Thread: Cities make quiet plea for tolerance

http://www.usatoday.com/news/nation/200 ... over_x.htm

Cities make quiet plea for tolerance
Updated 8/4/2006 12:47 AM ET

By Haya El Nasser, USA TODAY
Sixty-eight cities in 28 states have decided that a plain old welcome sign is no longer enough in a nation growing increasingly diverse.
In a symbolic plea for greater tolerance, communities from West Virginia to California are posting signs that say: "Welcome. We are building an inclusive community."

Some are placing the signs at city limits. Others are putting them in front of schools and city halls.

"We are not claiming to be an inclusive community," says James Hunt, a city councilman in Clarksburg, W.Va., which has erected the sign. "What we're saying is that we recognize the value of that, and we're working toward it."

That's the message behind the National League of Cities' new initiative. Hunt, president of the association this year, launched the Partnership for Working Toward Inclusive Communities to promote equal opportunity and fairness.

The push comes at a time when many states are banning same-sex marriages and some cities are cracking down on illegal immigrants. Billboards in Hamilton, Ohio, warn: "Hire an Illegal. BREAK THE LAW!" Some communities are restricting family-oriented housing developments to limit demand on public services such as schools.

The initiative targets no specific issues, Hunt says.

"Is it race? Is it youth? Is it the disabled?" he says. "We wanted it to be a broad topic."

Cities that have joined so far include scenes of civil rights struggles, such as Selma, Ala., and Little Rock and less racially diverse communities:

• Brea, Calif., a city of about 35,000 people near Anaheim, is accustomed to diversity. The site of one of the first day-labor centers for immigrants, Brea is one-third minorities — mostly Hispanic and Asian. "It's not just about race," former mayor Bev Perry says. "It's for all ages, our seniors ... for people who are economically challenged."

• Casper, Wyo., wants to send the message of inclusiveness to young people. "If you remember back in high school how there are cliques and groups," Councilwoman Lynne Whalen says. "There were jocks, intellectuals. ... There isn't cross-communication."

• Clarksburg, W.Va., put up the sign outside City Hall downtown. Seven students from a predominantly black school in Selma and six students from a predominantly white school in Clarksburg met to discuss racism and intolerance.

"We need more emphasis on diverse communities than ever before," says George Galster, professor of urban affairs at Wayne State University in Detroit.

"American neighborhoods are becoming much more segregated. ... If the symbolism turns into real community discussion about diversity, what it means, what people like, what people don't like, then it could have a very positive effect. "

http://www.usatoday.com/news/nation/200 ... side_x.htm

Small Indiana town singing tune of racial, ethnic harmony
Updated 8/4/2006 2:10 AM ET

By Haya El Nasser, USA TODAY



Local folklore has it that the small town of Bluffton, Ind., once had an ordinance to keep blacks out, Mayor Ted Ellis says. He never found proof but says he wondered why Bluffton remained 96% white while many other cities became more diverse.
"I always thought that Bluffton was no more hostile than other communities around," Ellis says.

Then came an anonymous letter about 18 months ago. It was a photocopy of a newspaper clipping about the opening of a restaurant in this town of 10,000 people about 25 minutes south of Fort Wayne. A hand-printed message above the photo of the restaurant owner, a college professor who is a Sikh, read, "We don't wear turbans in Bluffton ... we speak English."

Ellis was appalled. "I just felt I had been hit in the gut when I got that," he says.

He invited the businessman to his state of the city address, seated him at his table and got his first standing ovation in 10 years as mayor.

"The leadership of the community has its heart in the right place," he says. "But it certainly illustrated that no matter how nice we are to one another, there still is an underlying current."

Encouraging dialogue

That's why Bluffton was among the first to join the National League of Cities' Partnership for Working Toward Inclusive Communities. The initiative encourages cities to start a dialogue about diversity and acceptance and to put up signs promoting their efforts: "Welcome. We are building an inclusive community."

Sixty-eight cities have joined.

"Inclusiveness means different things to different people," Ellis says. "In Selma (Ala.) and Little Rock, it's a long history of racial tension. But if you live long enough, everyone has been excluded at some time."

Sociologist James Loewen wrote Sundown Towns, a history of thousands of towns and cities that excluded African-Americans and other minorities after sundown. Although racial exclusion is most often associated with the South, Loewen found that the sundown town was a Northern invention.

In his book, eyewitnesses tell of sundown signs in more than 150 communities in 31 states. One sign bluntly stated, "Whites only within city limits after dark." Others in Arkansas, Kentucky, Missouri and Tennessee depicted a black mule and used profane language to warn African-Americans to get out of town by sundown.

"Most all-white communities in the United States are all-white on purpose," says Loewen, a visiting professor at Catholic University of America in Washington, D.C.

"For decades, formally and informally, they kept out people of color, particularly African-Americans," he says.

Bluffton, he says, was no doubt a sundown town. So are 65% of all incorporated municipalities in neighboring Illinois, according to his research.

That's why Bluffton's decision to put up signs stating that it's building an inclusive community is full of symbolism. The city plans to put up signs at the three state highway entrances to the city and two at each of the town's eight schools, Ellis says.

"It's very important," Loewen says. "Every sundown town and every sundown city in America should take steps."

Elite suburbs that want to keep out large families, the elderly or the poor also should take the message to heart, he says.

That's the kind of dialogue Jim Hunt, president of the National League of Cities and a councilman in Clarksburg, W.Va., wanted the initiative to launch.

"Communities feel that this is something that will assist economic development and tourism," he says. Companies have a better chance to attract workers to cities that are welcoming to all, he says.

From NIMBY to YIMBY

The program has appealed to cities that have a history of racial tensions and others "that feel they want to be prepared for the new face of America," Hunt says.

There has been an unofficial push in some places to promote YIMBYism (yes in my backyard) to counter a civic attitude prevalent in many communities: NIMBYism (not in my backyard).

Deciding whether to join the program could be touchy for many politicians against the backdrop of the national debates over issues such as illegal immigration and same-sex marriage.

The initiative "just asks the community to enter into a discussion of whether they're reacting to the national hysteria or whether they're truly looking at the inclusiveness of communities," Hunt says.

George Galster, professor of urban affairs at Wayne State University in Detroit, says council members will have to define what they mean by inclusive.

Those debates "will discourage some," Galster says. "I can imagine the hearings at city council. They have to confront issues not only about immigration and illegal immigration, but about sexual preference. Then it's a firestorm."

Bluffton is promoting Spanish-language classes, although immigration is not a major issue in town. "You want your workers to be legal," Ellis says, "but we're becoming a global economy if we aren't already, and we just need to recognize that."

I assume "inclusive" covers criminal law breakers too!

Bluffton is promoting Spanish-language classes

Yeah, you better learn Spanish, because they sure as hell, ain't gonna learn English! You can't be "inclusive".....you are inviting every weirdo group, faction, sect in the world and they will throw "inclusive" back in your face if you decide not to "accept" them.

These people are idiots maybe they can all move to Cambridge and join those liberals in embracing diversity. You know what they say be careful what you want as you just may get it

More multicultural mumbo-jumbo. Of course it really only works one way. We must give up American laws, way of life and sovereignty to be "tolerant".


I wonder how much "tolerance" was shown to these people?

http://www.alipac.us/modules.php?name=F ... ic&t=35880

I guess inclusive means accepting illegals