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Racism In Washington DC and in America

  
 
Jot Evil Rules During Weddings
06:12 / 04.07.07
I have been thinking about racism recently, as I lived in a predominantly African American city as a white person. Where I lived, Washington DC, was referred to as “Chocolate City” by George Clinton in his song of the same title. Washington DC is a very interesting city because it is very strictly defined, where all the white people live in the Northwest quadrant of the city and everywhere else is predominantly black. The Northwest quadrant is the only quadrant of the city that people are recommended to go to, as all the other ones are considered “dangerous”. The population of the city itself balloons during working hours as all the people from the suburbs (which are very predominantly white) come into the city for their jobs and then go back to their homes at the end of the day. The white flight on the highways during rush hour is ridiculous.

The city of Washington DC is not in good shape, the education is the worst in the country, the crime rate is very high, poverty is high and the AIDS rate is comparable to some Sub-Saharan African countries (there were billboards proclaiming that on the streets). The people of DC do not have a voting member in either branch of Congress, which is unthinkable in a country where we are trying to preach democracy worldwide. The license plates in DC have the slogan “Taxation Without Representation” on them to remind everyone of the injustice that the residents of DC are facing. And I think that this would not be the case if DC were mostly white.

Now this is an idea that has been said by various African Americans over the years. Now I am one of very few white people who actually agree with this idea. I believe that racism does have some part in the misfortunes of DC. I also think that the response to Hurricane Katrina would have been different if New Orleans were predominantly white. I think that there is still a culture of racism towards black people today and that we have not really gone as far as we would like to think since the Civil Rights Act. Yes, there is very little forced segregation in this day and age, but there is still discrimination.

It is hard to separate the treatment of African Americans without bringing up politics. The true fact is that black people overwhelmingly vote for Democrats. In Washington DC, there was a bill to give Washington DC a vote in Congress, but Bush threatens to veto it, invoking the Constitution. This threatened veto is just another way to not let the predominantly African American population the right to vote and also to limit their voting power in Congress. The racism that surrounds the nations capital is very interesting because it shows how the US is still grappling with racism. My expertise is in DC because I lived there. Racism still exists all across this great nation, including the nation's capital.
 
 
My Mom Thinks I'm Cool
13:28 / 06.07.07
I've only visited DC a couple of times. I hope to never go back. The difference between the tourist/politician filled areas and the places where people actually live is disgusting. People come to the city and take pictures of monuments on the cleanest streets I've seen and a few blocks away buildings are rotting apart in filthy streets. I've seen the same thing before but never so blatantly, it's an amazing contrast.

Of course, that's just my impression as an infrequent visitor...
 
 
Kali, Queen of Kitteh
14:35 / 06.07.07
If you ever lived in New Orleans, it's just as bad, if not worse.
 
 
Jot Evil Rules During Weddings
07:34 / 07.07.07
New Orleans is very bad as well, that is true. There are similarities between Washington and New Orleans that bear mentioning. Both have very high black populations, both have an extremely high murder rate, both have some of the worst school districts in the country and both have been largely neglected (even New Orleans has been somewhat neglected after the rush of support after Katrina)
 
 
This Sunday
08:06 / 07.07.07
There are cities that exist primarily off their tourism-interest, at least in the States, that seem to have an interesting type of prevalent racism/classism: New Orleans, DC, San Diego. It appears that the further from any other kind of supporting industry (i.e. the longer the area is without a major non-tourism money-maker), the worse the likelihood of finding just continual vitriolic racism, or looking-down-on, than in say, LA or even Detroit (although that's shifting). Seems, to me, anyway.

Anyone else have any idea what I mean? The kind of 'you don't belong here' racism, where you/they're almost mentally/socially edited from the scene?

