Jonetta Barras says what everyone is thinking

[Anonymous]

http://www.washingtonexaminer.com/local/Racialists-now_-racialists-forever-882207-103084929.html

[Anonymous]

She nailed it.

[Anonymous]

I think that she nailed the white fear, but I don't believe that she nailed the reality of the upcoming four years.

[Anonymous]

She is SO full of ----! Just like Obama, Gray did not get elected JUST because blacks voted. Look at the numbers people. There are a whole lotta white folks - many with lots of money and influence - who were pissed at Adrian. Take a drive through upper NW. The blue yard signs within blocks of Lafayette and along Reno were very, very telling IMHO. There are many Williams' admin veterans who've been frothing at the mouth about Fenty. The unelected "powers that be" were not consistently fans of Adrian the Maverick and less than thrilled that Rhee sometimes told them (and their money) to jump in a lake.

Don't be fooled by the simplistic assessment of a race-based election. (Jonetta doesn't seem capable of much beyond this.)

Nothing in DC happens just because black people want it. (Yes, even during Barry years.)

[Anonymous]

3rd (or 4th) person here who think she nailed it. Especially the "Barry light" comment. I wonder if that was my friend Lisa here in Chevy Chase? Or maybe my other friend Katie.

But as a white, 17 yr resident of Ward 3, I voted against Fenty and for Gray for a whole passel of reasons other than "disrespecting" the black establishment.

[jsteele]

It is really sad to see what has happened to Barras. But, when you can't hold a job with a legitimate media outlet and end up at right-wing joke of a newspaper, I guess it's not surprising.

Here is what I don't get. Blacks predominately supported one candidate. Whites primarily supported another candidate. But, only the blacks are considered to be all kinds of terrible things (including "racial" according to Barras). Wouldn't simple logic dictate that whites are just as bad? One group thought that a candidate was more likely to serve its interests and another group believed another would serve its interests. Maybe they were right, maybe they were wrong, but the both acted in a similar manner. Why was it only wrong for one group?

Oh, I know. Whites are smart. Blacks are stupid. That's simple.

If you read what so many of the Fenty supporters are saying and/or writing, there is a real sense of "let them eat cake" going on. People in wards 7 and 8 complain they their needs weren't met and people West of the Park point out that they got new rec centers and parks. But, the people in Wards 7 and 8 need jobs, not parks. Where was Fenty's jobs plan?

Trying to create jobs doesn't mean hiring everyone as a government employee. You can have job training, you can have incentives to hire DC workers, you can do a lot of things. But, you need a plan. You can't just build a rec center and say, "stop complaining about not having jobs".

If Gray prioritizes a jobs plan that does not mean that he is favoring blacks over whites. It means he is addressing an important issue that has been neglected. If the result is one less dog park elsewhere in the city, that is not an anti-white move. That is a "tough choice" of the type Fenty brags about making. Not all "tough choices" result in black women being fired, you know.

I never thought I'd see so many intelligent people in this city sounding like Reagan Republicans. How long before we start hearing terms such as "welfare queen" being used to describe Gray supporters?

[Anonymous]

I never thought I'd see so many intelligent people in this city sounding like Reagan Republicans. How long before we start hearing terms such as "welfare queen" being used to describe Gray supporters?

Jeff, this is what I thought Barras captured accurately in her screed, what I mean when I say I thought she nailed it. I agree with you, and I am a wee bit sickened by the post-election stuff coming out of the mouths of my (white, OK) neighbors. I guess I didn't know them so well as I thought.

[Anonymous]

Jeff,

As usual, you miss the point. It is not the role of the DC govt to create jobs. Yes, the DC govt can foster an environment that facilitates job growth, but this is different. Overall, the District is fairing much better than other cities, so the jobs criticism is larglely bunk.

The reason that unemployment is so high in Ward 8 is due to structural factors that have nothing to do with the current recession. What was unemployment in Ward 8 when the economy was booming in the mid-to-late 90s?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

I never thought I'd see so many intelligent people in this city sounding like Reagan Republicans. How long before we start hearing terms such as "welfare queen" being used to describe Gray supporters?

Jeff, this is what I thought Barras captured accurately in her screed, what I mean when I say I thought she nailed it. I agree with you, and I am a wee bit sickened by the post-election stuff coming out of the mouths of my (white, OK) neighbors. I guess I didn't know them so well as I thought.

I'm not surprised. Even though white DC residents are overwheminlgly Democrats, their reasons for being Democrats often stem from social or national issues that are irrelevant to a local election. Many are fically conservative. Many would support a Michael Bloomberg-type of Republican for mayor if such a choice was available. This does not make them racist or irrational.

[jsteele]

Anonymous wrote:Jeff,

As usual, you miss the point. It is not the role of the DC govt to create jobs. Yes, the DC govt can foster an environment that facilitates job growth, but this is different. Overall, the District is fairing much better than other cities, so the jobs criticism is larglely bunk.

The reason that unemployment is so high in Ward 8 is due to structural factors that have nothing to do with the current recession. What was unemployment in Ward 8 when the economy was booming in the mid-to-late 90s?

