In general, white people love situations where they can’t lose. While this does account for the majority of their situations, perhaps the safest bet a white person can make is to buy a house in an up-and-coming neighborhood.
White people like to live in these neighborhoods because they get credibility and respect from other white people for living in a more “authentic” neighborhood where they are exposed to “true culture” every day. So whenever their friends mention their home in the suburbs or richer urban area, these people can say “oh, it’s so boring out there, so fake. In our neighborhood, things are just more real.” This superiority is important as white people jockey for position in their circle of friends.
They are like a modern day Lewis and Clark, except instead of searching for the ocean, they are searching for old properties to renovate.
In a few years, if more white people start moving in, these initial trailblazers will sell their property for triple what they paid and move into an ultramodern home.
Credibility or money, they can’t lose!
When one of these white people tell you where they live, you should say “whoa, it’s pretty rough down there. I don’t think I could live there.” This will make them feel even better about their credibility and status as neighborhood pioneers.
Lol true.
White peoples neighborhoods are always better ๐ฆ
Spot On Examples:
Williamsburg, Brooklyn, NY
Echo Park, Los Angeles, CA
Mission District, San Francisco, CA
very true- in my neighborhood at least
Haha – I moved to an up and coming neighborhood not too long ago, and I do tell all my friends the stories about the break-ins and other crime waves that occur in my area. Too funny!
The gentrification of Williamsburg is over. It’s been over for about 5 years. It’s like SoHo now.
The most important part – complaining about how hip neighbourhoods they once aspired to live in have got gentrified and unaffordable, while refusing to acknowledge they have themselves raised rents in the neighbourhoods in which they are “pioneers.”
Note to white people:
This strategy (gentrification) only works if you don’t get murdered.
But, it’s important to get as close to actually getting murdered as possible.
I know. I nearly got murdered. In Ft. Green Park in Brooklyn. Back in the day before every other white person wanted to live there.
I feel quite strongly that the next item should be, “This Blog”. White people love this blog. It gives them a chance to be all reflexive, but also laugh at other white people. White people, after all, like being unlike other white people.
I LOVE THIS BLOG . . . truly . . . it makes my heart bubble over with joy to see that someone thinks the same things I do. Not in a mean way, but in a truthful way. And I get that you’re not talking about ALL white people (that’s simply common sense) – I understand because I have come across MANY white people who do carry on the way you describe in your entries and, yes, it does turn my stomach.
Kudos!
oh my god! yeah talk about the adventrous white people moving into the inner city of Balitmore, Portland, Oregon, Downtown Los Angeles and Oakland, California. Though, it won’t be totally populated by whites, but it shows who really owns the real estate market!
down in soho.
the men have pierced nipples.
the women don’t shave their backs.
Getting goativated here.
Just moved into this great place in Puducherry (formerly Pondicherry for those wishing to study abroad).
Well, it’s a bit of a picker-upper, but I feel it’s on the up and up. If me and the the ol’ nannie (that’s a female goat, mind you) can survive the slaughterhouse, we’re gonna make it.
~The Goat…
before cranky pants post, here it is Oh Noes!!!! Anonymous hasnโt posted yet, so here it is!
stuffblackpeoplelike – eating watermelon! hahaha!!!
stuffarabpeoplelike – pumping oil! hahaha!!!
stuffblackpeoplelike – gang warfare! hahaha!!!
stuffmexicanpeoplelike – eating beans! hahaha!!!
stuffchinesepeoplelike – shooting heroin! hahaha!!!
stuffblackpeoplelike – welfare! hahaha!!!
stuffjewishpeoplelike – keeping money! hahaha!!!
stuffmexicanpeoplelike – wearing sombreros! hahaha!!!
stuffchinesepeoplelike – eating rice! hahaha!!!
stuffarabpeoplelike – kissing goats! hahaha!!!
stuffmexicanpeoplelike – wearing sombreros! hahaha!!!
stuffblackpeoplelike – sniffing glue! hahaha!!!
arenโt i funny and clever!!!
donโt you dare call me a racist!!!
We are all racist!
Ah hah hah I’m in your stuffs ruining your posts!
They are authentic until the neighborhood is swarming with white people and all the rental rates go through the roof. The one sign you can count on is a Starbucks on every other corner. And later, wi-fi cafes.
@ No. 14 Ponzi: Black people aren’t known for sniffing glue. We’ll leave that up to the suburban white kids who don’t get out much and are alienated by their parents.
Most whitepeople will pack up the Prius, crank up MosDef, and head for the suburbs when the kids are born. Triple extra bonus points if you stay in the less than fully gentrified hood and afford your children a childhood of hip, authentic ass whippings.
Urban thought, I’m just reposting some crap that someone else took the time to post in every single comment section for this blog. I’m making fun of their inability to take a joke, I mean hell I’m white and this stuff makes me think and makes me laugh but it’s not really offensive to me. I figured by post that first then it would ruin their fun. These are just really poor generalizations
@trp:
See also
The Shaw, Washington DC
To speak seriously, there are obvious economic pluses to gentrification like increased property values, lower crime rates and less segregation. Unfortunately this is like a runaway train. You never see a truly diverse area. Just going from one end of the spectrum to the other.
My favorite thing is how this blog has bell peppers as clip art at the header. I am so very tired of red bell peppers. It is very hard for me to find an expensive sandwich or breakfast that does not feauture roasted red bell peppers. It sticks in my craw.
This is soooo true. I live in Austin, and the people that are down south are so snooty about their housing. They whine about the gentrification of east Austin, even though they already did it to south Austin!
I do love this site. Where are the writers based? That pic on this article looks like a building in Chicago. Am I right?
As someone said below, that looks like a south Chicago neighborhood…just south of McCormick Place, perhaps??
I also just moved into this great place in Puducherry. I ate a goat there. I was delicious. I hope that property values go up now.
So funny and so true.
I live in one of these neighborhoods with my sweet pitbull.. it’s all so ironic.
infallible,
I live in Austin as well, and yeah, south Austin is so snooty. I live in east Austin, and feel appropriately guilty about it, even though my house is old and falling down around my head and I’m not raising anyone’s property values. ha ha
my name’s dmc with the mic in my hand and i’m chillin and coolin just like a snowman.
You didn’t mention that the white peoples are Hyper-aware that they are displacing the natives and feel rilly-rilly bad about that but must press on through their newly acquired quantities of guilt for the sake of preserving the decaying remnants of an urban neighborhood or some Golden Age of architecture yadda yadda…
Yeah, but us white people have to live somewhere. And if we hate the suburbs and can’t afford a richer urban area, up and coming neighborhood it is.
hahahah
wow, I feel like you’re talking about me in most of the posts. pouahaha. Japan, breakfast places, studying abroad…
Yeah man.
Give the land back to the Native Americans. Worst case of gentrification I never did see.
I LOVE THIS BLOG . . . truly . . . it makes my heart bubble over with joy to see that someone thinks the same things I do. Not in a mean way, but in a truthful way.
Yeah, and actually all this info would have been really helpful when I started university.
Hah, I used to work in that neighborhood and that newer building is actually going to be a government building. Mayor Newsom is keeping it REAL!
this is funny. check out richard lloyd’s book “neo-bohemia”.
Well its true. White people that live in up and coming areas are envied by their suyburban dwelling peers. Chic hip home, no yard, ultra modern, black neighbors these up and coming “closer to inner city” people get to even 1 UP the Prius drivers…they take the train or lightrails to work. How is that for saving the environment!
http://www.platenuts.com
They’ve ruined the gay village, and one day, Kensington shall go too.
It’s funny ’cause it’s true.
Have you noticed that developers have jumped the hipster stage of gentrification and started building condo-lofts in sketchy neighborhoods before artistes and punkers get a chance to disfrutalo? They even add the book store and coffee shop. West Oakland, Downtown Memphis? Being a white pioneer is so hard; our methods have been co-opted by our wealthy money havin’ cousins.
BooHoo.
You know, I just realized that the only white people at work who brag about where they live are the ones who live in predominantly black neighborhoods. And it’s the blustery kind of “I live a more hardcore lifestyle than you” kind of proud. Man, this may be the most spot on post ever on this site.
@ Ponzi: No worries. I don’t take this site seriously. Just jokes.
This site truly is just about stuff yuppies like. All of the stuff that white people like, the most overwhelmingly white aspects of our society are not included – the Republican party, SUVs, NASCAR, ice hockey, professional wrestling, religious fundamentalism, suburbia, etc.
Do white people love Tom Waits?
We love these new neighborhoods until we realize that there are no supermarkets close by (after all, who could actually buy something at a place called Carniceria la Tapatia?). Magically, within a few years, a Whole Foods or Central Market opens up where the nightclub that is always crowded weekdays used to be. By that time, the trendsetters have moved into the next black or Mexican neighborhood and the cycle continues.
I live in a sketchy neighborhood because its what i can afford. Uh, getting mugged is not considered cool in my circle of friends. They don’t even want to come to my place. Oh ya, its real fun getting held up every other week just because I’m the white guy. Not all white people are rich. Not all of them live in the hood for the bragging rights.
The black neighborhood I live in is pretty upscale. And its not because of the white people. Its too bad that the author of this post associates non-white with ghetto. It’s always true.
You are cracking my sh1t up.
sorry – *NOT* always true…
exactly.
white people don’t just like gentrification, they make it, they organize it, and they say that their neighbors should thank them for it.
while their neighbors get pushed farther and farther from their family homes and drown in the failing housing market, reinforced by gentrification.
but that’s not really funny.
and the gentrifier is named the gentrifier, so he/she/it obviously doesn’t have an unbiased perspective.
dude, go gentrify yourself.
*snerk* @ 3 and 19
This one reminds me of the woman who moved into a gentrifying neighborhood, thinking herself a Great White Lady when she did so, and then she talked about her new and burgeoning racist feelings when a black kid in the neighborhood stole her bicycle.
This site makes me cry in good and bad ways.
49 Justus,
My name is a joke. Get it? Lighten up man.
i just discovered this blog, and i absolutely love it! so very, very true in my life here in SoCal.
i grew up in an area of Long Beach that had very few white people. kinda tuff, with the normal activities……..muggings, drugs, drive bys, etc. now this area is occupied by Yups from Orange County looking to live a more “urban” lifestyle. the true locals in this area have learned to accept(and laugh) at these “street cred wannabees”. the Yups are also opening businesses around the area as well. the businesses tend to cater to the other Yups that have moved in the area. i went to the grand opening of one of these businesses, and i never got out of my car. all i saw was throngs of white people in the parking lot, hanging out in really hipster fashion, posing out.
whatever. i actually feel sympathy for the Wannabees, as i imagine their life growing up to be painfully normal. why else would they want to move into our area? for those of us who were born in these areas, we spent our lives attempting to get an education, a good careers, etc……so that we could move out of this area. some of us stayed, but many left and never looked back. i guess this is part of the gentrification process as well.
if youre from OC, and you move into this area, you are not “down” with us. its more like ants at a picnic. i deal with it…
Once again, I find myself hilariously cataloged. Two and a half years on 127th and Malcolm X Boulevard, baby. Then the Starbucks opened.
Yes, white people like Tom Waits.
Yep, I live in Little Puerto Rico in Brooklyn in a building full of hipsters and I can totally account for this post.
Wow, I read several contradictions in the article. Let me start by saying I’m a white guy who lives in a down town (not a good downtown) neighborhood. So white people like the no lose situation.. True. I should hope everyone likes these situations, as a white guy I can’t speak to the self hatred some one must have to not want to do something unless they had a chance to lose. I look at risks and determine for myself where the silver lining is if everything doesn’t come out the way I plan. As for up and coming neighborhoods these are new neighborhoods I think you meant to say revitalized neighborhoods in the context of your article. Up and coming neighborhoods are the most risky place to buy a home because you don’t know if some rich white guy isn’t going to buy a bunch of houses and rent them out to people that have no pride in ownership. Up and coming neighborhoods could go either way (good or bad). Property is usually set to get middle class into these houses because they feel like they are not moving into a bad area yet can still afford it. As to the credibility I get when I tell people I live downtown. I get some sure, it feels bad to me when people don’t understand that I feel safe downtown not because I personally pack heat but because all my neighbors watch each others back for the same fear that any moment a gang war will erupt on our block and we will defend our property as the articles of this great nation allow. When someone ran through my yard one night and my place was surrounded by police I feared for my life. Not because of the bad guy but the trigger happy cop who didn’t identify himself as police when I went out into my back yard to see what all the noise was. He just saw some guy with a weapon and yelled “get down if you don’t want to die!” I did not get down. I did not want to die. He was a terrorist to me who I do not negotiate with. I turned slowly (he did not fire, just kept yelling “Down, down!”) he saw I was white and lowered his gun. I am sure if I were not white he would have shot me. I get no credibility from nonwhites on this story. So I do get creds that I feel I deserve but from making the cop think twice before breaking the law (he is required to identify himself first “Stop this is the police” would have been nice”). If he was not the police (as I truly did not know until I turned) I was not going to make myself a still target. So my creds go to my bravery? No again, I took a chance and it paid off, not the way I wanted but certainly not a win – win situation that we white people love. But laying on the ground I had no chance. So my creds should be for quick and clear thinking in a time of extreme stress. The cop I tore into later for a number of reasons that he agreed could have went better but for number one reason he did not shoot when I did not obey. He stopped because I was white. They had a vague description of the man they were looking for and he could have been as white as me. He was either never going to fire or he had prejudice in his mind which makes him a bad cop either way. I’m not offended at this article just offended that because white people want to make the world a better place they, shouldn’t be allowed to, because they are white, tone of it.
What about all the white people who like to live in manufactured housing, sing karaoke country music, watch lots of tv, and base their voting decisions on the 2nd amendment? I got no love for those white people, and they have none for me. Lulz.
*News Flash*
White people are bought out too – by other white people. Since when does white = suburb and non-white = hood. Gentrification has much more to do with money than race. As a white Brooklynite, I’m just as much a victim to gentrification than anyone else.
That’s like Boston’s Chinatown!
@DJ. 911 is a Joke.
You’re lucky to be alive. You’re lucky to be white. Same thing in your situation.
White people in gentrifying neighborhoods LOVE their cops. I saw posters up for a party in some gentrolofty hood, celebrating their local cop. WHTHFCK?
Racism sucks, because, when white people move in, prices go up because you all have more money, and because you have white skin. When black people move in, prices go down because they have black skin, even if they have money. And a lot don’t have as much money.
White “risk” isn’t the same as “risk” for people of color.
(I made a typo above – I meant to say “I’ve got no love” not “I got no love”. Sorry about that.)
Again, I am amused. This blog is funny. I personally never bought a house in a some day up and coming neighborhood, but my boyfriend has. I’ve also had many friends who have, but I thought it was to turn a house over, sit on it for a couple years, then sell it when the neighborhood turned over? I guess I’m the nerd who never saw it as being “cool”, just a good investment.
@Gentrifier: boo hoo. Whiny middle classhole. Enjoy what you’ve got.
This site is ingenious. Reading the comments, it appears the readers are fairly liberal. I’m a conservative white guy and find the posts to be soo true of the people who have annoyed me my entire life……well-off white liberal wienies.
-Those that wear a Che T-shirt but are totallly ignorant of who he was.
-Hate Wal-Mart (shop at their local co-op) but have no clue that the Wal-Marts I shop at are patronized primarily by lower income people of color.
-Drive a Volvo with several bumpers stickers on the back mocking those they hate.
-Say Democrats are for the poor while Republicans are for the rich, even though everyone in their circles are rich white Democrats.
-Tend to be neo-Pagen nature lovers (can’t get much whiter then that)
@klem: a good investment is “cool.” Sticking around isn’t cool. Hey, gotta go folks. I have another neighborhood to invade.
You know it dawned on me that ‘Stuff White People Like’ is really ‘Stuff White Women Like’ because White Men don’t like any of this shit … perhaps that’s why White People Divorce.
Batshit Insane White Women need to change themselves.
Superficial psychotic bitches, all of them.
Yeah, that happened in a neighborhood here. One local African-American was quoted in the newspaper saying “our neighborhood was a lot better before all of these white people moved in”. Had to do with property taxes and rents going way up when the trendy chattering class discovered the area. Yes, there are now overpriced coffee shops and a food co-op on the block.
dude, you are producing 100% pure gold. you need to get rich and sell out immediately before all the secrets of white people are let out.
@matty: this stuff is like the “white” version of what people of color say to each other about white people. Less spicy, more nuanced, and low in cholesterol, fat, and flavor.
Surprised this entry didn’t link back to renovations. Missed some style points there Mr. C.
62 jk
@Gentrifier: boo hoo. Whiny middle classhole. Enjoy what youโve got.
jk, try LOWER class. That’s right, I grew up white and very poor. We do exist! But you seem to already know me – otherwise you would be making such ignorant statements.
And on the subject of food co-ops, the one I belong to is at the very least 50% non-white. I would hate to be the one to break it to those people that they were acting “white”.
You should mention that gentrifying a neighborhood must involve installation of local grocery co-ops, roundabouts and chain Mediterranean restaurants nearby.
This post is so absolutely spot on in Baltimore it makes me sick to my soul
LOL SO TRUE..
The blog is funny, although it seems to be creating some misplaced anger with idiots.
The Big G goes like this: 1.a neighborhood is targeted-location location 2. the white artists move into the neighborhood- adding diversity and usually with side skills ‘fix’ up property that is being rented cheaper because it is in ‘bad’ neighborhood. 3.then come the students.4. then come the developers.5 now more white people with families who need more space move into neighborhood which is now tagged a fringe area.6. now comes starbucks. 7.if all goes well the next thing you know the blocks are transformed into well kept gutted and restored buildings where pioneers live.
God. I am white.
This blog rocks! In my up-and-coming intown Atlanta neighborhood there used to be crackheads and hookers walking the streets, now it’s white people with pit bulls (of which I am one!)
This completely contradicts “Urban Cowboy,” and we should not stand for it!
Another one – Historic Springfield in Jacksonville, FL
Still in the gentrification process. Being redeveloped as the new hot spot. Oh, how sad it is to see the middle class white people move in and fix all the beutiful houses that were run down and destroyed by those that lived there before.
gentrification totally sucks and is a weapon of class warfare. the confusion of gentrification (for white folks) is the totally false romanticism of white liberalism. gentrification is explored lightly here but it is absolutely no joke in the real world, from the perspective of people who are priced out, foreclosed on, etc. and have to actually move and make way for the rich and the white. whole districts have been completely transformed and condoized (read: colonized) throughout the NYC area, where once ordinary human beings lived. Jersey City waterfront? not for humans anymore. Hoboken? Totally gone. Williamsburg? Lost. Harlem? They’re trying to convert it into “SoHa” (south Harlem) and all these alien-looking condos are going up. Consider “Sobro” (South Bronx? – getting gentrified) as well. They’re trying to expand Columbia University (our worst neighbor) into Manhattanville. Fort Greene, Brooklyn? Almost gone. A low-rise brownstone Gentrificistan.
but it’s a very very serious matter, very grave. And it is totally unsustainable, too. The backlash will come. People will realize that “property rights” in this capitalist society won’t push them around no more, and absentee landlords living in the suburbs somewhere will have less power as the people learn the true nature of their conditions. Lord Rent will perish. So-called hipsters may be forced down to Earth by conditions, and to join the human race or be faced with virulent hatred. You gentrifying “hipsters” and your accompanied increased police containment of our communities, and your utter delusion that your presence is benevolent or some sort of economic improvement on what there was before, and your GAPs, Starbucks and Whole Foods, won’t be looked at by the rest of us with smiles anymore.
I think white gentrification is the greatest thing since food stamps. It has been for me, at least. I’ve never had so much sex and my sales of Chronic and Coke have gone throught the roof.
I love previously unsatisfied white pussy. White men cannot satisfy their women sexually and they have no earthly clue on how to keep their sexually active daughters from the beast in the jungle.
I can’t stop fucking. I have white pussy all day long and all night long. They can’t get enough. They beg for my huge, thick, rock hard, uncircumcized black cock, and I’m more than willing to oblige. I’m fucking your women you cowardly dirtbags and they want more, more, more. You can’t satisfy them with your little liberal dicks. Plus, I’m getting rich and the demand for my products is outstripping the supply.
Please, keep gentrifying you white idiots. It’s the best thing that’s ever happened to me.
From my experience mostly White Arty-Wannabe Dudes like Tom Waits.
As a person, he’s cool, but the voice. God. Gargling glass.
Reality is a lot less funny than this blog. Sorry.
Again, this is only for the 10 percent of White people who can afford to do this.
Gentrification happens in White neighborhoods too, except it’s the poor White folks getting pushed out.
Come to Tremont in Cleveland, you’ll see lots of poor White folks living in poverty right next to the gentrification. It’s bizarre. There’s a chi chi coffee shop two blocks down from an old Polish section. The Polish folks who have lived there for generations rarely if ever go to this coffee shop. Same with the generations-old barber shop where you can get a haircut for 10 bucks. The chi chi White never go there, some don’t even know it exists. They go to the 70 dollar hair cut place right down the street. Same with the convenient stores, where the clientele is separated by class, not race. Parallel White worlds.
Make no mistake about it, the gentrifying ones want the neighborhood to ‘come up.’ They actively petition to oust poorer homeowners who ‘don’t keep up their properties,’ local church soup kitchens, free medical clinics for the poor, union meeting halls, etc. They may yap and moan about the area losing its authenticity, but it is by eradicating the authenticity that their property values rise.
This blog is misnamed. It should read stuffchichiwell-offwhitepeoplelike.
@ Brucelosis Johnson
Oh! Your post explains why HIV is so rampant in the black community. Thanks for the explanation.
Black people complain about real estate rising because of white people=acceptable
White people complain about real estate going down because of black people=not acceptable.
Once the gentrification is complete, they then get to indulge in its corollary, NIMBYism. See, the poorer and non-white people still gots to live somewhere, and when the lower income housing starts going up to comply with affordability standards, it’s “Get that multi-family construction OUT of here!” I’m talking about you, Portland, Oregon.
Segregation lives!
Dr. King would be so proud!
@ I love Black Star
Reverse racism= not acceptable
i like how gentrification drives away those who made the neighborhood “authentic” in the first place. Then it’s not authentic anymore with the gourmet sandwich shops (which you’ve addressed well) and Starbucks.
Then, these new families, who want to expose themselves and their children to different ‘cultures’, send their kids off to private schools.
stuffblackpeoplelikealso.wordpress.com
I lived in one of the worst ghettos in Hamilton, ON (the city itself is a ghetto) Crack heads and hookers everywhere. This wasn’t a black hood, asian hood or white hood, this was a poor hood. Everyone was poor, apartments were mouse infested dumps for dirt cheap. Heat in the winter? Good luck. Police responding quickly? Fat chance. But these people had no where else to go, couldn’t afford to live anywhere else. After considering the idea, gentrification would have spruced up the neighbourhood but it would have pushed out all the poor people.
After growing up in a down-and-going neighborhood, I think I’ll let other white bread folks brag on their tough neighborhoods. I prefer safety and a distinctive absence of panhandlers outside my front door.
the next one on the list should be
#74 Jokes about white people / Self-referential art
๐ love your blog and the post. Here it is much cooler to live in the burbs. . . I live in the city. LOL
Most gentrifiers start out as young modern bohemians. They’re frustrated by the scarlet letter that’s branded on them by their parent’s wealth and influence, so they search out a life of pseudo poverty and struggle to legitimize their life.
Ironically, these are the people that take post grad school trips to the mountains of Peru to “find” themselves and to “come into their own”. What does that mean??
Those cliches have always made me chuckle. They’ve never had to fend for themselves, or had to pay their own bills. Never been hungry enough to scrounge up 1.07 for a .99 cent hamburger. So they need to seek out unnecessary adventure to prove to pa-pa’ that their worthy of his respect.
Ahh, maybe I’ll backpacking through Europe on $300 this summer, you know, to find myself?
Nahh… on second thought, don’t need to, I know exactly where I am.
