@ossobuco,
I drove in a war zone looking for my runaway dog. Nobody killed me. I was probably too bizarre for being there, but I was treated ok, that was when I had the crap fiat convertible. So, a fool driving slowly, looking for SandPaw.
I got over that view later - my later to be husband was raised in a similar area. He took my being treated well as normal, and he was white in south LA.
I finally found my dog many blocks away at a party, a gay party (then big news to me), they called me from his tags. This might have been the start of my being aware of and liking gays.