re: Biggest What-Ifs in Baton Rouge history...

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God was one of us.

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He was, about 2000 years ago.

What is Baileys could have survived vs Raising Canes

What if those chicken fingers were still 2000 era size?

Baton Rouge used to be a proper society.....

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actually a lot of white kids got sent to McKinley and Scotlandville.

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That came about later after the school system tanked. They saw the magnet school model at Baton Rouge High (selective admissions based on merit) and tried to duplicate its success by turning those schools into magnet schools.

It would have worked, but the race hustlers were still fixated on black GROUP outcomes being so low, and they diluted the merit based admissions policies of these supposed schools for the advanced.

They also diluted the merit based policies of Baton Rouge High.

The new model is holding steady but not thriving. The new model basically has a 2 tier system in the magnet schools. An advanced group (80/20 white black mix) and mediocre group (80/20 black white mix).

The benefit that the system has for the lower tier is that admission is still somewhat selective, and students with bad behavior can be disciplined/removed (theoretically), unlike in the rest of the public schools.

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The first settlement in that case was all that ever needed to be done. Anyone can attend any school in the district. The fact that Parker continued to brute force beyond that despite having no idea how to do it and broke the entire system is on him and him alone.

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Correct! It would have taken awhile but it would have been much better for black folks and community relations in the medium to long term.

But it didn’t (and still doesn’t) appease the race hustlers who stoke racial grievance for power.

People were fleeing loooong before forced busing. That turned out to be the death knell tho. Whitey was ok w a few blacks in his schools, just not a bunch of em.

Judge Parker doesn’t give a de-seg order, so public schools remain neighborhood schools.

Disney World is built in LP instead of Orlando.

The big New Orleans airport is built in Sorrento on the Salt Dome instead of Kenner.

Ronal Reagan chooses not to extort states by threatening to withhold highway money unless they raise the drinking age. As a result, the drinking age in Louisiana never is raised above 18.

The city never shut down its streetcars in the 20’s and 30’s, but instead expanded them slowly over time.

Burbank and Seigen south of I-10 are built out as the South loop with a bridge over the Mississippi near brightside.

Saban never leaves LSU prior to retiring and going to work at ESPN college gameday.

The Caterie never burns down.

Kip gets downtown alive passed and the streetcar to LSU gets built

SWB doesn’t become mayor, and doesn’t lose to a more radical democrat.

Vitter defeats JBE

The Comite Diversion, Darlington Reservoir, and Laurel Ridge levee projects are all completed prior to the rain event that caused the 2016 flood.

New Orleans’ levees that were not overtopped, hold during Katrina/Rita.

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When white flight started the only violence was against the poor black kids who dared to integrate whitey’s schools.

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Not so fast, I went to a school that was 90% white in first grade in 1966. In second grade, the demographics reversed, and it was 10% white and 90% black.

The white kids were threatened regularly at recess by older black kids. Some "took over the bathrooms" and wouldn't let white kids in or beat them up if they did go in.

This pattern continued into Westdale Junior high with the threat of race riots being raised every couple of weeks by the black kids. One kid next to me had a length of heavy chain in his locker and said he was going to use it on us when the riots started at lunchtime.

Luckily, all that happened were a few fights, and no outright riots.

IIRC, there was an actual riot involving adults about that time in BR (1972) where a white news reporter with WBRZ had his head kicked repeatedly by black activists until he got brain damage. I think the victims name was Bob Johnson.

So, I have a totally different memory than you.

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The Caterie never burns down

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