Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
I rarely see liberal white transplants mix or interact with guidos, ghetto blacks or nuyoricans and other ethnic new yorker unless if they want something like drugs.
Why should they ? People tend to move within their own social and professional groups.
"Self loathing" ? Not that baloney in yet another rehearsal - hear it most often from older people who have spent too much time at the New Black Panther table.
Up until recently in NYC the main group of gentrifiers came from the gay and bohemian communities. Artists, hippies, counter culture, and so forth seeking inexpensive housing etc... They are the groups that put Tribeca, Soho, the LES/East Village on the map when those places were dark, dirty, crime and often vermin ridden places everyone else tended to avoid except commercial activity.
Today those moving to Harlem, Brooklyn and parts of Queens are just as likely to be middle and upper middle if not lower wealthy class white/European New Yorkers priced out of Manhattan (UWS, UES, Tribeca, SoHo, etc....) but aren't willing or wish to leave the City just yet for the suburbs.
Park Slope and Brooklyn Heights are long established communities with pricey real estate (that continues to increase in value), so such whites have to move into other areas of Brooklyn. Happily or not that borough especially the western parts has an abundance of what these persons are seeking; brownstone/town houses that can be converted back into private homes. That or large pre-war or new developments with "family sized" units where more can be had for the money than Manhattan.
It stands to reason even liberal/Democratic whites often have different value sets than say the aforementioned previous waves of gentrifiers. Park Slope didn't become "San Francisco/Berkeley" of Brooklyn out of thin air. These sort of persons have an agenda, and if it means moving those out whom cannot or will not adapt then so be it; if not then they will make the move. However on no account will they sacrifice their children on the altar of "inclusion" to the what they see as potential threats to their futures.
In Clinton Hill, Fort Green and the other rapidly gentrifying areas of Brooklyn a battle is brewing in public schools as they deal with an influx of wealthy and often white children. These are the kids of "active" UWS or otherwise Manhattan parents who have their own ideas about how a school should be run. To them if a school needs something like new computers parents should club in and write checks. Well not surprisingly the mainly native minority population parents see things differently and aren't too thrilled with newcomers "pushing them around". These are often single parent homes and or those where both are working long and hard hours just to make ends meet. They cannot just "write checks" nor do they have endless days (or evenings) free to organize and run events to raise funds.
They don't but I have seen a higher rate of interacial relationships in gentrified areas but I strongly believe that their non white partners are hipsters and yuppies also.
This is very true, however they are not dating native New Yorkers, unless the ethnic native New Yorker is from a professional and or educated background. But yes they do mix with people of like minded background, experience and culture.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Harlem resident
Why should they ? People tend to move within their own social and professional groups.
Tell me something I don't know? Read my above paragraph. Problem is that places like Bedstuy, Harlem, Mott Haven, Bushwick, Redhook, Spanish Harlem, Washington Heights, and Inwood are still relatively hood and ghetto for the majority of its residents. I don't see how or why the professional transplant with suburban attitudes can mix with locals or live side by side them especially since most locals do not have an higher education or hold a professional job or career? But yes people do move within their own social and professional groups.
Anyone who thinks when wealthy, rich or even just upper/middle middle class whites move into a "gentrified" area they suddenly are going to start singing Kumbaya and otherwise start hanging with the homies wants their heads examined.
Neil Partick-Harris spent 40 million on a brownstone/townhouse at 126th just off Fifth Avenue. It is almost certain that his children will *NOT* be going to local public, charter or other such schools in the area. Happily for that family and others both the UWS and UES are just down Central Park West or Fifth Avenue and offer a vast choice of private schools. The same goes for other white families that move up to Harlem if they can swing it; if not soon as their kids reach elementary school age they will move.
Let us get real here. How many white gentrifiers really mix with black people? How comfortable are most of them in environments not dominated by whites? I don't count a gathering of mainly whites, with the odd token, usually a carefully selected non threatening negro who "knows how to behave".
Yes I know that they express liberal views, and abhor obvious racism of the Donald Sterling variety, but are they equally concerned that in a city like NYC, which is majority minority, that the private sector remains overwhelmingly white?
IMHO white liberals are no less racist on average than white moderates. Indeed their racism is more dangerous because they aren't even aware that it exists, and that they are hardly immune from the stereotypes which pervade much of US culture. I find that moderates are usually more cautious and open to learning. Liberal whites think that they already know because they endorse limits on Stop & Frisk, or what ever they think that blacks believe is important to them.
I've never understood why so many blacks care about what whites think. Why do you give them so much power?
Anyone who thinks when wealthy, rich or even just upper/middle middle class whites move into a "gentrified" area they suddenly are going to start singing Kumbaya and otherwise start hanging with the homies wants their heads examined.
Neil Partick-Harris spent 40 million on a brownstone/townhouse at 126th just off Fifth Avenue. It is almost certain that his children will *NOT* be going to local public, charter or other such schools in the area. Happily for that family and others both the UWS and UES are just down Central Park West or Fifth Avenue and offer a vast choice of private schools. The same goes for other white families that move up to Harlem if they can swing it; if not soon as their kids reach elementary school age they will move.
Clearly, he didn't spend 40 million on a brownstone in Harlem, -more like 1-2 mil at most.
Anyhow, I don't understand why it's important for blacks and whites to mingle. If they want to, that's fine, but I don't see a problem with choosing not to mingle with certain people.
I don't have anything against whites, but I feel most comfortable around those who share the same culture, beliefs, practices and opinions as I do. I'm sure there are some whites in the world who may have a very similar outlook, but I haven't encountered them. The ones that I have come directly in contact with, I have absolutely no interest in establishing any sort of friendship with. I'm a spiritual person and I prefer to associate with those who believe in God.
I've never understood why so many blacks care about what whites think. Why do you give them so much power?
I never understood this either. A few months ago I read an article in the black newspaper Amsterdam Times in which there was an article about the fact there were too few whites in some schools and the author implied that this is somehow bad but never went into detail about WHY it is bad. That is, the author never explained exactly what white students and teachers will do for the schools that the black staff and students can't do on their own.
I was totally puzzled by the article and perhaps I can link it when I find it. I thought to myself: "If whites don't want to attend or teach in predominantly black schools, who cares? Why do they need whites there? What will whites do for them?"
Why would you make that assumption? I am among hipsters all the time. Why would I be? I went to a top university, like many of them, and I work in the creative sector of the economy, like them. So why wouldn't I want to be around people that I have something in common with. I'm Black, but I don't work municipal jobs, I don't work in security or retail so I feel I have a lot less in common and less to talk about with many stereotypical urban "Blacks".
And it's racist to group people by color like this anyway.
Please register to post and access all features of our very popular forum. It is free and quick. Over $68,000 in prizes has already been given out to active posters on our forum. Additional giveaways are planned.
Detailed information about all U.S. cities, counties, and zip codes on our site: City-data.com.
Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
