The racial troubles of 23rd and Union are not yet history.
The racial troubles of 23rd and Union are not yet history. Charles Mudede

Make No Mistake About This: When the person identified as Omari Tahir-Garrett, a Central District activist with a history, was captured on video telling Ian Eisenberg, the owner of the Central District pot business Uncle Ike's, to go back to a specific place, Germany, and time, Nazi Germany, this person was saying: I want you to be killed. Yes, the one identified as Tahir-Garrett called not only for the death of Eisenberg but also millions of other Americans who would be killed in gas chambers if they were deported to that place in time. There is no way out of this fact, which is why no excuses should be provided for the statement recorded on video. It is not only 100% wrong but very dangerous. People must never play with that kind of racist fire.

That said, on April 7, Eisenberg posted a statement on Facebook that, with good reason, can be construed as racist. Referring to a 2010 Slog post by Dominic Holden, "Urban Decay Officially Consumes All of 23rd and Union," he wrote:

I had forgotten about this article. I am not sure which is more depressing. The 2010 boarded up shut down 23rd & Union, or the protests because it is showing new signs of life and vitality.
Why might this be seen as racist? Because the system that underdeveloped the Central District when it was the largest black community in the Pacific Northwest, and began redeveloping it after the displacement of that community, is not neutral.

This system, which the social scientist Kenneth T. Jackson describes in great detail in Crabgrass Frontier: The Suburbanization of the United States, has a long and deep history in urban America, and involved powerful federal and private institutions. Make no mistake about this: The system was and still is racist. And to say otherwise is to say or imply that blacks caused "urban decay" because they are simply black, and not because of greedy landlords, housing segregation, redlining, underfunded schools, and the near complete absence of meaningful economic opportunities in these neighborhoods. To ignore these facts, which resulted from what Martin Luther King Jr. called a "bad check," is to automatically and structurally associate economic prosperity ("new signs of life and vitality") with whiteness. There is even a name for this kind of reasoning. It's called afro-pessimism.

Eisenberg should, considering the racial history of the Central District (and the US altogether), choose his words more carefully, more sensitively.

The Terrifying Story Begins With: Two young Olympia girls riding their bikes through the halcyon days of their childhood. The girls then spotted a cat dashing into the woods. The girls then dropped their bikes and entered the woods with the hope of finding this enchanting cat. But instead of finding a cat in the woods, they found a man. This man grabbed one of the girls. The grabbed girl screamed while the other girl kicked the grabber. The man finally let the one girl go. Both ran out of the woods, picked up their bikes, and pedaled to safety. KOMO provides a vivid description of the girl grabber in the woods, in the woods, where the sun don't ever shine.

Car Bursts Into Flames in Everett: But when the police arrived, they found no one in the burning vehicle. It was empty. The police suspect that the driver left the car and resorted to an much older and more climate friendly form of transportation that's often described as "on foot."

Floridian Finds Bits of Bat in Salad: This disgusting discovery resulted in Walmart recalling certain packages of Organic Marketside Spring Mix from its stores in southeastern United States. Another person also found bits of bat in a salad they were eating. If you can stomach the whole story, it's here on KOMO's website.

Stop Calling Them Climate Deniers: For very obvious reasons ("money, money, money..."), these people have made the decision to destroy the climate as we know it. We must call these men and women climate destroyers or, better yet, extinction capitalists.



Saturday Night Live Says It Like It Is: Trump will ruin the lives of many of his supporters, but these supporters will still support him. The Dems must not try to win over these people. The scales are stuck to their eyes.



Clinton Had His Monica Missiles: And now Trump has his Nunes Missiles. The question is: did they work? Did the explosions silence the growing Russian chatter? Time does not seem to be on Trump's side...


That Is the Obscene, Atrocious, Obnoxious: 432 Park Avenue.

Fuck you, Manhattans One Percent Tower.
Fuck you, Manhattan's One Percent Tower. Charles Mudede