Media

Beck Calls DC ‘Chocolate City’ — No, Wait, That Was NPR. Never Mind.

One can only imagine the whirling dervish-like frenzy that would be started in the mainstream media if Fox News Channel host Glenn Beck used the term “Chocolate City” to describe Washington, DC. He did not, but NPR did.

The full eight minute piece is here for your education, but it is riddled with some curious contradictions. (if the media player does not open, click on the link to NPR’s site)

The NBC affiliate in Washington DC did cover the story;

NPR aired an eight-minute feature on D.C.’s Anacostia neighborhood on Tuesday morning. The website version was titled “D.C., Long ‘Chocolate City,’ Becoming More Vanilla” — but even with the flavorful name, it left a bad taste in many locals’ mouths.

On the air, reporter Alex Kellogg said, “There’s major changes going on inWashington, D.C. This is a city that, in 1970, was about 71 percent black. And now it’s about 53 percent black, as of 2009. … That’s a city that will soon no longer be majority African-American, and a lot of the gains are in the white population that’s moving in.”

In the online version, Kellogg wrote, “For decades Washington, D.C., was known affectionately as ‘Chocolate City’ to many black Americans, because it was predominantly African-American.” But D.C. “has quickly become one of the most expensive cities in America, and one of the only cities in the U.S. where property values continue to rise despite the economic downturn.”

Kellogg wrote that “in recent years, even areas like Anacostia — a community that was virtually all-black and more often than not poor — have seen dramatic increases in property values. The median sales price of a home east of the river — for years a no-go zone for whites and many blacks — was just under $300,000 in 2009, two to three times what it was in the mid-’90s.” After profiling one black resident who moved out, Kellogg spoke with David Garber, a “newcomer” among those who “see themselves as trailblazers fighting to preserve the integrity of historic Anacostia.”

But Garber and others didn’t like the portrayal, as even WAMU’s Anna John noted in her DCentric blog, where she headlined a post “‘Morning Edition’ Chokes On Chocolate City.”

On his own blog And Now, Anacostia, Garber wrote that the NPR story “was a dishonest portrayal of the changes that are happening in Anacostia. First, his evidence that black people are being forced out is based entirely on the story of one man who chose to buy a larger and more expensive house in PG County than one he was considering near Anacostia. Second, he attempts to prove that Anacostia is becoming ‘more vanilla’ by talking about one white person, me — and I don’t even live there anymore.”

Garber also complained that Kellogg “chose to sensationalize my move out of Anacostia” by linking it to a break-in at his home, which Garber says was unrelated to his move. Garber says Kellogg chose to repeat the “canned story” of Anacostia — which We Love D.C. bluntly calls a “quick and dirty race narrative.”

Garber continues, “White people are moving into Anacostia. So are black people. So are Asian people, Middle Eastern people, gay people, straight people, and every other mix. And good for them for believing in a neighborhood in spite of its challenges, and for meeting its hurdles head on and its new amenities with a sense of excitement.”

Comments (102)

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  • Midwest Blonde
    Posted on February 17, 2011 at 2:58pm

    I remember years ago when someone referred to DC as the Hershey city – 80% chocolate and 20% nuts. Seems like the chocolate is less but the percentage of nuts has risen. Go figure.

    Report Post » Midwest Blonde  
  • Thisnameistowarnyouthatyouwillhatemycomment
    Posted on February 17, 2011 at 2:55pm

    Also, sorry to double post but I meant to include this, since this site is has decided to get into something that’s about my hometown DC.

    The Tea Party claims to carry the banner and tradition of our founders and feels strongly about fighting against unjust taxation by the government, correct? I wonder why one of the major issues of the Tea Party isn’t fighting for the rights of the nearly 600,000 residents of Washington DC aka Chocolate City ;) In all seriousness, DC has a larger population than Wyoming and close in size to Vermont. We pay taxes yet we have literally no representation in the government. No congresspeople. No senators. Our local issues are literally held hostage by congress as leverage for other issues which don’t effect us at all and we have no recourse. We are quite seriously the most blatant examples of Taxation Without Representation that exists in the entire country. Yet I have heard no Tea Party advocates for either repealing federal taxes in DC or granting DC the representation in our government.

