Human Relations Commission disappointed with "Being White in Philly" article
And some people say we don't talk enough about race.
Human Relations Commission disappointed with "Being White in Philly" article
Jenice Armstrong, Daily News Columnist
And some people say we don't talk enough about race. Five years ago today, Pres. Obama gave his famous speech on the topic at the National Constitution Center.
Tonight, the Consitution Center will be host a panel discussion on race, that was prompted by Philadelphia Magazine's controversial March cover story called, "Being White in Philly."
Meanwhile, the Philadelphia Human Relations Commission has sent a letter to Tom McGrath, editor of Philadelphia Magazine, expressing concern about the piece and invited McGrath and his colleagues to attend the commission's next public meeting on April 18 to be held in the Fairmount/Brewerytown area of the city. No location has been determined as of yet.
"Like the mayor and a multitude of other community and faith-based leaders, the PCHR finds the the article's hyperbolic rhetoric serves little to no useful purpose except to offend the city's African American community at large," Rue Landau said in a letter to McGrath. Read the full letter here.
Comments (42)
Don't want to offend the African American at large? Is it racist to say that, in Philadelphia, almost every murder and violent crime is committed by a Black man. Why won't Black leaders ever address this fact?— farley- Hey how about the fact that Jesse Jackson said if he hears someone lurking behind him in a city and then sees a white guy, he feels relieved. How damning is that? — hipdaddy
- This is blatantly false. If you are murdered in the city of philadelphia, you are most likely black. If you are doing the killing you can be black or white in about equal numbers. Please feel free though to think your racist thoughts are confirmed by facts that don't exist.
http://www.phillypolice.com/about/crime-statistics/— jonline - I don't need to look at those stats to know African Americans are committing more murders than Caucasian.
- Did you even look at the statistics you linked to? — tr88
- You just lost all credibility when you said blacks and whites kill in equal numbers in this city. Not even Cuddles is backing you up on this one. — Gone Sovereign
- Jonline - Help me out and show me specifically WHERE it indicates what you are saying...
— Professor1982 - Jonline: What statistics are you viewing? Or are you just a member of the Phila Human Relations Commission? — Sammy from Macungie
- FYI: Jonline's own link displays the numbers in all their horror; Blacks make up 67-84% of murder victims overall (11 and 12)and black offenders were 66-84%. I will debate why this is occurring, but the facts themselves are irrefutable. — shirleyf
- Your point?— EP_Represent
- Much like Al Sharpton, Jesse Jackson, Southern Poverty Law Center, NAACP, where would the Human Relations Commission be if there wasnt any racism???
Just another example of Professional Victims.— Professor1982 - This backlash is the exact purpose of the article. Which is: A white man cant point things out without backlash of the AA community. They are validating his point loud and clear. I find the whole thing hysterically ironic.— hipdaddy
- The backlash is because it was a racist article. You can discuss race easily and freely n philadelhia if you don't come from the view of us and them. — jonline
- Philly.com and PhillyMag are just playing this article off of each other to drive up more buzz for themselves.— AreaMan
- The vigor and zeal that Democrats display in their attempts to silence speech they disagree with is truly amazing to witness. Maybe Landau and Mayor Urkel can show up at that next commission meeting in jack boots and nazi uniforms.— b,ill a,tkins
- The "Commission" has no power or relevance, so regardless of how stupid the article is, who cares what they think? The clowns at Philly Mag are laughing more each day at how much mention this thing is getting.— draka
- After all this blow-back, the author should be kicking himself for writing such a milquetoast article and not producing a more accurate, hard-hitting story--things are a lot worse than anything Huber managed to get into print; he should have gone big because the political machine doesn't want this topic discussed and will not tolerate anything like it again.— frontandwildey
- Bunch of idiots. The letter is dated 3/18.......2003 !— gonegator
- Gonegator: It's a numbers problem. Blame it on the (city) school system. Stooges obviously can't interpret statistics - spent all their time learning how to manipulate systems.
— Sammy from Macungie - We now have ceremonial semi-official sanction. Hooray for the status quo. No hope. No change.— tr88
- Whites move out of the city = White Flight
Whites move into the city = Generification
No matter what they do...their racist!— APhillyDump - Read the Philly Mag article for yourself. It rings true. We've been ignoring the elephant in the room too long. This is stand-up comedy, but it rings true - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6tkZuLixZOk.— DarnelX
- We dont talk about race. We get talked at by the failures in the race industry about race.— tr88
- the article's hyperbolic rhetoric serves little to no useful purpose except to offend the city's African American community at large
I'm white. I live in Philly. although I found the article insensitive and mainly a suburbanite perspective, there were some comments in the article that I thought were constructive and served a purpose. like saying living in Philly these days is scary and yall should know it. and guess what african americans know it and they shouldn't be offended by people saying it. everything is not OK. and what is being done to fix the enormous amount of violent crime????? what should come out of this? ACTION AGAINST THE CRIME AND ITS CONTRIBUTING FACTORS.
