Event organized to enlighten those behind Philly Mag's 'Being White in Philly' piece
Organizers hope Philadelphians of all races will turn out next week for an event at Love Park called "Being in Philly." The gathering, scheduled for 4 p.m. on March 20, is in response to a controversial Philadelphia magazine cover story called "Being White In Philly." In the piece, based on anonymous interviews, Ron Huber makes the claim that white people are afraid to talk about race for fear of being called racist.
Event organized to enlighten those behind Philly Mag's 'Being White in Philly' piece
Jenice Armstrong, Daily News Columnist
UPDATE: The Being in Philly event has been postponed due to possibily inclement weather.
Organizers hope Philadelphians of all races will turn out next week for an event at Love Park called “Being in Philly.” The gathering, scheduled for 4 p.m. on March 20, is in response to a controversial Philadelphia magazine cover story called “Being White In Philly.” In the piece, based on anonymous interviews, Robert Huber makes the claim that white people are afraid to talk about race for fear of being called racist.
The article has a lot of problems, many of them well documented already. But the first-day-of-spring event isn’t so much to address the issue of bad journalism but to present another view of what’s happening in Philly.
“The goal is to have an intellectual dialogue and discourse that promotes a positive outcome and interactive cultural understanding,” Chris Norris, a lead organizer, told me last week.
Organizers also hope to bring Huber, the author of ‘Being White in Philly,’ to Love Park to introduce him around.
“To introduce him to organizations like Rising Sons and to introduce him to the Black Male Engagement Project that the Knight Foundation is spending millions and millions of dollars on to change the narrative in this city and Baltimore and Detroit. To introduce him to people like Gregory Walker (founder of the Brothers Network)…Gregory Corbin and Solomon Jones. That’s the goal. Not to make him feel scared, to make him feel like there’s going to be an angry black mob waiting for him. That there’s going to be intellectual black men waiting with open arms to embrace him because, hey, he needs a hug. “
Organizers hope Philly mag will respond by writing some sort of piece of follow up to Huber’s piece.
“We want to encourage Philly magazine to write a part 2 (called) being a Philadelphian. Not being white. Not being black. But being a Philadelphian. That’s really important,” pointed out Rashaun Williams, 18, a Temple University sociology and history major who's helping organize the gathering.
In addition to all that, organizers say there will be free musical performances and a water ice giveaway. Editors at Philly mag also have been invited.
Philly Mag's goal has been accomplished. I'm sure all they wanted to do was generate buzz for the story, not actually put out a piece of responsible journalism.— NotMyRealName123- No comment ...
— Copper34 - Did Jenice Armstrong really just almost accuse someone else of "bad journalism?" LOL - that's great!
Hey Jenice, do you solemnly vow to one day show us all what good journalism looks like? Ha ha ha
By the way hon, Phillydotcom's built-in spellchecker labels your first name as a misspelled word! Peace out. - Toby, Oprah and Obama until very (VERY) recently also were not in spellcheckers.
In a slanted society that blames Blacks for urban crime while glorifying the Mafia and making another movie about 'Jack the Ripper' you raise a good point.— Cuddles 
...just leave us regular white guys alone and stop being a victim...pleeze...- Why give these attention mongers the publicity (and money) they are looking for. Cancel the mag, ignore the website and live by the golden rule in the city of brotherly love.— Earl J
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Maybe if the "Race Card" was not constantly played over and over again.....things would be different....— Manny Trillo - How condescending can you get? It wasn't bad jounalism because it has the white liberal apologist all in a tither and the black professional whiners shrilling. Way to go Mr Huber we need more jounalist like you.— MWW-54
- I enjoyed the article and have had similar experiences. I worked in Logan and Olney for years and and was called a racist more than you can imagine. I was a standard customer service job, but still, any time I upheld a policy, I was racist. Good job Philly Mag for finally saying it. — gillo79
- Manny, of the first four comments, you're the only one that got it right. Us white folk are tired of being painted as priveliged and entitled, while living through the John Street era of "the Brothas and Sisters are running the city. he forgot to mention right into the ground.— jcc1960
- Hmmm, I never got the "entitled" part. Privileged and rich, yes.
But, I remember the day Street made that infamous comment. All I could say is, "I didn't vote for him". But, it sure did marginalize me. But, you can't expect anything less from him.— PotteryPete - So much for "not being white, not being black but being a Philadelphian," huh? Nice comments, guys.— NotMyRealName123
- Sadly, to a certain degree in Philly, if you are white and criticize another person from another group, you run the risk of being profiled as a racist. Remember reporter Jeff Cole when he exposed a councilman's staffer who was paid full time to work part time? She accused Cole of being a member of the KKK.— TR3
- She was an obvious idiot, using stupid folks to justify your point is not helping your argument. I agree there are many false claims of racism but there are also legitimate issues that many whites like to ignore.
— daphillytarheel
Read more from Jenice Armstrong at Earth to Philly, the Daily News blog on anything and everything "Green."
Reach Jenice at armstrj@phillynews.com.
