Black Gentrifiers: Do They Exist?

Gentrification is a disease that infects neighborhoods populated and influenced by minorities nation-wide and a leading topic when it comes to politics. The resentment toward gentrifiers, whom are usually white and wealthy, comes from the stripping of culture to be replaced by smoothies, bikes, condos and rent high enough to have you choosing between food or lights. It's also rooted in the depreciation of the history behind gentrified areas, and the assumption that gentrification = less violence. Residents of Brooklyn, NY and Washington, DC are aching with city-wide daily reminders that people of color occupy temporary residential spaces. Then, once "they" crave new territory America does what it has always done; which is destroy and takeover and it's just happening on a smaller scale here.

More specifically in the black community, gentrification removes and replaces us in the few areas where we establish community between each other. It perpetuates the detrimental effects of capitalism and hierarchy in society. This tells our communities to get out because people who can do better with this land are moving in. This is very apparent in Williamsburg and Bushwick in Brooklyn and all throughout Washington, DC; nationally known "chocolate cities", are now macadamia nut holders. 

However, as more black professionals conquer and disassemble the corporate ladder from the inside out and vise versa, gentrification can be a slippery slope. Gentrification is easy to discuss in terms of our oppressors because it's easy to identify, but I think there is a hidden sub-culture of gentrifiers on the rise that look just like oppressed groups being pushed out. These gentrifiers have the careers, cash, and conclusions of those who infiltrate neighborhoods stricken with poverty and populated by black bodies.

The difference is their invisible cloak of separation from the communities they visibly represent which brings in to question, "Is it possible to be a black gentrifier?" When answering this question it's important to consider the lifestyle of gentrifiers. The hearth of the black community's issue with gentrification is creating new, innovative things at the cost and without consideration of what previously occupied that same land. Gentrifiers have no connection to the communities they takeover, and this in turn permeates the vertical and pompous approach to a very horizontal and approachable setting. 

So what constitutes a black gentrifier? A person who scoffs at their new neighbors because of differing lifestyle structures. Someone who ignores and does not care to interact with their neighbors knowing that "they'll soon be pushed out." They are those black citizens who actively assimilate white culture and disconnect from their blackness altogether. Those with white Jesus in their homes. The brown members of society that place themselves above the black community because, at their level of success, it's unimaginable to mingle with the common black man or black woman because of their overexposure to the white-elite culture grounding black life in stereotypes.

Now, we have to learn what we need to do about this, and I have a suggestion or two. Those living in communities going through the process of gentrification (where there's a mix of OG and new residents) should try to engage those black gentrifiers; influence them to support small businesses and teach them about the neighborhood. Also, to lead in resistance against the negative effects of gentrification, actively try to remain where you are for as long as financially possible. My grandmother is a resident of the Navy Yard area in Southeast DC where her home used to be across from sky high projects. Now, it sits across from a 4 story contemporary retirement home. The National's Stadium is right around the corner and her neighbors make at least $1 million annually to pay for their homes. My grandmother played the game smart, the home was already paid for and they offered to buy her out, they're still offering to buy her out, but she's refusing. See, she inherited that home from her mother, and her mother inherited that home from her mother, so not only is she ground in the community, but the home itself. That's what we must do, we have to own to have leverage. Please Do not let go of your communities for a couple hundred thousand dollars because you are simply drinking the kool-aid.