Bayyinah C. Pierre

Prof. Sacha Frey

Intro Lit/Crit Arch I

November 14^th 2012.

From a Dot on a Map to a Milieu.

The site analyses that I completed at the Underwood Park, Clayson Playground, and Lafayette Gardens Playground are very different from their locations on a map. The Parks are not just a dot, a tree or the symbolic green color on a map. They’re much more than that, they represent something to someone who lives or lived nearby. They voice the stories of the people who live around it.  My site analyses present themselves with more information. Information, I couldn't have known had I not visited those parks at that specific time in the day. Facts and a sense of community were missing from the map I looked on Google. I supposed they were lost in the bigger plan, the bigger area. With that loss of translation came a bigger problem, confusion. A present racial battle left a freshman college student curious and confused about the things that are happening in 11205.

In my site analysis at Underwood Park I observed a lot of things, but one thing stuck, it resurfaced over and over again. It wasn't the cold weather that day or the noisy cars that were speeding on Lafayette but the color of one’s skin. I kept coming back to the people who were there, what racial category would they be put in.  Without even knowing what I going to find or have to write about, what I noticed was fascinating in a sense. The babies who were playing in the cold weather where either black (meaning bi-racial) and Caucasian with little blonde curls. That may not be surprising or fascinating to most, but, when you live in almost the center of a state that is known to be a melting pot. You began to wonder why it is the way it is. Where are the Asians, the Blacks (the ones that are not mixed), the Spanish, where were they?

Race was a big thing at the park, and even though bi-racial kids were playing in the park, I didn't really notice any moms or dads that were black per say. The black woman I noticed where all “taking care” of little blonde kids. An Asian boy and his father were there but they were the only Asians. I didn't really know what that meant so I decided to walk straight down Lafayette because I noticed a park a couple blocks from Higgins once; I haven’t been in the neighborhood for too long.

Along my stroll, the scenery changed a little I noticed more graffiti on the walls, but the area was still very nice. One more block, and I was in a different world. Suddenly, the quiet of the neighborhood I had been in was overpowered by the reggae music of a group of teenagers where playing, the traffic, the sudden yells here and there. To be honest, I preferred that environment better. It reminded me of back home, coming from Haiti your soul inhabits drums, loud music, community, and the fact that sense life.

At the corner, where the music was playing there was a park, Clayson Playground, not a lot of people were there, only three to be exact, a boy eating hot chicken wings sitting on a bench, I assumed his brother shooting hoops next to him, and a women eating chips at my right when I walked in. No kids on the swings, No biracial kids, No blonde babies, and the people who were present we’re all black. I thought to myself as I walked out: “Wow, no one’s here!!! How confusing can this get?” So I looked at the navigation on my phone, and I typed in the park, and one two blocks away showed up. I decided to go hoping maybe I could find an answer that could justify for the so-called race wars in my head.

When I got to Lafayette Gardens Playground not much was different from the previous park, but this time older kids were playing together, they were probably around the ages of eight to eleven, I don’t know they didn't look that old and I didn't look to young either. So, I’m guessing around there since I didn't ask, all I asked them was to get their permission to film them riding a battery-powered small toy car down the swing set. It looked cool but they could have hurt themselves.

 As soon as I turned my back, I heard a little boy: “Who is she, she sound mad white” I thought it was funny, but the others went on to say: “who are you, bitch?” and that was inappropriate, they were kids.  As I walked out of the gate, they kept cursing still, but I realized that there was no sign on the gate reminding people to close the gate because of children just like there was in first park I went to. That added more pieces to the puzzle, suddenly; the puzzle was too crazy to finish in time and properly. What puzzle you may ask? Well, the one where I figured out why small children and babies have their own little park, why the black boys were cursing at the park, why they are so many bi-racial and blonde babies in one neighborhood, and why the places are significantly different when they are in the same area and have the same zip codes?  

My site analysis is more of a community map, it presents relationships and character. It introduces the economical and racial factors. I may have the answers to some of my questions already but I don’t know if they are facts, so, I am not going to share them.  I don’t know, maybe the world is changing.  Maybe, the original black male in 11205 married and had children with white female and they just moved to a specific segregated community, which would explain the age gap between the children at the parks.

I’m not sure. 11205.