Anyone been here since the 80s / early 90s? How did smart locals react to Marion Barry

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I’m black, moved to DC recently, and also wonder about this. I recall him being seen as a joke in national news growing up. Also don’t understand his appeal among DC natives, and their willingness to excuse his major indiscretions.

He said what a bunch of uneducated/poor blacks wanted to hear and he did deliver on some things.

Before you call me racist it's the same thing with Trump and poor whites now.....

[Anonymous]

I asked an older black woman at work why she loved Marion Barry and she said he did everything he could for the blacks in the city. The way she talked about him, he was up there with Jesus. My coworker's son was actually shot and killed during that time in DC, so I don't know why she doesn't blame Barry for that instead.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:What's a "smart local"?

Someone who sells you the house you bought in Logan for $1,730,000 that they paid $190,000 for in 1988.

That's me. A smart local.

Care to guess what we call you?

Idk what? I bought my house in Logan Circle in 2000 for 400k when the neighborhood was the shithole you left. Now it's a 2 mil house in one of the best neighborhoods in the city.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I’m black, moved to DC recently, and also wonder about this. I recall him being seen as a joke in national news growing up. Also don’t understand his appeal among DC natives, and their willingness to excuse his major indiscretions.

I'm a native DC'er black and grew up in upper NW. It's actually very simple. Marion Barry simply believed that it was his purpose to uplift Black people. You see on these threads all the time, "why don't middle class Black people help poor Blacks" - well he believed this and acted upon it. I don't think you'll ever have a Black leader come to power again and do that so openly. Even Obama couldn't do it.

He also has great ideas and vision but his big failure wasn't so much the personal stuff - it was that he was a terrible manager. And his desire to help, overrode any ability to judge the character of others or say no to people. He really was a people pleaser in every way possible.

He had a lot of support from whites and Jews in upper NW for his first run. I just hate it when people paint him with a black and white brush - hehehehee. He is a much more nuanced character and very fascinating, IMO. I was embarrassed by him as well. But looking back, no matter what people say, he did help a lot of Black people for the better.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:What's a "smart local"?

Someone who sells you the house you bought in Logan for $1,730,000 that they paid $190,000 for in 1988.

That's me. A smart local.

Care to guess what we call you?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:white upper middle class families did not live in DC or want to so the "smart locals" where happily cocooned in the burbs and what happened in DC made little to no difference.

Utter bullshit. See, e.g., the entirety of Ward 3 and Georgetown

Well yeah those areas but that was it. No one was clamoring to live in Arlington that much either so don't get so hurt by this. Back then, white upper middle class people wanted to live in large SFH and drive everywhere. that's the way it was back then. No reason to deny or pretend.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:white upper middle class families did not live in DC or want to so the "smart locals" where happily cocooned in the burbs and what happened in DC made little to no difference.

We were a white upper middle class family living in DC in the 80s. Marion Bart was not very popular in house, lol.
But black community very much liked him and rallied behind him.

Yes, that's it.

Also a DC native, white, and at the time a Democrat (along with my friends). We thought he was an embarrassment to the city, and he was. Whenever I traveled outside the region and was asked where I was from, the response was alway...."you have that mayor" (or some version). Blacks apparently thought he was great, though, and even his jail time (which had another salacious incident) couldn't hurt his political career.

THIS x100.
He was an utter embarrassment.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:white upper middle class families did not live in DC or want to so the "smart locals" where happily cocooned in the burbs and what happened in DC made little to no difference.

We were a white upper middle class family living in DC in the 80s. Marion Bart was not very popular in house, lol.
But black community very much liked him and rallied behind him.

Yes, that's it.

Also a DC native, white, and at the time a Democrat (along with my friends). We thought he was an embarrassment to the city, and he was. Whenever I traveled outside the region and was asked where I was from, the response was alway...."you have that mayor" (or some version). Blacks apparently thought he was great, though, and even his jail time (which had another salacious incident) couldn't hurt his political career.

THIS x100.
He was an utter embarrassment.

+1

I don't think you realize that unless you actually lived and/or resided out of the area during that time, even for a bit.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:white upper middle class families did not live in DC or want to so the "smart locals" where happily cocooned in the burbs and what happened in DC made little to no difference.

Utter bullshit. See, e.g., the entirety of Ward 3 and Georgetown

Well yeah those areas but that was it. No one was clamoring to live in Arlington that much either so don't get so hurt by this. Back then, white upper middle class people wanted to live in large SFH and drive everywhere. that's the way it was back then. No reason to deny or pretend.

