As I grew up in the town of Freeport on Long Island, I always knew it was a predominantly Hispanic and Black community. I always wondered why other surrounding communities had a drastically different racial makeup. As a child, you immediately start to realize what towns on Long Island are predominantly white and which ones are predominantly made up of minorities.
If you’re from Nassau County, you know that line that separates Hempstead from Garden City, and the drastic change in the types of houses you see. When I came to Stony Brook, I could tell how different Nassau and Suffolk County was though the struggle I had to go through to find a Dominican salon or a little bodega to get Spanish food throughout the town.
Being involved in many clubs in Freeport High School, I got used to always being stared at when we would go to events with other schools from the Suffolk County area because we were usually the only ones with color in our skin. Despite the constant stares, I knew my school district was one of the best ones out there. According to the story, a real estate agent says to a white buyer, “So a lot of people will say to me, ‘Oh, I don’t care. I’ll take Freeport and all the houses are cheap there. I don’t care about the school district. I don’t have any children.’ I say, ‘But you have to protect your investment.” Meanwhile, Freeport High School has won numerous awards and my graduating class was one of the most competitive I have seen. In 2017, the graduation rate was 73 percent. I take pride in Freeport High School because it made me who I am today and the fact that this lady had the nerve to say this to a potential buyer frustrates me.
The reason for all of this is racism. The saddest part is these real estate agents are causing this racism due to the separate and unequal treatment they are providing for minority potential buyers on Long Island.
Thank you Newsday for shedding light on this important topic.
Read my opinions article on this matter here.
Maya Brown 