I hate racism. I hate the thought that people need to be judged (good and bad) by what color their skin is. That’s why I hate the Klan
(“Phone call for Senator Byrd!”) and that’s why I hate the whole diversity crowd, those who think a racial makeup of a group is much more important than the beliefs of those people.
So I was offended when read the racism that populated a the
Washington Post’s article,
Region's Fringes Draw a 'New White Flight'. The whole article is about Maryland’s Calvert County’s changing demographics, from black to white. It’s a pity piece about black residents “feelings” about their crime and tax refugee new white neighbors.
“The whitening of Calvert County is affecting the lives of its black residents in ways both large and small, from political change on the Board of County Commissioners to the types of films that play at the only local theater. Some blacks whose families have lived in Calvert for centuries fear that their history is slipping away, that they are becoming invisible.
"It's almost like there's a hidden landscape, a hidden geography of the county that many whites don't see," said Kirsti Uunila, the county's historic preservation planner. "People who are moving in, they really don't know where they've come."
What? Seriously, I don’t understand what Miss Uunila said. The first part of the quote seems to be saying white people’s vision is somehow inadequate to see “the hidden landscape”. The second half could even be construed as a threat, but I’m fairly sure it wasn’t meant to be.
Of course, we get the vague, unsubstantiated charges of white racism:
- “Although the overall number of blacks in the county has remained constant, they now make up a smaller percentage of Calvert's population as a result of what some demographers have called "the new white flight," an outward migration caused by the increasing urbanization of the inner counties and, for some, a desire to move away from minorities.”
- “Allman said he left for Calvert in 1970 because he wanted more land to raise horses but acknowledged that others made the move to escape the burgeoning black population in Prince George's.
"They aren't going to say it," he said. "But that's a fact."
- “Spencer worries that many white newcomers want to prevent blacks from following them into the county. She believes that the county hasn't created affordable housing, at least in part because of fears that it will attract black residents. And she detects a not-so-subtle racism when slow-growth advocates criticize zoning policies that might draw traffic from Prince George's County.
"When they talk about 'those people,' I know what is meant, even if they don't quite say it," she said at a recent meeting of the group she founded, Concerned Black Women of Calvert County.”Yeah, yeah, yeah, I’m sure there are some white people who move out of areas strictly to get away from black people
(“another call for Senator Byrd!”), but if you want to see racism out in the open check out these from the article:
“Only 9 percent of the county's teachers are black, according to the school system, proportionately less than the overall presence of black residents. Charlotte Clark, who is black, said the number of black educators in Calvert has fallen since she started teaching there 32 years ago.”So what? Are you saying white teachers are somehow not as good as black teachers? Or maybe that the color of the skin is the most important factor?
“Pamela Mackall, 50, a black resident who has lived in the county all her life, said she now has to go outside the county to see movies with mainly black casts and themes because those types of films don't run at the theater in Calvert. When she wanted to see "The Fighting Temptations" -- a recent film starring Cuba Gooding Jr. and Beyonce Knowles -- she had to drive to Prince George's. The black music and dance clubs from decades ago are long gone.
"It sometimes feels like there's no place for us here anymore," she said.”
Huh? Seems a bit racist to only want to see movies with mainly black casts. Imagine if Mr. Allman (see quote above) had said he was forced to go outside of the county to see movies with a mainly white cast, the Post would be crucifying him as a Klan member.
And lest not forget the paranoid wing of racism:
“He recalls a day a quarter-century ago when he came back to see smoke billowing from the closed-down Mount Hope School. Black residents were told that local officials razed it as a firefighting exercise. Soon a salt dome and recycling bins and the stench of garbage rose on the site.
"They brought a match and a bulldozer and tried to totally erase our history," said Morsell, 51. "Like there was no black folks standing here."
Yup, the abandoned, rotting building was burned down to erase one more “black thing” and maybe send a subtle threat, too.
Look, people moving to Calvert County isn’t some kind of vast white-supremacist conspiracy, it’s people moving for the very same reasons Doris Spencer gave at the beginning of the article:
“Doris J. Spencer decided to move to Calvert County because it seemed to have everything. Taxes were low, the countryside was beautiful and every spot on this tiny Southern Maryland peninsula was just minutes from the water.”
Low taxes, nice views and ocean access know no racial boundaries.
