Ami I A Black Gentrifier?

I recently, I became a 1st time home-buyer. Yes, it sounds perfectly strange and perfectly right in this wonderful economy. I bought in the first suburb of Sacramento, Oak Park, the home of former NBA player Kevin Johnson, the Major-Elect of Sacramento, and the home of a history of crime, drugs, violence and failed schools. It is also home to a rich African-American history, and now diverse community attempting to blend the past, present and future.

I have joked on many occasions over the past few months to friends and family that I am a “Black gentrifier,” but is that even possible? I targeted the neighborhood two years ago for its relatively inexpensive homes (made even cheaper by the mortgage crisis); improving educational system (made better by Johnson’s St. Hope organization’s charter schools and new pre-school, which my 4 year old son attends); improved crime statistics in the sub-neighborhood I targeted; the opportunity to be a role model to others in the community; and the appearance of professionals and families, who many just happen to be white. My financial calculations also gave me the hope that with some upgrades and patience, I would build significant equity in the home over the next several years, despite the current economic and housing crisis. I was also drawn to the diverse ethnic and racial makeup of the community (one third Latino/Hispanic, 20% African-American, and 20% Caucasian),[1] and the existence of a faith community committed to the neighborhood led by the Family Life Center (St. Paul Church) and St. Hope.

I am recently finished reading a novel by Nathan McCall, called Them. It centers on the gentrification of the Atlanta neighborhood where Dr. Martin Luther King’s church and home are located, the Old Fourth Ward. I found myself fascinated by being torn in identifying with both the white couple that gentrifies the neighborhood and the African-American characters that watch their community change overnight. For example, in Them, a long standing Black owned corner store is sold and replaced by a café/coffee shop. The long-time African-American residents eulogize the loss of a neighborhood institution, while predominately new white residents rejoice at the opening of the café.

In my most altruistic thoughts and discussions, I see my presence in the community as a positive. Though not from the Oak Park or Sacramento, I have lived in predominately Black Communities (many that eventually or were being gentrified) throughout my adult life and during my early childhood. My son is a student in the community and we live a block from the predominately Black Sacramento High School, which was rescued in recent years by St. Hope and turned into a multi-themed set of charter schools. I cannot hope but suspect that our presence and activity in the community, through community involvement, donations to local charities, participation in local school and community events, and local activism, serve as a positive role model for the young students walking to and from the high school.

It still makes me wonder, can a Black professional assist in the gentrification of the neighborhood? By definition the concept of gentrification implies that someone of greater means is replacing someone of lesser means in the community. Through a quick Google search I was able to pull up the following definitions of gentrification:

“Gentrification, or urban gentrification, is a phenomenon in which low-cost, physically deteriorated neighborhoods undergo physical renovation and an increase in property values, along with an influx of wealthier residents who may displace the prior residents.”
“The process in which a neighborhood is transformed from low-value to high-value properties.”
“colonisation of an urban area by a higher socio-economic group.”
“The phenomenon of a formally industrial or dilapidated area becoming attractive to middle classes through improved services, access or a perception of "trendyness".

What is missing from these definitions is the race and ethnicity of the individuals, families, and businesses in the aforementioned displacement process. It is clear that there is an income displacement, but far too many times the individuals that are being displaced in a community are Black and Brown. Often the displaced individuals are forces to move to first, second and further ring suburbs that at one time demanded and received general infrastructure, transportation and other services that were deflected for decades from inner cities. Now with the re-migration back into the urban cores by more affluent groups, there will no doubt be greater demand pushed on central city services and in tough economic times a diversion of resources away from suburbs, further isolating these communities from transit, health care and jobs.

In my career I have often advocated for policies that mediate the affects of gentrification. Common strategies have included the retention and development of affordable housing, rental and homeowner assistance programs, housing trust funds, voluntary inclusionary zoning, asset building and other strategies. The Oak Park community has recently focused on vacant property redevelopment as its key strategy coupled with homeownership assistance and a housing trust fund, as a way to revitalize the community while helping current residents remain in place.[2]

My concern is that renters, such as the woman and her daughter that were displaced when I bought my home, have the opportunity to live in vital, growing, safe neighborhoods that ensure high quality and diverse educational opportunities for their children. Though I have the right to live where I please, how do we ensure that those pushed out of improving communities have the ability to stay or move into communities that provide similar quality of life? Though the Sacramento region has an affordable housing ordinance in place if public funds are used, many developers forego public funding to develop housing stock in the region privately to avoid developing affordable housing.

