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    The Black Community Is Gradually Being Erased, And Black People Are Being Turned Into Nomads And Cultural Refugees

    Beneath the Spin * Eric L. Wattree

    The Black Community Is Gradually Being Erased, And Black People Are Being Turned Into Nomads And Cultural Refugees
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    National Action Network's Los Angeles 
    Representative, Najee Ali, In The Trenches
     

    I've gotten relatively few responses on the piece linked below.  I would have thought people would have been falling all over one another to defend our cultural heritage, but I guess many Black people are not up to fighting for their culture. We only tend to REACT when something goes desperately wrong, instead of being PROACTIVE in an attempt to ensure that life and justice works in our favor. That explains a lot about our position in society, and why our children have to go to Google (if they have access to a computer) or the public library to DIG for self-esteem. We've got to do better than this. If we don't, within a few years Black people will only be a memory in Leimert Park and many other Black communities across this nation. We'll be dispersed, filtered into, and hopefully tolerated, within the communities of others, and without one scintilla of political clout.

    That's why Los Angeles' Leimert Park and it's environs is much more than just a neighborhood; it's also a cultural and political stronghold that's worth fighting for. Without it, the Black culture and our political clout will be effectively erased in the city of Los Angeles - and that's exactly what many forward-thinking social manipulators have in mind. You see, the demographics are changing, so the powers that be are out to dilute the impact of as many minority voters as possible. So this issue is much more important than sharing recipes online, folks. This is probably the most important issue that the Black community has ever faced in this city.
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    Many of the problems that the Black community is facing across this country is a direct result of our tendency to be reactive rather than proactive.  Take Ferguson, Mo, for example.  The Black community could have avoided the problems they had in that city by simply voting.  The Black population in Ferguson is 67%, yet only 7% turned out to vote.  As a result, the police department is 94% White. In the last election they corrected that problem with record Black voter turnout, but it was a little too late for Michael Brown. So let us learn from the Ferguson experience and be PROACTIVE in our response to what's taking place in Leimert Park, because much like in the case of Michael Brown, it's going to be much too late to try to demonstrate AFTER the fact. So NOW is the time to get up-in-arms. 
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    If we fail to address this issue, Black people are going to be run out of the area, the park itself is going to be bulldozed, and our young people are going to be subjected to being stopped-and-frisked for just coming into the area. The social manipulators will have to take those steps just to make rich White folks feel safe enough to visit their new up-scale art galleries.
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    Tatia Dokes of Denver said:
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    "We are facing this same issue in my neighborhood. The last historically black neighborhoods in Denver. We have gentrification meetings and how to combat it every month with less than 5 black folks there and the rest are white folks wanting to "understand." Then when I'm walking my dog all I hear is the few black folks left complaining about the skyrocketing rent, none of their friends live in the neighborhood anymore and all the white folks. I just want to SCREAM! BUT YOU DON'T DO ANYTHING ABOUT IT! I go to these meetings...voice my opinions...looked at like I'm militant and aggressive but I don't care...I will not be driven out without a fight! We just had an election for city counsel members. 20,000 ballots for our district were sent out and only 5000 voted and I bet it was mostly white folks! I'm so tired...so so tired!"
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    Bonnie Flournoy in Chicago said:
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    "Same thing in Chicagoland . . . and thanks, Eric, et al. for the reminder. . . I don't know how I overlooked it, cuz as I witness it going down in Chicago, I mainly focused on the financial aspect . . . like all affordable housing GONE . . . Houses with big red 'X's on them meaning they are slated for demolition . . . closed schools, etc.  But you're absolutely correct . . . these neighborhood-destroying tactics also destroyed the voting block . . . the wrong people are winning elections, not because folx are voting for them . . . they won because there's nobody left . . . many have moved away, or foreclosed upon, etc. We bettah wake up!"
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    Michelle Gordon-McFalls, Denver:
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    "Same happens in schools that are being closed in black neighborhoods, properties bought up by others, businesses begun in black neighborhoods because rent is cheap. None of the black parents were ever seen at any PTA meetings, council meetings to save the neighborhoods or lines at the banks/loan companies to begin their business. Now there may be legitimate reasons for no shows, but it's a catch 22. Unless we are present and voicing our opinions, negative change will happen. Until we begin showing up at every PTA, PTCO, mtg., our schools will continue to close and our children continue failing. I understand that many cannot attend because they are working and if they leave to attend they will lose their jobs. However, many are home watching TV w/o a concern. I've sat by and watched Five Points, once a beautiful and thriving historical black area in Denver, (where I used to live), decay, turn hood and now more white's live there than blacks and the housing market has skyrocketed. Denver is one of the most expensive cities to live, in the USA."
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    So brothers and sisters, if we don't organize and get the attention of the politicians (who were elected to protect OUR interest, not feather their own nests) we're going be erased - no history, no community to call our own, and no political clout. Actually, our politicians themselves are being shortsighted, because once the area is gentrified they're going to be voted out of office as well. So again, if we don't act NOW, they're going to turn us into a "community" of nomads and cultural refugees. Remember where you heard it first.
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    Please view the link below for a suggested plan of action.
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    Help Save Leimert Park Village As A Black Cultural Arts Center
    http://wattree.blogspot.com/2015/05/the-thrill-is-gone-but-i-have-dream....

