News-Record.com

Doug, duh.......like where ya'll been for...ah....the last three yrs.?

Ah...wait. that's right. Ah...selling real estate, fretting, Hamlet-like over conflicting emotions and loyalites, and reluctant to wade into another town's cesspool when you yourself don't live there.

Uh, Skeet ... I'm talking about 30 years since 1979.

As usual, you're talking about something else.

Doug, I'm talking about the exact same thing you are, only it's been focused more acutely on the last three yrs.

How else are those who make their names and, or living off of racism going to sustain themselves? These people NEED to keep stuff like this in the foreground so the rest of us NEVER forget! Even those of us whose families came to this country LONG after the fact.

What else would they use to lay blame, if not topics like 1979?

i'm not sure why, but the word whose just looks funny to me - could it be who's?

Poor Goldie Wells. The lingering lesson of 1979 is that people never felt that the whole truth was known. Decades later, that belief still persisted. Goldie Wells, in her attempts now to sweep the recent controversy under the rug and cloak them in secrecy is condemning Greensboro to another 30-year scourge of suspicion and mistrust. Seems she hasn't learned a damn thing.

Might have been useful to have gone after this before. After one race- hysteria event after another ie: The Black Book, the Klan record- disposal hoax/ scandal, the secret taping of black community leaders, it would have been luxurious to have an objective editorialist do something with this. The N&R staff has had plenty of chances. It would have been a chance to benefit the community. Instead the N&R seemingly evolved a bunker-down mentality, choosing instead to fight a guerrilla war on the blogs.

Actually, we're still waiting.

30 years is nothing. These same mindless fools are still blaming slavery (150-450 years ago) for every problem they have today! 500 years from now this same mindset will still be blaming slavery for their problems, and it will be 530 since the shootout, and they'll still be wanting to rehash it. Incredible, because the vast majority of us didn't care about it in 1979.

End reparations now! Get rid of minority districts and save us from the Bellamy-Smalls, and Goldie Wells' of the world!

How can we "get past" the racial history of our community when we have the N&R (spurred on by the black race-baiters in GSO who make their living off of it) stirring it up at every opportunity?

That's a false assertion.

This whole Wray thing is a fascinating study and would make a great Poli-Sci project. It shows how everybody approaches a subject form a different viewpoint. depending on their individual bias and nature.

You have the N&R clinging to it's ambivalence (after all Mitch stood up against racism right?). You have the Rhino with it's slant (I think I would have stopped after say 50 installments). Tuesday's Yes Weekly editorial is really kind of schizoid following their quality and unequalled, in-depth coverage of the Sanders trial two weeks ago, where they concluded the Sanders trial was (exact quote) "b.s.". How you can believe the Sanders trial was b.s. and have a town manager lock a police chief out of his office for a black book that was later explained and somehow declare this "non- b.s." and say the manager shouldn't have been fired is hard to follow. Not sure how you get that under one tent. However, when you think about it, Yes Weekly is a rock n' roll paper. Combating racism is sixties and rock and roll, right? A police chief getting fired due to reverse racism and an opportunistic inexperienced town mgr, doesn't follow the rock n'roll weekly template is most decidedly NOT rock'n roll.

So what do you take away?

You have to make up your own mind, I guess

Doug,

I agree with jaycee:

"How can we "get past" the racial history of our community when we have the N&R (spurred on by the black race-baiters in GSO who make their living off of it) stirring it up at every opportunity?

Posted on March 12, 2009 3:44 PM"

. . . which you replied, "That's a false assertion.

Posted on March 12, 2009 3:49 PM"

The N&R does insert racial negatives where there is no need to.

See my post to Mr. Robinson's post "Going conservative" on February 1st.

I would love your perspective of my comments.

You made several posts on that string (Jan. 30, not Feb. 1), so I'd ask you to be more specific in your question to me. Thanks.

The opinion posted on February 1st concerning the Sit In museum articles.

I'm sorry. I'm just not finding what you're referring to.

To elaborate slightly on my response to jaycee, however, I believe it's wrong to say the N&R stirs up racial turmoil at every opportunity.

I would concede there have been times when the N&R has given too much coverage to people who do stir up racial turmoil, but to say at every opportunity is an absurd exaggeration.

