NY Times op-ed: "Is My Little Library Contributing to the Gentrification of My Black Neighborhood?" (generations, legal)
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Erin Aubry Kaplan wrote an op-ed in the NY Times about her feelings when she saw a white couple stopped and checked out the "Little Library" she had set up in her front yard.
Spoiler
Then one morning, glancing out my front window, I saw a young white couple stopped at the library. Instantly, I was flooded with emotions — astonishment, and then resentment, and then astonishment at my resentment.
Other than the obvious blatant racist revealing nature of the op-ed, this part in particular caught my attention:
Quote:
Screaming at them to get off my lawn would be adopting the values of the oppressor, as my racial-justice activist father used to say. Yet my resentment was not analogous to the white resentment of generations past (and of now, I’d argue). White resentment has always been legitimized, and reinforced, by legal and cultural dominance, a dynamic evident in everything from the rise of Trumpism to the current battle against the political boogeyman of critical race theory.
The irony of a black female who is an affiliate Professor at a university whose works are published by the NY Times and claims that her "resentment" is apparently justified because it's not legitimized and reinforced by legal and cultural dominance? Being published in one of the largest and well respected (well, formally well respected) news outlets without threat of legal retaliation somehow doesn't count? Someone who rails against gentrification (but only the racial aspect of that phenomenon) but was likely a contributor as she moved into her neighborhood 20 years ago as a member of the middle class and saw her home value increase 3 fold?
If one looks past the self indulgent nature of the op-ed, there is a grain of a real world issue, the impact of gentrification on existing occupants whose incomes can't keep up with the value of their properties. But her words will inevitably do nothing to help anyone as she choses to focus only on the effect (just a single effect, not the many other effects) and glosses over the causes.
Quote:
The anti-gentrification strategy articulated by many of my longtime Black neighbors is this: Stay put. Don’t sell. Stand your ground. While that is possible for some of us (I won’t be selling because, really, where would I go?), it’s not for everyone, and it’s not a permanent solution.
She even shows that she intrinsically knows that the root of gentrification is not racial, it's financial and in many ways, without significant involvement by municipalities, inevitable. Rather, she thinks it's better to pen 'woe is me/us' op-ed pieces.
Status:
"I don't understand. But I don't care, so it works out."
(set 9 days ago)
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Reputation: 50665
I don't understand her premise.
She thinks her little library has caused wealthy white people to move in and displace her long time neighbors?
(I can't access the article; I've worn out my welcome to their free content).
How is that different from, if she had planted pretty roses and the white neighbors walking by stopped and smelled them?
(On the other hand, I kind of do understand the sense of "this is mine, not yours" and it would be disingenuous to say white people don't feel that same way, and don't flee when their neighborhoods become more than just a smattering of people of color).
She thinks her little library has caused wealthy white people to move in and displace her long time neighbors?
(I can't access the article; I've worn out my welcome to their free content).
How is that different from, if she had planted pretty roses and the white neighbors walking by stopped and smelled them?
(On the other hand, I kind of do understand the sense of "this is mine, not yours" and it would be disingenuous to say white people don't feel that same way, and don't flee when their neighborhoods become more than just a smattering of people of color).
You missed the point entirely. She wanted a "black space" that wouldn't be invaded by white people. And when she recognized her own racism when the couple was looking at her books, it caused a bit of dissonance because she not only perceived her own racial hypocrisy, but she felt justified in feeling that way. Bit of a double standard, don't you think?
She thinks her little library has caused wealthy white people to move in and displace her long time neighbors?
(I can't access the article; I've worn out my welcome to their free content).
How is that different from, if she had planted pretty roses and the white neighbors walking by stopped and smelled them?
(On the other hand, I kind of do understand the sense of "this is mine, not yours" and it would be disingenuous to say white people don't feel that same way, and don't flee when their neighborhoods become more than just a smattering of people of color).
Seems like she hates white people so the idea that white people would borrow from the free books bin she put in front of her house invoked that response.
It's kind of like if a white person had a restaurant and a colored came in and sat down. Being as they hated black people, their first, honest response would be that they hate coloreds and how DARE they be in my restaurant enjoying themselves. The next immediate thought, however, might be that hatred of coloreds isn't an okay thing to do anymore and, jimminey crickets, I'm a racist piece of trash. It wouldn't be any different for roses or anthing else. The idea that a white person might enjoy something she did in her self-perceived coloreds-only oasis is just not something she can accept in exactly the same way that for many white people that used to be something they could not accept coloreds enjoying.
Takes some balls to write an op-ed about it though. Particulalry when the second realiziation isn't so much jee, I'm racist as did I encourage those whites by planting free library or a pretty rose bush.
Seems like she hates white people so the idea that white people would borrow from the free books bin she put in front of her house invoked that response.
It's kind of like if a white person had a restaurant and a colored came in and sat down. Being as they hated black people, their first, honest response would be that they hate coloreds and how do they be in their restaurant. The next immediate thought, however, might be that hatred of coloreds isn't an okay thing to do anymore and, jimminey crickets, I'm a racist piece of trash. It wouldn't be any different than roses or anthing else. The idea that a white person might enjoy her self-perceived coloreds-only oasis is just not something she can accept in exactly the same way that for many white people that used to be something they could not accept coloreds enjoying.
Takes some balls to write an op-ed about it though.
great summary. hopefully clara gets it now.
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