KCPT and "Week In Review", Covering That White Person's Point of View

Yes sir and ma'am, Kansas City. If you're a contributor to KCPT, rest assured, Kansas City Public Television will cover the white person's point of view. And they'll do so with more white males than anyone else.

This week's version had, yes, two white men, one white woman--very blonde--and thank God for Eric Wesson, showing up week after week.They'll ask for money from everyone--including the local Hispanic community--but have a Hispanic, Latinx person on the show? Fuggedaboudit. I say again, in the year that the Kansas City Star so publicly apologized for covering only the white person's point of view over the years, KCPT keeps giving more of same old, same old. Stunning. Really stunning. And know this. I wouldn't write these things, time and again, if I thought what KCPT and PBS did and stood for was unimportant.

Kansans! Do You Know What Your (Republican) Representatives Did Last Week in Topeka?

Seriously, Kansans, do you know what your state government representatives did last week in Topeka? Especially the Republican Party Represntatives? Davis Hammet, once again, gives an exellent, factual recap of just what went on over there.

I personally cannot recommend enough that Kansns at least follow Mr. Hammet and his organization, Loud Light, if not also support him and the group (please). He's doing great work and giving great information on Kansas Statehouse business that literally no other source is, Kansas City Star and all local TV news stations combined and included. If you could and would support him, howver large or small, it would be money extremely well spent, I assure you.He gives these excellent, concise summaries weekly, as this suggests. For me, it's a "don't miss" video each week---and I don't eeen live in the state. Now if Steve Kraske at KCUR would have him on his program and Nick Haines at KCPT on his. If only.

KCPT's Week In Review!!!

Whoo-hoo!!

Big, big news from Kansas City Public Television's "Week In Review"!

They only had 3---THREE--white people on their weekly panel this week--with one token Black man! Eric Wesson!

Hey, they squeezed in one minority. Like last week, they might have even just left him, Mr. Wesson out.

Still no Hispanic or member of the local Latinx community but hey, they got one whole minority person in there!

Whattya' think?  22nd Century they might have a white man, a white woman, an African-American and a Hispanic on the show?

Maybe??

Perhaps I'll call them this week and let them know there is a HIspanic community out here in the area.  Seems clear they don't know it.

Again, I'm just glad they can make sure they ask for money, donations from Black and Hispanic citizens in the area----even if they don't have them or want to have them on the program.

Kansas City Seems To Be Having a Year of Racism Awareness

I just keep getting more surprised about racism in Kansas City. Certainly not that it's here but that we keep getting revelations about it all here in town. For a first example, there was, of course, this.

Kansas City Star apologizes for decades of racist coverage

That was a nearly earth shaking evaluation right there, totally unforeseen.

Then, after that, our own Nelson-Atkins Museum announced, because of the Star's public self-evaluation, they might well do the same thing. That is, they were certainly self-evaluating but might--GASP--CHANGE THEIR NAME??

Might a name change be in store for Nelson-Atkins museum

The Nelson-Atkins Museum to consider removing Nelson's name

Keeping in mind, of course, the city of Kansas City, Missouri took the name of very famous and very racist JC Nichols off the fountain on the Country Club Plaza he created, in Mill Creek Park. That was surprising and refreshing enough, eh?

And now, today, there is this from our Kansas City Star.

I was a Black fire captain for KCFD. Racism there is real, and it risks public safety

The man, the now former Captain makes what are to me stunning claims. It's not just that there's racism in the organization, the Kansas City Fire Department. It goes far worse than that. He says Black firefighters don’t get training on the equipment needed to keep Kansas City safe. It's a fascinating, even, I would say, important article to read as it gives some history in the city of the systemic racism there. What concerns me is that not enough citizens of the city, especially white people, will read--and absorb--the entire article.

Again, it's just stunning to the point of outrageous. These men and women are there to protect us all from fire and fires and he's saying they aren't as fully, completely trained as the white firefighters? In the same jobs? That's nearly unbelievable, at least to those of us on the outside of the organization. It's unforgivable.

So we're still learning about ourselves, Kansas City.

