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Who is observing whom?

While driving around South Phoenix, my team decided to stop at the first residential neighborhood that we came to, after we left class.  We ended up at about Alta Vista and 5th street.  We stayed in the same location for approximately 20 minutes and observed.  While we were observing the neighborhood, we realized that we must have looked really suspicious to everyone that lived there.  I mean, we were a bunch of "White" girls, dressed nicely, sitting in a van, staring at people and their houses while taking notes.  We began to notice that people who walked by us, looked at us as if we were their enemy.  They looked at us as if we were the immigration authority, CPS, or the police.  This opened my eyes.  I began to understand why people would be hesitant to talk to us, or even to be friendly.

While observing the neighborhood, we saw a man in an ice-cream truck, backing up into his driveway.  I never knew that ice-cream trucks were privately owned.  His house appeared to be somewhat small.  After he went into the house, two little girls came outside to play with their three dogs.  The two girls brought out Barbie’s and played with each other.  The kids wore school uniforms, white t-shirts with navy blue shorts.   I noticed that the front yard of their house is surrounded by a small chain-link fence, and a 6 foot chain-link fence enclosed the back yard.  Also, there was no grass in the ice-cream man’s front yard.  This is really different from the homes I’m used to seeing in North Phoenix.  Almost everyone who lives in North Phoenix has their front yard landscaped, with either grass all year long or decorative rock landscaping.  Many houses had foil on the windows, which I assumed was to keep the sun out.  A lot of houses still had their lights up, which seemed strange, because where I live everyone, takes them down the day after New Years. 

Across the street, the people that live there have a swing set in their front yard, complete with a teetor-totter and a slide.  The rest of the street was really quiet and empty.  I noticed only a pregnant dog, which appeared to be looking for food and water.  Also, a man was walking down the street, with a trash-can balanced on a lawn mower, full of yard tools.  He appeared to be looking for work. 

For the most part, the neighborhood was well kept.  From the looks of the homes and yards, the residents were most likely lower working class.  The man walking down the street with his gardening tools refused to look at us.  The kids playing in their front yard stopped and stared at us.  Now we began to feel how they must have felt while we were staring at them.  That is when we decided it was time to go.

 

 

 

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