Iâve been so focused on this effort for Algiers that I really havenât had much time to poke around the online community and catch up on the âchatterâ?. I took a few minutes this morning to run a couple of things down, and Iâm good and mad about something. Forgive me, but Iâm going to take a moment to vent.
Some of the background noise Iâve been filtering out has been about racism, and the strong criticism of authoritiesâ disaster response. Under normal circumstances, Iâd have had a fair bit to say on these subjects, but Iâve been working under the assumption that the crisis is now, and the time for throwing mud and pointing fingers will come soon enough.
Having said all that, I was horrified to come across this discussion at the Democratic Underground, about “the other side of the tracks”. I would have ignored it for the ignorant raving it obviously is, had they not stated that theyâve forwarded excerpts from Polimom.blogspot.com to CNN.
This is absolutely incredible. Theyâve made assumptions about the racial and economic make-up of the Algiers community based on⦠what? Iâm really not sure. I have to assume theyâve never, ever, been to Algiers. (They even used statements from people NOT on Algiers Point to support this.)
Algiers is a big place, although from the community feeling here on Polimom this week, you may not know this. Algiers is diverse, both racially and economically. Saying the Point is âaffluentâ? reflects the trend in recent years to reclaim and remodel the cottages and shotgun houses â but it is hardly some kind of white enclave filled with vigilantes.
Since the phones finally died Wednesday night in the rest of Algiers, the vast majority of my information has been about the Point. But I grew up in that âotherâ? part of Algiers, and Iâm having trouble imagining my old neighborhood being described by anyone as a white vigilante enclave. (Thatâs a funny thought, actually).
Just out of curiosity â how can these people tell, from reading my blog, what race any of the individuals involved are? For that matter, they donât know my ancestry, nor that of the looters. Maybe they are just showing us their own ignorant prejudices?
End of rant. For now.
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