Can we handle it?

More to the point, can we change?

And soon as possible?

Additional links:

I was surprised but pleased of fellow citizen Steve Kraske for so singularly and publicly taking on a big load of the racism in the city a few years ago, when he lead the charge, nearly singlehandedly, to get the JC Nichols Fountain renamed.

Steve Kraske: Kansas City should confront racist past

Steve Kraske: I’m still talking about J.C. Nichols, racism

Great Way to Approach This Pandemic Right Here In Kansas City

I'd love to see more of this, in our city, all across the metropolitan area. Heck, I'd like to join in.

This is from reporter, journalist Steve Kraske's Facebook page this week:

Here's how neighbors on Belinder Court in Westwood got together Wednesday afternoon to socialize a bit while maintaining safe distancing. Courtney Falk drew "Xs" on the street 6 feet from each other to mark safe spots for talking. Love my 'hood. We're doing a segment on "Up to Date" Friday on how Kansas City-area residents are staying engaged with their neighbors. Drop me a note below, or call in at 816-235-2888 beginning at about 9:15 a.m. tomorrow. Yes, I get great show topics from my neighbors! Oh, Kady took the pic.

Be safe out there, y'all.

Another Plea to All Local Media--On This Mayoral Race

The topic is Kansas City Mayor.

The election for a new one, after Sly James terms, is coming up, of course, April 2. Weeks away.

All I personally know is that there are at least several people running for the position. This is most of them, I understand

I've seen a few names. I've gotten some mail from a few but really, I've no idea who's running, who they are, what they stand for or what they say they will stand and work for.

I know Clay Chastain threw his proverbial hat in the ring. That's all I need to know about him.

And Jolie Justus. I know she's running and from where she's coming, mostly, since she's been around the area for some time.

I did a cursory Google search today and found this, thankfully, from our local NPR station, KCUR:

Here's Who's Running For Mayor Of Kansas City, Missouri

But if you go there, you'll see they are extremely brief descriptions of the candidates, of one small paragraph. That's it. It is also, brief as it is, the most complete description of these candidates I've been able to find. That's sad.

I don't think our Star newspaper has run articles on all the candidates yet. I don't see every daily paper but I do check in regularly.

There are a couple more links on the interwebs, from national sources:

Mayoral election in Kansas City, Missouri (2019) - Ballotpedia

According to that link, above, there are officially 11 candidates in the race. Six of those candidates are currently on the City Council. Three are on the Council for their first terms--Alissia Canady, Jolie Justus and Quinton Lucas. Two are second-term candidates--Jermaine Reed and Scott Taylor while Scott Wagner is currently Mayor Pro Tem.

2019 Kansas City mayoral election - Wikipedia

The Star did run this piece:

Newcomers to 2019 KC mayoral race most active fundraisers

This is helpful, of course, but it more tells of their fundraising than anything, of course. It's important, sure, but still doesn't tell what they stand for and say they're going to work for in the office. It is also an extremely brief article. If that tells us anything, it's that the one candidate, City Council member and candidate Scott Taylor has the most money behind him and by a long shot. (This may make him the defacto winner. We'll see, of course). Another interesting thing coming from that article is that it doesn't even mention Clay Chastain. 

Finally, Flatland KC ran this online article.

What You Need to Know About KC's Mayoral Election

It gives the most perfunctory information, with links to the candidates own websites so again, it's up to you, the reader and voter to chase down any and all information.

So my question. Is any news media out there--KCUR, KCPT, the Star, Mike Shanin and his program "Ruckus", Steve Kraske and his, anyone, anyone doing any in-depth interviews and research on these people and who they are and where they come from and what they stand for and what they say they'll work for as mayor?

I surely hope there is. If someone's seen or heard something, please let me know. I want and need to know, before the election, just as we all do here in the area. 

It's coming down to election time. We need to know.

With the Star having famously/infamously and recently slashed its staff, it seems unlikely we'll now get this kind of article and coverage, however important.

Seems like the perfect program for KCPT, doesn't it? "Meet the Candidates"?

