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.
Katherine Phillips, a Professor at Columbia’s business school, examined how race and gender intersect and discovered something interesting. The stereotype of black women being bold or “angry” may work to their benefit, even though in general, dominant women often experience a backlash:.
Metro plans to hire contractor to speed up repairs of escalators “Over the years, Metro has alternated between staff and contractors to perform escalator maintenance and repairs. Along the way, it has dumped tens of millions of dollars into its equipment and hired consultants to do studies of whether in-house or contracting out is better, all without finding a lasting solution.” (The Washington Post)
Video shows Metrobus driver throwing off passenger “While the Metrobus driver and passenger are in an argument, you can hear the passenger ask the driver to take him to the next stop — possibly without paying first. When the bus driver asks the man to get off the bus and the man stays, the driver pushes the man, takes the man’s hand off a pole, picks him up and throws him to the ground.” (WTOP)
UIP Relieves Another Crappy Landlord, This Time in Adams Morgan “Back in 2007, owner NWJ Companies sued advisory neighborhood commissioner (and Councilmember Jim Graham’s consituent services guy) Wilson Reynolds for organizing a cleanup at the building, where the mostly Hispanic residents had complained of shoddy conditions.” (Washington City Paper)
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Race-baiting activists stifle opportunity in D.C. “Change is coming to Anacostia. The city has relocated offices to Good Hope Road. Homeland Security is setting up on Martin Luther King Boulevard. New condominiums and apartments are rising. No doubt some white folks might move in. Memo to Jordan: Anacostia was white until the 1950s. True, when white students choose public schools, on Capitol Hill in particular, some black families from other neighborhoods might get pushed out. This is difficult and painful and can create conflict. But it’s the inevitable byproduct of change.” (Washington Examiner )
Blame your desk if you get sick For the sixty four percent of you who only clean your desk, keyboard and mouse once a month or so: “‘For many people, multitasking through lunch is part of the average workday. While shorter lunch hours may result in getting more accomplished, they could also be causing workers to log additional sick days, as desktops hide bacteria that can lead to foodborne illness,’ says registered dietitian and American Dietetic Association spokesperson Toby Smithson.” Assuming they HAVE sick days. (wtop.com)
Transgendered Community Complains Police Doing Little To Help “Last week on WTOP’s “Ask the Chief” program, DC Police Chief Cathy Lanier said the department is working with activists to improve the GLLU, Gay Lesbian Liaison Unit. But activists say the Unit is not always communicating with members of the community which, “calls into attention why even have this unit, if when we need them they’re not there,” said Jason Terry.” (WUSA Washington, DC)
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Flickr: Susan NYC
Pull your pants up, was the advice given to a young man asking about job prospects during last month’s National Night Out event led by D.C. Council member Yvette Alexander and D.C. Fire Chief Kenneth Ellerbee, according to The Root DC.
The adults offered one place to start: pull up your pants.
“Oh, you’ve got Ralph Lauren,” Alexander told one of the young men. “I guess you want to show that off.”
What would happen, she asked, if they dressed like that and a nice, white lady walked by. “Do you think she might cross the street?” Alexander said.
One reader, MSTanya, took issue with Alexander’s attempt to illustrate her point:
Why did it have to be a “nice white lady” who walked by. Aren’t there any nice African American ladies who could have been used as an example? Yes, there definitely are, but as per the norm, it’s always a white person being looked at as nice…
We’re still waiting to hear back from the Council member’s office regarding her remarks.
According to “Anthropology off the Shelf,” low-slung pants are a symbol of incarceration. The book notes that “sagging as a style was adopted from prison culture, where belts are prohibited and ill-fitting prison garb is the norm.”
Glenn Beck: Is The Term ‘Colored’ Really Such A Bad Thing? “[Beck] added that all the PC labels we have for another end up making Americans afraid to speak with one another, because Americans don’t inherently want to offend one another. We want to say the ‘right’ thing and take the kindest course of action…His advice? Have no fear and ‘dismiss these human rights frauds.’” (Mediaite)
Chicago school to expand Arabic offerings to district, community In the words of the Principal: “When I get the question from parents ‘why?’ I say regardless of how you feel about it, we’re involved in the Middle East and the more that people here know about language and culture, the better off we’re all going to be. We know that there are not enough Arabic speakers…And it seems to be something everyone understands is a need but few people put into place.” (WBEZ Chicago Public Media)
Practice Makes Progress (How to Talk About Race) “Our ways of dealing with race don’t progress as a nation because we don’t have momentum carrying us. Something bad happens (truth), we talk about it for a while, and then conversation dies out until another bad thing happens (i.e. a hate crime). Our national dialogue never gets practiced because we talk in spurts. In pockets, people initiate dialogues on race all the time (see activists, academia, or other such educational entities). We have to figure out how to connect the pockets so it becomes a more wide-spread conversation.” (Racialicious)
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According to this New York Times article, graduating from an Ivy League school might lead to waiting tables instead of board rooms– at least while the economy is troubled:
Some of Ms. Morales’s classmates have found themselves on welfare. “You don’t expect someone who just spent four years in Ivy League schools to be on food stamps,” said Ms. Morales, who estimates that a half-dozen of her friends are on the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program.
