In Auburn Gresham, he says, there are no bars that he would hang out at more than once. And in Boystown, he can sometimes feel like an outsider because of the stereotypes he hears from people about the South Side.
A few months back, a woman, upon learning where he was from, asked him, “Are you from one of those ghetto families?” Chappell laughs as he recounts the story now. But it’s not the first time someone has had a notion about Auburn Gresham, where he grew up and still lives.
“People are very scared of what they don’t know about,” he says.
The profile is part of the station’s weeklong look at Auburn Gresham, one of the city’s high-crime neighborhoods.
J. Bocca
Have you BEEN to the south side of Chicago?!? There is a “stereotype” for a reason. yea there might be VERY few people not living in poverty, but the MAJORITY are. So to get offended by it is ridiculous.
Frank
Ummmm, contrary to popular belief, there are more than very few families on the south side that don’t live in poverty. You may think the south side is just a collection of bad neighborhood if all you ever do is view it from the Dan Ryan. But the fact is that the southside has Polish, Irish, hispanic, and black neighborhoods. In fact the richest neighborhood in Chicago, Beverly, is on the south side. So maybe he is right to get offended when people who have no idea what their talking about spout stereotypes about where he comes from.
Brad
Ummmm, I think he’s offended by the part where people treated him like a curiosity for being from a poor neighborhood. They’re poor, not unicorns.
ZHammer
Good story. More of this please.
shannon
He should have asked….ARE YOU FROM ONE OF THOSE NORTH SIDE WHITE GHETTO TRAILER TRSH FAMILIES”?
Jeff
There are A LOT of flat out racist and classist gay white men and lesbian white women even in so called liberal areas and cities like Chicago, NYC, and especially in SF in the Castro.
EBrown
@J. Bocca: Clearly you didn’t really get the point he was making, or probably even the point of the video.
Ryan J
It’s sad that gay black stories are so rarely told. Gay latinos, gay Asians, gay middle-eastern people all exist but in the media, like 95% of time, the face of the gay community is a white male. I think it actually holds the LGBT community back that, in the media, we are so lacking in diversity. We have a lot to gain by giving more representation to people of color.