<p>Some of it is fear of black people.</p>
<p>A lot of white Americans from communities where there are few or zero black people feel nervous and uncomfortable in a neighborhood where there are a lot of black people walking around. That’s what’s behind a lot of the “unsafe” vibes people report in Hyde Park, New Haven, and the neighborhoods around USC and Penn. I don’t hear the “scary” or “dangerous” reaction nearly as much about urban campus locations with a lot of poor white people (Lewiston, Maine for example) or Latino and Asian people (Berkeley) which are more often described as “run down” or “rough” or what have you.</p>
<p>Most people who feel this kind of racism do not realize what’s going on in their minds and would insist that race has nothing to do with their judgments about safety. They are usually nice people who are kind to everyone they interact with, and they would have no problem with a black roommate for their child. They really believe, in good faith, that they are colorblind. They just know that they felt unsafe on Street Y or Campus Z. But that’s my diagnosis of the problem.</p>