The University of Chicago, The Black Community, and Obama

The American Thinker ^ | March 11, 2011 | Jonathan David Carson

[Scanian]

The University of Chicago has decided to destroy the boyhood home of Ronald Reagan in Hyde Park. That's the University of Chicago I know and do not love.

When I wrote of the violence and corruption my friends and lovers endured in Hyde Park in the late 60s, I was taken to task because the Hyde Park the Obamas inhabited was different from the Hyde Park I described. Fair enough. But some said that it was not only different, but also better, by which they mean, let's tell the truth, richer and whiter.

Several commenters got it right, however, so right that what they said is worth the attention of all readers of The American Thinker. Stuart Williamson, for instance, gives what I believe to be an accurate account of the Hyde Park of the Obamas:

"The University bought up most of the town, zoned out the retail and commercial sections to the degree that there were only couple of stores and eating places left, tore down much of the worst housing and formed a barrier belt sending the rabble into the South Chicago ghettos, gussied up the better residential neighborhoods and turned it into an elitist 'university town,' over-policed to the point where the only blacks were either professors, instructors, technicians or menial employees. A lone black on the street at night in Hyde Park today would be challenged by the cops. So would a lone white guy. There was no place for community organizers in Hyde Park in Obama's time."

[bronxville]

Then the titan rose to address the crowd:

“I want to thank your Board of Trustees, your President and all who have shared in this most wonderful beginning. It is but a beginning”—he was interrupted by frenzied applause—“and you will do the rest.” The audience quieted down. “You have the privilege to complete it, you and your sons and your daughters. I believe in the work. It is the best investment I ever made in my life. Why shouldn’t people give to the University of Chicago money, time, their best efforts? Why not? It is the grandest opportunity ever presented. Where we’ve gathered ever a better Board of Trustees, a better Faculty? I am profoundly, profoundly thankful that I had anything to do with this affair.” A roar of appreciative laughter. “The good Lord gave me the money, and how could I withhold it from Chicago?”
http://magazine.uchicago.edu/9806/html/rockefeller3.html

Rockefeller financed it from the beginning. It’s where they continue to get their stats and the professors dance to his tune.

[conservatism_IS_compassion]

Excellent article. Bookmark.

So the University indoctrination produced radicals in two ways: 1) as an obviously corrupt representative of society, the University discredited all of society, and 2) by flattering students, it made it easy for us to believe that we had the answers to the problems of society, and if society didn't listen to us, well, so much the worse for society.

. . . Anyway, I took part in the first major sit-in outside of California and spent the entire six days inside the Administration Building. It is important to realize that the demand of the sit-in was not an end to the War in Vietnam, but an end to the male class rank, and the reason the sit-in attracted so much support was that the University authorities acted in contempt of University preaching, as of course they had to do. If they hadn't fed us this "brilliant scholars living the life of the mind" crap, maybe we would have stayed in the dorm and studied.

It's human nature to like flattery. IMHO "liberals" are suckers for it.

[Scanian]

Yes, the liberal/lefty establishment is absolutely a mountain of vanity. Lots of delusions of grandeur with no grounds.

Conservatism, on the other hand, has been a valley of tears for far too long. It has been encouraging to see some of our “kind” showing some spine for a change, even if it has been mainly on the state level.

[E.G.C.]

BTTT

[neocon1984]

The University of Chicago has decided to destroy the boyhood home of Ronald Reagan in Hyde Park

I am a little confused. I've been to Ronnie's boyhood home. IIRC, it's in Dixon, IL (or was it Sterling) about 2 hours west of Hyde Park. Was there something in the article I should have read? (In a rush to get to work).

[Scanian]

Wasn’t his dad a bit of a job hopper?

He was born in Tampico, IL and moved around the state of Illinois as a child, including a stint in Chicago.

[scooby321]

A Rockefeller Institution what do you expect

[Erasmus]

I once participated, rather peripherally, in a demonstration on the UofC campus.

George Lincoln Rockwell was due to give a talk that night. A bunch of us from another school on the south side decided to come down and mingle with the crowd. We found out a bomb threat had been phoned in, causing the organizers of the talk to change to another building on campus.

The only things I got out of it were a couple of pix (I think those negatives are lost) and a nice case of frostbite on the ears.

[neocon1984]

IIRC, his dad was a boozer, and moved a lot for jobs. I think the “official” Reagan home is the one in Dixon because he lived there the longest. It’s an interesting place. Charming but very small by today’s standards.