"'How is it that one specific ethnic group has had the opportunity to move into a development in large numbers?' Laurie Cumbo, who is black, said at a council hearing on public housing Thursday."
Cumbo issued an apology, saying she only wanted to know if the New York City Housing Authority “uses a cultural preference priority component” in picking tenants....
Still, Cumbo told The Post, “There could be some benefit to housing people by culture... I think it needs to be discussed.”
Yeesh. Reminds me of
the trouble Jimmy Carter go into 40 years ago when he campaigned (in Indiana, of all places) saying that he wouldn't use the federal government to "circumvent the natural inclination of people to live in ethnically homogenous neighborhoods":
In making the point, he used unusually blunt language about social differences — about "black intrusion" into white neighborhoods, for example. He spoke of "alien groups" in communities, and of the bad effects of "injecting" a "diametrically opposite kind of person" into a neighborhood....
He said, "I have nothing against a community that's made up of people who are Polish or Czechoslovakian, or French-Canadian, or black, who are trying to maintain the ethnic purity of their neighborhoods."
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Those wacky liberals and their wacky ethnic purity. Not like that's ever caused the world any problems...
Wow. Carter's comments went beyond tolerance of ethnic self-segregation as a "natural inclination." Carter endorsed it.
It makes me feel old to think Carter was campaigning 40 years ago.
Thanks?
I wonder what Carter instinctively thinks of today's "gentrification" in those same urban neighborhoods? I am not asking about his public comments, but his honest to God gut reaction.
Whereas before ethnic whites (Italians, Irish, Polish, etc.) were trying to keep out blacks and Puerto Ricans, today it is the blacks and Puerto Ricans who are trying to keep out wealthy whites. Does it make a difference to Carter if the host community is defending itself against racial minorities as opposed to wealthy whites?
Today the issue is affordability. Back then, the issues were fears of crime, declining property values and so on.
BDNYC: Carter has probably not thought too deeply about it.
So, Carter spoke the truth about human nature. Good for him.
Nothing is more obvious than that folks self-segregate, when and wherever they can.
And, they should be able to.
You can't please the far Left. When everyone lived in homogenous ethnic neighborhoods, they fought to desegregate. Then when whites started moving back into black neighborhoods, they fight against gentrification.
I suppose when you judge people by the color of their skin and not the content of their character, your general unhappiness at the world will prevent you from ever being content in either scenario.
Still, Cumbo told The Post, “There could be some benefit to housing people by culture... I think it needs to be discussed.”
I'm sorry, but what fucking planet does this woman live on?
As a Southerner, I grew up in a town segregated first by law & then by custom until relatively recently, and I thought I had a clue as to what the evils of segregated housing looked like.
And then I got to know people who lived & grew up in & around NYC! "Segregated housing" took on a whole new meaning. It wasn't white & black. It was every ethnic group in the world protecting its turf from every other ethnic group in the world, by means legal & not.
The South was just "those damn honkeys/niggers". NYC is Hobbes' bellum omnia contra omnes implemented in real estate.
Once the left has consolodated power through their infiltration of institutions like the IRS, the Media, Google, The EPA, etc, etc, and there efforts to re-engineer the electorate have come to fruition, and they are safely out of jeopardy of ever losing another election, this kind of stuff will be allowed.
Forget it, Jake, it's Chinatown
it's Chinatown
Ha. I was going to say just wait until she finds out about chinatown. (has she never left brooklyn?)
He said, "I have nothing against a community that's made up of people who are Polish or Czechoslovakian, or French-Canadian, or black, who are trying to maintain the ethnic purity of their neighborhoods."
Of course it is up to my party to determine if the make up of the community is for reasonable ethnic purity or whether it's a bunch of those racist Republicans holding down the black man......
Back then, the issues were fears of crime
That's still an issue. Crime and schools. And crime IN schools.
The contrast with gentrification is very interesting though.
Maybe some Repub could turn this issue around and demand to know why there are no or so few white folks in those projects?
She doesn't like Jews, either.
"The alleged "knockout" attacks on Jewish residents of Crown Heights may stem from ongoing racial tension between the neighborhood's black and Jewish communities, a newly-elected Brooklyn politician said.
