I went to Baldwin Hills two weeks ago.
Wikipedia says it all:
Baldwin Hills Estates (east of La Brea, southwest of Santo Tomas Drive, south of the Jim Gilliam Recreation Center and north of Stocker Street), one of the wealthiest majority-African American areas in the United States, and is sometimes called "the Black Beverly Hills".
I so wanted to see it, you don’t even know. Just neighborhoods with black people, looking good and over Los Angeles. I read about that place. I dreamed of this place. I imagined myself biking that hard hill, needing some water and some nice black people would ask me if I wanted some.
It happened exactly like that. I had to give up and walk and this black woman is there on the other side of the street. She doesn’t even yell, it is so quiet up there. She simply asks me if I need any water and I gently declined, short of breath and walking with my bike on the side.
It took me at least 20 minutes to think that I could have engaged a conversation with someone living there and that I didn’t, totally just high on the beauty, those families living peacefully, that dude asking me wassup walking down his driveway with his 10 year old son, both looking like hip hop stars. Pianos standing in the middle of living rooms.
It’s a weird thing to feel so comfortable somewhere and at the same time, being such a stranger.
So thankful I’ve been in those hills though. I shall return.