KCPT? Thoughts?

Link:

Meanwhilere's the scary part. The honestly, deeply scary part.

As Newspapers Close, Role of Government Watchdog Disappears

Heads Up, Kansas City!!

Don't look now, folks, but guess who was back in town---and says he's running for political office?

  

First this--I apologize for the blurry photos but that, ladies and gentlemen of Kansas City, is one Clay Chastain.

You remember Clay, right?

The guy who has all the answers for our fair city?

Even though he lives, most of the time in--where is it? Virginia?

Anyway, seems he was not only back in town this weekend, this is him outside the Brookside Price Chopper grocery, and he was saying he's running for political office, yessiree, Bob.

So don't think we have, you have seen or heard the last of Mr. Clay "I Know What This City Needs" Chastain.

It's my hope that, if he's actually serious about running for city political office for us again, that someone in the media like Steve Kraske on KCUR or someone down at the the Star or the Pitch or Mike Shanin at KCPT's "Ruckus" or someone, somewhere interviews the man. We need to know just what he's planning. Or working on.

If he's serious about running for office, and I'm sure he is, he needs to get the word out and we need to hear it.

However misguided and/or foolhardy.

Shame On You, KCPT

This week's "Week In Review" was, once again, lily white.

The entire panel.

Not one "person of color" to discuss the city's issues, problems and opportunities.

We Should Have This National Conversation For and About Women, Equality and Our Nation

I proposed/asked this earlier tonight out on Facebonkers:

Can you imagine how different, how likely radically different our country would be, our legislation, our laws, if 50 percent of our government legislators were women?

Honestly, we should have this conversation. A national conversation.

I'd love to hear it, first of all, and then I'd like to hear it at least locally and then go nationally.

On the issues of health care and child care and schools and, heck, war and our war machine?

And then there's equal pay for equal work, along with really an untold list of what would be different and changed.

Can you imagine how different even the legislative conversations would be, let alone the results of their legislation

I'm no fool on this. I don't for a minute think we'd hit some Nirvana.

I just think we would be a radically different society and nation. Our government would be radically different and so, our nation would, as well.

Scotland is ahead of us on this. They even have an organized group, pushing for 50% of their representatives to be female.

Women 50:50

There are more  people out there in the world, proposing this idea, this framework and working on and for and toward it than I knew, before today. Here's another example.

Can We Create Planet 50-50 by 2030? 

The UN is in on it, too.

Get involved: Step It Up for gender equality: 

About Step It Up

Think about it.

How insane is it that we're still so horribly unequal, that there is still so much gross inequality, not just in the world but here in the US in the 21st Century? We agreed the part about "All men...created equal" meant men and women long ago, I think most of us agree.

Imagine.

I'd love to hear at least one show, one full hour out on KCUR, maybe on Steve Kraske's show.

It would be perfect for that station, him and his program.

A Less Convenient, More Congested, Extremely Expensive and Completely Unnecessary Single Terminal Airport

A friend--an architect, no less--made this very clear, intelligent, fair observation this past week out on Facebook. (See link and credit below).

Mayor Sly James and The Kansas City Star and all kinds of people and organizations have come out for this new, single terminal, more-than-one-billion-dollar-boondoggle of an airport, saying, now it's "fiscally responsible" (it's anything but) and the right thing to do and the way to go forward with progress and the city. They also claim it will be just as convenient as our current airport and terminals.

To which I and a lot of us out here promptly say "bunk."

Think about this.

If, God forbid, the "New KCI" people and vote wins this coming week, we would get, yes, a single terminal airport. Sure, it will blow through more than 1 billion dollars that we don't need to and shouldn't spend and it will make flying in and out of Kansas City far more expensive and it's grossly, fiscally and environmentally irresponsible but there's one more thing.

We would get that one, single security check in.

Think how that works at other airports.

Think of the lines, the long, long lines just to get to security, that one security check in at all those other airports. Then think of waiting to get through that security.

We don't have that now. With our current terminals, we don't have those abominable long lines and long, long waits.

