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Morning Roundup: Black Friday Edition
Go Home Already: Make Room
Photo of the Day: November 27, 2009
Marion Barry may be sick in the hospital today, but he and fellow D.C. Council member Harry "Tommy" Thomas, Jr. (D-Ward 5) were taken to task today by the Washington Post's editorial board for making racist and sexist comments Friday night at a parks and recreation committee hearing on the confirmation of acting Department of Parks and Recreation director Ximena Hartsock.
Hartsock's appointment by D.C. Mayor Adrian Fenty has admittedly been a contentious one, having come right after the rather sudden firing of now-Council candidate Clark Ray. Hartsock also comes from DCPS, not DPR, where she managed afterschool, summer school, and Saturday programs for the school district. So we fully expected there to be some tough questions about Hartsock's qualifications at this hearing. But, as many of our commenters have already begun discussing this morning, we certainly weren't prepared to read about just how offensive the questioning actually became. It's worth excerpting this entire passage:
Most disturbing was the ugly tone of the rhetoric. Speakers called Ms. Hartsock the devil and a liar. The worst culprit was council member Marion Barry (D-Ward 8). He questioned her qualifications because of the need for someone who "understands our culture." With the exception of Ward 3 and parts of Ward 2, Mr. Barry told the crowd, the park department serves people who are "black and brown . . . that is who we are. We have a culture that is different. We have a subculture that is different." At another point, Mr. Barry said it wasn't sexist to say that studies show that women have a different attitude about sports than men, offering as evidence the canard that D.C. School Chancellor Michelle A. Rhee doesn't care about athletics. Then, too, there were questions about why Ms. Hartsock, born in Chile and a legal permanent resident, isn't a U.S. citizen. Several council members reported receiving numerous complaints about the hearing, but Mr. Barry was unrepentant, telling us he has gotten only "compliments" about his remarks.Thomas, who chairs the committee, didn't get off the hook in the editorial either, as the Post noted that he "gave short shrift to the testimony of supporters while fawning over her critics, mainly park department employees -- or their relatives -- who either were fired by Ms. Hartsock or disagreed with her policies."
We'd say this kind of behavior on the part of D.C. Council members comes as a shock – and really, it is stunning – but sadly race baiting and sexism coming from the direction of Marion Barry isn't anything new.
If you have the stomach (and the spare eight hours), you can watch video of the hearing for yourself here.
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We have the smell of corruption, and this kind of behavior from City Council members, yet they want to hold hearings on speed bumps and the school budget. Really???
So, wait. You're telling me Marion Barry is a racebaiting sexist? And you've been in town how long?
thanks for front-paging this, sommer. it's just disgusting what barry can get away with saying.
any other politician, white, black, brown, blue, or other, couldn't spew that tripe and get a job working at mcdonald's the next day.
how soon until we can stop with the race-baiting? barry's time is past.
Well, considering that he's getting "compliments" for his remarks, it seems as if the problem lies with his constituents.
So much said with so few words.
The rock-smokin, Ike & Tina bangin, racebaitin, senile laughinstock doesn't fall far from the tree.
You just don't like him because he's black.
Or brown. Don't be so narrow!
it would be so much easier to dislike him for his race!
unfortunately, i'm stuck disliking the man for his abuse of public trust, lack of quality representation for his constituents, and for single-handedly being one of the biggest reasons we can't get more support for home-rule.
No wonder we have the Redskins as our mascot.
Any chance we can put these guys in a flaming Metro tunnel?
Ha. Like these two would ever be caught using mass transit.
While I have my doubts about Ms. Hartsock's ability to run DPR, no one deserves the ordeal she was put through at the hearing.
If the Mayor had been thoughtful about this (ha ha, I'm funny) he would have kept Ray and let him run the facilities/parks side of things and brought on Hartsock do the programming/recreation portion of DPR....
I have no doubt Hartsock can and was running DCPR better than the mess it has been.
I had my two kids in the DCPR aftercare program last year for six months. It was total mess. The main office which I had to go to one a month was chock full of people with their feet on their desks. The staff was largely incompetent and lazy.
