What is Climate Change?

A sign you are in the Black Undertow

ABC News reported that slavery is the reason that Black people don't like soil (which is why so few Black people are farmers) and the great outdoors. The legacy of slavery is blamed on many - if not all - of Black people's failures and shortcomings, a powerful crutch to constantly call upon in times of distress. Did you know the legacy of slavery is the reason Black people do so poorly in school and have such high rates of illiteracy, as slave owners once forbid Black people from learning to read and write? You didn't? Now you do.

Going Green here at SBPDL this week means we will explore just why Black people don't like the great outdoors (an older post from Year One that needed updating); why national parks have so few Black visitors; why the dirtiest cities in America happen to have high percentages of Black residents; concepts that are alien to Black people like sustainability, recycling, birth control, cleaning up litter, an appreciation of nature, going green, farming, gardening, environmentalism, attending farmer's markets (and Whole Foods), the impact of climate change, and lowering ones carbon footprint.

This won't be some milquetoast look at environmentalism or some inane attempt to create a Green Job; this is Going Green Week at SBPDL. We have stated that the greatest ecological disaster in mankind's history is not the concept of man-made global warming/global cooling (whatever Al Gore is peddling these days), but the proliferation of the Black Undertow in America and the attempts by those in its wake of escaping to safer, more friendly cities.

You can't call yourself an environmentalist unless you are willing to confront what tolerating the Black Undertow is doing to the environment. Pretty soon, the suburbs of Atlanta will be in Alabama, South Carolina, and Tennessee, and people trying to raise a family in safe, comfortable neighborhoods with "good schools" (which means white schools) will have to commute hours on end for a paycheck. All in a bid to escape the Black Undertow.

Every other major city in America has a similar scenario unfolding, with once thriving suburban cities and counties being abandoned to true, discernible climate change. When a great enough percentage of Black people enter a once thriving Whitopia, an exodus begins with whites abandoning this city for another. The Black people - who might be upper-to-middle class - that inherit the city cannot sustain it, with businesses fleeing, the tax-base eroding, schools failing, and property value declining. Soon, the Black Undertow takes over, and the impermanent creation of a Whitopia falters again.

Local parks - where families once bonded over picnics and outdoor sporting activities - become havens for the homeless, drug dealers, and weeds. When a city has more youths, gangs of teens, Black people prowling the streets instead of the bikers, joggers, and other pedestrians who once made that community such a desired location to live, you know the Black Undertow has overwhelmed it completely. One of the best examples of climate change is Clayton County, Georgia. Once a thriving Whitopia county, in less than 20 years Clayton County has become a prime example of what transpires when the Black Undertow usurps power through demographic transformation.

This is true climate change that is discernible, which no scientist with an agenda can falsify data in an attempt to create a desired outcome. Neighborhoods where families once gathered for barbecues, trick or treating, and community activities that fostered a sense of pride and friendship are now crumbling houses with Section 8 residents occupying them, with streets unsafe for even police to walk down.

Recently a white guy (Christopher Dean) trying to bike from his Whitopia outside of Philadelphia into a city the Black Undertow now control was beaten severely by thugs, youths, Black people. This encounter offers more proof for real climate change then any chart showing dubious examples of polar ice melting could hope to achieve:

IT'S MY favorite thing - biking from the suburbs into the city. I call it my Cradle of Liberty Ride, and I'm convinced I can sell anyone on the merits of Philadelphia with just one ride.

I travel through the Wissahickon along Forbidden Drive, onto Kelly Drive paralleling the Schuylkill, past Boathouse Row, the Art Museum, then onto Old City, most all of it on bike paths. It is arguably the most beautiful inner-city ride in the nation.

And, on the last Sunday of July, it seemed no different, at least at first. The first glitch was the flat tire I got coming out of Forbidden Drive. That's when I met Eddie, a Good Samaritan and biking enthusiast. He comes up from Chester County to patrol the Kelly-West River Drive loop. His bike is an impressive repair shop with an array of the latest gadgets that he loved talking about as much as I enjoyed listening. I was his third flat of the day. He refused any money for his service. Just one more reason to love this ride.

I was back on track to meet my son for a quick lunch in Old City. This was the first weekend of the flash mobs, and that became our topic of conversation. My son is a recent transplant into the city and loves it. After lunch, he headed back to his new digs in Fishtown and me back to the suburbs.

As I biked past Boathouse Row, with sun glistening off the Schuylkill, and a mix of people relaxing, exercising and just soaking in the serenity, little did I know a group of four older teens were on the prowl.

I barely took notice as I rode past them. Even as one stepped toward me, I didn't see him coming. And that's what stays with me: There was no warning. He punched me in the side of my head, just below my helmet. 

Doctors told me later that the assailant had to have hit me with brass knuckles because of the tears to my skin and fractures to my skull.