And Mayor James and the Star and others are going to tell us it will be just as convenient?

That there won't be long lines?

Really?

And people are going to fall for that?

Vote NO Tuesday, November 7 on Question 1.

Save KCI! | Better Solutions Come From Better Discussions

Save KCI - Home | Facebook

Save KCI (@SaveKCI) · Twitter

Link:

Sven Erik Alstrom

Full Court Press From the "New KCI" Folks

Yes sir, there's a virtual "full court press" going on just now, this week, from the people and groups pushing for the more than one billion dollar boondoggle that is the "new KCI" campaign.

On KCUR, 89.3 FM this morning, Steve Kraske is going to throw out his one sided support for it on his program "Up to Date" at 11 am. It is our local NPR station and you wish they'd be impartial and non-partisan, since they're a news site, mostly but Mr. Kraske has gone along with the newspaper, the Star, and so many other local celebrities and supports it. I'm hoping for some good, probing questions today on the show, so it isn't just a fully, one-sided prop job for this nonsense.

Then, tomorrow night, our own Kansas City Star is hosting a town hall on KCI. Even the name of it shows they're not being a non-partisan news site:  "Why we need a new KCI." They aren't even pretending to be reporting news and not taking sides. That is tomorrow night, again, at 7 pm at Union Station. From the sounds of it, they're to be in what is not a terribly large room because when you register for it online, it says seating is limited. I fear and expect they don't want too large a crowd lest they get too many opposing views from the audience. Here's hoping.

So for all the more rational and fiscally and environmentally responsible people out there who see and know this "new KCI" for the absurd, again, boondoggle that it is, by all means, please phone in today to Mr. Kraske's show. Let's hold the supporters "feet to the fire", so to speak. Let's point out what an outrageous, expensive, ridiculous and yes, again, irresponsible move this would be.

Then, let's do it again, this time, in person, by going to the Star's town hall tomorrow evening. Come loaded with good, hard, fair, researched questions for them, too.



Links:

New KCI terminal may mean more flights, 

but not necessarily

New KCI terminal alone won't increase flight demand, 

say airline

​DOT data: Passenger traffic, airline revenue increasing 

at KCI

Representatives of Southwest Airlines urge caution 

on costly new KCI

Another Day, Another Push by The Star for the Airport Boondoggle

Okay, the sun came up again this morning so naturally, our own Kansas City Star had to print yet another article on why we should vote for the billion dollar plus boondoggle that would be a bright, shiny, new single terminal airport.

KCI is unfit for the security needs 

of an uncertain tomorrow

So okay.

Fine.

It's not fit for the post 9/11 security world.

Then fix it. Because it is "fixable." It is doable.

instead of throwing it away and walking away from it, fix it. 

Have terminal B act as the entrance point, use the gates there and then have walkways going out, for the rest of the available flights, to the other two terminals, A and C.

It would be far, far more fiscally responsible and would still retain its convenience. It would also be vastly more environmentally responsible, no small thing.

And if one more person says "It won't be paid with taxes!", I'm going to scream.

If this gets voted through, as it shouldn't, the prices of our flights out there are going to mushroom. Let's not kid ourselves. We still pay for it. We can't be naive about that.

The whole idea that we can't update and modernize and improve what's there is utter, complete nonsense and grossly, fiscally irresponsible, at least, to say nothing of the environmental irresponsibility.

Then there's this claim, I hear and see repeatedly:

"It would cost just as much to make repairs to the airport as it would to build a new one."

Nonsense. Again, nonsense.

How on this green Earth could walking completely away from functioning facilities, functioning, working buildings and building completely new, starting all over again, be remotely less expensive than working with what we have? In what parallel, upside down, topsy turvy world is that true?

It has not been maintained in the last several, too many years. The Airport Authority out there has been Jonesing for a bright, shiny, very expensive new toy so they haven't maintained it and kept it up at all! So instead of throwing it away and walking away from it, LET'S DEMAND THEY MAINTAIN IT, update it, sure, make it safe for 21st Century security, everything. BUT FIX IT, don't throw it away.

