A Tough Row to Hoe

I and some readers have been discussing racism in the context of the format change of a regional radio station hip hop to rock over at my podcast in a post entitled "Hip Hop and Madison Racism". (Since there is a delay with comments appearing on the site, hit "Post A Comment" to read the latest.) el gunate (not sure if he's doing the ee cummings thing or not) wrote in a comment:

and racism is a slippery issue. we can shut down clubs and radio stations for all kinds of non-racist reasons, but if the people affected by those actions are predominately people of color, the overall effect is a racist one. that can be hard to grasp for a lot of well-meaning people, but that's the nature of racism today.

So there I was in a very interesting discussion about race here in my own backyard and now I read about white flight in Atlanta where a suburb of mostly whites wants to secede. It's a wonderful illustration of what el guante said.

The wealthy whites say it's an effort to create a smaller, more manageable government to address their concerns:

Supporters say it is a quest for more responsive government in a county with a population greater than that of six states.

"The only way to fix Fulton County is to dismantle Fulton County," said state Rep. Jan Jones, the plan's chief sponsor. "It's too large, and certainly too dysfunctional, to truly be considered local government."

Folks on the other side are saying that it will only lead to disaster:

Opponents say the measure is racially motivated and will pit white against black, rich against poor.

About 25 miles to the south in downtown Atlanta, the Rev. J. Allen Milner said he is afraid the tax revenue loss would have a devastating effect on those who need government help the most.

"If you take that money out of their coffers, human services will suffer greatly," said Milner, a black man who runs a homeless mission and is pastor of the Chapel of Christian Love Church.

Critics of a split also worry about the future of Grady Memorial Hospital and the Atlanta area's MARTA commuter-rail system — both of which have contracts with the county.

Madison has a comparatively easier situation to deal with when contrasted with Atlanta but, no matter where you are in this country, dealing with race and racism is a tough row to hoe.