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.

November 5, 2010 | 8:01 AM | By

Tasty Morning Bytes – Mostly Mayoral Edition

Good morning, DCentric readers! Ready for some links?

UDC President Sessoms has D.C. Mayor-elect Gray’s support in recharging campus “Sessoms preserved the heritage of open access in the new Community College of the District of Columbia, with no entry requirements and flat $3,000 tuition. Four-year and graduate study is now housed in a separate “flagship” institution, with entry standards and higher tuition. The community college is effectively a branch of UDC. The president’s plan sparked protests last year, with students and some elected officials decrying the tuition increases and accusing Sessoms of trying to destroy a tradition of service to low-income African Americans.” (The Washington Post)

Mayor-elect Gray’s absence at police officer’s funeral blamed on staff oversight “Fenty’s behavior is not a surprise,’ Baumann wrote in an e-mail to TBD. “Fenty has made it clear that he has no respect for police officers and their sacrifices. The fact that the Council did not show is disheartening. Today the elected officials of the District made it clear they have little or no regard for those that keep the city safe and risk their lives everyday. There were more police officers and officials from Maryland and Virginia than District officials or politicians. Unfortunately, the message sent today was only the police care about the police.” (tbd.com)

Gray transition: bold innovators or a return to Barry? “Which would you rather have running Mayor-elect Vincent Gray’s transportation transition team? A former City Administrator under Marion Barry, who was running the city during the famous episode where Barry flippantly dismissed snow plowing failures while he was at the Super Bowl? Or a former CEO of Amtrak, head of UMD’s smart growth center, and occasional blogger who wrote excitedly about the return of streetcars, the value of high-speed rail, and the need for a federal transportation reauthorization? What if they’re the same guy?” (Greater Greater Washington)

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FILED UNDER: Around the City, Roundups
November 4, 2010 | 4:36 PM | By

Mayor-Elect Gray Prioritizes Lunch over a Funeral

My twitter feed is buzzing about Mayor-Elect Vince Gray missing the funeral of a police officer who died while serving, last week. Gray was having lunch downtown:

It’s going to be a long day for Vince Gray, Mayor-Elect of the District of Columbia.  Instead of attending the funeral of Officer Paul Dittamo, who died last week in the line of duty, Gray was in the dining room at the 4th Estate, the restaurant in the National Press Club, according to the restaurant’s Twitter account.  We called The Fourth Estate, and he arrived at 1pm for a lunch with Council Chair-Elect Kwame Brown, where he still sits at press time.

According to the Post’s Mike Debonis, Fraternal Order of Police chief Kris Baumann was “apoplectic” at the no-show.  You can understand his frustration and anger, given that Baumann and the Police union were leading supporters for Gray on his campaign.

Local blog We Love DC deserves credit for spotting the restaurant’s tweet and figuring out where the Mayor-Elect was. Even outgoing Mayor Adrian Fenty, who was criticized in the past for being a no-show at high-profile funerals, managed to make an appearance and offer remarks, though he was late.

The comments under this We Love DC post highlight why this was a bad move for Gray. “Welcome back to Barryland!“, a reader said, comparing the Mayor-Elect to Mayor-for-Life, Marion Barry. Here’s another:

Is anyone at all surprised by this? Vince’s first two days post election have been a disaster. It’s not going to get any better, people.

It’s been years since I worked on a campaign, but I feel qualified enough to offer this wee bit of advice; don’t give your detractors fuel with which to flame you, if you can help it, especially when you’re trying to eliminate division and lead “one city”.

FILED UNDER: Government, 2010 Elections, Fenty, Politics, Vince Gray
November 4, 2010 | 2:25 PM | By

Why You Need a Car to Volunteer with Big Brothers Big Sisters

The Pulitzer

Two readers wrote to Prince of Petworth to ask about doing some good:

I recently upgraded my kitchen pots and pans, and want to get rid of my old ones. They’re a decent brand (Calphalon) and are about 4 years old…Assuming they’d be accepted, does anyone have a recommendation of a good charity? I currently live near the U-street corridor, and while I’d prefer to donate to an organization that serves my immediate community, I’m not opposed to other suggestions.”

Below that request, another reader wondered about volunteer opportunities in D.C. If some of you have similar questions, the comments section is full of great ideas and answers. I know so many people who are open to giving their time to help others but feel unsure of how to start. This suggestion caught my eye:

Big Brothers Big Sisters for the DC area also has an urgent need for male volunteers. (Particularly those that qualify as minority, but I’m not sure they’re that picky.) You do need to own or be able to use a car on a regular basis to do BBBS, though. (Zipcar membership counts.)