Coverage of the anniversary of the sit-ins is positive. Everyone in Greensboro should recognize the importance of that event. It's a good part of Greensboro history.

This is why I think the N&R does try to keep racism at the forefront in Greensboro:
Nobody, Really said: (in response to a prior post between myself and Mr. Robinson)

Dear John,

You asked for my opinion of the stories today, and here it is.

Yes, good stories concerning the Civil Rights Museum. I am sure the majority of people that read these stories will be thrilled to learn the impending completion of this museum is right around the corner thanks to the new financing. Local readers will probably be especially happy to see that it is not with taxpayer money given Greensboro voters defeated two bonds.

However, there were a couple of disappointing moments. The stories: "Tax credit sale propels civil rights museum", and "Edward Cone: Friendship steeled young men for their historic act of resolve" I felt gave great information, are good reporting and stories.

My disappointment came in Civil rights museum nears the finish line. Let’s start with the headings Ms. Wireback used:

Civil rights museum nears the finish line
Bomb shards, a historic chair
'An embarrassment'
'Nothing wasteful'
At last, an end in sight
The price of progress

Where does “An embarrassment” and “Nothing wasteful” expound on the main heading? “An embarrassment” could have been “The beginnings of a long road” or “The (unknown) long road ahead”. Why take Mr. Melvin’s inflammatory words and make a paragraph heading from it? The quote is fine because it is someone else’s words and Mr. Melvin is expressing his opinion, therefore cannot be contributed to any staff opinion. “Nothing wasteful” could have been “The lengthening of the road” or “Delays of progress”. “Nothing wasteful” is presented as a quote, but that is not what Mr. Moore said, it is paraphrasing what Mr. Moore said, but exudes a defensive posture by the museum supporters and thereby inflammatory.

In my opinion, this is the crux of what the complainers are talking about. This is where “opinion” and “spin” and the “views” of staff come into play. Everyone knows you are trying to sell papers, and controversy and sensationalism sell papers. But it was totally unnecessary with this article.

In the beginning, it is an article telling Greensboro we are moving forward. The headline is positive – moving forward. Then it is marred by the points above along with racism sprinkled in. Some examples:

“Over the years, more than a few Greensboro residents have grown impatient with the project and a 15-year string of optimistic projections, including one that the museum would open as early as 1999, followed by crushed hopes and recriminations along the same racial lines the museum aims to bridge.” Would the message being conveyed in the sentence be any less without the additional phrase of "and recriminations along the same racial lines the museum aims to bridge."?

“The project has been dogged by murmurs from some, mainly white critics, who cite no evidence but assert that some of the money has been misspent or misappropriated.” What is the point of including “mainly white critics” other that to stir racist feelings? Again, would the message of the sentence be any less without these words?

“Among some of the city's African American residents, there is a corresponding sense the project is taking so long because of latent racism, intransigence by white community leaders and, perhaps, their antipathy toward Jones and Sit-In's equally controversial co-founder, Melvin "Skip" Alston, chairman of the Guilford County Board of Commissioners.” Now this is where I think "intransigence by white community leaders" was an appropriate example of the racism that plagued the project. It is historical, factual and does impact the message of the sentence.

I my opinion, this article and the Civil Right Museum should be showing Greensboro is moving forward. But with the inflammatory and racist instances I have pointed out, it keeps throwing us back. Greensboro is unique with the continued racial issues it continues to battle. When I tell non-residents of what we have going on they are amazed. It is my opinion, the News and Record continues to keep us going back. If the paper would not continue to place racial inferences in its stories, then it would stop being on the minds of your readers. What is the best way to get a teenager to do something you don’t want them to do? Tell them not to do it! Keep telling us not to be racist and we will continue to make it an issue.

This past week a couple of my fellow students (no I’m not as young as this implies) were talking about the racial choices on forms. My comment was we should all check “Other” and write in “Human”.

Posted on February 1, 2009 10:30 AM

Doug, I would be interested to your reaction to my comments.

I really don't want to go through that article point by point. You raise some valid criticisms about word choice here or there but you're inferring an intent, and I don't agree there is. Overall, the piece struck me as an honest, abreviated summary of the project to date. To say it was meant to further stir up tensions, I think, is inaccurate. That's my opinion.

Fair enough!

Thanks