Take me to poverty
After reading this article I was depressed. A woman named Beauty Turner is offering tours to Chicago's tourists and residents alike through its magnificent ghettos. That's right. The crime-riddled, bullet-raging, drive-by shooting, sad, desperate area of Chicago that I wouldn't go near if I was paid to. I can just see it. "Honey, on our trip to Chicago next week can we make sure to stop at the ghettos and see how shit these people's lives were and are compared to ours?" "Oh, you bet!" Or perhaps, "Babe, I'm free on Saturday. Want to check out the ghetto? I don't see enough ghetto people in a given day and I want to see more."
Seriously, this is the most depressing tour I could possibly imagine. Ms. Turner talks about all the hardships they've had to overcome and face in the Southside ghettos. It seems like something that people should be educated on, perhaps, in Illinois and Chicago History but not as a day-time jaunt for fun.
According to a correspondent from the Chicago Housing Authority, "She (Beauty Turner) is running out of bad things to show people," and "She is taking a circuitous route so she doesn't have to drive by the new stuff," including, he adds, Turner's own home in one of the new mixed-income communities." Apparently, there are better living areas in the ghetto she's taken upon viewing but doesn't indulge this info to her tourists. Shouldn't she be enlightening said tourists of the good being done as well as the bad?
I am sure that living in these frightening neighbourhoods is difficult and those who are stuck there can't move easily to another place. Due to finances, mostly. But touring these areas doesn't seem right, somehow, and it brings me down utterly to think that people want to go for a day to the ghettos and see what they're missing. Even worse, that someone thinks it is a good idea to have these tours in the first place.
posted by Kathryn @ 11:52 AM
7 Comments:
Weird one. She sounds like she's claiming to be trying to defend the role of public housing, which would be good thing given that so many people can't afford to support themselves, but there's definitely also something sensationalist at play.
Not sure what I think about the story.
Yes, but the correspondent for the Chicago Housing Authority says there are 25,000 new rehabbed housing units replacing the old ones that were taken down and are enough for the number of people who were effected. I'm not saying the CHA is 100% accurate and Beauty isn't. But I lean towards siding with the CHA because Beauty Turner is too involved, too close to the housing and therefore more subjective. I could be totally wrong but this is how I see it.
Sensationalism, that's it! That's the word I needed. Thank you. I wanted to say exploited but thought that might be pushing it. This ghetto tour is definitely sensationlising the violent and more poorer part of Chicago. I don't like it. Not saying that it should be ignored, not at all, but a tour seems downright depressing and sad.
Also, am wondering. If after the tour there are "Ghetto Tour" t-shirts available for purchase, something along the lines of "I went to the ghetto and didn't get shot!" Or "My sister went to Chicago's ghettos and all I got was this t-shirt" type thingy. I mean, maybe they should just go and do the whole hog, hey?
This is really bugging me. Don't know why it is getting under my skin so badly.
I think that what she is doing is a great thing.
Maybe you who are rich may not have notice but this city is underneath a 1.6 billon dollar CHA plan.
A lot of people lives are being affected by this.
Too often you hear from Professors, Sociologist, and the likes about how these people are living through this plan- she made it where you can go and talk directly to the people that this plan is affecting- otherwise she cut out the middle man and took you to the masses.
Matter fact what she did was a historic move- I say she may be on to something.
Beauty's Ghetto Bus Tours is a vehicle to give a voice to a voiceless people; concerning this CHA plan that is displacing ten of thousands of low income people.
Every body on the face of the planet is speaking about the people that live there such as Professors, Socioligist, and the likes.
No body ever took the time to go to the source and that is the residents themselves.
Every thing that shine isn't gold.
This golden plan that the chicago is undertaking is making a lot of poor people homeless- before you judge a book by it cover- read it first!
I think what she is doing is educating people like you who think they know what is happening in Chicago- Go on the tour and see what she might be wanting to show you who are blind to politics.
Perhaps you are right, Anonymous. I'll have to check out the tour.
I recently took a trip to Rio de Janeiro and went on one of these types of tours in Rio's largest favela, Rocinha. The money from the tours goes to a school and medical care for the children. After my experience in Brazil, I think maybe these tours Beauty was (is) giving through Chicago's less than perfect (and really, which neighborhood is perfect?) may be ok.
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