:cb2: Hang on. I can see his point. I guess you would have to live around here to see what all is going on.
Martin Luther King was assassinated here in '68. That didn't help race relations.
The National Civil Rights Museum is here.
The interstate is named after King.
The school superintendent destroyed the Memphis City School system. He was eventually fired. Now he's "da Mayor" and is running the city into the ground. However, he keeps getting reelectedbecause he's black.
One (federal) former congressman from this districtin his victory speechthreatened the "white devils" here that voted against him.
He's also the one who promised riots and "blood in the streets of Memphis" if the black mayor wasn't elected.
Several other state and local politicians from Memphis were caught in an FBI bribery sting.
The mayor's hand picked man was given the job as head of the local utilities. He then fired all the high ranking white executives.
The mayor pushed building a new sports arena for the basketball team. $125 million tax payers dollars that we didn't need to spend since the city is in such huge debt. We still owe $35 million on the Pyramidour other sports arena that can't be used now because of the contract agreement with the new arena.
This is small time stuff, but the mayor spent $75,000 to have a new bar put in his office.
A black city council member justified spending $40,000 for new chairs for the city council because black women have bigger butts that whites do. Therefore, new chairs were needed. (You can imagine what would have happened if a white person said that!)
Whites are moving out of Memphis in droves because the schools are a shambles. (Private schools are doing quite well.) The city and schools are millions over budget, and the only way out is to raise taxes. (The mayor and his staff got big raises, however, for their excellent leadership.)
As more and more of the tax base leaves, the property taxes skyrocket (commercial property shot up 25%). This has caused a depressed real estate market as people moving out can't find buyers for their homes.
Asked about the "white flight" out of our county, the mayor waved to the camera and said, "Bye, bye. We don't want you."
The police department is demoralized. 20 murders this month alone (80+ this year, up 32% from last year.)
We're #2 in the nation on the FBI's list for violent crime this year, as well as #2 for burglaries.
From where we live we can hear gunfire on any given night.
We average 1.6 carjackings A DAY.
And everything that happens gets blamed on racism, even though most of the crime here is black-on-black crime.
A state senator (brother of the congressman mentioned above) is pulled over by a highway patrolman for doing over 90. It's racism that he was pulled over and ticketed. (By a black highway patrolman, by the way.)
This is the same guy who shot at one truck driver through the sun roof of his car.
And who threatened utility workers with a shotgun for parking outside one of his homes.
Who also doesn't live in the district he representswhich is against state law. He explained that he lives with his ex-wife and their 3 children 2-3 days a week, his girl friend and their 3 children 2-3 times a week, and in the family funeral home at least one night a week. (The funeral home is in the district.) (His ex-wife got mad at his girl friend on day and drove her car through the wall and into her living room.)
He is one of the politicians arrested by the FBI for taking bribes to back and sponsor legislation. However, no matter what they do, they keep getting reelected.
And this is the short version.
The point is simply this. There is enough racial tension here, and so many real important problems to address, is the reason I said the the issue of changing the name of the parks and trying to re-write history, was "stupidity". All this does is drive the wedge even deeper between the blacks and whites here in this city even further. We are seeing the city going further and further down hill, and the focus is on this?
Sorry, I guess I should have phrased it differently.
One other point. You said, "but if I was black, and my ancestors had been slaves . . . " You probably had ancestors who were slaves at one point in time. Slavery was practiced in ancient Sumer in Mesopotamia, and every "civilization" has practiced it. Most of the world has forgiven the Egyptians, Greeks, Romans, European nations, Germanic tribes, Asian nations, etc., etc., etc. (The Muslim world still practices slavery.) My point is, when do you get over it, relegate to history, and begin to live in the present?
