August 9, 2011 | 6:36 PM | By

“Interracial Fix for Black Marriage”

The Wall Street Journal weighs in on the romantic “plight” of black women by exploring discomfort with interracial dating. Some women cite a desire to support black men instead of giving up on them by dating outside their race. Others worry about whether an interracial relationship would work. The article highlights a few local women:


They worry about rejection by a would-be spouse’s family or the awkwardness of having to explain oneself to a non-black partner.

As one 31-year-old schoolteacher in D.C. told me, “It’s easy to date a black man because he knows about my hair. He knows I don’t wash it every day. He knows I’m going to put the scarf on [to keep it in place at night].” Discussions about hair may seem trivial, but for many black women, just the thought of having the “hair talk” makes them tired. It’s emblematic of so much else they’d have to teach.

— online.wsj.com

August 9, 2011 | 1:11 PM | By

More Development Planned East of the River

John / Flickr

The west campus of St. Elizabeths in Southeast D.C. will be the site of the new U.S. Coast Guard headquarters.

Neighborhoods east of the Anacostia River are undergoing changes, albeit they aren’t taking place as rapidly as west of the river.

Higher-income folks slowly moving into east of the river communities, which are primarily low-income, are contributing to those changes. But massive development projects will likely have more of an immediate, and major, impact on the area.

Much of that development will take awhile; the transformation of St. Elizabeths Campus into the new U.S. Coast Guard headquarters likely won’t be complete until after 2016. But other projects, meant to piggy-back off of the St. Elizabeths project, may come to the neighborhood before then. The Washington Post reports that plans are being finalized for the $25 million redevelopment of 2235 Shannon Place SE from a police evidence warehouse into a mixed-use office building:

The office project is the first step in a long-term, transformational overhaul of downtown Anacostia being planned by a partnership between District-based Curtis Properties — which owns large chunks of land there — and Four Points, a D.C. developer that is making its name on projects in emerging neighborhoods.

Such projects will bring many daytime office workers east of the river, people who want options for lunch and who may want to relocate to nearby neighborhoods to be close to work. Some are already bracing for the changes. The District’s Department of Transportation has plans to expand D.C. Circulator to roll past St. Elizabeths Campus in the next few years.

FILED UNDER: Around the City, Anacostia, Development, St. Elizabeth's
August 9, 2011 | 10:45 AM | By

How to Ask Someone ‘Where are you from?’

Where am I from? I was born in Southern California, to immigrants from India, thanks for asking.

Last week, while in an elevator, a well-dressed, slightly-older woman looked at me intently and said, “You have interesting skin,” before asking its origin.

I have dark skin, black hair and large brown eyes.

Despite the fact that this issue has been written about over and over and over again, people still don’t get that asking “Where are you from?” is problematic on many levels. The question may come from a good place, but it often puts the recipient in a bad one. It’s also worth considering who gets asked about their origins and who doesn’t. If you don’t ask everyone where they are “from”, why not? Why is the question frequently aimed at people who have darker skin, immigrant parents and yes, interesting backgrounds, if not to emphasize difference?

Here are some ways to ask someone about their heritage without sounding boorish or entitled:

Use a compliment. Sports Illustrated model Chrissie Teigen is asked about her Norwegian-Thai ancestry daily and doesn’t mind, but she had this advice for the curious: “I usually go with ‘What’s your background, you are beautiful”.

Be direct about what you are asking. On DCentric’s Facebook page, reader Laurie Peverill volunteered that she asks strangers about their “family history”, instead of the nebulous “Where are you from?” She adds, “Assuming that very few of us are actually from here originally, everyone has a great answer.”

Ask other questions first. DCentric reader Jasmin Thana also used Facebook to convey how she is dismayed that “Where are you from?” is often the first question strangers ask her. “Know my name first. Have a conversation with me, then you can ask where my ancestors are from. The question annoys me because they’re trying to put me in a box and if people just guess correctly, the look on their face is like they just won a prize.”

