In our neighborhood

“This neighborhood is stereotyped, like, you know, most people ride through here and they think that they’re too good to be here, or there’s something bad. They stereotype so much that they don’t actually take the time to actually figure out what this neighborhood is about. If you come here in the summer, there’s kids like everywhere. There’s kids having fun. They look at the bad things. They don’t come here… it’s one day that makes them think that this is a bad neighborhood. If you come here more than one day you’ll see that it’s not as bad as it seems. If you come here you can see kids outside playing. Kids that you would see in a good neighborhood, or a richer neighborhood. We do the same things they do. There’s kids out here having fun, kids out here jumping rope, playing basketball. When people stereotype you underestimate people. I don’t think that’s right.”
–Tameka Griffin, age 13