How the hell is it possible that Marion Barry is still holding political office anywhere? How does being caught smoking crack with a hooker not kill your career? He’s still on the DC city council and now he’s attacking Asians who own businesses in his district:
On Tuesday night in the hours after securing another primary victory for City Council in Ward 8, Barry told his supporters this:
“We got to do something about these Asians coming in and opening up businesses and dirty shops. They ought to go. I’m going to say that right now. But we need African-American businesspeople to be able to take their places too.”
But until about 4 p.m. Thursday, Barry refused to back down, telling reporters in his office the Asian merchants needed a new attitude. Barry criticized the merchants for not reinvesting in the community and suggesting the ward would be better off with merchants from Ethiopia.
It is a comment the former mayor and civil rights worker attempted to clarify during an interview.
“What they should do is come in with a different attitude, an attitude of being part of the community, of cleaning these stores up, having them spic and span like they do in Ward 3 and some other places,” said Barry. “Take down that Plexiglas. I know it’s a safety issue. It’s wrong to come into a community, take their money and take it to Virginia, Maryland or somewhere, not become part of the community, not help the community, not give out supplies and books and things like that.”
And this still probably won’t keep him from being reelected. Absolutely appalling.
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Raging Bee
April 9, 2012 at 1:17 pm (UTC -4) Link to this comment
His support appears to be restricted to the poorest ward in DC, and it will probably never return to what it once was. The Muslim world has dirt-poor uneducated people who blame the US for everything that’s wrong with their society; the Bible Belt has dirt-poor uneducated people who blame everyone not like themselves for their problems; and DC has dirt-poor uneducated people who blame “The Man” for everything that’s wrong with theirs (including Barry’s previous failures and scandals); and Barry’s whole career has been based on pandering to the latter. Getting those poor sods to reject Barry would be like getting white fundagelicals to reject Pat Robertson or Jerry Falwell: inconceivable and impossible.
The Asian-bashing — like just about everything else Barry says — is a holdover from the ’80s, when black demagogues with nothing else to say tried to blame Asians (particularly Koreans) for the disadvantages blacks faced in building communities and local businesses. They felt (not without some small justification) that Asian immigrants were getting a bit fo a free pass after the white establishment had totally undermined black community self-sufficiency.
Francisco Bacopa
April 9, 2012 at 1:24 pm (UTC -4) Link to this comment
Part of what he says is true. It would be better for the communities in question if these businesses were owned by people in the neighborhood who would use the income to repair housing properties in the neighborhood and patronize other business there, thus adding to overall income in the area. This is not controversial.
However, talking about Asians specifically and making them out to be semi-parasitic was a big mistake. It may in fact be the case that many of the businesses he is thinking of are in fact owned by Asians, but there is no need to point this out and either play upon existing resentments, or create new tensions where there were few tensions before.
I would also point out that the same economic situation would exist in these communities if the businesses were owned by all-American middle class blacks from the burbs.
Barry should have just said something like: “Hey, wouldn’t it be cool if more of these businesses were owned by people in these communities? How can we encourage a culture of business ownership there?”
slc1
April 9, 2012 at 1:29 pm (UTC -4) Link to this comment
Marion Berry gets elected the same way that shitheads like Steve King, Michele Bachmann, James Inhofe, Joe Barton, Alan West, etc. get elected and reelected. He invokes the Saul Alinsky strategy of rubbing raw the sores of discontent.
Re Raging Bee @ #1
This tendency to blame Asians is not restricted to DC. It’s a big problem in LA and other cities with large Asian immigrant populations.
ashleybone
April 9, 2012 at 1:48 pm (UTC -4) Link to this comment
“How does being caught smoking crack with a hooker not kill your career?” Because people in DC, particularly in Southeast, love him for the undeniable good he did for the city and the civil rights movement. That includes his work with SNCC, his work to deliver food to the poor after the ’68 riots, and his involvement in establishing home rule in DC. Many people in DC still believe that his arrests for coke and tax evasion were setups by the federal government.
I’m not defending Barry’s racial slurs (and this is hardly the first time he’s been down that road) or his criminal activity, but if you really want to understand why he keeps getting elected, it’s helpful to know his history with this city as well as the history of how the federal government has lorded over DC.
Darron
April 9, 2012 at 1:50 pm (UTC -4) Link to this comment
The only good thing about Marion Berry’s political career continuing after getting caught smoking crack with a hooker is that it inspired a bit that’s one of Chris Rock’s best pieces of work, IMHO.
It’s just too bad that Barry’s constituents didn’t take Rock’s message to heart.
slc1
April 9, 2012 at 1:56 pm (UTC -4) Link to this comment
Re ashleybone @ #4
It should also be noted that Berry was shot and seriously wounded in 1977 during the takeover of the DC District Building by radical Muslims.
