The past year, I have been working as a first-year teacher in Baltimore City. I've had hope and I've had a lot of struggles. But every day, familiar sights welcome me on my barely-awake drives to work or home.

It is Chinese takeout restaurants in the hood that certainly don't fit in with the rest of the stores or communities we see in blighted and highly segregated parts of East and West Baltimore. Going into these places, we see a heavy amount of security and bulletproof glass, and restaurant employees and workers that don't look like the populations they serve.

For me, a Chinese-American that grew up in a poor family, the business model behind these restaurants is very interesting. Frequently, I'll see men my age or a bit younger standing on a corner not too far away, and the Chinese takeout restaurants stick out.

What are they doing there? Why, of all places, did they choose here to set up shop?

I did some research online and talked with my kids and some of my co-workers to conjecture as to why inner-city communities, blighted by drug trafficking and addiction, poverty, and homelessness, have a high concentration of Chinese takeout restaurants. Behind fast-food restaurants like McDonald's, Wendy's, and Burger King, these takeout restaurants and convenience stores are the most common establishments.

So what is the business model behind Chinese takeout places in inner-city communities? I explored a lot of options, but the one that strikes out to me most is that there's a lack of competition and good business that comes with exploiting a food desert that often accompanies economically blighted communities with a lack of healthy food options.

Let me make it clear that minorities can be very, very racist against other minorities. I will not even repeat the comments that members of my Chinese family have made about other Asian ethnicities or other minority groups because they are just that profane and offensive. Some people call the trend colorism rather than racism, but racism is not exclusive to white people.

As such, I have seen the protections that a lot of these takeout restaurants put in place. The bulletproof glass hides the feelings of fear that many non-black or non-Hispanic business owners have to protect a perceived feeling of survival. With a few exceptions, many of these restaurants did not set up shop to give back to the community. They did not start a restaurant in the most impoverished parts of the inner-city to serve the community. Many of the employees don't live in the community.

I have spoken with many of these business owners and employees about why they set up convenience stores or takeout restaurants where they do. A big answer was that the money is good. Another big answer was that they had no other place to go. The restaurants present novelty, accessibility, and excitement. They're cheap.

In Brooklyn, New York, a takeout restaurant called Ho-May is located in the Cooper Park housing projects. Phillip Mlynar of First We Feast calls this location a "hood Chinese" restaurant. Mlynar calls Ho-May a "a neighborhood hole-in-the-wall serving primarily carryout meals in styrofoam containers, selected from a garishly lit photographic menu and served from behind bulletproof glass." Seats are typically not present, and compared to the average Americanized restaurant, food is a lot more fried.

But it's not only cost-efficiency and economics, but a historical trend in segregation that mixed many immigrant cultures and cuisines. According to food historian Adrian Miller, "you had Chinese restaurants in New York City welcoming black customers...they were one of the few places where African-Americans could go out and eat that wasn't an African-American establishments."

Again, I will not speak for all "hood Chinese" establishments, but the owners of these restaurants often don't form close bonds with the local community. There is a common sentiment that runs along the lines of "you don't mess with me, and I won't mess with you." During the Freddie Gray Uprising in West Baltimore in 2015, rioters targeted many Asian-owned businesses for destruction. These were stores owned by Asian immigrants, who profit from the despair and desperation of these blighted communities but don't give back.

Is the business model the exploitation on that despair? It troubles me to think so -- but someone has to step in, no matter their motives, when other businesses refuse to step into blighted inner-city communities.

I know, personally, too, that a big part of that divide is the intentional boundaries many Asians that inhabit these communities choose. I wrote in November that I have never seen a representation of an Asian adequately serving a troubled inner-city environment because a lot of Asians choose to not serve adequately. For many traditionally Asian families, it isn't about the community -- it's about taking care of and protecting your own. As such, the owners of these takeout restaurants won't hole themselves up only because of safety and protection, but from choice and an unwillingness to interact.

But perhaps the biggest business advantage of owning a Chinese takeout restaurant in the hood is that they fill the gap that so many others refuse to go. Society and our federal government left behind these communities a long time ago -- and the Chinese takeout restaurants or Korean-owned convenience stores fill a gap that has too often been neglected.

The business model is that these restaurants make a profit, but they also fill a void of communities that have too often been left behind. The business model is that, no matter their practices, these restaurants are present. And perhaps that makes all the difference.