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    Eric L. Wattree 
    http://wattree.blogspot.com/
    [email protected] 
    Citizens Against Reckless Middle-Class Abuse (CARMA) 
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    Religious bigotry: It's not that I hate everyone who doesn't look, think, and act like me - it's just that God does.

    Comments

     I would have thought people would have been falling all over one another to defend our cultural heritage, but I guess many Black people are not up to fighting for their culture. We only tend to REACT when something goes desperately wrong, instead of being PROACTIVE in an attempt to ensure that life and justice works in our favor. 

    It's my observation that this apathy isn't racial -- it's American.  The one percent call the shots and the vast majority of the 99 percent follow.  Very few of us have any interest in governing ourselves, preserving our culture and heritage, or even defending their liberties.  We're too busy laying blame on "them" and watching reality TV to contemplate actual citizenship. We've been sold on individual impotence and scared of organizing.  Organizations that have given citizens strength in the past have been broken or distracted. We have transformed ourselves from citizens to subjects; our unwitting motto has become "it's not whether you win or lose, it's how you lay the blame".

    If we want to change this, the first step is to take a long, hard look in the mirror.

     


    "it's not whether you win or lose, it's how you lay the blame".

    Great line!


    VincenzOH,

    Perfectly stated - and I also love the line, "it's not whether you win or lose, it's how you lay the blame." It's so right on the money.  
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    What people fail to understand is, race was the last war. We are currently knee-deep in a class war, and race is simply a weapon being used by the enemy.


    Thought-provoking post. Blacks get chased out of every community that is thought to have value. This has happened since the founding of the country. Travel to the area near Wall Street and you will find a museum that documents the African Burial Ground of NYC. The area around the museum served as the 6.6 acre burial ground for slaves for a century ( from 1690s to 1794). When the powers that be decided that lower Manhattan was valuable the black community was up rooted and the burial ground covered over by buildings. The cemetery was rediscovered in 1991 when the foundation for a federal office building ran smack into the bodies. The museum was created as a compromise. About 140 bodies were buried at the site. More slave bodies are under buildings in lower Manhattan. The museum exists because of community protest.

    Gentrification is happening in Harlem. Iconic stores like the Hu-Man bookstore have closed, but the Schomburg remains in Harlem and receives honors. The entire country has access to library activities via the Internet. Renowned chef Marcus Samuelsson has restaurants Red Rooster and Streetbird. Sylvia's remains an institution. The Dance Theater of Harlem remains. The change is that the blacks who can stay in the major areas in Harlem have more wealth. Harlem still has the Harlem feel.

    Travel to downtown Charleston, SC and you will actually see a church parking lot that has markers for graves of slaves. Travel further and you get to the area near the University of Charleston. You see housing for mostly white students and professors in formerly black neighborhoods. You hear of the university wanting to expand at the expense of the black community. The land grab battle has been engaged by the locals. The former home of Charleston's foremost ironworker noted for ornate gates, Phillip Simmons, has been converted to a museum and serves as a link to history. The community battles back against the assault.

    The removal of minorities from valuable land is nothing new, ask the Native Americans. I applaud your efforts. We have never been wanted.


    Even now, Conservatives are arguing to abolish disparate impact rules from housing discrimination cases. If housing practices have the effect of creating disparities, that would no longer be illegal if Conservatives in Texas win their case before the Supreme Court.

    http://www.cnn.com/2015/05/21/us/texas-biker-shooting/


    Wattree, here is a story about rebuilding in Watts 50 years later. What is your take on the story?

    http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2015/05/22/transforming-vacant-lots-_n_731...


    Thanks Wattree - American blacks suffer terribly from impoverishment - the direct outcome of racism and greed.  My belief is that the only way we can reverse this is for poor, struggling, working-class, and the few remaining middle-class Americans of all races to unite against the forces of economic injustice and wealth privilege.  You recommend that activists focus locally on issues like gentrification.  While some see this as largely as poor black/affluent white issue, it really is more than that.  Working-class whites are also largely being priced out of cities and inner suburbs as well.  They too are being marginalized.  We have to figure out how we can work together.  I wish I had the answer.


    Here's an article about gentrification in San Francisco's Mission District and how it is pushing Latinos out.  http://www.nytimes.com/2015/05/23/us/high-rents-elbow-latinos-from-san-f...


    I couldn't agree with you more. The mass exodus of my generation has created a vacuum in my small neck of the woods. A lack of economic opportunity coupled with gentrification projects have turned some of the most historic black churches in our community into abandoned buildings in disrepair. There's no outrage because too many people need the suddenness of an atrocity to be snapped back to consciousness.


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