Raging Bee
April 9, 2012 at 2:41 pm (UTC -4) Link to this comment
slc1: Radical Muslims, or radical Black Muslims? There’s a difference.
cactusren
April 9, 2012 at 2:55 pm (UTC -4) Link to this comment
Agreed. I live in DC now, and was initially fairly amazed to learn the Barry was still serving on the city council. My friend who has lived in the area for years explained that people keep voting for him because he manages to navigate the politics of DC and actually get things done. Keep in mind that while the DC city council has some autonomy, a lot of what it does has to get approved by Congress. Apparently Barry, at least when he was mayor, was able to grease the right wheels to make things happen. Sure, it’s dirty politics, but apparently most residents of DC prefer that to gridlock.
juice
April 9, 2012 at 3:16 pm (UTC -4) Link to this comment
How does being caught smoking crack with a hooker not kill your career?
If you’ve lived for a little while in DC, you’d know the answer to this question. The voters don’t care about your integrity. Oh, they’ll attack your integrity and anything else of yours if you don’t play ball with the power structure, but if you do play ball, it doesn’t much matter what else you do.
juice
April 9, 2012 at 3:21 pm (UTC -4) Link to this comment
That would bring up property values and that’s called gentrification, which is a dirty word in some neighborhoods.
slc1
April 9, 2012 at 3:49 pm (UTC -4) Link to this comment
Raging Bee @ #7
I believe they were black Muslims.
tommykey
April 9, 2012 at 4:17 pm (UTC -4) Link to this comment
Many people in DC still believe that his arrests for coke and tax evasion were setups by the federal government.
IIRC, there was even a t-shirt that some of his supporters wore that read “I saw the video and the bitch set him up.”
As others have commented above, for several decades at least there has been tension between Korean grocery store owners in black neighborhoods. Between a combination of their owned ingrained racial prejudices and probably having been robbed a few times, the Koreans would treat their black customers with suspicion.
slc1
April 9, 2012 at 4:22 pm (UTC -4) Link to this comment
Re tommykey @ #12
For those who are unaware of the details of Barry’s arrest, he was filmed on video saying, “bitch set me up.”
cycleninja
April 9, 2012 at 4:32 pm (UTC -4) Link to this comment
They don’t call it a “representative” democracy for nothing.
Ace of Sevens
April 9, 2012 at 4:47 pm (UTC -4) Link to this comment
I recommend reading Ta-Nehisi Coate’s coverage and his follow-up. He basically covers how Barry did have a lot of good things goign for them but has degenerated over the years thanks to grievance-seeking and poor self-control.
abusedbypenguins
April 9, 2012 at 6:56 pm (UTC -4) Link to this comment
There are lots of marion barrys’ on hundreds of city councils and county commissions who don’t operate quite this openly but they have the appearance of getting things done and will probably remain in office until they piss off enough voters. A very good example of this is councilman Doug on “Weeds”.
jba55
April 9, 2012 at 7:33 pm (UTC -4) Link to this comment
“Sure, it’s dirty politics, but apparently most residents of DC prefer that to gridlock.”
I’d bet that that’s true in a lot of places. I lived in Providence, RI while Buddy Cianci was in charge and everybody, myself included, loved the crooked little thief. He kept the criminals off the streets by giving them jobs in the government. Or at least threatening them enough with his own goons that they didn’t stir the pot too much. He got ousted (for the second time, for felonies) after I had moved out and from all accounts everything went to shit when he left. I’m not saying what he did was right, but it is undeniably effective and crowd pleasing.
It’s kind of like the difference between the mafia and street gangs. With the mafia in charge your grandmother can walk down the street at night without fear, but FSM help you if you’re a small business owner. With street gangs though, no one is safe. Like so much in politics it’s a lesser of two evils thing, I think.
slc1
April 9, 2012 at 10:40 pm (UTC -4) Link to this comment
Actually, us Virginia residents shouldn’t look down on the District. We have our own nutcases such as Delegate William Marshall and Attorney General Ken Cuccinelli. A couple of first class fucktards.
jeffwoodhead
April 9, 2012 at 10:52 pm (UTC -4) Link to this comment
The b*tch set him up.
dingojack
April 9, 2012 at 11:44 pm (UTC -4) Link to this comment
jeffwoodhead – and how exactly did she force him (totally against his will) to smoke the crack? Hmmm..?
No doubt his supporters are the ones who like to shout about ‘personal responsibility’ (except when it comes to their guy, of course).
But be that as it may, are you going to tell us how the Councillor’s racist remarks are acceptable in modern politics?*
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Dingo
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* Most likely in a sentence beginning with: ‘I’m not a racist but…’ or ‘Some of my best friends are [X], but…’