New magazine for the black community
By adamg - 1/30/07 - 9:37 am
New England Informer is a monthly and will, presumably, compete head-on with the weekly Bay State Banner for advertising.
... When I take a Sunday drive, after church, to brunch with my girls, my quest for a "real" restaurant serving varieties of food, other than fried chicken; what's been labeled soul food, on Blue Hill, is null and void. I want a black owned restaurant. "Blue Black, Support Black", wasn't that once our motto? Call it upscale, call it fine dining, whatever you want to call it, it is unreachable on Blue Hill Avenue. ...
Buzz this
Comments
"I want a black owned restaurant"
By Gary M (not verified) - 1/30/07 - 11:14 am
What I call it is racist.
Where in that article
By eeka - 1/30/07 - 2:13 pm
...is the author stating or implying that any race is inferior to another race?
http://1smootshort.blogspot.com
maybe his point is that if
By Anoymous (not verified) - 1/30/07 - 3:00 pm
maybe his point is that if one said that we needed more white businesses, that would be racist. much like a white-only college or white entertainment television station may be construed as racist.
You must have missed the
By Gary M (not verified) - 1/31/07 - 8:03 am
You must have missed the subject line of my post, which is a direct quotation.
Or perhaps you're saying that it isn't racism to choose the businesses one patronizes based on the owner's race, but only to declare explicitly that one race is inferior to another? I'd consider this an excessively narrow definition of racism.
Conceivably "a black owner" could be shorthand for someone who really understands how to prepare "soul food," just as one might prefer to patronize a "real" Italian restaurant. But when the writer goes on to proclaim, "'Blue Black, Support Black', wasn't that once our motto?" I don't see how you can call it anything but overt racial selection.
No.
By eeka - 1/31/07 - 10:19 am
Racism is the institution of a racial majority group overtly or covertly oppressing racial minority groups.
This is one individual choosing to support Black-owned businesses. She wants to help her community do better in the business world. She isn't saying that she'll ONLY go to Black-owned businesses, and she isn't saying that only Blacks know how to run a business decently. She's saying that supporting Black business (and presumably showing her child the business owner as a positive Black role model) is one apsect that plays into her decisions of where to spend her money. This woman was complaining more about the LACK of Black-owned businesses in her community. Imagine this woman raising her child, telling her child that she can be anything she wants to be, except that every time they walk into a restaurant (even a soul food place!), the family who owns it isn't Black. What's the child learning here? Can you see why she might want to make an effort to go to some Black-owned businesses?
No one gets uptight that many Jewish and Italian and Armenian and Puerto Rican and Chinese and Russian folks tend to support businesses owned by members of their communities. Same thing here -- community members supporting one another, and families showing their children positive role models of their ethnic background. As long as someone isn't saying that they will ONLY use a business owned by someone of their ethnicity, there's no bigotry or hatred or anything going on here.
http://1smootshort.blogspot.com
Defining racism by race
By Gary M (not verified) - 1/31/07 - 11:18 am
"Racism is the institution of a racial majority group..."
In other words, you're saying that whether a statement is "racist" depends on the race of the person saying it.
Nice try, and it would be sufficient for me to stop there. You've established that you use racist criteria to define racism, so your argument is incoherent. But it's also worth noting that race and community are very different things. If I see someone whose skin color is similar to mine, that doesn't qualify that person as a member of my community. Community is a matter of values and choices, not genetics.
to clarify
By Mollynotloggedin (not verified) - 2/1/07 - 1:36 pm
Are you saying that there is no such thing as a community based on race? Because it sounds like you're saying that, and I'm pretty sure that's not accurate. I'm a transplant, and I'm Extremely White, but I'm fairly certain that a Black community and a Latino/a community and a Chinese community, for example, exist in Boston.
While I can see why you took it that way...
By Ron Newman - 1/30/07 - 3:32 pm
... I think she just wants to have a slightly-fancy, sit-down, dress-up place serving Her Kind of Food. Which there should be a market for in that neighborhood.
um, not so much
By harris (not verified) - 1/30/07 - 3:47 pm
Here's the money quote from that story:
"Wake up Black Boston! It is time, to realize you have nothing. You're living in a dream world that you can party at one or two Black owned establishments that do not support your Black community or Black owned businesses. You can continue to hold your functions at white owned hotels, allowing them to take your money for an event then, discriminate when you want to partner on a money making venture. We're a joke in the business world. If we need to fill a quota we are useful, but when no black business can get away with it, they turn to any type of minority, which is not black."
I'm not in the target audience, but ....
By Ron Newman - 1/30/07 - 11:19 am
I'm still interested in reading it. If anyone knows where to get a copy, and whether it is free or paid, please post a reply here.
new mag?
By harris (not verified) - 1/30/07 - 3:34 pm
Is this new? Looks like they've been around for awhile.
prnewsnow.com/...%20Press%20Release
Re-launch, then?
By adamg - 1/30/07 - 4:59 pm
I got a press release this morning that made it sound like a new thing, but maybe they're re-launching it, and I, under the influence of pseudoephedrine, misread it. Naturally, i no longer have a copy - I deleted it as soon as I posted that item (it was kind of funny in that one of the highlights was an interior-design column by somebody in Nebraska). Guess I've gotta stop throwing stuff out so fast. :-).