If you reached this Balkingpoints article by direct external link, stop by the front page for a rotating satellite view of the earth at night

Childhood home of Muhammad Ali in Louisville

Where is John Mellencamp when you need him…

Saw an article about the childhood home of Muhammad Ali going up for sale & it sort of got me going on the topic.

There is a long ancillary about racially segregated Louisville, and “white flight” from it’s west end suburbs. A ton of race relations history that is not the purview of this article. Including what was no less than a terrorist attack upon the home of an African-American family in Shively (1954). And the persecution of Carl Braden for helping that family.

My mom knew his wife Anne. Carl & Anne Braden were both in the trenches for social justice and racial equality in Louisville, in an era when rampant bigotry made that a very risky thing.

Can speak as a resident / 1960’s as a kid, 1970’s through 1984. I would gather there has been a gradual creep of integrated suburbs since that time.

White Flight went on through & beyond the period in which Ali lived in the west end house above. Both of my parents grew up there when it was caucasian suburbia. They were in other cities for a while in their 20’s – then when they returned and were able to buy a starter house, they bought in the east end.

Neither were racist and they never taught us that. Yet they still moved away from a racially-changing part of Louisville.

The east end was highly segregated in my childhood. Just a few Af-Am kids at our schools. Federal fair housing laws were essential to help change a prevailing dynamic of housing discrimination. Court-ordered busing to create integrated schools, came about in the 1970’s across numerous cities.

Although I ducked out of busing by the assignment system (first letter of last name), I volunteered for urban Central High School for 2 years. Students from all over the east end schools were there via busing and I made friends I never would have otherwise.

The schools were effectively, still segregated after busing. White & Black socialized with their own, with some exceptions of course. What it accomplished was a lot less transparent. It puts one in proximity racially & you slowly build a comfort level that you’d be precluded from in a segregated school.

Busing has long since gone defunct – replaced by magnet schools and relaxed requirements of racial student makeup. It was a fraught system from the standpoint of parents being a long way away from their child during the school day. As mandates go it was rather draconian, but arguably a kick-starter for a future of declining segregation. More acceptance of ethnic diversity, less ignorance & fear.

Ali helped change attitudes also. Local kid wins the Olympic gold medal and goes on to be regarded as the greatest boxer ever. Boxing was a major sport back then, the top fighters were household names and pretty much everyone I knew was an Ali fan.

Of course that applies on a national level as well – Ali, Jackie Robinson, Jim Brown, Bill Russell – talented athletes who were also catalysts for racial tolerance & integration.

Roy@Balkingpoints

Published 2024 / all rights reserved

If you reached this Balkingpoints article by direct external link, stop by the front page for a rotating satellite view of the earth at night

         

The Lennon memorial “Strawberry Fields” 12/8/2023 in NYC

It was 43 years ago today…

An inartful way to phrase the death of John Lennon. December 8, 1980.

Beside the tragedy is a jarring backstory. John – now arguably a godfather of modern progressive values – had become a quite vocal activist against the Vietnam war. He had taken up residence in New York City after the breakup of the Beatles, and sitting President Nixon wanted him dealt with. Nixon was like that.

Nixon tried to deport John. Lennon got an attorney and went into legal stall tactics. It worked. Within a couple of years Nixon was dealing with his Watergate scandal and being forced to resign in 1974. Additionally, Nixon had agreed in 1973 to a peace treaty to end the Vietnam war.

So John got through the cracks, Gerald Ford had no reason to hassle him and John stayed in NYC.

In fact Ford wanted a domestic healing after that war, granting amnesty to draft evaders.

And this is the problem: Had Nixon succeeded in sending John back to UK, he isn’t shot on 12/8/1980 in New York and may well still be alive (age 83).

😬

Roy@Balkingpoints

Published 2023 / all rights reserved

If you reached this Balkingpoints article by direct external link, stop by the front page for a rotating satellite view of the earth at night

My tweet above to the Dem debate moderators. Sure enough, Dana Bash asked the question. Here is the clip >

It’s possible of course she was already planning to ask it. The reason I wanted it in, and had asked moderators in previous debates to include it, is that it’s a debilitating retort to something I consider fundamentally dishonorable. Sanders has been citing Hillary’s Super PAC and corporate campaign contributors, and her speaking fees for months as if that automatically made her guilty of selling off her votes & views.

Sanders knows it’s garbage. He knows he has zero evidence she ever let contributions affect her policy positions, and that Barack Obama and Bill Clinton stood up against corporate interests and for working Americans many times – even though that kind of contribution helped them get elected.

Sanders has wanted to just run with the innuendo, imply she is corrupt and never have to back it up with any concrete example. It’s Rovian, and he was finally busted on it Thursday night.

He gives what appears to be an entirely unprepared answer – remarkable in itself. First he says Hillary’s decision that supports his months of guilt insinuation, is the 2008 Wall Street crash. Then he makes the brand new point that she takes money…

Pretty weak.

You don’t publicly impugn someone’s honesty and character, unless you can prove what you are saying. Sorry Mr. Sanders, it’s sleaze politics.

Roy@Balkingpoints

Published 2016 / all rights reserved