Posted on 03/19/2013 6:19:50 PM PDT by Altura Ct.
Philadelphia Magazine editor Tom McGrath and Robert Huber, author of the controversial "Being White in Philly" cover story, faced their critics at a forum Monday night at the National Constitution Center.
McGrath opened by saying he was sorry to anybody who was hurt by the article, because that was not his intent, but adding that he did not regret publishing the story in the March issue.
Huber told the packed auditorium of about 200 people that the purpose of the article was to explore "how white people relate to black people in the inner city, or don't relate to them."
In his piece, Huber wrote: "We need to bridge the conversational divide so that there are no longer two private dialogues in Philadelphia - white people talking to other whites, and black people to blacks - but a city in which it is OK to speak openly about race."
The story, however, was criticized as dwelling on negative experiences that whites had with blacks that often fit into racial stereotypes.
In a scathing letter, Mayor Nutter last week requested that the Philadelphia Human Relations Commission consider whether the magazine and Huber deserved to be rebuked for the article.
Nutter said Huber ignored positive anecdotes "to feed his own misguided perception" that African Americans are "lazy, shiftless, irresponsible, and largely criminal."
McGrath served as moderator for a panel that included Huber; journalists Solomon Jones and Christopher Norris; People's Emergency Center president Farah Jimenez; and University of Pennsylvania lecturer Walter Palmer, who teaches about racism and social change.
Jones ripped Philadelphia Magazine for what he said was the publication's history of racial insensitivity - a contention Nutter also raised in his letter.
"This is the most infuriating thing about it," Jones said. "I was not surprised."
Jimenez said Philadelphia Magazine, which has an all-white editorial staff, was not the right "messenger" for a story encouraging racial dialogue.
She also repeatedly said the magazine and its critics were confusing issues of race with problems associated with being poor.
Norris said that he understood the outrage over the article, but simply viewed the piece as the work of an older white man writing about his experience. Huber is 58.
When McGrath was questioned about his staff's lack of diversity, he replied, "I'm committed to having a more diverse staff," and, "I am committed to do something."
He also was asked why the magazine had a different cover for copies distributed to hotels and tourists. McGrath said it was a long-standing practice to use alternate covers when the main cover was controversial. He cited a cover that depicted a gun, saying a different cover was used for hotel copies.
The article was criticized for quoting people only by their first names, and one audience member questioned whether they were actual people.
McGrath said the magazine contacted everyone quoted in the story as part of its fact-checking process. "We are confident Bob did not make any of this up," McGrath said.
Several participants noted that Monday was the fifth anniversary of President Obama's famous Constitution Center speech on race, after his 2008 campaign was rocked by the Jeremiah Wright controversy.
While anger was directed at McGrath and Huber, there were several heated exchanges between some black audience members and black panelists about crime and personal responsibility in African American communities.
McGrath said the process of guiding the story to publication and the subsequent reaction was "enlightening to me."
Your mistake is separating the two. Plenty of immigrant families (Hispanic and Haitian I see and others) have the man out working off the books while the wife or girlfriend is getting lots of free stuff via the welfare system, food stamps, EBT, SNAP. section 8 and so on
The suburbs are what Section 8 is made for just ask Eric Holder and Obama
I'm afraid you have confused conciseness with ignorance, and assumed too much about what I did not say:
(1) Nothing I said indicates personal support for Spanish as a second language in our system of government.
(2) If we keep slaughtering our babies, one may expect the issue of legal or illegal residents to take up the slack of less intellectually demanding employment; therefore moving our public trends closer to those of the supplanting culture.
(3) Puerto Ricans are not Mexicans, Salvadorans, Dominicans, etc. As a territory, I believe they are considered born Americans, needing nothing but a birth certificate to change residence to the mainland. Their school training includes effective training in English as a requirement.
(4) What I hoped to imply was that the work habits of Hispanics (also applying to Asians' tendencies) relative to those of the slovenly classes we have generated through our publicly supported schooling and welfare implementation, "white" or "black."
(5) Again, we need to stop bringing the race issue to the fore, and start tracking whose money is being invested in opportunists like Nutter, Sharpton, the Jacksons, and the like. I think you will find the controlling but hidden sums do not necessarily come from the vote-supplying "plantation" inhabitants. (Where did Obama get his financing to move from rags to riches? Hmm?)
FWIW
Think about Emma Lazarus, and her versification of "the huddled masses yearning to be free" (versus the wretched refuse we seem to be creating, rather than relieving, by our socialistic-leaning governmental policies).
This fall I was teaching in a West Philadelphia high school near University City. I was immensely relieved when I had an offer in the suburbs. The conduct problems, tension, and unsafe neighborhoods were more than I wanted to deal with on a permanent basis. The mayor is unwilling to face the truth. This article treads quite lightly on deep problems within the city. There are similar issues of class and attitude in the suburbs, but the numbers aren’t as overwhelming as they are in the city neighborhoods.
single parent families are the norm in the black community
as long as this is the case they have NO chance.
And I’m not the slightest interested in their plight after obammy takes from me and honest workers and gives to his taker people.
“Why would anybody in their right minds want to deal with inner city blacks?
That is what suburbs are for, right?” Exactly right and that’s why the federal govt. came up with section 8 housing.
Correct! And sorry. Probably the result of working in Philadelphia for 20 years!
Also ... although I would deny being "prejudiced," I am a notorious and unfashionable European Chauvinist and snobbish believer in the absolute hegemony of Western Christian Civilization ... When but a callow youth, I was lured to Philadelphia from the dank Down East woods by charming "Summer People." They led me to believe that was what Philadelphia was all about! True enough ... up to a point.
Even in those days, when Frank was the Police Chief, it was true only until dusk. After the fox hunting crowd went far out the Main Line, the place was even then getting to be more like pay day in Lagos.
It was to take retiring NCOs from the armed services, many of whom were African-Americans, and form a Disciplinary Corps for schools. You know, sort of a "whip the bloody natives into shape," notion... so they might be taught something in a systematic fashion.. Very Kipling. After all, these imps'o'Satan are the "white man's burden," are they not?
What a great idea! What a short-lived proposal! Admitting that violent, illiterate African-American Treyvons are a problem? Of course, with this example before them, other utes all too often go down the same gangsta path!
Discipline? Can't be done. Bastardy? Drugs? Gang Culture? Hush, you racist pig. It's due to Sickle Cell Anemia, low self-esteem, Republican caused poverty, and ça va sans dire, RACISM.
Yes, there is no end to the evil perpetrated upon the noble savage by that ole debbil, the hegemonic, chauvinistic, euro-centric, patriarchal, imperial, gender-normative, colonial, hierarchical white male.
psst! IMNSVHO, it just might be worth a try as a pilot program in some out of the way place? Wouldn't it be wonderful if a harsh caning was the worst thing young Trayvon ever received in his life?
No prob -- I hope I wasn't rude -- sometimes I mean to be, but not this time. I live not far away, in Wilmington, and have heard enough of Michael Nutter to be real sick of him and whoever supports him.
We have enough problems here of the same kind, overlapping up and down the Atlantic. The good news is that I don't have to live in New Jersey. The bad news is that all the liberals moving into New Castle County are moving Delaware away from its heritage as The First State to ratify and uphold the Constitution of the United States. As you know.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.