It's not just the intelligent thing to do, it's the responsible thing to do.

Because it's sure not so in this world. The Star themselves, though years ago, did print and give air to one architectural firm's plan and study with how to reuse our existing facilities and terminals. No one seems to remember that.

Another KCI renovation option surfaces

Oh, yeah.

Vote no on question 1 November 7.

Save KCI

For stupidity and irresponsibility, this is right up there with the repeated and seemingly never ending idea and talk of walking away from Kauffman Stadium and building another, downtown.

The Never-Ending 

Stadium Boondoggle

Kudos and Great Thanks to Steve Kraske

In the last couple of months, at least, if not longer, it seems reporter/interviewer and "man about town" Steve Kraske, of the Kansas City Star and KCUR 89.3 FM radio, has posted and posed more good questions and issues and history of our area than just about anyone.

I think what really first turned my head, so to speak, in his reporting, was when he brought up the issue of whether or not the name of our one very prominent fountain in town, on the Country Club Plaza, the JC Nichols fountain, should keep its name or not, given Mr. Nichols deepset, historical, proven, public  racism.

Kansas City should confront racist past and rename J.C. Nichols fountain

The fact is, it's Mr. Nichols racism that was a huge factor in making us the very divided, very segregated city and metropolitan area that we still are, today. That impacted where people live, where they work, where they go to school and so, obviously, the education they get, the jobs that are possible and finally, how much they earn. Those are huge, huge ramifications and they've reverberated through people's lives and so, through the city, and for decades. It's what has made what and who we are today, personally and as a city and metropolitan area. We know it goes all the way out, across the state line, ito Kansas.

Then, he didn't just ask it once but twice in the Star:

 I’m still talking about J.C. Nichols, racism and renaming the fountain

With Yael Abouhalkah off the staff of our local paper, who else is covering the State of Kansas fiscal debacle like this?

Massive Kansas tax cuts were the result of Gov. Sam Brownback’s lie

Not to be done there, this week, just a couple days ago, he had this one in the Star:

We’re taking down lots of monuments these days. But here’s one we should add

He proposed we should maybe, as a city or state, or both, at least, put up a monument---or two? more?--to the Americans who helped build our nation, innocent Americans, but who were lynched by fellow Americans.

Then, on KCUR, the local NPR station, he followed up that article with this interview and topic:

Death Sentence Changes A Juror's Life, And Understanding America's Legacy Of Lynching

He has singlehandedly done some pretty fantastic writing and interviews and is touching on stories that need to be covered no one else is, I think. He's really having us and helping us examine our history and by doing so, showing us where we are today.

With these examples alone, I can't think of one other person in the metropolitan area, or the region or state, for that matter, that is posing such provocative issues and questions for all the rest of us.

So kudos, Mr. Kraske.  Good on you. Thank you, deeply and sincerely, for getting and keeping the rest of us out here thinking and questioning what we might otherwise not question or think about. And please, do keep up this good and even important work. The only other challenges we seem to get are from the Right Wing and Republicans who seem to want us to be or get or remain selfish and stingy and even racist, lately.

To other reporters and writers and people in the media, you would do well to copy this example.

Please.

Now if only he could get KCPT to include minorities, "people of color" on their "Ruckus" and weekly news programs. And every week, at that. Seems they don't think, down there at our local PBS station, that black and Hispanic people live here or that they have anything to contribute to our city and any possible solutions to issues and problems of the day.

Here's hoping.

The Kansas City Star, KCUR and we all are lucky, very lucky to have him in our midst and reporting and interviewing.

So again, Mr. Kraske. Thank you sincerely. Please don't stop now.

Links:

Up To Date | KCUR

Steve Kraske | KCUR

Up To Date : NPR

UM System President Bullish On Downtown KC Arts Campus And Improving Diversity

Inequality Reshapes Families, KC's Sandlot History, And State Senator Faces Likely Expulsion

The Psychobiology Behind Love (R), And Race Relations Under President Trump

Next Up? That Andrew Jackson Statue Downtown

Think about this.

