Joe Biden: "Cynical contempt for social-justice values."

As it stands, I'm still with Bernie Sanders for 2020, although Elizabeth Warren might do in a pinch. Joe Biden? Nope.

When Joe Biden Collaborated With Segregationists, by Jonathan Kozol (The Nation)

The candidate’s years as an anti-busing crusader cannot be forgotten—or readily forgiven.

Advocates for children and civil rights who have not yet given up entirely on the struggle to break down the walls of racial isolation in our public schools may want to take a good hard look at Joe Biden’s shameful record on school segregation. Despite his recent effort to allay concerns about that record, it cannot be expunged or easily forgiven.

Biden has made no apologies for his willingness to rip apart the final remnants of the legacy of Brown at a seminal moment in our nation’s history. As The Washington Post candidly surmised, his “decision to stand by his views on the issue illustrates what some of his supporters think would be his advantage in the 2020 field: his ability to appeal beyond his Democratic base to some white working-class voters who voted for Donald Trump in 2016.” This may seem smart strategy to some. But it reeks of cynical contempt for social-justice values, even if his strategists attempt to dress it up as nothing more than shrewd consensus building.

Like other careful centrists, Biden threads the needle on the subject of diversity by saying that he favors it in principle, even in the face of his decades-long resistance to letting children climb onto a bus in order to achieve it. This is simply doublespeak. In a nation where residential segregation and unabated patterns of redlining have guaranteed the seemingly eternal sequestration of black and Hispanic children in poorly funded schools within their communities, Biden’s many years of strident opposition to letting children ride the good old yellow bus represent a throwback to the age of Plessy v. Ferguson ...

"If we start to address segregationist policies, we may have some hope of creating fairness."

Read about Louisville's 9th Street divide.

Just one of those periodic reminders to those of you who insist on believing the playing field is level.

America’s history of separate lives is a root cause, by Natalie Y. Moore (The Guardian)

Nobody chooses to live in segregated districts, they were created by a rigged system that still operates

 ... Many of our cities are defined by entrenched residential segregation that created black ghettos and continues to perpetuate inequity. This was not by accident. In the 20th century, the government created housing policies that discriminated against black people and favoured white people in terms of wealth building. Despite the idea of “separate but equal” being struck down by our courts, the ideology still lingers in housing and public education. This isn’t about hokey ideas of harmony, of black and white people smiling and getting along just for the sake of getting along. Instead, if we start to address segregationist policies, we may have some hope of creating fairness.

NYT on "The Architecture of Segregation."

If you think the perpetual public housing conversation in places like New Albany only involve whether or not to improve the building we already have, where they already are, be advised that the terms of the discussion seem gradually to be changing.

And New Albany is notoriously slow to grasp change.

The Architecture of Segregation, and editorial in the New York Times

Fifty years after the creation of the Department of Housing and Urban Development — and nearly that long after the passage of the Fair Housing Act of 1968 — the fight against the interlinked scourges of housing discrimination and racial segregation in America is far from finished. Economic isolation is actually growing worse across the country, as more and more minority families find themselves trapped in high-poverty neighborhoods without decent housing, schools or jobs, and with few avenues of escape.

This did not happen by accident. It is a direct consequence of federal, state and local housing policies that encourage — indeed, subsidize — racial and economic segregation. Fair housing advocates have recently been encouraged by a Supreme Court decision and new federal rules they see as favorable to their cause. Even so, there will be no fundamental change without the dismantling of policies that isolate the poor and that Paul Jargowsky, a professor of public policy at Rutgers University-Camden, and others call the “architecture of segregation.”

As things stand now, federally subsidized housing for low-income citizens, which seems on its face to be a good thing, is disproportionately built in poor areas offering no work, underperforming schools and limited opportunity. Zoning laws in newer suburbs that rest on and benefit from infrastructure built with public subsidies prevent poor, moderate-income and minority families from moving in. Discriminatory practices exclude even higher income minority citizens from some communities.

"How New Affordable Housing Development Incentives Could Change Louisville."

Today I'll be attending a candidate luncheon sponsored by the Southern Indiana Realtors Association. As such, this article is timely reading.

If you've ever asked the question, "But what do we do about The Project?" (code language if ever I've heard such), I'd recommend taking a look.

I don't have a simple, glib answer to this question, primarily because there isn't one. However, taking inventory of the principles involved and being willing to speak openly about them surely must constitute the first step toward understanding.

Has the local Democratic Party ever had anything coherent to say about these issues?

Didn't think so.

How New Affordable Housing Development Incentives Could Change Louisville, by Jacob Ryan (WFPL)

The Metro Council on Thursday will take up an ordinance that housing advocates say is imperative for expanding affordable housing options in the city.

At present, Louisville is a sharply segregated city with a zoning policy that may violate fair housing laws, said Cathy Hinko, executive director of the Metropolitan Housing Coalition. This vulnerability stems from zoning policies that ban development of certain housing types in some areas of the city.

The ordinance up for council consideration is seen by fair housing advocates as a first step to address these problems and give low-income residents more housing options outside of historically impoverished neighborhoods.

It’s a first step, Hinko said, but a big one.

"Not for some people, but for all people."

It's a video worth viewing and a story worth reading, if only to see the city council digs in Springfield, Missouri. We're talking plush.

But seriously ... the parameters of discrimination as justified by Christianity, this one with a twist.

After More Than 1.5 Million Views, Pastor Speaks Out About Viral Video

Following attention this video has received more than two months after he gave the speech in Springfield, Missouri, Rev. Dr. Phil Snider of Brentwood Christian Church added some context to the speech on Saturday.