Being wrong for the right reasons...

We lock the doors of our car from the inside as we cross
the Anacostia River going eastward. We are now in a supposedly
no-go area for whites. A district with 77,000 inhabitants
(over 90% black) of which even a black policeman tells us he
would not enter unarmed at night. This is a district where
more than 3.000 people have been murdered since 1960.
Where in one summer evening in 2007, four different shootings
led to eight victims within two hours. This is a district
of which a former criminal says, “When we see teenagers, we
cross the street. That is how scared we are of our kids.”


Only every second resident has a job. Every third lives below
the poverty line. Two out of three children grow up without
their father. Nowhere else in the city are there as many high
school dropouts (34%) and as many overweight people (71%,
33% of them obese). We are in the capital of the richest country
in the world: Washington, DC. However, this is a place
where tourists and even most Congressmen never venture.
Even some of the city’s street maps do not clearly detail this
district. We fi nd ourselves in the infamous Ward 8 district in
Southeast DC, one and a half miles from the Capitol. The 8th
Ward leads nearly in every negative statistic of Washington’s
eight districts. Ward 7, which neighbors the 8th Ward, follows
a close second.


Originally, we had planned to write a report on the forgotten
people and the misery that exists in the shadow of the Capitol.
Three months and countless rides across the Anacostia
River later, during which nothing bad ever happened to us,
we are coming to the conclusion: We are a few years too late ➟


to write the report we had envisioned. It is still dangerous
here, and the high levels of poverty and desperation are
striking, but: the Ward 8 is changing. Only its reputation
has remained the same. We have since decided to write a
report about change and how such change can materialize.
What roles do civil engagement, careful city planning,
and free market forces play? For one man this
answer is simple: Washington DC’s former two-time
Mayor Marion Barry (1979–1991 and 1995–1999), who
has been the Councilmember of Ward 8 since 2004: “My
leadership”.

one of his commenters on a previous post wrote:

Focusing on Barry's opposition to recognizing gay marriage causes us to miss the forest for the trees; in a majority black city with a majority black political leadership, the City Council voted overwhelmingly (12 to 1) IN SUPPORT of recognizing gay marriage (albeit ones performed outside of DC). This represents a great political victory for the gay rights movements, and refutes the meme which claims that the African-American community is monolithically, implacably, and irresolutely opposed to recognizing gay civil marriage.

I don't think that can be said loudly enough. There are 12 members of the City Council. Seven of them are black. One is Marion Barry. To anyone who's followed Barry's career, I'm not sure why "Marion Barry Is A Demagogue" is breaking news. It's really wrong to erase the other six votes on that measure, and make Barry the face of blacks on the Council, and blacks in the City.

and refutes the meme which claims that the African-American community is monolithically, implacably, and irresolutely opposed to recognizing gay civil marriage