Several years ago I lived in a few homes in the Mt. Vernon Square neighborhood of Washington, D.C. Nearly 20 years ago the neighborhood was a mix of drugs, prostitution, students, long-term African-American families, and a smattering of homeowners and unknowingly future gentrifiers. The arrival of the MCI, now Verizon Center and later the new Convention Center ushered in the gentrification of the neighborhood. One shining light of the community was the presence of the faith community led by churches that developed affordable housing in the neighborhood to provide options to members of their church and the broader community. Though not enough, it provided an opportunity for native residents to participate in the renaissance of the neighborhood. Old and new residents also actively participated in the relocation of the Washington, D.C. Convention Center to their neighborhood, which included concerns over environmental contamination at the development site and securing job prioritization for local residents. Home-ownership assistance programs in the City also helped many recent Howard University grads and other young professionals buy in this and the larger Shaw neighborhood. I hope that similar models are used as part of other efforts to assist residents of other communities. However, overwhelmingly the Black families that lived in the community for generations have displaced.

In the final analysis, redevelopment, infill, refill, revitalization, progress, economic development, etc., should not be done on the backs of long-time residents and families, pushing them to outer ring suburbs that lack the infrastructure, transit and other amenities needed to sustain quality of life.

On a recent warm and breezy night my son and I sat on our new porch of our new house and talked about how nice it was to own our home. He gave me a high five and we laughed. At the moment I was not a gentrifier, I was a proud father building economic, cultural and educational future for his child. My only hope was that I could assist and inspire others to reach for and achieve this dream, not whether I gentrified the neighborhood or not.

[1] http://www.urban.org/publications/411294.html.

[2] http://www.urban.org/publications/411294.html.

Essay In Black and Brown

Essay in Black and Brown

 

The current presidential election has brought to the forefront the alliance and/or tension between the Latino/Hispanic community and the African-American/Black community in America. Since the 1960’s, we have presumed that these two ethnic groups were allied politically, and in many major cities across the country they shared the same urban space in relative harmony. In many communities music, clothing and words mixed as recent and multi-generational immigrants from Latin countries cohabitated with Blacks in the ghettos of America. Black musical performers dating back to the Jazz age have incorporated Latin rhythms into their music, and Hispanic kids nationwide mimic the dress and music of African-American Hip-Hop artist. While critical alliances on Capitol Hill between the Hispanic and Black Caucuses have influenced legislative victories and defeats.

 

However, the current debate creates a landscape that has shifted from the unifying struggles of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. and Cesar Chavez to political conflicts and gang warfare.

In the recent Democratic primary election, Latino’s consistently supported Hillary Clinton over Barack Obama. Some political pundits attributed this to the strong ties that the Latino community has with the Clinton’s, while others alluded to the perceived conflict between the two ethnic groups in communities across the country. Some began to discuss the Nevada Phenomenon after the January primary in the state, pointing at Latino voter’s indifference towards a Black candidate for president, attributed to urban power and economic struggles over the past forty years.

 

Presumed Alliance

 

Nicolas Vaca in his book, Presumed Alliance, addressed the very issue of the “presumed” political alliance of the African-American and the Hispanic/Latino communities. I must admit that when I first started reading the book, after hearing Vaca do an NPR interview, I was worried that the perspective would be slanted towards one group or another. Vaca was partially motivated to write the book was his observances of a lack of Latino’s in governmental agency positions as compared to Blacks. I was also concerned about the traditional intra-ethnic dilemma of airing ones dirty laundry in public, stretched across the perceived joint alliance of Black’s and Latino’s, which has been criticized by others in both communities.

 

Vaca initially makes the case for Latino contributions to the Civil Rights Movement, and in particular Brown vs. the Board of Education. He eventually begins to carefully outline the history of several political Black vs. Brown political contest, while putting the recent historical ethnic relationships in context. 

 

In particular, Vaca examined the 2001 Los Angeles mayoral race; the 2001 Houston mayoral race; and political and ethnic relations in New York City, and Miami. In Houston, Orlando Sánchez challenged Lee Brown the incumbent, African-American mayor. Sánchez was of Cuban descent, Anglo looking, and Republican. He was not Mexican and a Democrat like the majority of Houston’s Latino population. Sánchez, who had previously been branded anti-Hispanic by the Latino political establishment, was supported by 72 percent of the Latino vote. In the race, it became clear that the desire to have one of our “own” in place to the Latino community was more important than electing a politician who would better serve their community. This was the result despite having the support of 75 percent of Latino business, political and community leaders. Brown managed to narrowly retain his seat through a coalition of African-American’s and Caucasians.

 

In 2001, African-American’s in Los Angeles formed a political alliance with conservative whites from the San Fernando Valley to elect James Hahn Mayor of Los Angeles over current mayor Antonio Villaraigosa. This alliance was rooted in African-American’s allegiance to Hahn’s late father Kenneth, who represented a large portion of the L.A. Black community for years in local government. Kenneth Hahn was responsible for benefiting many Black political, business and community leaders. Early in James Hahn’s term he would infuriate the African-American community by pushing out African-American police chief, Bernard Parks. In the rematch between Villaraigosa and Hahn four years later, the Black community would overwhelmingly support Villaraigosa and oust Hahn, forming the very alliance that Villaraigosa wrongly assumed four years earlier.

