I wouldnt pick a priest up at 1 am in the middle of Detroit, I visit their enough to know what not to do.
I've never crossed the street because I feared for trouble from some brother. If they intend trouble, they will also cross the street and bring trouble with them. Either face up to him or turn and run like a stripe-assed ape. I've crossed the street to avoid panhandlers, however. I will become invisible to avoid a street mime . . . and those guys are really white.
I've had that same experience when taking people I know from the Midwest to New Orleans. Even though its been years since then, when I talk to them they still bring up how surprised they were that New Orleans had so many black people intermingled with the white people. The horror!!!
That's pretty much the exact way the people I know from the Midwest put it. They live in a big city with a large black population, but they were used to the black population being "across the tracks" from the white side. But still, I was talking to a fellow Louisiana man the other day that told me he never carries his gun with him, except when he goes into Orleans Parish, where he always brings his gun with him.
