Chicago is America’s most segragated city
December 29, 2008
According to this article in the Chicago Tribune
Chicago, America’s most segregated big city
Racial lines were drawn over the city’s history and remain entrenched by people’s choice, economics
By Azam Ahmed and Darnell Little
Tribune reporters
Tribune photos by Chris Walker
The paths taken by Colin Lampark and Rosalyn Bates help illustrate why Chicago is the most racially segregated big city in America.
Both are young professionals with handsome earning potential. Both moved to the city a few years ago-Lampark, 28, to Lincoln Park; Bates, 31, to Bronzeville. And both chose neighborhoods reflecting their race, a practice common in Chicago.
Their personal stories, and many others, explain why blacks in Chicago are the most isolated racial group in the nation’s 20 largest cities, according to a Tribune analysis of 2008 population estimates. To truly integrate Chicago, 84 percent of the black or white population would need to change neighborhoods, the data show.
The calculations paint a starkly different picture from the ones broadcast across the nation during Barack Obama’s Election Night rally last month, when his hometown looked like one unified, harmonious city.
The fact is, racial patterns that took root in the 1800s are not easy to reverse. Racial steering, discriminatory business practices and prejudice spawned segregation in Chicago, and now personal preferences and economics fuel it.
“Once institutions exist, they tend to persist, and it requires some act of force to get them to change,” said Douglas Massey of Princeton University, an expert on segregation.
For Lampark, who is white, the move last year to Lincoln Park from Minneapolis came because he had friends there. It wasn’t a racially motivated decision, he said. Lampark, an engineer, just doesn’t know anyone on the South Side.
Bates, who is black, settled in Bronzeville for similar reasons.
“It put us closer to friends,” she said.
She, however, may pay more dearly for her decision. Segregated African-American neighborhoods have less access to health care, quality education and employment opportunities than white areas, the research shows. Black homeowners can expect to receive 18 percent less value for their homes, according to one study-a tax the researcher attributed primarily to segregation.
James Hamilton, 50, a deckhand from Woodlawn, can live with that. In his experience, which includes 30 years on the South Side, he doesn’t think that whites would welcome him to their neighborhood.
“It ain’t never been us,” he said. “It’s always been [whites]-just don’t want to be around us.”
To read the rest of the story go to the Chicago Tribune website.
An activist and her dolls
December 27, 2008
Here’s a great article from the L.A Times
Dolls of Hope promotes HIV/AIDS education and discussion
L.A. health activist Cynthia Davis has people make and exchange cloth dolls worldwide, from Compton to Tanzania, to break stigma.
By Ari B. Bloomekatz
Cynthia Davis, one of Los Angeles’ best-known HIV/AIDS activists, has logged 580,000 miles on her Camry station wagon and replaced the engine twice in her decadelong campaign of using dolls to educate young and old about the deadly disease.
Her latest stop was at Westchester High School a few days before Christmas. As usual, Davis brought along her Dolls of Hope: hand-stitched pieces made by AIDS awareness groups around the world.
She used the colorful cloth dolls to help lure students to her information booth. Once she had their attention, Davis went to work.
“Did you know that the rates of gonorrhea and chlamydia in Los Angeles County are increasing fastest among black and Latina women between 15 and 24?” she asked a group of four Latina students. [Read more]
Dellums Expands Bailey Probe
December 24, 2008
By Post Staff
Mayor Ron Dellums has called for an expanded, in-depth investigation into the Police Department’s handling of the investigation of Chauncey Bailey’s assassination.
Dellums said “I’ve asked the attorney general to engage with us in a parallel investigation going forward. I asked Judge Henry Ramsey to act as a master in that process, he has agreed to that.”
When the Oakland Tribune revealed that Oakland Post Editor Chauncey Bailey could still be alive if the Police had not changed their plans to raid the Your Black Muslim Bakery, it caused a storm of concern from the Mayor, City officials and faith-based leaders.
They have called on Attorney General Jerry Brown to expand his investigation of the Police Department(OPD) Administration.