Sushi anyone? =-)
It’s the same in Atlanta. Funny thing is that your parents moved to the suburbs to flee the growing crime rate, seeking larger yards and shopping malls. The kids are now grown, parents have retired to Florida and the kids have moved back to the “urban” areas. It’s a never ending cycle. Give it another 30 years, we’ll see it all again.
How can you gentrify a place like Williamsburg, pay an assload for rent, and still live in such a shithole? You can somehow blow up the rent and live in absolute squalor. “Oh, an unfurnished meat locker! That would be perfect for storing all my sitars. I’ll pay anything!” I hate hipsters.
Not to get too philosophical in an admittedly funny blog, but this quote about pioneers is a different way to think about that pioneering spirit:
“The word pioneer betrays a disturbing willingness to repeat the worst mistake of the pioneers of the American Westโthe mistake of considering an inhabited place uninhabited. To imagine oneself as a pioneer in a place as densely populated as Chicago is either to deny the existence of your neighbors or to cast them as natives who must be displaced. Either way, it is a hostile fantasy.”
http://www.believermag.com/issues/200802/?read=article_biss
Wicker Park and Logan Square…
@ 99: I think that explains it in a nut shell. That is exactly what is going on. LOL
Re: pioneer this
Exactly. i think privilege is the new pioneer.
That picture is exactly what my old neighborhood looks like right now. It went from being a lot of low income housing and shuttered, burned out buildings to having a starbucks, a bank of america, a gym and a raw vegan restaurant in the same two block radius. And the best thing is, all those new condos and rehabbed townhouses are being sold at way below market rate for the rest of the city, it’s the higher level of low income housing, so the people who are lording it over the po’ folks would not have a chance at buying similar property in the posher neighborhoods.
I thought it was gay people who move into the places ‘needing fixed’ up, then the white people move in to displace the gay people and close down the gay joints.
Then the whites sell to the richer whites after the gays have left and the non-whites have left.
Don’t forget about the spanlish!
Don’t forget to throw in a splatter of some nonwhite rich folk so people can feel good about themselves and where they live.
This blog is, in some ways, what is wrong with the world.
So when white folks gentrify a neighborhood where do all the black folks go?
I’d create a website for what black people like but how much can you write about fried chicken, ignorance and unemployment?
Not all white people can afford homes. The illusion that all white people are rich and have things easy is a crock. Most of us are not much different than anyone else. I myself am living from check to check and don’t see home ownership in my future.
Screw you, Dave, you Cracker. You’ll be playing all cool and shit when your stash runs out and you have no choice but to come see me. You won’t say that to my face, will you white boy? Your women want me, Dave, and you want me Dave, cuz I have what’s good for ya.
All of you whiners need to STFU. This blog is funny, it’s meant to be satire, now get off your high horses.
And you, Brucelois Jenkins — go troll somewhere else.
In Toronto, social housing is redeveloping an area of downtown that became a ‘hood’ and hoping like hell that the yuppies start moving in to ‘integrate’ with the social housing tenants…we’ll see.
lol……you people
I have a white friend who is totally like this. She likes to show off how she lives in the city and she just loves to talk about her gay friends in the city too.
White people like to show off how “open-minded” they are.
Oh
My
Gah.
People, it’s just a laugh.
Not all of us White Folks live on our parents’ dime, but there are enough middle/working class hipsters that these entries apply to still that make these posts completely hysterical. What the heck is wrong at laughing at ourselves in good fun?
I’m sort of not understanding where the tone of shrill defensiveness is coming from with some of the readership. How can you take any of these entries seriously?
awesome site! great idea.. im lovin it. you need to copyright.. make a book.. put some ads on here… dont let this idea go to waste or some other person jack it.
GOOD LUCK!
I think this is way too general a statement , although it does have some truth in some areas and is good entertainment. Kind goes with keeping up with jones’s mentality. But. I am white and I do not fall into this generalization. go figure??
Ft. Greene, Brooklyn. Specifically on the corner of Classon and Myrtle. I live next door to that glass monstrosity. The Azure condos. Very, very classy. And oh so white.
Spot on description of what’s happening in east Austin Texas…and already happened in south Austin (78704)
Actually there are a ton now in DC:
U Street Corridor, New York Ave Stop, Mt. Pleasant, Columbia Heights, etc.
Even SE DC is being hit with a gentrification boom.
Also it is good to add Pilsen and Bridgeport in Chicago too. The South and West Loop are completely gentrified as well.
Its almost inescapable in these cities.
Can I do you from behind tonight, Sweety?
As a resident of Portland, Oregon, I can attest there is nothing white people like more.
re: 85 I love Black Star
black people complain about white people raising the the price of real estate, because this raise the RENT, and drive them out of their HOMES, and onto the streets, or back to the ghetto.
Blacks who couldn’t afford to live outside the ghetto, delicate themselves to making the ghetto livable, only to have whites who have the money for mobility to ‘invest’ and drive them out.
white people complain about black people dropping the real estate price, because this cuts into their pocket money.
So agree with the pioneer mentality being a hostile fantasy. It’s obscene that Canada, the Lesser Evil, still refuse to recognize native rights.
I see someone beat me to it as fas as mentioning the Shaw neighborhood in Washington, DC. I am still amazed at how fast the demographics have changed there. Also The “H” Street, NE, (Capitol Hill) corridor is slowly being gentrified.
This blog would be more appropriately titled “Stuff White women Like”.
White men don’t care enough about any of this crap, but white women are all about it (sushi, travel, ethnic, bikes, marathons, not having TV, free trade, liberal politics)…etc.
White men generally like:
sports
pussy
beer
loud things(explosions, gunfire, shouting)
fast things(cars, jets, cars with jets attached to them)
racist humor
…
that’s about it really.
But, another thing white people(women) like is “people watching”
Yes, the site is very funny. Even though we are total opposites in many ways, whiteboy conservatives like me and the more liberal commentators on here can mutually have fun at the expense of those well-off white wienies.
We all know ’em. They will be at that trendy expensive restaurant tonight. Maybe hosting a wine tasting party tomorrow night. They just got back from (insert carribean hot spot) and are talking about going to that quiant bed and breakfast in the spring.
And if you go to any college/university, you have to suffer with these boars.
Wait…I like racist humor. And tv. And beer.
OMG….I’M A TRANNY.
I must be a white woman then, even though I’m a white man, because I like a lot of that stuff you mentioned that white women like, but I do like pussy, and golf, and conspiracy theories…and my Depends undergarments…they’re my favorite of all cuz they keep me from embarassing myself in front of some nice pussy.
It’s happening in South Shore, Chicago
Gentrification isn’t really happening in Pensacola. We are so far behind that its just straight up segregated. White people live on the east side, blacks and non-whites live on the west side. We haven’t even got to gentrification yet. When I visit friends in Austin and San Francisco I see it everywhere though and I while I see the problems in it, I appreciate it much more over the complete segregation that happens in my town. What is the alternative to gentrification? Segregation? Staying away from eachother? Gentrification is really just the lesser of two evils. I’m not white and I’m poor as fuck but I would love to live in South Austin or The mission district in SF. Just support local business. What the fuck is wrong with that? Don’t shop at whole foods, shop at the local organic non-profit that’s run by people of all colors. Get your haircut from a friend. Buy local coffee, eat local burritos. It’s not hard people.
122 Georgia,
Well said.
Screw this gentrification BS. I live in a very nice suburban neighborhood. No rowhouses or crackerbox condos within blocks of our home. The entire neighborhood was built up about 15 years ago with all the homes on 9-12,000 square foot lots.
Given the crappy real estate market, guess which area will sell most quickly when the market turns – some dump in a sketchy area or a nice well maintained suburban home that needs nothing?
Besides – I’m way too old to live with bullshit hommies and beaners that have no manners and don’t give a shit about anything except themselves.
Whats up with all the non-whites coming on this blog and bitching about the problems we caused , this is our blog , not yours
Fishtown in Philadelphia
The East side of Austin
I just found your blog and I think it’s fantastic! I just want to add a comment, not about this post but about the blog in general. I am white european but living in US since quite a while. I think that your blog is not about what white people like but about what white american people like. It’s a really realistic and good description about american white society but white european are definitely not like that. So you know, it’s not always a question of colour (at least overseas…)
# 122
How is Canada “the lesser evil”? You monsters are clubbing baby seals to death!
everythingimnot.wordpress.com
CLander — You are HILARIOUS. A friend just forwarded this to me to cheer me up and it worked. THANK YOU. – Signed, A light-skinned Latina who’s seen the world from “both sides now” (Judy Collins anyone?)
re: 135
I support seal clubbing, currently.
1. Baby Seals aren’t hunted anymore.
2. The club kills through blunt force trauma, crack and they are dead, it’s less cruel than shooting something in the chest.
3. Seals are not endangered. The polar bears that usually culls them are, because the ice has become too thin for the bears to hunt seals on.
4. Sealclubbers do not do it for the lulz, it’s a dangerous job, hunting literally while on thin ice.
5. The only villainy here is how much the sealclubbers get stiffed, they do it because they need the money, but they aren’t the ones making the profit even though they are the ones who do the hard work.
Newfoundland needs the money, and the Inuit people need the meat. Emofigs need to STFU, and Heather needs to try that petting stunt with a grayback and get her face eaten off by a seal this time.
It’s a shame that there is no buyer’s market to match the fur one though, due to PETA. Flipper pie is a Newfie delicacy, the whole animal should be used more often.
Canada is the lesser evil, because we didn’t go on an official hunt of the aboriginals the way America did. While we did commit cultural genocide by ‘rehoming’ native children with cracker parents, that practice is noted and condemned in our school texts. Still evil, but, ‘lesser’ evil.
This site is genius! Of course, this is really what educated upper middle class white like. Also white people who are hoping to become upper middle class.
It also might be, even more specifically, what white women with masters degrees like. Women believe all sorts of stupid things.
Again, genius!
Hey all – first off, would like to say that I love this site and think it’s great.
The gentrification issue is interesting, painful, and with a lot of sides. My question is, what do we _do_ about it? I mean, when I moved to Chicago I chose to live in a so-called up-and-coming-neighborhood. So I guess I’m part of the problem. But I couldn’t afford to live elsewhere. I mean, I’m opposed to the idea that “white people have to live in white neighborhoods” and “black people have to live in black neighborhoods” and “hispanic people have to live in hispanic neighborhoods” – because this is just segregation. I moved to my neighborhood because I could afford to pay rent here, and food and other things were cheaper here. I understand that the economics of this issue are complicated, and the inevitable consequences of “more white people coming” – but what is the solution? Don’t tell me the solution is to “not let white people move somewhere”.
I can’t really live somewhere else right now because I can’t afford to – so where would you have me live? Should I move in with my family?
Actually, I should probably just leave the country like all us good white folk love to do. ๐
I think that your blog is not about what white people like but about what white american people like. Itโs a really realistic and good description about american white society but white european are definitely not like that.
134 anis,
This is such a white european thing to say!!! Give me a break. Who do you think the hipsters in the US aspire to be??!! European!
Brahsuf said:
“Whats up with all the non-whites coming on this blog and bitching about the problems we caused , this is our blog , not yours”
WTF? Not yours? We “people of color” have to put up with this bullshit, and you imply that it’s none of our business? I don’t know if you’re practicing the fine White art of irony, but get your head out of your ass Brahsuf.
Personally, I think this list pretty accurately describes yuppie White Americans, but also describes some pretty Americanized yuppies of all colors. It just so happens that White people, in GENERAL (not saying everybody), come from a more middle class background, which allows them to have the privilege of having so many expensive, exclusionary habits/thoughts/etc.
Problem is, you can’t even begin to look outside of the fact that this list is about AMERICANS in general. We are self-obsessed, lazy, privileged people (some people of color too!)
So, next time you want to say that this is a White thing.. remember that it’s the people of color who get pushed out of the neighborhoods which they take pride in (some poor people actually take pride in what little they have) by some twenty-something year old with a f-ing trust fund who wants to be artsy.
Aside from this. Great list. I’m an Americanized Beaner who can admit i’m guilty of the same shit.
What I’m saying is, don’t pretend like this page is for Whites only, you ignorant-ass Gabacho.
Frist off, this post is right on about the street cred thing for white folks –
Everyone knows someone who totally gets off on hearing other people say “ohh you live that far west? I heard its dangerous out there!”
At the same time there are plenty of white folks who make so-so money and live in working class areas and actually give a shit about the concept of neighborhood turnover – people who support affordable housing initiatives, oppose zoning changes that drive up rents, and understand the importance of concepts like mixed income development/public housing.
Chicago is hilarious on the issue though.
People (lets be honest – mostly minorities and overzealous white liberals) rail like hell against the CHA’s Plan for Transformation (because oh no, theyre going to tear down our hellholes!) despite the fact that the Plan is based on the premise of setting aside thousands and thousands of units for minorities and poorer individuals in areas like West Town and Tri Taylor that are turning over regardless of whether the old high rise public housing stays or goes.
So setting aside permanent, brand new, free and subsidized units in up and coming areas is bad, while….
Scumbag machine alderman like Rey Colon and Ted Matlak that take mega kickbacks (excuse me, “campaign contributions”) from developers to let them do whatever the hell they want in their wards are no problem. No one says a thing. Not only that
People keep electing them. They are the ones that allow this happen.
Hipster-trailblazers begin the change, but they don’t turn working class communities like Logan Square into Lincoln Park.
Developers do that. Alderman let it happen.
But who cares. Lets keep railing against the Plan for Transformation and thousands of permanent, comfortable, affordable and free housing units for poorer people in up and coming areas.
Yeah, lets do that instead.
its cool to be white
@ 143 Jim.
Amen! Let’s blame short-sighted developers and real estate investors for gentrification.
Wouldn’t the US be grand if it all looked like Midtown Manhattan?
My definition of gentrification is moving people of color out of their neighborhoods.
http://www.IGotUGGs.com
http://www.BehindtheApprovalMatrix.com
No, Williamsburg is not over or neither is it Soho they may have panini shops, hipster bars and starbucks but still no Ben Sherman just yet.. it is easier just to generalize that neighborhood as the infestation that it is … its just moved into Bushwick creeping into the other boroughs like a plague….yeah ask a local
http://thekesselrun.wordpress.com/2007/10/21/gentrificationgrizzly-smith/
In New Orleans, gentrification was often a two stage process. First, the neighborhood would be penetrated (pun intended) by homosexuals who would artify the place by painting houses outrageous colors and hanging rainbow flags from lampposts and stuff. Then would come the gay suckups like college professors and sociology students to finish the process. Then God took pity on the city and sent a hurricane to wipe out all their assets.
# 138
I am a lover or the Polar Bear, hence my aversion to the practice of clubbing their food source to death, regardless of the thinning ice.
Thanks, Canada. You’re still evil, and not any “less”.
It must suck to be white AND Canadian.
What’s with the Gay bashing William d’Inger?
I moved to the ghetto to “save money.” Then I realized people were all like, “Oh my god, I can’t believe you live THERE.” So, even though I was scared, it felt kinda cool to freak people out. Yeah, I was tough! I was becoming one with my urban neighbors! After a year and a half full of terrifying experiences with various crimes and monthly 911 calls, it was time to pull up stakes. Man, I felt so lame to move out and move to a better neighborhood. Lost all my cred. My old roomie still lives in that house and gets robbed like all the time. And I’m all like, “I can’t believe she still lives THERE!” She wins.
Thanks for the best laugh I’ve had in a long time.
Stuff white people like:
-Rubber wristband bracelets inscribed with moronic trite messages.
-Africa. The entire f*cking continent. Tibet is sooo last decade, so they’ve moved on to Africa instead.
-Being offended on behalf of other people. (“I’m not ___, but I find that really offensive.”) Because they’re the only arbiters of what’s offensive and what’s not.
This going to sound like a terribly white thing to say, but, bejesus man, over 2 million hit in under month? Get yourself frigging advertising on here! You know, Google ads or something!
Kerr-ching!
White people DO like that stuff!
re: 149 Jairi
We are not clubbing their foodsource to death, the foodsource is still there, it’s just that the polar bears are incapable of getting at them because the ice is too thin!
Temporary Solution: Feed the polar bears, there are already small tour groups that buys seal meats and feed the polar bears (they leave them outside their armoured vehicles and watch safely from within).
Necessary Solution: Cut down the global warming, the lands of the Inuits are melting, coastal nations are drowning…
Nuclear Winter America?You are sidesplitting hilarious!
Necessary Solution: Cut down the global warming, the lands of the Inuits are melting, coastal nations are drowningโฆ
155 Georgia,
The only problem with that is driving hybrid cars and recycling is apparently looked down upon – at least when white people do it.
Sooo….What I’m hearing is that there should be a law that prevents people from moving to a certain naighborhood because of the color of their skin…….Makes sense.
So, by ‘white people’ you mean ‘yuppies’? ‘Pretentious jerks’, maybe? Because not all the white people I know are like this, and not all the people I know who are like this are white.
Maybe I’m missing something; you’re either being really, really sarcastic, or just scraping the bottom of the clichรฉ barrel.
And yeah, I know, I could not have a whiter name. ‘Tain’t my fault.
So, yer saying that white people move into neighborhoods, not because they want a place to live, but for some odd type of street cred? Whitey don’t need no stinkin’ street cred. yer thinking of the Brutha’s!
It’s not about the need for shelter? the need to be able to Afford the place they live in?
Damn! No Wonder we White people rule the earth!
WE WHITE PEOPLE CAN DO ANYTHING! GO WHITEY! GO WHITEY! RULE THE EARTH NOW! GO WHITEY!
๐
#74 Recommending hilarious blogs
Guilty as charged…
re: 157 LES
It’s looked down upon when SMUG people drive it.
(see: South Park’s report on the dangers of SMUG)
…and biofuel is a great idea, but people need to remember that biofuel isn’t drawn from a magic hat, it is a renewable resource that needs to be renewed, using up land and water. Much like wood, we must still be conservative, and take ethical care where it came from; more poor people who live on lands they have no almighty papers on, are being kicked off it, and their forests cleared for growing the crops needed to make biofuel.
There’s no need to get your speedo in a bunch, Guest. I am just conforming to the normal behavior at this site by pinging on white stereotypes. There’s nothing whiter than being gay.
If you insist I be serious about it, the gay community pioneers much of the gentrification in New Orleans. If you consider gentrification a good thing, they are a vital force in the city’s progress. I don’t know what the displaced people think of the process because I don’t know any of them.
I’d take it over ghettofication, any day. And I’ve been there too. I can’t feel bad for the immigrant family in echo parque that finally got to move out of its cramped house, made mucho dinero off the hipsters and bought a ranch — a freakin’ ranch! — in Arizona. Plenty of non-white people are happy to find they can make some dough after the white people “discover” their neighborhoods. Bonus of the gangbangers move their banging somewhere else. And, if they own, the white people can’t raise their rents. And if they won rentals (many do) they get to actually make money off the gabachos.
I am so white, I had to look up gentrification and see what it means! After I read the definition, i have the question, aren’t these the neighborhoods where crystal meth was founded?
I am the last original brooklynite in my park slope neighborhood and i’ve seen it all. I’ve lived here for 40 years and we own a brownstone– oh and we’re not white. when white kids move in and meet me, they are always shocked to see that i own property. then they ask me questions like was the neighborhood bad before? My neighborhood was exactly the same back in the day, except there were a lot more blacks and latinos around. it was clean and there was more of a family feel–kids playing in the street and everyone supported the local mom and pops. there was crime–as everywhere in NY of the 70’s/ 80’s– but it made us more savy and closer. Now i am amazed to see white girls walking around the street at 3AM, listeneing to their ipods! so crazy.
Gentrification definetly raises the prices in the neighborhood. the local korean deli across the street used to be the place to get a cheap buffet after playing basketball. now they dont even have a buffet, and evrything is ORGANIC. expensive as hell– $2 for a dam apple? At least the Koreans were smart enuff to adapt –. I feel sorry for the local pierto rican bodegas i grew up with. they didnt know how to adapt– white folks dont buy plaintains, pork rinds, or kool-aid. the bodega on my corner got bought out out and is now a trendy lil french bistro–how cute.
I can go on for days about gentrification! Once i came home from work and there were a buncjh of white hipsters siting on my stoop drinking beer and smoking weed. I was cool and told them to keep it low with the weed. One of the kids responded- dont worry the owner isnt complaining. Okay, i smiled and went inside the street level entrance of my house, grabbed my dog-a peppy german shepard and reappeared from the second floor entrance above them. When they saw me with my dog barking–they ran their ashton kutcher asses down the steps quikly!
And why is it- at least once a month, white people knock on my door and ask if I am selling my house? they never ask my white neighbors as often as they hit me up. Imagine me going to your family neighborhood in Maine, and asking your mom if she selling? she would call the cops in a minnit!
Like i said i can go on for days–if you really want to know the deal about gentrification talk to me the SOUL SURVIVOR cuz I aint goin nowhere!
This is happening in Stockton California…..
Actually, just kidding, no it isn’t.
Sucks to be you Brittany Spears, Flava Flave, Wing Wong, et al, to be squeezed out of your ghettos because these so-called white people are reclaiming them. I mean, where are you gonna live? Like, literally. If you don’t have a place you can “be”, that must mean you “be” no more (die, that is).
That’s pretty racist isn’t it? I’m just kidding though! Really! Just like this blog. See, it’s all good. ๐
Seems like what’s happening right here.
great post. love this blog.
the sad thing is that there are few alternatives being proposed. in dc, where i live, the crack epidemic caused people to flee the city to the suburbs (whites to Montgomery county and black people to PG). when housing prices plummeted, the interest in fixing up the city dissolved. neighborhoods stagnated and abandoned shops/buildings dominated large swaths of land. even today you can go through many parts of DC that are still largely abandoned.
so what is there to do to make these places more livable? housing needs to be of better quality, but it won’t be free, so that means rents have to be raised. you can’t pay next to nothing off a minimum wage job and expect to live in a decent place in America, unless a socialist revolution is in the works. politicians aren’t fond of the idea of subsidized housing, so there goes that. the people that already live in these areas need jobs, but if they’re already past their youth, they aren’t likely to move up the class ladder unless they increase their education.
in our economic system, there’s no fair way to increase the quality of life in a neighborhood without raising rents because money=quality in our capitalistic system. that’s why targets, starbucks, and other corporate interests retain the power. cheap land that will eventually contain a new population of middle-class people is a sound investment, but it neglects the welfare of the people that once lived there.
i wish i knew how poor neighborhoods could escape urban blight and improve life for their inhabitants, but we don’t hear any good ideas coming from our politicians. your best bet is to get educated and make enough money to keep your house and unite against those corporate interests. there are already small communities across the country that resist development that ruins the richness of those communities through organization and cooperation.
Keep on keepin’ on.
Tellin’ it like it is.
I’d say at the moment this is the hottest blog on the internet because quite simply you are making acute observations that people know damn well are true.
And if you aren’t steppin’ on a few toes along the way you probably aren’t saying much worthwhile.
You obviously are as indicated by the comments that applaud what you say as well as the comments from those you’ve baffled.
Well done.
Solution:
1. Raise the minimum wage, raise it a little yearly to match inflation.
Canada is also ‘pondering’ a minimum income guranteed by the government, that is good, but the employers who make the profit off their workers should foot the majority of the bill. Minimum wage, in concrete amount (eg: $10/h), or in % (allow employers to pay less than the concrete amount if it’s no less than 50% of profit earned, BEFORE the employers take their own cuts(.
2. Development; Put space and use space for affordable housing. Either guranteed there would be houses that people on minimum wage can buy within five years of work, with a decent mortgage. Or gurantee rent control. I favour the first solution, but the second is needed now for a quick immediate fix. The poor landlords would have less money, but they already OWN the building/house, they won’t be poor. If the land tax that the landlord have to pay, would meant that the landlord would have less than minimum wage (which must be living wages) after taking it out from the rent, then the government must comp the landlord.
http://www.diehipster.com
๐
Suggestions:
1.Nalgene Bottles
2. North Face Apparel
3. Vitamin Water
But, Georgia, even with increased minimum wages developers will still want to build expensive properties because they make the most money for their investments. Why would you build low-income housing if you wanted to make money? That’s why the government requires developers to set aside some properties as “low-income,” but these properties are eventually neglected by both the developers and the government because they don’t make as much money from rent/mortgages or property taxes.
