November 10, 2010 | 1:16 PM | By

The “Real Issues Fun Police” should arrive soon.

Rubenstein

Tyler Perry

Because on to every blog about race, a little Tyler Perry must fall. According to Racialicious, everyone has an interest in Perry:

“I’m the smartest person in the room” movie snobs (like my parents and I) discuss the utter unwatchability of all things Tyler Perry while ignoring the blatant irony in discussing the unwatchability of something you’ve obviously watched. “I’m the realist, most down to earth person you’d ever meet”…Anti-Tyler Perry Pro-Blacks (read: liberals) discuss how he’s appealing to the lowest common denominator and wasting his considerable influence and opportunity, while Pro-Tyler Perry Pro-Blacks (read: moderates and conservatives) discuss how he’s employing hundreds of black people while touching on issues unique to our community and providing (somewhat) wholesome family entertainment.

Conspiracy theorists discuss how Tyler Perry has been thrust to the forefront of black culture by the powers-that-be, ensuring the ongoing demasculinization of black males…The “Real Issues Fun Police”—people whose sole goal in life seems to be to try to make people feel bad for discussing For Colored Girls when there’s widespread cholera in Haiti—discuss how our obsession with Tyler Perry is a damning indictment on American culture. Bloggers and other arbiters of pop culture discuss Tyler Perry, because, well, everyone else is doing it, and their, well, our identity is partially defined by staying relevant.

FILED UNDER: Race and Class
November 10, 2010 | 10:45 AM | By

Look! 40% of D.C. is thriving!

Rafakoy

There were no statistics available on the life expectancy of blue people.

UPDATE: DCist has apologized.

I was skimming Twitter when I noticed several people had linked to this DCist post, “Who Needs Attractiveness When You’re Living This Well?“. There was a stark difference in how the links were annotated; the white people I follow on Twitter had reactions like, “this is great!”. The black people I follow on Twitter wrote things like, “There really are two D.C.s”. Here is the DCist post, in its entirety (emphasis mine):

Okay, so maybe we’re not the best looking people around. But according to a report by the Social Science Research Council’s American Human Development Project initiative, the Washington region is doing pretty well for itself when it comes to life expectancy, education and income, topping a ranking of the ten largest American metro areas in those statistics. The long life expectancy of white D.C. residents (the longest among any group in the survey at 83.1 years), large numbers of people with college educations (about 47 percent of the D.C. region have at least a bachelor’s degree) and the employment and income boost that the federal government provides to the District and her surrounding suburbs were the driving forces that landed the Washington metro area the top spot. Take that, you shallow Travel+Leisure readers!

I understand why they didn’t include the statistics about D.C.’s chocolate residents; the average life expectancy for black people is the lowest, of any state. That’s not the greatest statistic to use when trying to address linkbait, and refute the baseless claim of an irrelevant magazine which no one reads.

FILED UNDER: Media, Race and Class, Racial Divide
November 10, 2010 | 8:14 AM | By

Tasty Morning Bytes – Taxi Medallions, Tyler Perry and the Twinkie Diet

Good morning, DCentric readers! Ready for some links?

DC Cabbies Don’t Like Competition “Basically if you think it’s too easy and convenient to hail a cab in Washington, you’ll love an artificial regulatory restriction on the supply of taxis. In particular, if you think the city’s peripheral neighborhoods are too well-served by cab drivers and that we need to shift to a dynamic where you can only hail a cab in the downtown core, you’ll love this plan…If Gray is smart, he’ll recognize that this is change we don’t need. But I worry that Gray will think the lesson of his victory is that city government should always bow to interest-group pressure.” (Matthew Yglesias)

After Perry’s ‘Colored Girls,’ there’s plenty of bashing to go around “Jeepers creepers. For decades, Hollywood has been waving the same dirty drawers in the black man’s face, one black-man-bashing movie after another – including last year’s “Precious” and now Perry’s “For Colored Girls.” So where is the movie “For White Girls,” bashing white men? Stories of white men kidnapping and abusing white girls are in the news. And maybe the Lifetime channel will make one of them into a TV crime drama. But be assured that if it does, the show will feature more than enough good white men to make that one evildoer come off as an aberration.” (The Washington Post)

Encourage better conditions for restaurant workers in D.C. As restaurant goers, there are a couple simple things we can do to help support restaurant workers. First, leave your tip in cash. Since credit card tips must be processed, it can take longer for waiters to actually receive their wages, while some never receive their credit card tips at all. Restaurant employees and advocates are working to change tip processing, but for the time being the best way to ensure that your tips reach workers is to leave cash. (Greater Greater Washington)

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FILED UNDER: Around the City, Roundups
November 9, 2010 | 9:35 PM | By

Not his blood.

thisisbossi

Memorial for Mohammed, outside DC9

This seems significant, since that photograph of blood on white crosswalk paint is what I think about, as soon as someone mentions “DC9″:

Images published on TBD.com and on the Washington Post’s website that purported to show a bloody crosswalk in the vicinity of the DC9 nightclub do not depict the blood of Ali Ahmed Mohammed, according to authorities with knowledge of the case.

