Mark Kirk Says People Drive Faster Through Black Neighborhoods

[RandySF]

WASHINGTON -- In a little-noticed interview last week, Sen. Mark Kirk (R-Ill.) described African-American neighborhoods as areas that people in his state try to avoid.

The comment, with its racial undertones, came during a sit-down interview with the Peoria Journal Star and followed a question about how to encourage business development in Kirk's home state.

“I want to make sure we have elected people constantly looking at helping the African-American community,” Kirk said. “With this state and all of its resources, we could sponsor a whole new class of potential innovators like George Washington Carver and eventually have a class of African-American billionaires. That would really adjust income differentials and make the diversity and outcome of the state much better so that the black community is not the one we drive faster through." [emphasis added.]

The notion that people hit the gas when driving through black neighborhoods is a common racial stereotype about urbanization and criminal behavior among African-Americans. The fact that an elected senator from a state with a sizable black population would make such a comment was deemed unfortunate by at least one African-American leader in Illinois.


http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2015/04/13/mark-kirk-black-neighborhoods_n_7056612.html?utm_hp_ref=politics

[marym625]

1. He will be gone soon

Tammy Duckworth will be the new senator from Illinois

[Warren DeMontague]

6. Boy, I sure hope so.

Sad thing is, Kirk is relatively moderate as Republicans go. Which tells you something about the GOP.

[marym625]

8. sure does

I was actually surprised when he signed the Cotton Iran letter. And it hurt him. Which it should have

[mucifer]

13. he's not moderate. he is good at branding himself as moderate

[Warren DeMontague]

15. He's not a rabid anti-choicer, basically. That's my main point.

I'm not calling him objectively 'moderate', just so by GOP standards.

[mucifer]

12. I hope you are right but I doubt it

I was at a Tammy Duckworth, joe walsh debate last time around and she is gonna need to be better at debating if she is gonna beat kirk.

[marym625]

14. I think she will beat him

Yes, I agree, she does. Hopefully, she has. But I really think Kirk has lost some supporters because of his antics. And Tammy Duckworth has gained.

I haven't decided if I will volunteer for her or for the presidential campaign yet. Won't decide until we know for sure who will be running in the primary. But if things go like I hope they don't, I will be volunteering for Duckworth during the general election

[alcibiades_mystery]

2. He meant BLAH neighborhoods

You know, blah neighborhoods.

[msongs]

3. he says HE drives faster thru them. you are too kind in your headline. "we" means others AND him nt

[DeSwiss]

4. K&R

- Some probably should. Particularly those who help create them and to maintain them, intact.

[Skittles]

5. I did not notice that the last time I was in one

hitting an excellent restaurant

[romanic]

7. Hell in some Detroit neighborhoods

Neighbors don't even stop at red lights. But they know and live in the area and are street smart. Can't say the same for this Kirk idiot.

[B Calm]

11. I use to have to drive an 18 wheeler in one of the worst areas of Detroit and had to

be there at 1am. The first time I drove there I asked one of my peers how to get there and what to expect. He gave me the directions from the nearest interstate and said at that time of night just slow down at red lights, but keep moving.

[surrealAmerican]

9. ... not to mention the crazy argument ...

... he's making. He seems to believe that if some African Americans are billionaires, then poverty, and its associated issues, aren't a problem. That's not the way it's worked out for white people, is it?

Having a class of billionaires doesn't seem to eliminate or in any way ease the suffering of the disadvantaged. Surely, he must know that.

[Capt. Obvious]

10. Billionaire George Washington Carver

who couldn't afford a pair of shoes.

[Prism]

16. In Chicago? People do.

Putting his remarks in context, Chicago is a very segregated city. White people go here, black people go there. Latinos are off there, there, and there. It's gotten better over the years, but gentrification has calcified this tendency in some respects. Now there are white neighborhoods that are upper middle class and white, surrounded by poorer minority neighborhoods. Everyone played the game. "Don't go here, here, or here. Here is ok during the day. Never at night." If you were in a "bad" neighborhood and got mugged, well, what were you doing there?! This wasn't even largely a white sentiment - it was largely economic. Middle-class African-Americans held the same views towards those neighborhoods.

Hell, the public transit system shares the sentiment. Rock Island Metra doesn't stop in Robbins at night unless you specifically ask (a high crime African American suburb).

Kirk's reflecting that mindset. It's a common one in the area.

I grew up in Chicago and spent much of my adult life in the city proper. There were simply neighborhoods you did not go, and if you had to, you moved through quickly. Those neighborhoods were disproportionately African-American.

We can and should discuss the why. Institutional racism, red-lining, lack of economic opportunities, a school system that abjectly failed minority youth because districts are overly dependent on property taxes. There are a host of problems that Illinois and Chicago politicians have utterly failed to tackle in an effective way. Too busy working the spoils system.

Kirk is a tone deaf idiot, and he's mouthing a largely white sentiment that he no doubt shares with many of his white constituents.

But, that is a reality in Chicago. The people he's addressing know exactly what he's talking about. It's a sad state of affairs. When opportunity is not there, when the police are there to beat people down instead of help raise them up by providing a secure environment, when drug laws are breaking up families, when the social safety net is under attack, and when you slather all that in the disproportionate punishment of institutional racism, some neighborhoods fall by the wayside. The more fortunate and privileged avoid them.

With Rahm in charge, I don't see it changing in the near future. But, at least my home state will have Tammy Duckworth soon. That should help.

[dembotoz]

17. same in milwaukee

been in cars where the driver would click the power door locks as the area became more black

you can hate what he said but for lots of folks it is true

[pipi_k]

18. Where I grew up also

The city was sectioned off by race, ethnicity.

Portugese here. Polish here. French here. Black here. Italians in another area. Irish up on the hill. Hispanic in another area.

that's just how it was, and even some black people were (and still are) reluctant to pass through the rougher black areas.

And these days, what with all the local news reports about drive-by shootings and stuff in certain neighborhoods, it should come as no surprise to anyone that people do tend to drive a little faster through those places.

[ProudToBeBlueInRhody]

19. Why doesn't anyone talk about him having a stroke?

Oh that's right, he's a Thug.

[former9thward]

20. He is just describing reality in Chicago.

When I lived in Chicago I lived in a ward (9th) which is at least 95% AA. I am not AA but everyone, AA or not, drives much more alertly in AA areas than in wealthy areas. Reality for Chicagoans no matter what their background.