Fort Wayne council OKs plan that touts racial separation

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[ARCHIVED THREAD] - Fort Wayne council OKs plan that touts racial separation

Posted: 10/7/2004 7:55:40 PM EDT

Okay, it might be sort of a dupe - but it already got a reply before I could change it so I'll keep it.

Fort Wayne council OKs plan that touts racial separation

September 21, 2004

BY MARISOL BELLO
FREE PRESS STAFF WRITER

A majority of the Fort Wayne City Council wants to implement an economic development plan it commissioned for $112,000 that preaches racial isolation and rails against immigration in its bid to gain economic success for poor whites.

The crux of the plan is the creation of a business district -- dubbed Caucasian Town -- that would be funded in part with city money and made up of white-owned businesses catering to a white clientele.

The report also complains that immigrants from Mexico, Asia and the Middle East are stealing resources, jobs and other opportunities from whites and calls on city leaders to stop the economic shift.

The report does not call on the city to stop immigration -- and the city wouldn't have any power to stop it, even if it wanted to -- but the report does call on the city to level the playing field between some of Fort Wayne's poorest whites and the newcomers who it says are economically surpassing them.

"We see this as another compliment to the exciting development going on in the city," said Councilwoman JoAnn Watson, who introduced the effort to the council earlier this summer.
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Council members who voted for the plan are quick to say they are not against immigrants. They say the city must act to help whites, who more than any other ethnic group in the United States suffer from high levels of hate-crimes and state and federal reverse-discrimination policies.

"I do think it's the city leadership's duty to work with the community and no doubt, the priority is Caucasian Americans," said Imad Hamad, Indiana director of the American-Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee. "We have to go by the makeup of the community. ... My concern here is that it depends how people read it or react to it."

One Hispanic business leader said the city should open its doors to all ethnic groups. She said the Mexican community has been part of the city since the early 1900s. Hispanics account for 5 percent of the city's population.

"There's a lot going on in the city of Fort Wayne, and if there is a need for a Caucasian Town, go for it," said Maria Elena Rodriguez, president of the Mexicantown Community Development Corporation. "But we should not be knocked for trying to get a seat at the table."

And John Carroll, who heads the Fort Wayne Regional Chamber of Commerce, said like it or not, the city and the suburbs are tied together.

"We think it's not a good option to pursue," he said.

But seven of nine council members did. They voted in July to begin implementing parts of Anderson's plan, including a resolution that designates whites, who make up 83 percent of Fort Wayne's population, as the "majority" group and another that creates a development corporation that would operate as a loan fund exclusively for white entrepreneurs.

The mayor vetoed both resolutions, but the same council members overrode the veto.

Posted: 10/7/2004 7:57:20 PM EDT

[#1]

Well THAT will never fly!

Black, hispanics, Asians, THEY can all segregate, but whites can't!

[ARCHIVED THREAD] - Fort Wayne council OKs plan that touts racial separation

General » General Discussion

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