Author faces criticism for "Being white in Philly" article

The mayor called for an investigation by the Philadelphia Human Relations Commission consider whether the magazine and Huber deserved to be rebuked for the article. Many have criticized the author for what he wrote and the magazine for printing it.

What may be seen as an honest and frank discussion on race relations in Philly has erupted into a firestorm of accusations and acrimony.

Philadelphia Magazine editor faces critics on race article

Huber told the packed auditorium of about 200 people that the purpose of the article was to explore "how white people relate to black people in the inner city, or don't relate to them."

In his piece, Huber wrote: "We need to bridge the conversational divide so that there are no longer two private dialogues in Philadelphia - white people talking to other whites, and black people to blacks - but a city in which it is OK to speak openly about race."

The story, however, was criticized as dwelling on negative experiences that whites had with blacks that often fit into racial stereotypes.

Jimenez said Philadelphia Magazine, which has an all-white editorial staff, was not the right "messenger" for a story encouraging racial dialogue.

She also repeatedly said the magazine and its critics were confusing issues of race with problems associated with being poor.

While anger was directed at McGrath and Huber, there were several heated exchanges between some black audience members and black panelists about crime and personal responsibility in African American communities.

Philly.com

You can read the article in question here:
Being White in Philly
Whites, race, class, and the things that never get said.

I read the article and it didn't seem that bad to me. I think some may have been offended by the openness and honesty expressed in the article. Most people are afraid of having an honest discussion on race relations in America for fear of being labeled racist if they speak out too honestly about their feelings.

It seems to me that the reaction to the article just goes to prove the author's feelings on this issue to be true.

We’re stuck in another way, too. Our troubled black communities create in us a tangle of feelings, including this one: a desire for things to be better. But for that sentiment to come true—for it to mean anything, even—I’ve come to believe that white people have to risk being much more open. It’s impossible to know how that might change the racial dynamics in Philadelphia, or the plight of the inner city. But as things stand, our cautiousness and fear mean that nothing changes in how blacks and whites relate, and most of us lose out on the possibility of what Jen has found: real connection.

But this is how I see it: We need to bridge the conversational divide so that there are no longer two private dialogues in Philadelphia—white people talking to other whites, and black people to blacks—but a city in which it is okay to speak openly about race. That feels like a lot to ask, a leap of faith for everyone. It also seems like the only place to go, the necessary next step.

Philly Magazine

As long as people are afraid to discuss racial issues, they will just fester without any understanding coming about. People are people the world over and we all share the same dreams and aspirations. If only we could learn to look beyond race or learn to confront racial feelings head on, we could come to better understanding of the human condition and maybe, finally, come to live together in peace and harmony.

reply to post by FortAnthem

Jimenez said Philadelphia Magazine, which has an all-white editorial staff, was not the right "messenger" for a story encouraging racial dialogue.

Funny, if I said black people shouldn't be messengers of something, would that be racist?

Maybe it's the message and not the messenger these people should be focused on.

reply to post by FortAnthem


Clicking the links gets me 503 service unavailable.

Don't know if it's down or blocked for the UK
Scratch that. Working now.

Reply to post by FortAnthem

I remember I knew this guy from Philly. His name was William. Pretty big Eagles fan. He would often talk about the crime and poverty in his row house community.

William is very well off today, and he says it has to do with him leaving the ghetto. When William was younger, Jr. Highish, some local crack dealers wanted to jump him into the gang so he could work corners for them. He was uncertain about the whole thing, so the gang decided to just beat him.

That's when his mom got scared and said, "you're moving in with your aunty and uncle in Bel-Air."


Posted Via ATS Mobile: m.abovetopsecret.com

reply to post by FortAnthem

and maybe, finally, come to live together in peace and harmony.

Forget peace and harmony, just stop the incessant whining. The reverse racism. And the omissions about the slave trade that paint an entirely incomplete history for the textbooks.

If that had been a black author, writing about say.. being black in Salt Lake City, he wouldve won an award no doubt.

Originally posted by boncho
reply to post by FortAnthem

and maybe, finally, come to live together in peace and harmony.

 

Forget peace and harmony, just stop the incessant whining. The reverse racism. And the omissions about the slave trade that paint an entirely incomplete history for the textbooks.

amen, and quit your black leaders making very comfortable livings on the politics of group identity and grievance.

