Race and Class

RECENT POSTS

October 20, 2010 | 11:33 AM | By

On Not Being a Punk

Ta-Nehisi Coates posts about the “culture of poverty” and jeopardizing his big break at The Atlantic by getting in someone’s face in Denver two years ago, in “the most embarrassing thing” he has ever written:

I had thought as far as the dude stepping outside–but I hadn’t thought any further. I hadn’t thought about getting arrested. I hadn’t thought about the implications of a 6’4 260 pound black dude assaulting a 5’11 (maybe?) white dude. I hadn’t thought about all of this playing out against the backdrop of Obama’s nomination. I hadn’t thought about losing my job. And, most criminally, I hadn’t thought about my family , who were depending on that job…

“I ain’t no punk” may shield you from neighborhood violence. But it can not shield you from algebra, when your teacher tries to correct you. It can not shield you from losing hours, when your supervisor corrects your work. And it would not have shielded me from unemployment, after I cold-cocked a guy over a blog post…

Continue reading →

FILED UNDER: Media, Poverty, Race and Class
October 19, 2010 | 5:59 PM | By

Race and Class in Montgomery County

Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory

DCentric reader Matt kindly pointed me towards a blog I was unaware of– “Just up the Pike“. It is written by Dan Reed, who apparently moved to Philly in August. The link Matt sent me was to a post called, “why are all the poor kids sitting together in the cafeteria?“. In it, Reed wrote:

The biggest sin of the local blogosphere is that Lydia Sullivan at Snoburbia doesn’t get more attention for her thoughtful and provocative posts on the life of the privileged Montgomery County (Md.) suburbs. Over the weekend, she wrote that class, not race defines who you are…

I headed over to Snoburbia and found a post about Lydia Sullivan’s children and their classmates– and how they interact with each other:

This got me thinking about how race is treated in snoburbia. In the local snoburban high school, kids mix seemingly without regard to race. They think nothing of calling someone of another race, “hot.” (Where and when I grew up, one would have kept such a thought to oneself.) My kids and their cohort have friends of white, African American, Asian, Middle Eastern and Latino family background. They don’t talk about race at all. At all. Really. It just doesn’t come up, except perhaps as a descriptor.

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FILED UNDER: Around the City, Race and Class
October 19, 2010 | 4:20 PM | By

Who are the people in your neighborhood?

gnagesh

Z Burger in Glover Park.

I live in Columbia Heights. I end up at DCUSA, or what I call the “vertical strip mall“, almost daily. I was overjoyed that the Target within it expanded their grocery section because I avoid the Giant supermarket near 14th and Park unless it’s an emergency; the last time I was there, it was during a blizzard and the infamously-long lines stretched to the back of the store– and then wrapped around it.

I’ve dined at almost every establishment within a block of the Metro except for the ones that weren’t vegetarian-friendly. I write all of this to say that I know the commercial, congested two-block strip of Columbia Heights between where I live and the historic, Tivoli Theatre, and I know it well. And that is why I am concomitantly happy and annoyed that Prince of Petworth announced the impending arrival of Z Burger, a local chain currently serving Tenleytown and Glover Park. Continue reading →

FILED UNDER: Around the City, Columbia Heights, DCUSA, Gentrification, Race and Class
October 18, 2010 | 4:14 PM | By

Kohl’s “Ghetto Fab” Error in Judgment

Here’s my second post in a row about hair, or more specifically, afros. Kohl’s has spent the last two hours apologizing for carrying this Halloween “Ghetto Fab Wig” over Twitter (latest message: “Corrective measures are being taken internally. We apologize for carrying an offensive item like this.”):

"Ghetto Fab Wig"

Kudos to Kohl’s for “getting it”. Before writing this post, I didn’t know that there are almost ten of the stores within a 20-mile radius of D.C. The wig is not carried in-store. Blogger Afrobella said: Continue reading →

FILED UNDER: The People, Race and Class
October 14, 2010 | 4:36 PM | By

Employment Prospects Worsen for some DC Residents

The D.C. Fiscal Policy Institute’s report, “Packing a Punch: The Recession Hit African-American and Non-College Educated DC Residents Particularly Hard” is a must-read if you’re concerned with the disparities that affect this city:

Looking over a longer-term period, employment prospects have worsened noticeably over the past two decades for Black District residents and for residents with no post-secondary education. For these residents, job conditions have worsened even in periods when DC’s overall economy was growing.

– Employment among African-American DC residents has fallen steadily since the late 1980s. The employment rate fell from 62 percent in 1988 to 56 percent in 2000 and to 49.5 percent in 2009. (The employment rate is the share of adults with a job.) If employment had not fallen since the late 1980s, some 31,000 additional African-American residents would be working today. Meanwhile, the employment rate for white residents has remained relatively steady.

WAMU’s Patrick Madden’s story, here.