The majority of white professionals, yes. No question. This gave us Fairfax county and Chevy chase, md. But there has always been a contingent of white, very highly educated professionals (some high income, others in non-profits/journalism) who've lived in certain District zip codes. My parents and all of their peers up here along Connecticut Ave since the FIFTIES

The common trait among all these white long-timers? As several PPs have already said, it's deep liberalism. The nervous uncomfortable -- of the identical income and education attainment -- were more likely to flee to Bethesda or fairfax.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I’m black, moved to DC recently, and also wonder about this. I recall him being seen as a joke in national news growing up. Also don’t understand his appeal among DC natives, and their willingness to excuse his major indiscretions.

I'm a native DC'er black and grew up in upper NW. It's actually very simple. Marion Barry simply believed that it was his purpose to uplift Black people. You see on these threads all the time, "why don't middle class Black people help poor Blacks" - well he believed this and acted upon it. I don't think you'll ever have a Black leader come to power again and do that so openly. Even Obama couldn't do it.

He also has great ideas and vision but his big failure wasn't so much the personal stuff - it was that he was a terrible manager. And his desire to help, overrode any ability to judge the character of others or say no to people. He really was a people pleaser in every way possible.

He had a lot of support from whites and Jews in upper NW for his first run. I just hate it when people paint him with a black and white brush - hehehehee. He is a much more nuanced character and very fascinating, IMO. I was embarrassed by him as well. But looking back, no matter what people say, he did help a lot of Black people for the better.

PP here. Thanks for this nuanced explanation.

[Anonymous]

The majority of white professionals, yes. No question. This gave us Fairfax county and Chevy chase, md. But there has always been a contingent of white, very highly educated professionals (some high income, others in non-profits/journalism) who've lived in certain District zip codes. My parents and all of their peers up here along Connecticut Ave since the FIFTIES

The common trait among all these white long-timers? As several PPs have already said, it's deep liberalism. The nervous uncomfortable -- of the identical income and education attainment -- were more likely to flee to Bethesda or fairfax.

This, exactly. Though patience wore out eventually, in the earlier days there were Barry fundraisers on my nearly-all white street. Even when the frustration set in, my parents had a nuanced view of him and recognized what he'd done for people. But my parents were the type who stayed in DC and didn't flee to Bethesda. No joke, when the red line came to my neighborhood, our across-the-street neighbors saw a black person walk down our street and put their house on the market. Good riddance.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I’m black, moved to DC recently, and also wonder about this. I recall him being seen as a joke in national news growing up. Also don’t understand his appeal among DC natives, and their willingness to excuse his major indiscretions.

I'm a native DC'er black and grew up in upper NW. It's actually very simple. Marion Barry simply believed that it was his purpose to uplift Black people. You see on these threads all the time, "why don't middle class Black people help poor Blacks" - well he believed this and acted upon it. I don't think you'll ever have a Black leader come to power again and do that so openly. Even Obama couldn't do it.

He also has great ideas and vision but his big failure wasn't so much the personal stuff - it was that he was a terrible manager. And his desire to help, overrode any ability to judge the character of others or say no to people. He really was a people pleaser in every way possible.

He had a lot of support from whites and Jews in upper NW for his first run. I just hate it when people paint him with a black and white brush - hehehehee. He is a much more nuanced character and very fascinating, IMO. I was embarrassed by him as well. But looking back, no matter what people say, he did help a lot of Black people for the better.

DH grew up in DC, although his family eventually moved to Arlington when he was in HS due to his mother's health problems. He didn't grow up in upper NW and he's not black, but he and my in-laws have all said basically the same thing as this poster.

[Anonymous]

Sorry that he's gone, but glad that this old, corrupt racist has finally left the local political scene.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I’m black, moved to DC recently, and also wonder about this. I recall him being seen as a joke in national news growing up. Also don’t understand his appeal among DC natives, and their willingness to excuse his major indiscretions.

I'm a native DC'er black and grew up in upper NW. It's actually very simple. Marion Barry simply believed that it was his purpose to uplift Black people. You see on these threads all the time, "why don't middle class Black people help poor Blacks" - well he believed this and acted upon it. I don't think you'll ever have a Black leader come to power again and do that so openly. Even Obama couldn't do it.

He also has great ideas and vision but his big failure wasn't so much the personal stuff - it was that he was a terrible manager. And his desire to help, overrode any ability to judge the character of others or say no to people. He really was a people pleaser in every way possible.

He had a lot of support from whites and Jews in upper NW for his first run. I just hate it when people paint him with a black and white brush - hehehehee. He is a much more nuanced character and very fascinating, IMO. I was embarrassed by him as well. But looking back, no matter what people say, he did help a lot of Black people for the better.

He didn't come from a black family and wasn't raised in black culture. He had to marry into it, which isn't really the same.

[Anonymous]

Transplant, but suggest either read The Nine Lives of Marion Barry or watch the documentary: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6GKAQ1snSR0 fascinating and explains a lot