Tuesday, March 12, 2013

Being clueless in Philly.

This "Being White in Philly" article still has legs with the local media and some folks here in my hometown. Most folks seemed to be upset about it, I suspect, though, that the folks at Philly Magazine love the shine that they are getting from their one sided race relations hit piece.

My girl Jenice Armstrong just wrote about it for Philly.com, and I am sorry I read the article.

Apparently some folks now want to organize a mass kumbayah love in at....well, Love Park. (Where else would it be?)

"Organizers hope Philadelphians of all races will turn out next week for an event at Love Park called “Being in Philly.” The gathering, scheduled for 4 p.m. on March 20, is in response to a controversial Philadelphia magazine cover story called “Being White In Philly.” In the piece, based on anonymous interviews, Robert Huber makes the claim that white people are afraid to talk about race for fear of being called racist.

The article has a lot of problems, many of them well documented already. But the first-day-of-spring event isn’t so much to address the issue of bad journalism but to present another view of what’s happening in Philly.
“The goal is to have an intellectual dialogue and discourse that promotes a positive outcome and interactive cultural understanding,” Chris Norris, a lead organizer, told me last week.   

Organizers also hope to bring Huber, the author of ‘Being White in Philly,’ to Love Park to introduce him around.

“To introduce him to organizations like Rising Sons and to introduce him to the Black Male Engagement Project that the Knight Foundation is spending millions and millions of dollars on to change the narrative in this city and Baltimore and Detroit. To introduce him to people like Gregory Walker (founder of the Brothers Network)Gregory Corbin and Solomon Jones. That’s the goal. Not to make him feel scared, to make him feel like there’s going to be an angry black mob waiting for him. That there’s going to be intellectual black men waiting with open arms to embrace him because, hey, he needs a hug. “

Now I respect some of the people involved with this event, and I actually consider Solomon Jones a friend, but I have to question the wisdom of this planned outreach and racial lovefest.

Why do we have to go out of our way to show some naive journalist and folks who think like him that we are normal? Mr. Huber is a grown ass man; if it takes people having a planned event to bring him in contact with "educated" black people in a city like Philadelphia, well then maybe Mr. Huber and his cohorts are the ones who need to be doing some soul searching.

This, of course, is easier said than done. It is folks like Mr. Huber who are now playing the victim card and reverse racism is now the meme of the moment. (I think "white tears" is trending somewhere out there in social media land.)

Sorry folks, I would like to be on board, but I cannot. I understand the real reason folks like Mr. Huber have issues with people who are different, and why they fail to understand that there are other factors that affect people's behavior besides their race.

"We want to encourage Philly magazine to write a part 2 (called) being a Philadelphian. Not being white. Not being black. But being a Philadelphian. That’s really important,” pointed out Rashaun Williams, 18, a Temple University sociology and history major who's helping organize the gathering.

In addition to all that, organizers say there will be free musical performances and a water ice giveaway. Editors at Philly mag also have been invited."

I need a break.



24 comments:

  1. Blacks never had a problem with loving whites.".."., their problem is loving each other. This thesis of mine can be tested by having a love-feast in the park with a generational meeting of African Americans after the "show me you love me" hostage session. StillaPanther2

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  2. Anonymous11:58 PM

    After this you just might get an invite in the mail to that shindig in Love Park...

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  3. Anonymous12:33 AM

    “The goal is to have an intellectual dialogue and discourse that promotes a positive outcome and interactive cultural understanding,” Chris Norris, a lead organizer, told me last week."

    Now see? already it's a setup against Blacks because they are talking about having an 'intellectual dialogue'. Why didn't they just have a rap session?

    Field, I am curious. Philly has gangs, and Black-on-Black crimes and killings. To make matters worse, it is known throughout the nation that Blacks have no political clout whatsoever. The police are corrupt, second only to the LAPD.

    Yet, you claim you have Blacks with intellectual capacities? Pleeeeze. Whites and Jews run that town and there is NO room for Blacks...Period. And it's been that way for eons.

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  4. Anonymous12:44 AM

    "Apparently some folks now want to organize a mass kumbayah love in at....well, Love Park. (Where else would it be?)"

    Hmmmm. sounds like an opportunity to mingle with Whites and feel accepted for a change. Even though I live across the country from Philly, I might make that gathering of love. I could finally be embraced by a white person. Hopefully, it'll be a good looking female and the start of something new.

    Field, this event just might lift my depression as a black man forever.:) Ya think?

