Posted on 10/20/2009 1:55:48 PM PDT by B-Chan
Over the years, I've noticed that most white "progressives" (= liberals) that I've known -- the ones who are on hair-trigger Al Sharpton Alert for the slightest hint of racism in others -- have one feature in common: they live at the corner of Whitebread Avenue and Mayonnaise Lane. The same people who bray the loudest about how "diversity is our strength" and how great the "diverse inner city" is almost always live in the lily-white outer suburbs themselves -- places where a black or Hispanic person had better have a rake or lawn mower in his hands if they're on the streets.
In fact, most liberals simply will not live around black people. Take a look at the most liberal places in America -- Portland, San Francisco, Austin, Vermont -- and what you will see is no a "rainbow of diversity" but young, affluent white people. Don't believe me? Check out this article (and the accompanying charts and graphs) posted by Aaron M. Renn at newgeography.com:
Among the media, academia and within planning circles, there’s a generally standing answer to the question of what cities are the best, the most progressive and best role models for small and mid-sized cities. The standard list includes Portland, Seattle, Austin, Minneapolis, and Denver. In particular, Portland is held up as a paradigm, with its urban growth boundary, extensive transit system, excellent cycling culture, and a pro-density policy. These cities are frequently contrasted with those of the Rust Belt and South, which are found wanting, often even by locals, as “cool” urban places.Because if you do, you get called a racist, as I often am.But look closely at these exemplars and a curious fact emerges. If you take away the dominant Tier One cities like New York, Chicago and Los Angeles you will find that the “progressive” cities aren’t red or blue, but another color entirely: white.
In fact, not one of these “progressive” cities even reaches the national average for African American percentage population in its core county. Perhaps not progressiveness but whiteness is the defining characteristic of the group.
The progressive paragon of Portland is the whitest on the list, with an African American population less than half the national average. It is America's ultimate White City. The contrast with other, supposedly less advanced cities is stark.
It is not just a regional thing, either. Even look just within the state of Texas, where Austin is held up as a bastion of right thinking urbanism next to sprawlvilles like Dallas-Ft. Worth and Houston.
Again, we see that Austin is far whiter than either Dallas-Ft. Worth or Houston.
This raises troubling questions about these cities. Why is it that progressivism in smaller metros is so often associated with low numbers of African Americans? Can you have a progressive city properly so-called with only a disproportionate handful of African Americans in it? In addition, why has no one called these cities on it?
I have to laugh. "Oh, I enjoy working in an office full of people of many colors and cultures," liberals say -- but when the job's over and it's time to go home, they ain't ridin' the bus to MLK Street with the United Colors of Bennetton!
And yet they lecture me about my "racist attitudes".
I'm not saying that it's wrong to want to live among one's own kind. The failure of our nation's forty-five year attempt at forced racial integration should be obvious to all. However, it irks me to have the glories of racial and ethnic diversity preached at me by people who live as far away from said "diversity" as possible. It's hard to hear "diversity is our strength" being preached by someone who takes the Honky Highway back to Aryan Acres every night.
Hey, liberals, how about some honesty here? I don't care if you're unwilling to live among non-whites -- what I do mind is when you lie to me about it. Hey, it's okay if you want to live in a place where your neighbors look like you and share your values and tastes in music. Really. It's not evil to want your kids to grow up connected to their own culture (or what's left of it, anyway). Self-segregation is only human nature. But when you do move to Whitopia, when you do pick that apartment in the Far Fringes over the one in Darktown, be honest about it -- don't say "it's for the good schools", because we all know what you really mean. Be a grownup and just admit that you don't want to live in a black neighborhood.
Yeah, Mr. and Ms. Liberal America jes' loves dem some black folks -- as long as they're twenty miles away.
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NOTE: I myself am a city dweller. I wouldn't live in suburbia if you paid me. Give me the real world, with all its faults, not some cozy fake utopia. I don't care where others live, but as a civilized man I prefer to live in, you know, civilization.
For the record, I live in an inner city neighborhood on the edge of our city's Little Saigon.
Having done construction in Greenwich CT I was always amazed by this. They constantly vote liberal and tout their "progressive" attitudes yet in the coming Obama socialist utopia they have the most to lose.
I suspect that a formal study would validate these observations.
Case in point: the Maryland suburbs just outside of DC. The most liberal areas are Chevy Chase and Bethesda ... decidely white enclaves. Move further out to less affluent, heavily integrated areas like Germantown or Gaithersburg and you find a significantly more conservative electorate. This conservative streak is not primarily a result of the minorities there, but of white populations that are less liberal than their counterparts in the snooty suburbs.
I had a long talk with my Mother-in-Law about this type-thing just recently. She's a Dem (albeit a conservative, Southern Dem) and she started out the discussion with "I hate to sound racist, but....."
I cut her off right there. Told her that racism had nothing to do with it. The differences are *cultural*, not a simple matter of skin color.
Speaking solely for myself - I want my kids raised within a boundary that shares the same values as me. I want them to grow up valuing things like thrift, integrity, hard work, and scholarship.
If I lived in an all-black (or all whatever) neighborhood + school system that shared those values, I'd be perfectly happy. The unfortunate truth is that - in my city, at least - the worst schools (and neighborhoods) are the most "diverse" ones...while the "whitebread" schools (and neighborhoods), are typically amongst the best.
I attribute this failure to many things - failure of leadership in the schools, failure of government, and failure amongst the families. But, most of all, I attribute it to a failure of local community leaders to address the real problems. While it is human nature to want to bury the skeletons in your closet...looking at these issues and saying "It's Racism" or "Lack of Funds" is too pat an answer.
IMHO - and for instance...Until more people stand up and say "The reason why many black kids don't succeed in school is because their families don't care, and the general culture surrounding them doesn't value education" ....the problem will continue to get passed along to the next generation.
Articles like this have a nice sentiment to them. The unfortunate truth is that the only people who read them and take them to heart are people like those on FR. The ones who REALLY need to read them either can't, won't, or just dismiss them as racist drivel.
I, on the other hand, am an economically frustrated faux farmer. I'd rather live in the smack middle of 6400 wooded weedy acres than cheek-by-jowl with other white people, let alone among a "diverse" population that believes itself oppressed by the fact that I'm alive. There are less than 20 people in my local area with whom I care to interact on more than a professional or commercial level, and of those, more than 10 are kin by blood or marriage. "Civilization" is overrated, except as a means of ensuring I probably won't have to fight someone over bread or fuel.
/grump
Oh, and "for the record", I live in a "mobile home community" on the outskirts of a city of 500K. I don't know any of my neighbors by name, and I'd just as son keep it that way. I hope that doesn't make me a bad person.
When you live a life as insulated from street reality as is that of the average upper-middle-class suburban liberal, your feelings become reality. They literally have no idea what race relations in America are really like. It’s pathetic.
Yeah, they love diversity, but let a beat-up car full of black teenagers come down the street and they’re the first ones to call 911.
The same goes for entire cities... and states... and nations. Yet to merely acknowledge this truth makes one automatically a racist. I mean, it's just nuts.
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