Author Archives: Anna

DCentric was created to examine the ways race and class interact in Washington, D.C., a city with a vibrant mix of cultures and neighborhoods. Your guides to the changing district are reporters Anna John and Elahe Izadi.

March 18, 2011 | 2:05 PM | By

Black Men, Embracing Feminism

Flickr: Jay Morrison

DCentric’s Twitter feed is full of references to two essays about Black males and feminism. The first piece is on The Root: “Why I Am a Male Feminist“. It inspired G.D. at PostBourgie to pen this moving, personal, follow-up post: “Black. Male. Feminist?“.

In it, he describes how all of the grown-ups who shaped his childhood, who “yelled at us to come inside when it got dark, and who organized the church trips, camps and block parties, were almost always black women”:

…those women would never have identified as feminists, but they were (and remain) giants to me. And I was living in a world, albeit not the one they probably would have preferred, in which the traditional gender roles were queered. My world was largely populated by black women who were fantastically smarter and more competent than I was. That didn’t forestall my fantastically awkward attempts to slide into some ill-fitting molds of masculinity, and I still bought into all those gendered hierarchies even though they were especially abstract for me. But all of this hobbled my capacity to see the eventual assumption of gender roles as foregone or necessary conclusions, and stoked a lingering skepticism of the supposed truths on which they rested…

The relationship those realities have to my blackness is a muddled one; sometimes they’re independent, sometimes they act in concert. But if growing up black and poor and male provided an unlikely bridge to anti-sexist thinking, so has feminism complicated the way I think about blackness and class. The way I perform masculinity is wrapped in the way I understand blackness, and vice versa. Their parameters are constantly evolving in my head, which means constantly reconsidering the way I orient myself to the world. This is rarely comfortable stuff. But it shouldn’t be.

FILED UNDER: Media, Race and Class
March 18, 2011 | 8:34 AM | By

Tasty Morning Bytes – Black Health, Kid Brings Cocaine to DCPS and Georgetown Drug Lab Sentencing

Good morning, DCentric readers! Yay, it’s Friday!

Why health care reform matters “From infancy to old age, African Americans have worse health outcomes than non-Hispanic whites…Black infants are twice as likely as white babies to die before their first birthday. African American women have lower breast cancer rates, but are more likely than their white counterparts to die of the disease.” (marketplace.publicradio.org)

Student Brings Cocaine to DC Elementary School, 4 Students Share Drug “Stuart Hovell, whose fourth-grade daughter attends the school but is not in the same class as the child who brought the cocaine, said the incident was disgusting and had reaffirmed his decision to send the child to another school next year.” (myfoxdc.com)

D.C. might have to pay $33k for leasing Brown’s Navigators “The biggest chunk of change comes from an illegal $17,600 prepayment on the first Navigator leased at Brown’s request the day after the general election in November, Department of Public Works Director William Howland testified Thursday during a D.C. Council hearing…” (Washington Examiner )

Where Did $100,000 Prize Awarded To DC’s McKinley Technology High School Go? “$35,000 of the award money was spent on a technology bus that was used just five times; $10,000 for new office furniture; thousands for dinners and conferences, and thousands more that can’t be accounted for.” (myfoxdc.com)

Sentencing Today in Georgetown Drug Bust “Government lawyers, Smith and Perrone have agreed to recommend that they be sentenced to a six-month suspended jail sentence. Under this plan, they would be put on probation and perform community service.” (NBC Washington)

March 17, 2011 | 2:39 PM | By

Spike in Youth Crime on Metro

DCentric

Teens on the Green line.

Teens + Metro = Trouble? Many people assume that “equation” is true, and this story, One-Quarter Of Those Arrested On Metro Are Younger Than 20, from WAMU’s Kavitha Cardoza substantiates the link between young transit users and crime.

Metro Transit Police Chief Michael Taborn says there’s been a spike in crime committed by youth on Metrorail and Metrobuses; last year they made up a little more than 500 of the approximately 2,000 arrests.

And Taborn says many of the 90 assaults on bus operators involved youth.

When Taborn says “assault” he means that metrobus drivers have been on the receiving end of punches, flung objects or saliva. Taborn also confirms that the trend of recording altercations and uploading them to sites like YouTube inspires copycat crimes.

Here’s something I was unaware of, which explains a lot– as in, why a lot of students are using public transportation:

Taborn says over the past five years, more students attend schools that aren’t in their neighborhood, whether it’s to attend charter schools or because their neighborhood school has closed down. And that increases the opportunities for students to meet others from rival schools and crews.