So, you have these houses and buildings breaking down and the cycle continues. What’s the common denominator? GREED.
I think that what white people really like are stereotypes and racism disguised as humor (you know, talking about lynching Tiger Woods or Michelle Obama– get it? It’s funny); that would explain why they like this site. It’s awesome.
So, now that I know what gentrification is, I am stoked!! This is such a great investment oppurtunity for us white folk, I had to get involved. So, I called my dad in Wisconsin to see if he wants to invest money in this with me. I stated “Dad, now that I am living in a large city, I just found ou what gentrification is, and I am stoked!! I was wondering if you want to give me some money for this and join in!”
He hung the phone up and thinks I want money to buy cloths to impress a gay englishman. Go Gentrification!!!!!!!!
I believe in putting the basic welfare of all people before the wants of the already well off to have MORE.
There are more people who are poor, in spite of work, than there are rich bosses who hire people to do the hard work for them and take more than they have earned, if they didn’t control the means of production.
It’s just unfortunate, that so many times, people are petty and incapable of crossing caste lines to organize, be it race or sex or age. Or class. Some lower-middle class people thinks that things would never be better, never be more fair, so they rather hold onto the ‘security’ of having poorer people beneath to cushion their feet than to throw off the people standing on their shoulders.
Until they have kids.
Then they only want to live by other white people.
Response to 134 as well. Apparently you’ve been totally missing the point of American white hipsterdom. 141 was so right on with this….all these jokes about being into other cultures and liking to travel to the third world and wanting to buy local and organic and use mass transit etc totally make fun of white western Europeans too….the only difference I’ve really seen between hipster western Europeans and north Americans is that the people this website is laughing at are a small segment of a larger population and in Europe they pretty much ARE the whole youth population. The Americans that Europeans make fun of and consider ignorant world destroyers are not the ones that this blog is mocking.
To the bloggers:Keep up the sharp work and may I add suggestions.
1. Che Guevara logo items.
2. rice and beans (eaten as a show of solidarity with the poor or brown people of the world)
3. Self-indulgent self-denial (giving yourself props for getting rid of a car, refined sugar, alcohol etc.)
This site is incredible….I read almost every thread tonight. Hey, whoever you are, you are…obviously not a Republican, but you have white comfortably well-off liberal Democrat dumbasses down pat.
I live in a major city and am surrounded by these duffuses. Is the author here? Here is your next thread. Garrison Keillor!!!! A rich white guy that other rich white people get off on….you get:
Public radio
Gentrification
Smug arrogance
Wine
Etc
I can’t afford to live in the crappy hood I grew up in, now that it’s all gentrified. And people still get shot there at least every month. That is supposed to make white flight happen! When will the 70’s come back? Fly away crackers!
Of course, if I had the money I’d buy a nice old Craftsman and fix it up… Have to send the kid to private school of course.
everyone wants to blame somebody else.
the insanity unmasked.
this shit gets deep.
This going to sound like a terribly white thing to say, but, bejesus man, over 2 million hit in under month? Get yourself frigging advertising on here! You know, Google ads or something!
Kerr-ching!
Yeah, we thought the same and were going to say so, but this commenter beat us to it. As white people, we would be glad to enter into a limited partnership with you on this endeavor.
Very clever blog. It’s almost like a study of the people in Portland, Oregon or Seattle, Washingon, not surprisingly the capitals of liberal white flight.
This blog is hilarious…..
but some of the comments make me think white people really can’t win can they? They send their kids to private school and their being snooty. They send their kids to public school and their being pretentiously altruistic. Ignore the needs of minorities and your a bigot. Start a not-for-profit and your obviously trying to pat yourself on the back. Allow our country to elect war mongering president and we’re numb Americans who just want to buy more crap. Try to get active politically and we’re self righteous do gooders. Just tell the whiteys what to do because I think their getting confused…..
This is the wittiest blog I have ever read. You are a king.
Other things white people love to do:
1) Discern between what is “fake” and “plastic” and what is “real.”
2)Whole Foods/Trader Joes
3)The Apple store
Every night I get on my knees and pray that I won’t be white anymore. Or at the very least make me a white woman. Atleast then I can complain about something. I mean, all the free money they send us (oops) is not really worth all this guilt. The guilt is the worst. Damn me, Damn me for being born this color!
Also, you need to do one on gay people.
I live in a converted grocery store in an up and coming neighborhood, in an up and coming city. Of course, I have no kids and love to brag about the authenticity and uniqueness of of it all. So sad, so hilarious…..Great post.
To others: white folks love bottled water in general, not just vitamin water. Especially if the liquid has some ingredient that is good for you AND not recognized by the government. Vitamin A? Who cares… Something mystical from seaweed? Awesome.
Also, couldn’t this blog be remained, “Stuff liberals like?” I mean, conservative white folks wouldn’t buy into most of this stuff.
I guess I must not be white. I’ve not read a thing on the blog that I liked ๐
Someone asked and I don’t think it was answered yet (at least in this particular thread):
The (married & white) couple that publish this blog live in a comfortable and quite lovely little home in Culver City, CA.
For those not familiar with Culver City, it’s a hotbed of hipster galleries, Prius-driving yuppies, green/eco-conscious architect’s offices and some of the most talked about eating/drinking spots within the larger megaopolis of LA.
This is great.
If you are offended then you don’t get it and are a moron.
if this is wrong so are rap videos (hubcaps, guns, money, ho’s)
satire. learn. live. love.
I hate progress. Keep shity neighborhoods the way they are and whites should just stay in the ‘burbs. How dare capitalism work….
This blog is getting played out. What’s next>whites like clean air? I bet no one else ever thought of trying to make a buck off real estate.
So, basically, if white people like all the things this blog claims, then that must mean that non-whites – the opposite of whites – like the opposite right?
So white people like nice, quality things and non-whites like to wallow in their own filth and crapulence. Huh. Who’da thunk the skinheads were right all along.
Is this more or less pathetic than everyone else who refuses to go to these areas because they’ve become too ‘trendy’?
Often all it is is people wanting to live in the city but can’t really afford the prices. These areas are the trade-off between high-class and dangerous. You know, the compromises everyone makes in most decisions in life?
When are you going to do “Self-Loathing”?
Being white is so frikkin awesome.
tome: Self-Loathing. *chortle Very nice. I’m willing to bet they sort of have that covered already, under the broad umbrella of “white guilt”, which is probably itself covered by multiple entries in their lame-assed blog…
So so true!! Anyone from Fresno remember that River Park used to be Pinedale?
A corollary to your axiom: White people like a win-win. They like to live in an edgey ‘hood but in a large$$ condo.
GB in SF (17th&Val)
this shit is not fun and it’s not funny – dog!
Yeah, the Tenderloin in SF has been “up and coming” for about 70 years…now I’ve just resigned myself to the fact that I’m too poor to live anywhere else.
stay tuned for http://stuffblackpeoplelike.wordpress.com/about/ comming soon.
I live in East Oakland. I wish more white people would move here.
Great blog! I hope you get this published soon. Can’t wait to pick up your book in a Starbucks in Compton next year!
East Oakland baby! Hurry up and gentrify this bitch…I can’t sleep with all this gun-fire!
I know some white people who live in a house right behind a Taco Bell. They never go hungry.
I love Phuong, visit me at http://tuccaugiao.org
thank you
I think its different here in London, but as long as people from higher up the socio-economic group invest in poorer areas to make them more “mixed” then surely thats an indirect way of regeneration to the area right?
WOW….oh man this is so true…i can give an example…in Toronto Canada they recently…took down a massive block of housing, which used to be affordable metro housing. in the downtown core… and now they are building luxurious condos in its place…(basically this is the definition of gentrification)…
This post made me laugh. Good to see there are people out there still up for a good joke post or two. By the way, I’m white.
– Dwayne Charrington.
http://www.dwaynecharrington.com
RE: post #70.
White liberals with a decent university education love to act poor! We choose low paying jobs so that we can avoid taking on responsibility for the choices that come with money and power. We align ourselves with the poor people, the victims, the powerless because a. that makes us “different” than our more affluent peers who took real jobs, because afterall, we still only have the one or two black or latina friends, and b. don’t blame me! I’m poor! I’m not like THEM, and c. we get to live in cool up and coming neighborhoods because “we have to!”
Of course, we do have a choice. We don’t have to work at the non-profit. We don’t have to be a public school teacher. We don’t have to be a bartender by night and a grad student by day. We could have cashed out our degree and gotten a well-paid position because we can talk the talk of stuff white people like and therefore be accepted by our peers, lose the edginess of being “poor” (which is an insanely relative term!).
But still, there is hardly any smugness more satisfying than busting someone’s assumption that because you’re white and you’re educated and you live in an up-n-coming neighborhood and (much to your dismay) most of your friends are white you are relatively affluent. It is SO FUN to say, “Hey, man, that’s not me! I live here because I have to! I make $12.50 an hour!” (Note. They never actually make minimum wage, and they never have to support families on that income. ) “Scraping by” on $2000 a month as single person for a couple of years is considered another notch on the cred belt, like peace corp and having a second-generation immigrant friend.
I’m not making this up
A friend of mine who hasn’t picked up a gun in years, started shooting again because of this blog. So he’s a fan.
He’s going to get you Myles.
You’ll be a martyr.
Also, regarding “scraping by” on 2 grand a month …
If I ever heard anyone say that I’d punch them in the throat.
you’re on kanye west’s blog:-)
but it won’t be a perfect neighbourhood until we grant space to the starbucks and babyGap, of course…
To the authors: Seriously, guys, keep publishing this blog. Not only is it amazing, but you’re outing all the mouth-breathers who don’t get it.
To the rest: Cry some fucking more.
Apparently no one here is able to see the point of view of working class (working, not welfare) whites who have a home in a lower income neighborhood, into which blacks start moving in, or next to which cheap apartments get built, and their community goes to crap.
London is much worse
Gentrification – – smentrification. Upward mobility for blacks is tough here in DC. Why? The local government continues to operate and plan as if this were a welfare state, they continues to provide handouts and the DC populace continues to take it and want more. Arguably the worst public school system in the nation, and certainly the most expensive at $18K per student with only $3K ever reaching the kids. How do you end this cycle? Ah … but opportunity does exist for all who desire it. I know a guy who barely graduated public high school, completed one year of football โฆ I mean college, joined the Marines, fought in 3 wars, 5 peace keeping operations, retire after 20 years, now making $150K per annum and living in the DC Hood and is looked at as an interloper. Nothing succeeds like success.
This is interesting because I have always thought the same way.
I have some white friends who live on the east side of Detroit, very shitty side, and sometimes they come across like “eh, it’s no big deal… we blend in ..”. Yet, they have told stories of being robbed, car-jacked, stuck in the middle of neighborhood brawls….
I don’t give them any kind of credibility… I just say they are stupid..
reading through this i think it is kinda funny that people keep calling white people “liberal hipsters” and are probably still gonna vote for a democrat this year.
everythingimnot.wordpress.com
Real estate in Toronto is getting so expensive through gentrification, I can foresee a day in the future when there is no affordable housing left in the downtown area. As wonderer said about Riverdale, Parkdale is turning into an urban chic centre (Are you 30ish, hip and upwardly mobile? Then you’d better be re-furbishing an old Victorian in King West Village or you lose your table for brunch on Sundays at every restaurant on the strip. Horrors!
The only thing to add is that the white people are now admitting selective second-generation brown and asians – as long as they have money, respectable jobs, speak with a North American accent and don’t invite their jabbering relatives over the the ‘hood too often.
#74 – White people like making fun of other white people because it makes them FEEL so anti-racist without actually having to DO anything anti-racist.
People like the white owners of this blog (I’m thinking of a line of a song by the Tragically Hip: “I’m so consumed with the shape I’m in, can’t enjoy the luxury”) and those that are enjoying the hate so much – whether white or not – wouldn’t know how to live as well as the people that you are so hateful of are.
You don’t deserve to live so well, don’t have the wherewithal to make it happen, and wouldn’t even know what to do with it if it fell into your laps (as the owners of this blog have shown). Basically you are victims of your own inadequacies and want to blame everyone but yourselves for them. Sure, it might not be your fault you can’t hack it, but it’s not white folks’ fault either. We always want to destroy what we can never have.
Let’s say you had your way and got rid of all such people. Then what? You think that would make you better as a person? Right…
First of all, I love the title of your blog. All of the posts so that i read are dead on. As I am a white person myself, I agree with most of those posts. Good times!! Standing still at concerts really made me laugh .. why do we do that?
This is hilarious. Thank you for letting me in on things I couldnt understand :).
As a white person who just discovered your awesome blog, I already feel torn. On one hand, I’m tempted to tell everyone I know about it…thus solidifying my cred by introducing something “authentic” and “edgy.” On the other hand, though, I’m already worried that this site will inevitably become too mainstream (see “trucker hats,” and “ethnic restaurants”) and force me to colonize something else.
I think you should write a post whose title is “Stuff that White People Like” and/or other white-deprecating material. We love this stuff! as long as there aren’t too many other white people around…
Has Frasier been talked about yet?
228 Dena
#74 – White people like making fun of other white people because it makes them FEEL so anti-racist without actually having to DO anything anti-racist.
Reason # 986 why white people can never win. Get offended by a blog generalizing about so called “white” people and you’re stiff, blind and ignorant. Laugh at the sweeping generalizations in a spirit of good fun and you’re a phony. Just tell whitey what to do! They want to know what is acceptable behavior.
Gotta say I agree with Cleveland- this blog should be titled “things bourgie white people like”. Funny nonetheless
Also…please discuss white peoples’ obsession with things that are Irish (not as big as it was about 10 years ago).
236 Pete
Alsoโฆplease discuss white peoplesโ obsession with things that are Irish (not as big as it was about 10 years ago).
Uhhhh, maybe because a lot of white people are Irish-Americans? Oh ya, white people don’t you dare have any sense of heritage! Don’t you dare try to learn about where your family came from! Don’t you dare have a sense of history!
so when the chinese do it, is it still like white people doing it? or is it like, you know, different when it’s in china?
It’s funny because as a white person from the east coast, this is how we view white people from California… I’d say about 50% of these hold true for white people out here, but these stereotypes are localized to the bay area to a high degree.
So true…
Here in the DC area it’s :
U-Street Cardoza
H- Sreet Coridore NW
the hipster scum have now got their eyes targeted on Southeast DC and PG County Maryland…..
watch out here they come.
236 Pete
Alsoโฆplease discuss white peoplesโ obsession with things that are Irish (not as big as it was about 10 years ago).
Irish people ARE white you IDIOT!!
Try the entire city of Buffalo. Practically everyone who is “white” in Western New York will boast that Buffalo, the surrounding region, and its people and culture, are somehow more “real”,”authentic”, “genuine”, “honest”, “character filled” and so on, and that the entire world outside of Western New York is “fake”, “plastic”, “corporate”, “sanitized”, “Anywhere USA” and so on.
“Oh, we don’t have a [Whole Foods/Trader Joe’s/Fresh Market/P.F. Chang’s/any upscale national chain store or restaurant]. They’re not local, and besides they’re also so corporate and plastic. Let the yuppies of Charlotte and Phoenix have their foo-foo chains. We’ve got [much smaller and grittier locally owned business], which is so much more authentic and real.”
On the topic of race, here’s a white psychology professor from California who disguised himself as a black man pretending to be white: http://fastfictions.wordpress.com/2008/02/23/48/
236&237 jebiz crust guys, come on! I have an Irish last name, my great grandfather came to Canada from ireland. That makes me 1/8 Irish also known as Canadian. If you didn’t come from Ireland, you aren’t Irish. You may have an Irish heritage but you are no more Irish than farts smell like roses. It’s fine to celebrate in an Irish heritage or where ever your ancestors came from. My sister pulls this “I’m Irish” crap all the time.
Ponzi,
My mother’s and father’s side of the family both came straight form Ireland to the US – 2 generations ago. So, I’m not aloud to a acknowledge my heritage? I’m not aloud to care where I came from?
Learn to read Poster 245, I said there is nothing wrong with knowing and understanding your heritage, but when you weren’t born there, you’re not Irish! Don’t be so dense. I mean, seriously, how bad is your comprehension that you couldn’t get what I said?
uhhhh….so who should we support for Prez??….Hillary the White Woman Yuppie Gentrification-Model married to “the first Black President”….who ever made that up, anyway??)….or….
Barack the Biracial/ Man of Color African and White American Yuppie Gentrification-Model, with a few more street creds and a few higher education/private schools and gentrified neighborhoods for the kids- when- necessary creds…..or….
Ralph Nader the capitalism-gone-berserk-bashing White male millionaire Green Party Model…..or McCain the Insane and once Heroic White fakey Conservative but into Endless War Anywhere and Everywhere……and should we even discuss the other leftovers on this buffet table???
I need some answers from any of you who know everything about everyone so I do the right thing for absolutely everybody with my vote!
At least as an old fart White woman I seemed to have moved to places in much of the bloggers’ “politically correct” ideas of OK, and at the “correct” stages in life….from poor immigrant uneducated hardworking parents’ tenement in Brooklyn to suburban house, with no furniture for years and not all White neighborhood either; back to NYC for school, working split night shifts with a bunch of other women at AT&T switchboards….only a few of those fine Black, Latina and other poor White gals able to move out of their neighborhoods as they all wanted to do for their families….to…..upstate ( no, I mean REALLY UPSTATE) NY…. from diverse working class to diverse lower middle class to almost all-White old house middle class by age 50, into a wonderful house we built and could only afford to build, at age 62 each, in an affordable totally redneck area even further upstate….where our combined family income could not even pay the RENT for any of the gentrified or even ungentrified city apartments like the one my family left almost 50 years ago, or the neighborhoods of which you all speak.
How many of these “home” stories are there in the USA, I wonder….probably LOTS of them, but not yet ENOUGH of them by folks of color or white who are still poor…..or even WANT to leave their cities.
Still, not matching up with the gentrifiers, the still-poor everyandanycolor, the rich of any color, the wacko fundamentalists, the wacko conservatives, the wackiest of liberals of any color, those who are totally sarcastic or totally angry or totally too serious to get any of the humor, but don’t give back something better, even seriously, to chew on….has an old broad like me feel “homeless” on this site.
Help!!
And make sure you are each someone who knows the correct answer to correcting all of the “issues” as outlined in every blog, and can disperse responses with humor instead of just anger, ….or that your candidate of choice, at least, has the answers for us lowly types of ANY color, ethnicity, economic, educational development and present existence (some of us may have “come up a bit” economically and educationally from the old, very “diverse” neighborhood days of our youth, long gone, but are way confused as to who we should choose for prez, without making a gross error… in some of the bloggers’ judgments!
(Well, we voted for Obama anyway, not knowing till too late that this site exists and could confuse us so handily about our decisions and opinions about everything from housing and food choices to environmental crap and good/bad stereotypes).
Too bad, as our voting choices could have been so much more exciting, while also getting my husband and myself to even earlier dementia and high blood pressure, if only our young friend had forwarded this site sooner!
(Europeans, Canadians and all-other- country and continent folk should stay out of it until you fix your own systems, just to narrow the potentially huge array of responses, both humerous and deadly-straight talk…. express??).
In any case….this was alot more entertaining then getting to our income tax paperwork today!
Ponzi,
Unfortunately we all do this as Americans. My American born friend with Korean born parents has always called himself Korean. My other American born friend with Hatian born parents has always said he is Hatian. What’s wrong with an American born person with Irish born parents calling themselves Irish? I’m guessing that you don’t like calling people African-Americans either. I guess you have a right to your opinion.
This is true for the Heights in Houston.
The stuff white people likes the most is themselves.
No doubt this is all stuff white people like.
Now I understand my obsession with HGTV! Clearly my subconscious is desiring what my white self has yet to achieve. Thanks for explaining it to me. I feel much better.
I think these blogs are cool to read. I see a lot the things mentioned in these blogs happening all around me and there is a certain level of truth to them. However the comments are even better to read. I don’t see why people get so worked up over this shit and drop racist comments. Regardless of all of your racial backgrounds I am sure you all have friends that are of different races and religions that are genuinely good people, so you should think about them before you post ignorant comments. This blog applies to everyone… nobody should have to feel bad about their skin.
“Hillary the White Woman Yuppie Gentrification-Model married to โthe first Black Presidentโโฆ.who ever made that up, anyway??)”
Toni Morrison, and she supports Obama in this election.
223 ohhdear – “London is much worse”
How can it be worse in London? There’s only been a sizable non-white presence in England since the late ’50s. And those, oh so terrible and deprived ethnic minorities, suffering in da ghetto that the Yups are now gentrifying, were built and inhabited long before by arse poor white folk – who had to endure poverty and suffering on a scale our current non-white enrichers couldn’t even comprehend.
Just living in Petaluma is sooo white, but we like to think we’re multicultural and sooo diverse…
So F-en true!
There taking over the roughest part of my neighborhood now that downtown is starting to develop.
I get what you’re selling Ponzi.
I’m third generation Scottish – I come from hard-core bag-pipe playing, haggis-eating, tartan-wearing Scots.
BUT,
– wasn’t born there
– never visited there
– am adopted, for pete’s sake.
Ergo, I’m Canadian with a Scottish heritage, not actually Scottish myself – even though I love bag-pipe music, know all about my family and clan history going back 400 years and celebrate Robbie Burns day.
I think this is a very nice thing to be.
Whole lotta white folks howling right now cuz they mind just got Bitch-Slaapped! by a Blog.
that’s true ๐
Fences and dogs of gentrifing/ied neighborhood:
Original Residents: 3.5 ft chain link, pitbull
Artists or Gays: Decorates chain link with “art”, pitbull or other shelter dog
Young professional couples: 6+ ft wood fence, wife’s toy dog child substitute
Post Gentrification families: Cut wood fence to 3.5 ft adding trellis for flowering vine, labradoodle
$1+ mil Buyer: Iron bars with electric gate, rottweiler (because two blocks away there is still a house with just chain link and pitbull)
This person must live in Atlanta Georgia. I like this kind of white person. They remind me of me.
this list would be more accurately described as “What Educated Liberal Whites Like”. i know plenty of knuckle dragging neocons that love their christian bible thumping, hunting, sports, bashing gays and completely avoiding anything not specifically white in culture
I think this blog itself is an example of something where “white people can’t lose”, since in making a long list of “stuff white people like”, you mark yourself off as “exceptional”, which is whiteness is all about in the first place. If this blog has any humility at all, as it clearly purport to, it will include an entry something to the effect of โreciting lists of what white people likeโ as something white, hip, liberal, urban, upper-middle class people like almost more than anything else, because in doing so, the reciter gets to mark themselves off as though they werenโt subject to the group characteristics since they are “aware” (sound familiar?) of their existence, unlike all the other whitewashed buffoons! If that is the case, then this blog, as entertaining as it is, is no less white than the
โcanโt loseโ gentrifiers mentioned in this post, because most of the white, hip, liberal, urban, upper-middle class types to which it refers undoubtedly love this blog to death, awash as they are in their white guilt! I can just picture it now, *ironically* (and loving it for that reason) reading the “Stuff White People Like” entries on their MacBook Air, with the doors locked in their newly-acquired former-ghetto house, interesting how there is really *no escape*, ain’t it?
I live on Myrtle Ave. in Brooklyn about 6 blocks east of where that first photo was taken. For 6 years, and its a lot different now. I’m what it seems most people would call white. I think this blog has opened up the possibility for there to be a unique and useful discussion- if it weren’t so littered with unconstructive vague opinion and assumptions about people and culture, and the complexity of the class struggle.