Councilwoman-elect Laurie Cumbo, who was elected to represent Crown Heights starting in January, released an open letter Tuesday saying that many of her black constituents told her they feel threatened by the growth of the neighborhood's Jewish community — and she fears the tension could be spiking the recent violence."
Of course, "feel threatened" means "have some new potential victims".
“She certainly could’ve chosen her words a bit more carefully,” said Councilwoman Margaret Chin, a Chinese-American.
That pretty forgiving considering the thoughts behind the words are crystal clear.
YoungHegelian, the difference between NYC and the South in immigration. You want to immigrate from Greece? Well, you have an uncle and some cousins in Astoria that are willing to put you up for 6mos and they know someone who has a job for you..,everyone speaks Greek, they have a Greek Orthodox church... they have a credit Union set up...that's the diff. A whole community left a part of Austria between 1918 and 1950 came to Ridgewood in Queens (as their city annexed to Yugoslavia, then destroyed in WW2). They did all the same I mentioned above and now it's a lot of Poles that started immigrating there since Greenpoint started gentrification 15 years ago. Same deal. Great polish food, beer, credit union.
I don't know Boston well, but I remember some Doc on PBS said the Irish hood was segregated by Irish counties (Cork, Mayo, etc.). I doubt that was on purpose vs. that's where you know people.
Catherine, that's such a nice view of it.
Of course Boston, the epicenter of abolitionism, actively discouraged southern blacks from coming to their city. The ones who came anyway were forced into a single slum, establishing a pattern of segregation that persists to this day.
New York was even more activist. The so-called Draft Riots of 1863 were in fact an insurrection aimed at the black population of the city. Mobs took over the streets, beating and killing blacks in large (but never well quantified) numbers. It wasn't just a mob action. It had the complicity of the Democratic party apparatus in the city.
As a result, the black population of New York City declined by 20% during the Civil War. The black population continued to decline in absolute numbers throughout the 19th Century.
Blacks learned the lesson that was intended. Boston was inhospitable. Blacks were unwelcome. New York was downright dangerous. Also as intended, black migration to New York and New England was permanently dampened. The white politicians whose successors now lecture the rest of us on how we are racist had assured a white domination that remains in the 21st Century.
It's interesting to read this after having driven past one of my black neighbors in "all white" Orange County. One of the coaches on my grandson's Little League team is black. My feelings about this is that I am proud of these people who are wiling to ignore the racial solidarity slogans of people like Obama and Rev Wright and move to an area where their kids will grown up oblivious to the racial rules.
25 years ago, an arrogant black anesthesiologist came to town and was a real jerk. It later turned out that he was h=gay and the proximity of Laguna Beach was the draw but he had been complaining for several years about not being able to find a barber who could cut his hair, etc., etc. His wife was a nurse at the hospital and did a lot of complaining about bias. His kids went to school with my daughter and were rather aggressive.
It seems that times have changed, at least around here. It takes courage to move to where your kids will grow up completely integrated and, unlike Obama, probably not in search of an "authenticity" that can be found in a racist "church."
I don't know any Serbs or Croatians. I understand that they live together in harmony for generations, and then something happens and they massacre each other like crazy. The Irish and the Scotch Irish (i.e. Irish Protestants) similarly will get on in a reasonably civilized way for a number of years and then The Troubles will begin again.....Up until the fifties, there were NY and NJ docks that were manned according to ethnicity. Some were Italian and some were Irish. God help the poor soul who tried to shape up at the wrong dock. Nowadays their kids and grand kids are all married. I don't think there's any residual hostility between the two groups so maybe sometimes assimilation happens......I wouldn't want to be the sole Chinese family living in a housing project. I was one of about a dozen white families living in a black housing project. It wasn't god awful, but there were happier childhoods.
CatherineM: I doubt that was on purpose vs. that's where you know people.
Well yeah, people "on purpose" move to areas where they know people. To areas where they feel culturally at ease, at home, where they know the rules. That goes for intranational as well as international migration.
I'm at a loss to know why people are all aflutter about what the councilwoman said, or Jimmy Carter. Ms. Cumbo sounds a bit clueless and sheltered, but she appears to have some observational powers - which is really what she's apologizing for.
