Gunfire on Sterling Place Near Franklin --Sterling Pl. Blues

why do people assume gentrification makes a neighborhood safer?

Subject: Re: Gunfire on Sterling Place Near Franklin

MHA wrote: What the guy meant was that before the Middle Passage, Africans were engaged in tribal warfare, and the conquering of the continent by Europeans was easily facilitated by this African on African violence; lo, I imagine he would say, with the advent of gentrification, amidsts being priced out, the violence continues. I got his point. He, me, and the third brother all shaked our heads from side to side and bid each other a good night. Bohemian dude asked me if I thought it was going to get worse. Oh yeah, I said, it's gonna get worse.

eastbloc wrote: [quote=Cool The Kid]Hey now eastbloc, I think MHA's attempts to put things in a historical context might deepen everyone's understanding of the nature of the problems in CH. I don't see what the immediate value of said understanding might have with regard to solving said problems, but I imagine there is some value as it doesn't seem anyone in power has taken that effort. I have spoken with a lot of white people removed from the perils of places like CH who continually marginalize or outright deny the influence that history has had on black Americans socioeconomic problems, which to me seems absurd and seems to run counter to what makes sense. Nobody would try to make peace in Israel without making historical considerations- I don't understand why many of the disadvantaged groups in America don't get that privilege. It creates a barrier and seems to be part of why all the efforts of many outsiders trying to help the hood fail.....

I agree that there are more pressing aspects of the problems that should be addressed first... but I think there is a lot of value in trying to understand the history of how things came to be in CH if you don't like how things are.

It actually does the opposite, I believe, by implicitly absolving any of the actors from individual responsibility. The "it's not my fault I'm an asshole, it's your great-grandfather's fault" act only goes so far, whether it's in Crown Heights or Palestine.

Clearly, there are socioeconomic issues that contribute to overall trends in terms of crime and other forms of social blight. But human relations thankfully don't neatly reduce to that. And it makes for very boring conversation, unless you belong to that small group of people who sadly can't think about anything else.

I'm not saying to analyze stuff as far back as the middle passage... but I think a lot of people (including myself) are throwing out solutions without having a full understanding of the problem, and the history of the neighborhood plays a major part in that

MHA wrote: Mantic,
I wrote what I wrote because that is what the guy said. He referred to the inter- ethnic conflicts that were ongoing before and during European involvement on The Continent. I agreed with the analogy because the result is the same. While 'the others' are coming in and supplanting those who have lived here, the Black folks who have lived here are busily killing each other and engaging in conflict that ends up with no constructive resolution. Just like then.

Case in point: Think of the gang conflicts that are loudly spoken of and acted upon in this neighborhood. Contrast that with the more affluent who sit in the neighborhood coffee shops and talk about real estate transactions involving great amounts of capital, and land. There is a huge difference. I am not a proponent for gangs, but to be pragmatic, illegal activity is going to occur. I understand why it occurs. What I don't understand is why Black men have no qualms about killing other Black men. I have the misfortune of living rather closely to a great deal of it, and take my word, the way conflicts are handled will run shivers (not the good kind) up and down your spine. I see a connection between conflicts Africans had prior to the Middle Passage and the conflicts the descendents of those Africans have today. You may think its reaching to go that far back, but it happened then, and its happening now. You may think -- as many would like to construe -- that this has nothing to do with race. To the extent that the violence is occuring amongst primarily Black and Latino men, then it has everything to do with race. There are no white bogeymen encouraging Black and brown people to kill each other. We are doing it to ourselves. There is cultural devolving occurring that has led to widespread violence as a means of dealing with conflict.

I don't agree with you regarding the implicit powerlessness Black people have in your scenario. We are shooting ourselves in the foot, continually(and literally). We don't support Black businesses that will employ Black people; we don't trust each other enough to get together communally and buy property when we cannot afford to do so by ourselves; we have no respect for each other as a people. Our conflict resolution skills are wholly deficient; we call ourselves niggers, and 'dawgs' as if that's a good thing -- it's not. I'm telling it like it is... So to point a finger at 'them' and say what 'they' are doing to 'us' is wrong. It's what WE are doing to ourselves.

I have no way of knowing this, but I will bet you any amount of money you care to wager -- whether you have it or not -- that the hand that held the gun that went off on Sterling Place was either Black -- or brown -- and the person at whom HE was shooting was the same. Why is that? What could possibly be SO important that would warrant killing another person for? The white man has absolutely nothing to do with that. That's self-hatred and self-contempt talking. And implicit in the act is this: The belief that there is LITTLE consequence - social, emotional,or spiritual, to killing another Black person. We believe that. About ourselves. I wish I could blame someone for that, but I can't. I can draw a connection from the past to this moment in time, but the act happens in the now, and the person who chooses to kill his brother is likely another Black man. Just like then.