I understood what gentrification was long before I learned the definition in college. It didn’t take a loan from Sallie Mae for me to notice the deterioration of my neighborhood to the point of it resembling a third world country.
As the environment deteriorates the local papers report of Federal funding and the plans to disperse said funds to the community.
If you didn’t know any better you’d think the people destroy their own environment. But how can the citizens of urban towns be held responsible for buildings, streets, and schools that decay due to age and neglect? Since when did citizens control public works projects…?
Can low class Blacks really be in charge of those who lack ethics and any semblance of public service?
Can low class blacks get recognition when they must seek it from a group of people who benefit from the unwritten beneficial rules of the haves?
The ignorance is deep rooted, generational and decisive. There is a system in place that allows the exploitation of urban Blacks and Latinos (and other poor) that benefits everyone on the hierarchy of importance with the people of color being the lowest on the totem pole of needs.
Nepotism is a favorite pastime among the ownership class.
Having the right connections, or resources, like white skin and a penis, can easily gain one a position of authority over other groups. Nepotism is a disease (or benefit of being the ‘in power’ group-depending on how you look at it) that makes every other level of society ill.
And this is why some Blacks from certain towns just don’t bother to play the game.
There is an invisible wall of exclusion that exists between potential, aspiration and impossibility.
Ethnocentrism is the belief that one holds in which the person (unlike the subject) projects their own experiences and expectations onto people (the subject) who is essentially unlike them. There is a different sets of circumstances and resources, yet those who view the world through an ethnocentric lens expect similar outcome from diverse starting points.
It’s one of my favorite social science terms, because I was aware of it before I knew these things had their own specific word.
There is no one to complain to when the culprit of whatever abuse suffered is by the hands of someone attached to someone way more important than you could ever hope to be.
And even better than that, an attempt at finding ‘justice’ for yourself through the normal channels may very well leave you targeted, in jail, or dead. Any attorney will tell you, a matter of justice and guilt versus innocence is all a matter of financial resources and perception.
It all depends on who you piss off, of course.
Of course, you can apply for certain jobs, you can attempt to purchase certain property and you can hope to achieve a high enough stature where the hope to escape from poverty and violence is within your reach, but sometimes it’s not. And sometimes you can’t, because you aren’t allowed to move up, or out, so instead you just stay put and hope for the best.
You get used to being in an environment surrounded by only one type of race. A slow paced one.
And you don’t really notice the Asian person, the Latino person, or the random illusive race tanned person when they first begin to frequent your hood.
But you dam sure notice the White folks, and everybody here knows… White men bring problems to Black people. No race likes to see White men frequenting homogenous non-White areas. We just don’t say it because then White folks get mad and you know how that goes.
Since when, I ask you, have Black people ever looked on with a smile on their face when they see White men suddenly interested in the lives of Blacks in general……..?
Plantation overseer, segregation authoritative figures……….same shit to poor modern Black folks.
Sorry to bust your bubble and make you feel like an outsider, but yeah, you are and no one asked you to come here.
Before you make a weak attempt at a joke, let me be clear, the presence of white people isn’t a magical cleansing of all things bad.
The presence of White people is usually a cause for alarm actually.
If White people are coming by and running through your neighborhood you can rest assured, its for no good.
Some folks here are under the impression that White men (in general) bring with them some magical form of protection and peace.
You can’t find a White man in a Black concentrated area when you need um, and you never could.
From slavery up until now, low class Blacks and the general White population have been segregated but for interactions with Whites playing the part of police, authorities, doctors, census takers, political representatives, or pastors that won’t do shit for us or our business owners other than figure out how to exploit us.
Being forced to shake hands with the devil is not conducive to human interaction among equals.
And I’m so sure that some white folks do mean no harm. They want to live and mind their business like anybody else, but the kind of White men that frequent Blackistan in the darkest hour are just as much predators as any Black man on the corner is presumed to be, if not more so.
Shit, when I see a White man approaching me, or wandering around the neighborhood, I look around for the presence of Black men. Those men would be my protection, because Black men, for whatever reason, will chase white men away in times like these.
Think I’m exaggerating? Maybe they’re protecting me so that they can abuse me instead? It’s hard to tell when you are a female.
I was recently accosted by a White man in a BMW as he slowly cruised down my block. He pulled ahead of me, and then stopped to look out the window of his car. I presumed he was looking for an address, until he asked if ‘he could drop me off somewhere’ and before I could answer, since I was in shock, he added insult to injury by finishing with ‘Are you hungry? I”ll take you somewhere and feed you and we can hang out?’