How is it possible to judge a person’s level of involvement and responsibility in the class system that pervades all of capitalist culture because of their skin color? I’m also not sure why so often in our greater culture words signifying skin color so easily pass as descriptions of Culture or Ethnicity, and Ethnic Diversity. I come from a poor part of the East Coast and was raised in a lower middle class family. I live here and moved here because this is simply where I could afford to live and work. I have been given some opportunity for education by circumstance but also just as much from earning much needed scholarships and borrowing heavily from the government. And since this blog chose to focus on it earlier, it was an education in Fine Art, for which it was always plain to see would not make me wealthy.
How then are people like me responsible for gentrification? Aren’t the ones responsible the people who own property and naturally have the restoration and renovation of their property and that around it in their best interest as business owners? And no matter mine or their skin color isn’t there an equally small chance that I would be brought up to their class level and reap the benefits of their irresponsible rampant destruction/development by simply living here in Bed-Stuy paying rent?
My brother has personally removed hundreds of thousands or tons or garbage from the streets of Pigtown in Baltimore, boarded up crack houses, organized street parties and rallies that have brought the community together, volunteered with the guardian angels, raised the attention of local politicians, singlehandedly lowered the crime rate of that neighborhood west of that fucking eyesore Raven’s Stadium – and raised the property value of a sick and forgotten neighborhood in one of the most dangerous cities in the US (which is a huge sore for the Democrats that have been running the show for a while) where people who lived there before- STILL OWN THEIR HOMES. So aren’t there levels of complexity to the nature of gentrification just as there are to the people involved, their cultures and unique histories, people that make up a community? Is he a vehicle for gentrification or a tool for social improvements that transcends race issues, issues of color, and more importantly of CLASS? He has no construction company or stock in one, he’s a volunteer, who like me because of living in Baltimore, just got a gun stuck in face too many times to sit on his thumbs in his free time and watch football on Sundays of whenever the hell it is that people congregate to support huge sports franchises.
this site is absolutely hilarious.
http://www.thebronxzoo.wordpress.com
so the point is everyone stay in your part of town. no whites goin in 2 the hood and no blacks comin 2 the burbs. otherwise u’ll piss everyone off and theyll run u outta there or get their stabs in when desired.
btw whats up with that wittle smiley face at the bottom middle of the page..
Stuff Asian People Like
1. Noodles
2. Overachieving.
3. Making fun of lazy white people.
4. Eating food that smells like fish in that bad way.
5. Insipid ridiculously cute things.
6. Being as nerdy as possible.
7. Noodles
8. Acting white
i used to live in south philly (please feel free to tell me it’s rough and that you couldn’t live there) and no where else is this truer than in the city of brotherly love. every so often some white douchebag would get mugged and it made me smile. it was also frightening that on a weekly basis you could literally witness more and more white people in the neighbourhood. of course, i am white and a fall into this bracket of living in rough areas to impress people. i now live in burlington vermont, and when people talk to me about burlington’s “ghetto” i laugh very hard in their faces.
i don’t know who you are, writer, but you are the greatest blogger in the history of the internet.
I don’t see an entry for Seinfeld here. White people eat that stupid shit up. It was never funny – never will be funny and the funniest thing about it is that it made Seinfeld a fuckin’ millionaire.
anyone writing lengthy essays analyzing inaccuracies of the generalizations of this blog has completely missed the point. This is a joke. If you donโt get it or find it offensive then thatโs your problem.
If someone wrote “Things Only Black People Like” they would be racist, and all over the news!
I’m actively trying to stop that “smart growth ” stuff, the building of future baby boom geriatric ghettos, now known as “luxury condos” but because of the new voucher system brought to you by HUD, the ghetto can now move into these condos, and their is incentive for the owners to rent to them, since the vouchers are as high or higher than market rate rents. If *you* were living in an expensive apartment building, would you appreciate this, this new debacle of “disperse the ppor, that will fix it!” Just get rid of projects, if we put “them” with civilized people, they too, will become civilized. Yeah, good luck with that.
White people, do not buy condos for this very reason, you will be miserable if this voucher thing comes to your building and you will have no control over it happening. Greedy landlords/unit owners who don’t live there could care less what you have to put up with. Or, you can join them and have kid after kid starting at age 14 and use those vouchers for yourself.
This blog’s title is inaccurate. The values that this blog pokes fun at are the values of yupsters. They’re 1/2 yuppie because they usually have decent jobs and a few bucks and 1/2 hipster because they don’t embrace consumerism and materialism the way a pure yuppie would (hence the emphasis on “edginess” and “authenticity” which are the gods of the hipster). Yupsters are indeed usually white, but they are actually a pretty small subset of white people.
Thus, the title of the blog should be “Stuff Yupsters Like.”
@187
Now you know how minorities feel.
Agreed – this site is about White ‘Yupsters’, not ‘White People’, let alone “Hip, Urban White People’ as such – I’m from Portland, the whitest big city in America (‘white’ and ‘downtrodden’ enough to have a huge Nazi skinhead problem at one point) *and* the most liberal big city in America, and it’s the Yupsters that have gentrified it more than anyone, not the majority of the bohemian-types who populated it from the Sixties through the mid-Nineties or so (punks, hippies, indie rockers, anarchists, activists, artists, etc.). Despite the fact that they were mostly white, the original bohemes were generally either working-class, lower-middle class or middle-class, and most certainly couldn’t afford to buy a house, a Prius or a hybrid! That this blog doesn’t seem to get that indicates to me that the writer is almost certainly part and parcel of the Yupster crowd – and self-critical though he may want to be, I think it’s difficult not to notice that by making long lists of things that “white people like”, he gets to set himself off as a kind of exception to the rule since he is “self-aware”, and isn’t that really what whiteness is all about? In any case, kudos for opening up a very important discussion in a very big way…
I mean, isn’t whiteness really about being ‘the exception’? At the very least, this is what differentiates it from other races – this blog both disrupts that exceptionality and plays into it, me thinks…
Anonymous 124,
I can’t stop laughing!!!!!
Not that the older lower-class whitey ‘hipsters’ I am referring to don’t have their own humorous characteristics (indeed, many of the ones that don’t require large sums of money are listed here as a link between hipsters and yupsters), but only the ‘safest’ of those aspects were adopted by the yupsters, while those that embraced for instance, a politics of class conflict, of a critique of capitalism or nationalism, were of course, conveniently dropped (there was a time in portland for instance, when new yupster housing developments regularly had rocks thrown through their windows as they were being built) – one other criticism of this blog’s basic idea; in saying that all these characteristics are white characteristics, most of which indicate ‘hipness’, ‘openness’, ‘progressiveness’, etc., are you not thereby saying that people of color, by default, *don’t* have said characteristics, or if they do, that they are ‘whiter’ than those who don’t? if you really want to talk about whiteness, you must talk about class, and I see that as the major drawback of this blog, it’s made for those who wear blinders daily.
I think that the person who wrote this article should at least give some form of credit to the article in The Believer (Feb. 08 issue) magazine that this was inspired by. Right down to calling it “gentrification.” Great article, but don’t take credit for something that was not you idea…
It’s 2008. How do we ever expect to move on from racism with people posting ignorant blogs/articles like this? You should be ashamed of yourself. How would we feel if a white person was writing this stuff about us (black people)…saying the same kind of things? Then we would have a problem. Let’s stop acting ignorant…let’s start acting like we are educated and have some common sense. As long as there are black people writing ignorant postings like this…our people will remain oppressed and racism will never end. Investing money into an up and coming neighborhood is a GOOD IDEA. Let’s stop hating and learn from what we see others capitalizing on…remember that we didn’t always have the opportunities we have now. No need to keep blaming the white people for all our problems…that just makes us look bad. Let’s stop hating on other races black people, let’s uplift ourselves. Stay positive and please try to stay away from ignorant writings ilke this.
What white people seem to like to do the most is to attach significance to every fibre of lint they discover within their navels.
White people seem to love neighborhood watches
http://www.mamamatters.wordpress.com
FROM A HIGHER REALM OF UNDERSTANDING-(GODS)
Racism & Predjudice, stems from the Spiritual Root of FEAR..
Min.Tracey Estes
Suggestions:
– blogging (Livejournal in particular would be hilarious)
– jazz
– chick lit
– barbeques (lol!)
I thought this site was funny until I realized I actually like a lot of this stuff! F**k, I’m not even white (I’m Asian-Islander), but I got a white girlfriend, I like sandwiches, I drink coffee and listen to f**king public radio!
I think I’m going to do some hardcore ethnic rehab for the next couple weeks, I didn’t realize how much of a whitey I’ve become. I’m disgusted! Hahahaha!
White people love pointing out stupid white people tricks, cuz it makes them seem so much more ‘aware’ and ‘ironic’ (‘less white’). Then when the party’s over, and “awareness has been spread”, they end up the winners anyways, since they both showed humility *and* reproduced their privilege.
The cool thing about understanding white yupster culture is that you can infiltrate their white women by making them think it’s cool dating an ethnic guy. You pretend to be down with white yupster culture, but secretly you’re a militant, imperial hating socialist who would love nothing better than to kick some whitey yupster to the curb and beat their pansy a$$es to the ground! Secretly I just want to plant my seed into white women and raise our half-breed kids to think more ethnic than white. To me it’s a big F and a You to all those years of colonialism, slavery and BS given to all my ethnic brothers and sisters.
The pattern I’ve always seen is this – and of course I’ve seen it in New York, San Francisco, Phoenix, and other places. Because I’m pretty cool.
Actual artists move into a low price neighborhood in the urban area, because they need urban access and lots of space for cheap.
Hipsters and the like move there, to be in the cheap neighborhood to subsidize their under employment and gain hiptard points for living in the ‘real’ art nieghborhood.
Now that there’s white faces in the neighborhood the older gay and lesbian couples come and buy houses to renovate.
Property values go up, enticing the breeders in and displacing the artists, who had already displaced the original inhabitants by making it cool for the hipsters to live there.
The neighborhood is now gentrified, and plans for Whole Foods and coffee shops and adorable little resturaunts go forward.
You make me very happy that I don’t currently live in New York and that I’ve lived in other countries besides the US. It tends to make one less arrogant.
I read the entire thing. You should write an entry on how much white people enjoy reading numerous pages on white stereotypes. Without getting angry, I might add.
This blog is hilarious. Don’t get me wrong. I am not offended by any means. But I can’t help but question how someone non-white would take this sort of thing if it were geared towards them.
I am white, I am Canadian…I am the butt of ALL jokes. A little credit for us being good sports, yes?
#280 –
The term “Gentrification” has existed for decades. How exactly was this inspired by an article in The Believer?
Other things white people like:
* Spending a lot of money on underwear of all things
* Going for a run at 5 am
* Tanning (seriously never met a non-white person who lays outside in swimwear for an hour not doing anything)
* “Living together” with significant other
* Have to see fertility doctors to get pregnant.
* Root beer
* Paying $150 for hair color or cut
* Ham and cheese sandwiches
* Superbowl
* Camping
As a black man, I’m offended by the blog.
The comments do nothing but degrade our own race, by putting down another.
Embarrassing.
This blog is really funny, but by the time i read a couple dozen of the posts it’s like sarcasm/irony overload to the point where I start going “well but a lot of races like that” and “what was so funny about that.” I feel like i’m in some useless critical theory class in college where people just keep twisting words and making pointless observations. Thanks for investing a large quantity of your time in this, I guess?
Racist.
Could you imagine how well a “What (insert any minority) people like” blog would be received by the targeted community?
Ummm there ARE a lot of books written by white people that remind me of this blog but you’re too blinded to see. All these books such as “Clash of Cultures” regarding Muslims societies for example describe the “Arab” and the “Muslim” as a certain way…but you don’t see people calling that racist; nope they call it brilliant – political science in fact!
I like this blog a lot. It’s not like white people are the only people who like these things, and it’s not like all of these things are bad to like (bikes are totally sweet for tons of reasons, for instance!), but it’s the way that a lot of young, college-educated, middle/upper-class-raised, hip, urban, white people’s lives are defined by and limited to their interests, which are by and large selfish and commodified, that is so fucked-up and deserving of criticism. Lots of us can graduate (or not even, in my case) and get a shitty job and still have enough time and money to basically just hang out and do almost whatever the fuck we want. We’re all doing the same cheap shit, so we like the same shit. And most are too comfortable or ignorant to engage in social and environmental justice struggles. Though many still kind of care and therefore do green things to appease the gnawing guilt that our lifestyles are at the expense of the planet and people everywhere! Happily, there are also white people who do care and are smart and humble and passionate and do like a lot of things on this blog and do realize change needs to happen and therefore like–no… LOVE!–things like solidarity and anti-oppression work and challenging white supremacy.
actually, reading the comments section is the funniest part of this blog. the same asinine things are said over and over again – every ten comments are a repeat of the previous ten. it’s like no one actually reads what anyone else shared. 95% of you are morons – you realize that, right?
i am enjoying this blog.
you may have thought of these already, or maybe others have suggested…but what about:
adoption
PeaceCorps
Bob Marley
mommy groups
Uhuru
Gentrification = Harlem, NYC
stuff white people like:
THE MILITARY and OUR TROOPS
Even the liberals are all about the military or have been in the military. It’s a system dedicated to forming bases in foreign countries for strategic interests which will ultimately lead to the death of millions, but alas, they are fighting for “freedom” at the expense of millions of colored people.
also elaborating upon my previous comment, word-twisting….
you are “pro-life” or “pro-choice”…NOT “anti-choice” or “pro-abortion”….you are fighting “operation iraqi freedom”, not “operation oil at the expense of millions”…yours are “soldiers” and “freedom fighters” whereas the bad Arabs are “terrorists” but can we ask ourselves how many iraqi civilians have been MURDERED? Pick up a book (Baghdad burning)…WORD TWISTING
also you can add to your list anti-depressants: prozac, xanax, etc. etc.
Don’t forget that white people like to irrationally attack Barack Obama…or is that just Hillary. Well…make her apologize. Vote in this pole and tell her to apologize!
http://beertap.wordpress.com
Don’t forget that white people like Star Trek and Star Trek Conventions!!! They dress up as Klingons! (well…some of them)
Dude… there’s this site that tries to do the same thing. It has one about bargains that might be much like this post.
http://asians.thinkunique.net
I can’t watch movies any more. Thanks a lot! All the white person stuff jumps out at me, like when the happy newlyweds buy a dog or when a guy learns to be sensitive and to care about relationships.
My favorite part–when they state: I have black friends.
I’m must be the only English person reading this, or i must i’m just that twisted and don’t see it cos i thought this post was a big pile of poop.
Hell i’m all up or self deprecating us whiteys but really this post is just scraping the barrel, to say that white people and white people alone love to buy and do up houses in up and coming areas is just plain stupid and attempted provoking.
love and hugs
Johhny
So basically you’re saying that white people like to improve neighborhoods instead of driving them into the dirt to the point where they resemble Third Word hovels.
You’re saying that this is such a uniquely white behavior, it stands in comical contrast to how other races behave in this regard.
It’s like an inversion of “there goes the neighborhood.”
Scathing indictment, dude!
lol nice post! ๐
u got a new reader ๐
http://humanstuff.wordpress.com
Cool site. Im so happy to be white……write some more about me. ๐
What an incredibly racist site.
On the positive side, it makes me a helluva lot less guilty about myself. Apparently, we’re all assholes? And other races are even worse than we are! Then we can start hating the shit out of each other. How GRAND.
Whee! What a wonderful world it truly is [cue : huge big bomb; the end].
“It never ceases to amaze me the level of stupidity afforded racist white people. What is the real reason for this post? Its stupid, racist, and narrow-minded, and incorrect.
There is just as much drug dealing and using, prostitution, sexual, child and spousal abuse, pedophilia, murder, theft and burglary, larceny, and deceit in the ‘white upper class” neighborhoods and enclaves as it is in any other community, and thats when they’re not taking their curious asses to I guess what you call ‘lower class areas’ to do it all. Its just as ‘rough’, as you put it. There are just as many white people who like watermelon, shoot and snort heroin and cocaine, and everything else the rocket scientist above denoted to the other races in his lil rant.
You sound like a stupid hypocrite.
While their may be more money in the white neighborhood and the houses are worth more, their is nothing different going on than any other neighborhood.
You white people are just as full of shyt as you have always been. Get over yourselves.
And by the way if you cant tell by now I am a minority, a Strong, Educated, Independent, Spiritual, Black Woman. And I don’t like watermelon.
Your theory is blown.
Have a nice day~*
The whole blog is actually dedicated to Stuff White People Like. I don’t know if it is all tinged with hate as I felt this was, but any interested parties can judge for themselves here .
Comments welcome*
@124
I guess that I am I white woman then…
Though, I do like white male things too.
your comment did make my wife and I laugh, thanks.
….reading the points from the Stupid White People who are missing the point (being that, improving the neighbourhood is good, but the situation where the natives are driven out by the pioneers are bad), inspires me to wish for an alien invasion.
I mean, our us savages are clearly misusing our planet, war and pollution. We could have made our home a paradise, the potential is there, but we are all savages, we’re wasting our blue planet. A planet where life can live and develop is so rare, and we are wasting it.
So I invite the aliens to come. Clear away our primitive buildings. Anything they would have, should they have the means to travel to our planet, would be advanced. Our greatest buildings are nothing but ugly inefficient slums by their standards. We don’t have the deeds proving that we owe our planet!
Those aliens would be so civilized, they’ll try to do this as civilized as possible, they’ll move us away from the first lands they want to advance with transporters. We being savages, would surely not leave them alone. They’ll start by stunning us and containing us with force fields, because they are civilized. We being savages would try to steal back our land with force. Responding the threat, the aliens would then have no choice but to start controlling all of us and eventually removing us just so they can live in peace on their new planet.
It’ll be a improved, they’ll be improving our planet. All is Well.
OMG – this is one of the funniest blogs I’ve ever read. You’ve nailed white people. ๐
OMG – this is one of the most funniest blogs I’ve ever read. You epitomize white people. ๐
I knew there was a conservative undercurrent to this blog that bothered me in a way I couldn’t quite articulate: check the post on ‘Asian Girls’, specifically the phrase “should white guy / asian girl marry, they produce hybirds that are aestically pleasing, but are very annoying”. Yeah, way to go hip, ironic, anti-racist white guy blogger!!! You totally convinced me!!! Shucks!!! ๐
( https://stuffwhitepeoplelike.wordpress.com/2008/01/20/11-asian-girls/ )
Wow. Nothing stirs up the pot like the word “gentrification”. White love the outdoors, but oddly prefer to live in the city because rural people are too “ignorant” and the nearest Starbucks is at least 10 minutes away. They hate the suburbs, even though most of them grew up there, because it wasn’t diverse enough.
just to not confuse crok, the Justus posting on here is not djwhitelightning———- Berwyn
I just had a convo with some of my white friends about this…they live in a gentrifying part of Philly, one street over from the crack dealers. And when I say that, i mean, I’m standing in their back yard one morning having a ciggie butt (because I can’t smoke in front of their children), and I see two black men appear from the ‘abandoned’ buildings one the street over…they wave to me, I wave back, and both of us go about our bizness. Later in the day, I found both crack vials and part of a crack pipe laying in the gutter. Sweet.
Anyhow, my friends are vegan and they’ve got two kids who wear a lot of organic cotton clothes and play with wooden toys. One of the kids is 4. Now the parents are all het up about the idea that Little Vegan is going to go to school WITH BLACK CHILDREN. Of course Dad’s problem isn’t that they’re black. No, no. It’s that the school has “low standardized test scores.” Uh-huh. Have they been in the school? No. Do children wear uniforms at the school? Yes. Well, that probably means that the 5 year olds won’t be sporting gang colors and flashing signs.
Then I got all this hot air about how gifted their (white vegan organic cotton) kid is. Well, yes, he can read already. So…um…any school they send him to might be “not challenging enough for him,” regardless of whether it’s in urban Philly or not.
(I’m also one of those ‘ignorant’ rural white people. That must be my problem!)
Stuff White People Like #75:
Taking things too seriously. Because Goddammit, if they don’t get up in arms over these entries, who’s going to stand up for the people they actually apply to?
For reference, I live in Japan, in a shitty neighborhood, and I don’t have a car.
Ergo I am like the White Messiah.
There’s more than one way to be critical of this blog:
1) As an upper-class whitey yupster who can’t handle any criticism whatsoever (I agree, these people should lighten up).
2) As a person of color or hapa who doesn’t enjoy being both ‘praised’ for being ‘aesthetically pleasing’ on the one hand, while cast as an ‘annoying’ tragic mulatto or whatever, on the other (see the ‘asian girls’ post).
3) As a working-class, lower-middle or middle-class whitey who might fit some of the descriptions but not others (who could never afford a Prius or to buy a house).
4) As a white racist of any class who thinks its just ‘reverse racism’ (fuck those people too).
While I am sure there are many more, at least don’t confuse these three, they are *very* different.
There’s also the equivalent number of ways to *enjoy* the blog, some of which I think are more interesting than others – most of those who seem to ‘enjoy’ it, I find quite uninteresting.
I think I seen the author on Fobster. Pinay pussy is my fav
I don’t know about you guys, but I fucking hate that shit.
Posted by DJ
“Wow, I read several contradictions in the article. Let me start by saying Iโm a white guy who lives in a down town (not a good downtown) neighborhood. So white people like the no lose situation.. True. I should hope everyone likes these situations, as a white guy I canโt speak to the self hatred some one must have to not want to do something unless they had a chance to lose. I look at risks and determine for myself where the silver lining is if everything doesnโt come out the way I plan. As for up and coming neighborhoods these are new neighborhoods I think you meant to say revitalized neighborhoods in the context of your article. Up and coming neighborhoods are the most risky place to buy a home because you donโt know if some rich white guy isnโt going to buy a bunch of houses and rent them out to people that have no pride in ownership. Up and coming neighborhoods could go either way (good or bad). Property is usually set to get middle class into these houses because they feel like they are not moving into a bad area yet can still afford it. As to the credibility I get when I tell people I live downtown. I get some sure, it feels bad to me when people donโt understand that I feel safe downtown not because I personally pack heat but because all my neighbors watch each others back for the same fear that any moment a gang war will erupt on our block and we will defend our property as the articles of this great nation allow. When someone ran through my yard one night and my place was surrounded by police I feared for my life. Not because of the bad guy but the trigger happy cop who didnโt identify himself as police when I went out into my back yard to see what all the noise was. He just saw some guy with a weapon and yelled โget down if you donโt want to die!โ I did not get down. I did not want to die. He was a terrorist to me who I do not negotiate with. I turned slowly (he did not fire, just kept yelling โDown, down!โ) he saw I was white and lowered his gun. I am sure if I were not white he would have shot me. I get no credibility from nonwhites on this story. So I do get creds that I feel I deserve but from making the cop think twice before breaking the law (he is required to identify himself first โStop this is the policeโ would have been niceโ). If he was not the police (as I truly did not know until I turned) I was not going to make myself a still target. So my creds go to my bravery? No again, I took a chance and it paid off, not the way I wanted but certainly not a win – win situation that we white people love. But laying on the ground I had no chance. So my creds should be for quick and clear thinking in a time of extreme stress. The cop I tore into later for a number of reasons that he agreed could have went better but for number one reason he did not shoot when I did not obey. He stopped because I was white. They had a vague description of the man they were looking for and he could have been as white as me. He was either never going to fire or he had prejudice in his mind which makes him a bad cop either way. Iโm not offended at this article just offended that because white people want to make the world a better place they, shouldnโt be allowed to, because they are white, tone of it.”
Shut the fuck up you white faggot. Stop thinking you’re so cool. You’re a trendy faggot.
#328 = clueless
Who would want to live in a big city with no land, where houses are 20 feet from each other, pay millions of dollars for a house that costs less than a 100K anywhere else, spend way too much money on luxury items, blah blah blah. This goes for whites or blacks(hi hop star wannabees, bling bling).
Good one! For a very eloquent photographic statement on gentrification in the East Village, check out http://neithermorenoreless.blogspot.com
sorry, spelled it wrong. http://neithermorenorless.blogspot.com
And when one of them gets hit with a stray bullet or mugged and beaten to within an inch of their life you should laugh at their stupid asses. I do.
