A sad commentary on the ghosts of Philly past
Chris Matthews didn't know black people growing up in Philly
A sad commentary on the ghosts of Philly past
I had "Morning Joe" on MSNBC (I know, I know) on in the background during your typical insipid pundit patter about Barack Obama, race, blah blah blah when Joe Scarborough said something that grabbed my attention. He said that Obama provoked some strong reactions among older white males, and that:
Chris Matthews told me he’d never been around a black man until he was in college.
If you didn't know better, the viewer might think that Matthews is from South Dakota or something.
But Chris Matthews is from (originally) Nicetown, right next to the heart of North Philly:
Chris Matthews loved politics from a young age — starting at around 5, his brothers say. He spent a lot of time with his grandfather Charles Patrick Shields, a Democratic committeeman from the working class North Philadelphia neighborhood of Nicetown. Shields’s “office” was a neighborhood newsstand. “He was a good man of the parish,” Chris’s younger brother Jim told me. Chris revered him. “I think Tip O’Neill reminded Chris a little of Grandpa,” Jim added, meaning they both fit the urban-ethnic prototype of the backslapping operator from the neighborhood.
Matthews’s father, Herb, was a court reporter and worked all the time. Chris spent his early childhood in a row house, before the family moved to Somerton, a leafy neighborhood at Philadelphia’s northeast tip. The boys went to Catholic schools and took family trips to a summer house on the Jersey shore. The family generally voted Republican. Chris loved John F. Kennedy in 1960, but wound up falling harder for Nixon by the end and cried when he lost. “We weren’t a huggy family — we had our fracases — but we basically got along,” Jim Matthews, now the Republican chairman of the board of commissioners in Montgomery County, Pa., told me.
What's kind of sad is that I doubt that Matthews, a 1963 graduate of La Salle College High School, was lying to Joe Scarborough, nor can you really find fault with him. I wasn't there, but from what I know it was highly possibly and perhaps probable for someone like Matthews to grow up in a Balkanized city with a huge African-American population (more than 40 percent today, although it was less then) and yet not really know a black person.
That's a reminder of both how far we've come as a city in 50 years -- but also the deep roots of some of the problems that still exist today.
I'll give you that Montani— Damgoodbodies- And its fine as long as the audience understands that.— RG
- "That's a reminder of both how far we've come as a city in 50 years -- but also the deep roots of some of the problems that still exist today." exactly how far have we come, Will? seems to me that the city is a crime ridden cess pool....if anything, we've gone backwards....and 50 years of liberal rule and entitlements are my reasons for why decent people cant take a walk at night in most areas of philly— TR
- I don't believe anything Joe S says - especially because he speaks of nothing but racial and sexist characteristics. His 'man-of-the-people' attitude is a joke and is too much like Shrubs 'haves and have-nots' - the don't-really-care-about-people-that-are-not-like-me attitude. He's disgusting.— pal
- TR let me guess, you live in the suburbs...— Politburo
- Let me tell you one thing. Nicetown was 90-95% black since 1960 when Mathews was 4-5 years old so I am certain he did not grow up there. Matthews fancies himself some big, poignant thinker but he is just a tried and true far left liberal. He is a lot like Will.— justablogger
- One small correction justablogger....if Matthews graduated from LaSalle High in 1963 as Will says, then he was 4-5 years old around 1950.— legatus
- I tend to give Matthews a break because he was right about Iraq. I sometimes think that's the only thing he gets right because he hates Bill Clinton et ux. I tend not to give Scarborough a break because he was outrageous (and wrong) during the Terri Schiavo case. He sucked on Hannity's lying about the 2 nurses and jeebus he had Moron O'Donnell as his familiar. The Flying Spaghetti monster bless Pa. if Matthews does run for the Senate. I'd vote for a dead Arlen Specter before I'd vote for Tweety.— koolhand
- Chris Matthews grew up in Oreland, PA (Springfield, Montgomery county), which is near LaSalle High School (having moved there from Nicetown at some point). I live in Oreland now. Oreland is something like 12% african american, but it wouldn't surprise me if Springfield Township had few if any blacks when he was growing up.— mrsnrub
- I find it hard to believe Matthews could live in Nicetown and not come across any Black people. I mean, no delivery men, no postal workers, no bus drivers, taxi drivers. I grew up in a town in Philly suburbs, met Black folks at an early age, went to the Catholic high school which had a dozen or so Black kids that we all got along with, played ball suring the summer with Black kids, respected the Black coaches of other CYO teams, etc. who went out of their way to help not only their players, but ours. So, unless Matthews spent his early years stuck inside his house, I find it hard to believe he was never around Black men until he went to college. That he might not have spent a lot of time playing ball or hanging around at dances with them, maybe. Otherwise, it makes for a good story.— mike l
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