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Actually the bigger conversation is now about gentrification. Some whites behave like Christopher Columbus, moving into neighborhoods, making rents and all else more expensive, demanding cultural transformations, and not displaying interest in getting to know those who lived there before. Fort Greene became a classic example where much of the black cultural spaces have been shut down, replaced by expense coffee spots.
So should the blacks and Latinos who live in those places chase them out? Your logic suggests that they shouldn't be allowed to live there.
Christopher Columbus never reached the future NYC area (or, for that matter, the future USA), so nobody is behaving like Christopher Columbus by moving anywhere in NYC. Those who "lived there before" were first probably just beavers, then for about 12,000 years the Lenape immigrants originally from Central Asia, next briefly the Dutch traders, and shortly after that pretty much anyone from anywhere. The Bronx was approximately 100% white less than 80 years ago, and was still majority white when people of my generation were in grade school. It has been overwhelmingly non-white since the early 1970s. None of that should mean anything with respect to the future, because NYC was built on commerce, with people within it always moving where they could afford to live.
The West Village was first a marsh, then a slum, then an upscale area, then an slum again, then an upscale area again. During the two times it was a slum, it was indeed "ethnic" (the first time Black, the second time Italian), and it was only slightly ethnic, ie, WASP (though in fact open to anyone with money) the first time it was upscale, while not at all ethnic the second time it became upscale (ie, now). "Ethnic neighborhood" in NYC has historically meant (and even more strongly means nowadays) mostly one particular thing: poverty. Prosperous parts of NYC are not ethnic, and nobody cares whether the owner of the unit next door is of Viking, Zulu, Khmer or Inca ancestry.
The last time we had riots over who lives where in NYC is when nonwhites began to buy homes in Canarsie, and Flatlands. Loud screaming protests by neighbors, attacks and even a house burning or two.
Is this what you are referring to? Because those Caribbean blacks who elected to buy homes in those areas did have a right to do so, even if their Italian (and other white ethnic) neighbors didn't think so.
And it was so bad that Caribbean blacks got the message to ensure that their neighbors were Jewish (when they bought homes in these places) as those who objected to their presence would just quietly move away, not attempt to kill them.
Excerpt: attacks and even a house burning or two.
Opinion:
Growing up I was all to familiar and knew enough not to cross over the invisible border lines that separated neighborhoods. I have been chased ,bottles thrown at me as a kid for crossing over because I did not belong. As a grown adult working the midnight shift in the poorest of neighborhoods I will never forget being pulled over by undercover asking " What am I doing in this neighborhood. Whites only come here to buy drugs". No one person is free from these types of experiences. Learn from experiences and move on.
If a person can afford to buy a home God Bless him. He has the right to live where he chooses. If one objects to another moving next door and quietly moves away that is his choice. I prefer living where I am familiar with old traditions of days long past. I have averaged 20 resident years per neighborhood. As long as the neighborhood remains in a manner that convinced me to move here in the first place I will stay. No one person or group of person should be chastised for leaving (Flight) or entering ( Gentrification ) a neighborhood. It makes absolute sense to sell your home for top dollar as it does to leave a neighborhood suddenly infiltrated with crime. If Diversity/Segregation:monetary or culture etc...is your modus operandi more power to you. You have worked hard,saved your money and the choices now belong to you regardless of all the barking that you hear in the background. Best wishes.
The last time we had riots over who lives where in NYC is when nonwhites began to buy homes in Canarsie, and Flatlands. Loud screaming protests by neighbors, attacks and even a house burning or two.
Is this what you are referring to? Because those Caribbean blacks who elected to buy homes in those areas did have a right to do so, even if their Italian (and other white ethnic) neighbors didn't think so.
And it was so bad that Caribbean blacks got the message to ensure that their neighbors were Jewish (when they bought homes in these places) as those who objected to their presence would just quietly move away, not attempt to kill them.
I'm not doubting you but I don't remember this ever happening, and I lived in Brooklyn until 1990. Dates?
Basically no one moves or moved to NYC to be in ethnic neighborhoods. Excluding people in housing often means excluding people in jobs, education, and medical treatment.
That's not always the case. Plenty of transplants moved into Williamsburg and Greenpoint when they were still Italian-Hispanic-Polish areas.
We are biologically made up to identify with a group, many groups. It's natural, not racist. The problem is when our own identity is so entangled with our group that begin to villainize outsiders but, this too is also natural. Think about our trible heritage. All of our ancestral beginings were tribal. Your very life depends on identifying with a group. With civilization our groups could expand beyond survival levels but its still part of our make up. Racism, identity politics, nationalism, culture in general, age groups, gender groups, ideological groups - we all feel safe in our tribe. A hater is a hater. It's too easy to scapegoat an outsider and haters are threatened by deviations from what they concider ideal. I don't know if I'm making any sense. Im just rambling I think. Sorry.
It's pretty simple... Because historically whites have always been seen as the group that was in power and held the power, so in the overall racial structure, the thinking is that since whites hold the power they tend to be more scrutinized than other groups.
Yet it's unfair because whites have not "held the power" for several generations now. Wall Street, the Ivy League and academia in general, Hollywood, the news media, the foreign policy establishment, law firms and courts, have all been disproportionately, sometimes even overwhelmingly, dominated by another group.
And though this group berates whites for being over-represented (when we aren't), when it comes time to lessen the presence of over-represented groups in positions of power, this truly over-represented group always exempts themselves.
Whites is not even a race.
Italians,irish,russians,etc..
Yes and no. If you're in Europe, surrounded only by other whites, your ethnicity matters. But if you're the sole white in a colored classroom or neighborhood, and you see another white, you see the other person as a fellow white, because that's how the colored majority sees you two.
It's the same with blacks. In Africa, blacks care a great deal about whether you're a Hutu or a Tutsi, a Nigerian or a Somali. But among a white majority, Africans from different tribes feel a kinship with fellow blacks, because that's how the white majority sees them.
We are biologically made up to identify with a group, many groups. It's natural, not racist. The problem is when our own identity is so entangled with our group that begin to villainize outsiders but, this too is also natural. Think about our trible heritage. All of our ancestral beginings were tribal. Your very life depends on identifying with a group. With civilization our groups could expand beyond survival levels but its still part of our make up. Racism, identity politics, nationalism, culture in general, age groups, gender groups, ideological groups - we all feel safe in our tribe. A hater is a hater. It's too easy to scapegoat an outsider and haters are threatened by deviations from what they concider ideal. I don't know if I'm making any sense. Im just rambling I think. Sorry.
Opinion: Nice work.
You are not rambling. As a matter of scientific fact you are on target. The genesis of early man is documented from within the continent of Africa . Today it stands as the country with the most identities. There are currently over 3,000 tribes in Africa speaking more than 2,000 different languages and this is the result of many tribes combining ,splitting, dying out and colonizing. The Ancient people of our times expanded over other land masses. There were 9 major tribes of Scotland. In Italy there were 15 Oscan tribes, 3 Apuli tribes, 7 Samnitics and 7 Celts tribes as an example of tribal heritage. It exists today and proudly so ...among many people in this great country. Unfortunately not all are happy and lament that racism,bigotry etc... is the reason behind culturalism rather than forcing diversity under the banner of multiculturalism. There is nothing shameful or sorry of preserving your identity.
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