Watertown Daily Times Article Titled : North Country Blacks Excited about Obama...

Do we not have a better way of saying this? I mean really… nothing screams.. WE’RE REALLY NOT COMFORTABLE WITH DIVERSITY or WE REALLY AREN’T A DIVERSE AREA like this headline. Now, I’m not one for politically correctness all the time, but the WDT full of journalism majors and writers, well maybe not since its more of a who do I know that can help me get a job area more than a hey, look at my hard work and merit area, who should be able to make this headline a little more graceful. Watertown Blacks? Where are we 1958 Alabama? Why not say African American Watertown Residents? Now I get that if it were Hilary, there’d be a headline that said “Watertown Women excited for Hilary”, but it’s like.. Duh, of course they are... there have been years of struggle and fight to get to the top. So instead of taking another step back to say hey…local black people are excited! Let’s take a step forward and say.. Congratulations America, we are closer to coming out of the shadows of our past, we really are one step closer to that melting pot that we learned about in middle school. We are capable of voting on merit and morals and forward thinking and we are ALL excited about Obama. Listen, I chose to live here, I’ve lived in Atlanta and Los Angeles, and I cherish the fact that Watertown is a small town and for the most part it’s a safe town, but let’s face it, we aren’t that diverse, but we are growing. If I were to take that headline to another bigger city, it would scream small town, small minded, when I know deep down, we aren’t really, and we’ve just got to catch up.

I know I’m not the only one who feels this way…

(Rachel, this is where you come in...)

I am a white woman who is excited to see Obama become the next President of the United States. A lot of Americans are excited about it. And some Americans are not. Some NNY Residents are not. All you have to do is tune in to a local radio show in the morning and listen for yourself to see how intolerant of a region this is.
To me, the piece sounds like it was written to try to make it seem like we are a culturally diverse area. And really – we’re not. There are residents here that throw around the “N” like it’s an acceptable part of their vocabulary. Truth be told, they’ve never been called out on it. They say it because there is pretty much no chance that they will get their ass kicked for it. There are bars in Watertown that will not allow soldiers as patrons. They will deny you access because you have an “out of state license”. What better way to say “We don’t like outsiders” that that?
This article (North Country Blacks Excited about Obama) was attempting something noble, but if you look beneath the surface, it failed miserably.

**Amendment- Even if Black is the AP term- to us it does not invoke community, which is what we should be striving for in such a small one.. also, The AP uses Black, as in Watertown Black Residents, it does not use the plural as inNorth Country Blacks...