Last weekend, writer, reporter Steve Kraske, of the Kansas City Star and KCUR, the local NPR station, penned an article in the Saturday paper calling for the renaming of the J.C. Nichols fountain on our own Country Club Plaza because, well, the fact is, Mr. Nichols was a blatant, very public racist.

And sure, there are and will be plenty in the city who think it's crazy and/or unnecessary and/or just out and out stupid.

But the fact is, the City Council is meeting today and talking about doing just that.

On another local blog today I saw a comment and it made me realize what's next.

Yeah, that Andrew Jackson statue downtown? The one in front of the County Courthouse?

It will be next up for evaluation.

You want racist? It just doesn't get any more racist than US President Andrew Jackson.

Indian-Killer Andrew Jackson Deserves Top Spot on List of Worst US Presidents 

And it's not just that he was racist, though that's bad enough. He's been listed as one of the nation's worst presidents for years and for a range of reasons. Here are links to just three articles, of many, many that are available, spelling out how awful he was.

The 5 most notorious presidents in US history

Andrew Jackson was America's worst 

'great' president 

5 Reasons We Should Kick Andrew Jackson 

Off the $20 Bill 

Here is just a bit for which he's known.

When Jackson was inaugurated, he held a party in the White House to which anyone was invited. People trashed the place, even snipping bits out of the curtains as souvenirs. This story confirmed all the worst fears of Jackson’s critics. His predecessor, John Quincy Adams, who Jackson had defeated in a horrifically bad-tempered election, was so horrified by Jackson’s triumph that he refused to attend the inauguration – the last outgoing president in history to have boycotted his successor’s big day. Men like Adams – who came from a Massachusetts family that had fought for Independence and feared for the survival of the republic (particularly his father, John Adams) – saw Jackson as a profane, unprincipled demagogue; a would-be tyrant in the Napoleonic mode; a man with no respect for the checks and balances of the Constitution or the rule of law.

The first president to have risen from lowly origins, Jackson became famous as the general who had defeated the British at the battle of New Orleans in 1815. Previously known for buying a slave plantation in Tennessee (in 1803) and for taking part in a high-profile duel (with Charles Dickinson in 1806), after the battle of New Orleans he went on to win more fame fighting the Seminole Indians.

In office, Jackson was an aggressive wielder of the president’s hitherto unused veto power. He stopped Congress from spending money on new roads or canals, and he prevented the re-charter of the Bank of the United States, which had attempted to regulate the money supply and served as a lender of last resort. And whatever political challenge he faced, his language was hyperbolic. “You are a den of vipers and thieves,” he wrote to the directors of the Bank of the US, “I intend to rout you out, and by the eternal God, I will rout you out”. When he left office, the country was plunged into the deepest recession anyone could remember.

So, yes, Steve Kraske's idea and proposal struck a lot of people unawares but with all the removal of statues of racists first in New Orleans, then in St. Louis and the national conversations its inspired, I would absolutely look for this one to come up, too, shortly.

Like it, agree with it or no.

Another Great Idea and Proposal From the Star

First it was Steve Kraske's idea about renaming the J.C. Nichols fountain, in last Saturday's paper, and now this.

Editorial: End the aggravation of out-of-sync traffic lights

And really, to whom has this not occurred? To whom of us, as we drive around the Kansas City metropolitan area, has this not struck as a good, even important idea? How many times have we been caught at a read light, sitting there, when no other cars are at the other cross street lights?

It can be maddening.

We read all the time how our computers and computer technology is making incredible breakthroughs and doing untold new, wonderful things for us. Shouldn't synchronizing traffic lights be one of them? And doesn't it seem like it wouldn't be that difficult or complicated, too, for us and the computers?

It would achieve actually a few really great benefits for us, as a city and people and even the nation.

• We'd waste less time so we'd be more productive. That could easily be shown as good fro business
• We'd waste less gasoline
• We'd pollute less since we wouldn't be sitting at these traffic lights, waiting, doing nothing other than running our car's engines
• We'd have far less frustration and even anger. The likelihood it could cut down on some road rage seems very likely
• We could and would likely improve the air quality we're annually being reminded of in the Summer months

Those benefits alone are enough to make this a very worthwhile endeavor.

