Gaming store or a friend with ployhedron dice?

I’ve lived in Harlem for 8 years now and I’ve watched it change — because of Columbia, because of Bill Clinton, because of huge chain stores moving into the area, because of rich folks wanting to buy brownstones cheap, simply because people from other more privileged demographics (yes you, white people, yes me too despite being a POC) have moved in and are changing the face the community, making it not what it once was. But even in the early 90s, it would have been a ludicrously racist statement to say that the only reason white people would go to Harlem would be for drugs or sex. There are a dozen other places you could go for that, all of them probably with less police presence than Harlem! It’s just the 70s-fueled stereotype of a racist doofus.

Sylvia’s, incidentally, is an incredibly popular tourist attraction. There are visitors from all over the world there on a daily basis. It’s hard to even believe that there were no white people in there when O’Reilly and Sharpton had lunch. There are lines around the block for that place, and the lines always have white people in them.

Ironically, even BILL O’REILLY was capable of making far less stupid or bigoted comments than this guy, who was apparently defending the original radio clip. I am no fan of O’Reilly and he came off sounding like as much of a boor as ever, but if you read the transcript, he was trying to make some kind of point about how he thinks average black folks (e.g. Sylvia’s patrons) are just like anyone else and that stereotypes like DePetro’s are totally wrong. And this is O’REILLY making that point. Then John DePetro comes along defending him and basically spouts the exact opposite — it is to laugh.

This reminds me though: Anyone know of Newburgh? It’s about an hour-ish upstate, on the Hudson. Very bad rep, lots of drugs and gangs and stuff. I (white teenage girl who looks a bit like a boy) was walking to work, from my house, in the city of Newburgh (“the ghetto”) and some guy walking by was like, “What you want some weed? You want some drugs?”

Yes, because I only go to the city for drugs. Duh.

When I lived in NYC, I went to Harlem for Dungeons and Dragons. Which category does that fall under?

Drugs, obviously. Something like crack, only cheaper and more addicting. ;) Not to mention the caffeine/Cheetos/Doritos fix in addition to the Dn’D. Seriously whacked!

For god’s sake, Columbia University is in Harlem.

If you want a more minority neighborhood, try south Riverside.