Black people like to gentrify too people. The predom. black church in my neighborhood bought up an entire block of low income housing and turned it into lofts and condos. I’m just saying…
Please. Only white people with no money (or gay men) live in neighborhoods that are being gentrified. Those of us with kids live in nice neighborhoods with good schools and white-like minorities like Asians and Indians. Trust us, those in the good neighborhoods do not genuinely give the gentrifiers credibility or respect. Behind their backs, we snicker at what fools they are and can’t wait to hear their latest story of being robbed or mugged. We visit them to live life on the wild side but are very happy when we get home to our nice safe neighborhood. We know they’d be with us if they could afford it.
Bravo to the person who is willing to protect his or her property in a bad neighborhood with a gun or a pit bull. This country’s Bill of Rights has a Second Amendment for a reason, so that the brave can protect the goods they have worked to create.
There is nothing “authentic” about living in squalor with no sense of self respect or responsibility for one’s own destiny, and no shame when youngsters steal bikes or mug people. That is pathetic, not authentic.
Those same upper-middle class whites who are paying for their hipster teens to travel through Europe are also paying taxes to subsidize unemployed or partially employed “authentic” adults in an authentic and oppressed life of Playstation and booty and smoking dope. Cry me a river.
To quote Charlie Brown:
AGGGH!!!
There was some comment on here somwhere left by someone named Grace Chu, that I thought was dead on – when she detailed how she was banging her head against the wall because of some of the responses to this blog.
I never EVER leave comments on any blog, yet feel compelled to here.
To the people who complain and “point out” over and over again that this should be called “stuffwhiteyuppieslike” or whatever derivation thereof: that’s the point, kids. The frothing anti-black rants that have appeared on this site are pretty much telling as to what the whole problem is in the first place – we haven’t really gotten anywhere in getting over race. But really this whole thing is about class, or in simpler terms, money. All the posts about how terrible black people are usually are connected to a lack of money, which is a big thing in our nation.
I keep getting, over and over again and from each and every post, the idea here is not to attack anyone, but to merely point out that whiteness has been invisible to white people for so long that we have no idea what we’re doing. Which is being fairly consumerist, self-involved people. That’s not to say people of other ethnicities are not very capable of being totally self-involved, selfish d-bags as well. When I lived in Harlem, I was always dismayed at how the “historic residents” would litter with abandon. It was sad to me because of what it made the otherwise beautiful neighborhood look like. Did I pick any trash up? Nope. Mostly because I was seething that “those people” did not share my values. So the litter stayed on the street. So productive and helpful on my part. Now that I live on the Hollywood/Thai Town border here in sunny LA, I am treated to seeing people of many ethnicities litter with abandon. Are they inherently evil? No. But did they get the “be good to the planet” education that was installed in my head when I was six, by my parents and my schools? Most likely not. When you’re from Eastern Europe and running from whomever is trying to exterminate you that particular Tuesday, as opposed to who was trying to exterminate you last Tuesday, wondering where to toss your Kleenex is probably not at the top of your list.
Poking fun at a group of people who historically have gotten most of what they have ever wanted is NOT the same as poking fun at people who get the door slammed in their face over and over again because of how they look, sound or prepare dinner. Because those things still dictate how much money they make, therefore where they live, therfore where their kids go to school, therefore what opportunities those kids have, etc. If this distinction in appropriate humor-targeting sounds unfair to you, or like a double standard, I’m not real sure how to convince you otherwise.
OK, today’s rant over. But there will probably be more. I can’t help myself.
Ha. See: Royal Oak, MI
This blog makes me so happy!
Thank God for liberal white people. They are the only ethnicity that we can all ridicule regardless of our race. They bring us all together finally.
Roc – The anti-aging skin care experts
LOL
Tony,
The idea that “white people have run the world forever” is nonsense. It only appeals to people who think history began, like, last Tuesday. And that “minority” means “Blacks Urban Americans.”
In the Europe that most white people came here from, there was no such thing as “white.” Instead, there were centuries of ethnic and religious and imperial wars. Even in England, the idea of a unified “Englishness” was not the reality to the Puritans fleeing persecutions where people were burned alive for being Protestant or Catholic (depending on the season) in the London fish market.
What these immigrants built here was a new shared identity based on principles. These people were concientious enough to extend these principles to everyone, regardless of race or color.
I am glad to hear young “hipsters” are moving into inner cities. They will learn the hard way that the principles that make American society possible are not universally upheld, and will learn to enforce those necessary responsibilities while protecting the accompanying rights for the other people around them. Regardless of color.
How ironic, we live in a society ruled by laws and not by despots. How funny, we share a written language and read books for a pasttime. You, like, totally pegged me! Omigod, I never realized how silly I was for not dumping garbage and toxic waste around myself. It’s like you can read my mind. How uncool we are to try to speak other people’s languages and visit their countries to increase our understanding of the world, instead of barricading ourselves in the hills.
How ironic, we live in a society ruled by laws and not by despots. How funny, we share a written language and read books for a pasttime. Omigod, I never realized how silly I was for not dumping garbage and toxic waste around myself. How uncool we are to try to speak other people’s languages and visit their countries to increase our understanding of the world, instead of barricading ourselves in the hills. Lmao, we believe in silly things like Human Rights that some white dude made up. Are you spying on me, bro? Rotfl, that gang of teenagers mugged me and shot my best friend. That’s so me!
It all sounds very “ironic” or “funny” or light hearted. Maybe to some young people life does seem that silly and meaningless. If they really do spend some time living in poor areas or on vacations in “exotic” places, they will learn that the matter is hardly funny or trivial or ironic in any way.
Wait, Human Rights were made up by White People?
My really old relatives still talk about the “No Irish Need Apply” signs that used to be posted in Boston. See, I’ve been oppressed!
Come on.
But, all that aside, I’m sorry your friend was shot. That’s awful.
I love this site, except for when the Whites get all smuggy. Like “yeah, ha ha. We are such douchebags. I totally ruined almost every neighborhood Sister Toldja holds near and dear to her heart”. Wait, too much?
This should read “stuff RICH people like”
i should know
i am poor and white, and being pushed out of neighborhoods because i(and all my friends) cannot afford the rent.
pretty funny, though, and thourally ture..except often the people raising the rent here in Seattle are chinese, japanse, indian, arab…You name it…
The only way it is ok for white people to live in a neighborhood that you are describing is if they actually contribute to the community – teachers, organizers, someone (anyone, no matter what ethnicity)who is there for the betterment of the neighborhood ( and not by buying coffee from starbucks) who humbles himself/ herself to the people they work with. But most of the white people who move into these neighborhoods are there for the exact reasons you describe – money, hipster status, their ego, etc. And if that is the case, yes white people do need to live somewhere – but in most cases, they have the financial means to live ANYWHERE they want. Why do they knowingly drive property values up for people who do not have this choice?? it’s manifest destiny – a mentality thet they can go anywhere and do whatever they want to whoever they want; because “we white people have to live somewhere”
see also:
NoDa – Charlotte, NC
Plaza-Midwood – Charlotte, NC
Dilworth – Charlotte, NC
Cherry (not quite there but almost) – Charlotte, NC
pretty much there will be no hood left in the hood
The thing about living in an urban area near a university is that when you are in the elevator of your nice, “safely ethnic” condo building and a white person, usually older person who has an acedemic background, asks what you do for a living. God forbid you are not a student or professor, and that you are just a “professional.” That stumped look lasts all the way to the 23rd floor.
This entry is too funny and too correct! A related “white people” trend is looking down on people who live in Virginia or Maryland instead of DC, New Jersey instead of Manhattan, etc. Of course, you never look down on people who can’t afford to live in the city — just other white people who are “boring,” “unoriginal,” etc.
Yes, European people did invent Human Rights. In particular, the English and French Enlightenment thinkers, who were drawing on older English common law and Christian scholastic traditions. Spanish Jesuits also played a strong part in establishing that all people, including “indios” met in the colonies had God-given rights as human beings.
And all those Irish, Germans, Russians, Poles, Jews, Italians, and so on did have to put their pride on the shelf and set aside their old world differences to become Americans. That is what “whiteness” meant. It meant setting aside all those European national and religious hatreds.
The old Enlightenment thinking on property is: use it or lose it. That means, put it to productive use for the betterment of your fellow human beings. How can you tell if it is useful? Well, if they are willing to exchange their resources for the resources you cultivate with your own property. Also known as commerce. What is the result? Beautification, improvement, and a world worth living in.
Why should someone feel the least bit sad when neighborhoods when nobody steps outside after dark and the only businesses are pawn shops and liquor stores become trendy coffee spots? Maybe instead of scheming how to hold up the new Starbucks, young residents should think about making themselves presentable and getting a job there. You know, taking part in the world instead of resenting it.
And if you don’t want white people or any other people moving into your neighborhood, buy it. Of course, to have money to buy a neighborhood you must make yourself useful and engage in commerce with your fellow human beings. That’s how it works? Otherwise? Nobody has a right in this country to keep people out of neighborhoods because of their race or skin color. Freedom means freedom for everybody.
http://www.anacostianow.blogspot.com
http://www.jdland.com/dc
http://www.frozentropics.blogspot.com
http://www.pqliving.com
http://www.princeofpetworth.com
Neighborhood Gentrification Blogs: another thing white people like.
In Philadelphia many of the central neighborhoods were black and beat and now they are integrated and very nice. Gays and Blacks that don’t like having their conveniently located areas gentrified by others should buy into them and so that they don’t get forced out. Poor whites in Philly have the same problem, like in Fishtown, although I’m sure many of the residents there would be happy in the beauty, safety and security of the burbs. It’s more of a class thing than a black white thing. Besides most of the areas being gentrified by whites today were white before blacks moved north by the millions. It’s ok people, just get your own money and stop complaining so that you are not left behind. People in Harlen aren’t happy but I’m sure that the whites that were displaced a hundred years ago were not happy about the influx of the different ones.
Thomas:
I find myself agreeing and disagreeing with some of your points.
I don’t think a lot of European Americans have put aside their ethnic identities, at all. And that’s not a bad thing.
And off of the Human Rights thing – now correct me if I am wrong, but wasn’t much of the Enlightenment thinking based on Greek and Roman pre-Christian thought? Now if I’m remembering my Classics correctly, Classical Greeks had a whole thing about themselves vs. “barbarians” i.e. people who didn’t speak Greek, and therefore just how human they were considered was up for debate. As power shifted to Rome, then to the Goths and Visigoths who later on knocked Rome around, the idea of who was white/had power shifted around. It still seems to be quite fluid.
And, here’s a sincere question on my part: Have we, as Americans, really tried to improve the lot of our fellow man with actions and not just words?
And Thomas Jefferson, as brilliant and crucial to the creation of our great nation as he was, didn’t he own people? The Sally Hemmings controversy I think also highlights that we have, at best, an extremely complicated system of race in our nation. Is this complicated tango between whites and non-whites intricate? I think so.
If anything, I think we should all be happy that this blog is inspiring debate on these topics that so many of us would simply not like to talk about.
Other white people can be the pioneers and live in a “truly diverse” neighborhood as Boomer mentioned above. I have few misgivings about my disdain for black people.
I could live among Mexicans as their crime rate is only 30% higher than white people’s and they are hardworking. But when you consider black people have a 350-450% rate of per capita violent crime as compared with white people it becomes obvious to see why they are detrimental to property values.
So now instead of Jim Crow laws most white people self-segregate based on economic pricing. As in: now we have to pay more to stay away from large quantities of black people instead of just being honest with them and letting them know we don’t like living around them and rules are rules.
@ Thomas Jefferson: your last post portrays the never-ending, racist stereotype that white people “improve” the neighborhoods they move to which were either dominated by people of color and/or poor. In many communities the native populations HAVE tried to better their neighborhoods: pressing local government and politicians for better and more fair services, including public transportation, schools, parks, even sanitation services. The problem is, often the complaints of people of color and the poor fall on deaf ears, because these are two groups who have never, and continue not to be, priorities in America. When white people start moving into these neighborhoods either two things happen: 1) business and government just assume these will be better residents and make more investments in the area or 2) the white people will start complaining about the same things the native population has complained about for years, only they will be listened to. Then, after the neighborhood either becomes safer, or beautified, or whatever, all credit is given to the white “pioneers” who moved in. Where I live, I can think of several neighborhoods which get crappy train service because the residents are black, hispanic, and lower income to working class. As the white population increases in these neighborhoods, I can bet you that service will eventually improve.
As someone who’s seen many neighborhoods get gentrified by white people, I’ve noticed several stages. First, when their numbers are low, the white people mostly try to stay out of the way, keep their head down, and keep a low profile. Because of course, all us people of color are after them, right? Second, when the numbers are a little higher, they still aren’t running things in the neighborhood, but duck people less and keep their heads up a little higher. Third, once their numbers are REALLY good or the neighborhood’s reached full gentrification, they start looking at you, the non-white neighbor, like “What are YOU doing here?” Hilarious, but not really. I have a black friend in a still-sketchy but “up and coming” part of Brooklyn who had the lovely experience of being locked out one day, and as she sat on the stairs waiting for her roommate, she had a new white neighbor to the building interrogate her like she was some derelict intruder into the building. And not that it should matter, but she was wearing nice work clothes, not exactly looking like an intruder but that’s the point – racist whites don’t observe anything but the color of your skin. My friend was furious, and made the newcomer to the building feel really stupid, but that’s the kind of stuff we have to put up with sometime. Whoever said that these whites move to the suburbs as soon as they have kids was totally right (and I’ll add, or until they get a better job). Yeah, stuff is cute until they have kids and realize they don’t want to send them to the crappy schools poor people get. What they don’t realize is that what they consider “gritty”, “authentic” and “cool” is oftentimes just “reality” to the native population, who is often not living there because they made a “cool choice”, but out of necessity.
Ha ha, I know where this picture was taken.
It’s a few blocks from the Pratt Institute, on the border between Bed-Stuy and Clinton Hill in Brooklyn.
You know, it’s not only white people who’re moving back downtown, sometimes to formerly cr@ppy neighbourhoods. I’d think that YASPs are doing that too. I bet you don’t know what a YASP is, do ya??
welcome to capitalism. by it’s very set-up within city government, it will only encourage gentrification. TIFs, urban renewal, “Blighted areas”.
Or rather only the rich will live with the rich and the poor the poor.
and in the in-between, well…
Can we blame their children for seeing the lameness of their parents lifestyle if only for a few brief years before making the transition themselves?
the more money you have the nicer the shit you can afford.
and for people with lots of money that is usually what they want. nice stuff, in a nice place. For those that make money by taking advantage of that, gentrification is a welcome process.
lol makes me wonder what lies ahead for my neighborhood …where whites/asians are creeping in by the numbers…it only means the pact is on its way…..they’re taking over!!
#232 “Iโm already worried that this site will inevitably become too mainstream (see โtrucker hats,โ and โethnic restaurantsโ) and force me to colonize something else.”
Im a black woman…and I can only let a select few black friends in on my finding this site lolol….. wouldnt be as much fun…dont want it to get ghetto in here…..that would be a mess lol
On point like usual. Lot’s of yuppies here in Seattle, and they loathe the thought of living a 30 minute commute away from the “urban” areas. If the house is nice, new, and modern they despise it. They would rather live in a shitty home built in 1876, buy some Milgard windows, set up some rain barrels, and soak up the culture of the crackheads down the block.
I hate this blog, even though I haven’t read much of it.
You recently stated that white people like ‘accumulating sexual partners, binge drinking, drug use’. Me and my family do not need to told what we do and don’t like by some ingnorant arsewipe who is obviously lacking in education.
How would you like it if someone wrote a site called ‘what americans like’. Then started to talk about shooting people, invading other countries and denying citizens healthcare.
all these white people talking about their whiteness in the comments are pissing me off.
Sorry, I take that back. There is some pretty funny and entertaining arguements in the comments section of this blog, so maybe it isn’t so bad after all.
I shouldn’t be upset about racial stereotyping by a few people when it won’t lead to any problems – gender stereotyping is a different thing altogether.
I agree with white person. People who feel defined by the colour their skin are pretty lame.
There is still some very entertaining comments here tho.
I think you should disable the comments board. I’m starting to smell racism.
the only thing white people like more than gentrifying is hating gentrification.
“this neighborhood was so great before it was gentrified!” said the white person.
So true! Bring on the white peeps to my hood! Raises the property value! hahaha
Hilarious blog.
Do you get any of your ideas from niggaknow.com by any chance? Similar content with a different presentation.
Ahh Jessica the typical liberal. We wouldn’t freedom of speech or expression to interfere with our liberal religion of political correctness, now would we? ๐
This is so true…I’ve seen it happen when I lived in Harlem last year and now that I’m living in downtown Atlanta…
Just remember, “Arguing on the internet is like competing in the Special Olympics. Even if you win, you’re still a retard.” (credit to AOSHQ blog)
HA!!! I love this blog. I am white and live in an up and coming neighborhood in St Lous. However, it has nothing to do with the cred, it has to do with wanting to live in a beautiful old house in an architecturally rich neighborhood. Where do we live if we hate the suburbs?
Gender stereotyping! Yes! I’m all for it…
The issues that make the peeps so righteous is the best source for humor.
Astoria what!!!
Yep. That’s happening in Detroit.
so true!
check out this blog:
http://dastardlylatchkey.blogspot.com/2008/01/jesus-sorceress.html
White people make everything better.
This is so true!
I lived in what a realtor called a “compromise” neighborhood in Minneapolis in the 90’s.
The Crips moved a distribution center in the house across the alley from us. Our garage got tagged and had bullet holes in it.
Needless to say, I joined the community organization and was on a first name basis with the community police, the drug unit, and the gang unit.
Needless to say we lost money on our house, but I got some real white cred out of the deal.
What about the concern over thread count in sheets. Tell me this is not a white persons purvue
My favorite comments are the really long rants from people who “get” this blog against people who don’t get it. Meanwhile, they don’t get it either.
Living in St Louis, I welcome gentrification. For the first time in years the population of the city has grown and crime is down. There is always plenty of ghetto, we need more gentrified neighborhoods.
Hmmm….taking up charity cases like feeling bad for those disenfranchised, Sounds pretty white to me. Go work in a soup kitchen or something that matters rather than taking up ON A SATIRICAL BLOG. Yeah, I am sure gentrification is pushing those who have time to message on blogs all day out of their “hoodz.”
“Opinion has caused more trouble on this little earth than plagues or earthquakes.”
-Voltaire
shit is true, when i moved to bed-stuy 4 years ago, all the white people on the train were like, “you know that jay-z video, that is where i live.” including me, i would say that to people. banana
stuffjewishpeoplelike – keeping money! hahaha!!!
When white folks move into a neighborhood, it’s gentrification. What is it other races move into a neighborhood? (Just axin’).
For Latinos the answer has got to be “gente-fication.”
I live in what I had hoped would be an “up and coming” neighborhood” In central San Diego. The only reason I am there is because it is all my wife and I could afford. And now that housing prices have taken a huge nose dive, it looks like this is where I will stay.
I have lived in poor areas for most of my life, (mainly white trash which is where I evolved from) but let me tell you – I have never been in quite a place like this. Since apparently race is the theme of the original poster let me just tell you that I USED to be a pretty liberal guy – but after seeing what all these fucking welfare losers do all day and all night while I am trying to sleep – Im starting to lose respect for people, and I dont care what your race is. It is odd that when I lived in the poor white neighborhoods I wouldnt see so many of them killing each other though.
Three “Section 8” units on my street (that means the good tax payers pay so that losers on welfare can get low-rent and spend their money on getting howling drunk on a Wednesday night when their checks come in while working folks try to sleep). Like clockwork. Every month. Wednesday, until 3 or 4am. Cops have been out so many times they dont even bother anymore.
I’m all for helping a single mother or helping someone out when the chips are down – but PAH-LEASE. Spend a week on my street and its enough to turn any bleeding heart liberal into a foaming conservative racist.
Im not there yet. But one more tagging across our condos back wall, one more broken car window, one more skanky fat assed prostitute blowing someone in front of my condo, one more drive-by shooting – and I can start to understand their way of thinking.
What am I talking about? This cant be true. Im white, so I must love it here cause it makes me look cool and I will make loads of MONEY!!! Im white so any option in the WORLD is available to me – I simply need to decide how best to rule all!
What a load of shit.
hmm.
So are non-white people violent by nature?
hipsters love brooklyn, but brooklyn now, not 80’s brooklyn. I cant stand em! baby i was born in Queens and still live here. i dont need no white ass hill billys moving into my city takin my jobs and thinkin they know about nyc life becuase they hang out in park slope or love williamsburg. NY doesnt want you! IM CALLING ALL HOME BRED 5 BOROUGH FOLKS HERE! IF YOU WANT HIPSTERS GONE< MAKE YOUR VOICE HEARD! this aint funny or ireverent or witty. its just the truth! Hipsters you always tellin me your “over it” WELL I’m OVER YOU!! QUEENS FOREVER!
Oh my god, I was white before I even knew it. I grew up in one of those neighborhoods you know the type. Well maybe you don’t, it’s where the local bar cashed your paycheck a couple of white guys with lot’s of vowels in their name would drive in on paydat selling liquor and cigarettes out of the trunk of their car but they were gone by dark. The guys on the corner all had a bottle in a paper bag, now their kids are slinging dope on the same corners
Iif only my father had known it, he wouldn’t of busted his ass to get us moved out of it and by now that old cold water flat were be worth a small fortune, I mean it was authentic – bad heat to no heat, plumbing that didn’t work most of the time, newspaper stuffed around the windows to keep the cold out and urban wildlife in the walls. Damn, if only he’d of known.
I’m white.
Is the difference between a hipster and a yuppie their wardrobe? If two people from Ohio move to Brooklyn, one to Bushwick and one to Park Slope, and work for Condรฉ Nast, who is the hipster and who is the yuppie?
If I can’t afford to live in a “post-transition” neighborhood, should I move out of the city altogether? I mean, I’d love to live in a better neighborhood. Perhaps I should go back to school and get a better degree with the hope of getting a higher paying job. But then I’ll be a yuppie. Help me…what should I do?!?
to #391: I think the person with the trust fund is the hipster and the person who works hard is the yuppie
re: “Thomas Jefferson” (PS: How are your sex slaves doing?)
/Middle Eastern/ Jews invented human rights before white people did.
…and somebody before them invented it first.
The concept of human rights constantly rise and fall. For a recent example; look at America.
bong
Touche my friend…..touche
You want to see white gentrification at its whitey whitest? Come to Denver. Check out curtis park. whittier. the baker neighborhood. Five Points. Here, it’s all about new new new housing (“Starting at 400K!”) and fix-n-flips (done poorly) but buyers can forget about any accompanying services. business owners aren’t about to risk getting shot even if they open next to a new 1M condo complex. yeah, i’m a white lesbian woman and yeah, i moved into a “transitional” neighborhood, where most of the people (predominantly african american) on my block have lived their entire lives. We treat each other like family. we sit on our porches and talk when it’s nice out, we bake/cook for one another, we house sit, we call 911 in unison (unbeknownst to the other) when shit is going down on our block. i yearned for community, couldn’t afford to buy “into” it, then found it where I landed. what a joy. Are my neighbors bitter, in some ways, that they sense a lack of respect for history and community coming from the other whites who have since moved into the ‘hood? yep. I would be too if someone walked his dog by daily with nary a hello. simply put: don’t move into these areas if all you’re investing is your money. invest your spirit. this is america, and we all have a right to live in peace with our fellow americans, regardless of the color of their skin. all this said, I think this blog is kickin’ and yes, i know it’s satire but it brings up points that need to be discussed. so why not here? why not now? peace out.
Thank you so, so much for this blog. It makes me laugh my lily white arse off.
Sincerely,
Obama Girl
I always wonder what happens to these hipsters when they have kids: chances are even if they’re dual income couples they don’t make enough to send multiple kids to private schools. And they wouldn’t dare send their little Jill’s and Johnny’s to inner city public schools, because while they’re “not raciss” they recognize those kids are animals and the teachers do little more than crowd control.
