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Intellectually, it should not matter one iota.
Change, any kind of change, is a double-edged sword. Not so deep down, perhaps its not that there are more whites and less blacks. Maybe its inevitable that when your "personal landscape", the inherent familiarity that gives comfort, begins to radically change, you cannot help but mourn its passing.
I am white myself. I did not grow up in the District. But I cannot imagine the emotional and spiritual loss one feels when his neighbors move away because they can no longer afford to live in that neighborhood.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Moth
I am white and grew up here in the 70s. Upper NW was kind of an enclave wedged between two bigger entities. The tensions with our fellow black citizens were many, but mostly low key. Like it or not, we were in it together and had to make it work. Somehow.
I have lived in the area since the early 1990s. In 2011, I have noticed a mountain of mistrust and animosity developing between the white and black residents in DC. The Gray vs. Fenty/Rhee campaign of 2010 was the climax of heated debate along racial and class lines.
There is the old white DC and the new white DC. The Old White DC comprise of people who have lived in Wards 2 and 3 for many decades. They raised families and contributed leisure time to help their own communities. I would guess that most of these people would be at or close to retirement age.
The new white DC is different. Younger. More urbane. More gay/lesbian. More traveled and perhaps more schooled during their 20/30-something years than most of the Old White DC. They also grew up during the era of Ronald Reagan and Bill Clinton: the age of hypercapitalism and conservative empowerment. They moved into the District during the past decade.
What is the fundamental difference between Old White and New White DC. When blacks had the majority of political power in The District, the Old White DC residents were able to navigate the waters carefully under Marion Berry regime. Sure, there was tension between the white and black interests in the city, but compromises were hammered out behind closed doors. There were plenty of winks and favors doled out between the Old White representatives from Georgetown to Tenleytown and the black political figures running the DC government.
The New White DC residents have absolutely ZERO tolerance for any Marion Berry-era politics and patronage. No deals in smoke-filled rooms. No communication. In the end, the conflict between races and classes becomes more vocal and nasty. I did not see the level of "violent" rhetoric between Old White DC in the upper NW neighborhoods and the majority black population in other wards of the city back in the early 1990s. Today...it's another story.
It's no surprise that the New White population were fervent supporters of the Fenty and Rhee program. Fenty wanted to make DC into a capitalist mecca playground for the sophisticated professional class comprised of mostly college-educated white people. Why not re-mold The District into the next Manhattan, the next San Francisco, the next London, UK and so on? The Elites deserve the best kind of everything: trendy housing, competitive local schools, bike lanes, posh retail shops, street cars and more. This is what New White DC wants for their city. The Old Whites were not as ambitious: a house with a yard, safe streets, playgrounds and decent roads would have been sufficient.
The New Whites have also demonstrated public contempt for DC public sector workers. Since the majority of DC government workers are black; it is assumed that these workers benefited from the Marion Berry era of government spending binges. Qualifications be damned, right? As long as you have black skin, you are IN, right? Anyway, these government workers were viewed as lazy and incompetent by new taxpayers in The District.
Then comes Michelle Rhee and her personal war against public school teachers. The New White DC rallied around the controversial schools chancellor by agreeing that the (mostly black) DC public schools teachers were THE PROBLEM with poor student performance. Any informed educational researcher will tell you that the situation facing urban public schools is far more complex than just poor-quality teachers. Eventually, the "lazy" and "incompetent" words were being applied to public school teachers. You can bet that these labels are viewed through a racial lens as opposed to just the type of job position.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Moth
Progress is Painful.
Not to the people who are benefiting from gentrification. And that is the only thing that counts in this city. If progress involves pain, it is not much progress is it?
D.C residents should have had the same rights as there neighbors from Maryland and Virginia. Sorry I worded it wrong, but I know people from the "District" would know what I was talking about anyway
Ah no need for apologies. I always say "DC residents deserve voting rights" and people usually get what I mean, I just wanted to go on a mini-rant about the slightly inaccurate wording of it
Coldbliss I'm sorry but what the hell is wrong with bike lanes???? I hear that brought up all the time. Yeah it's something particularly desired by yuppies but everybody benefits from it. Hell I'd say the poor would particularly benefit from bike lanes seeing as how they're often having to bike and use public transportation.
I am white myself. I did not grow up in the District. But I cannot imagine the emotional and spiritual loss one feels when his neighbors move away because they can no longer afford to live in that neighborhood.
I have lived in the area since the early 1990s. In 2011, I have noticed a mountain of mistrust and animosity developing between the white and black residents in DC. The Gray vs. Fenty/Rhee campaign of 2010 was the climax of heated debate along racial and class lines.
There is the old white DC and the new white DC. The Old White DC comprise of people who have lived in Wards 2 and 3 for many decades. They raised families and contributed leisure time to help their own communities. I would guess that most of these people would be at or close to retirement age.