    This isn’t even to be sarcastic. If Tea Party members hold as true to their beliefs as they say they do (and I hope they do) then please fight for 600,000 people’s rights who are taxed by the Federal government but given no representation in it. (and please don’t give me the argument about the historic/legal reasoning behind DC having no voting rights. When those concepts were drafted the city was NEVER thought to have the kind of population now inhabiting it)

    Report Post »  
    • jim
      Posted on February 17, 2011 at 4:11pm

      Your point is well taken… however, at this moment in political real time, the Tea Party and most conservative Americans, like myself I would guess, are focused primarily on repealing Obamacare — which has the potential to be our greatest tax, and greatest economic detractor — along with reducing the national debt, which this week fell equal with our entire economic output. No offense to D.C. folks. But if we can’t do the above two things to get our financial house in order, and ward off impending national bankruptcy and generational ruin, any small regional tax issue will be mute.

      Report Post » jim  
    • Master-of-Disaster
      Posted on February 17, 2011 at 4:20pm

      Don’t you have to get behind Puerto Rico, American Samoa, and those other island nations waiting for statehood? By the time you get your star, there won’t be a flag left to pin it on………just saying. They should have narrowed DC down to just the Capitol, WH, Supreme Court and the monuments and given the rest to Virginia. Course that will start a firestorm I am sure.

      Report Post »  
    • capecodsully
      Posted on February 17, 2011 at 4:30pm

      Start your own Tea Party, don’t wait for someone to come save you. Every Tea Party affiliation has been started by one person and getting others to join in.

      Report Post »  
    • Physicist_In_Training
      Posted on February 17, 2011 at 5:04pm

      That is a very good point. For the record, I am a strong conservative and a supporter of the Tea Party. To play devil’s advocate, I could see a person countering by saying: although DC is not a state, it still benefits from being a district of the USA, and has representation on the electoral college, and should therefore contribute monetarily to the country in exchange for said benefits. One might respond to this by saying yes, that is true, but the taxes one pays should be proportional to the benefits one receives and the representation one gets; hence, DC should be taxed much less than the states.

      Honestly, I don’t know enough about this quandary to weigh in on one side or the other; be sure I will research it more. Broadly speaking, I am in favor of across the board tax cuts (a corollary of limited government) and appropriate representation.

      Report Post » Physicist_In_Training  
    • Eblaze44
      Posted on February 17, 2011 at 6:34pm

      so move to where you have a voice. Washington DC got the name “Chocolate City” because very much of it during and after the “uncivil war” is where blacks fled because Lincoln and the Federal Government protected, fed them and gave them jobs. The black areas of Washington DC still has per capita more murders and ‘illegal’ drug problems than any other area of the nation. they can’t govern themselves, just look at the Mayors Washington DC has had and the corruption, the horrible education system that was being helped until Obama was put in power – now he’s sent them back to their ghetto schools.

      Report Post » Eblaze44  
    • Thisnameistowarnyouthatyouwillhatemycomment
      Posted on February 18, 2011 at 1:48pm

      @Jim
      Fine, I can understand that the Tea Party has its own priorities (which I disagree with, but I can accept that people have their different principles). I‘m just saying that I’ve never even heard this issue on a single Tea Party spokesperson‘s radar before and it’s always made me feel quite cynical towards their espoused beliefs as a result.

      @Master-of-disaster
      Puerto Rico doesn’t pay federal taxes like DC. Technically, people living in Puerto Rico actually have more rights than people living in DC because while they have no representation they don’t have the same tax burden. The reason they don’t just parse down DC into MD and VA is complex, but primarily it is due to the fact that the Federal Government benefits and essentially takes advantage of DC’s local infrastructure. Our police, civics works, fire department, etc. are all used by the Federal Government (Federal, untaxed lands take up a HUGE percentage of DC’s area).

