Final Thoughts on Hola, Knoxville and the Cultural Milieu

I feel compelled to provide a coda to the Hola posts. I obviously enjoyed the whole experience. I loved the food, the dance, the music and the crowds. I loved hearing Spanish as the dominant language of the day. I loved seeing the faces of children and adults, the joy of the day and the colors glistening on a beautiful autumn day on the renewed 100 block.

The next morning I logged onto the Knoxnews website to read their coverage and to comment and link to it so their readers who were interested might check out my blog. The article in the paper that morning and on the website was a good one. It was linked to a photo gallery and implied that Knoxville was celebrating the Latino community. Strangely, I could not leave a comment because comments were disabled. I suspected this was because the comments were so racist they had to turn them off. It was worse than I suspected.

I contacted Jack McElroy, editor, and he said the News Sentinel does not enable comments on articles about the Hispanic community because the posts are so vile. So an article is written implying that Knoxville is embracing its Latino citizens when in fact, quite the opposite is true. I told him I felt this was the true story and should be discussed directly by the editorial staff of the newspaper. He said they had already explored the topic of vile comments. I felt this story was more specific. You can read his response here.

So, what to make of all this? I think a large portion of Knoxville does, in fact, embrace people of other races, religions and every variety of difference we can find. I like to think that this group includes most of our downtown neighbors. Still, there is no way to deny that racism is alive and well in Knoxville. There are hateful bigots to be found for any group and their venom seems particularly trained in 2010 on Latinos, Gays and Muslims. We've had burned houses, burned bars and burned Korans in the Knoxville area in recent weeks.

So who do we want to be? What do we want people to associate with our city? A vocal response to the hate of the neo-Nazis and the celebration of the Hola Festival or burned holy books and frightened gay and lesbian communities? If those who believe in inclusion and value diversity are quiet, those who would destroy it will prevail. I hope Knoxville, and particularly downtown Knoxville will strive for the rich diversity that only acceptance and celebration of those different from ourselves will bring. I long for a downtown in which the color white is blended with every shade in the rainbow, where the cadences of dozens of languages can be heard on the square and where anyone in love can hold hands without fearing what might happen when they round the next corner.

What kind of Knoxville do you want? What will you do to make it happen?

It Takes Every Kind of People

"It takes every kind of people To make what life's about, yeah

Every kind of people

To make the world go 'round"

Every Kinda People

Words and Music: Andy Fraser

Performed by (pre-"Addicted to Love") Robert Palmer

Today marks the 100th blog I've written. It seemed like a good time for a little reflection on you. That's right: you. Who are you and what do you want?

One of the interesting elements of writing this blog has been experiencing its growth not just in total numbers, but in the diversity of its readers. To say that the readers of this blog are an interesting blend is like saying there are a few bricks in the sidewalks of Gay Street. Initially, I thought my audience might be people who live downtown or people who might like to move here, but weren't certain for a variety of reasons - such as no nearby grocery store. It makes sense that people who are from here might also be interested. All that's been true, but . . .

While I can't identify many of the types of readers I have, consider some that I can:

The Healing Community: I wrote a blog, early on about a memorial held on Market Square. I was moved by the experience and I suppose that showed in the tone of the article. The group holding the memorial included massage therapists, meditation teachers and others concerned with wellness and well-being. They found my blog, sent it to each other, put up links and suddenly I had readers from this group all over the country.

Realtors, Engineers, Contractors and Developers: The first wave from this group came when I blogged about the installation of the sign on top of the First Tennesse Bank. Also, I often comment on Josh Flory's Property Scope blog because he sometimes writes about downtown properties and related issues. Much to my surprise, Mr. Flory featured my blog on his blog and suddenly groups who normally read about property started reading my blog. Many have continued.

Neo-Nazis: Who would have predicted this one? When the neo-Nazi rally hit Knoxville I blogged about it pretty extensively. I devoted many hours to taking photographs, editing and selecting the best of them and writing the blogs - there were three by the time I was able to move on. What I didn't expect was that neo-Nazi websites would link to my blog - apparently because they like to see their pictures just like the rest of us - it certainly couldn't have been anything I said. They all, helpfully, labeled mine a non-racist website. Still, they came and they return from time to time. That post continues to be, by far, my most-read.

International Readers: I had no idea this would happen. Are they ex-pats? Could people all over the world really be that interested in Knoxville? I'm not shocked that there might be readers from England, Canada and, say, Mexico, but Egypt, Qatar and the United Arab Emirates? Turkey, India, Malaysia, Thailand and Vietnam? Macedonia, Latvia, Russia and the Ukraine? I've had readers from Israel and today one from the Tulkarm, in the Palestinian Territory. I wish I had the key to peace Middle East to blog for those guys.

Locally, some of the readers are musicians and people who love music, thanks to many blogs on the topic, but also thanks to particular blogs that were linked and passed around, such as the Indie Grrl Showcase and the Knoxville Jazz Festival. Some of the local readers are the leaders of our community, thanks to my blogs about the last couple of Knox Heritage events, such as the Dancin' in the Streets Street Fair. The hip-hop, slam poetry crowd came on when I featured the Southern Fried Poetry Slam and Elder Beatmaster.

I've had readers tell me they were disappointed that I didn't want the city to buy every sculpture and others say they share my opinions about the various pieces of art. I've had readers tell me I'm providing an important service to downtown and others that I'm writing fluff, wasting people's time and I obviously am an attention hungry . . . well, not nice person.

So why does this matter? I think it matters because that's a pretty diverse group of people who might not have an intersecting point beyond this blog. That could produce some interesting interaction in the future. It also matters because, as I express my opinions, it isn't likely that everyone from Cordoba, Argentina to Ulsan, Korea, from Knoxville's hip-hop community to its civic leaders, from the Healers to the Nazis will agree on every point, but it's possible that, as we respect each other's opinions, it could encourage some thoughtful discussion, and that would be a good thing.