If you have a brain you know that Richmond’s biggest problem is the race/class divide left to us by four hundred years of racism. We’ve talked about it a length. It affects every aspect of our city in deep and complex ways.

This I know.

What I don’t know is why the Richmond Free Press decided to run a front page article labeling the planning process a “Sea of Whiteness.” I also don’t know why Dover (of Dover & Kohl) actually apologized for the lack of racial diversity! WTF!

The Free Press should be apologizing.

Who better than the Free Press to motivate and inform some of the black residents of Richmond. Did the Free Press run an article alerting its readership of the meeting before labeling the event a “Sea of Whiteness?” Even if they did, did they run it on the front page in huge letters?

Sigh. It makes me angry and I can’t think straight. I may post more in the comments.

Read more here and here.

I guess I’m awake.

I doubt anyone’s going to be reading this from Richmond, but I feel some responsibility to keep these posts up as long as I can. If I hear anything gurgle-like at all, though, I’m hitting submit and running for the hills, just like yesterday. Sorry I didn’t get to finish the story, but I had to get going with a pretty high degree of urgency.

I’ve made my way south into the suburban areas around Wilde Lake, south of Short Pump. I spent all day sleeping in a broken and abandoned house and keeping out of sight. I guess I’ll keep going south to the river and try to pick up Ross and Val if I can get there without dying.

The problem with being alive and in no way undead at this juncture isn’t just the actual undead who are pretty enthusiastically trying to convert as many followers to their undead ways, but also the other survivors shooting anything that’s moving. Which, sure. I mean, the previously obvious benefits of not shooting or eating your fellow man haven’t seemed to apply for the last few days to most people in the greater Richmond area. People on either side of the un part of dead have been (I suppose justifiably) feast-on-the-living- or trigger-happy, as the case may be.

It makes me sad that there’s so much looting and burning, though. I can’t even tell what damage has been done by ambulatory corpses and what’s the handiwork of regular-type human have-nots trying to take from the haves in optimistic preparation for living at least one more day.

Okay, man is the real monster, you get it. I’ll give it a rest. Sorry. I guess I’m just bitter. I’ve outrun the zombies I haven’t had to kill, but unless the real-life zombie rules are significantly non-Romero, it was a plain old 100% alive person who shot me in the shoulder this morning. If I’m a little misanthropic and generally not as much fun as I was yesterday, that’s going to be your reason why.

It’s not bad. The bullet just grazed the skin, really. The whole thing’s wrapped pretty tight, and only throbs a little. I shouldn’t be slowed down too much tonight when I move again.

Do you know what makes me the saddest, though? Richmond. We spent way too long being the Capital of damned Confederate Racism to much of the country for years, and now unless this thing’s bigger than I know, we’re going to be the source of the undead plague that destroyed Western Civilization. You know what, ungrateful world? The food here used to be really good. We enjoyed hanging out and drinking great beer. We care about families and communities here in Richmond. In the 150 years between being ripped apart by war and being destroyed by an apocalypse from the grave, there were some really great people in this town doing some exceptional things. RVA’s too good a town to have to be brought down by chatty flesh-eating cadavers.

Okay, that’s enough. Maybe it’s being shot, or maybe it’s the unstoppable invasion of unholy throngs of decomposing ghoul-spawn, but I’m grumpy. It’s almost dark enough to move again. At night I know I’ll be too hard to see to get shot, and the living dead aren’t quiet enough to sneak up in the dark. I’m going to go gather up what food I can find and move south.

The NCAA has tomahawk chopped those offensive feathers right off of the William and Mary logo. I for one am glad to see such blatant racism removed from college athletics. As the NCAA said the College should be responsible for opponents who may make racial slurs concerning the lineage and history of innocent feathers. Think of the Children™!

And in other completely unrelated news, Florida State University’s athletic budget is upwards of $40M while William and Mary’s is around $11M.

Technorati Tags: sports, wtf

From Wired via ZillaSays:

The actor Damon Wayans has been engaged in a 14-month fight to trademark the term “Nigga” for a clothing line and retail store, a search of the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office’s online database reveals.

I feel like the “is-it-ok-to-say-’nigga’-even-if-you-are-black” controversy has popped up a bunch of times for me lately. The first was the infamous Oprah Crash episode (no homo), which included such hilarious quotes from the audience as:

If I say “yeah I will just jew down the price a little for you” is that racist?

Um yes. Anyway the panel — the actors from the movie Crash — chatted for a bit about calling each other “nigga.” Everyone on the panel was black except Sandra Bullock, who like most white people, kept out of the discussion. Also discussed was the “Nigga vs. Nigger” conundrum. I tell you, it was a good show (no homo).

