Comments on: Republicans on Jerry Abramson’s Racist Slip-Up

By: jake

jake — Wed, 15 Jul 2009 03:25:14 +0000

HAHAHAHA.

Prove it.

Never let something like the facts (as mentioned by several in this discussion) get in the way of what you think you saw and think you heard… even though you have never lived in Jefferson County. Niiiice.

By: Conservative

Conservative — Wed, 15 Jul 2009 03:19:19 +0000

I don’t particularly care what you think of my comments, Jake. I’m educated, informed, in the loop on lots of stuff and significantly older than you with relatives in and around that shithole called Jefferson County. Unlike you and several others, I was actually alive and have memory of what the outlying areas (outside the Watterson) were like before forced busing. I don’t particularly care what dictionary definition of “white flight” you or Terri want to cite, I saw what happened with my own two eyes and heard about it with my own two ears.

By: E

Tue, 14 Jul 2009 23:49:38 +0000

Also Terri…There are myriad problems and issues concerning poverty/education/race. Funny how you try to make an issue out of ONE issue/problem that wasn’t even part of the discussion earlier.
Simply put…government policy, well intentioned or not, is/was the single biggest factor in segregation and poverty. But if you don’t want to believe it…just keep reading the government talking points.

Some credit is due the government though…after 40 years, and multiple lost/trapped generations…they FINALLY realized that they may have effed things up…and are trying to correct some of the tragic mistakes.

Can’t help but wonder what solutions we’re undertaking today will be looked upon as mistakes a few decades from now.

By: E

Tue, 14 Jul 2009 23:09:46 +0000

AA…quite simply, enough white students complied to reach the mandated percentages…otherwise the system would have had to make adjustments to ensure that the quotas were met…I’m not sure how to make it any easier for you to understand.
JCPS would have kept busing more whites and blacks across town until the percentages mandated were met…what about that don’t you understand?
Also, AA try to keep things in context…this little tangent is about Terri making the claim that GOP signs (mayoral) were only in “WF” communities.
You actually help make my point as to the errant nature of that comment…by noting as did someone else…that “WF” communities (where people were altogether fleeing forced busing) would in fact have been Oldham, Spencer, and Bullitt counties…where Mayoral/Louisville politics do NOT apply…and the Louisville GOP would not have an interest in the signs Terri alleges exist.
Terri…what’s up? Hurt your feelings by slapping LBJ and the government statements and proclamations of equality, with a healthy dose of the reality that the same government that made such wonderful sounding proclamations…in fact facilitated segregation and the concentration of poverty/minorities?
Your lack of defense of government actions that effectively consolidated poor people into specific areas…speaks volumes. You can buy into government platitudes if you like…I don’t.

By: slim

slim — Tue, 14 Jul 2009 23:01:17 +0000

My question for Jerry is this: how many blacks are too many?

By: Always Amazed

Always Amazed — Tue, 14 Jul 2009 22:02:09 +0000

Yeah, E, it was mostly the white parents who couldn’t afford to do otherwise who complied, mixed in wth a few socially conscious ones who complied because it was the right thing to do. And since it was only based on the first letter of your last name instead of the 50/15 quota now, do you have records for just how many white students did comply? Your argument is baseless.

By: Terri

Terri — Tue, 14 Jul 2009 20:57:16 +0000

Wow, E. Funny how you mention redlining or historical context leading up to the 2005 study exactly nowhere.

By: E

Tue, 14 Jul 2009 20:56:57 +0000

Well…it would certainly seem that MOST white kids did in fact attend the schools mandated by ‘desegregation’…otherwise the school system would have been in violation of a Federal Court Order.
I’m sure some chose not to participate via migration, medical exemption, or private school attendance. But obviously far and away MOST of the kids/families went along with the desegregation.

By: Always Amazed

Always Amazed — Tue, 14 Jul 2009 20:32:57 +0000

Terri is accurate in her “white flight” comment. In the 70’s, few white families in my east end neighborhood willingly sent their children to Central. Their kid suddenly developed some disease that required them to stay at their east end school on a hardship, or they sent their kids to private school or moved to Oldham County, Bullitt County or Spencer County.

In the 90s, when forced busing became “managed choice”, the traditional and magnet schools were created to keep the white flight from reigniting. Those schools hide behind slogans like “we have a more patriotic curiculum and strict codes of conduct”, but they really mean “we sort out all the bad apples before we allow them in the door”, with bad= poor and black.

That’s why its so pathetic everytime we get a school board candidate in the east end who attends Southeast Christian church whose main plank is that we need more traditional schools. Puke!

The GOP’s claim that they are offended by Abramson’s statement is the pot calling the kettle black! Move on to another issue because you don’t have any credibility on this one.

By: E

Tue, 14 Jul 2009 19:41:38 +0000

Welcome to the real world…
…a snippet from the linked article;

http://openthedoorlouisville.org/2005/10/12/study-points-out-louisville-s-pockets-of-substantial-poverty

[Berube and Bruce Katz, director of the Brookings Metropolitan Policy program, said such impoverished neighborhoods do not appear by accident.

They emerge for several reasons:

The federal government concentrated poor people by building public housing only in inner-city neighborhoods.

Federal, state and local tax money and policies "favor high-income suburban development over investment in urban neighborhoods."

The Low-Income Housing Tax Credit has reinforced poverty concentration because developers are only eligible for the credits if they build in low-income areas.]

Maybe it’s just me…but all of that government platitude bullshit sounds great (puppies and rainbows, as Jake would say)…but the reality is much much uglier…whether intended or not.

But given the choices you offered me…I’ll take “asshole”…you can have “willfully ignorant” for yourself.