It’s hard to think of anything that’s uglier about life in Memphis than the self-loathing that passes for normal daily activity.
It shows up regularly in The Commercial Appeal in comments from readers who default unfathomably on any subject to race and hate about all things Memphis . It also shows up in the stereotypes that form the foundation for letters to the editor from towns whose very existence owes to the city they so often despise.
It shows up frequently in the code words and proxy issues used by suburban Republicans – particularly when they 200 miles away in the state capital – but which every one is able to translate correctly. All of the symbols and code words refer to evil African-American city where most of them earn their livelihoods. We see it in Nashville when Republicans like Sen. Mark Norris can vote against the funding to attack Memphis’ third world infant mortality problems. We see it with the Curry Todd mentality of the suburban legislators produces guns in parks and bars legislation. We see it when state officials wrestle with funding for The Med while our suburban legislators stand around fondling their gun barrels.
Stand-ins
All of these issues are stand-ins for anti-black sentiments that drive so much of the politics outside Memphis. No, they’re all too polite these days to come out and say they dislikeAfrican-Americans, but every one knows that when they talk about being safe in parks, they’re alluding to the threat from Memphis gang bangers. When they talk about us carrying guns as we engage in our daily lives, we know that they mean that it’s not safe in this majority black city. It’s all a game of seeing who can come up with the best code words for blacks and then hammer it over and over to make sure that their white constituents are fearful and see the politicians as protectors from a city that’s just too poor and too black to trust.
In the past eight years, the African-American population in Shelby County outside Memphis has almost doubled, as has the percentage of the black population in DeSoto County. It’s further evidence of Memphis’ imminent history-making event when it becomes the first American metropolitan area with more than one million people that is African-American. In other words, if bigots set out to pick the worst place in the U.S. to live, Memphis would be that place. What’s amazing is that so many of them managed to do it.
Like the driving force for the tea party movement, much of the suburban angst is driven by fear of the “other” and the reality that the tide has turned and the world is being transformed. Memphis just got there early, but more and more, white men will become the minority in all parts of the U.S. as the change becomes more real, so will the shrillness of the rhetoric.
Why Are White Men So Angry?
In a meeting last week, we were killing time by looking at the macho videos by candidates from the white candidate for Alabama commissioner of agriculture complaining about thugs and brandishing his rifle, the Ron Ramsey ad in which he stomps his boots and pretends that Tennessee doesn’t need federal money and the fringe candidate for Tennessee governor who’s running to attack the “mental illness” of liberalism.
An African-American colleague in the meeting brought down the house by asking the most pertinent question. “What are all these white men in the South so angry about?” she said. “They think they have it bad. White men in the South. Unbelievable.”
And yet, it’s hard to laugh about this strain of absurdist politics because it clearly resonates with so many people in our community. More to the point, it’s a primary reason that state politicians privately joke about sticking it to “black Memphis” and portraying it as a city that is beyond solutions to its problems. We admit that many of the Democratic politicians that we send to Nashville fall right in the trap and behave in ways that convince the rest of the state that “Memphis is nothing but trouble,” as a Democratic government once said.
The 70% Solution
A Commercial Appeal poll a couple of years ago concluded that 70% of Shelby Countians thought race relations in Memphis was good. It begged the question of why it’s the other 30% who seem to get regularly on the ballot, win election and shape our local politics.
But back to poor and black Memphis. We’ve written often about the 151,000 poor people who live largely out of sight in our midst. There are places in Memphis where the infant mortality rate is higher than Haiti or Afghanistan, and while suburban Republican politicians wring their hands over women’s reproductive choices, they don’t feel as strongly about funding programs to make sure fetuses are born healthy to mothers who want them (as proven by the funding cut for infant mortality programs).
But such is the life of poor people in Memphis. They get much more attention as political symbols than they ever get when it comes to solving their problems.
American Dreams
Here’s the thing. The link between race and poverty in Memphis (and the South) is obvious and overdue for serious attention and action. And contrary to convention wisdom, for every poor African-American in our community, there are two African-Americans who are not. They simply go to work, buy their homes, raise their family and hope to live in a city that shows its greatness by its concern for the poor and needy.
Somehow, in all the political posturing and partisan rhetoric, it’s lost on this city by and large that there are 400,000 African-Americans who are not poor and whose ambitions and priorities are squarely in the mainstream. In fact, if you doubt us, try visiting the cafeteria at FedEx World Headquarters.
