Ariyah Smith and Aaron Atkins

00:00 I am 32 almost 33 years old. Today is October 5th 2020. I'm currently living in St. Louis Missouri, but I grew up in Alton, Illinois with my partner. Here. I am I calling you today whenever you want to whatever you were at the time. So, this is Ariah relationship. Probably my best friend in the world if I told me if you believe in this thing together.

00:37 So I my name is Ariah my art name is siren. It is October 5th.

00:57 So how has your day been? You know, I am quite sick of living this but also my soul dies a little bit everyday affecting your job a lot every every precaution every CDC update its immediate and I have to be the one who kind of puts it out there and then we change our policies Ewok shut down all the time. So it's it's been a year.

01:45 It's at 1 let me not complain too much. Really really I just

01:52 You know you work at that job you working at Art Gallery and it's it seems so refreshing in a lot of ways and you know growing up as always, like what we were dreaming about it like being an artist. You're actually doing it a little bit. I was like what I was homeless for a good like 6 7 years.

02:21 True if a drop a bucket of water in the bucket to get to where we want to be here need to be so I'm super excited about it. So so I'm looking at this list.

03:05 Okay. So where did you experience diversity or segregation in the city?

03:13 Well, they actually became quite more Salient as I got into my late teens or early twenties when I was younger, you know, I grew up with white folks and I thought I was white folk. I would even shampoo my hair every single day that I would set it off. Yeah. Yeah, so I pretty much grew up with that half of my identity kind of taking charge being in control and feeling completely content with that cuz I didn't know any better, but then as I started getting older

03:57 Starting to realize what are different, you know?

04:02 Maybe not direct segregate. Okay. So direct Cedric segregation. I guess it started to have a little more meat to it when I discovered at 13 who my father was and then I started to see

04:20 From his side of things because I would go over and visit them and they at my grandma's house and then that was in the black part of town and then just seeing how the environments were different. There. Were there were certain things that I was accustomed to having and that we're no longer available or things that were normalized in one area that I would have, you know, mom's would have lost their wigs over it. So, I guess that's probably

04:51 The first time is actually like being in both space is being accepted by both. Nobody made me feel out of place, but just actually seeing it for myself as I go. This isn't just in the history book was super weird for me because I came when are the kids and we moved here about 10 years old Baltimore strange for me because I learned in Belleville and that dynamic in that area is more akin to class has been raised, you know, you weren't poor things were okay you were okay when you came here, but I can hear it was definitely a

05:50 Are of discomfort with the racism immediately turned into the racism here and I are not together.

06:06 It was it was strange for me and my mom had to explain to me what Sundown towns were for the first time. I was like 10:10 or 11 and she's like, yeah, they be there after dark like you can get in a lot of trouble or you could maybe not come home and I was really happy for me and there's not really something that I had dealt with as a kid and then

06:29 There was also a she told me about the paper bag rule about how if your dog is in a brown paper bag establishment, and that's how she grew up and she taught me about Dogtown which is I can't ever remember the name of the junkyard the junkyard. That's a long Broadway across the street from the Dollar General yard actually used to be where they would make the poor black families live together. And that's where my mom grew up with your siblings names to get out of, you know, Dogtown, which is what they called it my grandfather on the inside like now I can just picture them the demolishing all those people's homes just for some industry.

07:29 Jam-packed area and then destroy that area for development of something that they probably won't be a part of it.

07:41 Let's see. What is your relationship with Alton Police Department?

07:53 For the most part. I have never had a problem with the Alton Police Department.

08:00 Brown paper bag

08:10 Charlie gets it gets tricky because when I lived out and Godfrey there was the Godfrey Sheriff's I was pulled over by the sheriff for no reason like Odeon the vehicle looks like it's in my stepfather's name. But yeah my car coming home from work. What are you doing out here?

08:38 You don't so yeah, so I did get in trouble with the Godfrey police multiple times. I be pulled over for going like 5 over the speed limit or

08:50 Again, literally just driving home minding my own business so much and I think that's probably due to to where I would live again. I would not live in the colored part of town because I didn't live with colored Folk.

09:09 And actually my home and I think the last one and I had with him was this last summer. They actually came because somebody got into a fight on my property and they were there and now if you call the police over here in St. Louis, they will get here tomorrow so I can see you later.

