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| Re: Brooklyn Dodgers (on topic) (466467) | |||
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Re: Brooklyn Dodgers (on topic) |
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Posted by Michael549 on Thu Jul 26 03:02:14 2007, in response to Re: Brooklyn Dodgers (on topic), posted by ntrainride on Thu Jul 26 00:34:25 2007. From a previous message: 'Again, a kid or a family, sitting on a bus on their way to a day at the beach out in the "country" ain't really contemplating and tabulating how much longer it takes to get there the way they were going than if they had jumped on a parkway somewhere. An extra half hour is, you think, evidence of a sinister plot? Sheesh."My first response to this is along the lines of something like, "And being made to sit in the back of the bus should not really seem to be a hardship, now should it??" It is very simple when one knows that they are being treated differently as a matter of public policy, than other folks. That is the essence of discrimination. It not just a matter of not being able to sit in the good seats in the theaters, but relegated to the balcony. It is not just a matter of only being offered the worst, most crowded housing in the city. It is not just a matter of planning outings for the family or church where the smallest details seem to be a major hassle by the public authorities, remember few blacks owned cars then. It is not just a matter of being unable to work in stores along 125th Street (the southern boundary of the black community then) but one is free to shop there so long as you do not try on the clothes. Or attend the music clubs or other social aspects. It is the whole manner of slights, outright statements and actions, that let you know that you are not wanted, not valued, not treated with respect - and that there are few champions for what ails you. Life for Black and minority folk in New York City in the 1920's and 1930's was not some bed of roses - do not let the revisionists confuse you. Did you know that between the years 1900 to 1930, not a single new public school was built in Harlem? That only one WPA clinic in all of Harlem was built to serve 300,000 people? And there were other acts of public policy that had a disparate impact. Robert Moses who through his Parks Department built almost no swimming pools, parks and playgrounds in areas where poor and minority folk lived was sending a very clear public policy message. At the same time he is buying up woodland and natural areas in Staten Island, and Queens as parkland, places where few black folk could reach. This is not about racism, as we commonly understand it today. One does not have to be racist in thought for one's deeds to have a discriminatory impact. Not only was he in charge of the Parks Department, but also in his lifetime he was in charge of or heavily influenced 12-16 different public agencies and authorities at the same time. He promoted Randall's Island has the recreational park space neglecting to understand that at that time few blacks owned cars or the means to get there. (The pedestrian bridge was 20 years away, and there was no bus service to Randall's Island). Ever wonder why the super block public housing was built in East, Central, and West Harlem in such a way as to practically form a barrier from the rest of Manhattan? Harlem River Houses were the first to be built in Harlem in 1937, with additional housing and slum clearance projects to follow, which often resulted in the displacement of more families than would be housed in the projects that were built. This is not to say that the old law tenements, and tenements of other types were not in some cases bad housing. I bring this up to note the bad feeling many residents of Harlem toward some of these efforts and life in Harlem, spurring many to move to Brooklyn in the 1930's. "Take The A Train" was not just a famous piece of music, but along a note of the connection between Harlem and the new emerging black communities in Brooklyn. Did anyone ever bother to note Robert Moses record of employment for minority workers in the Parks Department, Housing Authority, the Triborough Bridge and Tunnel Authority, and the other agencies he controlled and influenced? Let's just say it was not a "sterling record". Some may think that a bus trip to a picnic that takes a bit of time extra because only the local roads can be used (and not the parkway that most use) is not an example of a kind of discrimination, or why a fuss could be made about such a happening. Often these folks truly fail to understand that the nature of racism, prejudice and discrimination - it’s usually not in the major activities, but in the small almost comical mundane common everyday kinds of statements, activities, actions, rules and practices. This happens to such an extent that such a discriminatory affair becomes "normal". Since this set of messages started about baseball, it would be a good time to ask yourself about Black folks and baseball in New York City, especially before Jackie Robinson. It stands to reason that if everything was "so wonderful" on the racial - discrimination front, then why should black folk be upset about a little extra time on a bus to a state park on a crowded local road? Is it because "everything in so many ways is not so wonderful?" For example, why would anyone get upset if a black man were to play baseball for the Brooklyn Dodgers? Mike |
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