    Depressed Negro

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  5. Anonymous12:50 AM

    "Why do we have to go out of our way to show some naive journalist and folks who think like him that we are normal? Mr. Huber is a grown ass man; if it takes people having a planned event to bring him in contact with "educated" black people in a city like Philadelphia, well then maybe Mr. Huber and his cohorts are the ones who need to be doing some soul searching."

    Brother Field, why do you always think lop-sided against Whites who are sincerely trying to make harmony with us? When will YOU become willing to try? Why can't you allow something "positive" to happen?

    This could be the beginning of something new in our country where Blacks and Whites finally come together.

    Sometimes you depress the shit out of me.

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  6. Anonymous1:07 AM

    “The goal is to have an intellectual dialogue and discourse that promotes a positive outcome and interactive cultural understanding,” Chris Norris, a lead organizer, told me last week."

    Mr Field, I believe 'Chris' Norris is a mistake in name. Shouldn't the name be 'Chuck' Norris? After all, Chuck has been known to be involved in these things. Plus, isn't he from Philly?

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  7. Anonymous2:43 AM

    Field,

    You said, "This, of course, is easier said than done. It is folks like Mr. Huber who are now playing the victim card and reverse racism is now the meme of the moment. (I think "white tears" is trending somewhere out there in social media land.)

    Sorry folks, I would like to be on board, but I cannot. I understand the real reason folks like Mr. Huber have issues with people who are different, and why they fail to understand that there are other factors that affect people's behavior besides their race."
    ====================================================================

    "I understand the real reason folks like Mr. Huber have issues with people who are different..."

    Mutants being DIFFERENT (read: genetically recessive) means for them ALWAYS being separate - for, in their minds, their very survival. They try to flip it (read: reverse racism) on others (despite them brazenly socially engineering the destruction within America's inner cities, like Detroit and Philly, by establishing drug economies in conjunction with assassinations to put down the Civil Rights (and Hippie) Movement so they don't have to deal with their biological weakness or their perceived inferiority, but many of us simply don't get it, smdh. As soon as humans get that through their heads and internalize it, the better they'll be able plan a proper, proactive course of action. Search the world over and you will NOT find them integrated with any other group in any significant number---and living harmoniously, I might add. Whether it's DC, Philly, or Detroit, they, generally, are seeking to run off (through break-ins, violence, and elevated taxes, etc.)the black populations (even those of us who remain flush with cash) in those places under the euphemism of re-gentrification to establish "walkable communities (of which the suburbs are NOT!). Unfortunately, most of us are not connecting the dots.

    So, Field, what are your thoughts on the BME and the Knight Foundation?


    "All things are subject to interpretation whichever interpretation prevails at a given time is a function of power and not truth.
    Read more at http://www.brainyquote.com/quotes/quotes/f/friedrichn109379.html#V09RR8DL56fBuDTp.99


    Kudos to you for not letting sit well with you. What we often don't get is that those who socially engineer our destruction and then wish to come in under the guise of re-gentrification

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  8. "Brother Field, why do you always think lop-sided against Whites who are sincerely trying to make harmony with us? When will YOU become willing to try? Why can't you allow something "positive" to happen?

    This could be the beginning of something new in our country where Blacks and Whites finally come together.

    Sometimes you depress the shit out of me."

    It's your country that depresses you.

    "Blacks never had a problem with loving whites.".."., their problem is loving each other.."

    Amen!! Please pass the offering plate. SAPF is having church up in here.

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  9. ‪Anonymous‬ said...

    “The Purple Cow,

Thanks for the info and I'll be bludgeoning mutants with that info, as well. Might you have the a source for the data? Thanks again!
”

    My source of information is called the Internet. If you Google any one of the facts I posted you will find a variety of sources.

    For instance, Googling Under Chavez the percentage of people living in poverty has fallen from 23.4% to 8.5%

    Gets you dozens of sources for the information, such as (for instance) this one…

    http://anotherangryvoice.blogspot.co.uk/2013/03/death-hugo-chavez-2013.html

    Or this one…

    http://www.guardian.co.uk/news/datablog/2012/oct/04/venezuela-hugo-chavez-election-data

    Or even this one…

    http://rightwaysrichard.blogspot.co.uk/2013/03/chavezs-legacy-will-live-on.html

    That’s how this whole ‘research’ thing works, see.

