Thread: Race in America today

Making Water a Matter of Race
By Claire Suddath Monday, Jul. 14, 2008Getty
To this day, Jerry Kennedy only does laundry when it rains. For the first 54 years of his life, he lived without running water, and rainstorms were the only way he could collect enough water to wash his clothes. But Kennedy isn't from some far-off rural outpost. He was born and raised in the Coal Run neighborhood of Zanesville, Ohio — a former coal-mining center of 25,000 in the eastern part of the state — just a few hundred feet from a municipal water line. Kennedy, now 58, is black. His neighbors, who did not have running water for more than 50 years, are also black. On July 10, the U.S. District Court of Ohio awarded them almost $10.9 million, ruling that they had been denied access to public water because of their race.

The decision comes four years after the water started flowing in Coal Run, a black community of some 25 homes in overwhelmingly white Muskingum County, following a lawsuit filed by the Ohio Civil Rights Commission (OCRC) and 67 Coal Run residents. According to the suit, the community had repeatedly requested water service since 1956, the year the city built a water main that ended just short of the neighborhood, and had watched as the East Muskingum Water Authority built new water lines and increased county water efforts in surrounding areas while their requests went unanswered. When he built his house in the early 1980s, Kennedy says, his water request was denied. He can't even remember the number of times he asked the city's service director for help, only to have nothing happen. Then a house went up next door. A white family moved in, and one day Kennedy saw his new neighbors watering their lawn. "They'd be out there with a hot tub out on the porch," he says, "and I was still going down the road [to the local water treatment plant] with a pickup truck every day." Like many Zanesville area residents, he couldn't drill a well because the surrounding coal mines have contaminated the water, rendering it undrinkable. The mines have been closed for years, but the ground is so full of sulfur that residents say the water runs red. In Coal Run, Kennedy and his black neighbors would either pay to have water hauled in from the treatment plant two miles away or catch the rainwater that ran down their gutters.


http://www.time.com/time/nation/arti...822455,00.html

Originally Posted by truthmatters

Making Water a Matter of Race
By Claire Suddath Monday, Jul. 14, 2008Getty
To this day, Jerry Kennedy only does laundry when it rains. For the first 54 years of his life, he lived without running water, and rainstorms were the only way he could collect enough water to wash his clothes. But Kennedy isn't from some far-off rural outpost. He was born and raised in the Coal Run neighborhood of Zanesville, Ohio — a former coal-mining center of 25,000 in the eastern part of the state — just a few hundred feet from a municipal water line. Kennedy, now 58, is black. His neighbors, who did not have running water for more than 50 years, are also black. On July 10, the U.S. District Court of Ohio awarded them almost $10.9 million, ruling that they had been denied access to public water because of their race.

The decision comes four years after the water started flowing in Coal Run, a black community of some 25 homes in overwhelmingly white Muskingum County, following a lawsuit filed by the Ohio Civil Rights Commission (OCRC) and 67 Coal Run residents. According to the suit, the community had repeatedly requested water service since 1956, the year the city built a water main that ended just short of the neighborhood, and had watched as the East Muskingum Water Authority built new water lines and increased county water efforts in surrounding areas while their requests went unanswered. When he built his house in the early 1980s, Kennedy says, his water request was denied. He can't even remember the number of times he asked the city's service director for help, only to have nothing happen. Then a house went up next door. A white family moved in, and one day Kennedy saw his new neighbors watering their lawn. "They'd be out there with a hot tub out on the porch," he says, "and I was still going down the road [to the local water treatment plant] with a pickup truck every day." Like many Zanesville area residents, he couldn't drill a well because the surrounding coal mines have contaminated the water, rendering it undrinkable. The mines have been closed for years, but the ground is so full of sulfur that residents say the water runs red. In Coal Run, Kennedy and his black neighbors would either pay to have water hauled in from the treatment plant two miles away or catch the rainwater that ran down their gutters.


http://www.time.com/time/nation/arti...822455,00.html

That's really unfortunate but what's the point of this post ? To raise awareness about the downtrodden community and the affected people in it ? Or to make white people feel guilty ? It's not having much effect on me.

Sometimes when life sucks a thousands miles away from you there's really nothing you personally can do about it and more importantly it's not your fault or your responsibillity.

Its about that fact that racism is still very much a part of this countries present as well as its past.

Why do you think that McCain supporter said a 6'4' black man attacked her instead of a white lesbian?

Originally Posted by truthmatters

Its about that fact that racism is still very much a part of this countries present as well as its past.

Why do you think that McCain supporter said a 6'4' black man attacked her instead of a white lesbian?

And you think that McCain supporter represents all McCain supporters ? That's pretty racist in and of itself.

A great example of racism in this Country are the tens of thousands of people who plan on voting for Obama strictly because.......he's black.
Or is racism a one way street in your world ?

So far your post have very little to do with your profile ? Truth is absolute, not relative. Even if it's hard to accept.

Have you not seen the clips of McCain supporters in from=nt of rallies being interviewed?

The Obama bucks lady.

The Obama is a black Hitler lady.

The family having their kids act like monkeys and saying we dont want a monkey for president.

Dude you live in a closet?

Originally Posted by truthmatters

Why do you think that McCain supporter said a 6'4' black man attacked her instead of a white lesbian?

She knew everyone else knew Janet Reno was out of town that day.

Originally Posted by truthmatters

Have you not seen the clips of McCain supporters in from=nt of rallies being interviewed?

The Obama bucks lady.

The Obama is a black Hitler lady.

The family having their kids act like monkeys and saying we dont want a monkey for president.

Dude you live in a closet?

I, unlike you, apparently can see both sides of an issue and realize that racism isn't a nice tidy little balled up thing that only white people do in America.

Your closet is much smaller mine when you fail to realize that the majority of racism in this Election is coming from the side of Obama, not McCain.

Why don't you wake up and realize that dumbass Joe Redneck means absolutlely nothing in the big picture the real problem are the mind numb Obama-bots who are about to put in charge a corrupt politician who has even less experience than Palin and no clue. Raising taxes in a recession and punishing big bussiness because it's.... fair ???? Brilliant, just brilliant !

It still blows me away ever time I see that video of the kids calling Obama a monkey while their parents smile.

Originally Posted by Six

I, unlike you, apparently can see both sides of an issue and realize that racism isn't a nice tidy little balled up thing that only white people do in America.

Your closet is much smaller mine when you fail to realize that the majority of racism in this Election is coming from the side of Obama, not McCain.

Why don't you wake up and realize that dumbass Joe Redneck means absolutlely nothing in the big picture the real problem are the mind numb Obama-bots who are about to put in charge a corrupt politician who has even less experience than Palin and no clue. Raising taxes in a recession and punishing big bussiness because it's.... fair ???? Brilliant, just brilliant !

Wow do you really sound like a nut bag.

BTW do you realise that there was some congressional testimony this week in which Greenspan, SEC Cox and ex treasurey Sec Snow all said this mess is because of Deregulation and that it would be dumb to cut corporate taxes now?


The corruption one is just straight out of your ass huh?