So they follow their typical cliche program of moving out to a McMansion in the suburbs. They wouldn’t want to appear “racist”! Oh no! It is some other factor other than that desegregation has ruined inner city schools, it has to be. The media says so. And to go against the media would require independent thoughts..and thinking is hard.
gentrification isn’t loved by white people, it’s loved by people with money.
and i think hoolie wants a medal.
its really apparent that you are from los angeles
Making fun of white people is so easy. It’s the most acceptable, digestable form of comedy that everyone can feel comfortable laughing at. Sarah Silverman sucks, but she’s a lot better than this.
By the way, you should really post some biographical information if you’re going to have a website like this.
so true ๐
white people need to look up more.(points to the POIS MUL fill in on the top of that building)
I don’t know why so many of you are calling out your gentrified areas? Is it time to sell-up now?
I’m not going to advertise where I live because I don’t want all of you moving here and upsetting the delicate balance of racial and economically diverse neighbors I have by whiting it all up.
I’m not gentrifying (repairing run down old property in the city, yes), I’m going out of my way to protect the neighbors, of all colors and incomes from the likes of you yuppies.
You people are so self-absorbed, you can’t even see what you’re doing to the neighbors you chose to move next to. I just hope that by telling everyone how I have to keep big dogs and guns and watch where I walk, no one with profit driven goals will buy into the area and we can improve our neighborhood from within, by raising ourselves up.
#30, its people like you that should stay in the suburbs, dumbass.
White people like moving into the 3rd (top) floor of a renovated Brooklyn Brownstone and telling people back home they occupy a Penthouse in Bushwick Heights!
White people like: Neighborhood associations and neighborhood ‘planning teams’.
Call them “Urban Pioneers” for added kudos.
All White Americans wish they were Black men.
In general, I think its retarded that ‘white people’ think they are so special that they have a special that no one else besides white people do these activities.
Get over yourselves. You aren’t the only ones that do certain things.
Don’t define yourself by excluding others. TIS STUPID.
Let me correct my typing:
In general, I think its retarded that โwhite peopleโ think they are so special that they have a website devoted to their so-called whims.
How completely ridiculous that ‘white’ people believe no one else besides white people do these activities and they are now dubbed as ‘white.’ even if they are.. they aren’t worth mentioning since they aren’t white..
WRONG
Get over yourselves. You arenโt the only ones that do certain things.
This blog was about how white people like to be the best and how they want to be better than everyone. They say that white people try to buy a poor home and fix it up so they can sell it for triple the amount. When other white people think they can live in an environment that one white person lives in it makes them feel good.
This blog was about how white people try to do things better than other like in this story they want to make their homes look better than other’s because they want there houses to sell for more. They get homes in the low development areas and sell the house’s for more then usual
gentrification = the reason i had to move from harlem and commute 3 hrs a day from Connecticut blehhhh
White people pay income taxes, they always end up owing cause they make lots of money and don’t have any real deductions like kids or a 30 year old unemployed brother living with them eating all the captin crunch and putting the empty box back on top of the fridge, downloading yung Jezzy on their PC and using all the toilet paper. He needs a job or a girlfriend. Does anyone need a dependant to claim for next year?
so funny, and true. places where gentrification is taking place, right now. Harlem, NYC, Bed Stuy, Brooklyn, and Washington DC.
377. not true. white people make everything pedestrian and commercial. prime example. the heart and soul of new york city. it’s gone.
My friends came up with this list of signs your barrio has been gentrified:
1. optometrists can’t keep up with the demand for black rimmed glasses
2. you can get your checks cashed at art galleries
3. the new street wars are waged between starbucks and the coffee bean
4. tlc is filming an episode of “flip that house” next door
5. your house and old furniture is now considered vintage and art deco
6. second had stores are not too expensive for the working poor
7. it seems that everyone’s t-shirts are too tight
8. all the couples seem to be white guys with asian girls
9. the paleteros start selling gelato
10. koi fish and cherry blossom tattoos no outnumber naked chola and aztec calendar tattoos
11. your neighborhors start a hybrid car club
12. the local theaters only play crappy artsy films now
13. according to your neighbor’s t-shirts, it’s cool to be a nerd or a dork
14. nag champa smell outweighs carne asada
15. cop response time has greatly improved
16. roosters aren’t heard in the morning, only the soft meows of siamese cats
17. bike lanes and dog parks are created
18. “the big lebowski” is quoted more often than “blood in, blood out,” “american me,” and “mi vida loca” combined
19. people walk their labradoodles instead of their pitbulls
20. your barrio is considered “ghetto” because you have a trader joe’s instead of a whole foods market.
– from puro pedo magazine
Seriously, how can you not get the joke with this site? I continue to be flabbergasted.
ha ha ha! sooo true they really need to get their own culture.
When they move in, they generally wear powdered wigs and tricorn hats as well. It is truly American to embrace and edify the spirit of pioneering. Also, it is not a true renovation unless there is some sort of “Green Technology” built into the new house and the architecture resembles an office building.
It is important to note that the gentrification usually begins with gay white men moving into the black neighborhoods. For some reason, the gays are really good at renovations, gardening, decorating, etc. The gay white men feel oppressed like blacks, so they think they can walk down the streets around black folk without any trouble.
The gays invite their trendy white friends to oscar parties, America’s Next Top Model parties, and Project Runway parties to expose more whites to the up and coming gentrified black neighborhood. All of a sudden, the blacks will begin seeing Mercedes and BMW’s and Land Rovers parallel parked in the ‘hood, and this is one of the first signs of gentrification.
The white pioneers in the hood also love fences, gated parking, alarm systems, and electronic code pads at the gated entries to their loft complexes.
The trendy white folk also love hosting art shows in the buildings that are about to be turned into or have been turned into lofts. White yuppies–who have just graduated college and are part of the city’s predominately white art community (supported by rich white daddy’s money)–love such shows to display their artwork. Sometimes, young white female photographers will display interesting pictures of black subjects–little children, women with dreads, and black babies. White people LOVE artwork and photography of BLACK BABIES. Especially Ann Geddes. And, the coolest black babies are the ones that white folk have adopted from African orphanages.
Whilte gay white men are the majority of the gentrifying pioneers, some trendy hetero couples with children do take the leap (because the long-term equity investment in real estate justifies the risks of high crime and being around blacks). There are two preconditions for the white parents who move in to gentrify the black neighborhoods: the must have their kids in (1) a magnet school or (2) a private school.
I must agree that the sprouting-up of a coffee shop (with free wifi) is a definite indicator that gentrification is irreversible and well underway.
Another indicator is that no longer are the neighborhood’s dogs simply chained to trees in chain-link fenced-in backyards. The dogs belonging to the white folks are actually walked around the city sidewalks in the neighborhood: when you spot a white person walking a dog, the neighborhood is undergoing gentrification; when you spot a white person walking a dog with a poop-bag, definitely.
The white folks also bring a torrent of photocopied advertisements stapled to telephone poles on the sidewalks. Usually, they will advertise a [white, rock, punk, alternative, accoustic] band performing at a local bar/club. In election season, the gentrified houses will actually have political candidates’ signs in their front yards. Note that the white folk who have gentrified feel guilty for taking advantage of poor old black people, so the candidates they support are almost always liberal, democrats, black, or female. (They know their property would have been in danger had they boasted a George W. Bush sign)
There are some advantages to the blacks who stick it out through gentrification. (1) All the white folks have wireless internet boxes emitting internet connectivity throughout the neighborhood, so the white create a virtual bublle of free internet (except for the ones who keep the connectivity password-locked). (2) The public parks become safe, even after dark! (3) Grocery stores that carry fresh produce–especially organic shit–move into the neighborhood. (4) Their property values sky rocket!
What’s really interesting are the minorities that cry about having to move out of gentrifying neighborhoods.
They are too stupid to realize the neighborhoods were all European/White before they showed up and turned them into crap.
What’s funny about gentrification in Portland, OR–one of the whitest cities in the whole country–is that the only people who really discuss gentrification and the displacement of the relatively small black community, are the white folks responsible for gentrification. It’s the whole notion that well, we moved into your neighborhood, raised the property values, opened up a bunch of overpriced businesses that cater to yuppies, but, hey..let’s have a “Gentrification Forum” so we can talk about how you really feel. Then you have the activist, left-wing pioneer types who tell you that the neighborhood needs more businesses that the working-class inhabitants of the neighborhood can shop at and try to fill that niche by opening up a anarchist bookstore.
I’m not sure if someone else mentioned it but you forgot to put neighborhood pioneers in quotes. As I am sure you know that there are already people living in this location that would consider themselves pioneers in that they moved into the “best” neighborhood they could afford and attempted to make it “up-and-coming” but were silenced due to the fact that they lacked the “noticeability” of the yuppies that move in just to be considered “neighborhood pioneers.”
Just an observation.
God I love this site. I think I’m just going to hyperlink stuffblackpeoplehate.wordpress.com to this one…
yes. i do want a medal. love to hit those buttons, baby.
ooo, did I say baby? i meant brian. now get out of my way while I set up my global community bake sale in my xeriscaped front yard.
example…Washington Heights..a.k.a Hudson Heights in Manhattan.
Shit, this one is me too. i like to use the term “ethnic” though
I happened to be black and moved to Harlem from out of state as one of the so-called gentrifiers. I really dont like that this blog acts like there are only white people who have money or taste. Most of the stuff mentioned in this blog and on this website are not a ‘race thing’ and its stupid that race is pegged to it.
In my luxury building, its predominantly foreign and black, 60% gentrified and predominantly educated middle – upper middle class. People from Jamaica, Ethiopia, Barbados.. etc who own business or have professions live there.
Only an ignorant idiot would look at them (black) and dub them poor and therefore hurt by gentrification since they most certainly are not.
The rest of the tenants are a mixture of white and asian.
This blog and this website is just another reason to pretend all other ethnicities are invisible, segregated or somehow inferior to whites. Tis pure BS.
OK, I’m a white chick that moved into an area before it “gentrified”….except, I was moving BACK to the area…I grew up there when it was almost 100% Jewish. When I moved back it was probably 50 percent Hispanic, 40 percent African American, 10 percent white. Yes, there was a lot of crime – we had gang-bangers trying to sell drugs off our front porch, and gunfire punctuated every evening. But the residents were for the most part, cool. (Most of the dealers/bangers were not from the area! They just came there to “work.”) Now, the area has gentrified, and we’re losing some of that feeling of community. Nobody likes to hang out in front of their place, get to know each other. The white people seem to like to stay inside, sitting in front of their big-screen TVs. On the weekend, they flee in their SUVs (to suburbia?) Sad for the ‘hood. I don’t like that.
Thomas Jefferson – you seem to have missed the main point of the enlightenment, which is that conclusions must be based on reality rather than faith.
“What these immigrants built here was a new shared identity based on principles. These people were concientious enough to extend these principles to everyone, regardless of race or color.”
Look at the same name you chose for great examples of how this simply was not true. Ask Ms. Hemmings, who remained in slavery.
The ideals of the enlightenment were placed in this nation (and are currently under attack, mainly from born-agains). But to pretend that blacks, Mexicans, and other “urban” people were afforded the same opportunities to be considered “real” Americans as others is just laughable self-blindness. To write that is just pathetic.
#405 – I’m right with you. I too have had to hide my neighborhood from others, in the fear that soon they will come and gentrify it. Just the other day I was at my favorite unknown bar in Brooklyn, drinking a Schlitz and discussing how PBR at bars has become another sign of hipster commodification. I wound up taking the bartender home, but had to blindfold her so she wouldn’t find out where my loft was! Needless to say, she treated me like a serial killer rather than the hip with it guy I am.
Mock us if you will, but just when was the last time you saw a neighborhood get safer and pricier when it turned from White to Black?
Only keepin’ it real, bro.
You are genius.
“I really dont like that this blog acts like there are only white people who have money or taste.”
Yeah, I’m with you on that one…
Other things white people like:
o Throwing trash in the garbage can
o Eating healthily and not having a massive coronary at 40.
o Educating their children.
o Reading books.
o Saving and investing.
Well, you get the idea…
“We had gang-bangers trying to sell drugs off our front porch, and gunfire punctuated every evening. But the residents were for the most part, cool. (Most of the dealers/bangers were not from the area! They just came there to โwork.โ) Now, the area has gentrified, and weโre losing some of that feeling of community.”
Fucking brilliant satire…
That line about Lewis & Clark was priceless.
Other things white people like:
*tipping servers
*speaking at volumes that only the person(s) we are speaking to can hear
*giving our children names that other people can pronounce
*using crosswalks
*EARNING a living
*taking responsibility for one’s own actions and decisions in life
There’s nothing funnier than when sh*thead yups compare themselves and their gentrification activities to the Ellis Island immigrants who came here with nothing.
It just shows you how far gone their line of thinking is.
White people like the name Jessica. I hate that name and I hate all people with that name. They’re disgusting, predictable, clueless, self-absorbed elitists. Every non-white person should spit on a Jessica today in protest. No more Jessicas.
I’m wary of the “double-bind” that arises from Gentrification and White Flight.
If the number of Non-Whites move into a neighborhood, things “tip” and the Whites leave. White Flight. Negative connotation.
If the Whites move back in, it’s Gentrification. Again, negative.
So, if you’re criticized for either way you go or choice you make– guess what you get to do with the criticism. . . Ignore it. And that’s not “White Privilege,” that’s just “Privilege” in general. Have fun moving around!
Barrales, ABQ, NM
Stuff White People Like has been stealing our website layout ideas. http://asians.thinkunique.net had Recent Posts and Top Posts before this site had it.
So true! I live in the Mission District of San Francisco and there are White people who just love this place. They love the idea of living among the poorer Latinos, getting the opportunity practice the horrible Spanish they picked up while living in Guatemala, or Costa Rica, or Mexico, or someplace that they spent time in with daddy replacing the money in their ATM. The thing about them moving to this neighborhood is that once they settle in, they start demanding changes and get really loud about all the things they don’t like. Mom and pop neighborhood people are not that organized politically so the white voice is heard the loudest. All the social problems that bother the White person start to become eliminated one by one. First the block changes, and all the poor people of color are finding themselves priced out of such up and coming neighborhoods. This spreads out beyond the block and developers start constructing lofts on every corner, the rents also skyrocket, and more white people move in. They usually come with their degrees from another state or are trust fund “artists” who love the neighborhood for what they still believe it to be. They start to become clique-y and think they are too cool with their yoga or their skinny jeans, white trash look. They look right through the old neighborhood folks, or the short mexican guy oogling them. Some eat tofu and all organics, and others take pride in calling themselves and their people “white trash.”
I grew up in the ghetto and now go to a top ranking college. I live off campus in the projects. There seems to be some confusion in academia and this blog. Whiteness is not synonymous with privilege. The stereotype articulated here is one of RICH, EDUCATED white people. The assumption that white people are never oppressed or discriminated against is a dangerous one and a contradiction of my life experience. Poor and white are NOT mutually exclusive. I can appreciate the humor here but I just had to call attention to this assumption that white means privilege. MONEY means privilege.
TRUE – but I cant afford to live in a cool “rundown” neighborhood
I’m a poor white person and I hate gentrification.
Cannot. Gentrify. Fast. Enough
10 Things I love about gentrification:
1. The garbage ends up IN the can, not NEXT to the can, or free-floating down the sidewalk.
2. There are no 2AM serenades by hoodrats walking down the street, screeching into their cells phones, in front of the house.
3. The shopping carts stay IN the local grocery-store parking lot. NOT at the bus-stop, or on the sidewalk in front of your house.
4. You don’t have to carry pocket-change everywhere, for the half-dozen people saying “hey, uh, mah fam’ly, dey in da car down deh, and I neez me fohteh-tree cenz foh gas, so ah kin geh to Indy’naplis. Can I haz foh-tee tree cenz?”
5. The local pharmacy sells more pharmecuticals and essentials, than malt-liquor and vodka out of plastic bottles.
6. The blockwatch is a social event, and neighborhood gathering, NOT an armed, radio-carrying patrol, ala Bagdhad 2006.
7. Houses will actually sell and even better, be bought by people who give a shit about the neighborhood.
8. The person at the school-crossing is a school-employee or volunteer, NOT a metro police-officer.
9. Your gun can actually get unloaded and locked away at night in a safe, not put in my night-stand, next to a flashlight.
10. The garbage you throw away will actually STAY in the bin, and not pulled out, opened up, and read-through, for personal information.
Well done. I would add the following: ever notice how white people claim to be from a city when they really grew up in suburbia? I’m a native Chicagoan from its (gosh) South Side and grew up there. However, when I meet some folks and tell them where I’m from, they’ll also claim “Chicago” as their home. Further questioning reveals they’re from Evanston, or Winnetka, or (God!) Naperville. So why don’t they just say that? Can we have a piece on Faux City Natives or something?
Ah, this made me laugh. I live in Santa Monica (a white stronghold), and while I love to live next to the ocean, (very white of me!), I’m looking to move to Downtown LA! It’s in the gentrification process, is very hip, and somewhat affordable. (As affordable as LA gets.)
I live in Scituate, but I just say Boston because if I am across the country most people will have never heard of Scituate and I’d have to explain it is just a rich white town on the coast about 20 miles south of Boston.
Hell, it’s rare to meet someone from an actual city because those born in the 1970’s WERE mostly suburbanites due to the black riots of the 1960’s that forced everyone to move.
There are some Whites that stuck it out, cared about their neighborhoods and the city, but most “Whites” engaged in White flight most especially the Jews who bailed on the city the most. In most diverse cities you find the Italians, Poles, and Irish that stuck around, whereas the Jews mostly fled and self-segregated into a few suburbs.
It is funny to hear Puerto Ricans, Blacks and other minorities whining about “their neighborhoods” changing today. Don’t the dumbasses know that Europeans BUILT those neighborhoods in the first place??? Seems to me, that the rightful owners are just finally returning to THEIR neighborhoods. I love gentrification.
402 – the guy that does this blog is white, thats why there’s not much biographical information on here. i think it’s funnier that he’s white though
We got a place in Toronto that’s at Queen and Leslie and they give it a cutsie name, Leslieville. You drive down Queen at night on a Saturday and maybe there are couple of people outside a restaurant or two, but I can’t say the area is thriving. They list houses there for about $500K for a semi-detached.
2/3’s of the populace is currently living below the poverty line.
there’s an area further west of there called parkdale. nice old houses…some quite beautiful and stately and many converted to flats and rooming houses and there are low-income apartments surrounding it to the North and South.
the immigrants who settled in those places wanted to get the hell out to an area they could stretch into. the children of immigrants are educating themselves, getting paid well, saving their cash and buying nice places where they don’t have to ride a streetcar with a bunch of other hipsters with the “sh*t what have I gotten myself into” face. 40 minutes on a streetcar, 25 minutes on a Go Train, the city is still yours for the taking. the only difference is you can actually live and stretch and breathe.
besides, TO is not and never will be Manhattan (just a note to all those people from Barrie or Kingston or Strathmore or Woodstock or Ottawa or London) that think they’ve arrived when they start working in TO. I’m born here…I know.
Hey, this site is killer. One thing that is really interesting about white people is that they like to refer to white people in a gentrified zone in the making as “people.” For ex. “I’ve been seeing more people out at night”… Conversely, if there are people of color out at night, they might say, “It’s not safe at night.” Do you know what I mean? It’s pretty subtle and took me a while to figure that one out, but when I did, I thought, “Wow, you people are really slick!” Ditto for this site. This site is really, slick. Big props to you for showing us how cool white people are with their whiteness. So, anyways, can I be white now, too? I’d like to get me some of that privilege stuff. You cool with that?
Help! I just spent 6 years at probably the whitest hell (University of Michigan)!! And, now I want to come home–NYC. Before I left Brooklyn, those whities from the midwest hadn’t really invaded too bad…just parkslope & williamsburg…But now that Im back…I SEE WHITE PEOPLE!! Everywhere! It just reminds me of the horror of overwhelming whitenss. WHere can I go? Is there anywhere left that white peoples haven’t taken over?
Love,
Taffey Dollar
White people love to use names like Whitey McWhiterson to get a point across or to “diss” someone in a social setting.
I DO understand that this blog is intended to be sarcastic, but after reading so many posts about white people destroying urban neighborhoods, it’s clear that many of you are missing the point. Nobody likes wealthy people taking over cool neighbourhoods and making them trendy — we all agree on that, but what the hell is wrong with riding a bike to work and drinking fair trade coffee? Actions such as these are the product of wanting to live responsibly, and Arrested Development is a brilliant, detailed, and intricate show.
I’ve just realised that most of the above paragraph will be disregarded on the grounds that only white people with lots of money enjoy reducing emmissions while getting exercise, or contributing to the cause of workers in other countries being paid fairly. Those fucking assholes, who do they think they are? One thing’s for sure, they’re NOT cool and/or urban. Still, the comments about Arrested Development stand.
To summarize: All white people should listen to U2 and stop faking appreciation for hip-hop and jazz artists*. All white people should recognise that they are extremely wealthy and should live deep enough in the suburbs that they can not ride bicycles to work; no attempt at community-living should be made and produce should be purchased strictly from grocery stores that use heavy plastic bags for goods and burn tires in the parking lot**. Arrested Development is a shitty show and white people should watch Family Matters or A Different World if they want to laugh and feel cultured. Finally, white people should stop feigning interest in environmental and social issues, wearing tight jeans, and volunteering.
*Eminem and Diana Krall exempt.
**White people should STOP using the word community.
White People have no culture and wish to be athentic???
Look at Europe and her cultural history!
White People like moving to a new place and making it better then it was before.
White People have come from so many different ” tribes” and so many different cultures that most White People have lost touch with who they are.
Just look at Great Britain and the cultures that have made the Island their home in the past 5000 years.
Don’t forget to mention this… the big thing that White People love to do!
Go psycho, pack a few guns then just walk into a crowded mall or their former workplace and just the hell out of everyone in their path
Donโt forget to mention thisโฆ the big thing that White People love to do!
Go psycho, pack a few guns then just walk into a crowded mall or their former workplace and just SHOOT the hell out of everyone in their path!
CRAZY WHITE PEOPLE!
#460:
Nobody likes wealthy people taking over cool neighbourhoods and making them trendy โ
Hey whitie, is that why you think we get mad at you? No, its not that that you make shit **trendy** (Hey everybody, notice how white people can only relate to our communities in terms of cool or trendy..here’s a hint, that cool neighborhood is MY HOME), its that you act as if we didn’t exist once you move in to **our** neighborhood. We have enough of that shit at work. When I come home I want to relax and not have to worry about some white people staring at me, like I was an alien.
but what the hell is wrong with riding a bike to work and drinking fair trade coffee?
Hey man, you know what…that shit is irritating. That’s what’s wrong with it.
Love,
Taffey Dollar
They do it backwards in Tampa. They move the projects into the suburbs and expect them to assimilate.
Funny shit right there.
#464:
I’m sorry if you’ve had bad experiences with white people in your neighborhood, but for someone who spent six years at the University of Michigan, I find it dissappointing that you equate all white people with those that live near you. Furthermore, in saying “[riding bikes and drinking fair trade coffee] is irritating. That’s what’s wrong with it,” you’ve done nothing more than convince me that U of M is on par with Devry. At the very least, you should have written something witty about white people on bikes or told your readers of the day a white person on a fixed-gear ran over your cat on purpose and then trampled your flowers. (That didn’t happen did it?)
Cool and trendy are the only appropriate descriptors for discussing and writing about neighborhoods, come on, with a six-year education you should know that. But seriously, focus on the point being made rather than the individual words that set you off. In that instance I was conceding that wealthy people moving into “your neighborhood,” changing it, and displacing those who were there first is something that we BOTH dislike.
I find it frustrating to hear your point of view, but at the same time, I don’t know what it’s like to live and breathe where you do. Also in the way of reconciliation, American cities seem to have much stronger racial and economic issues than Canadian cities, and I must confess that I’m writing from a Canadian perspective.
