Shadow And Act

On Media Of The African Diaspora – Emphasis On Cinema

Watch Now – “Searching For Whitopia” (Diversity Does Not Mean Integration)

By Tambay, on November 28th, 2009

Starting in 2007, Rich Benjamin, a senior fellow at a nonpartisan think-tank, and, more significantly, an African American, spent two years traveling through America’s whitest communities – locales in Idaho, Utah and even pockets of New York City – where, according to his research, more and more white people have been seeking refuge from the increasingly multicultural reality that is mainstream America.

4 comments to Watch Now – “Searching For Whitopia” (Diversity Does Not Mean Integration)

Noelani

November 28th, 2009 at 4:20 am · Reply

This is a topic worth a lot of discussion and not surprising at all. ‘Diversity’ on paper never meant ‘diversity’ in practice. It’s all smoke and mirrors. Many whites never wanted to live hand in hand with blacks, even some of these so-called liberals.

I hope that doesn’t come off as angry sounding. *lol*
ladybug

November 28th, 2009 at 1:06 pm · Reply

This is interesting . . . but he’s also in a very tony neighborhood . . . wealth didn’t come into the conversation . . . and all the Whitopia’s he mentioned have very wealthy populations.

I spent the good deal of a summer doing a show in Coeur D’Alene, Idaha . . . . to my surprised I loved it. It’s a resort town situated on a Lake; Lake Coeur D’Alene . . . with a nice little downtown strip with cute boutiques . . . beautiful homes! . . . and yes very, very, white . . . I never failed to get stared at whenever I went out . . . and people who had seen the show immediately knew I was the girl in the show . . . which is funny because more than a few times I was walking around with the lead in said show and no one recognized her . . . she was white . . . but I found the people friendly . . .maybe it was because they knew I was leaving. After being there a while and seeing zero black people and I mean zero . . . one day I saw a black guy and had to do a double take . . . I had a “hey where did he come from” moment. . . and he noticed and knew why . . . and had a hearty laugh. Ran into a few more … though bi-racial who tracked me down after spotting me . . . wanting to know where I got my hair done . . . they were local . . . shouldn’t I have been asking them that question?
Art

November 29th, 2009 at 6:22 am · Reply

So ridiculous.

Where is the class analysis? Are upper-middle class and wealthy Black people being kept out of these communities? Now that would be a story.

Some people seem to expect a mixed-class neighborhood, where poor Blacks and rich whites live next to each other, which is simply impossible in a Capitalist system without statutory segregation.

That’s what’s wrong with this country, no one wants to talk about class and Capitalism. It’s easy to talk simple-mindedly about race, but unless you enrich it with a class analysis, it’s ineffective.
pnc

November 29th, 2009 at 7:53 pm · Reply

The simple-minded talk is about about ‘class.’ Honestly, I’m surprised so many gullible black people have allowed whites to divert the conversation from race, this way. What we don’t talk about is the the psychological fallout of being afflicted with covert racism on a daily basis. That’s way too big a conversation for most people to grasp.