[823] in Privacy_Forum
[ PRIVACY Forum ] Half a Century: The "NYC Mosque" and "A Raisin in
daemon@ATHENA.MIT.EDU (privacy@vortex.com)
Sat Aug 21 00:31:20 2010
Date: Fri, 20 Aug 2010 21:16:25 -0700
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Half a Century: The "NYC Mosque" and "A Raisin in the Sun"
http://lauren.vortex.com/archive/000747.html
Greetings. Earlier this week, in "Google Buzz Meets the New York City
Mosque Controversy" ( http://bit.ly/aaBCCJ [Lauren's Blog] ), I noted
how Google Buzz was proving invaluable in discussing the controversies
surrounding the New York City Cordoba Community Center and mosque
project. That thread, which I began last Saturday, has now grown to
over 260 comments, the vast majority of them very substantive. The
thread continues to grow.
A recurring theme in this saga is the concept -- proposed by
detractors of Cordoba -- that the project should be built elsewhere as
a matter of "courtesy" simply because there are persons who are
uncomfortable with the project being two blocks away from the the site
of the World Trade Center. (In passing, I'll note that the mosque
operating at the Pentagon, itself a target on 9/11, has been fully
functional for years, reportedly without any complaints or problems.)
In any case, New York's Governor Paterson has apparently proposed
swapping some state-owned land in an attempt to move the project
elsewhere, and the "if you're not wanted in an area you shouldn't move
there" theme has been picked up by many politicians (especially ones
looking over their shoulders at the upcoming midterm elections, and
wanting to promote the perceived "populist" view regarding this
matter).
But haven't we been through all this before? We have indeed, and
Sidney Poitier's classic 1961 film "A Raisin in the Sun" portrays
a stunningly similar -- and equally obscene -- view from a half
century ago (still very much alive in some parts of this country
today, unfortunately).
Watch this scene from the film:
http://bit.ly/raisin-sun (YouTube)
as the pleasant, well-dressed gentleman from the homeowners'
association politely tries to dissuade a black family from moving to a
new home and "upsetting" the residents in the area.
The parallels with the NYC Cordoba situation, with Governor Paterson
and other politicians ironically taking on the role filled in the film
by John Fielder, are all too obvious, all too shameful, and deserving
of the same repugnance that I hope we all feel when watching that
celluloid scene.
The more things change, the more they stay the same? It doesn't have
to be that way. That's up to us.
--Lauren--
Lauren Weinstein (lauren@vortex.com)
http://www.vortex.com/lauren
Tel: +1 (818) 225-2800
Co-Founder, PFIR (People For Internet Responsibility): http://www.pfir.org
Co-Founder, NNSquad (Network Neutrality Squad): http://www.nnsquad.org
Founder, GCTIP (Global Coalition for Transparent Internet Performance):
http://www.gctip.org
Founder, PRIVACY Forum: http://www.vortex.com
Member, ACM Committee on Computers and Public Policy
Lauren's Blog: http://lauren.vortex.com
Twitter: https://twitter.com/laurenweinstein
Google Buzz: http://bit.ly/lauren-buzz
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