Yours truly,
Whitey McWhiterson
I poked around South Philly last year, in my Polish family’s old neighborhood. The sight of Midwestern hipsters and a Whole Foods nearly made me cry.
also, in my group was a Midwestern hipster who thought himself very “urban”. He nearly got conned by a bum until I intervened.
Gentrification isn’t limited to urban areas. Yuppies like to get their “mountain-man” on, especially in the Appalachians. Their million-dollar summer homes eventually price the real hillbillies out.
I can’t wait till all the Northern yuppies moving to the Carolinas and Georgia discover the “charm” of living in trailer parks and sharecropper houses. They’ve already started with mill-towns.
I’m in ur neighborhood
Raisin ur property values
White created all of these neighborhoods. Minorities turned them to crap. Whites are moving back to what they created in the first place to clean up the mess.
Have the Mexican Catholics ever built a single church ever? Give us our magnificent White-built areas back. Whites have no sympathy for whining minorities.
Wake up. They were NEVER your neighborhoods to begin with.
#468 “I canโt wait till all the Northern yuppies moving to the Carolinas and Georgia discover the โcharmโ of living in trailer parks and sharecropper houses. Theyโve already started with mill-towns.”
Do you know why this is happening? Because Whites are leaving the turd-world cess pool that is Florida, which is more non-White day-by-day.
The same thing is happening as White flee California for Oregon and Washington. When and where will Whites ever make a stand? So that their communities don’t turn to crap by non-Whites?
Liberal Californians, that allowed their state to turn to shit, are fleeing……but they remain liberal and will merely repeat their mistakes in the new locales, like North Carolina and Washington. It’s lunacy, when will the learn?
#467 To Polish Philly Matt:
Still, would you rather that neighborhood be non-White? full of crime, rapists, illegitimate kids, chicken joints and currency exchanges?
Come on.
#466
I guess I just worked whitie’s last good nerve.
Did you ever notice how white people try to tell you what to do all and how to express yourself?
Plus, did you ever notice how white people can never tolerate actual negative opinions about themselves from non-whites?
Love,
Taf
#473:
Please stop spelling my name incorrectly. If all else fails, just cut and paste from one of my previous posts. Oh wait, actually… nevermind, spell it however you like.
You’re absolutely right, all white people are allergic to negative oppinions held about them from people of non-white dissent. They don’t care if another white person thinks they’re an asshole, but they’ll do anything to make sure that an asian man or black woman thinks they’re “awesome.”
You haven’t said anything intelligent in three posts, so I think I’m done. It’s been swell. Please don’t hesitate to call if you’re interested in conversation and a cup of fair trade, organic, shade grown coffee. My treat.
Sincerely,
Whitey McWhiterson
Boomer’s a moron.
The people responsible for gentrification are morally and ethically equal to Eichmann.
Real estate “agents” that get three thousand a call for OPENING A DOOR?
There aren’t enough bullets in the world…
(And this is from a born and bred NEW YORKER…)
RIPNYC
One last note:
Taffey Dollar and The Precision Afrikan are the only clear thinkers I’ve read here.
And I’m a white guy.
RIPNYC
We have to stop patronizing businesses that support the illegals, like Home depot, and stop hiring those god damned landscapers, maids, babysitters, etc. DO IT YOURSELF, and put political pressure that you will not vote for support, and actively undermine the ones who go for all this amnesty BS ,make your schools as high achieving and parental volunteer-required as you can (that keeps them away) , encourage in your children a sense of identity, who they are and who and what they are NOT, that is not “hate” and it i very effective, because it is true. You might not like cops, but support them too, if they are doing their jobs, AND shame and expose contractors who undermine our society by hiring these govt service leeches, who don’t pay taxes with their phony little ITINS BS (Fake social security cards) We don’t OWE these people JACK . Try to keep your local community the same and vote NO on any new stuff that comes down the pike. New usually means trouble, and destruction of in-place enclaves. Even if it sounds really hip and neat-o, it won’t be. Your Lake Wobegon days will be gone for good. Don’t sell out.
Stop giving them money, encourage and support enforcement and laws and politicians who work against for border enforcement and stop supporting politicians who pander to the (grown) anchor baby vote, but most importantly STOP GIVING THEM JOBS and many of them will GO AWAY.
#474
Hey, did you ever notice how white people attack your intelligence if you call them out on their shit?
Love,
Taffey Dollar
How about Northeast Portland, Oregon!
“You Ain’t Artsier than Me”
Is it possible that white people move to poorer neighborhoods because of student loans? (mine are from undergrad, not grad, for the record.)
This blog hits the nail on the head every day. I recently read a post on a hipster neighborhood forum where a woman is alerting her neighbors that her niece got mugged on route to visiting her. At the end of the post, she exclaimed how delighted she is to reside in this neighborhood regardless of the mugging. Only a white person would do that.
Williamsburg was an “up and coming” neighborhood over 5 years ago.
There is still much hate in my heart for the trust fund fuckwits who lived next to me in my building cause it had a lot of “personality” and made all of their trust fund fuckwit friends feel real cultured when they came over, while I slept and ate in a sweaty little box cause it’s all I could afford. Of course, this isn’t the reason I hated them, but it is a symptom of their awfulness. Also, telling me I have a cool “look” when I can’t afford any new clothes.
#481 you are totally right
To the Jew in #475 that wrote: “The people responsible for gentrification are morally and ethically equal to Eichmann.”
So, what do you call the hordes that were responsible for White flight? Ha ha hypocrite.
Gentrifying neighborhoods were WHITE, and built by Whites, long before they became non-White ghettos. It makes my day to see Whites get civilization back!!! Go Whites.
Let’s see hispanic flight, the black flight!!!! Cry me a river!!! ha ha ha
Whites flee and they’re evil, Whites gentrify and the’re evil. Only a Jew professor thinks this way.
I don’t think the gentrification one fits with the rest of the blog. The unstated focus group of the blog is the white, urban, moderate-liberal, pseudo-educated, upper-middle class. The blog definitely does a good job identifying popular trends and causes among that group.
I think this one goes the opposite way. The while-liberal-urban crowd loves to criticize gentrification so they can demonstrate that they’re intelligent enough to recognize the importance of the issue. After all, white people love to pride themselves in their market savy. Anyone who knows what’s what with the market knows it’s uber popular to problematize gentrification.
If the blog were categorizing all white people, this would be correct. I don’t think it applies to the subset we’re looking at.
Percent of white men who like football : 98%
Percent of white men who like beer: 97%
Percent of white men who even know what gentrification is or have any role in it whatsoever: 2%
Trp, you can add the Bywater in New Orleans (which is actually the “Upper” Ninth Ward. Which brings me to another things white people love–neighborhoods with names (i.e., the ultimate lifestyle brand)
No, they don’t “love” gentrifying neighborhoods. They do it, but they don’t necessary love it (the act of gentrifying, not the neighborhood).
white people like to burn down ghettos while they are still occupied but they don’t have to because the occupants are so stupid they do it for them,hysterical isn’t it?
I enjoy how your posts teach me, a white person, how to deal with other white people. For example, I was talking to my friend who recently moved to the Bed-sty area. When she told me the neighborhood I lifted the direct quote “Oh man, thats rough around there, I don’t think I could live there.” And oh boy where you ever right. Flushed with the verbal confirmation of what a good and noble trailblazer she is, my friend regailed me with the specifics of her noble efforts to better her neighborhood with such gems as, “You know, I’m sure if you came here you would change your mind. The people are so original and refreshing. And my building is really big into outreach.
Oh also, white people love the term “Outreach”
#491, utterly genius of you to put it to the test. I’ll have to give it a try myself!
There are some that do this but it is a minority.
Moved to DC Columbia Heights in 1996. Neighborhood popular for prostitutes and crack. Bought a 7 bedroom house, waved at the prostitutes and drug dealers, began improving my property, so did neighbors, am selling house for about $1M because of changes I helped start. Next door neighbor didn’t like whites moving in the hood. Cranky old lady in her seventies. Her house was bigger than mine. She detested the change but when she got sick and needed assisted living, she was able to get $ 1 M. Don’t know what she would have done if she had to sell the house for $150 K as it would have been. This is one of the positive things about improving a neighborhood.
I’m latino and I feel I can add several more posts here from a latino angle. White people like, nannies, sending their kids away to boarding school, making salsas, having a latino friend, border towns, and not hugging, etc. I’d like to contribute. thanx
this blog is awesome and I’m upset I didn’t come up with it.
Gentrification doesn’t have to be ugly, although for some reason it just becomes that way. There has to be some middle ground. And, technically, all “gentrifiers” aren’t white and all “gentrifying” neighborhoods aren’t non-white. It’s all about money.
http://www.whygentrify.com
I’m living in a gentrified neighborhood right now and other white people keep saying how “noble” it is…. This blog is awesome.
http://www.northernliberties.org/
The ultimate in hipster gentrified neighborhoods.
hate to say it, but that pic was taken in my neighborhood…those buildings are a few blocks from Pratt – Classon and Myrtle i think.
“Note to white people:
This strategy (gentrification) only works if you donโt get murdered.
But, itโs important to get as close to actually getting murdered as possible.
I know. I nearly got murdered. In Ft. Green Park in Brooklyn. Back in the day before every other white person wanted to live there.”
Hard for these white people to get murdered as once they move in the police take their presence seriously vis-a-vis the black/latino presence. The white homesteaders are considered worthy of protection from these brown savages. Bottom line: Its not just realtors and white people we’re up against, but a larger racial superstructure that enables whites to win at our expense, whether they are slummers, artists, or professionals in BMWs.
I totally live in that neighborhood.
So…….. this is what what the Officer/Teacher Next Door Program is all about.
Don’t kid yourselves. No one moves into a transitional neighborhood for what it is but for what it will be. The last reason I moved to my neighborhood was to be near the lazy, dirty, ignorant, “authentic” people who happened to be the last residents of my gentrifying area. I, along with my neighbors have gorgeous homes that had been left to rot by those same”authentic” people. I bought and restored a home that had been empty for fifteen years, so contrary to popular belief I didn’t push anyone out. I’m sick and tired of hearing people complain while they sit around shooting the shit and drinking all day. If you can afford Steel Reserve and pot you can afford a broom and a can of paint.
Now I know the author of this blog is white. They used the word “gentrification.”
The last acceptable figure to poke fun at, white folks.
How ’bout things some of us urban white people don’t like:
gang violence
crackheads
graffiti
scores of illegitimate children
litter
homeless people pissing and sleeping in parks we subsidize
section 8 housing
welfare moms
deadbeat dads
THANK GOD FOR GENTRIFICATION!!!!
Everyone wants to trash talk it, but no one ever talks about it’s evil twin, ‘white flight’. We just gloss over those who invade neighborhoods they don’t pay taxes in and drive property values down with the increased crime rate they inflict on us. Double standard.
It’s hard to feel sorry for such white people. They can go anywhere, change everything around and point their fingers at everyone else for their discomfort.
This blog, to me, is utter hilarity. The comments are great, often revealing the thick, privileged accent of trendy white folk and’re rife with racist tones.
You tell on yourselves.
Actually, i think people in general tend to blame others for their discomfort. Seeing society’s ills on your street, due partly to the sytemic racism, sexism and classism that prevails in this country, must be uncomfortable for those who continually benefit from capitalist, racist, sexist and elitist practices. What to do?
Certain people have the money to fix that right up, to make it go away. To come in and stake their rightful claim to whatever it is they want.
And who’d want to waste their time, money and affluence to help build a community for all to share? Where everyone thrives?
So true!
Clicky…
http://moveitmoveit.wordpress.com
I notice that during these discussions, the white flight of the 50’s and 60’s is a topic that almost never comes up. Irish, Italian and German-Americans were systematically forced from their homes with blockbusting tactics that made their home values drop to shit, and there goes the neighborhood. Literally.
When I’ve broached this subject before, I’ve been met with instant hostility by some farcical suspicion that I have a sense of entitlement and all this so-called gentrification that is reinvigorating parts of American Cities is no more than a kind of payback, or reversal of white flight.
I don’t claim a sense of entitlement, but I like the city, and I’ll never go back to the ‘burbs. Good food, reliable public transportation, beautiful, restored architecture, lots of bookstores and pretty girls walking their dogs.
In Oakland!
#500 Cry me a river. All the non-White neighborhoods were White, and Whites built every damn building that you groids and spics live in.
Whites are the victims of crime. In the US there are 40,000 black on white rapes every year. If the American public ever really found out the truth on this, there would be a huge backlash.
In ancient Rome there was an idea to make slaves dress differently, but the powers to be rejected it because all it would have done is opened the Romans eyes to how many non-Romans were there.
All whites should read this and know it: http://www.vdare.com/taylor/050913_crime.htm
This webpage is funny and true. I just move to Roxbury, MA and they are trying to re-build that part of town. You ask me, it can use its share of white people and gays too, they always have money. Oh yes and I’m black… oh and straight (no homo).
Tonight’s episode of King of the Hill was just scathing anti-Hipster. West coast white folk, if you have a tv and watch fox cartoons for ironic purposes or not check it out.
King of the Hill is done by Mike Judge, who is kinda the anti-Jew, and the anti-Simpsons.
If Simpsons is anti-White jewish trash, then King of the Hill is pro-White in comparison.
Mike Judge made a good movie: Idiocracy
rent that!!
#511
As Roxbury developed in the 19th century, the northern part became an industrial town with a large community of English, Irish, and German immigrants and their descendants.
They built that neighborhood, not the blacks. Gentrification merely returns the original people to the area.
Today, blacks are complaining that high prices are pushing them out of “Harlem”. That also was White before it became black, so it ain’t “black” anyway.
“the gentrification of williamsburg is over”
tell that to the people who live east of the bqe
This post is looking at you NORTH PORTLAND.
Nah, J-Tyme. NE Portland has always been saturated with both whites and people of color (Irvington, Alameda, Hollywood especially). Now, if we’re talking Alberta, Kenton and St. John’s, that’s another story.
personally, while this might apply to me, I live in one of these said areas because I am flat broke with school loans and working at a non-profit. So I don’t think I have a choice, gotta live where I can afford it
the same thing is going on here in Austin, except with new fancy condo high rises bringing forth the new gentry. The funny thing is, people think this is bringing more culture. But really it’ll be rich people safe in their high security buildings still having to drive everywhere. No diversity on the streets, no streets teaming with natural city life. But they get to at least say they live downtown. There will be shops, but those corporate places thinly disguised as a local joint.
Its called being a good investor… real estate minded endividual. If you don’t like that, then get out of your mama’s house and get a job and save up for your own place to renovate, personally I dont have the disposable income to get so lucky, its all for money, not for props fool
To 485 English speaking Texan:
Your ignorance confounds me.
Not all the ethnic whites left the neighborhoods. But most of them ended up forced out, NOT by the blacks and Hispanics, but by the bastards that think that places that people actually LIVE are a way to make MONEY.
See, some of us ethnic whites had no problem with the blacks and Hispanics. My family (4th generation New Yorkers, BTW) sure as hell didn’t. We didn’t “run” when we saw them coming, and in fact my father used to laugh at the “white flight” when he saw it happen. So that “white flight” argument that so many of these pro-gentrification morons apply to this argument doesn’t work universally. Check your premises…
The blacks and Hispanics posed no economic threat to the ethnic whites–everyone was poor or working class, and things were fine. Sure there was crime–but there was PLENTY of (sometimes very violent) crime in the neighborhood I grew up in, WAY before the blacks and Hispanics came. (As though the presence of blacks and Hispanics necessarily implies an increase of crime…) Let’s just say that Italians can be very violent people…especially forty years ago…
Rich or upper class whites, however, DID and DO pose a threat to the poor and working class, because they have access to resources the poor and working class can’t even imagine having access to. Need an eviction carried out quickly? Just buy a judge. (That happens more times than you can imagine.) Need that bodega out of the neighborhood to make room for the next “free-trade coffee house/bicycle repair shop/Asian massage parlor/Hillary Clinton campaign office?” Just buy them out too–or better yet, buy out the landlord, who always happens to be, without surprise, an English speaking Texan who doesn’t give a rat’s ass about anything but what goes into their pocket…
You just don’t get it…
And as for the “Jew” crack… I’ll meet you at Saint Patrick’s Cathedral any day of the week, and we’ll see which one of us remembers the words to the Apostles’ Creed AND the Nicene Creed. Do YOU know your catechism? What’s your favorite David Haas hymn?
It’s just plain freaking confounding…
White renters are leaving Bed-Sty, Bklyn for Crown Heights to avoid harassment. Hmmm.
All people of all colors and ethnicities feel varying degrees of hatred towards one another; fueled by endless injustices or perceived injustices and ultimately blamed on race as it is the easiest to reconcile.
While human nature, it seems, will not change, the methods of communicating hatred are improving.
This blog allows for a shift away from a violent exchange to a virtual verbal exchange.
Enjoy it, this is as good as it gets.
#521 Oh get off your high horse.
“We didnโt โrunโ when we saw them coming, and in fact my father used to laugh at the โwhite flightโ when he saw it happen.”
Your dad is an idiot then, and he lost money on your family home, the nest egg of that generation. Ethic Whites had hge problems with the blacks and hispanics (West Side Story, Warriors, etc.), the MLK riots in Chicago, Detroit riots, etc.
You are a revisionist historian.
PS, I agree with you that not all ethnic whites left. Poles, Irish, Italians, Greeks did stick it out Jews were the worst of the “ethnics” that fled. Funny considering how much they supported integration and all that– but not for themselves or their kids. Are you going to deny that jews moved en masse to jewburbia suburbs in classic white flight? Moreso than any other identifiable group? How is the truth a “crack”?
Your crack about Italians was pretty weak. Italian neighborhoods always were safe, with low street crime etc…..until PuertoRicans started coming in. Stop watching “Goodfellas”which wasn’t about rapists and muggers anyway.
Your knowledge about retail rents and real estate finance (coffee shops) is hilarious in its ignorance. You didn’t go to business-school but some leftist/communist indoctrination center! Yuppies stores do not show up as a part of a conspiracy. They exist because the tenants can pay more rent, are a better credit risk, and have less troublesome customers. ALL Landlords prefer to sign leases with these types of tenants and so would you if your family owned property. That is “lease negotiation 101”.
I have no use for weakling post 1965 Catholics. There is NO SUCH THING as “judeo-christianity” and it didn’t even exist until post 1965. It’s a farce and a total contradiction in terms.
Inter-faith relations involves Christian concession to the Jewish perspective, and never the other way around. The sooner you and the post-1965 dupes at St. Pats and everywhere else understand that, then the pews might get filled again — like they once were.
may the lord accept the sacrafice at your hands, for the praise and glory of his name……yeah, yeah I know the Nicene creed by heart too. The mass has ended, go in peace!!
Today, even the original “White flight” suburbs are turning again, and the Whites are forced to flee again. Think8 mile road in Detroit which was once the dividing line…..long since move north. Whites need to make a stand somewhere or sometime and preserve what they build up, preserve their communities that always get broken up by others!
Does anyone care about the poor that are forced out of their homes as a result of gentrification?
Who buys weed from black people?
I get mine from a white dude with a degree, it’s home grown, sticky and full of crystals.
I don’t even know what that word means.
English speaking Texan,
It seems that YOU are the one who needs a history lesson with regards to white flight, and denigration of people of color, given your ignorant rants. In particular, you seemed to have forgotten the roles of institutions in the ethnic change of neighborhoods. These include the real estate industry, the role of financial institutions, businesses, and the like.
Ever hear of “block-busting?” Basically a cynical ploy by real estate agents who will sell a house to the first African American or Hispanic family in a previously all-white neighborhood. Typically this family will be a somewhat higher demographic than the existing white residents (and has to be in order to buy into it), given the scarcity of homes available to that family, so they AREN’T your stereotyped welfare family. Assuming that they’re able to buy the house (or the seller is willing to sell that house), real estate agents may try to panic other neighbors into selling their houses cheaply and then turning around and selling it at a profit to other families of color. Naturally this turned into a snowball effect.
Banks have also played their role too. Redlining and other discriminatory lending practices have also hampered Black families from getting home financing in neighborhoods identified as majority “black”. Banks have also been one of worst offenders among businesses that flee minority neighborhoods quickly, too. Home loans were biased towards new home construction and therefore suburbia.
The deindustrialization and disinvestment of US cities also happened at the wrong time for many blacks as they became urban residents – many of the well-paying factory jobs that Italian, Polish and other immigrant families used to sustain themselves and move their families upward socially started to dry up as blacks took their place. This adversely affected the tax and industrial base of the city and the neighborhoods.
Also, relative lack of political clout also hurt the neighborhoods going from white to less white…less city services and maintenance available, coupled with a shrinking tax base…hurt the ability of the city and its residents to keep up the neighborhoods. Now even after blacks obtained political power in certain cities, it was already too late, as the economic disinvestment had already happened, such as in Detroit or Newark. I would think IF the businesses stayed, IF the banks and other economic players were willing to serve the community, the neighborhoods would have stayed viable regardless of the ethnic percentages of the residents. Get your facts and perceptions straight.
And BTW, there are plenty of well-kept, affluent neighborhoods in several city areas that are majority African American. Ever here of the Gold Coast in DC? Sugar Hill, Audobon Terrace in New York City? Parts of Prince George’s County in Maryland (suburban Washington DC area)?
TO ยจStop Following Whites Aroundยจand ยจColor of Crimeยจยจ,
You demonstrate your ignorance with your deluded rants of white supremacy.
First of all, plenty of Mexican Catholics built churches. You obviously have never been south of the border, nor have you been to California. And btw, California used to be part of Mexico. The many missions that were built there and still exist today predate the USAยดs acquisition of California.
Secondly, many Catholic churches that suffered declining attendance previously are thriving because their congregations have many Hispanic, Asian, or African American congregants. Deal with it, sucker.
And frankly, as a California resident, I say donยดt let the door hit you on the backside when you leave. Weยดre happy to welcome people of all races here continue to build the 6th or 7th largest economy in the world.
BTW, Iยดll bet when your ancestors were still living in caves, my ancestors had a written language. So there.
#529
Oh here we go!!! An anti-White racist smugly calls someone else: “Ignorant”. Oh, right you sure convinced us all, of your “superiority” now!! These types of liberal rants are so self-contradictory and intolerant themselves it’s hilarious!
‘Color of crime’ is sourced from FBI and credible government sources, sorry if you hate that, I cannot falsify facts for you.
If one travels to Mexico as a tourist, one sees that the finest cities, architecture, and churches were built by the SPANISH (i.e. White Europeans), not Mexicans. In the USA, despite being here for 3 generations or so, the mexican-americans haven’t built one single church that compares to those built by White immigrants, over 75 years ago!!! Think about it.
Declining attendance in Catholic churches is an entirely different subject. Whites attend religious services in higher numbers than do non-Whites, so same me this “humble” non-white imagery that’s statistically false. Hispanics have a 45% illegitmacy rate in the US, but they’re such ‘Cathlolics’?
California is in near bankruptcy as the welfare state and its non-white inhabitants are sucking the state dry. Whites are moving back across the Rockies, if you don’t it’ll be your children or grandchildren that do it, cursing how weak and stupid and illogical you were.
Pac Man….you are delusional. Can’t wait for the rant response, with all the “names” but no with facts or intelligence.
ha, the “Soccer” one, very true. you are still however an idiot.
Funny stuff but it appears we have an imposter writing these. ๐
White people hate soccer. In fact, most of us don’t even recognize it as a sport. The reason being, any joe blow can play it. You have to be big and strong to play typical “American Sports,” not 5’4″ and fast.
As far as corporations go. It is the minorities who complain. The only thing white people don’t like, is minoirities getting jobs in corporations that they did not earn, through legislation (i.e. affirmative action). The funny thing is how quick minorities are to point out the need for such, but when you let them know they were given a job they didn’t earn, or let into a school where they didn’t make the grades, they get angry. The truth hurts.
