Impressions from the Frontlines

Here is a message from Holly Kernan, News Director at KALW:

I went to a free breakfast in West Oakland last week. It was a gorgeous sunny Saturday morning and folks were already lined up at the gate when I arrived to help serve. The food was plentiful and lovely— quiche, pancakes, potatoes, grits, yogurt, donuts, orange juice and coffee. The tables were set with fresh yellow flowers.

The guy who runs the place is delightful—sports a full Moses beard and runs around in Dutch clogs. He knows all the customers by name and he’s created a warm and friendly environment.

Most of the customers seemed pretty down and out: many are clearly sleeping on the streets, some have obvious substance addictions. There were a few families and a couple of neighborhood kids who came to breakfast on their own. One girl rode in on a unicycle because she’s in the circus program at school.

There was something that troubled me: the people who brought the food were almost all white; the clients mostly black. There was this uncomfortable divide and it felt like most of the servers were afraid of the people who’d come to eat—they kept a their distance and were careful to stay on their own side of the serving table. It made me really aware of my own race (white) and the way wealth and color affect our life outcomes and outlooks.

(photo is used under Creative Commons License, courtesy of flickr user Jeffrey Beall)