WashPo:Corruption scandal turns eyes inward in Pr. George's (Bowie: foreclosures, crime)

[EdwardA]

Looks like reality is creeping in on PG residents. Ms. McKinley gets it.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn...T2010120400485

But in many ways, that preoccupation with image has diverted attention from the county's more intractable problems.


"Prince George's is in denial," said Wessita McKinley, 45, a director of a county social services agency who has lived in Prince George's for 37 years. "Prince George's County is considered the most affluent county in the country for African Americans. How can this be when the school systems are at the bottom of the educational districts with a high rate of dropouts, and we are number one in foreclosures?"



And although crime in Prince George's has hit a 34-year low, it remains higher than in other Washington suburbs, and it affects daily behavior. Swanky restaurants have opened up, but residents sometimes can't park outside them - or their homes - without worrying that their cars will be broken into.



McKinley said that she is embarrassed by the allegations against Johnson and that residents share the blame. "Residents have to get out and vote. They must be active. And after they vote, they must be diligent in following their elected officials and hold them accountable to the positions that they were elected to. This kind of diligence is not going on now."

[justtitans]

I just read the article and here was my comment on the article:

"Nothing has been proven," said Quinn Alston, 43, a parent advocate for D.C. social services from Brentwood. "These kinds of deals are made by his white counterparts all the time. It happened before he took office, and it will happen after he leaves."

So that makes what he did okay? Normally I would go with the notion that he is innocent until proven guilty, but I always bring up the point, if he was innocent then why would he flush that check down the toilet or why would his wife be stuffing her bra with $80k of money. See as black people we always want to paint ourselves as victims without looking at the circumstances from an outside perspective. This is exactly what some others in this article have mentioned as a result of racial conscientiousness of going to a HBCU. I went to North Carolina A&T for undergrad and Howard University for my graduate studies. At both places, there was always a sector of the student body that believe we are in a fight against modern-day racial oppression. I truly believe this attitude has indeed prevailed in our community, because we a feel like we have to validate ourselves with big overpriced homes, nice cars that we can barely afford, and other fancy things just to show the white man that we have made it, but many of us don't even realize that the white man isn't even worried about what we are doing. We are insecure people here in this county that believe we have to paint a picture of success because we don't make it seem like we have lost in the struggle, but the fact is the struggle is over. We can have reasonable homes for a family, we can send our children to school, we can build our communities, but we are too focus on maintaining an image. That is the elephant in the room with this county, the image. We are so concerned with keeping up with the Joneses named Fairfax and Montgomery.

We need to stop lying to ourselves about where we our in the county and accept reality.

-Our leaders are not acceptable. They lie to us, they ignore our demands and they feel invincible because they don't have any other party to challenge their ideas.

-Our schools are unacceptable. Instead of blaming teachers and administrators, we need to go out to the PTSA meetings, contact the teachers frequently and ask what we can do to demand more of our child's education. And we need to also realize that there are schools that need help that aren't in Bowie and Upper Marlboro. Attention shouldn't just be paid to schools where the most money is.

-Our public safety is horrible because our police department does little to connect with the community. The department would rather operate in corruption because we sit back and don't demand more.

It's time to wake up and get out of this mentality that we have made it. Material things do not amount to anything in this life time, if we aren't giving our future anything else. Our children deserve better education, safer communities, and real moral values. We instead would rather throw money at our children and make them believe that we are victims. We are only victims of ourselves.

[EdwardA]

Originally Posted by meatkins

I just read the article and here was my comment on the article:



So that makes what he did okay? Normally I would go with the notion that he is innocent until proven guilty, but I always bring up the point, if he was innocent then why would he flush that check down the toilet or why would his wife be stuffing her bra with $80k of money. See as black people we always want to paint ourselves as victims without looking at the circumstances from an outside perspective. This is exactly what some others in this article have mentioned as a result of racial conscientiousness of going to a HBCU. I went to North Carolina A&T for undergrad and Howard University for my graduate studies. At both places, there was always a sector of the student body that believe we are in a fight against modern-day racial oppression. I truly believe this attitude has indeed prevailed in our community, because we a feel like we have to validate ourselves with big overpriced homes, nice cars that we can barely afford, and other fancy things just to show the white man that we have made it, but many of us don't even realize that the white man isn't even worried about what we are doing. We are insecure people here in this county that believe we have to paint a picture of success because we don't make it seem like we have lost in the struggle, but the fact is the struggle is over. We can have reasonable homes for a family, we can send our children to school, we can build our communities, but we are too focus on maintaining an image. That is the elephant in the room with this county, the image. We are so concerned with keeping up with the Joneses named Fairfax and Montgomery.

