Sam Smith - One of the things that pleased me as a DC native was how we handled ethnic variety better than much of the rest of the country. I was an advisor to Marion Barry when we were both in our 20s and assisted the late Julius Hobson. I later figured out that one big factor was that whites and blacks in DC found issues in common, including unwanted freeways and much wanted home rule.
DC was way ahead of much of America on ethnic issues, which is one reason I didn't move to my also beloved Maine until my seventies. And a major reason I was so shocked to see the film today of hundreds of white nationalists parading in my home town.
It has long bothered me that the media hasn't given DC credit for its handling of ethnicity, and it still troubled me to see the white nationalist demonstration. This is not the DC I lived in.
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