FILED UNDER: The People, Jobs, Poverty, Race and Class
October 14, 2010 | 1:55 PM | By

Georgetown’s Gorgeous New Library

dbking

The library in 2006.

I used to live in Georgetown, less than a block from the beautiful library which was gutted by a fire in the spring of 2007. That’s why I was reading this Prince of Petworth post with avid interest, “PoP Preview – Georgetown Library“:

The Georgetown Library located at 3260 R St, NW (Wisconsin and R) reopens Monday, Oct. 18th. Yesterday, I was fortunate enough to receive a tour from DC’s chief librarian, Ginnie Cooper. Many will remember that the library was devastated by fire Apr. 30th, 2007 (same day as the Eastern Market fire).

It is awkward to say this but I think the fire may have been a blessing in disguise (thank God nobody was injured) because the renovation is truly amazing (and there were no plans for a major renovation). It is though an entire new library was built on the space (and much improved). Not only was the space gutted but a ton of new space was added. There is now a huge children’s section as well as a completely new third floor housing the historic Peabody collection (which thankfully some say miraculously survived the fire). Beautiful new staircases were added. A new meeting room and study rooms are top of the line. Wifi and 40 new computers as well as 40,000 books (with room for 80,000) will be housed in the library.

Continue reading →

FILED UNDER: Around the City, Children, Libraries, Race and Class
October 13, 2010 | 3:03 PM | By

The Hate Graffiti that wasn’t.

jaundicedferret

Lorax tattoo by Paul Roe, British Ink

Yesterday, I went to Metro Mutts on H Street NE to find out more about the hateful graffiti which some vandal had spray painted on “their” door this weekend. I was surprised to discover two things:

- Metro Mutts has never encountered any negativity or hostility before this

- Metro Mutts shares the vandalized door with upstairs neighbor, British Ink.

In fact, the “door” which was tagged is really an outer door which doesn’t even have the six-month old pet shop’s name on it yet– there is merely a round, Metro Mutts sticker. It seems inaccurate to declare that Metro Mutts was the target of racist, anti-Gay, anti-gentrification graffiti but the mistake is wholly understandable; the first floor store front belongs to them. Anna Collins, one of the co-owners of the cleanest pet store I’ve ever been to, said that she didn’t think the ugly message was aimed at Metro Mutts– and that I should speak to Paul Roe, of British Ink about the incident. I did, this morning, for an hour.

Roe’s unique, by-appointment-only, couture tattoo studio has been open for four years. I asked him why he chose H Street.

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FILED UNDER: Around the City, Gentrification, H Street NE, LGBT, Race and Class, Small Business
October 13, 2010 | 9:15 AM | By

Was Metro Mutts the target of hate graffiti?

Window at Metro Mutts

Yesterday, TBD, Prince of Petworth and Frozen Tropics all reported that Metro Mutts, a pet store on H Street NE, had been vandalized with hateful, racist graffiti. Someone spray painted the following on their door:

“Cracker (large penis illustration) get out my city fag”

Since this unfortunate incident involves race, class and gentrification in the District, I wanted to learn more about what I had read, so last night I took my puppy to H Street to visit Metro Mutts and talk to Anna Collins, who has a fantastic name; she is one of the six-month old store’s owners.

Collins said that the door had been vandalized on Saturday night, after Metro Mutts closed at 6pm but before a regular customer walked by and spotted the graffiti at 9. She expressed some surprise at the gay slur since Metro Mutts is “primarily a woman-run business”– they do have one male partner, but he’s not in the store that often. Collins confirmed that the police had taken their complaint and then sent someone who investigates hate crimes (possibly someone from the GLLU).

Continue reading →

FILED UNDER: Around the City, Gentrification, H Street NE, LGBT, Race and Class, Small Business
October 7, 2010 | 3:33 PM | By

Is “Illegal” a dirty word?

aprilzosia

From the "Do I look illegal?" campaign.

I’ve seen several tweets today regarding the term “illegal immigrant”. Apparently, so did Nicole at PostBourgie:

In my little (and decidedly liberal) corner of the blogosphere, it has now become inappropriate to use the word “illegal” when referring to immigrants…

“Undocumented”, “unauthorized”, “without papers” — aren’t those all just other ways of saying illegal? Is it just the use of the word “illegals”? Or is it “illegal immigrant” as well?

For the record, I don’t like the term “illegals.” If you’re going to call people “illegals”, let’s be fair and apply it to everyone who has ever done anything illegal. That would include me, you, Lou Dobbs, jaywalkers, underage drinkers, and almost everyone I know over the age of 10.

But “illegal immigrant”? The simple fact is that if one immigrates without a visa, or stays after the visa expires, that is illegal. I’m not saying there aren’t justifiable reasons for doing so, but that doesn’t make it any less against the law.

FILED UNDER: Media, Immigrants, Race and Class