The photographs first surfaced on Oct. 15, when reporters descended on the scene near 9th and U streets NW. Mohammed died early that morning following an altercation with five men who worked at the bar. The men were accused of chasing, tackling and beating Mohammed after he allegedly threw one or two bricks through the front window of the bar. Charges of aggravated assault in the case have since been dropped, though the investigation is ongoing, and charges could be re-filed at a later date.

The incident…took place on a sidewalk on 9th Street NW, north of U Street, while the images depict a bloody crosswalk on the south side of U Street, authorities say. In other words, the bloody scene was not the same location where Mohammed was allegedly tackled and restrained by the DC9 employees. [TBD]

FILED UNDER: Around the City, Crime, DC9
November 9, 2010 | 5:06 PM | By

Now Reading About: Dr. Sabiyah Prince of AU

One of you kindly sent me a link to “Behind The Research”, a series from The Atlanta Post that “explores the dynamic work of African-American professors around the country”. The first profile for Behind The Research is of Dr. Sabiyah Prince; coincidentally, she’s part of the Anthropology department here at American University. I thought her name sounded familiar and then I realized that she had been on my favorite NPR program ever, Morning Edition, to discuss the Real Housewives of D.C. with Neda Ulaby, back in August.

Back to The Atlanta Post. Reading this piece made me want to talk to Dr. Prince, myself:

What are you working on now?

I’ve done research over the last five years and right now I’m writing for my book which is about how Washington DC is changing demographically and how African-Americans are affected by the changes, how they are interpreting the changes and how they are responding to the changes. The African-American population in DC has been gradually decreasing since the 1970s.

What an amazing potential resource for DCentric (seriously, thank you to NG for this link).

More:

How do you integrate your personal insight into your research?

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FILED UNDER: The People, American University, Gentrification, Race and Class
November 9, 2010 | 2:11 PM | By

It’s easy to be a critic, when English is your first language.

Santa Fe Nachos, Dos Coyotes, Davis, California

One of the things I miss most about Northern California is the Southwestern restaurant, Dos Coyotes. Please note: I did not say “Mexican” food. I fully admit I want some sort of “inauthentic” dish which contains spicy salsa, black beans and an obscene amount of cheese. That’s a pretty basic want, but it’s difficult to fulfill here in D.C. When I worked near K Street, I’d go to Pedro and Vinnie’s burrito cart and 80% of the time, I’d be satisfied; unfortunately, it’s not open for dinner or on the weekends. So I often end up at…Chipotle. I know. It’s not real, ethnic food. I know.

But it’s spicy and across from my house, so I go. When I do, the staff switches to Spanish while asking for my order. Years ago, I was fluent in it, so my accent is decent and I can bust out these impressive sentences every so often…but I’m much more likely to be left staring at the ceiling, agonizing over a verb I can’t remember. The 14th Street crew doesn’t mind this, in fact they exhort me to keep practicing. I do, because it’s kind of them to help me, but also because it is a potent reminder of how privileged I am.

I speak English.

It’s not my first language, but I speak it as if it were and I don’t take that for granted. When some dolt on the street compliments me by telling me something like, “You’re Indian? You speak good English for an immigrant!”,  I smile a wan smile and reply that I was born to immigrant parents in California, where English is often spoken.
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FILED UNDER: Around the City, The People, Food, Immigrants, Little Ethiopia, Race and Class, Race and Ethnicity, Shaw
November 9, 2010 | 10:57 AM | By

Metro’s “Grab-bag of Good Ideas”

laffy4k

Metro Center

After the escalators at L’Enfant Plaza malfunctioned ten days ago, injuring several people, I worried about how safe they were. The Greater Greater Washington blog has obtained a copy of the report that WMATA commissioned on elevator and escalator maintenance. Their verdict? It’s not good:

Quite simply, the escalator report is not well done. It doesn’t specify the specific goal of the audit, and ends up being a grab-bag of several findings, many positive and many negative…If the brake issues were a real concern to the consultant, the report certainly doesn’t reflect that. They are buried between recommendations for better housekeeping and for better training in the Maintenance Management System.

