Running racism in America thread

I know there are now an infinite number of targeted networks and streaming services now, but that is the first time I have ever heard of Fox Soul. There are probably Fox executives who don't even know there is a Fox Soul.

 

Count me as someone who had never heard of Fox Soul. Also, it's quite an oxymoron.

I'm reasonably sure, even as someone very interested in politics, that I've never watched any president be interviewed on Super Bowl Sunday. I don't think it will be missed.

Also, why in the hell would Biden want anything to do with Fox after all the false, irresponsible shit they've throw at him?

 

One of our former high school coaches was the leader of the local Fellowship of Christian Athletes chapter. Every year on the final day of preseason football practice they would have a "watermelon cut" for each team in town, where they brought them a shit ton of watermelons and served them after practice. He would tell us about it every year and suggest we come out to shoot photos of it.
The coach, who is black, was just doing something nice for the kids in town. Unfortunately, the two largest schools had football teams whose rosters were almost all black. We had to find some polite and convenient excuses so we could avoid running a front-page photo package of a bunch of black kids eating watermelon.

 

Minnesota Woman Calls Police On Black AC Technician While He’s Working, Sobs Uncontrollably And Claims To Be Threatened

 

We also had to tell our "award-winning" photogs to stop shooting photos of Blacks (and other impoverished people) cutting each other's hair on a county park bench.

 

Now on the front page of the Times.

Childbirth Is Deadlier for Black Families Even When They’re Rich, Expansive Study Finds

 

Where was the Boston place that specialized in chicken and waffles? There was a legendary soul food place, Bob the Chef's, on Columbus near Mass. Ave, right near Wally's jazz club back in the 90s and early 2000s (Bob the Chef's had been around for decades before that -- Darryl Settles bought it in the early 90s and turned it into a more upscale place). The fried chicken and particularly the fried chicken livers were absolutely to die for, as was the catfish. But I don't recall them serving waffles, except maybe at their Sunday brunch. I know Settles' current concept at the same spot, Darryl's Corner Bar & Kitchen, has chicken and waffles on the menu but that seems a more recent thing. I don't remember a place that ever specialized in it.

First time I had chicken and waffles was at Roscoe's House of Chicken & Waffles -- not the original Long Beach location; the one on N. Gower in Hollywood -- in the mid 90s. It was one of the greatest meals I ever had. Butter and syrup on the waffles and gravy over the chicken -- all on the same plate, and if it melded together, even better. Went back a few more times over the years.

As far as Boston being a "racist" city -- yes, a lot of awfully racist shit has happened here and I'm not one to let them off the hook. But I'm not convinced it's necessarily more racist than any other major city. I think it's more the horrible high profile incidents (the busing crisis, the Charles Stuart case, the Yawkey regime and their policies toward Black players) that give the city its reputation so that anytime something happens, the reaction is "Oh yeah. That's Boston." And while they're not wrong, and while I don't exactly step up to defend Boston's honor regularly, I don't think there's something in the water or the DNA that makes it MORE racist than other places. Don't get me wrong -- Boston has more than earned its reputation. But the idea that people in Philly, St. Louis, Detroit, Chicago and Minneapolis, among other places, have any business pointing their finger at Boston when something happens here is amusing at best, outrageous at worst.

 

I'm waiting for Fox Funk.

 

The Boston chicken and waffles place I knew of was off Mass Ave near South Bay and Victoria Diner. I forget the name of it. They’d have a line outside at 3 or 3:30. For all I know it’s still there.

I’ve lived in Boston for 30 of my 40-something years. At this point, it’s much more subtle. A friend moved here a few years ago and one of the first things she said to me was: “This place is really segregated.” She wasn’t wrong. It’s better than it was in say 1990, but it’s still noticeable.

Busing took on an element of racism because working class people were pitted against each other and it just happened that there were differences between those working class folk. Some cynical white men in power exploited those divisions to build up cult followings and turn people on each other. That’s oversimplifying it, but that’s the base of it.

 

The Detroit area is famously segregated, with 8 Mile the dividing line (of course referenced in the movie). In the maximum era of white flight in the Seventies, Detroit mayor Coleman Young told his opponents to "hit 8 Mile."

Most Michigan towns are similarly segregated, with heavily Black areas in inner city neighborhoods and close to factories. Several towns straddling rivers segregated on that basis as well. (Grand Rapids, Kalamazoo, Lansing, Saginaw and Flint have comparable situations.)
The Lake Michigan beachfront towns of Benton Harbor (overwhelmingly Black, location of several factories in past decades, now beset with urban decay) and St. Joseph (almost entirely white, with the town being promoted as a quaint upscale resort community) are particularly glaring examples on a smaller scale.
From the Sixties through the Nineties school busing was attempted as a means of trying to equalize opportunities and racial breakdowns between dilapidated inner city schools and Cadillac facilities in affluent suburbs.

Outstate and in West Michigan conservative Christian types dominate much of the local government as well as representation in the state legislature. In years past labor voting was powerful in towns with major factories, but that has mostly dissipated in current days.

A frequently heard gripe in West Michigan is, "Republicans would run this state forever if we didn't have to let the n*****rs in the big cities and Detroit vote."

Ahhh yes, those pesky n****er voters.

 

I've been here for 30 years now (my entire post-college life). I don't know that it's more subtle now but it is VERY segregated. Or at least it feels that way. Of course that's also likely a product of the fact that the Black population is a lot smaller than other major metros. And you are right about the class aspect of busing in the 1970s, with the poorest whites being pitted against the poorest Blacks. But the people of South Boston still conducted themselves in an incredibly violent, racist manner. You should watch the Boston Busing Crisis episode of Eyes on the Prize. It is VERY eye opening. And there was a tremendous contrast between the reception the Black kids received at Southie HS and the reception the white kids (the few who actually showed up) received at Roxbury HS.

 

One of the reasons I have no desire to ever visit Boston ...