The Federal Government is funding research on driverless cars, for pity's sake.

Columbus snags $40M grant for driverless car hub

Before we go off giving federal tax dollars for driverless cars, how about we improve existing traffic technologies so its as effective and efficient as it can be, first? Doesn't that seem like a good and smart idea?

Let's get this party started---and on both sides of the state line.

Steve Kraske and the Really Excellent Proposal

They printed it yesterday.

Steve Kraske: Kansas City should confront racist past and rename J.C. Nichols fountain

Nichols was all about enduring legacies.

He was about something else, too. Like others of his time, he was a racist who went to great lengths to ensure that racial and religious minorities could not live in his neighborhoods. Nichols championed restrictive deeds that dictated the types of people who could move in.

Our own UMKC points this out very well---and we all know it.

'Troost Wall' the product of Kansas City's 

long-running racial plight

And sure, the Federal Government had their hand in it, as we also know, but that doesn't make it right, either. Here's a great bit of local background from way over in the UK with their BBC.

Why don't black and white Americans 

live together?

The US government had a hand in creating this segregation due to practices it instituted back in the 1930s, which prevented many blacks from getting on the property ladder in certain areas.

When the federal government began underwriting home loans for Americans to help boost the economy as part of the New Deal, strict guidelines were drawn up regarding where mortgages could be issued.

Areas where minorities lived were seen as risky investments and black families were routinely denied mortgages, locking them out of the housing market.

The practice was known as redlining because red ink marked out the minority areas. As Kansas City-based historian Bill Worley explained to me, these policies continued right into the 1960s, and excluded African Americans from one of the greatest motors of wealth in the 20th Century - home ownership.

And here's why all this history, from "way back when" is still pertinent and important today. In the first place, it's not that long ago and second, its effects still permeate the city, to this day:

Redlining is now theoretically outlawed in the United States, and has been since the 1970s, but it's still happening to this day.

"Banks continue to build and structure their lending operations in a way that avoids or fails to meaningfully serve communities of colour, based on assumptions about the financial risk," Vanita Gupta, the justice department's top civil rights lawyer, said last September, as she pledged more action to stop discriminatory lending.

Another factor which made access to housing prohibitive were the restrictive racial covenants written into housing contracts.

Until 1948, it was perfectly legal for a black person to be prevented from buying or living in a house.

Here's where the JC Nichols part comes in.

Bill Worley showed me an example of a restrictive racial covenant drawn up in Kansas City by the city's best known property developer during that time, JC Nichols.

"None of the said lots shall be conveyed to, used, owned nor occupied by Negroes as owner or tenants," it read. Other groups, including Jews, were also written into these kind of contracts.

So not only was JC Nichols racist, provenly, but he was racist against not just Blacks, not just one race, but two.

It can't be emphasized enough why this is still resonant today.

Kansas City is fifth most economically segregated 

city in U.S.

White people don't want to recognize this, first, let alone accept it and then, what few do think it only has to do with where one lives. That's not it at all. This, then, where you live effects where you work, how much your paid, what schools your children go to, everything. It very directly effects what your family will earn, in wages, where, again, you work, what and how you learn at school, who you socialize with, everything. It's not just housing, no way, though that's bad enough.

Check out these statistics on Kansas City.

The 9 Most Segregated Cities In America

>Pct. of population living in segregated areas: 37.8%
> Black poverty rate: 26.4%
> White poverty rate: 8.3%
> Black unemployment rate: 13.4%
> White unemployment rate: 5.6% 

