Temporary Digs

So we're moving. Not far, mind you, just away from the degenerates in my backyard. I SO hate them, and this hatred is very very bad for my children. There are at least 8 people on the fire escapes hanging out/smoking dope/drinking beer/braiding each other's hair at any given moment. And there are six fire escapes overlooking my back yard. And the dopesmoking isn't what bothers me. It's more the loud talking way that certain people communicate in at all times. The loud talking "get yo mowfokin ass back in dis house fo I pop a cap in yo mowfokin ass stupid mowfoka." This from the mother (fucker) to her seven year old child, who now speaks to my children this same way when they go outside to swing. It is not a nice thing to try and enjoy a back yard, which we worked very very hard on for six years, building decks, swingsets, planting grass and growing a nice little oasis where there used to be a car graveyard. Urban pioneers we were, rehabbing this house in the hopes that the neighborhood was on its way back. It is, but just not in my backyard, unfortunately. And now we're prisoners--forced to our front porch by the fire escape dwellers spewing hatred at us from their stoops. We even tried several times to make friends with them, but I swear we come off looking like the stupid white people that are usually featured on movies that star nice black families (why is it that white people in black movies always look like they have sticks up their asses). C doesn't have a mustache or a combover and rarely wears khaki pants. I wanted so badly to teach my children there is no difference between people, and that there is no race better or worse than any other. So we live in the city and we buy the black baby dolls from Target and we try to not be intimidated when walking past a group of four black guys in white t-shirts holding up their pants. But then we go into our backyards to swing and we get "stupid mowfokin white ass bitch shut the hell up" from a seven year old with corn rows in response to "row row row your boat sung in time to my four year old's swinging. And even with a few years of Raven as one of their favorite tv shows, my youngest said the other day, you know what mom? I like Chelsea best on that show because she has a white ass, just like mine.

I give up.