I’m not sure I follow the logic here. If there is any.

Michael Cipriano of the College Fix reported.

Professor: MLK Memorial a reminder of racism, racial divide in Washington D.C. American University ‘race, privilege and class’ panel slams ‘diversity’ in D.C., white cops

WASHINGTON, D.C. – The Martin Luther King, Jr. Memorial stands proudly on the shore of the Tidal Basin in Washington, D.C.’s West Potomac Park. It sits roughly three-quarters of a mile from the Washington Monument.

Take a photo at the right angle, and the two structures – the granite obelisk and statue of the civil rights legend – look as if they stand right next to each other.

But an American University associate professor of African American history described this juxtaposition as a “haunting of the continued inequality in Washington, D.C.”

“Now some might perceive that juxtaposition as a symbol of triumph,” said Professor Theresa Runstedtler. “But I want to suggest that it is a representation of a kind of haunting. The haunting of the dreams still deferred, that are encapsulated as much as the victories of monument. A haunting of paths not taken.”

She made the comments Wednesday as part of an American University Table Talk Lunch Series titled “A Study in Black & White: Race, Privilege, and Class in the District of Columbia.”

The three panelists said they agreed that Washington D.C.. is a diverse city, but only in the sense that the white people live on one side, and black people live on the other.

Runstedtler used the representation of the two monuments to show that D.C. is “a tale of two cities.” She said D.C. is racially divided, pointing to a “stereotyped” map of the city that shows a predominantly white population in the western part and a predominantly black population in the eastern part.

She also noted the jobless rate in the city’s Ward 3, “a white-people area,” is only 1.8 percent, while the rate of Ward 8 is 18.6 percent.


 
 0 
 
 0