In a DCentric post from April, my colleague Elahe wrote, “All of this isn’t to say that I, or other second-generation Americans, aren’t also proud of our heritage and roots.” But the hope is that one day, people will be content to see the children of immigrants as peers, and not ethnic riddles to be solved.

FILED UNDER: The People, Immigrants, Race and Class
August 9, 2011 | 7:45 AM | By

Tasty Morning Bytes – Food Justice, Immigration Issues and Spiderman’s Education Reform

Good morning, DCentric readers! Ready for some links?

The Audacity of Parking Enforcement “…a shockingly illegal parking job at by…a parking enforcement vehicle. Especially odd, considering what the photographer says were abundant spaces available in the lot, a McDonalds on Georgia Avenue and Peabody Street NW.” (Washington City Paper)

D.C. may be forced to enroll in immigrant program Why the D.C. Council has averted participating: “while Secure Communities removes dangerous illegal immigrants, it unfairly targets many minor offenders and even illegal immigrants who report crimes but are fingerprinted in the process.” (Washington Times)

More Than 100 Employers at Norton’s 14th Annual Job Fair Next Tuesday, August 9th The job fair is for District residents, only. (norton.house.gov)

Spreading Food Justice “from the ‘Hood to the Heartland” “Communities of color face the toughest barriers to accessing healthy food; it’s expected that half of children of color born this decade will develop diet-induced diabetes.” (Good)

Is the New Spider-Man An Education Reformer? “…there’s something to be said for superhero stories that take on problems closer to home. It may take a single bug bite from a very special arachnid to make a hero, but it takes a village to raise all the kids who are only lucky enough to get nipped by mosquitoes.” (Think Progress)

Teen Offenders Reflect On What Led Them Astray WAMU’s Kavitha Cardoza speaks to two local youths who are “currently participating in a support and rehabilitation program for teenage offenders”, about their lives and their choices. (wamu.org)

August 8, 2011 | 3:01 PM | By

“Body Wars: Does eating right have to be expensive?”

Mary Elizabeth Williams at Salon.com takes on last week’s news stories about how the USDA’s Advice For Eating Right Is Hard On The Wallet:


It takes time to scope out sales and figure out what’s in season. It takes effort to support the local farmers’ market over ConAgra. At the end of an exhausting day, it’s hard work chopping up red peppers that the kids might reject anyway. And absolutely, food is both a social and economic issue. But remember that we’ve been living too long under the cheap-chicken delusion — that mass produced food, cheaply made and distributed — is both acceptable and a right. It’s neither — and the health benefits of proper eating should not be a luxury that only the wealthy should enjoy…To paraphrase that old saw about education: You think kale is expensive? Try heart disease and type II diabetes.

— www.salon.com

August 8, 2011 | 2:26 PM | By

Getting Fast Food Restaurants to Serve Better Veggies

Sean Gallup / Getty Images

Living near a grocery store doesn’t mean you’ll have a healthier diet. On the flip side, proximity to fast food joints does affect your eating habits, particularly if you’re low income. So is the fix for unhealthy diets to get rid of fast food restaurants altogether?

Owners of one D.C. restaurant — Amsterdam Falafel, which sells $5.50 falafels — say not necessarily. Instead, they’re organizing a veggie flash mob to encourage fast food restaurants to serve higher quality vegetables. Eater DC reports:

As owner and organizer Arianne Bennett explains, “We walk into a hot dog place or a hamburger place and you smell everything and it smells so good. You should walk into a place where vegetables are being carried and where the place smells absolutely delicious.”

Some fast food restaurants, such as McDonald’s, have answered calls for healthier options by placing salads and other items on menus. Perhaps more people would opt for salads instead of burgers if the vegetables were fresher, locally-grown and still inexpensive.

FILED UNDER: Restaurants, Fast Food, Food, Obesity
August 8, 2011 | 11:47 AM | By

“Lack of jobs for blacks creates tension between black lawmakers and Obama”

The unemployment rate among African Americans is more than double the rate among whites.


