Bad Neighborhoods

So Tom Friedman has been wrong about almost everything. No surprise there. He's about as great a foreign policy mind as Bush himself. But something else that occurs to me as I read this. Friedman really is just a dick:

This is something liberals should care about -- because liberating the captive peoples of the Mideast is a virtue in itself and because in today's globalized world, if you don't visit a bad neighborhood, it will visit you.

You know what else happens in today's "globalized world" (WTF does that even mean? Does this guy listen to himself?) People hear about you dismissing their entire country as a "bad neighborhood," you condescending fuck, and if they were inclined to listen to you and your class before, certainly they're not anymore.

Bad neighborhood. Jesus Christ in a hoopskirt. Nobody thinks their own neighborhood sucks, nobody says, "Yeah, I live in a shithole, I feel bad about my life." People may know there are problems in their communities but it's fairly rare that genuinely engaged members of a community see their own environment with despair. It's an outside characterization, the kind made by people who come to the city, see a member of a minority group on the street, and loudly *ker-thunk* the automatic door locks. It's a dismissal, moreover, of everything that neighborhood IS, its struggles and its successes, by somebody who has no interest in understanding it, who thinks he's so much better than all the people in it.

Am I being clear about this? I'm not saying there aren't places that have high crime, addiction, poverty, substandard housing stock and high incidences of illness and unemployment. I'm objecting to the "bad neighborhood" label because that's what it is, a label, something you slap on a place you're afraid of, a place you don't understand, a place you don't intend to spend any serious time on. It's such an outsider thing to say, full of so much judgment and so much ignorance, and it's about classifying, not discussing. Tom Friedman doesn't want to talk about why the neighborhood has problems, nor does he really give a fuck how they can be solved. He wants us to "visit" that neighborhood, presumably to "clean it up" by kicking in doors and telling people to suck on stuff. What a jackass. What a privileged, superior, insulated jackass.

The world is flat, so you go around talking about somebody's home as the ghetto, and you're done, basically, because once people hear that they know you've already made up your mind that all they are doesn't matter anymore, that all you can see is "bad" or "good." I wonder if he'd say that to the faces of a family that took him in and fed him, in this "bad neighborhood" he's talking about. I wonder if he'd tell them why he needed to make a little personal-security disaster-tourism pit stop where they fucking live.

Schmuck.

A.

Comments

[Wally Whateley]

Well, to a multimillionaire like Friedman, every neighborhood is a ghetto. But it's even worse for neighborhoods dominated by brown people. Neighborhoods with brown people need to be bombed flat so white multimillionaires can feel safe grilling weenies in the Hamptons.

[mdhatter]

"and because in today's globalized world, if you don't visit a bad neighborhood, it will visit you."

He forgot the Belfast corollary, 'the more often you visit a bad neighborhood with guns, the more likely people are to shoot at you.'

[spocko]

When you are rich, and advise the rich (or wannabas) , "People think you really knooooow!"

"If I were a richman all day long I'd biddy biddy bum if I were a wealthy mannnnnnn."

I'm really tired of people on TV saying, "Well that's a good point Tom..." because they are all nice people and friendly off camera.

Heck, position it as good TV. "Athenae will come on TV and tell The Mustache of Understanding that he's full of shit and point out how wrong he is, how dangerously wrong and stupidly incorrect his ideas are. And, in the spirit of free speech, if they DON'T have someone on who disagrees with them, they are in fact supporting EVERYTHING that he is saying."

Want to have a republican on? Why not have on Ron Paul? Opps can't have that can you?

Need an expert? How about Juan Cole? Opps he speaks the language and has been right about stuff. Can't have that...

Producers who keep having Friendman on are letting America, and their viewers, down.

[Reba]

Sing it, sister! Generalizations about any region, from "flyover country" to "ghetto" are at best inaccurate and at worst dangerous. And none of the people currently being asked to opine professionally about this war (or just about anything else, really) have a fracking clue. The message went out a long time ago not to trust the educated, and this is the end result. Staying on message is more important than telling the truth (as the truth is generally understood as opposed to The Truth...). It makes my head hurt and my heart ache.

[pansypoo]

but but but he has a PULITZER. need to take that back.

fryedman covered israel for many years. it was his schtick. so he is used to never ending centuries lasting conflicts. this has only been a few FUCKING years.

[zoot]

freidman is just another skank promoting the use of the blood of American sons and daughters to pursue Israel's violence, first, last, and always foreign policy.
.

[knut wicksell]

Fabulous rant. Right on target. Bad neighborhoods are places people who live in gated communities don't want to go, and wish were someplace else so they wouldn't have to think about them. F is a prick. plain and simple.

[catherine]

Tom Friedman doesn't want to talk about why the neighborhood has problems, nor does he really give a fuck how they can be solved."

Actually, Athenae, asshole that he is, he DOES have an idea about what they can all do. They can all work at call centers (i.e. India) and become middle class. God, he gets off on that, or he was when I could still tolerate reading him. So, to Tommy, helping Americans become more efficient consumers is a better deal that becoming a lawyer to help your own people, a teacher, a farmer, or anything at all that benefits your community. No, helping Americans consume is the answer.

A--wipe.

[catherine]

And, MDHatter, great corollary.

[Interrobang]

I used to live in a "bad neighbourhood." I mean prostitutes and crackheads kind of bad.

I felt safer there on the street at midnight than I do during broad daylight in the wealthy suburbs, because people leave their upper-floor windows open, and there're always lights on, and there's always someone around. And if something hinky was going on, people would call the police.

I don't trust suburbanites that much. There's just too much incentive to close the curtains and lock the door and Act Like Nothing's Wrong.

How much do you want to bet that if something bad wrong went down in Friedman's neck of the woods, he'd turn the hi-fi up and forget about it?