Example: Took a relative and his gf out to dinner a few weeks ago, just outside Denver. He went in first to secure the table - when I got there, assuming I was not with him, they went to see me first, even though he was clearly inside and waiting first. Then, not only did the waitress make oddly disdainful comments in regards to both of the couple's orders, she only came back to refill my coffee and had to be prompted - by me - to come back to the table and also refill their cups. We didn't even finish the meal, but packed it up; no way in hell was there a tip - and talking to the manager resulted in nothing but frustration.

Weird realizations watching them get cut out like that, with the crippling side-recognition that I was totally passing. It made me miss the blatant loud racism of somewhere like LA, where if someone can't figure out your racial profile, they make you latino and just shout (or, as happened two months ago, while having drinks with a German/Korean friend, whisper in passing) 'beaner' while serving you, or tell you to 'go back where you came from.'

Is magickal mental editing spurred by economic shifts and industrial-vacuum or am I conflating two hardly connected elements?
 
 
atropa777
15:31 / 08.07.07
It appears that the further from any other kind of supporting industry (i.e. the longer the area is without a major non-tourism money-maker), the worse the likelihood of finding just continual vitriolic racism, or looking-down-on, than in say, LA or even Detroit (although that's shifting).

I'm not quite sure what you're saying here. That there's more violent, overt racism in LA and Detroit? Because I would agree with that statement. I have lived in Michigan most of my life, with a brief interlude in Austin, TX, and it is completely disgusting how racism works in both places.

After the riots in Detroit, white flight spread out over 40 to 60 miles away from the actual city limit. The contrast between chichi neighborhoods like Rochester Hills or Grosse Pointe where homes are valued in the millions of dollars and literally just down the highway there are (black) people squatting in literally freezing temperatures, unable to find a job or even a grocery store south of the suburbs is disgusting.

What's worse is that the white suburban population somehow wants to glorify this harsh hand-to-mouth lifestyle by claiming to be from detroit, not the 'burbs where they live, that detroit is this rough and tumble city they've 'survived,'
is utterly rediculous. It's as if the state is splitting in half, down racial and political lines.
 
 
This Sunday
16:21 / 08.07.07
That there's more violent, overt racism in LA and Detroit?

Got it in one. I still think my reasoning as to why is - if not entirely wrong - not entirely spot on correct, but I haven't been able to come up with a better model/reasoning.
 
 
atropa777
18:21 / 08.07.07
Well I do think you're on to something. Airing dirty laundry of racist violence doesn't exactly draw in the tourism. But then, LA and Detroit were never very tourist-y towns. They've both got associated industries to them that aren't exactly known for progressive humanist policies.
 
 
Jot Evil Rules During Weddings
02:45 / 09.07.07
On the subject of racism and tourism, there is a lot of ignorance that goes on with the tourism industry. I mean, no tourists when they go to see Los Angeles, will go see South Central or Compton. In DC, where I live, there is a tour of all the rough neighborhoods of DC, but I am not sure what tourist would go on that tour. Tourists go to see the tourist spots of a city, not really the city as a whole.

In DC, the tourist area, the part that everyone knows about DC, is rich and very overwhelmingly white. Which is in deep contrast to the vast majority of the city, which is black and poor. So when a tourist comes to DC, the are not really seeing DC, they are seeing the nice, rich white part of DC, which is very misleading.

The fact that there is the "white flight", which has happened in Detroit, LA and Washington shows that people do not want to be associated with problematic minority populations. The reason why these areas are problematic is because we have not given them the support that they would need to succeed. Like I mentioned earlier in this post, the education in these areas is terrible. How are they supposed to get better if they are not getting an education like their white neighbors up the road? They will not move up in life if they are not educated. Also, if they don't have job opportunities than they will not move up in life either. If they are uninsured, then they are completely screwed if there is some sort of medical condition that happens. All this is the reason that these bad areas occur, and the fact is that minorities are in much worse shape in these categories than white people

There is no way to categorize the problems that are faced in the inner city than racism. The fact is that there are a lot of problems in many cities that have large minority populations. Detroit, New Orleans Los Angeles and Washington DC have all been brought up already but there are many more. Baltimore, Atlanta, St Louis and Newark, NJ are also facing the same issues as the above mentioned cities. And all of them have very high minority, especially black, populations. This is no coincidence.
 