Also, maybe try and stem the tide of fatherless kids which is more prevalent in the black community


Try those things and you will get improvements beyond anything they can dream up in terms of blame on the white devil

Originally posted by TriForce
If that had been a black author, writing about say.. being black in Salt Lake City, he wouldve won an award no doubt.

yes, with a plethora of subservient whites fawning at his feet, some probably with the words "white privilege" and "slave masters" scrawled on their coupons (faces)

I always get confused on the whole "racial stereotypes" thing. If the shoe fits wear it some things you can't just make up. Yes i live in the hood

I'm not afraid of discussing race and racism. I notice that a great many people on ATS are, though, and they pop up with a bunch of PC nonsense. How can you deny ignorance if you are entrenched in it and call it enlightenment?

"Let justice be done, or the heavens fall." That means justice for everybody, all races and both genders.

When we are not allowed to call it like we see it, then we know that we are living in a society that supresses truth.

When white people are not allowed to discuss things like this, yet other races are, is that not racism? When there is a double standard for speech and behavior, based on skin color, is that not racism?

Wake up, America!

Originally posted by Credenceskynyrd

Originally posted by TriForce
If that had been a black author, writing about say.. being black in Salt Lake City, he wouldve won an award no doubt.

yes, with a plethora of subservient whites fawning at his feet, some probably with the words "white privilege" and "slave masters" scrawled on their coupons (faces)

Ironic nearly anyone even acknowledges who were far above slave masters back in the day. A master is simple someone who purchased a good (in this case a person, something since abolished.) The traders however... Without them it would not be possible.

Hamad bin Muḥammad bin Jumah bin Rajab bin Muḥammad bin Sa‘īd al-Murghabī, (Arabic: حمد بن محمد بن جمعة بن رجب بن محمد بن سعيد المرجبي‎), was a Swahili-Zanzibari trader. He was famously known by the natives of East Africa as Tippu Tib after the sounds that his many guns made.

A notorious slave trader, plantation owner and governor, who worked for a succession of sultans of Zanzibar, he led many trading expeditions into Central Africa, involving the slave trade and ivory trade. He constructed profitable trading posts that reached deep into Central Africa.


He built himself a trading empire that he then translated into clove plantations on Zanzibar. Abdul Sheriff reported that when he left for his twelve years of "empire building" on the mainland, he had no plantations of his own. However, by 1895, he had acquired "seven shambas [plantations] and 10,000 slaves."[1

en.wikipedia.org...

I am not justifying slavery or the act of owning slaves. However, angst towards people who are descendants of those who were involved but not solely responsible for something is absurd.

First the past should be recognized as the past. Second, the Arab and Black traders that sold off defeated tribes, farmers, villagers, and raided towns and cities should be held just as accountable in the historical record.

In a sense. There is nothing to bitch about anymore. And even if you wanted to, you would have to bitch to the entire world because everyone had their hand in it.

Today is today.

1000 Somali refugees come in from a war torn area and a year later they start shooting each other, community activists are shouting out about the problem (mothers, sisters, mourning their lost family) and if you bring it up as a discussion topic (outside the ethnic group), it becomes about race. It's not about race, it's about the same thing people in their own communities recognize.

Yet, in fear of 'sounding racist' people will address non-issues. Claim this is solely about socio-economic status. Well, in a sense that's a big part of it. But you also have a boatload of refugees that came from one specific area. Whether or not it be Somalia or Russia, or Afghanistan. If the country is currently getting sacked, or under occupation, rapes are rampant, you tend to have more issues with the people from there.

Just as in other communities, White people, Asian, Brown, whatever, will all make words about the trouble makers that are causing their community decline. There should be no bars on who talks about what. If white kids are causing issues for black kids because of fundamental flaws in their character, are promoting and encouraging others to behave like this, and bringing down their community in general, it needs to be discussed. Same goes for any race.

It's never been a race thing, it's an ignorance thing.

When free speech attempts to gets censored because of someone who feels offended, then their right to "not listen" (or "not read") comes to play.

Someone once said, If a conservative finds something offensive, he stops listening.

If a progressive finds something offensive, he bans the speaker.

The thing that really sets me off about this story is how Mayor Nutter actually called for an investigation into the author and the magazine. Somebody needs to tell him this isn't Soviet Russia, at least not yet.

People and especially the press have this funny thing called "freedom of speech" and nobody in any governmental office should be calling for investigations into stories put out in any publication.