“Everything should be on the table in this investigation,” said Dellums. [Read more]
Barack and Michaëlle: Governing North America
December 16, 2008
By Paul Cobb
When both of the heads of state of Canada and the United States happen to be Black, it is a rare convergence of leadership for the North American Continent.
Michaelle Jean, became the first Black Canadian Governnor General in 2005 and Barack Obama, President-elect of the United States of Amerca will become first Black President in 2009.
Both heads of state are facing severe economic crises. Both have roots outside of their countries. She is a Haitian refugee and an accomplished journalist. He has roots in Kenya through his father. [Read more]
Notoriously Overrated: What Was so Big about Biggie Smalls?
December 15, 2008
By Paul Scott
www.nowarningshotsfired.com
There’s a new movie coming out, next month, called “Notorious.” It’s the story of a black kid who grew up on the mean city streets, became a Black Panther and dedicated his life to stopping police brutality and trying to organize street gangs into a revolutionary political movement. The story ends with him being murdered in his bed by the police as he slept next to his pregnant fiancee.
My bad, that was the Fred Hampton story. Wrong screenplay…
“Notorious” is about the life of a drug dealer turned rapper who released a CD, got into a beef with another rapper and was shot on the streets of LA while leaving an after party. The end. [Read more]
Ministers Lay Hands on Obama
December 8, 2008
A group of ministers prayed for Barack Obama after he won his first Primary in Iowa.
The laying on of hands, an historical Christian practice, was a means of connecting the message with the messenger, or the spiritual gift with the gifted giver.
It provided a “sign” authenticating him through whom the physical manifestation of a spiritual gift was bestowed. “We need to pray that our gifted president Obama will have God’s hand guiding him.,” said Dr. Ray Williams, Moderator of St. John Baptist Association.
TOGETHER FOR US
December 8, 2008
By Paul Cobb
By selecting a team of nationally known, strong personalities, President-Elect Barack Obama is sending a signal to the world that he is secure enough in his leadership that he is willing to appoint many of his former rivals and members of the opposite party to cabinet-level positions.
When he named Hillary Rodham Clinton as Secretary of State and Robert Gates as Defense Secretary he said he would set the direction for change.
Clinton echoed his call when she said “America’s standing in the world would be a force for change.”
Recognizing that he has assembled an “all-star team” cabinet of individuals who are accustomed to advocating their own views, Obama said “I’m a strong believer in strong personalities and strong opinions. I think that’s how the best decisions are made. I am going to be welcoming a vigorous debate in the White House.”
Obama named Ebony’s “Person of the Year”
December 3, 2008
Barack Obama: Ebony’s Person of Year
by Mark Silva
Ebony magazine has chosen its first “Person of the Year.”
President-elect Barack Obama.
If the election of the first African-American president does not stand out as a landmark event in the history of a magazine founded for African-American readers in 1942 and now reaching 12 million readers, it’s difficult to imagine what does.
Read more at The Swamp political blog.
Obama, Role Model In Europe
December 3, 2008
Obama, Role Model In Europe
by Beacon News
New York Beacon
Originally posted 10/23/2008Many black Europeans say victory for Barack Obama in the U.S. election might set an example that could help remedy their under-representation in European politics.But they emphasize that the U.S. Democrat inspires a massive following in Europe through his ideas and charisma, not just because of his color.
”He is the first black to achieve what he is achieving but that would not be sufficient to follow him,” said Patrick Lozes, head of France’s Representative Council of Black Associations. ”Nobody would have supported him just because he is black.”
”I hope Obama wins because of his performance, not because he’s black,” agreed Innocent Ekhorutumwek, a 26-year-old Nigerian street vendor in Rome.
With less than two weeks to the November 4 election, Obama has a solid lead over Republican John McCain in many polls, cheering fans in Europe whom he wowed during a visit in July. [Read more]
389 Years of African American Progress
December 3, 2008
Graphic designer Jess Bachman, creator of TheBudgetGraph.com and Death and Taxes has created the 389 Years Ago, a typographic map of African American progress in the United States. You can buy the posters over Mr. Bachman’s website as a 14″ by 48″ inch poster.