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  10. Anonymous9:41 AM

    Blacks never had a problem with loving whites.".."., their problem is loving each other. This thesis of mine can be tested by having a love-feast in the park with a generational meeting of African Americans after the "show me you love me" hostage session. StillaPanther2

    11:23 PM
    -------------------------------------
    How could Blacks EVER love Whites who have enslaved, passed discriminatory laws, raped and hung our relatives?

    Please, tell me how this is done? Whites cannot be trusted because they carry the "disease" of racism...both Democrats and Republicans and Independents. In other words, it's the entire white race.

    To make matters worse, it is estimated that 70% of Blacks can't stand being Black. That is, given a chance, they will agree to be White.

    They support racism against themselves! Field, why don't you post the truth about us? Or is it too heavy for you and your FN followers?

    Philly Blacks are a classic example of weak scared Blacks with no political motivation whatsoever for the well-being of Blacks.

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  11. “The goal is to have an intellectual dialogue and discourse that promotes a positive outcome and interactive cultural understanding,” Chris Norris, a lead organizer, told me last week."

    Huh, a Love fest at Love Park in Philly for intellectual dialogue. When will the vast majority of Negroes realize that whites are essentially biologically hardwired to behave the way the way they do? Why are whites so terrified of truly seeing Negroes a free people? Do whites as a group feel that imperiled and somehow a love fest at the park will cure all ills. Puhleeezze! We are a race of people who’ve lost over two hundred an fifty million to the slave trade and beyond in confrontations with whites. And all it takes is a meeting of the minds in a park to settle everything?

    In 1848, Frederick Douglas asked in an essay titled “What are the Colored People Doing for Themselves? I’m almost certain if he was alive today, he’d be surprised that Negroes in Philly are interested and planning a festivities meeting in a park called “Love Park.”

    Negroes, quit allowing yourselves to be hoodwinked and tricked that whites will alter their groupuscule bahavior after a get together in a park!




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  12. Anonymous11:01 AM

    Dig Black Sage!

    That's why I love the science that now explains the observable phenomenon that you point out (them being biologically hardwired, etc.). The science is truly liberating and takes the emotion out of it. It forces some of us who are blinded by religion to start thinking. Furthermore, it allows us to be more proactive. It defines the equation, just as you have said, which remains in lockstep with many of our elders such as Dr. Derrick Bell. Yeah, Frederick Douglas would definitely be reminding us about struggle and progress!

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  13. Anonymous11:01 AM

    Dig Black Sage!

    That's why I love the science that now explains the observable phenomenon that you point out (them being biologically hardwired, etc.). The science is truly liberating and takes the emotion out of it. It forces some of us who are blinded by religion to start thinking. Furthermore, it allows us to be more proactive. It defines the equation, just as you have said, which remains in lockstep with many of our elders such as Dr. Derrick Bell. Yeah, Frederick Douglas would definitely be reminding us about struggle and progress!

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  14. history11:43 AM

    Frederick Douglass, despite being born into slavery, put a lot of effort into learning how to read, write and think. He succeeded wildly.

    If he was able to develop his intellectual capacities to the extent that he did, what's stopping millions of today's blacks?

    Clearly the biggest impediment to black academic achievement is black culture.

    In his own way, Douglass was "bused" into the white neighborhood where he discovered an extraordinary new world.

    Blacks would do well to read his autobiography. But black readers won't like what they find.

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  15. Anonymous2:51 PM

    That article starts off pretty much with the authors description of a neighborhood that has degenerated into a slum. While articulating the fear he and other whites have of the persons that live in that slum.

    A rightful fear that according to his anecdotes occurs as white neighbors suffered home invasions and were robbed by the residents of the slum.

    All of which is quite understandable ad probably entirely true.

    And so it is inferred that the occupants are lazy criminals,that prefer to rob and burn the bannisters in their homes for heat rather than become productive professionals.

    So here we go again with the old adage of 'pulling oneself up by the bootstraps'

    And here I go again with my answer that first you need the bootstraps to pull yourself up with ;)

    It takes all of ones wits to survive in poverty. With precious little time or energy left to do anything else!

    But one has to have studied a little to know the psychological workings of being dirt poor for generations. No bootstrap there! Not even a shoelace!

    How about petitioning the government for decent housing for the poor? Many working people, for petes sake, can hardly make ends meet! and they're working! and it's all we can do to keep our heads above water!

