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WHITE METROPOLIS

Did anybody else catch Michael Phillips' lecture at the Hall of State lecture hall last night? Whoa.

He spoke about his book, White Metropolis, which takes on the "origin myth" of Dallas — the idea that a white elite on the Dallas Citizens Council made it what it is through an act of will.

Phillips obviously has an ax or two to grind, and his thesis is controversial. But he probably didn't anticipate the brilliant onslaught mounted by Dr. LaTrese Adkins, who cheerfully called it a "monolithic and cursory analysis," largely because she said it treated black people as a single group cast in the role of a victim. An African-American who grew up in South Dallas and attended Lincoln High School, she had a few telling distinctions to make.

"There's not one black anything," she said, "and there never has been." She even said that Phillips did an "antagonistic strip search" on prominent white Dallasites without acknowledging the good things they did, such as having the foresight to assure an ample water supply in times of drought like these. Her deconstruction of the choice of a cover photograph was perhaps the pinnacle of an astonishing performance. I was sorry I had to leave early. Anybody else hear the rest, including the remarks of Dr. Roberto Calderon?

Glenn Arbery · October 25, 2006 10:40 AM