Posted on 02/04/2009 6:25:18 PM PST by BnBlFlag
February 3, 2009
Paris, Texas, race relations dialogue turns into dispute Black, white residents vent, share views with help of Justice Department mediators By Howard Witt | Tribune correspondent February 1, 2009 PARIS, Texas — Ten days into a new American era, a hundred white and black citizens of this deeply polarized east Texas town tried their hand at the kind of racial reconciliation heralded by the historic inauguration of President Barack Obama, gathering for a frank community dialogue on the long-taboo topic of race.
Things didn't go so well.
The black speakers at Thursday night's meeting, led by two conciliation specialists from the U.S. Department of Justice, mostly spoke about incidents of discrimination, prejudice and unfairness they said they routinely suffer in Paris. Their white listeners mostly glared back with their arms crossed.
The four-hour session ended with some participants screaming at each other over the presence of three police cars parked outside the meeting hall, and who had ordered them and why.
"We are not going to end on a note like that!" commanded Carmelita Pope Freeman, the regional director of the Justice Department's Community Relations Service. "I'm getting tired of it!"
Yet the mayor of this once-obscure town, which became a national flash point after the Tribune revealed several cases of alleged racial injustice here in recent years, pronounced himself optimistic. At least, he said, black and white citizens were talking to each other—something that's rarely happened in Paris before.
(Excerpt) Read more at chicagotribune.com ...
“We are not going to end on a note like that” screamed the “Federal Mediator”.
The “Mayor” should have told her to get her fat ass out of town and not come back.
Recidivism, maybe?
I remember when I was a kid, and we’d be rolling around on the ground fighting about something other, the adults would come out and say, in their soothing voices, “Now, now, stop that, Cicero and Tommy! Time to kiss and make up!”
People weren’t worried about possible gay implications in those days. In fact, the word “gay” was entirely cheerful and innocent.
I’m not sure that all this tolerance has made things better.
That's what a government education'll do for you.
----
Send treats to the troops...
Great because you did it!
www.AnySoldier.com
Bingo! Unfortunately, it is probably a "bingo" that few in Paris would understand.
Sounds like the only ones talking were the blacks.
How about black racism against whites? Is that non existent?
I hardly think so.
...actions have, consequences...The Civil Rights Act ('64), should have been "sunset" after 20 years.
...the resentments have built-up over time...the unintended racism, has come to the foreground. 
I knew it was one of those “R” words. :-)
“The Civil Rights Act (’64) should have been “sunset” after 20 years”.
Unfortunatly, it wouldn’t have helped. They would have just kept renewing it just like the “voting” Rights Bill.
They didn't actually kiss did they?
At least it wasn’t Greenville, TX, home of ‘The Blackest Land, The Whitest People’
“Federal government” and “reconciliation” should never be used in the same sentence.
Federal Government sponsored racism sponsored by Federal "mediators". On top of that, it's a totally anti-Southern Northern Liberal Screed. I guess it's only typical of the Chicago media.
Because we all know yankees can't be racists.
That goes for both sides.
then you are one ignorant white hating mofo....we've had a few here like that but give them enough time and they implode and become the catfood they always were underneath
Ping!
On top of everything else, one of the “participants” in this farce had the gall to compare the Confederate Soldier’s statue on the Courthouse Grounds to that of a Nazi.
I’ve got a newsflash for this genius. There are about 37 or 38 states that have few, if any, Confederate statues or monuments publicly displayed. He is more than welcome to move to any of them. In fact, I’d buy his sorry ass a one way ticket myself.
Smelling like Reconstruction Act 2 coming. Outcome probably be the same.
Whites who don’t cave and beg forgiveness when accused of racism. Wow. Impressive and rare gumption. But they shouldn’t have wated their time going to what they should have realized would be be a BS fest of racial mau-mauing. Some of the black attendees found fault with white southerners. The only thing I’ll rebuke them for is not picking their own cotton.
This is nothing compared to the racial tensions that are coming between black and latino.
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