It’s impossible to not be struck by two things: 1) that we have a strong black upper middle class and young professionals; and 2) that the coarseness of public life and the ugliness of the political scene keep most of them from plugging in.
The Best Practice We’re Looking For
Memphis is on the cusp of national transformation, and because we are there first, we have a rare opportunity to become the “best practice” that we seem to be perpetually seeking. Already, for the first time in U.S. history, children of color are a new majority in the South’s public schools. If we are serious about a competitive future for Memphis, we must also be serious about creating the quality of life, the schools and the public life that engage the diversity that is becoming commonplace in the nation’s workforce.
As long as Memphis is stereotyped as a poor African-American city, we will endure state and federal officials’ lack of urgency in addressing our problems. After all, one party seems to take African-Americans for granted and the other seems to use them as whipping boys. In the end, the lack of understanding about the realities of our community results in the worst kind of racism – lower expectations for getting the basics of government right.
It’s the MATA lesson writ large. Because it seems its customer base as poor and lacking options, it reliably delivers a dismal service, and state and federal officials do nothing to force change. But it’s no surprise, because after all, Memphis is a poor, black city so we don’t deserve quality programs, quality of life and quality of civic institutions that are crucial for cities today.
Tom, the solution to “the funding to attack Memphis’ third world infant mortality problems” was evident decades ago: Norplant. It was called genocide by the Jesse Jackson and Al Sharpton racemongers of this nation, and there it lies buried.
SCM writes an article condemning stereotyping, then proceeds to stereotype. Priceless.
A powerful essay on African-American discrimination. One that will be challenged and yet feels so true.
The infant mortality among poor African-Americans is only the dramatic part of a much larger problem – infant survival rate among poor African-Americans. Those children who are born and live often have physical and mental problems, which become a societal burden throughout their lives.
Then there are the “healthy” babies whose 0-3 age span is marred by improper parenting and /or lack of adequate child development nurturing. Instead these children go to “babysitting” homes where only the luck-of-the-draw produces developmental care from love and common sense.
Everyone talks about funding for Pre-K, which is the same as the federal government’s Head Start Program, but what structures have we put in place for ages 0-3? This is the most critical period in a child’s life.
The difficulty, as you suggest, is that the 400,000 African-Americans and the 300,000 Euro-Americans are not working together very effectively.
A very good article that accurately displays an overview of Memphis metro race relations. The article only touches upon the lack of maturity on the political scene. That lack of maturity creates the Norris’s, the Picklers, and the Herentons. Candidates are elected on stereotypical images or name recognition alone. I do see signs of maturity. When Mike Carpenter in blasted as a RINO for working in a bipartisan way but still wins the Republican primary easily and when, in last year’s mayoral election, the two top votegetters campaigned to steer us away from the confrontational approach of the immediate former mayor and received a total of 78% of the vote.
Those results produce some hope for the future.
About a dozen years ago, while I was still living up north, a white cradle Memphian and I were having a conversation about race relations.
Boiling it down: I think the point she wanted to make was that the South is unfairly painted as the racist part of the country. In truth, she said, ample evidence of brutal, ugly racism can be seen everywhere, North and South. I wasn’t so sure about the first part, but I certainly couldn’t dispute the latter part.
Then she said, “The difference is that here in the South we take good care of our black people.”
lol, that’s priceless, Michael. Mute, do you think the religious nuts would be OK with promoting birth control?
. . .”Memphis is a poor, black city so we don’t deserve quality programs, quality of life and quality of civic institutions that are crucial for cities today.” Before we start down the road of blaming the suburbs, and racists, and whoever else for the fact that we are a poor African American city with all the problems you reference in that city, let’s be honest for a moment. The voters of this city, for 12 years or so, voted into office a mayor who consistently ignored the real problems in this entire community, did little to nothing to foster a black middle class, let the infrastructure go to pot and did next to nothing to promote real economic growth. When I moved back here I was stunned at how little progress had been made on racial matters and how small the black middle class was, then I saw one of the “famous” New Year’s Day speeches, and I understood why the city was where it was. This is not just to blame the former mayor, the city council played a large role as well. The point is that the city’s voters, many of whom are the very African American poor who are suffering, have themselves to blame for the state it is in; and as pointed out in the NYT yesterday, its in quite a state. Blaming suburban voters, and the feds, etc. is pointless and factually incorrect.
