7/09/9   Why can't Liberals see Blacks as Grownups?

The past several weeks with the Don Hill trial playing out in federal court and singer/dancer Michael Jackson od-ing on a concoction of meds have a lot of people talking race rather than talking about the issues. 

Don Hill got caught playing the old shakedown.  A bunch of politicians have played the shakedown game in the past and got away with it.  There may be just as many in the future.  Don Hill and D'Angelo Lee abused their public offices for their own benefit.  You cannot say they did a lot of good for the community because they didn't.

Jim Schutze has another one of his schizophrenic columns this week:  The Puzzle of the Southern Dallas Tax (DallasObserver.com, 7/8/9).  He gets so much right pointing out specifics where Black elected officials have thwarted development in the Southern Sector, and then he blames all the wrong in South Dallas on mean old white guys.

We have spent millions if not billions trying to make something happen in the Southern Sector.  One of the reasons I like Dwaine Caraway is his focus on real improvements.  He takes on seemingly little stuff, little stuff that makes a big difference in real people's lives.  Hot sheet motels have been closed.  Plan Commissioner Michael Davis has been his partner in this effort.

Commissioner Davis has a big announcement on his Dallas Progress blog, he's leaving the Southern Sector.   In My Current Take on Southwest Center Mall, he admits:

You know what?  I live in Northwest Dallas, and I don't feel safe either.  Things are much worse in the Southern Sector, but that doesn't make Northwest Dallas residents happy with our situation.

Dwaine Caraway doesn't want to be a big fish in a little pond, like Commissioner Price.  Mayor Pro Tem Caraway wants his community to prosper.  Unfortunately, most minority elected officials in this county want to keep their community on the plantation.  Even worse, the people who should be rallying behind Caraway don't think it's worth the effort. 

Part of the reason people like Commissioner Davis and others are heading out is the frustration with the crime and blight around them.  When you have the energy and enthusiasm of Davis and Caraway and you want to do so much good, the apathy of those you want to help is most demoralizing.  They want things to be better, but they want someone else to make it better for them.

I totally subscribe to the broken window syndrome.  When neighborhoods look shabby, criminals assume no one cares.  That's a valid assumption.  Rather than spend millions hiring more code enforcement officers who can really focus on the source of blight and crime, City Hall continues to focus on Big Ticket projects that are going to solve all our problems -- but they never do.

Schutze talks about the jobs and prosperity that could come from the Inland Port that Commissioner Price disdains.  People with good jobs buy houses and spend money.  That's what Commissioner Price does not want -- new people buying houses in his district.  They might be the wrong color.  They might not vote the way he wants.

The last redistricting carved this city up into ridiculous districts that dissected neighborhoods of interest.  You can thank Princess Velveeta Lill.  Council districts should be geographically compact so that a council member can truly represent his constituents.  Dividing this city along racial lines to insure minority representation at City Hall has not done anything to improve minority-majority areas. 

Liberals don't really respect people of color.  They don't see them a adults.  They can't be responsible for their own problems. 

A few years ago, we had Crime Nite Out in my front yard.  A liberal couple who seldom show up for a crime watch meeting unless they want the rest of us to do something came to the gettogether.   The husband wanted to know why there weren't more Hispanics with us that night.  We had circulated bi-lingual flyers to every house in the neighborhood.  He and his wife couldn't even walk next door and make sure their neighbor was coming.  He said we should have done more, not that he should have done more -- but the rest of us.  When I said I considered our Hispanic neighbors adults who could decide for themselves what they wanted to do on a summer night, he was most annoyed with me.

I pointed out several Hispanics standing around in the group.  They did not fit his low expectations.  It reminded me of something that happened at Commissioners Court when several of us went to complain about Commissioner Price harassing then Councilwoman Laura Miller.  Mary Lou Montes Zijderveld was in our group.  After several of us had spoken, Commissioner Price said he didn't need to be lectured by a bunch of white people.  Commissioner Jim Jackson said there was an Hispanic woman in the group.  He looked out at Mary Lou's fair complexion and didn't see an Hispanic.  Mexican-born Mary Lou asked "What's the matter Commissioner?  Am I not dark enough for you?"

Stereotypes and low expectations are plantation thinking.  Assuming that one's ethnicity locks you into a lifestyle is just bogus!  Assuming that people are not responsible for their own situation means you don't see them as equal adults.

sb