Have Chicago's Race Relations Changed in 20 Years?

After reading the last half of Elizabeth and Hazel, I started to think about race relations in Chicago.

I stumbled upon this 3 minute video where NBC Chicago attempts to examine modern day race relations in our fair city. The optimism is laughable, and the "experiment" and premise of the segment are certainly faulty, but you want to hope that the people behind the story had good intentions (besides boosting their ratings with a "controversial" topic). At least it's a good conversation starter about how mass media outlets totally capitalize on the struggles of others. Or whatever.

What I found most interesting, however, were the comments that followed the article on the website. I generally dislike reading all the hate-filled words that usually follow any kind of public post on the internet, and these are pretty typical. But I think it says a lot about the various experiences and perspectives each of us has on race and how it affects our lives.

Examining someone's point of view (even if it is ignorant, hateful, and bigoted) can be helpful to understand how we all try to live in the same world.

That being said, most of the comments make me very angry about the lack of empathy, surplus of misinformation, and general mean-spirited-ness many people seem to exhibit in "anonymous" forums.