A Necessary Discussion
By Juan Williams, The Hill, 04/14/14 06:00 AM EDT
Mitch Landrieu, the white liberal Democratic mayor of 60- percent-black New Orleans, had this to say about white conservative Rep. Paul Ryan’s (R-Wis.) trouble after Ryan spoke out about the “inner city” culture that does not value work:
“So, Paul Ryan said something people took issue with and it became a huge battle. It was not a thoughtful [debate]…it all got to be about condemnation. ‘I condemn him for saying this.’ ‘No I condemn you because he did not say that... And all this yelling across headlines. No wonder people who want to be thoughtful [are afraid to say anything about real problems.] They want to say ‘I think this, I don’t really know how to say this, but I want to deal with the issue and get past race.’”
Landrieu was sitting on stage at the Newseum last Tuesday with Philadelphia’s mayor, Michael Nutter (D), a black man, for the annual Aspen Institute Symposium, sponsored by Comcast, on the State of Race in America. I moderated the discussion between the mayors in which Nutter said blacks get mad at him for talking about problems in the black community, especially the incredibly high crime and homicide rates.
“So you can imagine what happens to my somewhat non-African American friend from New Orleans – he catches hell for talking about it,” said Mayor Nutter.
(More here.)
Mitch Landrieu, the white liberal Democratic mayor of 60- percent-black New Orleans, had this to say about white conservative Rep. Paul Ryan’s (R-Wis.) trouble after Ryan spoke out about the “inner city” culture that does not value work:
“So, Paul Ryan said something people took issue with and it became a huge battle. It was not a thoughtful [debate]…it all got to be about condemnation. ‘I condemn him for saying this.’ ‘No I condemn you because he did not say that... And all this yelling across headlines. No wonder people who want to be thoughtful [are afraid to say anything about real problems.] They want to say ‘I think this, I don’t really know how to say this, but I want to deal with the issue and get past race.’”
Landrieu was sitting on stage at the Newseum last Tuesday with Philadelphia’s mayor, Michael Nutter (D), a black man, for the annual Aspen Institute Symposium, sponsored by Comcast, on the State of Race in America. I moderated the discussion between the mayors in which Nutter said blacks get mad at him for talking about problems in the black community, especially the incredibly high crime and homicide rates.
“So you can imagine what happens to my somewhat non-African American friend from New Orleans – he catches hell for talking about it,” said Mayor Nutter.
(More here.)
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