What Philadelphia does Philadelphia Magazine Represent?

Forget for a minute the photo above.....I'm going to talk about that article in a minute....For the record...let me say that I did not purchase this edition of what I call "So Called Philadelphia"Magazine..I'm not going to make them one damn dime richer for printing the drunken ramblings of some guy who went to a bar, got loaded and then went home to his mother's basement and got on the computer and wrote this rant which is so very close to being racist that I was close to writing a verbal complaint to the editor.

I read the article or parts of it on line...It appears that it's writer is the type who watches FOX news and doesn't talk to anybody except other people who watch FOX News and believes that every black person in Philadelphia has what he calls 'Moral Poverty", none of us hold down a job or pay taxes and all of us begin stealing from the time we can crawl.....

Enough on him and his stupid article...I have a problem with so called Philadelphia Magazine...I've had a problem with it for years now....It's called Philadelphia Magazine...It's a beautiful magazine with nice glossy photos and sometimes great articles about the movers and shakers in the region..and here is the problem..

Leaf through it....Very rarely do you actually see an actual Philadelphia neighborhood....You see Wynnewood, Villanova, Springfield, West Chester....All suburbs of our city....With the exception of our mayor and a few public officials who happen to be Black , you hardly ever see a black face.

Oh, you might see an Athlete, Mike Vick, Allen Iverson, or Music star, John Legend...He went to Penn...He's not actually a Philadelphian....but that's it....

This city is 49 percent African-American, it also boasts a huge Latino population, Asian population and other nationalities such as Dominicans, West Indians, Africans, what have you and yet none of these demographics are represented.....

When they show houses for sale....It's never a house that I or anybody I know could afford....Never any neighborhoods I have been in....In fact....If I was from say, Europe and I picked up this magazine...I would think that very few Blacks ,Latins and Asians actually live in Philadelphia and that it was made up of tony cul de sacs...

Which brings me to my question.....What Philadelphia does Philadelphia magazine represent???

II-

Now as for that funky racist article....

The writer, a Robert Huber wrote this article based on conversations he claims to have had with of course anonymous and un named white citizens who confided to him (of course) the asertations he made that white Philadelphians don’t merely avoid the poor, predominantly African-American neighborhoods, but ''do their best to erase them' from their thoughts due to the feelings of unease over questions of race.

 Much of the story consists of vignettes gathered by the author from his interviews with white residents about misunderstandings and confrontations with their black neighbors, like the 26-year-old high school teacher who was accused of being racist for calling an unruly African-American student 'boy' in the heat of an argument.

A Caucasian student from Villanova University told Huber she had faced a similar situation when she sent a Facebook message to her entire class asking if anyone had picked up her lost BlackBerry, only to be scolded by the sole black girl in her lab class who perceived her message to be directed at her.

In one interview with a Russian ''beauty'' whom Hubert met in the Fairmount section of town, the woman he dubbed ''Anna'' told him that 'blacks use skin color as an excuse,' and rather than work and pay taxes, 'they are sitting on porches smoking pot' and ''just make babies.''

 An 87-year-old man named 'John' recalled an encounter with a young boy who came into his house saying: 'It was a nigger boy, a big tall kid. He wanted money.''

The tone of the piece, which explores the idea that white people are afraid to speak out about their concerns over race relations for fear of being labelled intolerant, has set off a firestorm in the media, with many in the African-American community accusing the author of the piece and the magazine of race-baiting. ''My first instinct upon reading “White in Philly” was to slam my head against my desk. My second was to fire off a takedown explaining why it was racist and terrible,' journalist Jamilah Lemieux wrote in a reaction piece published by Ebony.

You know I wanted to do the same thing....but I refuse to make this guy any more famous or infamous than he already is...Has he not rode a bus or the El or the Subway?? Doe he not see thousands of Black people, Men and women going to work everyday?  Has not his anonymous "russian beauty"?

This smacks of so much "reverse racism whining" that I hear  so many of that FOX NEWS crowd whining about...I'm not going to deny that too many of my people are in fact, sitting around getting high and making babies when they could be out at least looking for a job....but in fact...I can ride in any neighborhood in this city and see people of all races  doing the same thing...I suggest Mr. Huber travel to Kensington, Fishtown, Little Norway, Pigtown and parts of Mayfair and he'll see some of his own people doing the same thing....

There are good ,decent ,law abiding ,tax paying people in every race.....and unfortunately there are slackers, who wouldn't work in a pie factory type of people in every race too....Watch the ID Channel, Watch A&E...You'll see....

Most people with a smidgen of common sense realize this...

So, Mr. Huber and all of the people he allegedly interviewed can whine and holler to the top of their lungs...I'm not going to patronize them and I'm going to sit that issue of Philadelphia magazine out...I still read it from time to time ,I confess...Hoping I'll see someone in there that looks like me...

Who knows...maybe they'll let me write a guest editorial one day........(Not after reading this blog post!)

but.....Hope Springs Eternal!