Prometheus 6

I'm reading Derrick Bell's latest book, Silent Covenants: Brown V. Board Of Education And The Unfulfilled Hopes For Racial Reform, and I'm impressed. So impressed I wanted to scan a chunk of the introduction. But I have no room for a scanner right by this machine.

I did scan it...there's another machine 'round these parts with one of those all-in-one printer/scanner/washer/dryer things to keep certain folks happy but it's not networked and the floppy drive is apparently broken so the file sits on the desktop over there.

The cheapest, yet most annoying, option is to attach my zip drive to the beast...which requires moving shit, untangling cables...

Meanwhile I just because aware of a NY Times article by Virginia Postrel via Negrophile that I need to get to, but it was published on Dec 30, and I was not reading the Times between the 27th and 31st so I don't have it in the RSS archives. And from what I see of the commentary on it around the net, it's simplistic as hell...

And I'm willing to bet the research on which it is based is simplistic as hell too. One of the papers is titled The Economic Aftermath of the 1960s Riots: Evidence from Property Values, from which the conclusion is apparently drawn that Black folks lack wealth because we burnt it all up during the race riots of the 60s...like Black folks had property to burn! The other, The Labor Market Effects of the 1960's Riots, might have more basis...white folks certainly left Newark and Detroit faster and more completely than other urban areas because they property that was destroyed belonged to them. But they also left those urban areas where there were no riots. It's clear the labor market would have shifted to the suburbs anyway.

Now, I'm equivocating a bit because I haven't read those papers yet. But I will, with the fullness of my knowledge of history and my understanding of humans. And if the drive on the machine with the scanner was working it would be a lot easier because Derrick Bell is one of the very, very few I acknowledge as more skilled than I at explaining the mess we're in.

While civil rights lawyers worked to remove the most obvious legal symbols of segregation, we left it to A. Philip Randolph and the National Urban League to address the major changes in the economic outlook of a great many black people. Living in inner-city areas across the country, they were finding it increasingly difficult to find jobs. Employers were moving to the suburbs where public transportation was almost nonexistent but discrimination in hiring was rampant. Without work, family instability followed. Those able to leave the old neighborhoods did so, taking with them the stability of middle-class educations and aspiration. Public services, including schools, hospitals and community centers, all but collapsed under the burden. For those left behind, joblessness and hopelessness were eased with alcohol and drugs...

I feel the need to break into the quote right here.

Methamphetamine. Appalachia. DON'T think white folks are immune to this dynamic.

...sedatives that quickly worsened conditions fro individuals and their communities. Neither the Brown decision nor our efforts to give it meaning had any relevance to the plight of those whom we had not forgotten but had no real idea how to help

Anyway, if anyone has one of those permanent links to Ms. Postrel's article in the NY Times article or the URL to that site that can give you one, I would appreciate it greatly.