Twenty thousand students use the Metro system every day.

I’ve only witnessed one incident where rowdy teens were confronted by a Metro employee, but it was memorable.

FILED UNDER: Public Transportation, Children, Crime, Metro, WMATA
March 17, 2011 | 11:33 AM | By

Black People Gentrify Neighborhoods, Too

Flilckr: Andrew Bossi

Le Droit Park, D.C.

The word gentrification is regularly used to describe the process of white people displacing black people in up-and-coming neighborhoods. The cover story of this week’s City Paper goes beyond that stereotype and offers a point of view which isn’t often present in color-coded, nuance-free debates about how areas are changing: that of the black gentrifier.

The story of the black gentrifier, at least from this black gentrifier’s perspective, is often a story about being simultaneously invisible and self-conscious. The conversation about the phenomenon remains a strict narrative of young whites displacing blacks who have lived here for generations. But a young black gentrifier gets lumped in with both groups, often depending on what she’s wearing and where she’s drinking. She is always aware of that fact…

And those of us walking fancy dogs, gawking at fancier renovations, but who happen to look like most of our neighbors, don’t necessarily have better insight into what’s going on around us than the white folks do. The class differences can yawn almost as wide as racial ones—almost. Soon enough, “D.C. will be majority rich people,” Ngongang says. “The statistics of D.C. will match what corporate America looks like.” It stings for a minute, because I’m not quite sure which side of that statistical warning I want to identify with.

FILED UNDER: The People, Bloomingdale, Columbia Heights, Gentrification, Race and Class
March 17, 2011 | 8:33 AM | By

Tasty Morning Bytes – Fab Five Foul, The Metro Lottery and A Class War

Good morning, DCentric readers! Do you know what time it is? It’s time for links!

Grant Hill’s Response to Jalen Rose Yesterday, this controversy was all D.C. could talk about online, as it dominated Twitter’s “Trending Topics”-list. From Grant Hill: “To hint that those who grew up in a household with a mother and father are somehow less black than those who did not is beyond ridiculous.” (thequad.blogs.nytimes.com)

Absurdity of Metro Bag Screening Budget crisis? Solved! “If WMATA believes this method will catch a terrorist, it should start diverting five dollars a week to the lottery to fix its budget shortfall: it has roughly the same chance of success and doesn’t involve the pesky Fourth Amendment.” (blanksslate.blogspot.com)

DMV Ticket Database Says DPW Vehicles Owe Nearly 30K In Fines Pot? Kettle! “Vehicles registered to the city’s Department of Public Works, the agency in charge of writing parking tickets, have racked up nearly $30,000 in outstanding parking fines and fees…” (wamu.org)

The Must See Chart (This Is What Class War Looks Like) “This chart puts the class war in simple, visual terms. On the left you have the “shared sacrifices” and “painful cuts”…On the right, you can plainly see WHY these cuts are “necessary.” The reason? Because we already gave away all that money to America’s wealthiest individuals and corporations.” (Daily Kos)

Poverty in Early Childhood Has Long and Harmful Reach “Even as federal and state policymakers consider cutting back programs that boost the incomes of working-poor families, two researchers report evidence that poverty among young children not only slows them in school but also shrinks their earnings as adults.” (offthechartsblog.org)

March 16, 2011 | 4:55 PM | By

Funding Diversity Through NPR

Flickr: NC in DC

The mothership, on Mass Ave. WAMU is up in Tenleytown, if you were wondering.

Tomorrow, the House of Representatives is scheduled to vote on H.R. 1076, which would take federal funding away from NPR and prohibit local stations from using such money to acquire ANY programming. While reading this message on WAMU’s website, something else struck me about this issue– how it will impact diversity:

This issue affects a much larger population than only WAMU 88.5 and our Washington community. If H.R. 1076 becomes law, many local public radio stations, particularly those in rural areas, would have difficulty continuing to provide the news and public affairs programs that millions of Americans rely on every day.

Diverse voices are also at stake. This bill would affect the ability of stations to access Native Voice 1, the Native American Radio Service. It would impact the work of the Latino Public Radio Consortium and the African American Public Radio Consortium, which create and distribute programs that showcase those diverse perspectives that mainstream public radio wants and needs to hear.

When I was at Public Media Camp last year, I heard a speaker mention that in some rural areas, public radio is the only source of culturally-diverse or international news and programming. At a time when newspapers around the country are shrinking, if not closing, that’s a sobering thought. If H.R. 1076 passes, who will be silenced? And how would that impact all of us?

