Horticulture/multiculture

A detour to collect some household items took us into a neighbouring district with a different social make-up.
On our way I saw a community garden between two rows of houses and went to investigate. This young man was hoeing the raised beds on his own so I asked him some questions. His name is Eric and he's an architecture student with a long-standing interest in gardening. He spends a couple of hours here most days; he finds the work therapeutic as it takes his mind off other things. The weather's still very cold for planting but beans and carrots have been sown already. The produce is sold on a stall later in the year and at a couple of local farmers' markets.

Eric is probably the only African-American I have had any sort of conversation with in all my visits to Philadelphia, staying in a preponderantly white neighbourhood where most of the non-white people I come into contact with are service workers. It feels odd and uncomfortable but I am too inhibited to do anything about it. Afro-Americans make up 43% of this city's population but they are largely confined to certain sectors of the city that most white people avoid. When I was checking out my route to Bartram's Garden yesterday I came upon several comments on Trip Advisor that joked about having to pass through 'no go areas' and 'dodge bullets' to get there. (Needless to say my bicycle ride was perfectly peaceful.)

Last week I was interested when a professional person, himself of Asian descent, observed at dinner that the only places in Philadelphia where you encountered a complete social mix were sports events, the public transport system and IKEA. Then again, currently debate is raging about a city magazine's recent lead story called 'Being White in Philly'. Purporting to address the issue of the racial divide it quotes disparaging anonymous opinions that can only perpetuate racial stereotypes and raise unjustifiable fears.

When we got to the factory outlet store with its rock-bottom prices we were the only white customers there, and likewise at the budget supermarket over the road. That was a new experience for me and one that I was pleased to have. As a visitor to the city I find it a confusing and unsettling world to step into. On the other hand it's possible I'm being naive and that while I myself live in an ethnically homogeneous part of the UK there are many others that are not and I rarely enter them.

For supper I made a southern dish: smoked turkey and collard greens. It was a tiny nod towards the multicultural nature of this country. And very good it was.