Some Black youth feel less safe when they visit predominantly white areas of their city, a new study in Columbus has found.

And it was those Black kids who spent the most time in white-dominated areas who felt less safe, said Christopher Browning, lead author of the study and professor of sociology at The Ohio State University.

“Familiarity with white neighborhoods doesn’t make Black kids feel more comfortable and safer. In fact, familiarity seems to reveal threats,” Browning said.

“It is not a terribly optimistic finding.”
Negro kids, don't go to the 'white' side of town. It's dangerous. There's a lot of whiteys down there doing bad, bad things. Bad things like checking their mail, mowing their lawns, clearing their gutters, receiving amazon packages and takeout orders. It just ain't safe for a black child, gnomesayin'?

The study is one of the first to examine racial differences in how urban youth perceive their safety in real time, Browning said. Data came from the federally funded Adolescent Health and Development in Context study, which involved 1,405 11- to 17-year-old youths in Columbus.

Researchers gave participants smartphones, which they used to report on how safe they felt as they moved through the city over a one-week period.

Five random times a day, the youths received a mini-survey that asked them where they were, what they were doing, who they were with and social characteristics of the setting. The GPS on their phone also recorded their location.

Each survey also asked them to rate on a 5-point scale if the location they were in was a safe place to be.
Results showed that youth generally felt safe when they were near their homes – those who were within 30 meters of their home had about a 14% greater probability than others of strongly agreeing they felt safe in the moment.
Yes. In the 'hood' where they were more likely to get shot, robbed or stabbed they felt "safer."

The issue that Black youth face in Columbus and most other cities is that the resources they want and need – such as shopping, entertainment, libraries and restaurants – are often located in predominantly white areas.
Yes, and when blacks move into those areas- well, you know what happens. Those places always close in black areas because....

And the unsafe feeling for Black participants in the study increased with more exposure to predominantly white neighborhoods. For example, for teenagers exposed, on average, to 70% white neighborhoods, being outdoors in a white neighborhood reduced the probability of reporting strong agreement that the location was safe by about 26%.

“There is this complicated trade-off that Black youth have to navigate in which they want to take advantage of these organizational resources that are mainly available in white areas of the city,” Browning said. “But they also have to deal with feeling concerned about their safety.”
Their troubles never end.

https://news.osu.edu/visiting-white-...eel-less-safe/