RE: WHITE METROPOLIS STRIKES BACK

When I posted last week about Dr. Latrese Adkins’ response to Michael Phillips’s book, I didn’t hear a thing for several days. Then I got an email from someone who recorded the lectures and put them on YouTube. Today, Michael Phillips himself answered, saying that he thought I had created a misimpression of his remarks. Here’s what he said:

I wanted to clarify some comments made by Mr. Arbery about my Oct. 24 appearance at the Hall of State promoting my book on race relations in Dallas, “White Metropolis.” The event, sponsored by Dallas Heritage Village and the Dallas Historical Society, was organized as a debate with Dr. LaTrese Adkins of SMU and Dr. Roberto Calderon of UNT asked to refute my book. The way the organizers scheduled the evening, I spoke first, while Dr. Adkins’ and Dr. Calderon’s criticisms of my book followed. The audience was then invited to ask questions.

This set-up did not allow me to respond to Dr. Adkins’ and Dr. Calderon’s criticisms. I will do so briefly now. Dr. Adkins criticized me primarily for not writing a “black” history of Dallas, which was never my intent. My book is about race relations in Dallas, a story in which African Americans play a major part. Contrary to her assertions, African Americans are an important part of the book and I do not portray them solely as victims. In fact, the entire fifth chapter of the book was devoted to the various heroic and ingenious responses of African Americans such as educators John Leslie Patton and John Mason Brewer to racist oppression. Unlike Dr. Adkins’ assertions, I portray the debates and divisions within the African American community as well.

As to whether I should have given credit to Dallas elites because they showed some foresight in water planning, I hardly think that was relevant to a discussion of race relations. If African Americans received some side benefits from city improvement projects, that was hardly the priority of city hall during the days of Jim Crow and more often black Dallas was denied the water, sewer and street services provided white neighborhoods.

From what I’ve read of it so far, it’s a very interesting and readable book, as Rod has been pointing out for a long time — though I wonder exactly who’s reading it. And why was Adkins so hard on it?