      @Capecod
      Well, DC is very liberal (so am I) so a Tea Party isn’t what would likely be started here. However, the DC Rights movement is extremely strong and popular in DC. Hell, the slogan of the District of Columbia was changed a few years back to “Taxation Without Representation” and is now printed on our license plates. Every election has almost every candidate running on a platform of trying to get more rights for DC. The issue is not the lack of a movement. The issue is that when there you have no representation, protests and the like are effectively meaningless. Protests matter because elected representatives have to be aware of, respect, and maybe even be a little scared of their constituents. DC‘s citizens are no one’s constituents. No one cares if we‘re angry and protesting because we can’t lose anyone an election by not voting for them. In addition, Congress has the ability to pretty much dictate any local issue it wants to us (see how often our transportation budget is held hostage by a Congressional measure that may not even have anything to do with us).

      @Eblaze44
      Your comment barely merits a response. Rather than being rational like some of your colleagues on this site you decided to conclude that DC shouldn’t have voting rights because so many black people live here. DC‘s problems aren’t a result of our black population, who work and struggle tirelessly by the way to do just what you are suggesting, move to MD and VA where they have more rights. But when 70% of the income in your city is generated by people from out of your state and isn’t allowed to be taxed by your government to help you (after all, why would people working in the government want to pay local income taxes), when the Federal Government drains funding or slashes budgets from the city for its own purposes with complete disregard for DC’s citizens, and when you literally have no representation or real political voice to try and effect change (and the only people who can give you that voice are the one’s benefiting from taking it away). THESE are the things that cause our city to have poverty, crime, etc. Your suggestion is appalling, and I hope that other people on this website see it and understand that when someone like you responds this way, it is why people on my side of the political aisle suddenly start making accusations of racism and bigotry.

      Report Post »  
  • butler180
    Posted on February 17, 2011 at 2:55pm

    Hay leftie SMITHFIX – Please learn to type

    Report Post » butler180  
  • Its Gonna Getcha
    Posted on February 17, 2011 at 2:53pm

    Is ‘Chocolate City’ the same thing as Sugar Walls?

    Report Post » Its Gonna Getcha  
  • dirtypolitics
    Posted on February 17, 2011 at 2:51pm

    Chocolate City? He NBC, ABC, CBS, CNN, Huff Post, New York Times and other minions of Obama….attack!

    Report Post »  
  • mattsanz
    Posted on February 17, 2011 at 2:49pm

    Three questions a free people need to ask themselves. 1) Is Govt evil ? “Government is force; like fire.” George Washington 2) Can… evil do good ? “Power always thinks… that it is doing God’s service when it is violating all his laws.” ……John Adams
    3) If evil attempts to do good, do you support it ? “United States of America does more good in the world than any other Nation” Republlicans…….Government, even in its best state, is but a necessary evil; in its worst state, an intolerable one.
    Thomas Paine

    Report Post » mattsanz  
  • Thisnameistowarnyouthatyouwillhatemycomment
    Posted on February 17, 2011 at 2:41pm

    You’re all really dumb. I live in DC, almost everyone I know here calls it Chocolate City. It’s the nickname the city has had for residents white/black alike for a looooooong time. Parliament Funk wrote a song about it. You guys are just catching up to this?

    Report Post »  
  • HonorJC
    Posted on February 17, 2011 at 2:33pm

    Jessie Jackson, Al Sharpton, Bill Maher, and any other white or black chocolate opponent to hate speech…show you outrage and guts…honor and truth…dependability? to speak up? Dignity? Do you have some?

    Report Post » HonorJC  
  • mrmikejohnson
    Posted on February 17, 2011 at 2:32pm

    NRP will be defunfed soon anyways. They’re completely unnessessary

    Report Post »  
  • Chicago Ray
    Posted on February 17, 2011 at 2:31pm

    And the problem there is ? Brother Nagin called himself the Chocolate Mayor, better than calling it the Crack Capital which is what it really is from the hard streets of DC to BendoverBarney’s office and rumpus-humpus room at home…

    Report Post » One Man Progressive Wrecking Crew  
    • jeffile
      Posted on February 17, 2011 at 2:44pm

      Racism is a term used strictly for whites. A black president becoming involved with a dispute between a white cop and a college professor, becoming involved in a dispute with an uknown black mid level bureaucrat, a black attorney general dismissing blatant voter intimidation charges by black panthers against white voters, an hispanic woman referring to Americans as “gringos”. much of what Jessie Jackson and Al Sharpton speak all are overlooked. However, a comment by a city councelman that funds are going down a black hole and a congressman using the word niggardly are considered racist. Of course Obama promised he was the new George Washington but, in fact, he is the old George Jefferson.

