After a long day on the job, often in racially and ethnically mixedwork environments, most Atlantans choose to spend their leisure time withpeople who look just like them.
It seemed a worthy idea at the time: Last January, two competingAtlanta radio stations — one with a predominantly black audience andanother with mostly white listeners — would throw a joint “unity party”at a nightclub in Martin Luther King’s hometown, on the eve of hisbirthday holiday. The goal was to bring people of different racestogether for a night of exuberant partying. Seconds after the simulcastannouncement by morning show hosts Frank Ski of V-103 FM and Bert Weissof Q100-FM, the phone lines at both stations lit up with calls ofsupport from listeners frustrated by what they consider the city’sracially divided social scene. “People of different cultures don’tparty together [here] like they do in New York, Los Angeles and Miami,”one female caller lamented.But the euphoria that followed the announcement gave way to awidespread feeling of disappointment: On the designated night, therewas certainly a line of people snaking around the block, waiting to getinto the Lotus Lounge in the city’s affluent Buckhead neighborhood. But”it was about 80% black,” recalls Ski. And, as Weiss put it on air, “Mywhite people didn’t show up.”