 
Mr Tricks
16:43 / 10.07.07
While I don't see a connection to Tourism in this case, It's difficult for me to overlook the racist components underlining this incident.

Black High School Students Charged with Attempted Murder for Schoolyard Fight After Nooses Are Hung from Tree

I'd suggest a review of the video for a more visceral experence of this news item. Things of Note:

  • Last December, six black students at Jena High School were arrested after a school fight in which a white student was beaten and suffered a concussion and multiple bruises. The six black students were charged with attempted second-degree murder and conspiracy. They face up to 100 years in prison without parole. The Jena Six, as they have come to be known, range in age from 15 to 17 years old.

  • An all-white jury took less than two days to convict 17 year-old Mychal Bell, the first of the Jena Six to go on trial. He was convicted of aggravated battery and conspiracy charges and now faces up to 22 years in prison.

  • The school’s superintendent dismissed the nooses as a prank, and after three days’ suspension, the three white students who hung the nooses were allowed back to school. Caseptla Bailey, a mother of one of The Jena Six, said the school did not inform the parents of the incident.

  • Barbara Murphy, the town librarian, claims there isn’t a race problem in Jena. "We don’t have a race problem. It’s not black against white. It’s crime. The nooses? I don’t even know why they were there, what they were supposed to mean. There’s pranks all the time, of one type or another, going on. And it just didn’t seem to be racist to me." (The audio/video of this person I personally found to be the MOST disturbing)

  • A few days after the nooses were hung, the entire black student body staged an impromptu demonstration, crowding underneath the tree during lunch hour. The school responded to the protest by calling police and the district attorney.

  • At an assembly the same day, the District Attorney Reed Walters, accompanied by armed policeman, addressed the students. He held a pen in his hand and stated, “See this pen in my hand? I can end your lives with the stroke of a pen.”



There's plenty more in the transcript (partially quoted above) as well as in the audio/video. Most of these students have yet to be sentenced, some have yet to raise bail and are still imprisoned. The parents and local community members are still preparing appeals meant to address the apparent racism which seems to have factored into this case.
 
 
This Sunday
22:46 / 30.08.07
For those interested in the Jena case - and I have no idea how effective or useful this is, but can't hurt much - there's a petition at this site. Actually, it appears to be full of petitions, but that's the one the Jena situation is the one the link goes to, calling for a proper investigation into the entire matter, which unfortunately has pretty selective news coverage for the most part.
 
 
Jot Evil Rules During Weddings
06:23 / 18.09.07
SInce I first posted, and since there has been the last post, there have been some developments in race relations in the United States. First of all, a court found that the Jena Six should have never been tried as adults, and it threw out their adult convictions. This was an important decision which shows that not all people in the Judiciary would like to persue this racial vendetta against the Jena Six. While you can never say for certain, I think the prosecution and trial would have been much different had the races been reversed. I think that these kids should be punished, for beating up another kid is not the right thing to do, even if you are provoked, but that it should not entail 30 years in prison, which is what some of the Jena Six were facing.

Another development comes out of Alabama, a state that has not had a good historical track record when it comes to race relations. This time it has to do with education, which is something that I have a lot of experience with, considering I taught in a very underpriviliged school in Washington DC, where there was not one white student. In Alabama, they are re-segregating the schools on the basis of race, under the cover of reducing overcrowding. The parents that were complaining about the overcrowding were white and almost all the children that had to switch schools were black. This rezoning created a school district that was 99% black. Seems like a coincidence?, I would say not. This rezoning plan was featured in a New York Times article, which you can read for yourself here Alabama Plan Brings Out Cry of Resegregation

Now that I have said all my views on the subjects, in order to rekindle this debate, I open up the floor to all responses
 
  
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