Reddit reviews Dream City: Race, Power, and the Decline of Washington, D.C.
We found 8 Reddit comments about Dream City: Race, Power, and the Decline of Washington, D.C.. Here are the top ones, ranked by their Reddit score.
We found 8 Reddit comments about Dream City: Race, Power, and the Decline of Washington, D.C.. Here are the top ones, ranked by their Reddit score.
Dream City. Most definitely. The library has 20bazillion copies, and you'll understand a lot more why DC is the way it is after reading it.
The book Dream City is the authoritative guide on this. It tracks Marion Barry's life and career while also providing a great guide to the political history of the District in the past 50 years. It gives a good portrait of Barry's complexity - he was brilliant (had a master's degree in chemistry), inspiring, had great ideas, but also couldn't control himself.
Make sure to get the updated 20th anniversary edition.
https://www.amazon.com/Dream-City-Power-Decline-Washington/dp/0786755938
$7 on Kindle
If anyone wants to read about a lot of the Marion Barry screw ups and compare to today, I just finished reading this book and highly recommend it: https://www.amazon.com/Dream-City-Power-Decline-Washington/dp/0786755938/
You can get used ones for $4~ (hardcover).
TLDR: It's at best cultural appropriation in a city that's really screwed over African Americans.
I'll preface this with that I'm white/hispanic and woefully under-qualified to discuss the issues facing African Americans.
Mumbo Sauce is cynical commercialism targeted at white millennials who started moving into D.C. proper about 15 years ago. It's part of the broader gentrification going on in D.C. that systematically benefits white people at the expense of African Americans. D.C. currently is going through a massive cultural shift that includes marketing a new concept of D.C. that's friendlier and ignores the real effects of gentrification on African American communities. I find this particularly insidious given the history of Slavery in Washington D.C. and long term marginalization of African Americans in D.C.
The sauce itself isn't particularly unique, I literally thought it was bbq sauce the first time I had it. However, it's packaged and labeled for white people in a way genuinely gives me the creeps.
If you really want to get into the whole mess of issues I really recommend the book Dream City. It's easily one of the best books written about Washington D.C., and if you're even remotely curious about D.C. it's the best book to read.
I'll give Mumbo Sauce one thing, it's one of those things that's really made me think. I'm pretty libertarian politically but I've had to think a lot about race issues, privilege, and broadly the use of political power to address systemic issues.
Thanks for the recommendation! Added to my Goodreads queue.
My standing D.C. book recommendation has been and will remain Dream City by Harry Jaffe and Tom Sherwood.
Oh I just got mine from Amazon. The Kindle version is only $7.
Dream City is a pretty good book I read this year. It follows the modern history of D.C. mainly through the career of Marion Barry.
A lot of people don't remember how effective he was as a civil rights campaigner and political leader up through his first term as mayor.