 

While Blacks continue to support the Democratic Party at a clip of 90%, Latino’s now support the Republican Party with over a third of their vote in presidential elections. According to exit polls, approximately 44% of Latino’s supported President Bush in 2004 and 35% in 2000. This can partially be attributed to the popularity and past moderate approach of now President Bush as Governor of Texas. Latino voters appear to be more likely to cross traditional party lines, despite policies that may not be in line with the best interest of their communities. However, one must not overlook that fact that the Latino/Hispanic community is not monolithic (neither is the Black community), and is made up of first, second, third and further generational groups, as well as, individuals descendent from Mexico, Puerto Rico, El Salvador, Dominican Republic, El Salvador, Cuba, Columbia, Panama, etc., a sometimes disparate group of nationalities that are often only bound by a shared language, and relatively similar geographical origin.

 

Gangs: Turf or Ethnicity

 

I remember reading the L.A. Times several months after the rebellion in Los Angeles sparked by the Rodney King verdict. It covered the growing gang conflict in the Venice area of Los Angeles. This appeared to be strange on the surface, since the Black gangs had called a truce in the wake of the riots. But the conflict was not the historical Bloods versus Crips, it was Black vs. Brown.

In March of this year, a L.A. Times article appeared that asked the question, “Are Black vs. Brown race tensions driving homicide?” The statistics did not prove that this was the case. Though a few high profile crimes appear to be racially motivated, the article illustrated that 22 of 236 homicides in the 4 LAPD divisions that cover heavily concentrated Black and Latino gang areas; were Black on Brown or Brown on Black homicides. Consistently, over 90% of killings involved subjects of the same race. However, conflict did exist between each group over territory and revenge, which was similar to gangs of the same ethnic group. It also has been exacerbated by greater conflict in the growing California prison system, expanded drug markets and demographic and population shifts.

 

In July of this year the L.A. Times published another article examining the recent rise in hate crimes involving Latino’s and African-American’s. Based on the annual report of the Los Angeles County Human Rights Commission, hate crimes rose 28% and Latino’s against Blacks was number one followed by Blacks versus Latinos. The economic downturn and population density are seen as major contributors to this trend.

 

Jobs

 

Sometimes missing in this debate is the economic conflict centered on jobs within inner city communities. It is often perceived by the Black community that Latino’s and often non-citizens take jobs away from qualified African-American’s in those communities. Employers often tag Blacks as not wanting to take these often low paying jobs, and that they would not be as responsible or hard working as their Latino counterparts.

 

Nearly twenty years ago I worked briefly at a silk-screening plant in South Central Los Angeles in the neighborhood that my paternal grandmother still lives in. This neighborhood was and still is overwhelmingly Black, but the workers in the facility were overwhelmingly Latino. The only two African-American workers in the plant of nearly 100 workers were my cousin and I. In conversations with one of the plant managers, I also discovered that over 90% of the workers were undocumented and worked for less than minimum wage. In fact, I became the second highest paid worker in the plant on my first day, with no skills or background to do the work of building silk screens.

 

This brings focus to the conflict in many of these communities that have increased African-American opposition to illegal immigration, and surprisingly with Latino’s past the first generation of immigration. Many African-American’s perceive illegal immigrants as harming American jobs, according to an NAACP study.[1] However, the study also found that 61% of Blacks favor creating a path for undocumented immigrants to receive citizenship, if they paid fines, passed background checks and had jobs.

 

Where Do We Go?

 

As a father of a Black and Brown child, I would hope that the two communities could move from the gang friction and the divisiveness of racial politics and find a path to unify not only politically, but also within many of the communities that they share in Los Angeles, Oakland, Miami, Houston, New York, Chicago, and many other communities nationwide. The true political, economic and cultural power of these two largest ethnic groups in our great country could change the face of America. The key to the unifying these communities is in uniting them to erase the economic realities that are at the core of existing conflicts. If Black and Brown street gangs in L.A. can begin to integrate in the name of economics, so can the rank and file law abiding members of each community.

 

If both groups were not so endeared to Daddy Clinton, or the promises of key political positions in a Hillary Clinton Administration, would we not be seriously discussing the possibility of a Black/Latino presidential ticket? This ticket would be backed overwhelmingly by two political factions sure to take the White House, laying the groundwork for a serious Hispanic candidate for President in 8 years. Instead, Obama must play traditional politics and will likely choose a white male running mate to bring “credibility” and “experience” to this ticket.

