Topic: WorldNetDaily
WorldNetDaily is not exactly known for its insightful coverage of racial issues, and that was never more obvious than in a Feb. 16 article by Joe Kovacs.
In it, Kovacs feigns offense that an NPR article would refer to Washington, D.C., as "Chocolate City," declaring it to be "similar terminology" to how "New Orleans Mayor Ray Nagin came under fire for publicly saying he wanted to rebuild his city as a 'Chocolate New Orleans.'"
Contrary to Kovacs' suggestion, the description of Washington as "Chocolate City" was an expression of pride. As a Washington Post columnist wrote in 1998, "Chocolate City was a metaphorical utopia where black folks' majority status was translated into an assertion of self-consciousness, self-determination and self-confidence," going on to quote a black radio DJ who said, "Chocolate City for me was the expression of D.C.'s classy funk and confident blackness." The '70s funk band Parliament even named an album "Chocolate City," complete with images of Washington on the cover.
Kovacs goes on to cite a couple of bloggers complaining about the NPR story -- but about the story's treatment of demographic shifts in Washington, not the "Chocolate City" reference.
Perhaps Kovacs should school himself a bit on such things -- i.e., do a simple Google search -- before he writes about them.
This comes off as a particularly lame attempt to pile on NPR in an effort to support conservative efforts to cut off funding for it, even more so than WND's freakout over NPR doing a story on the existence of gay valentine's cards.
