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Marion Barry on Ghettos, New and Old

Notable Quotable of the day!

by
Marc Tracy
March 22, 2012
Ex-Mayor-for-Life Marion Barry in 2009.(Michael Loccisano/Getty Images for HBO)
Ex-Mayor-for-Life Marion Barry in 2009.(Michael Loccisano/Getty Images for HBO)
“When the Jews were being herded into ghettos of Poland, nobody minded that term,” Barry said in an interview Thursday, explaining his remark about Ward 8 being a ghetto. “They said, ‘this is a Jewish ghetto. This is a Polish ghetto for Jews.’ … If you look at the meaning of the ghetto, it’s both sociological and geographical.”

(H/t Scroll D.C. politics correspondent David Klion who notes that while one of the 13 members of the D.C. Council is Jewish, the primary challenger in Ward 4 is one Max Skolnik and the good-goverment challenger to one-time mayoral candidate Vincent Orange is one Peter Shapiro).

Marc Tracy is a staff writer at The New Republic, and was previously a staff writer at Tablet. He tweets @marcatracy.