    I can understand how the author can drive by this slum daily and just shiver and sigh in disgust as he looks at the "dirty sheets on the window" and "wonder at the poor children behind them"

    Because he is just one person, alone, and science will tell us that a human being can helplessly watch just so much suffering, and then has to turn the gaze away in order to survive psychologically.

    and I'm not a sociologist but I have studied some. I know that the specialists on here will bear me out on this.

    So then what is the answer to ending slums, petty theft, crime?

    I'll let y'all answer that :)

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  16. Anonymous3:42 PM

    *Runs into room screaming at the top of her lungs and shaking her hands up into the sky*

    "People we're taking over the world. we're taking over the entire woooorld!!!

    Yaaaaaaaaaaaaaay!!!

    The Pope is SPANISH! SPANIIIIIISH!"

    But that's not entirely true because after the war many Italians moved to Argentina and as you see his surname is Italian.

    Why they chose him is because in South America the catholic church is losing ground to other religions that are doing a lot of missionary work there, so you know, it's politics as usual with that;)

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  17. Disappointingly, the new Pope is a San Lorenzo fan.

    twitpic.com/show/full/cb2v6s

    I’m more a Boca Juniors fan, personally

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  18. parvenu4:09 PM

    I say -
    When you are able to embrace a deep mature LOVE of yourself along with those who look like you; you will then be ready to reach out in a sincere selfless LOVING EMBRACE for ALL OTHERS.

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  19. Yard Nig6:26 PM

    There will no doubt be more and more efforts at rooting out reverse realism, I mean racism. Some, not all, white folks are reeling at the thought of being a minority in this country. But even if white people were to become only 3% of the population, they will still be 99% of the 1%. Yet still they bitch and moan about their inconvenience. Beats me.

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  20. Negroes cannot humanize nor normalize whiteness, this is well known fact. Even further, if there are any efforts to do what's stated above, I own a couple of mansions on Mars that I'd love to sell to you at a drastic discount.

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  21. Anonymous7:10 PM

    It feels like joining groups and organizations is the only way - white people find black-majority groups (like the ones listed in this post) and ask to attend meetings and join in the work, black people look for white-majority groups (Quakers, for one example) and do the same. (I know this happens, but it needs to happen more.) There may be initial mistrust, but there's got to be a start somewhere. To try to do this on an individual basis, if you live in a predominantly black or predominantly white neighbourhood means that it's fine to have an conversation with someone on a bus, or waiting for a bus, but 'meaningful dialogue' isn't necessarily something you find in a bus line, or in Philly's Love Square. I know I'm not explaining this right, but I'm a white middle-aged born middle-class but now very financially underclass person who finds the b/w divide bewildering - that is, completely understandable, but bewildering/confusing/frustrating/like trying to thrash your way through an emotional thicket when so many of us are in the same boat, albeit with different ancestries/histories. I'm tempted to delete all this but I won't - I don't even live in the US anymore, but when I come back to visit family once a year which is what I can afford, I despair at the divide: my mom lives 30 miles north of NYC, and there is ONE AA family in her very nice middle-class neighbourhood. As a child of the Civil Rights years, I find the continuation of this so depressing. OK, waiting for the ensing disparaging remarks in 1, 2, 3 ...

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  22. Anonymous8:52 PM

    Anon7:10p, I hear you and I agree with you wholeheartedly. I am Black, but I too am a child of the Civil Rights years, and I find where we are today quite depressing. It seems as though those years of racial strife were wasted. I want to move abroad, but I am afraid it won't be any better anywhere else for AAs. Looks like I've got to ride this sucker out to the end. smh

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  23. Anonymous9:00 PM

    Desertflower, "Why they chose him is because in South America the catholic church is losing ground to other religions that are doing a lot of missionary work there, so you know, it's politics as usual with that;)"

    Desert, I am sure you KNOW what you are talking about. I just wonder if you might have considered that they chose him because he was the best one according to the will of God which came from their collective prayers?

    You must be Catholic because you are so jaded about the Vatican and probably about your faith. I am not Catholic, but I respect the Catholic Church and its selection for Pope as the best for the entire world. And I pray he will play a big part in reducing the suffering in the world.

    BTW, his prayer stirred my heart.

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  24. Anonymous9:34 PM

    Anonymous Anonymous said...
    "Desert, I am sure you KNOW what you are talking about."
    ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
    :)Not always Anon, not always........ya gotta take my words with a rock of salt. Oh, and I lie sometimes too,shhhhhhhh :o

    Didn't he say that prayer in Latin???
    You know Latin?

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