Before I get to Ray Nagin, two things.
First, check out this link. It’s a performance the glee club at my nephew’s school did in commemoration of the institution’s most famous alumnus, Martin Luther King. As you probably could guess, the nephew’s a member of the glee club. Too proud of the young fella am I.
Also, lemme summarize yesterday’s mailbag for you. There were two kinds of e-mails. The ones I like the most sounded like this–“great article.”
The rest–and an overwhelming majority, from what I read before I got tired–“you’re a fucking moron who has never seen a basketball in your life. Kobe’s the greatest ever! You’re just a Kobe hater!”
I could see how someone would think the last one, even though I think he’s incredibly talented. It just so happens he’s just as misguided. But that’s what I think, not what I feel. As long as I’m writing from what I think, I’m doing what I’m supposed to do.
And I’ll say I met Kobe in September. He was very nice, especially considering how nervous I was about being in a locker room for the first time. I’ll always be grateful to him for that. That, however, has nothing to do with his shot selection.
Now, onto the Mayor. Seems the world is up in arms about him saying New Orleans should remain “chocolate.” While his statement was funny at parts, he did raise a legitimate concern.

After the hurricane, many of my militant folks had the same concern–that black people would be priced out of the rebuilding of New Orleans. I’m not sure what I think should be done about areas like the Lower Ninth Ward, but let’s assume for now they will be rebuilt. The fear that many had was that Katrina lent itself for easy gentrification. Since everything had to be built from the ground up, it would be easy for developers to maximize profits and put up dwellings that the most recents residents of the Lower Ninth wouldn’t be able to afford. All the white folks that have left New Orleans over the last fifty years–and most of them had damn good reason–would return and the most recent residents would be left with nowhere to go.
(You can check the last New Orleans post and see that I can understand not rebuilding that area but I’m very uncool with it being gentrified in the traditional sense.)
So when Nagin says New Orleans should stay chocolate, he’s right. While a lot of folks stand to make a lot of money rebuilding New Orleans, they can’t be allowed to do so in a way that forces the black folks out. Period.
Really, what’s the big deal about that?
Oh yeah, Nagin phrased that terribly. Criticisms that his statements were divisive aren’t far from the mark. Ray would have been cool had he not mentioned his indifference to the opinions of the folks “uptown.” For those unfamiliar with the city, uptown’s where the white folks live. Once Nagin said that, he did throw up a division.
Well, no. He mentioned a long standing division. He basically said that the sky was blue. No harm in that. But considering he did so in an overall folksy tone, tinged with really unexpected religious imagery (something about this being what God wants). It definitely had an us vs. them tone, and you just can’t talk like that when you’re the mayor. I hope his loyalty to blackness is greater than his affection to his office, but his office precludes that sort of tone.
Because had I heard a white man say something similar, it would take me for a loop. The big difference, though, is that I rarely hear rational white leaders say stuff like that. It usually comes out sounding like, “the niggers are taking over!” Which is usually preposterous because it’s been a long time since we took anything over that anyone would want.
But Ray made himself sound like a lot of those folks when he made that statement. As a politician, that was silly. That’s hard to deny.
What makes little sense to me is the outrage of white New Orleansians. They’ve lived in this chocolate city for who knows how long. What Nagin said was that he wants the city, demographically, to remain the way it was. That would be the same way the folks uptown seemed to be very comfortable with.
So where’s the beef?
It just seems to me this is another case where the method of presentation offended more people than the actual words. It’s also pretty funny when folks are stunned at the use of the term “chocolate.” Goddam, am I the only person that listens to Parliament? Has the Congress ever been offended that they work in DC, aka Chocolate City? Get a grip, man.
So that’s the way I see it. I’m too sore to type anymore.