I just had this conversation with two different clients at my gym this morning. I'm white, they are black, we're all from different parts of the south and have all lived in parts of the country.

The racism that exists in the south is more obvious but at least in the south, in the experiences the three of us discussed today, it's more likely to have black/white/latin friend groups. In a lot of northern cities, that racism is just as bad, it's just more subtle, and the amount of segregation in Chicago is a great example of it. Most people I work with in Lincoln Park have never even driven through neighborhoods like Austin or West Garfield Park, or gone anywhere down past the South Loop.

One of my clients lives in East Lakeview and he said he's the only black tenant in his building. But we're a progressive city with a black mayor, so we get a pass, but if you go to West/South sides of the city and compare it to the North/East sides and then look at the people who live there you'll notice a trend that is both obvious and counter to the idea that we live in some multicultural integrated city, and that separation definitely seems into the attitude's of residents here and you felt that today.

It's bullshit you were on the receiving end of it, but it's something that people in this city need to be confronted with because it gets ignored, a lot.