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Working White in Watts
1977
By: David K. Every
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May 05,2003
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 hile I was a rural burb kid, I'd lived summers with my Uncle in Hollywood, or Grandparents in L.A. So I got the rules of urban and rural pretty well. Still, hustling on Sunset is nothing like being "white bread" working in Watts; which I did one summer. South Central was not the best time I ever had working; but I learned a lot.
My Uncle did Real Estate all over Los Angeles. In another story, one of his partners was put on 20/20 for their real-estate "scam" of buying houses in foreclosure and distress, and then fixing them up and selling them. I learned a bit about how the media can work from that in proxy and first hand. But that's another story. The basics are that they were doing rebuilding all over L.A. And one of his jobs was in South Central L.A. - or Watts. I was doing demolition and construction all summer, and had worked at a few places, but spent most of it at this one job. That was an eye-opener for me.
We were demolishing and rebuilding a duplex. And I enjoyed working with my hands and building. There's something satisfying about starting with a falling apart mess, and stripping the walls and rebuilding and every day seeing progress, and seeing the end result.
It was hard work, and I was sore; but it was a good sore. I felt inferior a lot, because of some of the guys a worked with. One guy was in the Guinness Book of World Records for framing a 2000 sq. ft. house by himself in a single day; and was a sheer animal when it came to everything. Set a good example and I liked working with him, just because he set the bar so high. I learned that people like and respect people that work hard.
I was sort of shocked hearing of some of the others griping and complaining that they weren't getting paid enough, and so on. I didn't really understand it at the time. They didn't like their lives, but they were spending so much time whining that they weren't getting as much done as they could. There was this attitude that was a little "lax" compared to what I was used to. But that was nothing compared to what else went on.
One day these black guys came to the site, and were complaining that there weren't enough blacks on the team. There were a couple, but they weren't from the area. They let us know, in no uncertain terms, that unless we hired more "local" blacks to sit around and "guard" the place, then vandalism each night would undo the work we did during the day, and to let the owner know that. We did.
Rather than pay extortion to them, my Uncle went to someone else. Someone "connected" in the neighborhood; who convinced these people of not only of the error of their ways, but that they should spend a good part of their unemployed spare time guarding what we did from unwanted vandalism. On top of that, while I had been harassed from time to time, for being white in a black neighborhood, suddenly I was given wide berth. Most of the harassment had just been intimidation type stuff, I was young and dumb, and wasn't going to just back down; which is probably a good thing. If I had, I would have made myself more of a target; a little 'tude sort of saved me from more. But after that meeting my Uncle had with someone, people gave me room to get into the liquor store for lunch runs, and didn't block my way and give me lip on the street.
I also saw a tennant, at one of the other properties my Uncle owned, say outright; "I'm in here now, and I'm not going to pay, and it's going to be 6-18 months before you can kick me out. That's the law!", and slam the door. My Uncle paid someone to just sit outside his house and follow him around, giving him scary looks and writing things down. At some point he implied that if the guy didn't leave that you never knew what could happen; and that if damage was done to the property on the way out, well they knew enough that they could find him and bring him to justice. Of course what justice meant was open for interpretation, as was what they might have done if he didn't. It was a game of chicken, but the guy left.
It was enlightening for a kid. The world isn't black and white. Some people were poor because they were lazy. There were all sorts of scams not to work or try to screw others. I'd been pretty liberal and dealt with blacks before that; but the inner city is not like other areas and the blacks I'd know. These people were the most racist that I'd ever met; black or white. Not that I hadn't known a bunch of racist whites, but while I'd occasionally gotten crap from whites (for being too Hispanic looking, or being a towel-head, etc.), it was nothing compared to this. And the racism (or hate) went towards out-of-area blacks, or blacks that were lighter than them, or to Mexicans or especially Asians, just as easily as it did to out of area whites. The inner city problems run much deeper than people think; and most of the problems seem to be in the culture. I got more experience later in life, but that was a lot to digest for me at that age.
I also learned there are many ways to solve problems, or you sometimes had to do not-so-nice things to get things done. If you let people screw you, there are some that would. The law can't always protect you. Could you afford to give up rent on a place for a year while fighting to evict someone? There's the law, and then there's the law. That isn't to say that criminal acts are acceptable or should be tolerated; but that there is some ambiguity in there. As far as I know, my Uncle didn't do anything illegal, but he pushed as close to it as the other side would have. And knowing him, I think if they had crossed the line, he would have. I don't know for sure, nor do I want to. But I learned about looking over my shoulder when I bend over to tie my shoes. 
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