Post by Patsy Baloney on Jun 2, 2021 11:34:46 GMT -5
KSDK is owned by Tegna, an offshoot of Gannett. It's not like it's a Sinclair station, but media conglomerates do cause major issues in reporting. There's a kooky video of a wild "Dear Leader" moment that was broadcast on a ton of Sinclair stations' local news shows where the anchors basically said the same thing about the Trump administration, obviously reading from a script they were sent.
Anyway, that's another conversation for another day.
It's important, I think, to give areas with bad reputations the benefit of the doubt. A lot of times, it's because the areas are predominately Black.
@stevia, your oof is misplaced, though. You said you avoid those areas. They're perfectly normal. I was honestly confused by your response to Florissant, even though it has been a handful of years since I've spent any meaningful time there. It's your basic city - residential areas and lots of shopping centers/restaurants/churches/etc.
I think this is a good example of how media consumption, racism in policing and media, and general/casual racism can affect a person. You've heard it's a bad place, your media consumption has confirmed it, and people's attitudes have reaffirmed it.
Meanwhile, I'm trying to figure out how the quaint 70s neighborhood by the awesome custard place is anything like what you're describing.
I don't know. Us here in out area, we watch channel 5, which I think is our most liberal local source
Edit: only local people know channel 5 of course lol
I couldn’t find something specific about channel 5, but probably could with digging. How many on air are people of color?
Here’s a good article looking at STL Public Radio, which many would point to as being central if not liberal.
“ Until 2012 STLPR was an all-white newsroom. Diversity started to accelerate around the time of the Ferguson protests in 2014, but the Journalists of Color group said in its open letter that even today, “only one out of five journalists in the newsroom is a person of color.” They also noted: “Since 2013, the station has hired about 20 journalists of color to work in the newsroom and on the We Live Here podcast. More than half of them have since left the organization. We consistently have to fight our editors to get stories about race and communities of color told with nuance and accuracy.”
Wait, really? I went to HS in a Cinci suburb and I never noticed this.
Girl YES!!! My first real job was on the west side and besides everyone being like "OMG did it take you like 2 hours to get here?" (my commute was 30-35 minutes, LOL) there are eleventy billion Catholic schools. And people are like 70 and still have yearly reunions with their elementary school class.
KSDK is owned by Tegna, an offshoot of Gannett. It's not like it's a Sinclair station, but media conglomerates do cause major issues in reporting. There's a kooky video of a wild "Dear Leader" moment that was broadcast on a ton of Sinclair stations' local news shows where the anchors basically said the same thing about the Trump administration, obviously reading from a script they were sent.
Anyway, that's another conversation for another day.
It's important, I think, to give areas with bad reputations the benefit of the doubt. A lot of times, it's because the areas are predominately Black.
I appreciate these comments so I can learn. I don't live in the immediate area so I get a lot of trickle down information.
@stevia , It's good that you are listening. These are exactly the sort of biases people throw out in everyday conversation without being willing to learn the truth. And I don't think you can blame the media for everything. Yes, crime is reported but it is also reported very broadly that those crime statistics are skewed by the things PP have mentioned. St. Louis is unusual for being a county city and that skews data when you compare it to other metros.
I live in the county but I work in the city and have as long as I've lived here. When I first started my mom worried about me walking to work and the level of "crime." Now she's not. You know why? She has been to my office dozens of times. She can see for herself what she feared wasn't true. I would encourage you to spend more time in the metro area. Educate yourself and consider what really is and isn't a threat to you. (Edit for spoiler: There isn't a threat.) If you have concerns about the inequities and poverty that lead to crime, contribute to an organization making a difference. Think about what you yourself can do to facilitate change. But don't fear it or spread fear.
The really stupid part about the St. Louis high school question is that 100% of trivia nights played in the St. Louis area will have at least 1 category dedicated to, "Where did CELEBRITY go to high school?"
My SIL is from St. Louis and is constantly inviting us to charity trivia nights and the only thing that keeps us going is the $1 beers, because I am never going to give a shit that John Goodman went to Afton. I may be full of stupid trivia knowledge, but I'm not going to slum it that far for fun facts.
My mom, sister, and a lot of my friends graduated from Affton (we moved when I was in 8th grade). My middle school best friend is semi-famous in the fashion/journalism industry. I mean, there was a people.com article about him having twins last week, so he should totally be added to the trivia lists.
In all seriousness, it's funny b/c everyone knows where John Goodman went, but I couldn't tell you where Jon Hamm, Ellie Kemper, Andy Cohen, Jenna Fischer or even Tom Sandoval went. I wouldn't say they're more famous than him, but still more relevant these days. I wonder if they all went to more prestigious schools, so it's seen as no surprise they did well for themselves, but Affton is super small and not seen as one of the better districts in the area, so it's like "good for him for getting out".
Anyone can find someone who came from their high school if they dig around enough.
(ETA:? just looked up a bunch of schools near here and all cal ‘notable alumni.’ Well, one only lists a terrorist, but the rest had at least a few nonterrorists they claim. At least two schools scrubbed a different terrorist from their Wikipedia notable alumni’ list)
If you told me you lived in Jennings/Ferguson I would oof, only based on the violent stories I hear.
