comment on note

It tells more than one story. This photograph is representative of a deeply rooted problem in America, the world at large, which is race relations. Minorities, even given the label of minorities, are being done a disservice when these sorts of things exist to be documented. In denying someone else the respect they deserve, that ultimate dignity of being human, we scar ourselves beyond recognition. The frailty of the human experience, the incomprehensible durability of it, the entire thing a mystery waiting to be understood. These are the lessons to take from it and all similar occurrences.

My first inclination was to say that it is an actual street as it has the main criteria I believe a street should have: there is a path that allows for movement - in other words, a literal physical street itself. There are other features present that one would commonly see in other "actual streets": a sign indicating its name, and features at the side (such as houses and cars and some vegetation in this case).

But then I looked up the meaning of the word "actual" and Merriam Webster gave me this definition: "real and not merely possible or imagined : existing in fact".

Now, this made me pause.

Sure, this image shows a street - but based on this image alone and my prior knowledge about its context (which is to say, none) I cannot say with 100% confidence that this street truly exists outside of this virtual plane. By this. I expect to be able to go to this place in person and see it for myself in reality. Otherwise, with Photoshop and other truly amazing computer effects of the 21st century, it is entirely possible that someone just cropped and edited various photos into this collection of one image.

So I believe that it is entirely possible for this to be a street, however, unless I am able to confirm its physical existence in our reality, I cannot exactly say that it is an "actual street".

First, I can deduce that it is probably a suburban area given the ubiquitous presence of similar residential houses in the immediate vicinity of this picture. The street looks clean and well-kept, so I believe this means this could be a good neighbourhood with residents or a local authority that ensures a nice standard of living for everyone. Plus, the car in the background implies that there are people living here despite the absence of any, so I do not believe it is a deserted area. So the people around here are probably middle-class, a little on the upper end, well-educated with jobs.

The size and design of the house shouts family to me, but this might not necessarily mean kids, especially since I can't see any hint of children.

The sky is clear and the vegetation is sparse with the grass looking a little thirsty - I'd say this is also in a hot and dry climate. Desert climates come to mind. I wonder why there aren't any people on the street given such nice weather, though.

But at the end of the day, these meanings I just gave were assigned based on my own personal experiences and assumptions. Does that mean this exercise shows more about me than it does about the picture?

Perhaps there is a place where houses are empty with abandoned cars and clean streets with a road called Jim Crow. I have yet to seen one outside of post-apocalyptic movies with zombie outbreaks, though.