DCentric

Good morning, DCentric readers! Happy Monday to you all.

Southeast Washington minister leads rally against violence “(Rev. R. Joyce) Scott said she wanted to draw attention to the violence that has killed thousands of young black men in the past decade and to empower people in communities wracked by shootings to rise up and fight…Scott and others compared the violence responsible for the shootings of her grandsons and so many others to evil. ‘God doesn’t do drive-bys; the devil does.’” (The Washington Post)

At Thai Orchid’s Kitchen, Curry Meets Fried Cod Sandwiches East of D.C.’s Anacostia River “The sudden emergence of Thai food in Ward 7, Italian-influenced or not, would seem to indicate a neighborhood on the verge of sweeping revitalization. According to urban planner Richard Layman, a long-time chronicler of new restaurants’ relation to shifting neighborhood demographics, Thai eateries are generally among the “second wave” of retailers to set up shop in an up-and-coming part of town.” (Washington City Paper)

Schwarzenegger, Gingrich, Strauss-Kahn: White People Behaving Badly “Has the time finally come for social scientists who blame the so-called culture of poverty for the lowly status of the black underclass to start focusing on the equally pathological culture of the wealthy, powerful…all-white elite?…while the sort of self-destructive, irresponsible and slothful attitudes and behaviors that we impute to the poor souls stuck at the lowest rungs of the socioeconomic ladder are also common at its pinnacle, we treat those at the top very differently.” (The Root)

Crews, Cliques and Gangs Part II “McFadden, a youth counselor with the Columbia Heights/Shaw Family Support Collaborative, said the behavior of some of the young people he interacts with reminds him of a program he saw on National Geographic. ‘We wonder how these kids can shoot someone and then go to McDonalds to eat a hamburger,’ he said. ‘When people have no hope, you see things like insurgencies and people strapping bombs to themselves. Well-rounded people would never do these things.’ As he moves around the city trying to extinguish conflict, young people beg him for jobs, McFadden said.” (Washingtoninformer.com)

Smithsonian acquires Parliament-Funkadelic Mothership “With large iconic objects like this, we can tap into . . . themes of movement and liberation that are a constant in African-American culture,” says Dwandalyn R. Reece, curator of music and performing arts for the museum. “The Mothership as this mode of transport really fits into this musical trope in African American culture about travel and transit.” It will be exhibited alongside other artifacts from American music history — Louis Armstrong’s trumpet, James Brown’s stage costumes, Lena Horne’s evening gowns. But it will be the only spaceship.” (The Washington Post)

Still Separate and Unequal, Generations After Brown v. Board “Around 40 percent of black and Latino students in the U.S. are in schools than are over 90 percent black and Latino, according to a 2009 study by UCLA’s Civil Rights Project. The schools that black and Latino kids are concentrated in are very often high-poverty schools, too…White students go to schools that are 77 percent white, and 32 percent poor.” (colorlines.com)