We need to stop lying to ourselves about where we our in the county and accept reality.

-Our leaders are not acceptable. They lie to us, they ignore our demands and they feel invincible because they don't have any other party to challenge their ideas.

-Our schools are unacceptable. Instead of blaming teachers and administrators, we need to go out to the PTSA meetings, contact the teachers frequently and ask what we can do to demand more of our child's education. And we need to also realize that there are schools that need help that aren't in Bowie and Upper Marlboro. Attention shouldn't just be paid to schools where the most money is.

-Our public safety is horrible because our police department does little to connect with the community. The department would rather operate in corruption because we sit back and don't demand more.

It's time to wake up and get out of this mentality that we have made it. Material things do not amount to anything in this life time, if we aren't giving our future anything else. Our children deserve better education, safer communities, and real moral values. We instead would rather throw money at our children and make them believe that we are victims. We are only victims of ourselves.

Amen. The comment you quoted is indicative of the mind set that seems to prevail in the black community.

Hopefully that changes. The notion that educated, relatively wealthy Black people are somehow victims of whites is absurd on its face.

[jayman1981]

I love what you said. It's about involvement in the community. We are so focused on making money and material possession, but we as a people in P.G. have not demanded and command better things from the county. I have a friend who is a teacher for the county. He always tells me of the lack of participation from the parents. He was telling me for the ones who are involved the students work and test scores are much better than those whose parents aren't involved. In P.G. I don't totally blame the teachers, but I don't totally blame the parents either. The leaders are selected in this county because of a popularity contest and the skin color. I think the average person isn't aware who even ran this past election. They don't know the political figures stance on the subjects. All they know is he had the biggest sign and he happened to have a couple of commercials on.

P.G. has hope, and as I see improving test scores in our schools and better developments pop up, I'm meet with a sense of optomism. Not satisfied with where were at but not totally pessimistic in what has happend with the Johnson's and Marilyn Bland. P.G. is turning the corner but if I had to pick an area of focus it would be education. You can't improve your community unless your community is properly educated.

Originally Posted by meatkins

I just read the article and here was my comment on the article:



So that makes what he did okay? Normally I would go with the notion that he is innocent until proven guilty, but I always bring up the point, if he was innocent then why would he flush that check down the toilet or why would his wife be stuffing her bra with $80k of money. See as black people we always want to paint ourselves as victims without looking at the circumstances from an outside perspective. This is exactly what some others in this article have mentioned as a result of racial conscientiousness of going to a HBCU. I went to North Carolina A&T for undergrad and Howard University for my graduate studies. At both places, there was always a sector of the student body that believe we are in a fight against modern-day racial oppression. I truly believe this attitude has indeed prevailed in our community, because we a feel like we have to validate ourselves with big overpriced homes, nice cars that we can barely afford, and other fancy things just to show the white man that we have made it, but many of us don't even realize that the white man isn't even worried about what we are doing. We are insecure people here in this county that believe we have to paint a picture of success because we don't make it seem like we have lost in the struggle, but the fact is the struggle is over. We can have reasonable homes for a family, we can send our children to school, we can build our communities, but we are too focus on maintaining an image. That is the elephant in the room with this county, the image. We are so concerned with keeping up with the Joneses named Fairfax and Montgomery.

We need to stop lying to ourselves about where we our in the county and accept reality.

-Our leaders are not acceptable. They lie to us, they ignore our demands and they feel invincible because they don't have any other party to challenge their ideas.

-Our schools are unacceptable. Instead of blaming teachers and administrators, we need to go out to the PTSA meetings, contact the teachers frequently and ask what we can do to demand more of our child's education. And we need to also realize that there are schools that need help that aren't in Bowie and Upper Marlboro. Attention shouldn't just be paid to schools where the most money is.

-Our public safety is horrible because our police department does little to connect with the community. The department would rather operate in corruption because we sit back and don't demand more.

It's time to wake up and get out of this mentality that we have made it. Material things do not amount to anything in this life time, if we aren't giving our future anything else. Our children deserve better education, safer communities, and real moral values. We instead would rather throw money at our children and make them believe that we are victims. We are only victims of ourselves.