Post by daneaux on Jun 3, 2020 8:37:24 GMT -6
There have been some pretty significant protests and violence in Richmond but not much happening here in lily-white Chesterfield County which is has about 1 1/2 times as many people as the city.
The best part has been that the beautiful statues of Confederate generals that grace historic Monument Avenue are much more colorful that they were before thanks to some lesser know artists than Sievers and Mercie.
www.styleweekly.com/richmond/richmond-is-burning-again/Content?oid=16109298
I'm pretty sure that I can count on you guys for candid opinions, so here goes:
I hear black eaders like Bakari Sellers saying that the fix for our racial problems has to come from White people and I believe it. We have to stop tolerating racism by turning our heads when our friends and relatives exhibit it and catching ourselves at it too. And we have to vote accordingly.
Chesterfield County is an excellent example of non-racism-racism.
When I say we are lily-white, that means that the wealthy part is lily-white. The eastern part of the county is very poor and much more racially diverse. Lot's of poor blacks, whites and Latinos live in the area. The schools (which are part of the wealthy CCPS system, are horrible. Teachers don't want to work there because of the crappy conditions and out of fear for their safety.
Year after year, there is some effort on the part of some county official to get more money for the area in one way or another. But what happens, is we wind up with yet another $50 million high school/palace for the rich kids in the western part of the county (where I live). Don't get me wrong, there's plenty of ways to rationalize it. Our elementary schools are operating at 140% capacity in some area (mine).
But is it really fair for us to build facilities that cost that much in the west while the poor kids in the east are going to school in slums? Is it a good idea to spend fortunes on athletic facilites and palatial school buildings on hundred acre tracts when, even in the affluent areas, our schools (which are the best in the metro area if not in the state) are failing in what is their primary mission?
These are the forms of racism that the black leaders are asking us to fight and they are asking that it happen out here where the battle is not even reaching. They are asking for local action to solve the national problem of racism.
And in that effort, I am thinking about starting something called "No Room for Racism".
My plan is to make a yard sign that says "No Room for Racism" and would start as black on one edge and white on the other and blending into grey in the middle. I'm going to buy the first hundred of them myself and contact all the local HOA's to try to get them to distribute them and maybe collect money for more signs or to donate to some cause. All of the HOA's will remember me from my successful work in opposing a giant fueling station as will the reporters from local TV and print news, so I'm going to use that and my contacts from that last fight to try to get things rolling. I'll write a simple mission statement that people will need to sign on to that will include things like electing local officials who will support initiatives to fight racism in every form and stuff. It might be tiered so that if a neighborhood gets enough participants they would get a sign at the entrance proclaiming that their neighborhood has "No Room for Racism". Then comes the town, district, county, state, country, continent, hemisphere, world and so on until there really is no room for racism. I'll take back the signs and recycle them then.
One of the things I like about it is it takes some of the fear out of protesting. With this, you can exorcise your white guilt without having to get pepper-sprayed. The only thing you have to worry about is retaliation from your redneck neighbors and that kind of behavior will come to the attention of the press and the police very quickly. The press in particular is very hungry for stories of this type and any retaliation would only serve to drive them further into the woods.
And there's nothing like peer-pressure to move a cause forward. Lots of people might not really believe but if they see a sign in their neighbors yard that says they have no room for racism, they might think that if they don't get one too, people are going to think they are racists. And that might cause them to actually question "What is this racism thing that makes those people so uppity?".
I think it's kind of lovey-dovey and it's not really in keeping with how pissed off I really am, but it's a way to try to keep it positive and to reverse the downward spiral we've been in. Trump came in on an escalator. That makes him kind of off the mark because it is clearly not a spiral. But he did get the direction right.
The best part has been that the beautiful statues of Confederate generals that grace historic Monument Avenue are much more colorful that they were before thanks to some lesser know artists than Sievers and Mercie.
www.styleweekly.com/richmond/richmond-is-burning-again/Content?oid=16109298
I'm pretty sure that I can count on you guys for candid opinions, so here goes:
I hear black eaders like Bakari Sellers saying that the fix for our racial problems has to come from White people and I believe it. We have to stop tolerating racism by turning our heads when our friends and relatives exhibit it and catching ourselves at it too. And we have to vote accordingly.
Chesterfield County is an excellent example of non-racism-racism.
When I say we are lily-white, that means that the wealthy part is lily-white. The eastern part of the county is very poor and much more racially diverse. Lot's of poor blacks, whites and Latinos live in the area. The schools (which are part of the wealthy CCPS system, are horrible. Teachers don't want to work there because of the crappy conditions and out of fear for their safety.
Year after year, there is some effort on the part of some county official to get more money for the area in one way or another. But what happens, is we wind up with yet another $50 million high school/palace for the rich kids in the western part of the county (where I live). Don't get me wrong, there's plenty of ways to rationalize it. Our elementary schools are operating at 140% capacity in some area (mine).
But is it really fair for us to build facilities that cost that much in the west while the poor kids in the east are going to school in slums? Is it a good idea to spend fortunes on athletic facilites and palatial school buildings on hundred acre tracts when, even in the affluent areas, our schools (which are the best in the metro area if not in the state) are failing in what is their primary mission?
These are the forms of racism that the black leaders are asking us to fight and they are asking that it happen out here where the battle is not even reaching. They are asking for local action to solve the national problem of racism.
And in that effort, I am thinking about starting something called "No Room for Racism".
My plan is to make a yard sign that says "No Room for Racism" and would start as black on one edge and white on the other and blending into grey in the middle. I'm going to buy the first hundred of them myself and contact all the local HOA's to try to get them to distribute them and maybe collect money for more signs or to donate to some cause. All of the HOA's will remember me from my successful work in opposing a giant fueling station as will the reporters from local TV and print news, so I'm going to use that and my contacts from that last fight to try to get things rolling. I'll write a simple mission statement that people will need to sign on to that will include things like electing local officials who will support initiatives to fight racism in every form and stuff. It might be tiered so that if a neighborhood gets enough participants they would get a sign at the entrance proclaiming that their neighborhood has "No Room for Racism". Then comes the town, district, county, state, country, continent, hemisphere, world and so on until there really is no room for racism. I'll take back the signs and recycle them then.
One of the things I like about it is it takes some of the fear out of protesting. With this, you can exorcise your white guilt without having to get pepper-sprayed. The only thing you have to worry about is retaliation from your redneck neighbors and that kind of behavior will come to the attention of the press and the police very quickly. The press in particular is very hungry for stories of this type and any retaliation would only serve to drive them further into the woods.
And there's nothing like peer-pressure to move a cause forward. Lots of people might not really believe but if they see a sign in their neighbors yard that says they have no room for racism, they might think that if they don't get one too, people are going to think they are racists. And that might cause them to actually question "What is this racism thing that makes those people so uppity?".
I think it's kind of lovey-dovey and it's not really in keeping with how pissed off I really am, but it's a way to try to keep it positive and to reverse the downward spiral we've been in. Trump came in on an escalator. That makes him kind of off the mark because it is clearly not a spiral. But he did get the direction right.
