FACTUALITY x Loyola University

There's so much to love about FACTUALITY but one of my favorite parts is participant storytelling.

Pictured here is Loyola University's F.I.R.S.T. Assistant Director, Scott, sharing painful childhood memories about an encounter outside of a redlined neighborhood in Baltimore.

He recalls the time when he was five years old and in Hampden at sundown. As he and his mother "attempted" to leave the neighborhood, their car was barricaded by three pickup trucks. One in the front, one in the back, and one on the side of their car.

Two men approached their car, sitting on the hood smoking cigarettes. One of the men in the trucks revved his engine, simultaneously causing the rubber on his tires to burn. 

For arguably the longest 45 minutes of their lives, their fate was unknown. Per his mother's instructions, Scott stayed crouched on the ground for nearly an hour. They were terrified.

Finally one truck leaves, then another, but the last truck... as Scott and his mom drove off, the last truck followed them until they cleared the Hampden neighborhood line. 

Racism is not a distant past and we are most certainly not living in a post racial society.