When George W. Bush leaves the White House, he won’t be going back to his beloved Crawford ranch. I mean, come on, like he’s going back to his Potemkin farm to clear brush! No, Dubya’s moving into an exclusive Dallas neighborhood. How exclusive? Well, they once didn’t allow non-whites to live there (unless they were the help). But heck, that was long, long ago — they changed that covenant all the way back in 2000:
Until 2000, the neighborhood association’s covenant said only white people were allowed to live there, though an exception was made for servants.
Enacted in 1956, part of the original document reads: “Said property shall be used and occupied by white persons except those shall not prevent occupancy by domestic servants of different race or nationality in the employ of a tenant.”
Classy, huh? I suppose we’re being unfair; I mean, the community changed its covenants eight whole years ago. That’s so far back that some chucklehead named George W. Bush was Governor of Texas! Ancient history, right?
It is interesting symbolism, to say the least. As our nation prepares to inaugurate the first African-American president in our nation’s history, our current president is preparing to move to a neighborhood that wouldn’t allow Barack Obama to live there — save as a servant — within the last decade. Although that isn’t keeping the riff-raff out — I mean, an alcoholic loser is moving in, right next door, in just a month or so.
Seems to me they all deserve each other.
(Via Pam)
Especially in light of the financial crisis and recession, I am increasingly feeling that gated communities keep the riffraff in.
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Thanks for noting this, and I’m with MH too. Bush’s move there is symbolic for me in a kind of retrograde way. White supremacy of his sort is on the wane. Unfortunately, it’s taking on new power in other ways, and many of the old ones continue, so white supremacy isn’t going away any time soon.
Isn’t that the neighborhood he lived in before he was put in the White House?
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Until 2000??? Wow. No wonder he wants to move there.
an alcoholic loser
Not classy – he may be a loser, but that’s not because he’s an alcoholic in recovery.
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Excellent point, lilacsigil — a close relative of mine has been sober about the same amount of time Bush has, and if you want to call him a loser you’ll have to fight me first. I realize the intent of “alcoholic loser” was to cast Bush humorously as the neighborhood bum, but it’s still not cool. Now, if you want to call him a spoiled-brat child of privilege who failed spectacularly at any grown-up job ever handed to him, we can talk.
Would not the whites-only clause have been at least technically invalidated by federal housing laws that have been on the books at least 30 years? Still, I am continually floored, although I don’t know why, that this sort of casual racism is still acceptable anywhere in this country. (Yes, I do realize that I just labeled myself privileged as well.)
I’d imagine that the clause has not been (formally at least) enforced for a while. I do think it says something though, when a community feels ready/the need to formally remove those kinds of things from its mandate, and that it only happened this decade still makes a statement about what kind of community it is.
There are still communities in Baltimore that have racially restrictive covenants on the books (covenants that restrict Jews as well as blacks). They haven’t been officially enforced for quite a while, but they can’t be removed because of very stringent requirements for amending charters or something. So: not rare. Still reprehensible.
If you think this is bad, you should read about the desegregation of the Dallas public schools. It raged in the courts until 1998, and DISD was finally considered desegregated in 2003.
The catch? Dallas is 53% white. DISD is 95% minority.
My own Deed, in a neighborhood developed in 1908 in California, contains such a restriction (along with a lot of other ridiculous things). No one has bothered to fix it. I wouldn’t read too much into this.