Universally Speaking
Rahim Islam is a National Speaker and Writer, Convener of Philadelphia Community of Leaders, and President/CEO of Universal Companies, a community development and education management company headquartered in Philadelphia, PA. Follow Rahim Islam on FaceBook(Rahim Islam) & Twitter (@RahimIslamUC)
Rahim Islam
As I’ve tried to articulate in previous articles, gentrification is an economic occurrence that is really color blind.
Unfortunately, the reality is that most of the benefactors of gentrification are white and most of the victims of gentrification are Black.
The race issues have become the American secret and will never be resolved, if ever, without continuous dialogue.
This is why gentrification has become a racial issue.
If you take into account the perception and propaganda regarding Black people – nearly every institution, knowingly or unknowingly, in America promotes the inferiority of Black people (i.e. religion, language, law, education, history, etc.) and too many white and Black people have drank the Kool-Aid. The concept of urban renewal is in itself a negative because the term is primarily used to denote gentrification. I’ve never heard the term applied to either the suburbs or even to rural areas. It’s primarily used in reference to where Black people live (urban) and renewal means that now white people want to live there. The tale of two cities is just another example of the oppression that Black people have endured in America which takes many shapes and forms and gentrification is the latest.
It’s all about one’s perspective. There are many people, including public and elected leaders, are confused and perplexed about the issue of gentrification and their rationale is that investment is good and how can anyone be opposed to this.
I’ve heard some say that Black people didn’t do anything with those neighborhoods and now that we’re making investment and physical improvements what’s the fuss?
Well, there is a lot to fuss about. I don’t think Black people object to progress – but usually progress means good for white people and bad for Black people and while fact or fiction, gentrification sure looks like that.
Black people view urban renewal (progress) as primarily benefiting the White community, while the Black community is being massively displaced and forced to relocate.
No matter how you cut it, at the end of the day, for Black people, gentrification means that urban renewal is urban removal.
Gentrification is about economics.
While there is definitely a racial overtone with gentrification, it’s still is an economic issue.
Gentrification, investment, capital, wealth, appreciation, profits, and even poverty are all economic terms and when economics are discussed, we must have a healthy discussion of how both groups start.
We must view gentrification through an economic lens and not an emotional lens.
If we are to view gentrification as an economic issue, then whites must acknowledge the massive and insurmountable economic advantage that they enjoy when compared to Blacks.
Many Black people are not clear regarding the economic disparities but they see and feel the disparities on a daily basis.
Because of slavery and its legacy, Blacks are at the bottom of the economic food chain. I’m not sure how and why so many white people just don’t get it – is it severe amnesia, ignorance, or is it a pathological denial of their historical treatment of Black people which has significantly contributed to Black’s “current” economic circumstances.
If Black people were truly able to compete economically, there would be no need for urban renewal. Let me just provide you with a small reminder.
While there are no more white slave-owners and the barbaric and criminal chattel enslavement of Black people has disappeared, which lasted for more than 350 years, Black people are still suffering significantly.
The American institution of slavery represents one of the saddest commentaries on man’s inhumanity to man in history. REAL ECONOMIC AND PSYCHOLOGICAL DAMAGE WAS DONE TO BLACK PEOPLE THAT HAS YET TO BE RECONCILED.
The history of this period is so brutal and morbid that they will arouse hostilities at the thought that these things even occurred. Whites can’t stomach having a real conversation about this sad period of American history nor discuss the consequences that impact 45 million Black people today – but we must. Whites must come to understand the economic disadvantage that today’s Blacks have inherited within our capitalistic economy. How can the Black man truly compete in America’s economic race when the White competition has been given a 400 year head start in the economic race? The American institution of slavery was a crime against Black people and when you express this in economic terms, slavery was the largest and most lucrative economic windfall the world has ever witness.
Slavery was beyond profitable; its economic impact was the foundation for today’s $100+ trillion in wealth and has place America as the clear superpower and global leader today (Whites have inherited nearly 90 percent from the previous generation).
