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January 24, 2007

The Politics of Money and Race in the South

Chris Cree wrote this at 11:22 am

Storm on the Horizon

There’s a political storm brewing in my current home state that I only became aware of because of an attention grabbing headline at the Drudge Report this morning.

White Atlanta suburbs push for secession…

It’s just the sort of thing to make this former New York Yankee now living in the Deep South here in Savannah perk up and take notice of some state politics. So I did a little quick poking around ala Google and here is what I found out.

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Background

Atlanta is the county seat of Fulton county although a portion of the city extends over into DeKalb county, which seems to be a curious result of the original sight selection for a railroad terminal. Apparently there was a strong “not in my back yard” mindset in North Georgia in the 1830′s because the residents of Decatur were worried about train noise and insisted the proposed terminal be built well outside of town to the west across the Chattahoochee River. From what I can gather Fulton county was formed from the western half of DeKalb count round about 1853 as the area west of the river grew (due to the railroad terminal, of course).

Then skip ahead to the Great Depression in the early 1930′s. The two poor, rural, scarcely populated counties just to the south (Campbell county) and north (Milton county) of Fulton county were all merged together because the poorer counties were going bankrupt at the time. It created a sprawling elongated Fulton county, with the areas of the two former counties being referred to as North Fulton and South Fulton. It seemed all was well.

The Issue Today

Skip ahead again to today. It appears the Depression is over and now the previously poor area of North Fulton county is remarkably affluent. And there are some up that way who are clamoring that the county government down in Atlanta is not representing them very well.

It’s so bad in fact that some would rather have their old county back than continue to try to improve things as they are.They say they pay a disproportional amount of the county’s taxes and utilize a far smaller portion of the county’s services. Re-creating Milton county is the only viable solution left, they claim.

Those who are most outspoken against the new move are from balance of the county and say the motive for the move is racism, plain and simple. They say that because North Fulton is mostly white, of course they’re rich. According to their view point the intent of the move is to maliciously destroy the city of Atlanta and cause the balance of the county to go bankrupt, all because they have the wrong skin color and are poor to boot.

Of course there are some significant obstacles to reconstituting the old county. One is the state constitutional limitation on the number of counties that can exist. Then there are the county services and contracts with outside entities.

Personally I don’t have very strong feelings either way. It does seem a bit shady for the folks to say, “Thanks for bailing us out during the Depression. But we’re OK now so we’ll take it from here. All y’all are on your own.” Of course with the huge influx of folks to the southeast from other parts of the country over the last 30 years I’m guessing that the majority of the families in North Fulton weren’t around back in the day.

And from what I’ve seen, Savannah is the most separated city I’ve ever lived in. I’ve never lived in a place where the Whites and Blacks seemed to mix so little as they do here. And the Hispanics are mostly ignored by the other two groups.

Yet, from what I’ve seen, the cultural separation here (or if you prefer, segregation) does cut both ways, in spite of the rhetoric and finger pointing that seems to mostly be aimed mostly at the whites. Savannah seems to be one of the more divided places I know of. It cuts across more than just skin color too. Different religious affiliations, and economic standing don’t mix much either.

If Savannah is still that divided, what must it be like up in Atlanta?

And more importantly, how do we fix that sort of problem? You can’t make people like each other and hang out together, can you?

I don’t see any easy answers here.

Regardless it is a complicated enough issue that I expect to be entertained for quite some time. So I’ll just sit down here in Savannah (outside the city limits. For now anyway.) and watch the fireworks.

Chris Cree is a regular contributor here at Successful-Blog and he helps businesses fuel growth through blogging with his consulting business, SuccessCREEations.





Filed under One Way to CC It, Successful Blog | 13 Comments »




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13 Comments to “The Politics of Money and Race in the South”

  1. January 24th, 2007 at 1:13 pm
    Spirit'n'Tech said

    All good luck!

    hugs from brazil

  2. January 24th, 2007 at 1:30 pm
    Tim Singleton said

    You know, I have tried four or five times to compose a comment that would be printable on this issue. Struggled, actually.

    I can only wish Atlanta the best of luck because everyone I have met from there so far have been really good folks.

  3. January 24th, 2007 at 3:18 pm
    Chris Cree said

    Thanks Spirit’n'Tech.

    Tim, I’m confident that most all the folks on both sides of this one are pretty much good people. But in spite of how far the South has come on race relations in the last 40+ years, it appears we still have a bit more to accomplish.

  4. January 24th, 2007 at 3:34 pm
    Tim Singleton said

    Being of mixed ancestry, European and Choctaw, it is always interesting to see the issue of racism continuously bandied about without regards to what the Indians suffered.

    Most white folks I know are NOT prejudiced. Most black folks I know are NOT prejudiced. Most PEOPLE I know are not prejudiced.

    Most politicians ARE, using the issues of racism and the threat of being branded as such as a bat to beat the taxpayer with.

    I step off of this issue now because I do not believe it can be solved until the nature of the discussion is changed.