This gets to the heart of the real problems facing Metro. As we have repeated on several occasions, Metro’s fundamental flaw in both maintenance and safety is its inability to proactively prioritize action items based on how much an issue contributes to downtime or risk of injury.

Instead, Metro creates grab-bags of good ideas, pursues them in no particular order, and then when a major incident occurs reactively spends mountains of money addressing the immediate causes of that incident. Metro is doing the same here, by now testing the brakes on every escalator in the system.

Not everyone can afford to keep a car or live somewhere where they can walk to everything they need; people depend on Metro. It’s disheartening that WMATA is unable to prioritize access to safe transportation over housekeeping. I love a clean station, too. But when I spent the better part of a year with my mobility impaired, limping in a brace, a sparkly floor meant nothing to me if I had to pass a broken elevator and then stumble down a broken escalator to enjoy it.

FILED UNDER: Public Transportation, Access, Metro, WMATA
November 9, 2010 | 8:01 AM | By

Tasty Morning Bytes – Sidwell Trolls, Our Banana Republic and Marketing to Minority Kids

Good morning, DCentric readers! Here are your breakfast links:

Black Caucus mum on Tea Party Republican who wants to join “I plan on joining, I’m not gonna ask for permission or whatever, I’m gonna find out when they meet and I will be a member of the Congressional Black Caucus,” West, one of two black Republicans elected to Congress last Tuesday, told WOR radio. “I meet all of the criteria, and it’s so important that we break down this monolithic voice that continues to talk about victimization and dependency in the black communit (thehill.com)

Rich Private High School Football Team Puts Uppity Reporter in His Place “These are the children of presidents, Mr. McKenna, sir. Are we clear? In case we’re not, Sidwell students (or, to be fair, people claiming to be Sidwell students) flocked to the story online to point out that while McKenna is a mere salaryman writing squibs for a common newspaper, they will inherit the earth because their parents paid $32,000 a year to keep them away from all the black kids in D.C. public schools…” (gawker.com)

Homeless seeking shelter in D.C. might need to prove District ties “As the economy has floundered and the unemployment rate has soared, a growing number of homeless families from outside the District have migrated into the city in search of shelter, burdening an already-strained social services network. Over the summer, D.C. officials say, 10 percent of the families most in need of shelter came from outside the city. Since 2008, officials say, the number of homeless families migrating into the District has tripled.” (The Washington Post)

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FILED UNDER: Around the City, Roundups
November 8, 2010 | 2:41 PM | By

Supporters of Ali Ahmed Mohammed March, Rally at City Hall

@mjb

City Hall

After charges were dropped against the five DC9 employees who may have been involved with Ali Ahmed Mohammed’s death, TBD is reporting that over 100 of his family and friends marched to City Hall today, demanding justice:

The amount of anger and frustration among the protesters was at times overwhelming. After addressing the vocal crowd in Amharic, his native language, Mohammed’s father, Ahmed Goltchu Mohammed, became too emotional and had to be escorted away by the family’s attorney. The protest then continued for at least another hour. “We have to work with the system,” the elder Mohammed urged the crowd to remember…

At issue for those gathered was a deep concern that the case might have been dismissed for good. In a statement released Friday accompanying the court filing explaining why the charges had been dropped, however, U.S. Attorney Ronald C. Machen made plain that the investigation is ongoing, and that charges could be re-filed after an autopsy report and any additional evidence becomes available…

While the crowd didn’t hear from any of the three politicians they had hoped to engage (Mayor Adrian Fenty, Mayor-elect Vince Gray or Council member Jim Graham), Mayor-for-life Marion Barry and Council Chairman-elect Kwame Brown addressed Mohammed’s supporters:
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FILED UNDER: Government, Crime, DC9, Immigrants
November 8, 2010 | 12:22 PM | By

Gentrifying a Small Town like D.C.

NCinDC

Blagden Alley - Naylor Court Historic District

One of you pointed me towards an interesting post on BaancBlog: Blagden Alley and Naylor Court Jesting. In it, blogger Alley Denizen discusses the controversial piece Megan McArdle wrote for The Atlantic last month (“The Gentrifier’s Lament“):

What bothered me was the “here’s how gentrification works” attitude of it when I had the feeling that the author hadn’t been to many community meetings in DC and hadn’t spent that much time here. It seemed rather an attempt to put an abstraction of the New York model, with reference to the West Village onto DC. It didn’t seem DC concrete.

DC isn’t New York for various reasons, which is obvious. One of them is that DC is in many ways a small town.

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FILED UNDER: Around the City, Gentrification