I'm sorry that you've had such horrible responses during your conversations with people.
I really don’t want to pile on - but the 1st sentence is exactly the reaction you’re apologizing for in the 2nd sentence.
The news is biased and systemically racist. They don’t cover the violence, drugs, etc the same in other parts of the city/county in the same way.
You are 10000% right about that. Before Covid you'd see news stories of people on street corners "protesting" heroin. Where? West County. Like heroin JUST became a problem when it started to affect precious in WC.
circa1978 please don't hate me for the sterotyping here. My SIL lives in West County and they're lovely, but some of their friends....Also, I'm also talking about moving to the whitest of white places on earth, so I have NO room to talk. The lack of diversity is a major con on our list, but honestly, it's not like our current area is much different, but we can't move too far since DH may be gaining some ownership of his company within a few years and staying close by for that and our friends is super important to us.
I know somebody currently in her 40's who graduated from Nerinx Hall in Webster Groves, Missouri.
Now she "has" to live in the same low socioeconomic, Rust Belt neighborhood 20 miles outside of Pittsburgh where I also live.
I know that she is unhappy about having to live in our neighborhood because she actually referred to our neighborhood as "the wrong side of the tracks" in a crowdfunding profile that she set up in order to request donations for her second masters degree after she parted ways with a PhD program that didn't work out for her. As in, "I can't afford to pay for a second masters degree on my own because I live on the wrong side of the tracks and job opportunities are limited here."
(She "has" to live in our neighborhood because her husband already lived in their neighborhood when they got married, and they can't afford to move to a more expensive neighborhood.)
That's all that I know about "elite" St. Louis high schools.
I’m interested in knowing where this neighborhood is. I grew up east of Pittsburgh.
I know somebody currently in her 40's who graduated from Nerinx Hall in Webster Groves, Missouri.
Now she "has" to live in the same low socioeconomic, Rust Belt neighborhood 20 miles outside of Pittsburgh where I also live.
I know that she is unhappy about having to live in our neighborhood because she actually referred to our neighborhood as "the wrong side of the tracks" in a crowdfunding profile that she set up in order to request donations for her second masters degree after she parted ways with a PhD program that didn't work out for her. As in, "I can't afford to pay for a second masters degree on my own because I live on the wrong side of the tracks and job opportunities are limited here."
(She "has" to live in our neighborhood because her husband already lived in their neighborhood when they got married, and they can't afford to move to a more expensive neighborhood.)
That's all that I know about "elite" St. Louis high schools.
I’m interested in knowing where this neighborhood is. I grew up east of Pittsburgh.
I live about 20 miles south of Pittsburgh so I'm also curious.
I've never been to St. Louis and have no reason to continue reading this thread. but, I'm still hear. I have a lot of good TV to watch, yet here I am.
I keep coming back too! This is all oddly fascinating and surreal.
I have distant family in Crestwood, MO and now I’m wondering if this is one of the areas with klan activity. I visited in the early 90s and remember it being very white but can’t remember anything explicitly racist occurring. The town is 93% white today so can’t imagine they are welcoming to minorities?
When we first moved to STL, they asked my parents where they went to school. My dad replied SLU (Saint Louis University). They were all impressed and then started talking about SLUhigh, not SLU. The high school held more social clout than the actual University.
That was our intro into that world. It did not improve.
I have a friend who started working at my now previous company (I helped her get hired). She was born in St Louis, left, then went back for high school, left, and has moved back as an adult. When we hired someone else who lives in St Louis she said, "I'm going to ask her where she went to high school. It's THE most St Louis question ever."
Post by maudefindlay on Jun 7, 2021 15:19:01 GMT -5
So Ellie Kemper has released a statement. I guess at least she acknowledged it and that she was wrong. Doesn't indicate anything she will do with her voice to work against such groups. Kind of a sorry, then she just keeps on.
Post by Patsy Baloney on Jun 8, 2021 10:48:03 GMT -5
Hm, I don't know that I can really complain about or criticize her statement, since it's not...like, me, white woman, who experiences all the privileges of the same system that Ellie Kemper does that a statement like this should address.
She says she was old enough to have known better. She recognizes that she benefits from shit like this existing. She talks about rejecting racism and supporting a "better society," so I guess you could say that's not specific enough.
I think she could have done a lot worse, but, again, I don't think it matters what I think.
This is all fascinating to me too! We lived in Chesterfield for two years when my Dad was an exec at Ralston Purina but then his old company lured him back to Texas. I just went down a rabbit hole to find our old neighborhood and my school which I'm pretty sure was River Bend Elem. I'm assuming Chesterfield is part of the west side suburb a-holes?
I can't believe it took Ellie Kemper so long to come out with some kind of statement.
I read her statement and was unimpressed by it. Basically starts off, ‘I was only 19…..I didn’t knooooooowww’
There is nothing she can say that would be right, but I disagree with this.
I'm 38 and didn't know.