I think using the word “nigga/er” is a similar situation to flying the Battle flag of Northern Virginia. There are lots of people who fly various Confederate flags as a message of hate and racism. Just like there are a lot of people who use the word “nigger” with hate and racism. But there are people who fly the flag with no bad intentions at all. The problem is there is so much connotation that comes along with that particular flag that what ever it may actually factually mean doesn’t matter any more. To a lot of people it is a symbol of racism no matter what you say or believe.

There is a lot — a lot — of pejorative connotation that comes along with the word “nigger.” So when black people use it out of the pejorative context, with positive/neutral connotations, it confuses white people like me. What compounds the problem is in Richmond (America?) we don’t like to talk about race issues. We don’t even like to acknowledge they exist, how could they it is 2k6!?

I don’t pretend to even have the slightest glimmer of understanding what is like to be black so I don’t know what the answer is. What we need, in general, is a dialogue. Especially in our city.

Technorati Tags: race, Richmond, Virginia

Today is a holiday that is not unique to Virginia — in fact it is a national holiday instituted in 1983 by President Reagan: Martin Luther King day. Did you know that Martin Luther King Jr. is the only black person honored by a Federal holiday? That seems weird to me.

Anyway MLK was a veritable amazing quote factory. For example:

One has not only a legal, but a moral responsibility to obey just laws. Conversely, one has a moral responsibility to disobey unjust laws.

And:

Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere.

Perhaps most applicable for Richmond, a quote from ‘67 address titled Where do we go from here?:

Now, in order to answer the question, “Where do we go from here?” which is our theme, we must first honestly recognize where we are now. When the Constitution was written, a strange formula to determine taxes and representation declared that the Negro was sixty percent of a person. Today another curious formula seems to declare that he is fifty percent of a person. Of the good things in life, the Negro has approximately one half those of whites. of the bad things of life, he has twice those of whites. Thus half of all Negroes live in substandard housing. And Negroes have half the income of whites. When we view the negative experiences of life, the Negro has a double share. There are twice as many unemployed. The rate of infant mortality among Negroes is double that of whites and there are twice as many Negroes dying in Vietnam as whites in proportion to their size in the population.

Have things changed all that much since 1967? I think we have come a long way since then – due in large part to people like MLK and Malcolm X who focused the attention of the nation on civil rights for black people – but we still have a long way to go. Have a look at this report given by Wilder in 2k5, which we’ve discussed here before. The report is filled with discouraging and sickening statistics that need to change.

How do we change things in our city? I don’t know. Racism and the long term effects of racism are still an active part of the culture of this place. And how do you go about changing a culture? Who knows man, who knows. But I do know for Richmond to be sweet, we will have to deal with this eventually. MLK day – for me at least – is a hopeful day. A day that reminds me that maybe we can live in a city that isn’t race torn. Maybe!

Two closing thoughts: 1) I’m not trying to hate on Richmond. I love Richmond. Duh. and 2) More MLK quotes.

Technorati Tags: holiday, Richmond, Virginia

Today is a holiday unique to Virginia: Lee-Jackson Day. Lee-Jackson Day often confuses non-Virginians and Northerners — my father included. “How can you celebrate, even honor, those men” he would say. “They chose the wrong side.” With Lee and Jackson so firmly planted on Virginia’s side of the Mason-Dixon line, doesn’t that plant them on the same side as racism and bigotry? No, I don’t think so.

Lee-Jackson day is about two things. The first is celebrating two great Virginians who were amazing military strategist, models of duty and honor, and strong Christian leaders. Secondly Lee-Jackson day celebrates pride in being Southern. What does that mean exactly? A lot of people have claimed to be proud Southerners and they turned out to be fascist idiots. I’m not talking about those people. Today, while reading RVABlogs James Atticus Bowden over at Bacon’s Rebellion had this to say about Southernness:

Southern culture isn’t about being a sovereign nation. Southern culture isn’t about race any more for the White majority. Southern culture is about Christian identity with Bible reading and believing, as well as absolute, unchanging, truths in the Ten Commandments, Declaration of Independence, and Constitution, extended families, love of land, sense of place, men are men and women are women, honor, personal freedom, more fun-loving than money/work-driven, admiration for the military and willingness to fight.

I think this is an excellent, and perhaps one of the best I’ve read, descriptions of Southern culture. There are some powerful things to be proud of in that statement. How can you not get excited about a culture that values things like the Declaration of Independence, the Constitution, family, land, and personal freedom? Whether or not the statements on Christianity apply to you (they do for me) there is a ton of great stuff in there!

