N.O. Public Housing: It's Both a Floor Wax and a Dessert Topping
By Vladimir Posted in Culture | New Orleans | Public Housing — Comments (3) / Email this page » / Leave a comment »
Times-Picayune columnist Jarvis DeBerry cogently points out that the protesters in New Orleans seem to want to have it both ways: the Projects represent both Degrading Human Warehouses Built by The Man to Keep Black People in Shackles and Idyllic Affordable Housing for the People.
Public Housing: Plot or Paradise?
Do you believe that the American government was engaged in a conspiracy against black people when it began building huge apartment complexes that served to concentrate poverty?
Or, do you believe that the American government's hatred for black people is evident in its decision to tear down huge apartment complexes that were occupied exclusively by the poor?
Of course, you are free to believe that neither is true, that there wasn't a conspiracy then and that there isn't a conspiracy now. If, however, you are one who believed that the projects were built for black people's destruction and degradation, don't expect to be listened to now if you're arguing that the destruction of said projects is a plot against those same black people.
A foolish consistency may indeed be the hobgoblin of little minds, but a foolish inconsistency is symptomatic of even smaller brains. Either that, or such inconsistency indicates the refusal of that person to be honest enough to try to work toward a real resolution. Fisticuffs indicate the same thing.
[snip]Wednesday morning, I visited the home of a 71-year-old woman who can't understand why Road Home has suddenly declared her ineligible to receive money to repair her home. She told me of her personal struggle as a factory worker and domestic to get out of the Fischer projects and buy the home that now needs repair. She'd wept, she told me, when she saw footage of people trying to fight their way back into the kind of environment she'd worked so hard to escape.
[emphasis added -- the hobgoblin part is for you, gamecock... ed.]
Please read the entire column.
One has to wonder, which is more responsible for keeping the black underclass down these days: institutional racism, or their "leadership's" habitual embrace of victimhood as the explanation for everything bad that happens?
Section 8 tenants will complain about the tiniest things that a paying tenant would never complain about... and the state will back them up and force you to fix them. 99 times out of 100, it is the tenant herself that caused the problem they are complaining about. Sometimes on purpose, just to "stick it to the man" (aka landlord).
I have a landlord friend that had a drug dealer in his house (Section 8 of course) and there was nothing he could do about it except hope she moved out on her own. Maybe that's what this woman's story is too. Not sure how else she affords a TV like that when she can't pay her own rent.
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Underlying most arguments against the free market is a lack of belief in freedom itself. - Milton Friedman
...would make my head hurt. Probably enough to go to the emergency room. No wonder she feels like a victim.
There is more stupidity than hydrogen in the universe, and it has a longer shelf life. - Frank Zappa
One of my little sisters sent me a Times-Picayune article about this one lady who's been one of the most visible complainers. My sister's comment was similar to the letter to the editor below, except her comment was a little more colorful: "Good thing she gets rent vouchers or she might not be able to afford that f***ing big screen TV." She also noted this doesn't exactly look like what most of us picture as a slum dwelling.
There are a zillion comments here that are pretty funny. It also has this picture and caption.
Sharon Jasper sits in the living room of her voucher-backed private residence. "I might be poor but I don't like to live poor. I thank God for a place to live but it's pitiful what people give you."