      Report Post »  
  • Greg8812
    Posted on February 17, 2011 at 2:28pm

    I have lived in the DC metro area my whole life, The Term “Chocolate City” has always been used and never derogatory. It doesn’t surprise me the city is become more diverse. the Pattern of demographics has always been cyclical in this area. Probably more then then any other city in the Country. It’s not a bad thing except the city is becoming more Progressive if that was even possible.

    Report Post »  
  • Unbelievable
    Posted on February 17, 2011 at 2:26pm

    Isn’t NPR the same non-profit organization who fired Juan Williams for making a controversal remark? Hum, so when will the be firing Alex Kellogg?

    Report Post »  
  • Failsafe
    Posted on February 17, 2011 at 2:20pm

    “We ask black people: it’s time. It’s time for us to come together. It’s time for us to rebuild a New Orleans, the one that should be a chocolate New Orleans. And I don’t care what people are saying Uptown or wherever they are. This city will be chocolate at the end of the day.”

    Ray Nagin 2006

    http://www.nola.com/news/t-p/frontpage/index.ssf?/news/t-p/stories/011706_nagin_transcript.html

    Report Post » Failsafe  
    • GeorgieJo
      Posted on February 17, 2011 at 3:23pm

      Yeah Ray that picture of ALL those school buses UNUSED as you sat safely in Baton Rouge….
      What a loser
      Geeze where is he working now? For RevSharpo?

      Report Post »  
    • Master-of-Disaster
      Posted on February 17, 2011 at 4:14pm

      He probably has a prominent position in the Obama administration……School Bus Czar?

      Report Post »  
  • Docroxall
    Posted on February 17, 2011 at 2:19pm

    See, here’s the thing…there is what I like to call an “active filter”. If you’re liberal/progressive, and you use a “factual” statement like, African Americans refer to D.C. as “the chocolate city”, you get a pass…you’re liberal, you’re simply passing on facts, and using it to make your, often liberal, point. If you’re conservative, you only brought that up, to use a racial slur. The active filter kicks in. Now, those of us that believe in free speech, would see this as 1984′s “thought crime”…where any thought you had that edified “Big Brother”, was a GOOD thought…was a thought that was normal, and healthy…but any “critical thought” was bad, criminal, evil…see the correlation there? DoubleSpeak is here…and the MSM uses it every day to keep the playing field uneven in their favor.

    Report Post »  
  • Lantern
    Posted on February 17, 2011 at 2:18pm

    .” But D.C. “has quickly become one of the most expensive cities in America, and one of the only cities in the U.S. where property values continue to rise despite the economic downturn.”
    That‘s because that’s the only place where people still have jobs. Government jobs.
    Dear (insert Congressional Representative here),
    Please defund NPR and PBS now!

    Report Post » Lantern  
  • tinydd
    Posted on February 17, 2011 at 2:17pm

    Defund NPR NOW!

    Report Post »  
  • missy8s
    Posted on February 17, 2011 at 2:16pm

    The Mayor of New Orleans called his city a “chocolate city” right after Katrina in an infamous speech on the rebuilding effort, any other mayor would have been forced to resign.

    Report Post » missy8s  
    • Master-of-Disaster
      Posted on February 17, 2011 at 4:13pm

      He was incompetent as well as racist. New Orleans and the rest of Louisiana paid dearly for the corruption and negligence of countless decades of Democratic governance. Simple as that. Katrina just washed it clean again.