- I'm disappointed with the dysfunctionallity of too large a segment of the African American community.— Gimmemyfreestuff
Philadelphia Magazine is a racist publication, and they should not be allowed to sell their publication in the city. Our leaders of our city must protect us from hate speech!— BOOKKA- Bookka - The TRUTH is never racist nor anti-Semitic. — Professor1982
- Bookka - The TRUTH is never racist nor anti-Semitic. — Professor1982
- Did you read the article? — junethe4th
- In next month's Philadelphia Magazine: "Being Stupid in Philly: The Democrat Party's Response."— b,ill a,tkins
- or Being a Victim in Philly- the republican response. poor republicans are so ineffectual and always being put upon. so sad the cross republicans have to bear.
- anyone see the footage from CPAC of the republican arguing the decency of slavery (with an African American, no less)? when they provided food and shelter. you can't make this stuff up. republicans love slavery. are you guys going to run with this for the national platform in 2016?
It was about 1988 or so when the lightbulb went off inside me head during an Action News broadcast: "Hey, they sure have a lot of murders going on over there". Well, here we are, 2013 and we have special commissions that are designed to harass people for calling the kettle black. Black urban ghettos have turned into something out of "A Clockwork Orange" and the governments that lord over us something out of George Orwell's "1984".
If I were the editor or publisher of Philadelphia Magazine, the first thing I do tomorrow is find a location in Delaware or heaven forbid, New Jersey....- How many more days can theis rag squeeze out of this non-story? I think this has been on this website in some fashion for 5 straight days! Talk about beating a dead horse!— beermoney
- This article demonstrates why committees like these are useless. Regardless of how reckless or baseless the charges are, false claims of racism like those recently uttered by Marion Tasco never seem to catch their attention. Neither do claims of whites even when the claims are valid. The feelings of being stigmatized by race never are addressed when they come from whites. Considering that whites are now the minority in Philly committees and agencies like these need to acknowledge that racism is a two way street. I won't hold my breath. Evidence that claims of black racism are ignored is evidenced by what Attorney General Holder did by dropping the case against the New Black Panthers. If what they did that wasn't racist, nothing is. I guess these committees and agencies only care when blacks and minorities complain based on nothing more than a feeling.— JohnnyB.
- We don't need an article abut race to tell us what we all know. We've got real problems and no one wants to face up to them. The Mayor is in denial if he thinks all is well with race relations in the City, and he shouldn't criticize the author of the article, he should admit that things are bad and do something to address the problems. It starts by acknowledging who commits the crimes in the City and why. Also, he should admit that there are a lot of dangerous people wandering around.— Frankie75
- HRC = Thought Police— ObamaSolyndra
- Mayor Grover got pwnd by Huber. Grover fell for it hook, line, and sinker. Who knew AG Holder was talking about Grover and Philadelphia when he said we are a nation of cowards?— FreddyNits
- Another Armstrong, stir the racial pot, article. Gee, who would have guessed?? Obama giving a "famous speech"?? I must have missed that one. Shucks.— dogman5
- I am disappointed with a mayor who cannot realistically assess what is happening in his own city because he's too concerned with playing race politics instead of solving the city's problems, one of them being race relations. It's sad that Mike Nutter does not represent all residents of Philly. Who's the real racist, Mike? Shame.— DC
- Life could get worse if all good people decide to do nothing. Good people are the majority on all sides.Since all men and women have DNA that is 99.98% the same, let us strive to find what unites and helps each other. Evil is a moral issue and all sides need a spiritual resurrection. If people refuse to build from within the spirit, we will never be able to build within our communities. Wisdom must guide us; not fear.— denjamr
- I don't think people should let "racism" sideline the real topic here and that is Mayor Nutter(the government) wants to punish a man for speaking his mind.— Disaster
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What’s up, everyone? Welcome. Let's discuss whatever's on our minds - pop culture, relationships, politics, even the latest fashion trend. If you read my Daily News column, you know I like to mix it up: One day, it's the state of hip hop and the next, the latest political race. Also, it's always fun to try to figure out the opposite sex and check the latest trends. It’s all about learning from each other, exchanging ideas and hopefully making some changes for the better. Nothing is off limits - just keep it clean and civil.
Jenice Armstrong
Daily News Columnist
Read more from Jenice Armstrong at Earth to Philly, the Daily News blog on anything and everything "Green."
Reach Jenice at armstrj@phillynews.com.
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