I asked you, what did Blacks inherit other than poverty.
At the end of the American institution of slavery and with nearly 100% of Blacks enslaved (1863), Blacks owned less than one half of one percent of the nation’s wealth.
Today, after nearly 150 years of “freedom” Blacks still only own less than one half of one percent of the nation’s wealth.
Why? Is the Black community just inept? Is the Black community reflective of the negative propaganda of inferiority? I say a resounding NO!
The Black community has done an incredible job given the structural disadvantages that have been placed in their way, time and time again, but the economic disparities is crippling.
Does the physical freedom of Blacks from enslavement in 1863 equate to economic freedom?
During that time, Blacks were in abject poverty, and four to five generations later Blacks haven’t been able to compete with those who inherited trillions of dollars which was achieved primarily by having free labor for more than 350 years.
Let’s put this in perspective, we’re not talking about a few years, were talking about hundreds of years.
This is why I describe the enslavement of Black people as an American institution.
Institutions are defined as “stable, valued, recurring patterns of behavior.”
As structures or mechanisms of social order, they govern the behavior of a set of individuals within a given community.
Institutions are identified with a social purpose, transcending individuals and intentions by mediating the rules that govern living behavior (Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy).
In addition, the term institution is commonly applied to customs and behavior patterns important to a society, as well as to particular formal organizations of the government and public services.
Like all other American institutions, the American institution of slavery has influenced all aspects of American life and American people and has created a permanent mindset and general believability for the acceptance of Black people to continue in an inferior economic condition (this is the only way to explain the general opinion about Black people that is held by white people).
The fact is that Black Americans entered the new millennium the same way they entered the previous four centuries – impoverished. Blacks still bear nearly 10 times their proportional share of poverty and all of its nasty derivatives like broken homes, drug abuse, incarceration, unemployment, and neighborhood blight.
The redistribution of wealth and power has never been achieved for Black people nor has any compensation been given to Blacks for nearly 350 years of free labor – what we see today in America is social integration not economic integration.
With the watering down of affirmative action and special set asides that were supposed to repair some of these injustices and attempt to level the play field for Black people, Blacks are now told to compete like all other Americans for the distribution of wealth that is LOCKED UP ALMOST PERMANENTLY.
It has been extremely difficult, if not impossible, for Black people to progress economically when the same hands that held the whip still holds all of the wealth and power.
Whites need not try to feel the pain of Blacks who have been oppressed at every step in American history, it is my hope that the true Americans will stop pretending this didn’t happen and encourage others to use their powers, positions, and influence to create and support policies that recognizes the overwhelming wrong perpetuated against Black people by white people.
I know there is some rhetoric by some very conservative whites that express a “sick” ignorance that they didn’t enslave Black people – they’re partially correct and partially incorrect.
Today’s whites inherited nearly 90 percent of America’s $110 trillion in wealth and control of every other American institution, and Blacks primarily inherited poverty to the tune of nearly two thirds of the 45 million Blacks in America live below, at, or near poverty levels. YOU DO THE MATH.
It’s time for the white community to stop denying OUR COLLECTIVE AMERICAN HISTORY and to recognize who were the oppressors and who were the oppressed.
It’s time that the white community accepts the benefit and privilege that slavery has afforded them. After countless struggles, marches, riots, demonstrations, and the passing of civil and voting rights legislation, Blacks still haven’t been able to overcome the massive wealth disparity that slavery has created.
I hope have strayed too far off the path but I must state that the “tale of two cities” is also a “the ghost of America’s past.”
Gentrification, while it’s primarily about economics, one can’t dismiss the racial overtones.
When we discussed economics, we must discuss American history because both the massive wealth and desperate poverty didn’t happen last night.
Many Black people view urban renewal as an exclusive benefit for white people and their resources at the expense of the final blow and death of historically Black communities. No matter how you cut it, at the end of the day, for Black people, gentrification means that urban renewal is urban removal.
