links for 2010-08-30

"The island has often been called self-segregated, with most African-Americans here in Oak Bluffs. Its harbor drew freed slaves, laborers and sailors in the 18th century, and white locals sold them land. In the late 19th and 20th centuries, middle-class blacks bought or rented summer homes; many descendants returned annually. Most affluent whites live in Edgartown to the southeast or on farms and estates to the west, where Mr. Obama stays.

"But many African-Americans here, year-rounders and summer visitors alike, insist it is not segregated. 'This is one of the most integrated communities, racially and economically, that there is,' said Vernon Jordan, the lawyer and former civil rights leader, who has rented a summer place for years."

Struggling with ridicule, Diandra Forrest capitalizes on unique beauty.

"On Tuesday, August 24th, 2010 Mr. Sharif picked up the perpetrator at 24th Street and Second Avenue, his first fare for the shift, and headed toward Times Square. The man, 21, started out friendly, asking Mr. Sharif about where he was from, how long he had been in America, if he was Muslim and if he was observing fast during Ramadan. He then first became silent for a few minutes and then suddenly started cursing and screaming. There, at about 6:15pm at Third Avenue between 40th and 41st Streets, he yelled, “Assalamu Alaikum. Consider this a checkpoint,” and then slashed Mr. Sharif across the neck. As Mr. Sharif went to knock the knife out, the perpetrator, continuing to scream loudly, cut the taxi driver in the face (from nose to upper lip), arm and hand.

“While a minority of has-been politicians spew ignorance and fear, it’s the working person on the street who has to face the consequences,” said NYTWA Executive Director Bhairavi Desai."

"Washington, D.C. is a city of contradictions. It has great wealth, but lots of poverty. It is the seat of our Federal government, but the people who live here aren't represented in that federal government. (But everyone still pays taxes.) The city government is limited in their power because the founding father's never thought people would live here on a permanent basis — you know? Other than their servants. Who couldn't vote when the country was founded, because they were slaves. So it shouldn't be particularly surprising that while this is a transient city whose professional class often changes with the Presidential Administration, the population that has always lived here, who was born here and will die here is mostly black."