Last year I had the distinct pleasure of working with descendents of Cesar Chavez. That union partially inspired me to discuss this difficult but real phenomenon in our country. It also reminds me of something Dr. King wrote to Cesar Chavez before his death in 1968, while Chavez was fasting in protest, which read,

"Our separate struggles are really one. A struggle for
freedom, for dignity, and for humanity."

---

[1] NAACP African-American Policy Opinions 2007. http://www.naacp.org/advocacy/research/reports_briefs/policy_report.pdf

April 4, 1968

Forty years ago the Reverend-Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. was assassinated in Memphis, Tennessee. And yes, I was raised with many referring to King in the African-American/Black/Negro/Colored community as the Reverend-Doctor. Also, forty years ago, I was born. At the time, my parents lived with my fathers family in Los Angeles (Watts), California, that thriving ghetto community in South Central, excuse me, South Los Angeles. My mother was alone with me at the time of the assassination and the beginning of the first day of rioting that occurred. She remembers being scared to death, with a barely one-month old child, as the death of a man of peace, ended in and sparked violence.

We were only 3 years removed from the Watts Riots/Rebellion in August of 1965, witnessed firsthand by my father and his family. My father when thinking of those days often made reference to on "organization" called Rumor Control that sprouted out of the Watts Rebellion and other events to monitor the activities of the police and other law enforcement officials. There presence was relevant three years later.

Watts Riots/Rebellion

• 34 dead
• 3,952 arrested
• 1,032 injured
• $40 million in damage

Nearly 30 years later I would witness another uprising that would spread past Watts (now majority Hispanic/Latino), into Compton, Long Beach, and others parts of the Los Angeles region. This rebellion would be the reaction to the legal injustices surrounding another King, Rodney. A hard luck negative bi-product of the Civil Rights Era and a potential benefactor of the Reverend-Doctors growing Poor Peoples Campaign.

However, the May 1993 events would also be marked by unnecessary rioting and looting and senseless violence on both sides of the law. I remember being confined to my Long Beach "group" house where I lived with three Caucasian students, one of which boastfully sported a confederate flag on his truck, while the the other often blasted hip-hop from his car stereo. They roamed freely through the streets of Long Beach during my confinement (the police curfew was primarily focused on Black and Hispanic males), bringing me food and beverages. In the coming week, I would need to be protected by my Chinese friend as my two white roommates attacked me in a racially charged argument. I moved to Washington, D.C. three months later.

King Verdict Uprising/Riots/Rebellion

• 53 dead (some estimate up to or over 60)
• 10,000 arrested
• 2,000 injured
• $1 billion in damages

Lately many have declared the Civil Rights Era, DEAD! Civil Rights era organizations such as SNCC, gone; SCLC, CORE, financially strapped and less viable; the Nation of Islam, disputable membership numbers and influence; and NAACP and the National Urban League, still viable, but with diminished memberships and capacity, while living on reputations established many decades and journeys ago. Still others struggle to remain financially, politically and socially relevant in an ever changing racial, ethnic and political landscape.

Generation X'ers and Y'ers gravitate towards different cultural, social, business and political affiliations and norms. The Internet and World Wide Web have become the focal point for our political and social organization and web-based movements, including use of the medium by the presidential campaign of Barack Obama, are proving to be more effective than the traditional efforts of a by-gone era.

Are largest looming African-American leader may be only a few long months away from finally moving into the Oval Office, but had to prove his race card to the Civil Rights establishment, and now must shy away from his spiritual leader, because he dared to question the mainstream or at times was not politically correct.

I start this blogging journey 40 years after my birth and 40 years after Reverend-Doctor King's death, a number he would never reach. I wonder how someone so young made such a lasting impact on this country, this world, on me. I hope again for leadership, not only in the African-American community, but in the greater world community that can transcend partisanship, Capitalism, race, materialism, and the media.

I still remember my first conversation with my mom regarding April 4, 1968. She was at once fearful of the rioters and police and mournful for the passing of our great American leader. America stands at a similar crossroads today, at once fearful of Black men roaming our streets, ghettos and prisons and possibly finally ready to make one its leader.

There are many mountaintops to climb, valleys to traverse and divides to bridge. If the racial tension that now circles our current presidential elections is not evidence of the continuing ethnic, racial, and economic divides in this country, and also not a notice to the progressive minded, politically correct among us, we may see the fires of Watts and many other cities ignite again. The rebellion this time will be a true rainbow coalition of sometimes friends, sometimes enemies frustrated with the economic and other injustices of our society.

According to the Eisenhower Commission from 1963-1968 riots/rebellions across the country resulted in:

• 200,000 participants in 237 cities
• 190 dead
• 50,000 arrested