"indigenous" person objects to attitude of white newcomers

As posted earlier, I agree with @mcpoet.

But that doesn't stop the threats to my life, and that of my family, as I go through the world as a black man.

When I come out of my house and walk to my car, a house I have lived in for almost four decades, and see a woman (not of color) act as if my presence is threatening, then I wonder why the heck you even moved here.

Because your fear, makes me fearful and angry.

If you don't understand that emotion coming from me as a black man, just remember that one of my earliest experiences with race in the USA (for a person my age), and the results it can have for black men, was seeing Emmett Till, in his casket, on the cover of Jet magazine.

Many years later, when I met Mrs. Till (shortly before her death) at the release of the book detailing the lynching of her son, it was clear to me that the issue of racism (institutional and otherwise) could never begin to be reconciled until there was a national "truth and reconciliation court" similar to South Africa's.

The contemporary expression of that is "Black Lives Matter".
When black and brown, and red, and yellow people get the same level of discretion in being scrutinized, sanctioned and jailed, as well the benefits of good educationed and housing as their white counterparts, then we can truly say
"ALL LIVES MATTER".

Three of four years ago, there was a movie that was made about gentrication in Crown Heights. It was screened on St. Johns between Franklin and Classon Avenues.
When the presenters opened the screening for audience comments and questions, I shared something that I had learned in the late 60s: that Downtown Brooklyn was always slated to be the processing center for the large banks. Also, after the lack of investment in Central Brooklyn brought down the value of housing stock, there would be a massive re-investment in the community. Who knew that there would also be a massive financial crash, making loan money almost free for "the Masters of the Universe" to come and invest in the previously ravaged sections of the city, where the poor and disadvantaged had been forced to live. Persons who were ravaged by the epidemic of heroin and crack, after surviving that onslaught, without adequate means to heal their population. Those persons and their families were subjected to mass incarceration. The person who forecast the reallocation of resources in Brooklyn was a manager of an "Urban Renewal" site; Fulton Park, to be exact. He said that he learned this lesson in the 50s. The catch phrase he used as a mnemonic was that "Urban Renewal is just another name for Negro Removal". A white housing expert I met years later echoed this catch phrase, acknowledging it as a shameful but institutional policy.

So @mcpoet is correct as he cites the "system" (i.e. management companies and real estate barons) the fault may lie in the choices made as to who shapes NYC. The sliming of Mayor Dinkins, followed up by the election of a Trump-like Guiliani, who in turned was followed by billionaire Mayor Bloomberg is surely a disaster for people in a lower socio-economic bracket. It has, and continues to be, wildly profitable for "the system"

History has taught me with countless examples, (see Robber Barons, oil industry, assassination of Thabo Mbeki in South Africa) that the monied interests are always manipulating a core part of the people,in such a way as to create the enmity which @mcpoet excellently describes.

But it is not displacement or transference when a person RECOGNIZES that they are being acted upon (through no active or passive measures on that persons part) by forces who are depriving them of their attempts to improve their humanity. The immediate history of the past three decades in NYC point to the phenomenon we are talking about here are also occurring in Bushwick, Brownsville, East New York, Harlem, the South Bronx.

While these cash/land grabs are accompanied by groups of people are manipulated into fear, there is never a real examination of exactly how things got to be so bad, and why, inspite of some attempts, they never really get fixed.

p.s. Just for contemporary context, examine how the onslaught of heroin, oxycontin and other drugs, and the crime that they bring, is being handled in New England, a region that is almost 100% white

@bklyn50

We may want to discuss that the phenomena of gentrification is not merely affecting NYC. It seems to be happening in many cities throughout the country.

[I'll leave discussions of how it is shaping up throughout the world for another day].

Much of Washington DC, parts of Philadelphia, and most of Boston come readily to mind as "benefitting" from the changes, whereas cities like Detroit MI, Reading PA and Akron OH suffer.

In each situation, the "benefitting phenomena" is pretty similar: Young, fortunate, often light skinned people move to a neighborhood that is presently older, less fortunate and often darker skinned.

In the cities that are suffering, the opposite happens: The young, fortunate, often like skinned, flee the neighborhood/city.

As a result, the demographics (and all of the things that are closely to tied to demographics) of the localities change.

I can't see the phenomena changing until:
All areas of the country are equally attractive in terms of employment and social opportunities,
AND
All people within the country have same opportunities, level of achievement and wealth.

I see neither occurring.

I also don't see the de-industrialization of America stopping anytime soon.

I also don't see many of political leaders of US cities taking actions that preserve their present racial and income demgraphics when offerred the opportunities for greater tax revenue and fewer expenses.

All of which is to say, I foresee the present trends of selective urbanization/gentrification continuing and accelerating during my lifetime.

@whynot_31

The process of gentrification is getting an excellent review right now on the 10 year anniversary of Hurricane Katrina and the subsequent failing of the levees.