Whites Win Control of Nation's Capital
Free at last! For the past half-century, the capital of our whole entire nation (Washington, DC) has been under the numerical dominance of second-class citizens: black people. Sounds like bad PR, for America!
But! Washington DC is hip-ening. Things are happening. Not as much rap-ening! And earlier this year, the NYT reports, whites—quietly and without any fanfare, as is their wont—have finally regained their rightful status as the majority of DC's population [Edit: actually black people have lost their majority, but DC's white population still has not topped 50%. We will still go with this having the same implications]. It's a wondrous cultural renaissance!
But race and class issues often overlap, and as the city's demographics shift - the white population jumped by 31 percent in the past decade, while the black population declined by 11 percent - many less affluent blacks say they are feeling left out of the city's improving fortunes. In April, the Census Bureau reported that Ward 8, in the city's mostly poor and black southeast, had the highest jobless rate in the country.
Glad you mentioned that, because now that whites are in control once more, everybody knows that "real" DC only extends from the Washington monument to Georgetown to Ben's Chili Bowl! What happens in Southeast is not really pertinent to the "real" residents of DC—lobbyists and young whites who work on "the Hill." Feel the power of being in the majority, Politico readers! No need to be ashamed of your neighborhood-restricted civic pride any longer, people who moved to Shaw in 2007! DC is once again a city that all of our nation's tourists can... feel comfortable in, if you know what we mean.
Love that Ben's Chili Bowl, mmm!
