He called for an investigation. What more do you want him to do with anonymous personal anecdotes?

I read the original article and agree that it has racist undertones. For example"

I think they're blind, that they've stopped looking. Indeed, I've begun to think that most white people stopped looking around at large segments of our city, at our poorest and most dangerous neighborhoods, a long time ago. One of the reasons, plainly put, is queasiness over race. Many of those neighborhoods are predominantly African-American. And if you're white, you don't merely avoid them -- you do your best to erase them from your thoughts.

Really? It's about having Black people around? I would think it's about safety.

The issue is the systematic segregation occurring in our cities. Sure it is along racial lines, but I think that's just a by-product of the true segregation - along socio-economic lines.

I'm in Kansas City and we've completely let a portion of the city go to hell. Everyone knows not to go there. It's not because you might have the misfortune of looking at a black person, but because it's full of criminals and drug users. I can say this is true because there are plenty of minorities in the wealthy areas. They just come in to clean up and to work in the back of restaurants, etc... Minorities are fine as long as they play their expected role.

It's a shame it's receiving such negative backlash instead of a legitimate consideration.
But then again, no one likes discussing their flaws, whether it be an individual or a community.

#10 | POSTED BY JPW AT 2013-03-17 09:54 PM | FLAG:

I didn't quite understand what final resolution they were working toward. I can understand why the Mayor would be upset. It's making his city look like crap. I suspect that his own blackness might lead to the assumption by others that he's a bigot.

Is it just me, or is the article predicting that the outcome of the investigation will be: "White people are scared of Black people, and rightly so"?