Roughly 765,000 Kansas City residents — or 37.8% of the city’s population — live in a homogeneous zip code, or where at least 80% of residents share the same skin color or ethnicity, the ninth highest proportion in the country. Out of the 166 zip codes that make up the Kansas City metro area, 123 are home to predominantly white residents. White city residents have very little interaction with the city’s black residents. Of all the people a white person comes into contact with in the area, only 5.5% are black, significantly less frequent than the similar figure of 12.8% of contacts across the 50 largest metro areas. Segregation like this can have very discernible consequences. White households earn nearly twice the median income of black households. Three of the area’s zip codes are home to 15.9% of the metro’s black population, and the median household income in each is less than $30,000 annually. More than 26% of the metro area’s black population lives in poverty, slightly less than the national poverty rate among black Americans but more than three times as high as the poverty rate among the city’s white residents of 8.3%. School systems are also affected by segregation. While one-third of all metro area residents have at least a bachelor’s degree, in zip codes that are home to predominantly black residents, less than 12% of adults have a college degree. Read more at 24/7 Wall St.

Here, briefly, why segregation is so very, deeply wrong and why we still, to this day, need to recognize and

Everyone Pays A Hefty Price 

For Segregation, Study Says

Racial segregation in schools 

holds white pupils back

U.S. Education: Still Separate and Unequal 

Why Well-Being for Each of Us 

is Well-Being for All of Us

I have to say, I salute, again, Steve Kraske for writing and our own Kansas City Star for putting out such an article. In the first place, it surprised me. Usually the media and people in it like and want to go the safe, quiet route. 

This is not doing that at all. 

Instead of just asking the question of if we should do this, too, Mr. Kraske puts it right out there, that we should definitely, unequivocally rename our revered fountain.

So kudos, Mr. Kraske and the Star. Now, let the conversations commence.

Please check your racism at the door. (Along with your ignorance of the city's history. And any and all ugliness and hate).

Link:

How Troost Became A Major Divide In Kansas City | KCUR

How School And District Boundaries Shaped Education In Kansas City

Incredible food for thought

None other than Citigroup itself "declared that the inequality of income in this nation is the greatest since 16th century Spain."

Even the fatcats are acknowledging how out of skew our country is.

It's THAT bad.

And you don't want to do anything about it?

Link:  Concentration of wealth is too profound to ignore

Read more here: http://www.kansascity.com/search_results/?q=moving%20for%20the%20middle#storylink=cpy

Quote of the day--on our current Congress

The current 112th Congress has passed just 151 public laws since it convened in January 2011, the fewest laws in at least six decades. The next-most-unproductive national legislature — the 104th Congress, 1995-1996 — passed 280 public laws. It still found time, under a Democratic president and a Republican Congress, to shut down the federal government for several weeks.

For comparison, the 1947-1948 “do-nothing” Congress attacked by Harry Truman passed 906 public laws.

--Steve Kraske and Dave Helling, from their article "The End of the Middle" in Sunday's Kansas City Star newspaper

Read more here: http://www.kansascity.com/2012/08/18/3768596/the-end-of-the-middle-how-the.html

Missouri: Some monumental stupidity in government

From Steve Kraske and his column today in The Star: "Missouri’s the only state where officials can accept $500,000 campaign donations and unlimited lobbyist gifts. And now, courtesy of a state Supreme Court ruling this week, donors can once again hide whom they’re giving to." How's that for disgusting? Thank you, Jefferson City legislators. Thank you, Republican Party. For nothing. Out of all 50 states--the entire nation--Missouri is the only one where our legislators can be bought and paid for in HUGE sums of money. Worse yet, then the trail can be covered. That is some kind of sick and irresponsible. This, ladies and gentlemen, truly is "what's wrong with our country", to use the cliche'. The wealthy and corporations can--and do, as we know--give sometimes small amounts (as low as $2,000) to our representatives. In the end, that gets them OUR legislation, OUR laws and so, our government. That's why it's government for the rich and for corporations first, if not always. This is why we must change the laws on "campaign contributions." This is why we need tough, stringent, accountable, prosecutable, punishable campaign finance reform. This, like it or not, is why we need to have our government finance our elections. That and make them 3 or 6 months long, at worst, by law. Until we do that, until we get this big, ugly, corrupting money out of our election systems, our government and laws will be for the rich and for corporations first, if not always. Link to original article: http://www.kansascity.com/2012/02/17/3436381/steve-kraske-where-to-begin.html