New Orleans "entrepreneur" obituary

[Jenn]

Comment: Tragedy strikes again. Another heartbreak for New Orleans!

Below is presented why the economy of New Orleans will likely never
completely recover, again....!!

It seems like every couple of days New Orleans loses one of its treasured
entrepreneurs. These people are the hope for the city and we must call a
halt to this unfortunate trend if we ever expect to see a vibrant city again.



Entrepreneur?????

It took me a couple of minutes to get it, but imagine, NINE welfare
recipients collecting $1500 each.....that equals $13,500 a month, and he
was only 25!!! Now add food stamps, free medical, free school lunches,
on and on and on. That to me is a real Entrepreneur.

[Jenn]

I can't decide if it's better or worse, more or less racist, that the writer saw "entrepreneur" and went to assumptions about welfare over assumptions of drug dealing or chop shops.

[Chloe]

Oh, please. Per child welfare payments are easily eaten by the cost of living. On what planet are they $1500 per child per month? Furthermore, how do we know he was the custodial parent of all nine of these children?

[snopes]

A person of that name and age was killed in New Orleans in 2004:

http://www.cityofno.com/portal.aspx?...cx&itemid=1221

Short-form obituary here:

http://files.usgwarchives.org/la/orl...its/1/a-05.txt

[DemonWolf]

Originally Posted by Chloe

Oh, please. Per child welfare payments are easily eaten by the cost of living. On what planet are they $1500 per child per month? Furthermore, how do we know he was the custodial parent of all nine of these children?

Of course he wasn't! didn't you see the picture? He's black! Don't you know that all black men are deadbeat dads who get women pregnant and never pay support and the mothers all collect welfare.

(I can't believe that there really are people who think that way...)

[Lainie]

Originally Posted by Chloe

Oh, please. Per child welfare payments are easily eaten by the cost of living. On what planet are they $1500 per child per month? Furthermore, how do we know he was the custodial parent of all nine of these children?

Same way we know his kids were on welfare.

[JoeBentley]

Okay I'm really confused. Is "entrepreneur" supposed to be some code word for welfare recipient? I mean I get the racist overtones of the accompanying text, but I don't get what the big deal is about the obit itself one way or another.

[Stan The Man]

Not that it makes any difference, but snopes 2nd link lists 10 kids rather than 9.

[Ana Ng]

I also immediately assumed the implication was that he was a drug dealer. Extra racist points for underlining the number of children and their names. While 9 children at the age of 25 isn't a harbinger of a life spent studying and career training, is it out of the realm of possibility he was a legitimate entrepreneur? The obit in the OP didn't say "welfare entrepreneur."

[Troodon]

Originally Posted by Ana Ng

I also immediately assumed the implication was that he was a drug dealer. Extra racist points for underlining the number of children and their names. While 9 children at the age of 25 isn't a harbinger of a life spent studying and career training, is it out of the realm of possibility he was a legitimate entrepreneur? The obit in the OP didn't say "welfare entrepreneur."

Not out of the realm of possibility, but IMO quite unlikely. I too thought "drug dealer" also because they have a high risk of dying from gunshot wounds.

[Chloe]

As do all young black men in poor black urban communities in the United States.

[Ana Ng]

Originally Posted by Troodon

Not out of the realm of possibility, but IMO quite unlikely. I too thought "drug dealer" also because they have a high risk of dying from gunshot wounds.

I see your point, but I know a few legitimate entrepreneurs who have been held up at gunpoint. If you own or start up a business, chances are higher you'd be holding more cash than say, your paycheck, at any given point.

While snopes' links seem to bear out that this man was indeed not on the up and up, I'm sure there are some dudes out there who are young, black and have a lot of kids that could be legitimate entrepreneurs.

Plus, it's not like an obituary is an officially reported thing in that families have a bit of leeway. It's not so awful his family could have wanted to gloss over the circumstances under which he died.

[Wolf333]

Originally Posted by Chloe

Oh, please. Per child welfare payments are easily eaten by the cost of living. On what planet are they $1500 per child per month? Furthermore, how do we know he was the custodial parent of all nine of these children?

Because he's black... duh!!!

[JoeBentley]

//Hijack inspired but not directly related to this particular case//

Are newspapers under any obligation to fact check obituaries?

[rhiandmoi]

The only obits I've been involved with were submitted by the surviving family and cost money. So I doubt the newspaper fact checked them.

[TripleAAA]

Originally Posted by Ana Ng

I also immediately assumed the implication was that he was a drug dealer.

As did I, which I may be the beginning of upgrading my ticket to Hell to first class. Of course, I was expecting some kind of joke, or outrageous accusations that were very obviously false (in the actual obit, not in the comment at the bottom).

[Lainie]

I think the OP is suggesting that "entrepreneur" is euphemism for either drug dealer or unemployed.

And you don't have to be a drug dealer to be a victim of violent crime. A colleague of mine was murdered in his own home while defending his wife from an attack by their neighbors' adult son.

[Ana Ng]

Originally Posted by TripleAAA

As did I, which I may be the beginning of upgrading my ticket to Hell to first class. Of course, I was expecting some kind of joke, or outrageous accusations that were very obviously false (in the actual obit, not in the comment at the bottom).

The implication is heavily influenced by the underlining though. As naive (or racially enlightened ) as it may sound, I don't think I'd have read that and thought "drug dealer" without the commentary. I'd have thought:

1.) Wow, that's a hell of a lot of kids at 25,
2.) I wonder what kind of entrepreneur he was. It must have been lucrative to support all those kids!
and,
3.) I wonder why he got shot?

I don't honestly think I'd have thought something nefarious had the person in the OP not added their thoughts. It just wouldn't occur to me in an obituary.

[Simply Madeline]

All y'all are wrong: entrepreneur = pimp. If you were real racists, you would have picked that up right away.

A pimp livin' large on the free school lunches (and free medical care!).

[fitz1980]

Originally Posted by JoeBentley

Is "entrepreneur" supposed to be some code word for welfare recipient?

I figured that entrepreneur was just code for "guy who doesn't have a steady or legit source of income." If the guy was a taxi driver it would have said taxi driver. Same if he was a bartender, store owner, construction worker or DJ it would have said that.