I'm also tired of the listening and learning apology. Like Patsy Baloney said, my opinion doesn't matter here, but I think there are very few words that wouldn't seem trite. It falls flat, but I didn't expect anything else.
Actions speak louder-- she could've thrown some support behind leaders there that are in the city/County actively combating racism or uplifting oppressed groups in the city.
Hm, I don't know that I can really complain about or criticize her statement, since it's not...like, me, white woman, who experiences all the privileges of the same system that Ellie Kemper does that a statement like this should address.
She says she was old enough to have known better. She recognizes that she benefits from shit like this existing. She talks about rejecting racism and supporting a "better society," so I guess you could say that's not specific enough.
I think she could have done a lot worse, but, again, I don't think it matters what I think.
Agreed. Of course we all want to see more than just "listen and learn". And I see how some of it reads as a little defensive. But her statement indicates that she took the time to absorb the criticism and reflect on it. I appreciated her essentially saying that if her getting flamed is what it takes for the VP org to be held to account, then she sees it as a positive. I do really hope that it leads to a bigger conversation around the VP traditions in STL and leads other communities to reconsider the history of their local traditions.
This is all fascinating to me too! We lived in Chesterfield for two years when my Dad was an exec at Ralston Purina but then his old company lured him back to Texas. I just went down a rabbit hole to find our old neighborhood and my school which I'm pretty sure was River Bend Elem. I'm assuming Chesterfield is part of the west side suburb a-holes?
I can't believe it took Ellie Kemper so long to come out with some kind of statement.
Chesterfield is West County. Has some of the biggest houses I've seen in my driving radius. So yes.
I always thought it was weird that people in St. Louis think of it as a St. Louis "thing" because don't people ask that in most cities?
Funny story. When I first moved to Chicago I was sitting at a industry event with someone from a competing paper. I was trying to make small talk and was all, so where did you go to high school when she told me she was from the south side of Chicago because that's what STL people say. She was really snotty and said, like you'd know anyone from my high school. And I said "try me." And she told me the name and it was where my college roommate went to high school. LOL. They were two years apart but knew each other. And that snotty woman has now been my BFF for almost 20 years.
My DH is from STL. The first time he took me home to meet his parents, they threw a dinner party to introduce me to their friends. I was about 30 at the time. First thing everyone asked when meeting me was “where did you go to high school?” The first few times I said “oh, I’m from Michigan, I don’t think you would know my school.” to which they always replied “No, really, where did you go to school?” I figured they were trying to figure out if it sounded like a private school or not.
I will agree that all Deb balls are weird. I admit, at 19, I was in our Deb ball. I fought against it for a while....even had a conversation with my mom that I felt it was classist and racist. I remember getting into an argument about it just being a way for rich white people to celebrate being rich and white. But, I was 19 and it was important to her so I caved. 19 is a weird age. Yes, I was technically an adult, but I sure as hell didn't feel like one.
Do I regret it? Absolutely. I have cut myself off from the organization completely. I find it disgusting on many levels.
The whole St. Louis thing is insane though. I have two colleagues from St Louis and they joke about the high school comparisons and it blows my mind.
This is all fascinating to me too! We lived in Chesterfield for two years when my Dad was an exec at Ralston Purina but then his old company lured him back to Texas. I just went down a rabbit hole to find our old neighborhood and my school which I'm pretty sure was River Bend Elem. I'm assuming Chesterfield is part of the west side suburb a-holes?
I can't believe it took Ellie Kemper so long to come out with some kind of statement.
Chesterfield is West County. Has some of the biggest houses I've seen in my driving radius. So yes.
Actually Chesterfield doesn't quite measure up to the STL old money. It's much more likely the Kempers live/d in Huntleigh, Frontenac or maybe Ladue. Newer money will maybe live in Town and Country.
ETA: Also, assholes can be found all over St. Louis! IMO there is more diversity and acceptance in West County than South County or St. Charles but hey, stereotypes are quick and easy ways to classify people - right?
Chesterfield is West County. Has some of the biggest houses I've seen in my driving radius. So yes.
Actually Chesterfield doesn't quite measure up to the STL old money. It's much more likely the Kempers live/d in Huntleigh, Frontenac or maybe Ladue. Newer money will maybe live in Town and Country.
ETA: Also, assholes can be found all over St. Louis! IMO there is more diversity and acceptance in West County than South County or St. Charles but hey, stereotypes are quick and easy ways to classify people - right?
?
To be clear, I didn't choose to use the terminology of asshole. I assumed she was asking if Chesterfield was the West County that was spoken about upthread so I was answering.
Right, @stevia. egishere did and I also included her quote. The thing is that it isn't just people in West County who use the high school thing to size people up. The minute people hear where I grew up and where I went to high school I'm bucketed too - as a west county asshole. It's hardly what Black folks deal with but it's an easy out for people to feel like they aren't part of the problem. Like, you could look at the lily-white streets of St. Louis Hills - which is a blue collar area, or St. Charles, which couldn't even be bothered with a mask mandate and has Trumpers on every corner. It's too much of an out to say only people at the VP ball or only people in this zip are the cause of racism in STL. 🤷♀️