Still riding, jaw out of whack and bleeding profusely from my eye, about a hundred yards on, I jumped off the bike by a barbecue and pleaded for help.

This is when I met Angel and Love. (Yes, these were their real names.) Love quickly had ice on my head, and Angel was dialing 9-1-1, while I phoned my daughter.
It was more than 20 minutes before an ambulance or the police arrived. EMT was prepared to take me to the hospital, but my bike would have to be left.




Kelly Drive is a gem, and we all value it. Most of the doctors and nurses I met over the course of the days after the attack, in fact everyone I spoke with, said they use the Drive regularly. Almost everyone has an affinity, a connection to this great place in our city, Philadelphia's playground.

And therein lies their shock and outrage: a disgust and anger because of the location as well as the violent nature of the attack. It was random, and senseless. It was pure terrorism: violence for its own sake. I was just at the wrong place at the wrong time.

This was a "there but for the grace of God go I" moment to all who heard the news. Random, senseless terror shuts us all down momentarily.

Philadelphia is a great city and Kelly Drive a jewel that must be protected. Why is there not one camera in the area? Where are the police? Why not foot or bike patrols? My story went unreported on the weekend of the flash mobs, but it has gotten out since then.

But I wanted this story to get out in more detail. Action can come only by addressing this head-on. Or the cancer will metastasize.

I'll continue my Cradle of Liberty riding. But there will be more trepidation, awareness and attentiveness.
I will put this in perspective. Others have given up. That is the shame of this city. I hear from cyclists now who claim my attack wasn't isolated but one of many along Kelly Drive. Cyclists tell me they've stopped biking there altogether. What a loss for us all.

That is true climate change. It is not isolated to one geographic location, but plays itself out in Philadelphia, New York City, Chicago, Indianapolis, Cleveland, Denver, Milwaukee, Detroit, Charlotte, Birmingham, Memphis, Nashville, Pittsburgh, Houston, Dallas, Kansas City, St. Louis, Cincinnati, Atlanta, and many other cities across the country. Fly over these cities and you'll see a once thriving downtown area surrounded by ever-expanding suburbs. Those farthest on the outskirts of the city represent the latest attempt to create a Whitopia, free from influence of the Black Undertow.

The ecological devastation created by each abandonment of a once thriving city might not seem like much, but when you consider how this same scenario plays out across the USA on a continual basis, the enormity of the attempts to escape the Black Undertow becomes clear. 

All to clear. Drive around your community and gaze upon the strip malls or outdoor malls with the thriving commerce, packed stores, and limited amounts of visible security. If you are in a Black Undertow city (or county), once thriving strips malls, actual malls or outdoor malls will sit idle, empty. The only visible signs that economic activity took place will be fading remnants of a fast food joint or the familiar facade of a Wal-Mart, K-Mart or grocery chain.

The local economy in a Black Undertow city rests on the sturdy shoulders of payday loan stores, Black beauty accessory shops, hair and nail salons, liquor stores, and the occasional chicken and waffle restaurant that occupies a building that once housed a fast food chain. A Dollar store will be near. 

This is true climate change.

To understand what real America looks like, gaze your eyes upon this link to see Yahoo's 2011 Best Places to Live. Not one of these cities has been touched by the Black Undertow.

Those who dare call themselves environmentalists are hypocrites. You can use a reusable grocery bag all you want; drive an electronic car; have you house checked for every conceivable upgrade for long-term sustainability or other green buzzword; recycle; and ride your bike or walk as much as possible, but unless you are willing to point out the long-term ecological problems of fleeing the Black Undertow and creating new Whitopia's (that will inevitably be lost to the Black Undertow), you are a hypocrite and no friend of going green.

The only way to create green jobs and a green economy (and combating climate change) is to employ people to go into Black Undertow cities and counties and tear down the existing infrastructure. Towns where graffiti is more present on the walls of dilapidated buildings, bridges and other structures must become ground zero for combating climate change and reversing its spread.

Imagine how many people could be employed if this effort was funded immediately!

Building parks and green space where idle malls and long-abandoned strip malls in Black Undertow areas sit would be a good first step to creating green jobs and putting people back to work.

Basically, to combat true Climate Change, one must acknowledge the ecological disaster that is the sustaining of the Black Undertow. Sure, it might provide athletes to cheer for, but no one seems interested in living near it.

This video from some goofy-ball conservative tries to claim Detroit sucks because of failed leftist policies and Democratic mayors and governments. Wrong. Failed "liberal" policies are not to blame. A city or a county is a reflection of the majority population. Detroit is majority Black-run, thus it is a reflection of what Black people are capable of maintaining and sustaining once a city has been left in their hands. Same thing can be said of Prince Georges County.

And there you have the concept of climate change, real climate change. A city or county (or country) is nothing more than a reflection of its majority population. If the founding population leaves (think Detroit), it will soon conform to the new majority population.