If you read this blog ever you know how I love a strong and independent state government. It isn’t just that. I love Virginia. I love that I can feel proud to be a Virginian. I love that I feel related, somehow, to my fellow Virginians. It is a strange and intangible feeling (I guess most feelings are?), but whenever I think about it, it gets me excited.

So that is what Lee-Jackson day means to me and makes me sad when people see it as a symbol of hate and racism. Because it’s not.

Technorati Tags: holiday, Virginia

Wednesday night i went to an interesting seminar concerning Urban Planning/Development in Richmond. what went down……

Read the rest of this entry »

Have you guys ever heard of Prussian Blue? You know the hit pop group made up of the cute blond and blue eyed Lamb and Lynx Gaede? You may know them as the twin thirteen year old girls from California that hate black people?

It seems the new front man for the white nationalist movement is actually two thirteen year old girls — but they still hate black people, don’t worry. I’d have to agree with the National Vanguard when they say:

IS THERE ANYTHING CUTER than two identical twin twelve-year-old[sic.] girls who have a band together?

To them I’d say, no. That is unless these girls also happen to harbor a deep racism instilled by their racist parents. It certainly doesn’t get any cuter than that! Another important question you may be dying to ask: “What do they think is the most important social issue facing the white race right now?” Well:

Not having enough white babies born to replace ourselves and generally not having good-quality white people being born. It seems like smart white girls who have good eugenics are more interested in making money in a career or partying than getting married and having a family.

Now, you have to admit, white women these days really aren’t putting a lot of time into the quality of their offspring. Next time one of you gets pregnant, be sure and consider the details; it is the little things that count. Please, for America! And don’t you worry guys, Lynx and Lamb “are working on some new songs about this issue.”

As with anyone public figure, it is always interesting to see what’s on their iPod:

We really like Avril Lavigne, Evanescence, Three Days Grace, Green Day, AC/DC, and Alison Krauss.

Also, filed under “Hate Music:”

Final War, CutThroat, Saga, Max Resist, Youngland, Brutal Attack, and of course Skrewdriver.

And who could forget:

But our all-time favorite is Barney the purple dinosaur!

Take a second to juxtapose those in your mind. Barney. CutThroat. Awesome.

Every year the Cold Harbor Guards of Mechanicsville, VA put on a festival in Hanover County called Dixie Days. Dixie Days offers “300 Acres of living history: period encampments, infantry & artillery demonstrations, civil war battle reenactment, and period music & games.” As you can see this is a Recent Unpleasantness War of Northern Aggression Second American Revolution War Between the States Civil War related festival.

As is typical these days someone worries about offending people. In particular “Jamelle Wilson, a member of an advisory panel” worries the term “Dixie” might just be too offensive for a private group of citizens to use for their private event held on public property. Suggested alternate names: “‘Blue and Gray Days,’ ‘Civil War Days’ or ‘Battle of Bethesda Church.’” Astounding.

Y’all probably know my affinity for federalism and Southern things in general, so you can probably guess this kind of stuff ticks me off. I guess for a lot of people South = Racism. Why can’t I celebrate the history and culture of the South while at the same time condemn slavery and racism? I mean I do it all the time and my brain doesn’t implode. I don’t want to get into that whole thing but here is a point of view I can agree with:

‘Dixie Days’ is an example of the wounds that are still very sensitive to ancestors of the Confederate war, which we can also call the great unpleasantness,” Mr. Ernst says. “Many black families in the county see that as a celebration of the institution of slavery and see that as degrading to them and it opens old wounds.”

Both sides have valid points. Anyone who knows me, knows I hate racism and what it does to my city. They would also know that I hate the watering down of history and the mostly unnecessary demonizing of the South. Haha whoa, I just sounded like a nutbar.

Finally there is this quote:

County Supervisor Aubrey M. Stanley Jr. is one county official who doesn’t want to change the name.
“I have no problem with it being called ‘Dixie Days,’?” he said. “What, we can’t call Indians ‘Indians,’ right?”

Ummm yes? We can’t call Indians Indians any more. Awhaaa?

The title pretty much says it all. You might remember this from about a year ago. A guy was pulled over for running a stop sign and then was shot to death after the officers reportedly saw a handgun in the car. The RTD has an article.

This case might also be handled by the US Justice department. Since Virginia has a history of racism and civil rights abuse, we have to consult the USJD on sketchy civil rights cases — like this one.

I think this happened around the same time as when the police tried to dump off a murder around VCU to the VCU campus police?