Had this been another time, and another place (same Tracy) I would have screamed like a banshee and hurled the nearest heavy object at his head. And I have very good aim.
I wear dresses down to my ankles, I am much slimmer than I am thick, I am walking down a tree lined, a day light bright, quiet residential street, one black away from the brand spanking new police station, but I am not safe from the White man from town.
He’s no different than the negroes that bother me every morning as I go for my sunrise walk. I wish they would all fall silent, and blind so that women can have some agency and peace while making our way in the world.
Since White men are allowed to come and go at will with the presumption of everlasting innocence by those people whom you call ‘authorities’, it’s easy for them to drop into the inner city hood to do their dirt.
What dirt is that, you ask?
White men from town come looking for certain things….
Low cost and easily accessible sex.
Abundant, affordable, and open market drug acquisition.
They come to take the things they want, like real estate, resources, or other valuable things that are ‘there for the taking’………
Ask the Native Americans, the Africans, the dam near anybody else, who comes to take from poor people of color?
White men from town……..
White men from town come looking for pussy.
Delectable, young, cheap and readily available for those with the time, money and desire to have their pick.
Dating isn’t about getting to know someone in the inner city.
Dating is about getting your immediate needs met.
Be it sex or food. ‘
Money or resources.
It’s no coincidence that traditional dates often revolve around food. And you may not see the connection here but read really slow so you can understand.
A male courts a woman by offering resources, one of which is the ability to feed her, and support her lifestyle, in exchange for her time, her body and her consideration.
Strangely enough, there seems to a consistent supply of ‘needers’ and those who have enough to spare.
White men cruise the streets of Blackistan looking for young girls (or boys which is becoming much more popular) desperate enough to be willing to trade their bodies for a meal. There’s no implied interest in anything besides using her for cheap and easy sex. When you come across Black women who are scared and suspicious of White men in general, remember my words.
White men in authority take advantage of their power and the perception of their complexion. Teachers, the police, coaches, religious figures, counselors, bosses, and a host of other people offer resources to ‘the needy’ through the barter of flesh.
When a White man wants something from a low class Black woman, it’s not often her hand in marriage, or her phone number for a date.
Black women are becoming passe in the White man’s pursuits.
“Car dating” is the white man’s new obsession, strangely enough the palate of these predatory White men is no longer satisfied by poor brown women, and now his interest, I see, has turned to Black males who are willing to be used so that they can eat for another day or two.
White men from town come looking for drugs.
Every one in my childhood home of Jersey City knew that the town was segregated.
You knew, because your family and friends discussed it openly, that Black people aren’t safe when they cross Kennedy Blvd towards West Side Avenue. Crossing into the ‘wrong side’ of the street may find you being pursued by an angry mob for sport, beaten and occasionally left for dead behind a shopping mall.
White kids knew not to cross Kennedy Blvd toward Bergen Avenue unless they didn’t value their lives. They would find themselves robbed of whatever valuables they had, and occasionally chased away but never killed, by the Black residents who kept the Whites from intruding.
Black people know not to kill White people.
The cops don’t come for us when we call them to save our lives but everybody knows that if there is a White person in distress the entire Black section would be on military lock down.
Calling 911 is a joke…..that wasn’t a song. Its a social reality when you are poor and black.
White men from town aren’t wanted in low class Black areas. We got enough problems already, and when do Black people benefit from White people coming to their aid? They bring diseases, lies, corruption, exploitation, death, and every White man has the power to take your life and go Scott free.
We know this.
We see enough of you when we go to court to stand for charges that may or may not even be real, given to us by White men from towns that are far from here, yet these White men travel to our towns to police as modern day cowboys. They drive around in the sweltering heat with windows rolled up, cool and carefree in air condition paid for by tax money, their dark shades on, and wry smiles on their faces as they make sure you see them seeing you. Because Niggas are always in need of being watched or else they misbehave!
They slow down when they approach, you hear them over your shoulder, they are the overseers, the modern day ‘law’ in old Western cowboy movies.
They are here but they don’t come when you call them.
Why are they here?
White men from town aren’t wanted in low class Black areas because with your face comes the reminder that you are here to pick among humans for your entertainment and consumption.
White men from town aren’t welcomed here because with you comes death, and destruction and no justification or redemption.
Everybody knows about you, White man from town, the only person not in on the joke is you.
White men from town may want to earnestly help, but just like the imaginary Good Black men go silent during discussions of Black male exploitation, there will need to be some White men who challenge those White men that are comfortable with keeping the needy needy so that they can enjoy the never ending fire sale of vices and the spoils that come along with the privilege of being preferred.