This woman was being punished for being a good and highly competent public servant.
It is the kids on eh aftercare and DC parks and Rec programs that Barry is screwing.
After 20 year in the district and seeing many managers, she was probably in top 10%.
Easy to see how Barry nearly received a doctorate in chemistry. His scientific methods are spot on.
What an ass.
i thought he didn't get his Ph.D. (he's ABD, if i remember correctly)
Stupid? Yes. Ill informed? Certainly. Retrograde and dopey? Without a doubt. Needlessly creating racial tension? We expect nothing less from MB. But calling Barry's comments racist seems like a bit of stretch.
I must disagree, Hillrat.
I think the coded speach is pretty clear.
Retrograde and dopey? Is that what we now call demanding that someone be a certain ethnicity before we hire them?
Such a shame. All this could have been avoided if she'd just sucked his dick.
What, and be accused of setting him up?
Are you sure that's what Barry was calling for, or perhaps it was some sort of anti-immigrant dog whistle?
Either way it was most decidedly racist and sexist. He pretty much said a Chilean woman can't possibly represent the interests of black and brown DC dudes, and so therefore she cannot be hired.
As for the immigrant thing..... I've ventured out amongst the anti-immigrant folks. You don't have to be racist to hate on immigrants, but it certainly does help.
What confuses me about all of this is that when the phrase "black and brown" is used to refer to ethnicity, it almost always is read as a substitute for "African-American and Latino." And she is a member of one of those categories! I know that "black and brown" is probably just Barry's half-assed attempt to make it appear that he's not focused exclusively on addressing the concerns of one ethnic/racial group, but it still seems to undercut his whole "argument" . . .
Also, in defense of Hillrat's assessment none of the excerpts printed have actually shown Barry or Thomas saying that "this job can't be done by anyone other than a black person." Barry's quote is that "black and brown" culture is somehow distrinctive, and that it needs to be understood by the DPR director. Making claims that this particular candidate doesn't understand that culture isn't actually the same thing as claiming that no non-black candidate ever could.
Sexist I'll give you, but the rending of garments and gnashing of teeth over this example of "racism" rings a little hollow to this Black man.
Seriously, if all the folks who are so up in arms over Barry's egregious "racism" were just as incensed and outraged over any of the racist shit that happens to Black EVERY FUCKING DAY then I might be willing to listen, but they're not and I'm not.
Um, are you really suggesting that DCist posters are accepting of white on black racism?
Really? This is a pretty liberal crowd.
And would you then be suggesting that your perception of that acceptance would mean that it's ok for a sitting Councilmember to refuse to appoint someone because of their ethnicity?
Two wrongs do not make a right, or so I've been told.
"Barry's quote is that "black and brown" culture is somehow distrinctive, and that it needs to be understood by the DPR director."
Do you really think a white Councilmember telling a black applicant that a city has a 'white' culture that the black applicant is, for unexplained reasons, unable to understand would be acceptable?
I've heard first-hand from a person that was at this hearing. He's the biggest namby-pamby liberal I've ever met. And he told me flat out it was a stunningly racist atmosphere. Not just from the Councilmembers mentioned, but from more than a few speakers, egged on by some Councilmembers.
For the Post to call it black on non-black racism then you know it had to be pretty significant.
If the colors were reversed here we'd have marching in the streets, EEOC investigations, and a crapstorm of front page coverage.
The fallacy that kills me is the implication that there is a single black or a single brown culture.
The other thing that kills me is that this toxic atmosphere you mention was deliberately fostered by council members, not because of hartsock's qualifications, but because of those councilmembers' feud with another black man, the Mayor.
It's all so cynical and damaging.
I'll go with Prof. Henry Gate's version of black culture. Summering on the Cape. First name basis with Barack.
Have we checked with him to see what his special cultural requirements are for use of DPR facilities?
Hillman said: "I'll go with Prof. Henry Gate's version of black culture. Summering on the Cape. First name basis with Barack."
Whoa! Throw in "sipping Chardonnay at the spa" and that sounds suspiciously like teh "gay agenda."