Ivy League Fooled: How America’s Top Colleges Avoid Real Diversity “Call it the Ivy League’s dirty little secret: While America’s most elite colleges do in fact make it a point to promote ethnic diversity on their campuses, a lot of them do so by admitting hugely disproportionate numbers of wealthy immigrants and their children rather than black students with deep roots—and troubled histories—in the United States.” (Good)
Racial profiling and terrorism: If you want to screen Muslims, you’ll have to target blacks. “The logic of Muslim profiling is simple. First, Muslims are more likely than non-Muslims to plan or commit acts of terror against the United States. Second, Muslims are more likely than non-Muslims to sympathize with al-Qaida or believe that suicide bombing can be justified…a new survey report from Pew adds a twist to the data: Statistically, the group most deserving of scrutiny under this rationale isn’t Muslims. It’s black Muslims.” (Slate)
Grandma Bunks With Jobless Kids as Multigenerational Homes Surge “The U.S. is experiencing a surge in the multigenerational households that were once a common feature of American life, and Hispanic and Asian families are driving the trend, according to U.S. Census Bureau data released this month. The number of such households, defined as those with three or more generations living under one roof, grew to almost 5.1 million in 2010, a 30 percent increase from 3.9 million in 2000, the data show.” (bloomberg.com)
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Flickr: afagen
“Stop Picking on the Black Middle Class; It didn’t abandon urban communities, despite what some say,” is the headline of Natalie Hopkinson’s article in The Root.
The piece references a recent Washington City Paper article, which asked “As parents in places like Capitol Hill embrace neighborhood schools, has D.C.’s black middle class given up on them?” Hopkinson answers, “If I were looking for a culprit in a racial group, the black middle class is the very last place that I’d be sniffing around.”
Hopkinson also describes her attempt to stop her next-door neighbor from selling crack. Confronting the man and shaming his customers didn’t work, so she called 311 and spoke to a black city employee who suggested that she do what the “white folks” did. Hopkinson wasn’t interested in that advice:
I was too furious to hear the rest. What in the Tiger Mom hell did my being white, black or purple have to do with the fact that this man was selling crack? “Just get someone over here!” I barked, and hung up the phone. Still, crickets.
Sadly, this attitude is par for the course in D.C. When you’re white — maybe especially in a very black city like Washington, D.C. — people pay attention. Some of it is the sheer novelty of whites living in previously all-black neighborhoods. Some of it is historical, and the socioeconomic position of whites in relation to blacks.
Whatever the reasons, as the city continues to gentrify, getting whiter and richer, progress is credited to white folks. It’s as if they deserve gold stars for consenting to live among the Negroes and cleaning up the Negro mess. Never mind the complicated cocktail of race, class and history that has shaped the city’s fortunes over the years. If you’re black, well … just try to be more like white people!
In the original City Paper feature, Jonetta Rose Barras wrote:
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Why We Should All Stop Obsessing Over Michael Vick’s Criminal Record “Being among the best in the world at anything can easily lead to inflated egos, and kids who rebelled against more typical career paths to follow unlikely dreams of becoming pro athletes are probably somewhat more likely to ignore authority in other parts of life as well. Plus, many talented athletes—Vick included—grew up in tough situations, making them more likely to fall into crime.” (Good)
“What do you think of interracial marriage? It would be hard, offhand, to think of a question less relevant to libertarianism” “Intermarriage and mixing–of people, of categories, of ideas–leads directly to more pluralism, more trade, more possibilities, and fewer opportunities for the majority to inflict its preferences onto less desirable minorities by force and exclusion.” (reason.com)
On Race: The Relevance of Saying ‘Minority’ From an NPR listener in New York: “Many people use [minority] when they really mean African American or Latino. That it is not only inaccurate, but it is also offensive…Does NPR really think that the population of America is composed of only two elements — whites and minorities? I don’t think so. And if not, isn’t it time to retire that insulting word and use more specific designations instead?” (npr.org)
One City, New and Improved? “Today, Mayor Vince Gray announced two new major senior appointments for his troubled administration — Chris Murphy as his Chief of Staff and Andrea Pringle as his Deputy Chief of Staff. her position…Murphy’s ascendancy to the job is seen as something of a reset for the Gray administration — during today’s press conference, Gray said that there was ‘no question we have taken some hits, and some of them are self inflicted’” (DCist)
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Call Me a Fool for Love: I Heart Black Men “I don’t begrudge any Black woman for stepping beyond the boundaries of race to find her man. More power to those who have and will. It’s just not my twist. Experts may warn and studies may show that I should give up on the brothers. And even in my own experiences, I’ve had them pass me over for a white chick, but it hasn’t happened often enough to make me quit cheerleading for their team.” (Clutch)
Ward 8 Residents Split on Barry Re-election Bid “Barry is known as a seasoned, passionate legislator and one who does not hold his tongue when it comes to fighting for the issues that he cares about…there are some residents who say that he has not done much for the ward since his since his first re-election in 2004. Ward 8 has the highest unemployment rate in the city at approximately 25 percent according to D.C. Department of Employment Services and the lowest homeownership rate of any ward, 24 percent, according to city statistics.” (Washington Informer)
Montgomery County proposes flash-mob law “Mr. Rice, a Democrat, also refused to draw any conclusions from the fact that those involved in the Germantown incident were black. ‘This is not an African-American problem,’ he said. ‘This is a problem with youth and making sure they understand the repercussions and the seriousness of the crimes that were committed.’” (Washington Times)
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