Balm the Suburbs
Creating Community Wherever We Are
by Jay Walljasper
In a surprise, the Washington Post ran an article defending suburbs from the usual charges of being white, wealthy, boring, selfish, right-wing, and environmentally-abominable places.
More than half of Americans now live in suburbia, including most subscribers, so it’s no surprise the newspaper would take an opportunity to reassure its readers that they live in perfectly fine communities.
The surprise was who wrote the article: William Upski Wimsatt, a champion of hip hop culture who grew up on Chicago’s South Side and in 1994 published a book titled Bomb the Suburbs. Wimsatt took pains to explain that “bomb†was youth culture slang for graffiti, but he left little doubt about his feelings toward the ‘burbs. (more…)