The Magic Negro

Spike Lee once wrote about The Magic Negro and Barack Obama has been referenced as this person in the political spectrum. I'm not sure how much of this I can see in the thread, but I've noticed a little parallels.

Pantone, the company the gives us color, has selected our new colors for the year, a somewhat innocent blue-purple. The excutive director of the Pantone Institute says "Emotionally, it is anchoring and meditative with a touch of magic." There is a touch of irony to all of this. First, Barack is a democrat - commonly associated with blue. Second, Barack's media spin says he speaks across party lines, which nicely references the purple. Lastly, the director specifically mentions that it is "anchoring" and has a "touch of magic." Barack is seen as the guy who can unite this (still mostly white) country. Maybe he is the Magic Negro.

Perhaps I'm crazy, but here's my take. Remeber that EVERYTHING is connected to urban design. (See earlier posts.)

One of the main reasons we live how we do today, as one of the main pieces of a series of disconnected events that coincided to feed off each other, is racism. Specifically, blacks in the US demanding (asking?) for more equal rights and becoming more upwardly mobile and the the federal government forcing desegregation. First, I'm all for desegregation. Completely! But in the 1950's, 60's and 70's, most whites were not. Not even in the North. In fact, some Southerners might say that Northerners are actually repressed racists. But anyway, look at Boston, which I think plays out as an example (though with differing conditions) across all cities in the US.

Boston got busing, forcing "equal" schools and most of the whites living in Boston said "Okay, fine. But I'm leaving. Johnny isn't going to school with black kids." They never said this, but they did it. They moved to the suburbs. They took with them the capital that gave cities economies. I'm not saying this is the only reason, but it certainly was the icing on the cake. The chocolate icing. And these were yellow cake vanilla icing people.

I've spoken to old timers from one Boston neighborhood, a once incredible well-knit (if perhaps highly racist) urban and social fabric woven by church, friends, and family. "Why did you move?" I'd ask. I mean, these people lived here their whole lives. Their grandparents lived here. The uncles, etc. This was a real PLACE. "Well, it was the busing." Perhaps it wasn't so much that blacks and whites were in school together (which probably wasn't a big deal, really), but more about the fact that the government said "Black and whites must be in school together." Oh, and, we're gonna bus them all over the town to make equal schools. Most parents don't like that.

Urban fabrics are like sweaters. The best are made up of fine and intricately woven threads. Neighborhood grociers. Churches. Small shops. Daycare centers. Elementary schools. People who care about each other on some level or another. Once the sweater begins unraveling it is hard to stop. You can mend it, but eventually, the weave is too loose and falls apart.

Taking away neighborhood schools was a big thread. Whites resented blacks because of it. They shouldn't have, but they did. And that is a tough thing to get over. It has taken us 40 years to even start the conversation. And I think that the conversation started last night with the Obama win. He's not black, as in American black. No, he's an international student's son that happened to be from Africa. But in America, we gloss over that. The good thing is that he doesn't carry his own historical baggage that any black in this country (save all the wonderful people in Prince Georges County) carry with them. So he can leap ahead of that, which is great. But to black Americans, perhaps the most accepting and loving group of people in the US, he's one of them (at least the media will have you believe that). And that is awesome.

We were divided until last night. Because of this, white people give black kids asthma as they drive on freeways into the city to their bank jobs and make so-called "sub prime" loans with high interest rates to black families trying to move their kids away from the freeways. Nobody planned it that way. Nobody even thinks about that.

The suburbs gave us obesity, diabetes, processed foods and global warming. They fueled/reinforced our consumption and trashed our planet. The suburbs were a product of racism. So, welcome Magic Negro.

Now, somebody get this man an energy secretary that knows what he's talking about. Obama's doesn't seem to have a clue (he likes coal and nuclear). Richardson! I hear you're good at this.