Last week, the Los Angeles Times featured a profile of Californian Michael Anastasi, delving into his thoughts about moving to Nashville.
Since Californians have been moving to Nashville practically since there was a California, and disillusioned Nashvillians have been coming home from California just as long, we all pretty much know what Californians think of Nashville, if they think of us, and what we think of them in return. Not that it’s all hostility. We’re big fans of Merle Haggard and Gillian Welch. On the other hand, I don’t recall Gillian Welch ever giving an interview about all the ways she’s going to bring her California sensibilities to bear when shaping her interactions with Nashville.
But Anastasi is the executive editor at The Tennessean and Gannett’s regional editor for the South, which — according to the Times piece — includes only Tennessee, Louisiana, Arkansas, Mississippi and Alabama. (Add this to Gannett's List of Things That Make You Shake Your Head.) Since Anastasi's understanding of Nashville, and the South, does directly impact news coverage of Nashville, it’s probably important that we are familiar with his opinions.
I don’t want to let Gustavo Arellano — the writer of the piece, the former editor and publisher of the Scene's fellow alt-weekly the OC Weekly, and the writer behind popular syndicated column "¡Ask a Mexican!" — off the hook here. I was embarrassed for him that he was surprised by a sign reading “Bacon” at Waffle House. And the fact that he wrote the sentence “As my colleague Sara Parvini reported last year, lots of y’all readers have already made the move, are thinking of it, or know California quitters who have done so” — and that made it into the actual final story! Jesus Christ. Maybe let’s not use “y’all” in a sentence until you can use it well enough to not sound so cringe.
But the biggest WTF moments are just the quotes from Anastasi:
“The limitless future against the conflicts of the past. Those issues are unfamiliar [in Tennessee].” ...
“People weren’t realizing the change that was happening beneath their feet,” Anastasi said. “All of us from California understand the power of diversity. People here are just starting to understand it.”
Please pause to laugh for 1 million years. Tennesseans are unfamiliar with the issues brought up by the “limitless future against the conflicts of the past"? What?! I’m not trying to dox anyone here, but dude lives on a Civil War battlefield and he somehow has missed that Tennesseans are obsessed about the conflicts of the past and how they might juxtapose against the future. That is hilarious. Dude runs The Tennessean! He oversees the “whole” South! I’m crying I’m laughing so hard. To whom are these issues unfamiliar?
Same problem in the second quote. Who are these “people” who weren’t realizing the change? Who are the folks just starting to understand the power of diversity? Would Anastasi stand in a full lecture hall at TSU and presume they were just now starting to understand diversity? Would he walk into a market on Nolensville Road and assume he understood more about diversity than the employees and customers there?
But, oh right, he doesn’t live in Nashville. He doesn’t live in our neighborhoods. He’s doing what people from that particular non-Davidson county do — sit down there looking in and pretending like what they’re seeing from 20 miles away and their feelings about it are the ones that count.
Let’s go back to that quote and put in the unspoken parts: “[Wealthy white] People [who live in my county ‘for the schools’] weren’t realizing the change that was happening beneath their feet,” Anastasi said. “All of us from California understand the power of diversity. [Wealthy white] People [who live in my county and are starting to realize that the bigots in control of it are making it a less desirable place to live] here are just starting to understand it.”
Now it makes sense. His ministry is to the wealthy white people of Nashville’s suburbs. And to that I say, more power to you, Michael Anastasi.
But real diversity in Nashville means keeping this city — not the one Anastasi lives in — affordable for the people who live here. And sure, I get it. When you come here from California and you see a house that would cost you a million dollars back home and it’s for sale for $500,000, that seems like a steal. But 10 years ago, that house cost $150,000.
Diversity that’s just rich people of all different races and ethnicities living together in relative harmony isn’t actually diversity. Diversity that matters is all the people who live in Nashville and want to live in Nashville being able to afford to do so.
And if Anastasi were truly concerned about the future of diversity in Nashville and what we might learn from California, perhaps he would have pointed out that skyrocketing housing prices will cause people to leave, as California is finding out the hard way. But instead, he’s just encouraging people to move here so Nashville can replicate the failures of the state he’s from.
It’s not filling me with great hope about his vision for the region.
