The Charge of the White Brigade

This week we saw the charge of the white brigade. All the white council members voted in favor of Conrad's proposal to require a 2/3's majority of the council to approve tax increases, primarily property taxes. My friend Leftwingcracker wrote about it here. He generally thinks they did it as a political stunt prior to the election. I see it more as a systematic expression of a dysfunctional political culture and illegitimate governing body.



I would say the least legitimate members of the council are Strickland, Flinn, and Hedgepeth, plus Conrad for good measure. This is the Gang of White. I can not claim to have coined this term, that honor goes to a candidate running for District 7. (Thank you Lee Harris. Oh what a second, Lee is AC's candidate for 7 and therefore complete milquetoast just like his mentor/handler and could never say something this insightful, in public. I'll give the real candidate who coined the term a chance to ID himself in the comment section. Anyway, back to illegitimacy.) As I have pointed out many times before on this blog, huge population centers of the city are without adequate representation because of the layout of council districts. 40,000+ in Frayser, nearly 50,000 in Hickory Hill, and thousands more in South Memphis. Thankfully, Chickasaw Gardens, Galloway, and the rest of East Memphis are well represented. And soon, if Mr Milquetoast wins, Harbortown/Downtown will have its normal two council members to represent it. In a city that is 2/3's black we have to continue to give disproportional representation to well to do white people and Jack & Jill black folks. Something could have been done just weeks ago to address this disproportional representation when district boundaries were redrawn (tweaked is a more fitting word). Black "leadership" failed to raise a word of protest. It isn't the 1990's anymore people, why do we have this super district shit?





One of the main reasons I see the White Brigade's actions as more than just a political stunt is because the council has had a hand in starving the city of revenues for a long time. Above is a map of Pilots. This is probably the first time you seen this. (I know the local news media really sucks balls leaving the public woefully uninformed.) The city council created a government unto itself when it formed the Center City Commission or whatever it is called now. It can tax, give tax breaks, and field its own police force. That makes it an unelected government within the government and it has run amok. So many Pilots have been issued and for such long lengths of time that they are keeping large amounts of money from flowing into the city governments coffers, to do radical things like social services. Yet downtown always wants more because the creative class may leave if they aren't constantly entertained.

Looking at the Industrial Development Board's Pilots, they kind of make you wonder about what gang member Flinn said in reference to the Electrolux incentives. From the Memphis Flyer: While Flinn agreed it was a questionable deal, he suggested that "because we've been asleep at the switch for the last few years" in matters of industrial recruitment, the city had little choice.
This is asleep at the switch? Look at all those blue dots. Somebody has been flipping switches like they were on crystal meth.



My final piece of evidence to argue that the Charge of the White Brigade was real policy is the property value change map. I wrote about this map in April. Now if only certain areas of town have seen stable or increasing property value, it would make sense they would want to lock in that low tax rate. So what if they starve most of the rest of the city. They've been down for that for a long time. We got ours! Reminds me of a famous quote:
You start out in 1954 by saying, “Nigger, nigger, nigger.” By 1968 you can’t say “nigger”—that hurts you. Backfires. So you say stuff like forced busing, states’ rights and all that stuff. You’re getting so abstract now [that] you’re talking about cutting taxes, and all these things you’re talking about are totally economic things and a byproduct of them is [that] blacks get hurt worse than whites.


Half a league half a league,
Half a league onward,
All in the valley of Death
Rode the six:
'Forward, the White Brigade!
Charge for the guns' he said:
Into the valley of Death
Rode the six.

'Forward, the White Brigade!'
Was there a man dismay'd ?
Not tho' the soldier knew
Some one had blunder'd:
Theirs not to make reply,
Theirs not to reason why,
Theirs but to do & die,
Into the valley of Death
Rode the six.

Minorities to right of them,
The poor to left of them,
Demographics in front of them
Volley'd & thunder'd;
Storm'd at with shot and shell,
Boldly they rode and well,
Into the jaws of Death,
Into the mouth of Hell
Rode the six.

Flash'd all their sabres bare,
Flash'd as they turn'd in air
Sabring the gunners there,
Charging an army while
All the world wonder'd:
Plunged in the battery-smoke
Right thro' the line they broke;
Minorities & the poor
Reel'd from the sabre-stroke,
Shatter'd & sunder'd.
Then they rode back, but not
Not the six.

Minorities to right of them,
The Poor to left of them,
Cannon behind them
Volley'd and thunder'd;
Storm'd at with shot and shell,
While horse & hero fell,
They that had fought so well
Came thro' the jaws of Death,
Back from the mouth of Hell,
All that was left of them,
Left of six.

When can their glory fade?
O the wild charge they made!
All the world wonder'd.
Honour the charge they made!
Honour the White Brigade,
Noble six!

Why Is This Man Smiling?

Picture from the Commercial Appeal


The new school board district boundaries came out recently and I only a got to take a look at them a few days ago. When I did, I noticed something interesting. Take a look at the map below. Do you see it?



Notice district 1. It lies on the poplar corridor. Now look at districts 2, 5, and 6. Notice anything about them in relation to 3, 4, and 7. Seems like all the black voters are packed into 2, 5, and 6, and all the white voters into 3,4, and 7. That means district 1 is the battle ground, but is it really?

I looked at all the voters that took part in the August 2010 primary. Just shy of 24,000 people voted who live in the new district 1. Over 17,000 were democrats and over 6,500 were republicans. That is to be expected, but when you look at the racial breakdown, it turns out to be around 10,000 black voters and almost 14,000 white voters. So the new school board will be majority white and it will remain like that for the next 20 years.

If you combine the city and county school systems' populations, you will have 153,000 students that are nearly 65% black. If those towns in the county break off into separate schools districts it jumps up to around 80%. The question then arises, if those separate schools systems form, do those voters still take part in school board elections and maintain a white majority school board of an overwhelmingly black population school system?

Back to the picture at the top, I can figure out why Pickler is smiling, but what is Jones excited about? You thought you would get funding and control. Yet the majority population of Shelby county will not have control of the system their kids attend and without control you aren't going to get that funding either.