That comment surprised me. I was unaware that to volunteer with Big Brothers/Big Sisters, you had to have access to a car. I was less surprised about the need for diverse mentors. I couldn’t stop thinking about the “car”-requirement; I wondered if it prevented people from getting involved, since most of my friends in D.C. do not drive.
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FILED UNDER: The People, Children, Non-profits, Race and Class, Volunteering
November 4, 2010 | 10:14 AM | By

A Better Post about African Americans and Voting

So, I’ve been a bit sad that no one ever comments on DCentric, even though I know better than to take it personally– I’ve been blogging for eight years, and in the beginning, no one. ever. comments. But, after yesterday’s post about African Americans and voting, several of you spoke up– and one of your comments was better than my post, itself.

Making up 10% of the voting electorate can’t meant that only 10% of registered African Americans voted. ~ 90 odd million people voted, so 10% of that is approximately 9 million voting African Americans. Voter participation in this midterm election was supposed to be 42%, so if 90 million = 42%, the total registered voter pool was 214 million, and 13% of that means there are probably 27 – 28 million registered African Americans. 9 million out of 27 million is much closer to 32- 33% participation rate, not a measly 4.7%. That’s pretty comparable to the general rate of 42%, and I wouldn’t be surprised if the discrepancy is due to being disproportionately burdened by the factors that depress voting for the less than wealthy. It’s a working day, not a holiday, there’s no childcare, and polls are often hard to get to–all things we should fix. ( I got my statistics on the voting numbers from this AP article by Matthew Daly.). According to Wikipedia In 2000 there were 36 million African Americans in the united states, so assuming growth was steady, there are about 40 million *now*. Many of those people are under the age of 18, so they can’t vote, so that means over all participation was AT LEAST 25%. That strikes me as pretty respectable–especially when you consider wide spread evidence that African Americans have been disproportionately and unfairly disenfranchised b/c of the discrepancy in felony status laws regarding the use of crack vs. the use of cocaine, not to mention other less clearcut kinds of unfairness in the criminal justice system.

Moral of the story: we need more numeracy in all of our communities. Support the Algebra Project.

Uh, I’ll take quality like that over quantity, any time. Thanks for breaking it down so beautifully, Saheli.

FILED UNDER: Elections, Media, 2010 Elections, Race and Ethnicity, Social Media
November 4, 2010 | 8:11 AM | By

Tasty Morning Bytes – a Disabled Dachshund, Sidwell Football and Lunch with Obama

Good morning, DCentric readers! Ready for some links?

Paraplegic dog finds adoptive home; more pets remain in need “Buddy is a five and half year old dachshund. A spinal problem cost him the use of his hind legs, but his tail still wags. Despite buddy’s problems his life is good, thanks to the care of his owner. “I love him so much it is not tough on me at all,” said Janet Harris. “He is a very happy little boy he bounces, bounces up and down and play.” Harris has had health problems, she lost her job, is losing her home, and now has to give up her dog. “I can barely stand. I am kind of not trying to think about it because he is like my baby. He IS my baby,” shared Harris.” (tbd.com)

Fenty Write-In Campaign Drives Mayoral Write-Ins To Nearly 23 Percent the committed movement to write-in Mayor Adrian Fenty was the driving force behind the casting of 27,828 write-in votes in “…yesterday’s general election, nearly 23 percent of the approximately 125,000 votes cast. The vote total is all the more impressive when one considers that the movement to write-in Fenty was working with almost no money and lacked the support of the candidate it sought to elect.” (DCist)

Sidwell Friends’ Football Futility: The Obama Kids’ School Football Team is Losing Worse than Dad’s Party “Sidwell bashers: “Sidwell is a girls school that happens to have boys.’” “At other schools, excellence in the classroom and athletic fields are not mutually exclusive.” “Maybe Sidwell should consider a flag football league. Or just games where boys tickle each other with feathers.” Sidwell sympathizers: “Come tell some of the real male athletes (yes, there are a few) at Sidwell that they’re ‘girls’ and they’ll sort you out.” “Sidwell just isn’t a meathead school. Hey, if you want a meathead school, head to Landon.” “Landon athletes will have plenty of time to lift weights in prison.” (Washington City Paper)

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FILED UNDER: Around the City, Roundups
November 3, 2010 | 3:45 PM | By

Why was “African Americans” a trending topic on Twitter?

http://twitter.com/bfnh

A riff on Slate's infamous "Brown Twitter Bird", inspired by their “How Black People Use Twitter”-piece.

At any point throughout the day, Twitter lists the ten most popular “topics” being discussed on its micro-blogging service. As soon as they rolled out this feature, I opted to see a more specific list of what was popular in Washington, D.C. vs. a world-wide compilation of hot topics.