  5. January 24th, 2007 at 3:38 pm
    Tim Singleton said

    …and I just had to turn to my buddy to ask if ‘black folks’ was considered a perjorative term by black folks. He said it was not and he is African-American so I guess it is okay.

    That ought to say something about the nature of the environment surrounding the issue.

    Now, honestly, truly and for real, I step off this issue.

    Again. LOL

  6. January 24th, 2007 at 3:54 pm
    Chris Cree said

    I’m a mutt myself, mostly European decent. And if I’m honest I’m at least a little prejudiced. Truth be told I am most comfortable around people who are generally like me. And I prefer to be near people I’m comfortable with.

    The question comes then , where does preference become prejudice?

  7. January 24th, 2007 at 6:29 pm
    Judy Harper said

    Hi Chris -

    From my point of view, preference becomes prejudice when it (1) makes knee-jerk judgments based on some arbitrary group definition (THEM!!) and (2) refuses to acknowledge that individual variability within groups is far greater than average variability among groups. You are an individual; so am I. And each of us deserves to be accepted or rejected based on his or her own characteristics, capabilities, and shortcomings. To my way of thinking, that’s just common sense. YMMV.

  8. January 24th, 2007 at 9:31 pm
    James Reese said

    Interesting comments….I can care less about Milton County being formed. I’m worried more about what has happened to our educational system under the guidance of those that now want to form Milton County. You see, the Fulton County Commission is divided into 7 districts based on population county-wide. 5 districts and two at-large members representing the entire county including the chair.
    The Fulton County School Board on the other hand has seven members covering all areas outside of the city of Atlanta (Atlanta has its own independent school district, 1/3 of the county) represented. For N Fulton that means they have 5 (excuse me 4.75 representatives) and S Fulton has 2.25 representatives.
    Although we pay more in school taxes than property taxes and a Local Option Sales Tax our money is spent mostly in the N Fulton to build lavish high schools. Meanwhile, S Fulton is getting its the first newly constructed high school in 15+ years.
    The population growth has completely shifted south, but the construction of new schools is has not and will not catch up. My sons attend two of the latest elementary and middle schools and they are in portables.
    You see my concern regarding Milton County has little to do with them taking their money and going home. It’s taking the school property my tax dollars have paid for and going home that bothers me. I’ve estimated there is approximately $2 billion worth of school property in N Fulton. Once Milton County is formed who does the schools belong to? They were purchased using Fulton County tax money not Milton County’s.

  9. January 24th, 2007 at 9:49 pm
    James Reese said

    Ms. Cree you left out a bit in the historical background. Although N Fulton is saying they are receiving far less in service than they contribute. They fail to mention the FIB contribution to N Fulton. FIB is Fulton Industrial Blvd (S Fulton)- once the largest and most profitable industrial park east of the Mississippi. The tax dollars from FIB built Sandy Springs which is in NF. From there the area prospered while S Fulton remained rural and undeveloped. To this day SF is still in that state.
    Now that SF has started to attract development there’s no money in the pot from FIB because it was all spent on NF. Of course since NF is more developed it’s funding would be used in other parts of the county that is less developed. They don’t want that. As a matter of fact a state legislator penned a bill that made it illegal to collect funds in N Fulton and spend it anywhere but N Fulton. That’s punitive and I’ll let God handle that down the road.

    Further the lack of service has more to do with what was in place before Fulton County took over. For instance, the library system once belong exclusively to Atlanta therefore, all the libraries were within the city limits. When Fulton County merged its small system with Atlanta’s most of the branches were in urban settings like Sandy Springs and not in the under populated areas of N or S Fulton.

    Of course, you won’t here the TRUTH from those wanting to form Milton county. It doesn’t fit well with their propaganda.

  10. January 24th, 2007 at 10:33 pm
    Chris Cree said

    Judy, I’m with you. We all may bring some baggage to the table. But I do my best to look at every person I meet as a unique individual. Sometimes I do a better job of it than others…

    James, I don’t have an axe to grind in this debate myself. Like I said, it is such a complicated issue that I expect I’ll be entertained for quite some time. After all it is quite near Cynthia McKinney’s old Congressional district. I’ll get my popcorn ready.

    But as a point of order, my wife says it is still Mr. Cree in spite of the androgynous first name. ;)

  11. January 25th, 2007 at 9:26 pm
    James Reese said

    I apologize for the name mix up. The photograph at the top of the page led misled me.

    BTW we are no where near Cynthia McKinney’s old district. That’s in DeKalb County.

  12. January 26th, 2007 at 5:12 am
    Chris Cree said

    No worries on the name.

    Since McKinney’s old 4th district shares borders with the 5th, 6th and 13th districts that cover the three areas of Fulton County (Central, North and South Fulton respectively), from my perspective down here in Savannah they all seem pretty close. But hey, I appreciate that it may not seem that close from where you are.

    My point being that from my vantage point down here on the coast, there’s a lot of political weirdness that goes on up Atlanta way. And this one promises to make for some entertaining moments for us down here.

  13. January 26th, 2007 at 6:22 pm
    James Reese said

    Atlanta is rather problem filled as is this entire state.

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