      Report Post »  
  • SpontaneousVomit
    Posted on February 17, 2011 at 2:14pm

    NPR spokesperson “Chocolate City” = witty commentary … chuckle

    Conservative spokesperson “Chocolate City” = racism … riot

    Report Post » SpontaneousVomit  
  • RAZIELCCCXVI
    Posted on February 17, 2011 at 2:14pm

    This is why the term racist has become a vestigial word, a word that no longer has any meaning or purpose when people throw it out there incessantly, blatantly and carelessly. It shows that most no longer know what the word really means, it’s just a slogan like hillbilly or green jobs.

    Report Post »  
    • Blacktooth
      Posted on February 17, 2011 at 2:25pm

      Roses are red, violets are blue, vanilla is white, chocolate is brown, and I have a black tooth.
      You have a problem with that?

      Report Post » Blacktooth  
  • blanco
    Posted on February 17, 2011 at 2:13pm

    Hey—New Orleans is chocolate!

    Report Post »  
  • saneasylum
    Posted on February 17, 2011 at 2:12pm

    Everyone wants to get closer to “Big Government” so they can get their piece of the pie!!! LOL

    Report Post » saneasylum  
  • banjarmon
    Posted on February 17, 2011 at 2:12pm

    What color is Vanilla when it is stright from the bottle??? Hummmm…

    Report Post » banjarmon  
  • Danglinbags
    Posted on February 17, 2011 at 2:09pm

    This is an outrage. I am heavily disliking any reference to chocolate. Our first lady has dedicated her life to helping us with our obesity, and she would never live in a city of Chocolate.

    Report Post » Snowleotard {gallery of cat folks}  
    • J.C. McGlynn
      Posted on February 17, 2011 at 3:46pm

      But I know too many women who like chocolate covered strawberries and with some whipped cream.

      Report Post » J.C. McGlynn  
    • Sarah124
      Posted on February 17, 2011 at 4:42pm

      I love chocolate! All types of chocolate! A chocolate city has to be a good thing… right?

      Report Post »  
  • smithclar3nc3
    Posted on February 17, 2011 at 2:07pm

    Where’s Al.Jesse,and the NAACP crying racist?

    Report Post »  
  • RightPolitically
    Posted on February 17, 2011 at 2:05pm

    Beck would be HISTORY if he said this. However, lefties can say whatever they want to and nothing bad ever happens to them. What a bunch of TRANSPARENT BULL.

    Report Post » RightPolitically  
    • cheezwhiz
      Posted on February 17, 2011 at 2:13pm

      I like white chocolate :D

      Report Post » cheezwhiz  
    • CatB
      Posted on February 17, 2011 at 2:19pm

      LOL .. I thought that was New Orleans … my bad…..

      Report Post »  
    • smithfix
      Posted on February 17, 2011 at 2:26pm

      Hey Beck! Respond to this! MSNBC and Fox look moer and more alike all the time
      http://www.infowars.com/fox-news-caught-in-shocking-dirty-tricks-stunt-against-ron-paul/

      Report Post »  
    • solaveritas
      Posted on February 17, 2011 at 2:32pm

      Nominate Herman Cain for President and eliminate the race card completely.

      Then, we can proudly say that “discerning Americans” prefer the character of “dark chocolate” over the diluted character of “milk chocolate”.

      If it were to end up Cain/Rubio, wouldn’t that be a delicious “MOUNDS” (dark chocolate and coconut)!!!!

      Report Post » solaveritas  
    • cheezwhiz
      Posted on February 17, 2011 at 2:49pm

      This is a city that, in 1970, was about 71 percent black. And now it’s about 53 percent black, as of 2009. … That’s a city that will soon no longer be majority African-American, and a lot of the gains are in the white population that’s moving in.”
      —-
      Question :
      What was the crime rate in 2009 as compared to say 1989 ? Did it go up or down ?

      Report Post » cheezwhiz  
    • Gonzo
      Posted on February 17, 2011 at 3:00pm

      cnsrvtvj
      What do you mean by “boy who cried wolf” ? Who you callin’ boy? I may be offended, I’m going to call my cogressman, Al Sharpton and find out if I should be.
      It‘s getting way too hard to figure out when I’m supposed to be offended.

      Report Post » Gonzo  
    • NickDeringer
      Posted on February 17, 2011 at 3:14pm

      Pay attention, Black America, they are playing you for chumps. Look at how little the Left respects you.