No, you miss the point. The point is that if people don't have jobs there is a problem. The fact that that problem may have existed for a long time does not make it less of a problem. Arguably, it makes it more of a problem. Whether you consider having a jobs plan to be "creating jobs" or "fostering an environment that facilitates job growth" really makes no difference to me. But, you can't ignore the high levels of unemployment that exist in some wards and then be surprised that the residents of those wards don't think you are serving their interests. And, when that happens, it is unfair to criticize the voters for "burning down their own neighborhood" as one DCUM poster put it.

[Anonymous]

Jeff said create a job plan. A job plan could be as simple as job training programs or tax incentives to businesses for hiring DC residents. Why is that not the roll of the District of Columbia government. Hell, they are talking about creating a jobs build in the Congress of the United States. When I lived in Florida, there was a job planning bill, miserable as it may have been. Why not the District.

[Anonymous]

Many would support a Michael Bloomberg-type of Republican for mayor if such a choice was available. This does not make them racist or irrational.

PP here. What makes my neighbors racist is not that they might like Bloomberg or fiscal whiz Tony Williams back in office. I might like that too someday. No, what makes my white neighbors racist, it turns out, is the putrid stereotypes they're spouting post-election regarding Gray voters. I don't want to repeat this stuff here. But honest to God, some of it is straight out of African colonialism. Or maybe plantation-era thinking where the white massah needs to protect the emotional black folk from themselves by knowin' wass' best.

.

[Anonymous]

jsteele wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Jeff,

As usual, you miss the point. It is not the role of the DC govt to create jobs. Yes, the DC govt can foster an environment that facilitates job growth, but this is different. Overall, the District is fairing much better than other cities, so the jobs criticism is larglely bunk.

The reason that unemployment is so high in Ward 8 is due to structural factors that have nothing to do with the current recession. What was unemployment in Ward 8 when the economy was booming in the mid-to-late 90s?

No, you miss the point. The point is that if people don't have jobs there is a problem. The fact that that problem may have existed for a long time does not make it less of a problem. Arguably, it makes it more of a problem. Whether you consider having a jobs plan to be "creating jobs" or "fostering an environment that facilitates job growth" really makes no difference to me. But, you can't ignore the high levels of unemployment that exist in some wards and then be surprised that the residents of those wards don't think you are serving their interests. And, when that happens, it is unfair to criticize the voters for "burning down their own neighborhood" as one DCUM poster put it.

The problem isn't that the city isn't serving their interests. The problem is that they aren't serving their own interests.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Jeff,

As usual, you miss the point. It is not the role of the DC govt to create jobs. Yes, the DC govt can foster an environment that facilitates job growth, but this is different. Overall, the District is fairing much better than other cities, so the jobs criticism is larglely bunk.

The reason that unemployment is so high in Ward 8 is due to structural factors that have nothing to do with the current recession. What was unemployment in Ward 8 when the economy was booming in the mid-to-late 90s?

Not true. The unemployment rate in the Gray wards is very high. So the jobs criticism is entirely on point. Unemployment is not one big number. One person can be doing fine in law or defense or medicine, and another can be SOL looking in construction or retail. And while you personally may think that the government has no role in fixing an economy, that is far from accepted wisdom. You only have to listen to the voices of the Democrats in 2008 and the Republicans in 2010 to know that incumbents routinely take the credit or blame for an economy.

[Anonymous]

jsteele wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Jeff,

As usual, you miss the point. It is not the role of the DC govt to create jobs. Yes, the DC govt can foster an environment that facilitates job growth, but this is different. Overall, the District is fairing much better than other cities, so the jobs criticism is larglely bunk.

The reason that unemployment is so high in Ward 8 is due to structural factors that have nothing to do with the current recession. What was unemployment in Ward 8 when the economy was booming in the mid-to-late 90s?

No, you miss the point. The point is that if people don't have jobs there is a problem. The fact that that problem may have existed for a long time does not make it less of a problem. Arguably, it makes it more of a problem. Whether you consider having a jobs plan to be "creating jobs" or "fostering an environment that facilitates job growth" really makes no difference to me. But, you can't ignore the high levels of unemployment that exist in some wards and then be surprised that the residents of those wards don't think you are serving their interests. And, when that happens, it is unfair to criticize the voters for "burning down their own neighborhood" as one DCUM poster put it.

While I largely agree, I am not sure that the problem of 28% unemployment is remotely comparable to historical numbers. In this report, you can see that just from 2008 to 2009 unemployment jumped from about 17% to 27%. http://www.dcfpi.org/wp-content/uploads/2010/06/5-25-10unemployment.pdf That is a ten percentage point jump!

And what's worse is I think that the unemployment rate in 1980 was about 10% and 1990 was about 13%. But I need to find a more reliable source for the data than this:
http://www.neighborhoodinfodc.org/wards/nbr_prof_wrd8.html

So the data says that Ward 8 residents may have a very logical foundation for their concerns over recent reformist administrations.