Sometimes I read something, and I wind up just shaking my head at the obvious disconnect from reality of the writer. Are there no mirrors in some people’s houses? Can they not see themselves?

Report: 10 Lexington neighborhoods where residents are more likely to be forced out

By Beth Musgrave | July 2, 2021 | 10:30 AM | Updated: 12:”52 PM EDT

It’s the dirty side of redevelopment: The combination of code violations, rising property taxes or flipped properties with higher rent that drives lower-income residents from homes in some city blocks.

A task force has identified several vulnerable Lexington neighborhoods and recommended steps to help, some of which have already been adopted.

The Neighborhoods in Transition task force was appointed in 2018 by Vice Mayor Steve Kay at the behest of Lexington-Fayette Urban County Councilman James Brown, who represents the city’s north and east side, which has seen an influx in new investment that has pushed some longtime residents out.

“It’s not a silver bullet,” said Brown of the task force’s more than 30 recommendations. Brown chaired the task force that met for more than two years. “It gets us started.”

Some of the conclusions have already been implemented. The task force shared some of its preliminary proposals with Mayor Linda Gorton’s Racial Justice and Equality Commission, which also addressed housing and gentrification in its October recommendations.

So, I went to the linked document, and found, on page 5:

Background & Context
The Task Force was created out of concern about neighborhood change when that change includes:

• Properties turning over at an accelerated rate;
• Most new owners being more affluent and differing from the traditional residents in terms of race or ethnicity.

Really? The city is going to work to stop integration of neighborhoods?

I’ve got a big picture of what would happen if we were talking about “concern” that black or Hispanic residents were moving into neighborhoods which were ‘traditionally’ white, yet, for some reason, the Democratic city of Lexington thinks absolutely nothing about “concern” that non-Hispanic whites, or Americans of Asian descent, are choosing to move into areas in which, ‘traditionally,’ the area residents are black.^[1]Hispanic immigration into Lexington is a new enough phenomenon that it would be difficult to call any particular neighborhoods traditionally Hispanic.

The left like to say that there cannot be any reverse discrimination, because white Americans have their ‘white privilege’ and all of that, but here we have an article, in a liberally-oriented newspaper, noting that the Democrat-controlled city of Lexington wants to categorize citizens by race and ethnicity, and then implement programs to prevent one race/ethnicity, namely non-Hispanic whites, from moving into more traditionally black neighborhoods. Just a day after Vanessa Gallman, the former editor of the Herald-Leader editorial department, published an OpEd decrying ‘white rage,’ the newspaper publishes an article noting the city government’s plans to treat black and white citizens differently, and no one even seems to notice.

Chief Justice John Roberts concluded, in Parents Involved in Community Schools v. Seattle School District No. 1, 551 U.S. 701 (2007), that “the way to stop discrimination on the basis of race is to stop discriminating on the basis of race.” That seems pretty simple, and the city of Lexington is considering discriminating on the basis of race.

Ronald Turner, in his article The way to stop discrimination on the basis of race, in the Stanford Journal of Civil Rights and Civil Liberties, preferred Justice Sonia Sotomayor’s, “The way to stop discrimination on the basis of race is to speak openly and candidly on the subject of race, and to apply the Constitution with eyes open to the unfortunate effects of centuries of racial discrimination,” from her dissent in Schuette v Coalition to Defend Affirmative Action, 572 U.S. 291 (2014).^[2]I cite the article because, though it’s long and in legalese, it’s worth reading. But Justice Sotomayor was decrying an attempt by the ‘majority’ race to end Affirmative Action, to the detriment of minorities. In Lexington, the contemplated actions are intending to do the exact opposite: to perpetuate segregation by race, in ‘traditionally’ minority neighborhoods. “(T)o apply the Constitution with eyes open to the unfortunate effects of centuries of racial discrimination” certainly cannot mean denying non-Hispanic whites the right to move into traditionally of currently predominantly neighborhoods, yet that is exactly what the Lexington Fayette Urban County Government is contemplating.

Oh, wait, the LFUCG isn’t contemplating “denying non-Hispanic whites the right to move into traditionally of currently predominantly neighborhoods,” but denying more affluent non-Hispanic whites the right to move into traditionally of currently predominantly neighborhoods. The city is considering such on the basis of race and economics; there’s no mention at all of denying more affluent blacks or Hispanics from moving into such neighborhoods, fixing up their houses, and possibly driving up property values to the point at which some neighborhood residents might not be able to stay there.

Racial integration, and the increase in ‘diversity,’ is deemed a societal good. John Maxwell, the city’s director of human resources, said that it’s a good thing that Lexington’s city workforce has a significant percentage of minority workers, and is trying to increase the percentage of minority employees in higher level positions. Yet all of the city’s efforts when it comes to housing seem designed to perpetuate segregation.

This can’t be legal, and it makes no sense. Trying to separate people based on race, for whatever purposes, only perpetuates the ideas of racial differences under the law.