When you fear something, you want to get as much space between you and it as humanly possible. If it's a giant spider, like the tarantula-looking one I found underneath the vanity cabinet during my twenties, run for the hills. The same can be said about any other animal that may bite you or cause harm. But what happens when we develop a fear of other people simply because of the color of their skin, the community they live in, or their access to money? Then, we'll hold fast to prejudice and attempt to justify our perspective with stereotypes.
We can see this play out in the way people often talk about "the hood," as if it's a scene from a horror film instead of a community where many Black people live, work, attend school, and play. You know, the way wealthy white men like Donald Trump say the word "Chi・ca ・go" like a curse word as if he's rebuking the city by reciting its name with such vitriol. Folks like him are so quick to talk about the rate of violent crime in black communities but not the correlation between crime and poverty or the intentional effort to deprive these communities of resources that could mitigate both social problems.
Generations of housing segregation, racial redlining, and locking Black folks out of equitable opportunities created the hood, a chronically impoverished community. So, by inspiring Americans to fear the hood, folks like Donald Trump are trying to encourage people who live in the country or suburbs to turn a blind eye to the chronic deprivation of resources, the over-policing, and the overall oppressive conditions Black people living in the hood experience. If they can mislead you into believing that people in the hood are inherently lazy, violent, irresponsible, and amoral, they can convince you that any neglect or harm you see them endure is justified. That's why this whole conversation about some people living in fear of the hood is so concerning — it's further evidence that racist talking points are cemented into our cultural mainframe.
If you fear the hood, then you fear the people who live there. And that means you believe some harmful things about them.
White people are out here acting like Dr. Frankenstein because even though their racist policies created the hood as he created his "monster" and brought it to life, they now look in disgust at their creation. They want, more than anything, to avoid accountability for the pockets of poverty that white-centered political interests created. Egede et al. (2023) noted, "policies that target economic empowerment can reverse some of the effects of redlining," such as geographically adjusted livable minimum wage, providing tax incentives for creating opportunities in historically redlined areas, and reparations in the form of cash payments to address the problem of racial inequity. Their research shows that our society could lift low-income communities out of poverty and, as a result, mitigate crime systemically, but some rather endorse stereotypes than face reality.
Of course, white men are not the only ones who hold negative views of the hood. There are some Black people, particularly those who have risen in socioeconomic status and no longer live in the hood, who've become some of its staunchest critics. As Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. said in his 1967 speech, "A lot of Negroes you know, who have somehow…floated out of the backwaters or the muddy waters…have forgotten the stench of the backwaters." The black upper bourgeoisie doesn't seem to understand that by divesting in the black communities they grew up in and joining with conservatives who talk about the hood as if it's a problem to eradicate rather than a community to empower, they're helping to maintain racial disparities. Racism stings like salt in a fresh wound, and in their effort to distance themselves from that pain, some Black people cling to the idea that poverty is a self-inflicted wound and when questioned why they don't like the hood, start repeating some of the same talking points, white people use to justify racial, and class-based disparities.
It reminds me of a conversation I had with a friend who moved to a small country town after Hurricane Katrina and, since then, has lived away from New Orleans and only comes back to visit. Some of our mutuals who live in outlying parishes said they were afraid to visit New Orleans "because of the crime," ignoring the fact that most victims of violent crime are harmed by someone they know, not a stranger. This never sat right with me. The narrative that Black people living in urban areas are more violent or likely to commit crimes feeds into racist stereotypes that unfairly paint everyone in the hood with the same brush. It's no secret who benefits from this schism.
This topic resurfaced when one light-skinned Black woman, who goes by TheKeptWifeLife_ on TikTok, called Black people living in the hood "ignorant" and "always down to fight," commenting that she's "happy that Tampa is so segregated," presumably so she won't ever see them unless she chooses. "I can't stand 'hood' people," she told fans who follow her on a channel where she regularly brags about having a soft life that her husband provides for her. Of course, some were quick to bring up her alleged humble beginnings in the comments. But, regardless of whether she had to work her way to a position of privilege or was born with a silver spoon in her mouth, these views about the hood are harmful and disrespectful. The absurdity of calling hood Black people "ignorant" while foolishly endorsing racial stereotypes needs to be called out.
Many middle and upper-class Black people are disillusioned with the experiences of Black people living in the hood. Fred Hampton, a civil rights leader and deputy chairman of the Black Panther Party Illinois chapter, was right when he told an audience at the Capital Theater in 1969, "We're not going to fight capitalism with black capitalism"… "We're going to fight capitalism with socialism." By embracing American-style capitalism that centers around individual success, some Black people who've managed to accumulate wealth have wholly divested from the hood, from members of the black community still living in poverty. This is especially the case with second-generation wealthy Black people, who grow up without any hood experiences as a point of reference. Sure, you want to provide your kids more than you had, but hopefully, they don't adopt harmful ideologies along the way, which dehumanize the poor and turn a blind eye to the suffering of black communities their parents came from.
Overall, you should know that the hood, which is short for “neighborhood,” is more than a place where violence and trauma occur; it’s also a place where people are born, where they live, find their first love, and share their lives with others. It’s where they go to school and learn how to ride a bike, a place where friendships are born, where business ideas and artistic projects blossom, and experiences are shared as freely as hopes and dreams. The negative elements of the hood that are commonly discussed and portrayed in film reflect socially constructed problems, many of which could be alleviated if people didn’t treat those living there like social pariahs. If they truly saw the hood as a place where people live, a place in desperate need of investment and not stigma.
If you find yourself living in fear of the hood, then chances are you're endorsing racist stereotypes. You've fed into the lie that Black people living in low-income communities are more violent than those living in the country or suburbs, that we need an increased police presence there, that they're lazy, or that they're incapable of raising their children properly. As a result, their communities are not seen as worthy of investment. Moving out of the hood shouldn't be seen as a badge of honor, as many middle-class Black people view it. On the contrary, we should be praising those who choose to invest in their communities and see value in blackness beyond the dollar bill. If you find yourself fearing the hood, just know that was the plan. As long as they can get you to endorse stereotypes, they can ensure you're culturally divested from the injustices that take place in the hood—giving public support for policies that ultimately maintain racial disparities and further marginalize those who live there.
This post originally appeared on Medium and is edited and republished with author's permission. Read more of Dr. Allison Gaines' work on Medium.