Tuesday, February 11, 2014

Trader Joe's "too white" for Portland Neighborhood

The City of Portland, Oregon probably thought it was doing a good thing when it encouraged the Trader Joe's store chain to open one of it's shops in a predominantly black neighborhood in Portland, Oregon. The neighborhood was after all an economically depressed one and the store location had been vacant for years.

However, it would appear that Portland reckoned without the race politics that dominate every facet of American life. Black leaders in Portland arose to attack the move arguing that in would increase "Gentrification" in the neighborhood. According to Yahoo News, the Portland African American Leadership Forum stated that the Trader Joe's store would, "Increase the desirability of the neighborhood for 'non-oppressed' populations", and that it was opposed to any development that would not "primarily benefit the black community."

This highlights a sad fact among the black community in America. Many blacks in America would rather dominate a community in poverty, that prosper if they were not in total control. A classic example is the city where I am currently living, Montgomery AL. As the black population began to become a majority they raised taxes. This, along with the accompanying crime-wave led the white, (and middle-class blacks) to flee the city, draining away the tax revenues and leading to the further depression of the community.

At this point the logical thing would have been to have created incentives for the white and middle class black community to return. However this has not been the case and the city voted for more expenditure of public money and higher taxes which only accelerated "white flight".

Today Montgomery resembles a third world country. Whole blocks of shopping centers and malls, once thriving now stand vacant. The only businesses that thrive are Pawn Shops, thrift stores, "African Hair-braiding" boutiques and chicken-wing restaurants.There is a public golf course and park in the predominantly
black part of town that few go to and  huge sums of money have been spent to expand a predominantly black college where problems of financial mis-management and corruption abound. More People died last year from Homicide than auto accidents.

Milton wrote that Satan would rather "reign in hell that serve in heaven". Clearly among many in the black community equality does not mean equal treatment for everyone but a state where they are in charge, whether it means they live in poverty or not. One must pray that they will abandon the racism espoused by the leaders in their community, and begin to look to the real leaders among them like Carson, Keyes, and
Sowell. Not to those like Obama and Sharpton who have grown rich from their poverty by playing on their hatreds and fears.

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