Through the Smokescreen of Tourism: Born and Raised in D.C.

Picture a building where people come and go all day long. There's food being cooked and passed out, music being played and people that seem to have known each other all their lives sitting at tables and booths playing games like cards and chess. 

This is the McDonalds on Georgia Avenue, where Howard University and the neighborhoods of D.C. collide. When you go to this McDonalds you may also be met by some strange smells and people who are fighting their own mental or drug addiction battles.

This is where I met James Mccard, also known as Johnny Blaze, who was born and raised in Northwest D.C. Mccard comes here most evenings to indulge in his love of chess. He was born around Georgia Avenue and Park Road and now, 62 years later, lives just over a mile away on a different part of Georgia Avenue. 

---

“Don't let color separate you from people. That judgment of the next person hurts us as a whole” - James Mccard, DC Native

---

“D.C. is full of education,” Mccard said.

The average visitor makes sure to see the White House and the many monuments D.C. has to offer, but when you visit, Mccard says to add a couple places to your list. He says make sure you go to the National Museum of African American History and Culture and the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum along with historic neighborhoods like Martin Luther King Avenue in Historic Anacostia. 

“Multiple nationalities are now interacting, and I think that's good,” a man playing cards, sitting next to Mccard, said during our interview. He would like to remain anonymous. 

D.C. is becoming more diverse and, in some neighborhoods, more gentrified. 

D.C. is known by many as ‘Chocolate City’ because of the large population of African Americans during and following slavery. In the 1970s, 71% of the population was African American and currently African Americans make up over  40% of the population.

When asked about this, Mccard said that gentrification and the rise in rent prices are “affecting a lot of people that's not wealthy.”

He went on to express the feeling that part of the problem is his community being ignored by elected officials. 

“It's illegal, and its corruption going on, because when you really look at it, there's no way in the world that you're in a committee and people are crying out, ‘we need more housing, we need more housing, we need more housing, we need this, that, and the third to sustain ourselves.’ We put you in these seats, we vote for you, trust in you. We're trying to really love you, but now that you're in there, you slam the door in our faces.”

---

“I would love tourists to know, my neighborhood is special. My community means a lot to me.” - James Mccard, DC Native

---

“I think it's good that we get to be able to come together and know one another ‘cause that's the only way that we can really solve a lot of the issues that we’re having,” Mccard said. “The city is beautiful, it really is. In spite of the surge of crime, you have the fabric of this city which still is beautiful. You have to look past all of that and see this here,” he finished, gesturing to the community around us at McDonald’s.