The new white DC is different. Younger. More urbane. More gay/lesbian. More traveled and perhaps more schooled during their 20/30-something years than most of the Old White DC. They also grew up during the era of Ronald Reagan and Bill Clinton: the age of hypercapitalism and conservative empowerment. They moved into the District during the past decade.
What is the fundamental difference between Old White and New White DC. When blacks had the majority of political power in The District, the Old White DC residents were able to navigate the waters carefully under Marion Berry regime. Sure, there was tension between the white and black interests in the city, but compromises were hammered out behind closed doors. There were plenty of winks and favors doled out between the Old White representatives from Georgetown to Tenleytown and the black political figures running the DC government.
The New White DC residents have absolutely ZERO tolerance for any Marion Berry-era politics and patronage. No deals in smoke-filled rooms. No communication. In the end, the conflict between races and classes becomes more vocal and nasty. I did not see the level of "violent" rhetoric between Old White DC in the upper NW neighborhoods and the majority black population in other wards of the city back in the early 1990s. Today...it's another story.
It's no surprise that the New White population were fervent supporters of the Fenty and Rhee program. Fenty wanted to make DC into a capitalist mecca playground for the sophisticated professional class comprised of mostly college-educated white people. Why not re-mold The District into the next Manhattan, the next San Francisco, the next London, UK and so on? The Elites deserve the best kind of everything: trendy housing, competitive local schools, bike lanes, posh retail shops, street cars and more. This is what New White DC wants for their city. The Old Whites were not as ambitious: a house with a yard, safe streets, playgrounds and decent roads would have been sufficient.
The New Whites have also demonstrated public contempt for DC public sector workers. Since the majority of DC government workers are black; it is assumed that these workers benefited from the Marion Berry era of government spending binges. Qualifications be damned, right? As long as you have black skin, you are IN, right? Anyway, these government workers were viewed as lazy and incompetent by new taxpayers in The District.
Then comes Michelle Rhee and her personal war against public school teachers. The New White DC rallied around the controversial schools chancellor by agreeing that the (mostly black) DC public schools teachers were THE PROBLEM with poor student performance. Any informed educational researcher will tell you that the situation facing urban public schools is far more complex than just poor-quality teachers. Eventually, the "lazy" and "incompetent" words were being applied to public school teachers. You can bet that these labels are viewed through a racial lens as opposed to just the type of job position.
Not to the people who are benefiting from gentrification. And that is the only thing that counts in this city. If progress involves pain, it is not much progress is it?
And What's wrong with that? Who wouldn't want their city to be compared among NYC and London? if this is what the so called "elite" want, what do everyone else want?
Is there really a "new" white DC? Same folks, it's just that 20 years ago most of them would likely have opted for Arlington or Bethesda.
You're right - the only difference between the 90s and today is a lot of that generation of "new DC" used the city as a party playground at yuppie places like Lulu's and such for a few years before moving out to gentrify working class suburbs like Sliver Spring or Arlington, eventually forcing the people living in those suburbs from their homes rather than the ones living in the District. Just look at how expensive Arlington and Silver Spring are today thanks in large part to the people who moved there a decade or more ago.
Keep in mind also that a lot of the white people complaining the loudest have no generational history of this area. They showed up in the 80s or 90s or later, saw the city at a certain point, and arbitrarily decided that that brief moment in time was the "real DC". We can't blame them since their families weren't a part of this city when it wasn't majority black, so they just arbitrarily attack every change agent as evil and abusive rather than seeing the reinvestment in the city as more of a shift back toward a previous norm instead of a situation in which most of the region's money got pumped into the suburbs.
Now, they somehow convince themselves young people making middle class salaries are "elites" and older people with hundreds of thousands or millions in the bank living isolated across the park are the real down-to-earth, solid community people.
Honestly, none of it makes any sense and really just reflects ageist white guilt targeted at a specific demographic rather than a working knowledge of our region's complex history and context.
Blacks had the run of DC for the last 60 years and turned it into the murder capitol of the world for several years running. As a young black man I cant say Im particularly saddened by the influx of white people. I always felt the capitol of the most powerful and affluent nation on the planet deserved better. To drive down North Capitol Street and see the majesty of the Capitol building in the distance all while while wading through the ghetto of NW DC always seemed very tragic to me.
Blacks had the run of DC for the last 60 years and turned it into the murder capitol of the world for several years running. As a young black man I cant say Im particularly saddened by the influx of white people. I always felt the capitol of the most powerful and affluent nation on the planet deserved better. To drive down North Capitol Street and see the majesty of the Capitol building in the distance all while while wading through the ghetto of NW DC always seemed very tragic to me.
I swear to God this is not me under a different screen name....
Blacks had the run of DC for the last 60 years and turned it into the murder capitol of the world for several years running. As a young black man I cant say Im particularly saddened by the influx of white people. I always felt the capitol of the most powerful and affluent nation on the planet deserved better. To drive down North Capitol Street and see the majesty of the Capitol building in the distance all while while wading through the ghetto of NW DC always seemed very tragic to me.
Yea but it makes for a great visual metaphore.
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