Anon:
We’ve written enough about all of those factors – and Herenton ad infintium – over the years that we didn’t see a reason to reprise them, but we agree with much of what you say. But the “bad” Herenton years were the last 7 or so, and no one fed the mythology of City Hall out of control – it wasn’t – as much as the suburban politicians profiting from it. Just as they do today with the code words and ceaseless references to how unsafe Memphis is. We were talking about the ugly current state of politics and how easy it is for some people to cast African-Americans, and an African-American city, as the problem, including the 400,000 black Memphians who are simply earning a living and paying their taxes.
Oh well sure. African Americans are obviously not the problem, and I will agree that I have met more people with extraordinarily “old fashioned” racial views since I have moved back than I thought possible. But my pet little theory is that one reason for this is the absence of a real vibrant black middle and upper class in this city. Its when racist or just sheltered whites work and play with people that are different from them that progress is made. Atlanta is a great example; trust me, there are just as many old white racist dudes in Atlanta and Georgia as there are here, but they have to sit across the conference table from folks that don’t look like them; that fosters understanding and “accpetance.” Here, not so much. That’s one reason why I have always been so shocked at how little effort was made to foster a real and strong African American middle/upper class by the upper class African American mayor and the city government. But one thing – this is an unsafe city. Its getting better, and sure some folks don’t come downtown because they are afraid they might see some black people, but the stats don’t lie. We need to be honest about our problems, which you guys are, in order to fix them.
“In the past eight years, the African-American population in Shelby County outside Memphis has almost doubled, as has the percentage of the black population in DeSoto County.”
Yes, there are so many black people here who have been “through the penal system and un-effectively “rehabilitated” (read: let loose) that regular decent black people don’t want to live near them and there are a LOT OF THEM, about 40 years worth of generations living in poor areas. Don’t believe it? DO YOUR HOMEWORK and start looking up the names of people you know on the court page and see what their criminal records hold, you will be FLOORED by what comes back.
You will probably leave the state.
” In other words, if bigots set out to pick the worst place in the U.S. to live, Memphis would be that place. What’s amazing is that so many of them managed to do it.”
I bet most of them didn’t “manage to do it” and were born here.
“Why Are White Men So Angry?”
Black men are angry to, don’t be a bigot.
“Republican politicians wring their hands over women’s reproductive choices, they don’t feel as strongly about funding programs to make sure fetuses are born healthy to mothers who want them (as proven by the funding cut for infant mortality programs).”
Smart post, either way it’s institutionalized murder. Which one seems more humane?
One is definitely haenous.
“Memphis is on the cusp of national transformation, and because we are there first, we have a rare opportunity to become the “best practice” that we seem to be perpetually seeking.”
There is the key, BE the change you want to see. Don’t wait for anything to do that.
“Because it seems its customer base as poor and lacking options, it reliably delivers a dismal service, and state and federal officials do nothing to force change. ”
If the reason we are in such sad shape is because we are waiting for that, we are mentally challenged too. Like I said, the feds have bulldozers planned for Memphis. Either do something or watch the next ghost town in America appear.
Wintermute:
Why do you hate women so much?
You’re just wrong about Norplant. It is not safe and it’s expensive. Active duty women in our armed forces were encouraged (really, pressured) to use it for obvious reasons. There were an unusually high number of women who had a very unusual fracture of the femur — the largest bone in the body. It also causes irreversible structural changes in bone density. Further evidence suggests it leads to low birth weight babies when a woman later becomes pregnant.
Instead of offering advice on what women should or shouldn’t do with their bodies, might I suggest you back away from your computer and start a foundation to teach boys and men to use a condom or keep it in their pants.
Anonymous 8:46: We usually use the term, stereotypes, to describe examples that aren’t based in much fact. That’s why we gave examples of why we think these people are brain dead. Here’s the thing: We know that Mark Norris is not a racist, but that doesn’t mean that he doesn’t use anti-Memphis votes for his political benefit. We know he’s not a racist, but when your votes are essentially anti-African-American, it’s hard to understand the difference.
Anonymous 3:58: We shouldn’t sell Memphis short. We visit an awful lot of cities in our work, and no city is more deliberate about getting diversity at the table than Memphis. No city. So, it has to be about more than getting people at the table. It has to be about what MLK called (loosely quoting) the web of mutuality that holds us all together.