being we haven’t made ventured into the city, I haven’t seen much urbanization. I have never been to Birmingham, but knowing its history made me believe that the atmosphere was going to be more racism based than other areas I have been. After interacting with some of the people here I noticed that some were just nice southern country folks like I am used to dealing with back home and in other parts of the south.
Once entering the restaurant, Irondale Cafe, I felt a sense that many of the customers were taking notice of the large diverse group that had came through the door. I do not feel that the only reason the customers were paying attention to out traveling group because of our quantity of persons but maybe because of the ethnic makeup of our group. In our traveling group, there are 6 black males and about 8 young white female students; no white males in our group. In the society of Birmingham, interacting with a group with the ethnic makeup we possess, may not be viewed the same as in another place not so ‘southern’ as this city. Many of the customers in the restaurant were older white couples that probably grew up/lived in the very segregated Birmingham, and probably believe some of the same ideas which were present during that time such as in aspects of racism. I noticed that there were no other black customers in the Cafe other than those on this trip which made me ask the question to myself, “Why are there not more blacks here?”
I did not have many interactions with many community members except for the waiter in the restaurant where we ate dinner. He was a very down to earth young man who engaged in friendly conversation contradicting my expectations of how white males would act when in contact with a group such as ours. I feel that in order to understand how some of the older citizens of Birmingham perceive black males or maybe even a group with the ethnic composition we possess, we must realize how things were (the culture) in the segregated south. In a reading from author Paul D. Escott he discussed how it was different interacting with Southerners and how polite the individuals were even though they may not particularly like every expect about you, or your way of thinking. I can see how that plays into society by examining our experience at the Irondale Cafe. I feel based of Escott and my interactions growing up in the South, that even though the staff and maybe some of the patrons of the Cafe may have came across as friendly and accepting us being there, but they probably have a harsh and maybe evil perception of us, because of the southern tradition of being nice and humble, those feelings would never be expressed.