Chevy Chase MD - What's so great about it?
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Anonymous
Immediate PP, I'm a long-time white resident of the area and I'm very firmly with the poster before you in thinking that we are not done with our complicated legacy. While de jure limitations were dealt with a while ago, de facto limitations absolutely remain. Inter alia, the dynamics of wealth, past, present, and future, limit the pool of non-white, especially AA residents, in an area that was conceived as a uniquely white and wealthy enclave. Furthermore, the vast majority of local community organizations and governmental resources reify the past as opposed to producing a more inclusive future. Even the recent financial crisis, which devastated black wealth and saw a response that preserved the fortunes of white financiers instead of helping those black HHs, plays a role. And I'm absolutely cynical enough to think those white financiers threw money at Obama and Holder to get them to be the black faces that looked the other way while that happened. It's still a very, very mean world, especially for some people. And voting Democratic is not the same as "doing the right thing". Yes, it could probably be worse, but never lose site of the fact that it also could be wildly better. Signed, a guy who knew the son of the Chief Justice that wrote that 1948 opinion. |
Anonymous
Thanks! This is interesting information. I've known a Hawkins family from nearby. I wonder if they were descendants of the community? In case, I appreciate your contribution here! |
Anonymous
And being "staunchly Democratic" is NOT necessarily the same thing as being a good person. Like in all of life, better things are always possible and congratulating oneself for our imagined 'virtues' is problematic. |
Anonymous
So what exactly do you want people in Chevy Chase to do? That's the missing element here. Acknowledge the past? How? In what context and what capacity? Training and education for prospective buyers? Frankly, you're sounding too much like a virtue signaling "woke" person because you offer no solutions. There is no restriction on AA buyers who want to live in Chevy Chase today. None whatsoever. What may stop prospective AA buyers from wanting to live in Chevy Chase is solely within the minds of the AA buyers, not Chevy Chase residents or their actions or behaviors, which is no different from any affluent suburb in and around DC or large parts of NW DC itself. I grew up in an area similar to Chevy Chase in another city with a similar kind of racial covenants and segregation history. The neighborhood was initially developed by a development company that also developed an adjoining, equally affluent, neighborhood. Both neighborhoods had the same segregation covenants and racially restrictive language on deeds (not just AAs but Jews were excluded too). For some reason the latter neighborhood now as a decent AA population while the former doesn't. Whenever the topic of racist history comes up, it's always neighborhood A that gets mentioned and never neighborhood B. Just like in DC it's Chevy Chase being singled out and not the entire slew of NW DC and all the other neighborhoods in the district that were racially segregated, including areas that are now diverse and have large AA populations. So that's why I'm casting a jaded eye at this discussion and people's attempts at trying to take a moral road where there isn't one. |
Anonymous
Okay, friend, yes! Look at this progress! Yes, the next step after we all do the hard work of remembering the truth about our community is to figure out what to do about it. There are lots of ways that communities might recognize and consider the past together. The fountain debate was one important early step. Communities across the country and locally, to say nothing of historic institutions and schools, are engaged to varying degrees in the same kind of work. It’s hard work! There’s no easy answer and you can get into contentious argument alleys about things like the names for buildings. But that’s important work for any community as it considers how to shape its future. You can throw any number of paper tigers about how I’m advocating for this or that silly or objectionable thing, but what I’m actually arguing for is a truthful and difficult community conversation and effort and I don’t know precisely where it leads. I gotta day though, PP, you’re saying a lot of things that suggest you have a lot of personal anger and resentment about any criticism of rich white communities. Even as you acknowledge that history is history, you’re saying the area has “historic charm” and “plenty of AA students” and that any objection to the neighborhood by wealthy AA families is “all in their heads.” I suspect those are things you wouldn’t say to the faces of the people you know and work with and with whom you use terms like “students of color.” But it’s 2019 America now, and we all know what you think. Just know that. You don’t hide it that well. |
Anonymous
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Got it, areas like SP which used to be white but have been black now for a few decades need to be protected but white areas need to be broken up because they are evil.
What happens if African Americans ever get any real wealth or political power other than at the individual level? Promises of retaliation isn’t a good look esp when ones only actual mechanisms for change currently is Twitter. It simply won’t advance the conversation. Truth is there simply arent lots of AA buyers at CC price points even in the DC metro area which has more black wealth than anywhere else. The few that are in the market typically pick other places to live like SP or PG. This leaves people who can’t even afford CC with opinions on who should and should live there about what they think is fair (like you) and nobody cares about your opinion. If you want more black people in CC convince your rich black friends to move there... |
Anonymous
The challenge is that due to many reasons (Jim Crow, etc), black folks could not acquire the same level of wealth, could not work at the same law firms and did not have generational wealth, there are not as many black families who can afford to live in CC. I'm black and lived in CC MD. After people asked me if I was the nanny a few times, I moved back into the city to Colonial Village. No thanks. |
Anonymous
I actually know several very wealthy Black families in CC MD. They do exist! |
Anonymous
BS troll unless you have white kids no one is going to ask you if you’re the nanny, cook or maid maybe. |
Anonymous
WTF do you mean by this? |
Anonymous
Of course they do but let’s not act like there is a large buying block of them. |
Anonymous
Nor in most affluent DC area suburbs and neighborhoods. You can make the same complaint about Bethesda and most of NW and McLean and Arlington and Great Falls and Potomac and so on. Why is Chevy Chase being singled out? |
Anonymous
DP, but Bethesda and Potomac are much larger than CC. CC is known in part for being small and exclusive. It's much more homogenous than either Bethesda or Potomac. Those are plenty wealthy themselves, but many CC residents would turn their noses up at the nouveau riche who inhabit those areas. Can't speak to VA since I know it much less, but I imagine the same applies. But the bigger question is: why are you so ardently defending Chevy Chase? You sound like any other mediocre white person stomping their feet about the how whites are truly the oppressed ones in this country. |
Anonymous
Your last sentence is charming. Calling people mediocre? You pretty much destroyed whatever credibility you may have had. As a FYI I am not affiliated with Chevy Chase in any form. Just another poster, and there have clearly been more than just a handful, puzzled why people are making a big deal about Chevy Chase. But I do suspect I know the real reason why affluent African American homeowners are not into Chevy Chase. They don't see the allure of spending so much money for small and cramped and dated houses. Which is what most of Chevy Chase is. It's the same reason why you also don't find many Asian or South Asian buyers in Chevy Chase. Chevy Chase, contrary to what some of you want to think, is not a ku klux klan hangout or populated by people who haven't left the 1950s country club environment, but a highly educated, strongly Democratic leaning area dominated by the professionals who'd be happy to have more AA residents. But AA buyers aren't interested in Chevy Chase when they can get bigger and newer houses for their money elsewhere. And that's all there is to it. |
Anonymous
| I live in the county part of Chevy Chase (not one of the fancier incorporated neighborhoods) and our neighborhood is actually quite diverse, racially/ethnically/socioeconomic status. I can't speak for the Town or the Village but please don't paint all of CCMD with the same broad brush of super wealthy white people. |