As I’ve tried to articulate, because of the massive wealth disparity between whites and Blacks, Blacks haven’t been able to control their own destiny in a capitalistic society (having capital absolutely matters).
Because many of our urban cities are near bankruptcy and/or unable to stop the economic ice from melting and are faced with economic catch 22’s of how to increase revenues when the city has a disproportionate level of poverty and the associated ills of poverty that prevent capital investment.
These cities need high income residents and they also need the private sector to help build, redevelop, and to invest in “market” rate housing to make this happen.
You can’t blame developers (this is what they do) and you can’t blame the new residents (they are only buying what they want); however, someone in leadership must be skilled at what really is going on and if a city wants to increase high income residents with scaled market rate housing development but also avoid gentrification and the uprooting of low income Blacks, they have to adopt EQUITABLE DEVELOPMENT.
I’m writing an article now regarding the concept of “equitable.” Equitable for Black people would mean that nationally being 14% of the population then Blacks, as a whole, should reflect 14% of the negative and positive demographics versus nearly 60 plus percent of the negative demographics and nearly 0 percent of the positive demographics (this is structural deficit).
In urban cities where Blacks are the majority and we see the “tale of two cities” being fully played out, it’s clear that Blacks still have even higher negative percentages than their population, but with the high voting bloc, Blacks still have nearly 0 percent in positive demographics, especially in the area of wealth and capital.
There are several public policies that cities can adopt and implement to ensure EQUITABLE DEVELOPMENT, which include, but not limited to, the following:
• Expand Tax Incentives and Abatements – Many cities have leveraged large scale “downtown” developments by expanding the tax incentive afforded to their project to expand the benefit to include neighborhoods in need – doing this allows the cross collateralization of higher and more lucrative tax yields with lower tax yield communities
• Create Affordable Mandates with Market Rate Developers – Many cities require developers to include an art component within their development for the city contributions and tax benefits that are given.
Cities can also ensure, for a residential projects, mandate an affordable component either within the project or in a “targeted” neighborhood
• Fast Forward Long Term Development – At the rate that many cities are able to eliminate neighborhood blight and restore them with affordable housing – they will never be able to catch up.
The rapid deterioration of neighborhood housing and blight significantly outpaces the new housing production.
To respond to this phenomenon, some cities have borrowed enough capital to do what it would normally take them 10 – 15 years to do, they can now do in two to three years – this creates scale.
• Create Financial Enhancement Tools – A key factor for the lack of scaled development in traditionally low income neighborhoods has been that investment and bank underwriting criteria is usually too high to allow developers to invest at speculation – this can be significantly addressed if cities are able to leverage their spending and financial capacities to create enhancement tools which can provide additional protections to lenders and investors in these neighborhoods. This is a function of cost exceeding market values and the only way market values can increase, it will need purposeful neighborhood development.
• Development of “Workforce” Housing – Too many of the existing affordable housing programs are for low-to-very-low income individuals. While this is absolutely needed and shouldn’t be compromised, cities must also develop strategies to develop housing for those individuals who are currently income restricted for existing affordable housing developments by expanding the income eligibility to include higher income families.
• Targeted Neighborhood Development – Cities that have begun to challenge urban blight have realized that they can’t “boil” the ocean – meaning they can’t do everything everywhere (there are just not enough resources). These cities have identified what neighborhood(s) have the best chance to be developed over the next five years and have begun to amass a concentration of resources to rebuild them.
• Create a Stronger Demand- Side Strategy – Not enough focus has been placed on the buyers – especially when it all is said and done, to counter gentrification we must 1) increase the number of high income Blacks to return to these neighborhoods, and 2) secure a critical mass of low-to-moderate income buyers and/or renters to support the underwriting criteria required for development.
If cities fail to begin to address gentrification with EQUITABLE DEVELOPMENT, the tale of two cities that we now see in cities like Chicago, Philadelphia, Detroit, and Milwaukee will place our future generations at a real disadvantage because this generation failed to do the right thing TODAY – urban renewal will continue to mean the urban removal of Black people.