      Report Post » NickDeringer  
    • Smitty1969
      Posted on February 17, 2011 at 3:32pm

      I was rotated on and off at Anacostia for two years with Marine One (1992-94). Wow, it was my first experience with driving into a third world. The riverfront is beautiful piece of land (from the air). I am glad to hear it is coming back, too bad it is high land cost’s are the reason.

      Report Post » Smitty1969  
    • moriarty70
      Posted on February 17, 2011 at 3:36pm

      To me it seems childish when the posters play the game of “If (other side here) had said this”, but now we have to put up with useless what if’s from the article AND the headline?

      This is just petty to have it in the headline and intro of the article. I can’t even call it a bias, those tend to have at least a little subtlty to them.

      Report Post » moriarty70  
    • mcfinch
      Posted on February 17, 2011 at 4:10pm

      Yeah that would be way out of line.

      http://politicalbowl.com

      Report Post » mcfinch  
    • DisillusionedDaily
      Posted on February 17, 2011 at 4:27pm

      NPR and NPD should no longer benefit from Federal funding. They should have to register as a subsidiary ot the Communist Party of America. There reporting is totally biased, especially that of Smiley Tavis who I consider to be the most stupid commentator I have ever heard. This man should be on staff with Chris Matthews, Mr. Maddow and all the rest of the MostStupidNewsBroadCasters.

      Please support defunding of NPR, NPB, the National Endowment for the Arts, any community organizing groups such as ACORN, the NEA and significantly reduced funding for the EPA.

      Report Post » DisillusionedDaily  
    • sWampy
      Posted on February 17, 2011 at 4:28pm

      cheezwhiz crime rate went down, the as the % of blacks went down, the number of crimes went down, pretty much across the board.

      Report Post »  
    • indy1
      Posted on February 17, 2011 at 4:41pm

      Chocolate City is okay if you are a black or a caring lib.

      Report Post »  
    • leftiesaredangerous
      Posted on February 17, 2011 at 4:45pm

      Who listens to them anyway?

      Report Post »  
    • goatkid
      Posted on February 17, 2011 at 4:55pm

      @rightpolitically
      you are so right. there is deffinetly a double standard.

      Report Post »  
    • The Third Archon
      Posted on February 17, 2011 at 5:03pm

      No, Beck would not be “history” if he said this:
      1. His fanatical base would still love him and hang on his every word.
      2. The majority of the population would still view him as a marginal voice far out of the mainstream.
      3. The Left would still dislike/hate/ignore him.

      Besides–we already KNOW Glenn’s a racist:
      http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2K8R2PDmbmA

      That’s FAR more incendiary than using a term that has been colloquially established and popularly accepted by other people describing and living in D.C. INCLUDING BLACK AMERICANS. Not to mention one that is factually accurate–D.C. has historically had a larger proportion of black Americans than the national average in cities.

      Report Post » The Third Archon  
    • DirectlyUnPCman
      Posted on February 17, 2011 at 5:33pm

      That explains why DC is so worthless. Kinda like New Orleans aint it? Make it chocolate, make it worthless. Show me where its different. Oakland? Detroit?

      Report Post » DirectlyUnPCman  
    • Patriot Rider
      Posted on February 17, 2011 at 9:43pm

      Just more of the double standard bs from the progressive left.

      Report Post »  
    • Futureorthopod2013
      Posted on February 17, 2011 at 11:45pm

      Yeah…sometimes people are too sensitive.

      To answer Cheesewhiz: I would imagine the crime rate has gone down; however, I doubt you can attribute it to the return of whites back to DC. How would you attribute the decrease in crime rates seen in major diverse cities on the east coast or even out on the west coast?

      Report Post »  
    • wildjoker5
      Posted on February 18, 2011 at 4:26am

      &the third archon.

      How does Beck calling the president racist make Beck racist? If just calling people racist is racist, then the NAACP and about 95% of liberals are racist for claiming the tea party as racist. The majority of racial divides and racist speech and actions come from the left.

      Report Post »  
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