09:32 Yeah, it's mixed mixed interactions with how about you?

09:39 So my first run-in with the Alton Police Department, I don't know anybody's name though. I was a child but was made a friend. Her name is Nikki and we were 12 in about Twelve Oaks Middle School and we lives over in the area now so around 5th Street and we both had to stay at school and it was kind of a walk but we do together. So we walked through the graveyard and I guess at the time there have been some people, you know destroying things in the graveyard as usual. It's like a billion year old are we watching the graveyard?

10:29 Can we get to the bottom and we're leaving the gate and two police officers pull us over in the same car and they start telling us about like what we were doing while we watch the graveyard like why we were out at this time of day and maybe like 5 p.m. We've gotten off the bus headed back and they started questioning us a course and then I remember them asking me first my mother's name. And so I gave them my mother's name and at the time I didn't realize what they were doing, but they went back to their Cruiser and then running her name to see what she had. They didn't find anything under my mom cuz she had lived in Alton for years before we moved back. So then they moved on to my friend Nikki.

11:22 They asked Nikki to her mother's name and some information. So sensitive information about Nikki's mother popped up on the scanner and they started harassing her about it. And I started asking us if we were out prostituting and if we were out right when we're just trying to get our math books to be good little girls in like do our homework. And after that I told them that I remember you getting so mad and I told them you can't ask this question like that and at that point that kind of backed off and they let us go but they told us we weren't allowed to watch.

12:09 Buttons that the saddest part is it like you've always been very strong with no this is wrong and you can't do that and not everybody is and call L&L that it's that's just the fact that it was emailed varying things wearing situations. I had a friend that I grew up with. His name is Justin and we were friends and dating on and off and weird stuff for a while. But I remember Justin brother was killed in an altercation with Alton Police because he had committed a crime when he was on the run and they tased him heart condition. So he told them he had a heart condition that he was surrendering and that he would you know stop and they continue to chase him and he had a heart attack me. So that was my second.

13:09 Experience with the Alton PD better and better. I do remember a lot of inaction with an old friend of ours and old mutual friend of ours at the time. We live together on 5th Street and there are a lot of issues with the neighbor that we had. We called the police on a regular basis like they hire us one time one time called the police. Oh

13:49 Sorry, my mom my mom's been through. I don't be so situation. She would call the police. Sorry, I can't do anything. But yeah, he just threatened me with a gun. Sorry.

14:13 No, it's so I'm sorry you opening introduction?

14:24 But it's good because I like that I really do appreciate that. We had really different experiences growing up but we're still very sympathetic to each other's quite like I was given at least four.

14:56 Certain chapters of my life. I was able to live like a fantasy not even you know what I mean, like in my mind the world was still good. I remember I remember it seemly vividly but I remember having the thought having the thought that you know, we went to school and they taught us that all these people fought and died and did all these great things to make sure that we could do whatever you wanted to do with me. Whatever you wanted to be. Just kidding. We're still here. We're still doing that it might and they're like what?

15:53 Yeah, you're like so you want just a little bit.

16:01 Yeah, I remember very clearly having that thought in middle school and that is why I turned into the beautiful got baby that I was I'm so angry. I am very glad I met the goth baby because

16:17 You know, I feel like

16:20 I feel like one of the things that route truly like

16:24 Solidified our relationship in a lot of ways was just like I had gone through a lot of experiences that you knew and you understood and like nobody else but we did, you know Fritz would not be able to talk about any of this with my best friend at the time.

16:46 Oh my God, we were okay. I had to be like 14 cuz I remember turning 15 shortly after we became like friends. So I remember been hanging out with Randy Randy wagler and I had a crush on.

17:17 Which we didn't know because you weren't out. So I remember hanging out with another black girlfriend.

17:40 It was she was trying to see what he didn't tell you. He was trying to hook us up. So he wouldn't tell you that he was inviting me over and if you would invite me over and then you'd be like, why does this girl just show up at your house while I was here?

18:05 Do I look like a crazy person? I was like who is this black girl who keeps showing up?

18:17 Starting from now

18:28 Post to be here. Oh my God, I was invited over.

18:34 So it's funny.