This afternoon, I noticed that “African Americans” was trending. Initially, all the tweets I read regarding that topic had to do with yesterday’s election, specifically a rumor that only 4.7% of African Americans voted. There was no source for the statistic and it was on fire, showing up in hundreds of tweets, every minute. There was also some consternation being expressed at the lack of African Americans in the Senate. I chose to focus on the former issue, and collected some tweets:
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FILED UNDER: Elections, Media, 2010 Elections, Race and Ethnicity, Social Media
November 3, 2010 | 2:34 PM | By

The Kojo Nnamdi Show is at The Arc, tonight.

As I mentioned yesterday, The Kojo Nnamdi Show will be in Southeast D.C. this evening, hosting another “Kojo in Your Community” event, at The Arc. Doors open in three hours.

If you read this blog, you’ll probably be very interested in the topics they will be discussing– including the employment gap, how Ward Eight is changing (organic groceries! art galleries!), plus gentrification. The event is free and metro-accessible (Green Line: Southern Avenue Station). The show will air tomorrow, so if you can’t make it tonight, you won’t miss it entirely…but wouldn’t it be much cooler to ask Kojo questions, in person?

FILED UNDER: Delightful City, Gentrification, Kojo, WAMU
November 3, 2010 | 1:46 PM | By

Another Reason Why D.C. Needs Voting Representation

kendrickmeekdotcom

Senate hopeful Kendrick Meek lost in Florida yesterday.

I hadn’t thought of this fact, until I read “America Is So Post-Racial, We Don’t Even Need Black People in Our Senate“:

…I wanted to raise awareness around the rather unbelievable fact that the next United States Senate will not have ONE African-American in its ranks.

As reported by CNN’s Soledad O’Brien, all three black Senate candidates, Kendrick Meek (D-FL), Alvin Greene (D-SC) and Mike Thurmond (D-GA) have lost their bids. The only incumbent black senator, Roland Burris (D-IL), is retiring.

Only six black senators have served including Burris: three Republicans and three Democrats, Carol Moseley Braun (D-IL), Edward Brooke (R-MA), Blanche K. Bruce (R-MS), Hiram Revels (R-MS before 1874, D-MS after 1874) and current President Barack Obama (D-IL).

FILED UNDER: Elections, 2010 Elections, Representation
November 3, 2010 | 11:40 AM | By

More proof that Voting is confusing.

This is still my favorite Election Day story:

Supporters of a write-in campaign for Mayor Adrian M. Fenty (D), aiming to make the process as simple as possible, have made ink stamps bearing Fenty’s name, which voters can take into the polls to stamp their ballots.

But it wasn’t so simple for one Fenty supporter Tuesday afternoon. That voter, at Precinct 51 at Lafayette Elementary School in the Chevy Chase neighborhood, appears to have used the stamp on the screen of an electronic machine, election officials said.

The stamps, it apparently does not go without saying, are meant to be used on paper ballots only. [wapo]

I promise, no voting machines were harmed during the making of this post. I was surprised that the ink stamps are legal– and that this isn’t the first time they’ve been pressed in to service. Supporters of Anthony Williams used them eight years ago as well!

FILED UNDER: Elections, 2010 Elections, Anthony Williams, Fenty
November 3, 2010 | 8:01 AM | By

Tasty Morning Bytes – Voting, Voting, Issues with Voting…and Pink Ribbons

Good morning, DCentric readers! While you were waiting for Election results last night, we were out collecting links!

On Forcing Myself to Vote “Hey, I’m a 27 year old Independent voter, and I’m not bummed – I’m pissed. I’m pissed that Democrats and the party faithful seem to have forgotten that the folks who elected Barack Obama weren’t always part of the base. That many of us were Independents, right-wingers for change, first time voters, and newly enfranchised. We aren’t post-racial, and may not ever want to see those days. (I’m personally still waiting for post-racism. Keep the heritage, drop the hate.)…We weren’t dropped – more like taken for granted.” (Racialicious)

D.C. Election Day drama: Scuffle at Shaw voting precinct “Witnesses described what began as a verbal confrontation between the elderly Brooks and Convention Center Community Association president Martin Moulton. The two apparently started getting into it over Moulton’s recent disparaging postings to the Shaw neighborhood e-mail list about oft-controversial neighborhood activist Leroy Thorpe. What happened next is less clear.” (tbd.com)

Straight Dope: Do Those Breast Cancer Pink Ribbons Actually Do Anything? Off-topic, but on so many of our minds: “We’re constantly bombarded with fundraisers and retail products sporting pink ribbons to raise money to “fight breast cancer.” Do pink ribbon campaigns do any good, or are they mainly a way for corporations to fleece consumers by leveraging their fear and sympathy over breast cancer? Where is all the money raised by pink ribbon campaigns going?” (Washington City Paper)

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FILED UNDER: Around the City, Roundups