Racism and the City
With all this talk of racism in the gentrifying parts of town, I thought I'd share this anecdote.
On Tuesday, I interviewed a middle-aged black man in Columbia Heights. He was angry about construction that had encroached on his mother's land, and I mention his race because it is relevant. This man expressed racial attitudes that were in step with the policies of a certain Western country between 1933 and 1945.
As we stood in his backyard and looked at the construction, he intimated that the Jews wanted to take his mother's house. Of one of the persons involved, he said: "She's a member of B'nai B'rith. You got me, man? You got me? Yeah. Member of B'nai B'rith."
I took his story with more than a spoonful of salt. But just because I'm a careful reporter, I checked with a Jewish friend to see if she and her acquaintances were hatching such a plot. "I haven't heard any plans like that," she said. She did assure me, though, that the Jewish Conspiracy to Take Over the World was still holding regular meetings. "We're about to have a press conference," she said.
My friend is from the North, so she's quick to spot racism. Since I'm from East Texas, it takes me a while to notice, even when racism is leering down at me in form of a loud man with booze on his breath. I grew up with this stuff: Confederate flags as makeshift curtains, prolific use of the N-word by white men, a Bible-class teacher who said whites and blacks shouldn't mix. ("It's bad for the children," he told me when I was 10 or 11.) In coming to D.C., however, I thought that urban blacks might be less racist than the whites down South. After all, the grandfathers of those Klansmen who marched in my town never had to get hosed or go to jail for their rights.
Illusions, farewell.
Back in Columbia Heights, I was hoping that the angry man's 80-year-old mother would offer me some faith in people. Not a chance. She said, with a hiss, that white people were the root of her troubles. One of her neighbors, who was white, made a nervous joke over the fence. She let loose on him: "You come out way after I was here! I been here since 1953! You come down here 'bout four years ago!"
I wish the story ended there, but it doesn't. As I was walking away, the man offered to bribe me. "You do this story. I take care of you," he said. "I get you paid."
12:12 pm
So what did you find out exactly? Was there an actual issue of their property being infringed upon? Or was the story to point out that folks that have experienced racism still harbor ill feelings in a gentrified setting?
1:35 pm
It's very relevant that no one is pure when it comes to this stuff. You'd hope that people who'd experienced serious, entrenched racism or other kinds of discrimination would be more inclined to analyze their own attitudes to ensure they don't inflict that terrible experience on others, but it's often untrue. I've heard a man go on a tear against racism and then turn around and call gays "fags, fudgepackers" etc.
Your description of these folks "ill feelings" reminds me of Mel Brooks saying "Tragedy is when I cut my finger. Comedy is when you walk into an open sewer and die." Why would you classify discrimination against blacks as "racism" and discrimination against Jews as "ill feelings"? Both are vile, regardless of the personal history that may explain them. "Your prejudices suck. Mine are inherently just and well-reasoned." Nice!
The point of this post is that people are painfully inconsistent -- and often can only taste the bullshit when it came out of someone else.
2:56 pm
What exactly was the point of this? Seems like you were out on a mission to prove..."hey Black people can be racist too!" This post doesn't really differ much from the Washington Post article that you continually demonize on this blog.
5:39 pm
Wow, you encountered a couple people spouting ignorant and offensive comments. And they're black too. That sure is some excellent reporting. It really says a lot about our city. So the Post tries to fuel racial friction and you decide to jump in the fray too. That's great.
7:02 pm
The man you discribe is prejudiced, not racist. Racism requires the priviledge of being in the oppressive class (in America that's white).
Was the point of this article to try to relieve the guilt of a priviledged reporter? That's what it sounds like to me. It's seductive to focus on our own oppression: I'm a woman and gay, woe is me! But that doesn't excuse my responsibility to work to dismantle the priviledge that I receive due to my white race. Only when we work to end all forms of oppression (especially those that we control as the ones in power) will we see the end to the oppression that we experience.
11:18 am
From article:
"Since I’m from East Texas, it takes me a while to notice, even when racism is leering down at me..."
By racism, I think you mean:
-- the APARTHEID state of Israel
-- the quota system, systematic & massive discrimination against whites
-- "La Raza" organizations
-- The Million Man March, organized by the black separatist group, The Nation of Islam
1:16 pm
"Jewish" is a religious descriptor, not a race. There are Jewish people of many different races and ethnicities: Ethiopian Jews, Russian Jews, etc. Anyone can convert to Judaism, from any race, so it is painfully ignorant to call a statement that is anti-Jewish "racist".
2:45 am
Ward 3 Council Member Mary M. Cheh who claims to be a liberal, progressive and caring Democrat hit the ground running on January 2, 2007, to move to enrich big business but not the middle class nor the poor of DC.
Cheh besides taking a $500 campaign contribution after the general elections (January 2007) from Merck & Company to mandate that all teenage girls of a set age range be required to be inoculated with Gardasil which will effectively put $27,000,000.00 in the pockets of Merck, Merck will be greatly appreciative of how cheaply Cheh could be bought that next time when Cheh runs for re-election, we can be sure Merck will send another $500.00.
(If your daughter(s) should get sick or suffer side effects from Gardasil, you should immediate sue Mary Cheh (in her individual capacity), DC Government and Merck because Cheh does not have 11th Amendment Immunity from suit).
Cheh’s next goal is to put $100,000,000.00 in the pocket of local developers like PN Hoffman Company who graciously gave her a dirt cheap campaign office in the highest commercial rent district in the District of Columbia, and she plans on doing this by voting in favor of a mayoral take over of our schools which will result in schools being closed and condos being built on those lands, contracts to developers to re-build and more. Next time round, PN Hoffman Company will be so grateful they might just give Cheh free office space for her 2010 campaign headquarters.
The foregoing are just two things Cheh is doing to enrich the rich all the more, but so far, her liberal, progressive and caring philosophy hasn’t done nor is their any plan(s) on her table to do a thing for anyone who is not already rich.
Cheh's support in ward 3 came from voters who are just as greedy, evil and phony as she is, and also just as racist!
Cheh’s racist mindset but specifically against African Americans was brought out nicely by Valencia Mohammed. See this DC City Council hearing video > http://tinyurl.com/26w66g
If Mary Cheh is a caring liberal, I’d hate to see what an uncaring conservative is!