You know how every time you read about something you know about in the newspaper, they get it all wrong? It makes you so mad — and it makes you wonder how accurate they are about all the things you read about that you *don’t* know anything about.
Well, here’s an exception that proves that rule (proves = “tests,” not “shows it to be true”). Peter Slevin wrote a wonderful article about Hyde Park that not only contains no factual errors so far as I could find, it also truly captures the flavour of the neighbourhood I call home.
“Hyde Park should be held up as an example of what an integrated community could be,” says University of Chicago law professor M. Todd Henderson, who grew up in a white Pittsburgh suburb. “It wasn’t some sort of social experiment.”
Henderson says his adopted community is a place where ideas matter more than pedigree and one cannot infer social status by skin color. He says the visible hardships in nearby neighborhoods and the persistent threat of crime undermine any notion that Hyde Park is, in his words, “a fantasy land.”
“To criticize Hyde Park as being aloof, out of touch and elitist is just poppycock,” he says. “I’m a dyed-in-the-wool Republican, and there is nothing America should be ashamed about Hyde Park. On the contrary, America should be proud of Hyde Park.”
Here’s the rest at the link: