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Omaha, We Need to Talk
by Ken Mayer
About six months ago, while chatting with my mother, she asked if I thought her property value would go down. I inquired as to why she was concerned, and she said one of the neighbors had said the home values in the area would decrease because the house across the street had been sold to an African American family.
Since then my mother has passed away at the ripe old age of 86, and I’ve adjusted to her not being around, yet that remark still haunts me. As the trustee of her estate, it’s all I can do not to tell the real estate agent, who will sell her house, to go find a nice black family. Better yet, a mixed race gay couple.
I’m afraid that which should not stand is still around. Just when I think the situation is improving, I run headlong into another bigot or hear news of another crime like the slaying of Brittany Williams.
The 2007 Leaf Awards given by Omaha by Design honored Stephanie Ahlschwede, pastor of Dietz United Methodist Church, with the Neighborhood Leaf. She was selected for her commitment to fostering systemic change that allows neighborhood residents to improve their lives, including the establishment of the Big Garden.
I know Stephanie personally and count her as a friend. In her enthusiastic and energetic way, she is able to see the situation and confront it with good solutions that equalize and empower. It’s my view that often her fellow citizens aren’t as willing to deal with that which still stands and should not.
Those of us who are Omaha natives need to search our souls and face feelings that we may have inherited without even thinking about them. Families often pass down fears that have long since been disassociated with their original cause.
A hundred years ago, the Italians, Greeks, Jews and Poles, groups that all settled in Omaha at one time or another, were considered nonwhites. In fact, one of Omaha’s darkest days was the so-called Greek Riots of 1909 when the Greek immigrant community in South Omaha was burnt to the ground, and the mob forced its residents to leave town.
From its very beginnings, Omaha was a bit conflicted over race. In 1859 the Daily Nebraskian reported, "The bill introduced in Omaha City Council, for the abolition of slavery in this Territory, was called up yesterday, and its further consideration postponed for two weeks. A strong effort will be made among the Republicans to secure its passage; we think, however, it will fail. The farce certainly cannot be enacted if the Democrats do their duty.”
Indeed, in 1860 the Census showed 81 Negroes in Nebraska, 10 of whom were slaves. From the 1890s to 1919, lynchings were routine, culminating in the hanging death of Willy Brown.
The Nebraska Writers Project "Negroes in Nebraska” of 1938 observed that racial segregation had become normalized in the city due to redlining and restrictive covenants that kept African Americans in North Omaha.
In 1947 the DePorres Club was formed at Creighton University, seeking to fight racial discrimination in Omaha's housing and job markets, but by 1948, it is forced to meet at the offices of The Omaha Star after being asked to leave its original meeting place.
This isn’t ancient history. It’s still very much with us. In February of last year, unknown assailants robbed, firebombed and spray painted a racist epithet on the side of an East Omaha grocery store owned by an Ethiopian immigrant. This year, it’s the murder of Brittany Williams.
I don’t mean to lay on a guilt trip, and we can’t all be responsible for the actions of a few misguided, perhaps mentally ill, people. Nonetheless, part of dealing with a problem is recognizing that you have one.
Seems to me the outlook for facing the music is mixed. Benson High students were finally allowed to explore the issue in their student newspaper, but, at my alma mater, North High, the students were banned from performing a play that contained the N-word. Seems like the kids know we need to confront this, even if the grown-ups don’t.
It appears we can easily duck the issue because Omaha is a series of enclaves that simply makes the problem somebody else’s, despite persistent intolerance.
A 1996 Omaha World-Herald article reported, "One resident of Rose Garden Estates near 172nd and Pacific Streets said privately, for instance, that he finds the prospect of being incorporated into the city 'increasingly scary.' 'I left Benson because I didn't like the changes,' he said. 'Too much crime, too much racial tension, too much school busing. I went to the suburbs to get away from that, and now I'm being forced back in.' The man, an insurance company employee, denied that his problems were based on race, but he asked that this part of the interview be anonymous."
I’m sure my mother’s neighbor would deny ever saying anything about property values and wish to remain anonymous. But it makes me wonder - just what kind of neighbors are we?
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