Neither she nor Carter are expressing anything that is incongruent with the way just about everybody acts in real life, even if a lot of people are too dainty-minded to acknowledge to themselves that they are de facto "segregationists" in their housing choices.
This is the natural and obvious end of Leftist politics over the last 50 years. Just wait until Black Americans figure out that they are being surplanted by illegal immigrant Hispanics. Everything is a zero sum game on the Left. The Asians have finally figured it out and have started pushing back against identity politics.
So, if non-Blacks move into a neighborhood, that's "gentrification" and is properly resented; and if non-Blacks move out of a neighborhood, that's "white flight" and is properly resented. I get it, I think.
Ah, yes. Carter calling for racial purity in housing.
But libtards won't shut up about the imaginary 'dog whistles' and the Southern Strategy and Reagan starting his campaign in Philadelphia, Mississippi.
Democrats always try to project their vileness onto other people.
Follow the money. If it is a 'nicer' project, then people will grandfather in friends and relatives and/or pay 'finder's fees' under the table to get a place on the list. In my experience, Asians are quite good at that. I've never heard of an Asian in a project, so that's a novelty.
"But libtards won't shut up about the imaginary 'dog whistles' and the Southern Strategy and Reagan starting his campaign in Philadelphia, Mississippi."
My rule is if the opposition seems to be the only one hearing it, it's not actually a "dog whistle" but a form of projection.
"I'm at a loss to know why people are all aflutter about what the councilwoman said, or Jimmy Carter. Ms. Cumbo sounds a bit clueless and sheltered, but she appears to have some observational powers - which is really what she's apologizing for."
The problem (for me at least) was that this is a public housing project, and of course the government shouldn't be assorting people based on race or ethnicity (well, it shouldn't, at least).
Carter's statement was fine, though of course it ran against the liberal orthodoxy of the time which said everyone is the same regardless of race, so anyone trying to stay among their "kind" is a bigot and shouldn't be encouraged.
However, it is natural to want to be among people you relate to--people tend to self-segregate based on class, profession, politics, or just geographic history. Historically--though less so today--they clustered based on race/ethnicity as well. An Italian moving to the U.S. naturally moved to an Italian neighborhood, where he could hear a language he understood (at least until he mastered English) and walk to the right kind of church and buy the right kind of food. Other groups were no different.
But a politician talking about a public project is a different story. Imagine a white politician suggesting that there were too many non-whites in a given project. He'd be rightly criticized for that.
Proposed name for new ethnically assigned housing in Brooklyn:
Theresienstadt
Brando: The problem (for me at least) was that this is a public housing project, and of course the government shouldn't be assorting people based on race or ethnicity (well, it shouldn't, at least).
I don't think many would disagree with that. Though I would be surprised if various ethnic interests weren't already at play in getting access to public housing. It's what people do. I would not, however, be the least bit surprised if most of the people clutching their pearls about Cumbo's ingenuous comments are the same people who are right on board with hubristic government projects to get people assorted "properly" by race and ethnicity. Not people like you, but you know what I'm talkin' 'bout. Thus my eye-rolling at all the "Well I never!".
However, it is natural to want to be among people you relate to--people tend to self-segregate...
[...]
But a politician talking about a public project is a different story. Imagine a white politician suggesting that there were too many non-whites in a given project. He'd be rightly criticized for that.
Yes, he would. In fact, the NYT would make it front page news for days, if not weeks, on end. However, since politicians and sundry other policy wallahs, white and non-white, can, and do (constantly) make grotesque statements about neighborhoods, cities, businesses, schools, (hell, countries) being "too white" - and work assiduously to try to "fix" this "problem" via government policy - I'd decline to be all aghast about that, too.
So Cumbo is hardly unique among pols in thinking that officialdom ought to be engaged in assorting people with a particular goal in mind. And if she'd said what she said about some group of whites, instead of Chinese, the criticism would probably have been directed at the "too white" project block, not her, if we'd heard about it at all.
As I've said in the past, NO group is more bigoted than blacks.
Whites owned slaves...but blacks SOLD them and STILL own slaves today.
Well, without cultural neighborhoods, we don't have cultures. And without cultures, we can inject any cultures that we want people to have!
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