Race and Gender Issues

'Divisiveness' and specious arguments about the teaching of history

Tim Wise in fine form, as usual. His latest column is on the decision to require that black history be taught in Philadelphia public schools, a move decried by some as being "divisive."

My favorite paragraph:

White critics of the plan complained that black and brown authors' stories wouldn't be "universal" enough in the themes they discussed, signifying the way in which Eurocentric thinking supplants rational thought. Such an argument assumes that white folks' perspectives are sufficiently broad to stand in as the generic "human" experience, while persons of color have experiences which are only theirs, and from which whites can learn nothing. This is, truth be told, the essence of white supremacist thinking.

'Best' places also the whitest

Money magazine recently published its annual list of the best places to live. I figured that many of the places considered the "best" were also some of the whitest — much higher than the national percentage of 75.1. And boy, was I right. (Criteria)

I only researched the top 10, and here are the demographics, according to the 2000 Census:

Ranking	City	Total population	Pct White	Pct Black	Pct Asian	Pct NA	Pct Other and Biracial
1	Moorestown, New Jersey	19,017	89.2	5.7	3.3	0.2	1.7
2	Bainbridge Island, Washington	20,308	92.9	0.3	2.4	0.6	3.8
3	Naperville, Illinois	128,358	85.2	3.0	9.6	0.1	2.0
4	Vienna, Virginia	14,453	81.1	3.4	9.5	0.2	5.8
5	Louisville, Colorado	18,937	91.2	0.9	3.5	0.5	3.8
6	Barrington, Rhode Island	16,819	96.4	0.7	1.8	0.1	1.1
7	Middleton, Wisconsin	15,770	92.1	2.0	2.7	0.5	2.8
8	Peachtree City, Georgia	31,580	87.7	6.1	3.7	0.2	2.3
9	Chatham, New Jersey	10,086	93.7	0.4	4.8	0.1	0.9
10	Mill Valley, California	13,600	91.4	1.0	4.1	0.3	3.0

Note: Category of Hispanic/Latino/Chicano is not included because the Census Bureau does not consider them a discrete racial group.

Money's editors also seem to think that a small town equals good living.