Or, closer to home, I understand the White House gym facilities are not so stellar. And Michelle has been hogging the green space with her growing things and whatnot.
Have we checked with Barack to see what the black cultural requirements for DPR are?
But, hey, look on the bright side. At least I'm not fucking with your marriage, trying to destabilize your family by denying you the legal and financial benefits of marriage.
It's a pity you won't extend that same courtesy to me and my partner.
Whoops. Forgot emotional benefits of marriage.
Ximena Hartsock doesn't care about black people.
The mayor must be so relieved that he has a Council that can draw all the media attention away from his gay party cruises in international waters, complete with monkey knife fights.
I'm confused on the whole 'brown enough' thing. This woman is from Chile. Are Chileans not brown enough?
If Marion Barry and the others could just let me know their new color-shade requirements for race-based hiring, that'd be really helpful.
Although this is besides the point, Chileans aren't even necessarily brown.
Does it help if her first name starts with X and is hard for some to pronounce, but we secretly suspect was taken from a porn star of decades past?
I've seen her photo. Seems pretty brown-tastic to me. And surprisingly hot for a city worker.
Come on, this IS a Fenty appointee after all. It is a trend.
It's easy enough to figure out. On the Patented Barry Color Wheel-o-Fortune®, pitch black (first Generation African immigrants) are too black, work too hard, and make "black enough" people look bad, whereas white folk are on the opposite end of the scale and are only good for blaming things on and ridiculing for their inept dance moves. Also, negative points for blacks who act white or for black people who are so lightskinned that they're passing. Conservative blacks aren't black anymore, since they work up in the house instead of the field with the people who are "black enough." Chileans, Mexicans, Salvadoreans are too brown and not to be trusted, since they're taking the jobs of hardworking American loiterers and treebox defecators. Asians, being yellow, don't even register on the wheel and besides, they charge people who are black enough more than white people for mambo sauce.
Don’t forget dark-skinned Caribbean types, who were previously black enough but now get negative points due to their "funny accents." And if you're "high yellow" black, well you can just move to Baltimore.
"whereas white folk are on the opposite end of the scale and are only good for blaming things on and ridiculing for their inept dance moves."
I rocked the robot AND the electric slide. Every one of my white friends told me so.
Sommer:
Aren't there some DCist interns that can edit that video into a 'greatest hits'?
Can Barry tell us if Sonia Sotomayor is brown or black? He appears to have the whole box of crayolas at his disposal. While he's at it maybe he can share with us his recipes for Chilean Sea Bass.
Get back on the "Calypso," Liz. Allow me to sing the song that will burn in your brain for the rest of the day:
Aye, Calypso the places you've been to
The things that you've shown us, the stories you tell
Aye, Calypso, I sing to your spirit
The men who have served you so long and so well
Step to the rear of the bus, Liz.
My dung is brown.
My eyes are black and blue.
And my hair is vivid RED!
Marion Barry this shark is for You!
Where have you been, Deep? Mary Cheh's selling DC to the CHUDs, the Morlocks are sabotaging the Red Line, Marion Barry's lost his mind, Jim Graham is handing out free abortions, and McGruff clones are wandering the streets looking for gay brothels.
Just as Count Dookoo predicted!
Dooku? Are you sure that wasn't Saruman? Was he in a dress? That's how you know...
Deep! Thought you were statistic #100
He was at Radio Shack.
what's with the radio shack comments? did i miss something?
I would expect this kind of crap from Barry; but I am really disappointed that Thomas was also taking part in this... It just goes to show that racism can work in reverse... In a city where, as Barry claims, everyone is black, we go around hating on latino's and white's who want to try and be part of the community--how shameful is that! It's just as bad as in any other American city where the white folk ban together to prevent black's from getting ahead in public service... it's ALL RACISM! Ugh... I really hope Marion Barry meets the undertaker soon enough, he's way overdue for all the bad Karama he's built up!
Barry is like the John Locke of DC.
"The District won't let him die."
Fuck Marion Barry!
Eeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeew.
I mean it. Blick. Yech. And whatever word is used for the "hughuhghuhg" one says while shaking one's whole body from disgust.