FILED UNDER: Media, Diversity, NPR, Politics, WAMU
March 16, 2011 | 12:40 PM | By

Fenty Lost Because of Style, not School Reform

Flickr: Intangible Arts

Former D.C. Mayor Adrian Fenty with a young constituent in 2007.

Our former Mayor is in denial about why he’s no longer in office, according to TBD. Hint: he may not be a martyr to education reform, after all.

In interview after interview, the ex-mayor and Michelle Rhee, his former schools chancellor, have argued that political defeat is what happens to those who are so bold as to champion an aggressive stance toward teachers unions and a program of radical shifts in how business is conducted in the classroom…

The real danger lies not in pursuing Fenty-Rhee-style education reform, but in pursuing anything in the Fenty-Rhee style. That means no dissing the media at every turn. No brushing aside the concerns of great Americans. No scorning the notion of legislative oversight.

For as long as he remains in denial about his mayoralty, Fenty will likely keep peddling his tale of woe about education reform. As time wears on, however, he’ll have to make peace with the facts: His signature issue of education reform is popular among District voters, who still saw fit to vote him out of office.

FILED UNDER: Elections, 2010 Elections, Fenty, Michelle Rhee, Schools
March 16, 2011 | 8:51 AM | By

Tasty Morning Bytes – Living Wages, Gray Salary Mistakes and Tragedy as Payback

Good morning, DCentric readers! Welcome to your Wednesday links:

Councilman pushing for ‘living wage’ from big retailers “A bill introduced Tuesday by at-large Councilman Phil Mendelson would require companies with more than 75,000 square feet of retail space and at least $1 billion in annual revenues to pay their workers in the District a “living wage” and benefits…The bill defines a “living wage” as $11.75…” (Washington Examiner )

DC Mayor To Cut Salaries; May Let Chief Of Staff Go Major changes at City Hall: “DC Mayor Vincent Gray tells 9NEWS NOW mistakes were made, so he is reducing the salaries of some staff members, including his chief of staff, the health director, health care finance director, and district attorney.” (WUSA Washington, DC)

Brown had six run-ins with law enforcement before landing D.C. job Can’t say they didn’t know! “The administration knew of the three D.C. charges – in addition to a protective order and one conviction in the District for unlawful entry – before offering Brown the job as an analyst at the Department of Health Care Finance.” (The Washington Post)

Police pursue leads in killing of Bethesda clerk, assault of another “It stunned the hell out of us,” Judy Infante, a 50-year Bethesda resident, said outside the Bethesda Row shopping center where the crime occurred. “I would feel safe at 10 o’clock at night down here. It’s tragic.” (Washington Times)

THE 3-MINUTE INTERVIEW: Veronica O. Davis (Blogger from Southeast) “Transportation is something that needs to be focused on. Especially with these gas prices going up, we keep talking about how [Metro] has a budget gap. Well, a lot of us as residents have budget gaps. We can talk about jobs but can the people get to the jobs?” (Washington Examiner )

Some people think Japan’s earthquake and tsunami are payback for Pearl Harbor? Really? This isn’t “DCentric”, but I think it’s important, so here’s a bonus link: “I’m most disturbed by the range of people spouting this garbage: Looking at their Facebook profile pictures I see young and old, white, black, Hispanic faces (no Asians, thankfully) and both men and women.” (nikkeiview.com)

March 15, 2011 | 1:15 PM | By

“It’s not like only black neighborhoods get gentrified”

DCentric

"I heart gentrification"-sticker on Columbia Road NW.

Lurking in the comments section to Ta-Nehisi Coates’ recent post about “The City as a Problem” is a discussion about gentrification in Columbia Heights. Here’s Ta-Nahesi’s response to one of his reader’s comments about the Green line, urban renewal and city planning:

It’s one thing to say “No black people can live here.” It’s quite another to say “People who are poor, a disproportionate number of whom are black, can’t live here.”

Moreover, I strongly suspect that social engineering and market forces aren’t actually producing the same results. I reported on local DC for several years, and I get back there pretty regularly. It’s certainly true that, say, Columbia Heights is a lot whiter than it used to be. But there are certainly black people there. (One of my best friends lives there as a matter of fact.)

I don’t think you can really expect black people to be shielded from America, itself. It’s not like only black neighborhoods get gentrified. As a Baltimore native, I can assure you that white people get pushed out to. But that’s very different than the state mandating that all white people be pushed out. The intent isn’t the same. Neither is the effect.

The whole thread discussion is worth a read.

FILED UNDER: Around the City, Gentrification, Race and Class, Real Estate