To be sure, the brunt of black lawmakers’ frustrations are aimed at Republicans, whom they blame for blocking more than 40 bills intended to create jobs for African Americans since the party swept the House of Representatives a year ago. But they have also grown frustrated with Obama’s belief that the best way to help black communities is to improve the overall economy.

— www.washingtonpost.com

August 8, 2011 | 10:51 AM | By

“The Shifting Geography of Black America”


The global city model, focused on high end and creative services, is supposedly the bright and shining savior of American urbanism. Indeed, it’s hard to find a city that doesn’t have some aspect of that as a core plank in its civic strategy. Yet the cities that have been most focused at promoting this notion – such as New York, San Francisco, and Chicago – are generally those disproportionately driving blacks away. The reasons for this aren’t clear, but the high and increasing cost of living in those places seems like one logical explanation.

— www.newgeography.com

August 8, 2011 | 7:55 AM | By

Tasty Morning Bytes – DCPS Achievement Gap, Tyranny of Coldplay, Remembering Petworth

Good morning, DCentric readers! Here are the links we’re reading this morning:

Huge achievement gaps persist in D.C. schools In Ward 8, 28 percent of elementary school students read at proficiency levels: “That level is almost identical to the pass rate in 2007, when then-Mayor Adrian M. Fenty (D) took control of the city school system.” (The Washington Post)

A Modest Proposal “Only when black folks are reduced to human rubble, can we properly pay homage to the ruins of the ghetto. Only when property values have plummeted to hell, and died there, can we be safe from the scourge of the white interloper, who would add our cultural distinctiveness to their own, and then subjugate us under the tyranny of Urban Outfitters and Coldplay.” (The Atlantic)

D.C. Lottery truck too long for street vending “It turns out the lottery truck is more than 7 feet too long under city law to operate as a street vendor vehicle.” The D.C. Lottery’s plan to capitalize on the “food truck craze” hits a speedbump. They didn’t check size requirements before building or buying it? (Washington Examiner )

Wendell Pierce, of ‘The Wire’ and ‘Treme,’ to open groceries in New Orleans ‘food deserts’ Building the grocery stores will cost approximately $2 million, while creating 75-150 jobs: “I know the people in these communities,” he said. “They’re family and friends and neighbors.” (trove.com)

Herman was one of the last white families to leave Petworth “If I could recreate anything, I would go back to being that little Jewish kid, hanging out with the older black guys, playing cards and doing stuff in that locker room. Those times were the happiest for me. To go back would be my dream.” (peoplesdistrict.com)

August 5, 2011 | 12:11 PM | By

Does Go-Go Have a Home in Tenleytown?

Michael Martinez / The Kojo Nnamdi Show

Go-go first emerged during the 1970s in D.C.

Go-go has a tenuous place within the District’s borders. It’s the city’s homegrown music which came out of the black community, but many clubs and venues have been shut down over the past few decades because of liability and violence concerns. Police and local officials have linked the music to violence.

For years, it’s been rumored that go-go bands were banned from playing Fort Reno’s outdoor concert series in tony Tenleytown. This week, Washington City Paper asked a number of local musicians and concert organizers whether such a ban ever existed. Most respondents said it was mostly rumored but hard to confirm. Some said they’ve never recalled a go-go band requesting to play, or that none would play for free since most are large professional bands who normally take paying gigs.

But one respondent, Mike Kanin, who booked shows at Fort Reno in the late 1990s said, “I remember when we were booking, we weren’t allowed to book go-go bands. There were legitimate concerns about violence from the cops.”

These days if you want to catch a go-go show, you’re just as likely to head outside of the District’s borders than stay within them. But go-go has an uncertain fate in the suburbs, too; Prince George’s County, for example, recently tightened restrictions on dance halls with reputations for violence. And many of those clubs happen to host go-go shows.

FILED UNDER: Culture, Fort Reno, Go-go, Tenleytown