The author was just calling for a more open and honest discussion on race relations. There were no calls for hatred or violence and, even if there were, it would still be protected speech under the 1st amendment. People in government need to stop behaving like jack-booted fascists and start honoring the rights of the people.

"We will create TRUE racial harmony by forcing the 'guilty majority' to pretend to be in harmony until it magically becomes reality. We are not breeding resentment and race wars by forcing the gun-owning majority and the heavily-armed minority to be silent about the reality of their own neighborhoods. By criticizing and threatening white people when they tell the truth about their own experiences, we will make them love everyone of all colors."

We'll see how well that works out for them.

Mayor Nutter himself addressed the issues himself last year. For him to call an investigation on the author is wrong, plain and simple. But I think he did it to kind of relate so to speak with the blacks. He's trying to gain the trust of the A.M. community and to let something like this slide he would lose credibility.

I'll tell you what though, I don't know about a more emotionally sensitive, opportunistic, narcissistic and crass group of people. Truth be told.

Truth be told, the more we are allowed open dialogue about race and the differences, the more we will understand one another. Once we get to understand one another then only will things start to look sunnier for us all. Unfortunately, the Govmn't is doing a good job of preventing any of that from happening. smh.

I enjoyed reading the article btw, I thought is was good.

Interesting article.

Its also worthy to remember that from the 1600-1800s there was a significant trade by Barbary Coast (Arab and Black) Pirates, who use to raid White European coastal towns and kidnapped generally Young White Women, who were raped, sold and used as sex slaves for rich Africans, and I presume Arab Sultans for their harems.

www.thebirdman.org...&Groups-General/+Doc-Race&Groups-General-WhiteSlavery/UntoldStoryOfWhiteSlavery.htm

So while some people may only want to remember a certain skin colour slavery, it existed in other colours too, Im sure even in the Asian countries. As it still exists today (except for the black trade)

What has intrigued me tho, is if the Black fellas in America were/are so upset with their life there, why dont they return to Africa?....With their knowledge etc, they could create quite an empire there I would think.

Im sure white people in America could return to Europe if they feel the need, why dont black people have that "Ancestoral Lands" pull that we are told natives have.
Even I have that thoughts of "Ancestoral home", when I see pictures of England/Europe forests, mountains, the moors etc....Yet I havent returned since my genes travelled to the New World in the 1830s......Deserts, arid land and hot weather are not my "Ancestoral Lands".....but at least I can go to the beach and surf, if I want..

Damn. Did I stumble into Stormfront? Some of you guys talk about uniting as Americans, but threads like these show your true colors. And for all the ''scholars'' in here talking about the slave trade, blacks were not just selling each other wholesale when the Europeans arrived. It was tribal chieves that sold prisoners of war from enemy tribes. Those same Africans that sold their prisoners to the white guys found their happy asses in the same predicament. That was end of blacks selling blacks They ALL became slaves. And yeah, I know, Arabs played a large role in the slave trade, as well as the Dutch, and a few others. Some people like to insinuate black people started the slave trade, because they damn sure didn't enslave themselves.

Originally posted by poloblack
Damn. Did I stumble into Stormfront? Some of you guys talk about uniting as Americans, but threads like these show your true colors.

Case in point. If a person admits to being upset about something that has anything to do with race, they are automatically a racist. Well, unless of course they're a non-white person complaining, then it's just called "the blues."

Originally posted by 00nunya00

Originally posted by poloblack
Damn. Did I stumble into Stormfront? Some of you guys talk about uniting as Americans, but threads like these show your true colors.

Case in point. If a person admits to being upset about something that has anything to do with race, they are automatically a racist. Well, unless of course they're a non-white person complaining, then it's just called "the blues."

Man, you have no idea. I never said people shouldn't talk about race issues, and I certainly didn't say that to do so is racist, that's riduculous. But some people in threads such as this, really let it all hang out about black people IN GENERAL as if ATS has no black members. MOST black people are not like the inner city black people, it's insulting. And for the poster yammering about ''black leaders'', there's no such thing, especially for me. I come from a military family, and I need no man to lead me. And if you're referring to Sharpton, or Jackson, get real. Those two clowns are opportunistic puppets. They lead no one.

Originally posted by poloblack
But some people in threads such as this, really let it all hang out about black people IN GENERAL as if ATS has no black members. MOST black people are not like the inner city black people, it's insulting.

Can you point out to me a few statements made in this thread that are "beyond the pale" (pun intended) in their attitude toward black people?