jass is injecting a really important element to this discussion.
This whole fiasco is not about binary racism, or the logic of fairness.
It is about how people feel. Counting one basketball court is a snide rejection of a thoughtful point of discourse.
This discussion is about the fact that the planners and officials could have done better.
I am pro-growth and pro-seaport for crying out loud. But the fact of the matter is, they could have done better (in a lot of ways, but this particular discussion is about fostering a sense of inclusion of blacks in a designed-from-scratch neighborhood). They should have done better because a) its the right thing to do, and b) because some amount of public money was spent, so why not be strategic about the use of that money toward the betterment of the lives of the full cross-section of residents and taxpayers.
Taking the high-road means ensuring that review committees are cross-sectionally representative. It means making sure offsets are optimally spent. This isn't about overt racism (this time), it's about making a freaking effort (because your residents are telling you an effort needs to be made). These residents are not acting entitled about being able to afford luxury housing.
I am honestly a little bit appalled by the total-brush-off this discourse is getting from the (presumably) white contributors to this site. NO one is asking to cancel seaport development plans, only to add a few subtle considerations to the development and planning process. How hard is that, honestly?
jass I guess we're in it alone on here.
Yes, all this.
Let me throw in yet another example:
Microsoft spent hundreds of millions of dollars developing the "Kinect" camera for the Xbox 360. This camera was intended to capture the living room environment so players could be in the game.
Extensive testing was done so the thing could even differentiate between individual fingers as players jumped around unique living rooms in a wide range of lighting scenarios.
So the thing is released, and people buy it.
And it doesn't work with black people.
Was Microsoft being racist? BANNING black people from enjoying their product?
Obviously not. I mean, money speaks after all. They want to sell their product to as many people as possible!
So what happened is that Microsoft didn't really have any black people on the development team. Or black testers.
Nobody said "lets fuck over black people" but because no black people were involved in the development, there was no one to say "uh guys, this isnt working".
So the intention wasn't racist. But the product ended up being racist because the team was blind to the issue.
And the point is, as bigpicture stated, the same thing happens when you develop a brand new neighborhood, you get 20 expert voices in the room, but you don't include any black people who can say "uh guys, what about us?"
Taking the high-road means ensuring that review committees are cross-sectionally representative. It means making sure offsets are optimally spent. This isn't about overt racism (this time), it's about making a freaking effort (because your residents are telling you an effort needs to be made). These residents are not acting entitled about being able to afford luxury housing.
AKA, this.