The only other reason white people hate corporations is because they are actually held accountable why the minorities bitch and do nothing (not all, I know a lot of hardworking minorities, and a LOT of lazy white people). All they have to do is pull the race card and then the company is in trouble for firing a consistantly late, unproductive employee. Brilliant
Lately though white people have fallen off. The media has continued to dumb down the masses through various means, including, but not limited to, promoting this urban culture. RAppers are retards. They should be made fun of, not looked up to. This also goes for idiots like Paris Hilton or LL or Ricci, they are losers, plain and simple. Yet these idiotic parents let their kids follow this.
I leave it off with one example, we have spent century upon century furthering our complex language, and in the short time period minority culture has been shoved down our throat, our language has regressed dramatically. We have reporters and adults saying bling, hatin, etc. etc. Even English speaking people can’t speak English anymore.
P.S. I am writing all of this very calmly and with a smile. I find it comical. And on the bright side, the more idiots dumbed down, the less competition I have.
P.S.2. No not playstation 2. I appreciate diverse peoples, but I only appreciate one dominant culture in our country. Study some history folks. The downfall of every major civilization centers around 2 central themes: 1) weakening military, 2) letting in too many other cultures and not having a common language…if you think I am full of it, open your eyes. Look at the 40’s and 50’s, when our country final stabilized and we were all united, Democrats and Republicans alike. THen comes the drugs, diversity propaganda, etc. Show a normal black person back then, an average black person today, and odds are they would be appalled at the regression.
Good Day.
Oh yeah. And white flight. We build great areas, and run away. Not because we think other races are inferior, WE FIND YOUR CULTURE OBNOXIOUS! And before you fire back and say you find us obnoxious, WHY IN THE HELL ARE YOU FOLLOWING US?
If a black person wants to live in an all black apartment complex, I DON’T CARE. Quit forcing yourselves on us. When I was a kid, if other kids did not want me in their sand box, I found another sand box. The important thing is that separation is not forced. That is inhumane. But for the government to dictate that I have to let X amount of blacks or whatever in my community is absurd. THis is America, and I am free to not want to live in your community. God forbid I like my own race, I like other races too, but I prefer my own. What kind of terd would call that racism. What, because I don’t go out of my way to include you?
Where the hell is WET (white entertainment network), or why hasn’t FUBU been sued for not catering to white people like abercrombie was sued.
The best example I have is clubs, and it cannot be denied. Every time a new hot bar/club opens in the Houston area aimed at white people, it does great, and it is generally safe. They exclude white trash as well. Without fail, every single time minorities start coming in (indian people behave, others not so much) our clubs end up going to shit. We get ghetto booty dancing, more bar fights, and obnoxious loud people who dress like it is Halloween. There is only one popular place in Houston that is semi-clean cut left, called the drake, and it is already falling off. There are numerous blogs calling them racist etc… then you see the person writing the blog…some girl saying “yo, they wouldn’t let me and my homegirl in”.. If you say “homegirl” or yo in and you are not joking around, chances are you are an idiot. You have 10,000 other clubs in the city. Why do you have to come ruin ours?
The white people described here are politically liberal academic elitists who, despite all their expensive and irrelevant education, actually know less than nothing because what they think they know is wrong. These people also like to blame America first and tend to be self-deprecating, and although white themselves they believe white people are inherently bad and that all other races are better, more valid or more authentic. These white people make the rest of us look like idiots. Fortunately, the other white people are nothing like this, we are not so shallow or trendy, nor so misinformed. We are not Democrats.
Ah I love this blog!
I am white, and it’s dead on the nail.
It does describe only the white middle class though – but really really perfectly.
re: 467 Matt- While it’s true that there has been a new wave of gentrification in South Philly the past few years, mostly evidenced by the influx of people with sleeve tatoos and tight pants as well as rising rents, there is no Whole Foods in South Philly. There’s one on South Street at 10th on the border of Society Hill/Bella Vista (a neighborhood that was always upper middle class) and it has been there for ten years. If you were from South Philly (instead of “your family” being from there) you wouldn’t claim 10th and South was in South Philly. At least know what you’re talking about if you’re going to comment on a neighborhood.
re: 454 Gabe Harris- To follow up on 452- If you are from some small town near Boston, why don’t you just say, “I’m from a small town NEAR Boston?”
My friends and I call it being an “urban pioneer” – moving into the horrible wasteland created by the incompetence and disgusting, childish habits of the negroes and related coloreds and carving out a bit of utopia by building new homes and shops out of the wilderness. It’s sort of like when our ancestors settled the wild west by moving into territories occupied by the savages and creating a glorious civilization.
God, how I love the smell of gentrification in the morning! It smells like – victory!!!
#532, #533 Welcome Adam. It’s nice to see another White person here! You really know how to sum up White thoughts well.
This post made me laugh ’cause I think about gentrification and my role in it every day, as a White 2nd-Generation Puerto Rican American (some would say Another White Guy Trying To Stand Out From Other White Guys) who bought a 100-year-old “cosmetic fixer” with his half-White/half-African American wife in Hillman City, just on the border of Columbia City, both neighborhoods of southern Seattle that are in the process of being gentrified thanks to folks like me.
I accept that I am part of gentrification…my wife and I look forward to riding the Link Light Rail into downtown Seattle sometime towards the end of 2009. I don’t brag to my friends about living in the “wilds” of Seattle though…we bought a house in Hillman because we could afford, because we liked the house and the neighborhood. We’re planning to start a family there next year, and we plan to stick around to see what happens to the neighborhood. I would prefer that Hillman and Columbia didn’t become a nexus of competing Starbucks…we’ll see how it goes.
If I wrote a Blog about Black people like the one you wrote about white people as my personal facts concerning Blacks you would Come OFF The Hinges . Man you so high on your own self you’ve lost touch with reality . Wish you the best PLAYBOY How you got as far as you have is beyond me ! Brad Boshart ROUGH LOVE RECORDS LLC.
Ha ha ha!!!! Too f*cking funny!!!! Keep it up, I will definately be checking back.
haha i can see the building in the picture from my apartment! guess its time to pack it in and move deeper into the stuy.
#20…You hit the nail dead on pal…None of these places are ever really diverse…They start out predominantly black, and then become predominantly white…Really, if you didn’t think your property value was going to sky rocket at some point, and the riff raff was gonna move out…would you really buy in that area? Money talks…
#532 & #533…
Really guys? You can’t really think it’s just about us living in what you call “your neighborhoods”? I can’t believe you would write something so generalized yourselves…I live in a black neighborhood. I’ve lived in white neighborhoods…My fiancee’ is white, and we love Nascar! Ok, I don’t love it, but I tolerate it…Just like most girls do any sport. I would never stop you from playing in my sandbox. I paid for my college education and have never been on any sort of government support…
So now with all that said “can I please live in your neighborhood? You guys are jerks. It’s just a web page. You should really get some black friends…
#530 – Your funny. I love how you use the “FBI” as a formidable source of information. You weren’t very popular in high school were you?
I have not read this blog yet. However, my first opinion of this is the following.
White People? This is ignorance. This is the colorlessness movement and to use COLOR-words in describing a human is to throw gasoline on the fire of RACISM. So, you my friend are fueling racism by generalizing a specific segment of society. To continue your ignorance is to seperate society. That in which Jah Rastafari would call you a Down Pressor for your ignorance. You have much to learn about unity. And MARTIN LUTHER KING would slap you in the face for this blog.
Embrace your culture – Africa – Rastafari – COLORLESSNESS MOVEMENT will bring destruction to your systematic oppression of humans.
Peace, love and unity.
White people like reading blogs, writing blogs and jokes about white people.
I grew up in Prospect Heights, Brooklyn. Every word of this is true.
*weeps for beloved neighborhood*
Gentrification. Yeah. White people LOVE that.
But they will never admit it because it would requiere that they admit they are stepping all over communities of color and working class folks. Although they will come into the hood, love the “authenticity” then complain there are no Starbucks within blocks. Those bastards.
Lol, very true. I would also comment to say this sounds like most black people I know. Like the last comment in Q. In Seattle, if you go to the “CD” you will see the Starbucks packed! Much of our states gentrification has taken place in this area.
I guess the ultimate example of this would be Bill Clinton having an office in Harlem. Even though he probably never uses it at least he can tell he elitist friends about being in the โhoodโ at cocktail parties. I am always amazed when I see sanctimonious white people pretending they โget it.โ Come to my neighborhood and I promise you, you will โget itโ maybe just not in the manner you had hoped for.
Yeah. I live in Manassas Park, VA.
Shhhhh. Don’t tell those white folks who love gentrification that the so-called “urban renewal project” that created the gentrification used to be called “slum clearance” in the old days – it might ruin their day. But to make themselves feel better and assuage their guilt, they’ll just pledge to like Barack Obama that much more.
Like my grandma’s old neighborhood – she was one of the last white people to move out of her old neighborhood in the 80’s. Then some time later the city did a little “urban renewal project”, creating gentrification. Next, nearly all the black people moved out, and were replaced by white people, and it is ohhh so sophisticated now. So much so, that I loathe to go near the place. The name of the old neighborhood wasn’t good enough for the white people so they added the words “Art District” to the end. That touch just makes the neighborhood ooooze with sophistication and class, don’t-cha think?
Love the site. Lots of laughs. I do agree with another poster elswhere on the blog that it should be called “stuff progressive white people like.”
White people also like this website so they can see what white people like.
wow thats me
props to el beaner. that’s all.
#549 Wendy wrote: “Gentrification. Yeah. White people LOVE that. But they will never admit it because it would requiere that they admit they are stepping all over communities of color”
Fuckoff liberal anti-white racist. Why don’t you people ever get it? These neighborhoods were WHITE, and created and built by WHITES, before they became ‘communities of color’. These neighborhoods don’t “belong” to people because simply because they happen to be non-whites.
The non-white racist sense of entitlement here is astounding.
Polish immigrants come here, cannot even speak the language, yet they fix up neighborhoods that colored people (oops, make that “people of color”) can’t even keep clean despite being in the USA for generations.
PS For every neighborhood that is gentrified by Whites, there is another White area going to HELL!!!!!!
Today it’s the “inner-ring” suburbs and even some further out ones. They are the new ghettos, and unfortunatley they won’t have a critical mass of whites to pay into the tax base like in a larger city.
commin to da hood takin our shi……..
So if it’s not gentrification white people are being blamed for it’s abandoning a neighborhood en masse, i.e. “white flight”. Personally I’d take being gentrified and getting some of the profit from rising property prices rather than being in an abandoned neighborhood and get shafted on the plummeting prices. Anyone with a brain would.
Also, you should come to liquor stores uptown NYC They have bulletproof teller windows that you slide your money through and then they give you the booze. . And also, the one on 145th and amsterdam fills up with about 75 people on a Friday night. Also, a block away from where I live in hamilton heights, a man raped a Columbia University and cut her eyelids last year. But they caught him on a bodega’s surveillance camera when he tried to use her ATM card to buy stuff. But that’ll all change when rich white and black people move into the hood and drive the poor people with their storefront churches right into the streets when they can’t pay the high rents. Too bad. Train keeps rolling. Here is what a NYC street will look like in 5 years: 3 banks, a pet boutique, cell phone store, nail salon, a Subway sandwich shop, dunkin donuts, and ethnic resturant flavor of the month. Oh, does it remind you of your small, overdeveloped commercialized town in mid-america?
#22 you are so right.
Mary, yes it does remind me exactly of my town, though mine is in the west.
Look here…
This site is mediocre at best. It is mildly entertaining. Half of the items on this list are garbage. The effort and thought put into this list is pretty embarrassing.
if you want some actual funny entertainment/blog/writing/insightful/great stuff
http://www.garbarrassing.com
go for it.
I remember when my neighborhood on the West Side of Chicago was “de-gentrified” in the 1960s. I sure as Hell feel no guilt about pushing things back the other way. Nobody who grew up in the city would.
I think gentrification is great. When the white people move in the neighborhood gets cleaner, safer, and more prosperous.
Ugh, my old building is pictured with that dang tower behind it–and a perfect example of smiling gentrification by white people who kick poorer and darker folk out so they feel urban??? Of course, they’ll become quickly discontented when all their white friends join them, and the Lower East Side looks like Scandinavia. The catch-22 of whiteness. And the rest of us scurry to find new places well outside the white comfort zone.
Anonymous… are you off your meds again???
I agree with this. We should gentrify the whole country and ship anyone who doesnt fall inline to some place like Bikini Atoll.
I have laughed until I cried!! Yes South Austin is THE gen ‘hood. Our property is now worth 3 times what we paid for it. There is actually an Argentine restaurant within walking distance! Keep up the good work!!
Yes it’s very terrible to revitalize sh*tty urban neighborhoods. Who do these white people think they are bringing in more tax base to cash strapped cities? They should stay in the burbs while inner cores in most major cities crumble and decay. When things get too bad we’ll wall dowtowns off and let the residents fight it out like Escape from New York.
Every damned word on this blog is 100% true, or SPOT ON as a couple commenters have said–yeah, like you used the words SPOT ON growing up, please. It’s an idea for another item!
Yeay! I learned a new word today! Gentrification!
“and a perfect example of smiling gentrification by white people who kick poorer and darker folk out so they feel urban??? ”
To the Devil with your “poorer and darker folk”. They cried no tears for the working and middle class people they pushed out when the neighborhood originally ran down. I’ve seen both sides of the cycle buster, I know.
all true, but important to add that white people will never use the word gentrification because they recognize that gentrification forces poor people out of their own communities. therefore you must never use the word gentrification when talking to white people about the dangerous neighborhood that they live in. on a separate occasion, you may bring up gentrification and how terrible it is. the white person you are talking with will undoubtedly agree.
Please move to Jersey City we need more white people over here! The price is right for VICTORIANS and BROWNSTONES! Consider this inside info and its closer to Manhattan than anywhere!! I have a beautiful 140yo Victorian with parking for 6cars and a Backyard! you would not believe it!
So true…probably my favorite entry
I live in a part of Brooklyn that Jane Jacobs would describe as an edge area, next to railroad tracks (or elevated highways or industrial-residential borderlands which lacks the natural surveillance of an “other side” of a street.) While out and about, I’ve encountered sons of noble Aztecs eagerly trotting away with home electronics in their arms. Camps of neer-do-wells who donate beer bottles, needles and pooh to the sidewalk. Drag races, gang fights, graffitti, slashed tires, break-ins, etc. In addition to normal home upkeep and property taxes, I’ve calculated the added costs of security:
$300 for NYCPD shotgun permit
$600 for shotgun + ammo
$35/year to a certain DC lobby to intimidate legislators away from infringing on the above two items
$1000 for IR cameras and time-lapse recorder system. Since there is no manufacturing sector to soak up the masses of soon-to-be unemployed and soon-to-be drive-by-shooting males, I have include this technological deterrent.
$3000 for wrought-iron bars on windows and doors. Even still, one day I came home to find my door frame warped and paint chipped as if attacked by a crowbar.
$50 for a pre-paid cell phone so I can make anonymous calls to the police to for disorderly groups, vandals, dealers, aggressive panhandlers, aggressive intoxicated individuals and emotionally disturbed persons.
If you want your neighborhood to become a safer environment for the next generation, you have to take it upon yourself to generate complaints at the local constabulary. Most police departments are now managed like corporations and performance is determined by accountability metrics, such as CompStat for the NYPD. The more complaints, the more pressure on commanders, the more resources are allocated.
Older folks and non-whites may not feel safe reporting miscreants to the police for fear of reprisal, hence the safety of a nearly untracable pre-paid cell phone purchased with cash. (Most cellular geo-location can only ID proximity to the cell tower, not the precise address of the caller.) Eventually, a street, a block, a neighborhood becomes known for having a low tolerance for BS. The concerned citizen as a faceless insurgent resisting threats to his property values.
I make no apologies for gentrification or protecting the economic viability of the community which I grew up in and love. My family struggled for decades to develop real estate and businesses and I’m not going to just watch it go downhill. We will adapt in good times and in bad. Hobbes and Darwin made no excuses for their views and I make none for mine.
Look up “Gentrification” in the dictionary and the definition is: “Making it safe for White People”. Having been gentrified from just about every ‘cool’ neighborhood I’ve ever lived in (I’m an white artist), spanning both NYC and DC, I can attest to the resentment the older (generally minority) residents hold towards the white invasion. White people may drive down crime (thanks to police departments that generally treat crime-on-whites in a special class, as opposed to the normal minority-on-minority crime), but they drive UP taxes.
The folks who lived in the neighborhoods for years and years find they CAN’T PAY THEIR TAX BILLS.
Anyhoo…since I did the white-thing, sold-out my pretensions of being an ‘artiste’ and got a real job, I live in a comfortable, all-white inner city suburb and am LOVING IT!
To #519
Hmm…Spoken like a “true” Austinite reminiscing about the days of the slacker culture of the 80’s and the 90’s. The 2nd Street district with its new shops, restuarants, condos and apartments sure pales in comparison to the abandoned warehouses teaming with crack addicts and the homeless. Yeah, lets bring back the culture and diversity that was lost in that location.
Maybe white people should just stop being nice and go back to what they are really good at, domination via technology and generally being awesome at everything involving ruling the world.
lol
@463 DeeCee
Good point.
Look up Colin Ferguson, Cho Seung-Hui, John Lee Malvo, Chai Vang, Julio Gonzalez, Juan Corona.
(I don’t know if including the killers of 911, the 1993 bombers of the World Trade Center, etc., counts in this case, so I’ll leave them out.)
Never really thought of myself as a “gentrifier”– I just bought into the only local area at the time I could barely afford: a crappy, crime infested neighborhood. Fortunately, a number of other venturesome, improvement-minded people (both white and non-white) did too, and today I don’t who could say that it’s not a better, more positive place in any way imaginable. And it’s still “authentic”, whatever the h that means.
Speaking as a gentrifier, I thoroughly enjoy this blog.
In Chicago take your pick. The Southside is moving up one neighborhood after another rediating from the The Loop west and south.
Bucktown used to be so gritty and dangerous, now the average flat goes for 500K! Can you say, “priced out?”
At this rate the Urban Music genre will include Daughtry and Carrie Underwood.
“Anonymous
PS For every neighborhood that is gentrified by Whites, there is another White area going to HELL!!!!!!
Today itโs the โinner-ringโ suburbs and even some further out ones. They are the new ghettos, and unfortunatley they wonโt have a critical mass of whites to pay into the tax base like in a larger city.”
You are so right.
Can you imagine? The next string of gangta rap hits coming from the suburban experience?
Here is Chicago it’s the samething, but it’s more than Blacks moving into them. The collar suburbs are getting old like the inner-city once was. Reselling a house built in the 1960-70s is harder than an urban rehab with updated appointments built in 1899. It can even be a hovel if it’s in a hot spot.
Plus those old areas were the rush built subdivisions developed during the mass exodus from the city in the late 1950s thru the 1960s and early 70s – popularly known as White Flight. Not exactly Architectures golden age when drywall and no sidewalks was the latest thing.
Today people want brick, poured concrete and someplac(s) to stroll around the corner. And the house or the area has to be historically significant.
What’s so great about the Johnson years. What’s he do anyway?
Give me Uptown or I ain’t goin’!
Try the fifth Ward in Houston. Sheila Jackson Lee has sold the home boys out and Metro will do the rest.
Great Value
How come no one mentioned Harlem except #80? Harlem is the best example.
haha sounds like Baltimore.
Perfect. Not that long ago some graffiti in my edgy ‘hood read, “White people = Useless” Classic.
Very funny, but I think this one honestly depends on what type of white person you are. If you’re a straight, early-30s, married, financially successful white yuppie with a kid young enough to ride in a stroller, I wouldn’t be surprised if you don’t mind gobbling up a piece of the urban pie (because that’s what I see all the freaking time!) while the poor, the queer, the minority, and the artistic are shoved off somewhere else. As a 20-something lesbian white woman who’s just getting by, and who sees no intrinsic value in children, marriage, owning property, or the so-called “American Dream,” I abhor seeing Chicago -especially Boystown- being turned into one giant Jamba Juice/Potbelly’s/Baby Gap plaza. Some whites may think they’re living in a more “authentic” neighborhood by buying into a gentrifying area, but they’re in fact just becoming part of what inevitably saps that neighborhood of its personality in exchange for the illusion of safety and convenience. And gentrification isn’t just happening to the poor areas. It’s also happening in the areas that are hip and rife with unique artistic culture, like Wicker Park, which is being taken over and regurgitated into something sanitized and painfully boring. They just can’t resist eating up a neighborhood like Wicker Park. Until the minorities and misfits who made these neighborhoods great in the first place rise up and send the stroller-pushers and condo-dwellers back to the suburban hell from whence they came, I dread that this city will eventually have no unique, non-chain-store personality left. I also dread eventually getting pushed out of my neighborhood by the exact people you’re talking about. *Shudders* Look out! Here come the condos!
The North Side of Chicago was a lot more “authentic” when it was full of working and middle class Poles, Germans and Swedes than it ever was when large parts of it became infested with wierdos and “artistic” types, most of whom grew up in the very suburbs they now bumrap.
Now neighborhoods that were shitholes a few years ago are getting nice again and Katie cries. Why shouldn’t regular, job holding, kid raising middle class folks live in the city? People like that give a city a future, without them it’s just a theme-park with no soul.
Chicago is supposed to be the city of big shoulders, not the city of pierced tongues and non-threatening tatoos.
Born and raised in Bushwick Brooklyn. The best thing about white folk moving here is the fact that they clean up after their dogs.
How about as they gentrify a neighborhood with new or converted condos, they all have to have stainless steel appliances and granite countertops..it’s all the rage with young white people.
Katie, you silly lesbian, the white pioneers mentioned in the article are people like *you*. *You’re* the ones who seek credibility. The *other* white people move in after the so-called weirdos like you start making it safe for them! And for the record, the natives in poor white urban neighborhoods, whether they’re minorities or whites, don’t want pretentious condescending recovering suburbanites like you around, either…
Scratch the “white” in the “poor white urban neighborhoods” bit. Seems my white balance was off.
Until the minorities and misfits who made these neighborhoods great in the first place
You are a class A idiot.
Whites built those neighborhoods, all of it, the stores the buildings, the churches, the housing stock, etc. Then these third worlders come in an turn it all into nothingness and it all gets run down and they cannot create of build-up shit!!!
Many pf the suburbanites have family root in the city going back over a hundred years. I for one could care less about some Latino squatter getting priced out. It was never their neighborhood, these were all White before they became a wasteland and ghetto devoid of civility and legit culture.
Once again, many of the “suburbanites” have family roots in the cities going back generations. I hardly see why White returning to formerly White neighborhoods is bad in any way.
Whites are returning culture to the neighborhoods that have been devoid of it since non-whites came in and did nothing in these areas, except let all the property depreciate.
I love how some people think a illiterate mexican in a mexican neighborhood that was formerly White is somehow “cultural”. What a joke.
try Shaw, Adams Morgan, U street corridor, North Capitol…DC is now full of burb kids movin to the city to be more hip and “not be like” their parents.
Real White People do not say “back in the day.” Thank you.
Echo Parque forever!
north 6 and bedford is the new spring and west bway
I love gentrification, but it is a vicious cycle. The photo on this article is Belltown in Seattle, I think. It was a little gritty and real. It was up-and-coming, but then it up-and-came. Now it is boring and fake.
So there’s NoDa in Charlotte which is supposed to be like a gentrified artist’s colony (which white people should love, right? I mean, they have recycled hardwood floors and high-end stainless steel kitchen appliances). But here’s the problem…….. hippies.
Hippies took it over and started painting houses purple and now the yuppies are getting turned off. Can you re-gentrify a gentrified white neighborhood into a different kind of gentrified white neighborhood?
The 300k to 400k price tag they pay for a highrise condo that’s like an Asian sized floor plan. 600-900 sq. ft. is TIIIINNYYY! I find it interesting that the highrise projects where people had city views for decades, for free, are being replaced by condos not much bigger if at all accept for a dinky balcony to qualify it as “luxury,” where you can barely fit a grill and maybe squeeze on a couple of chairs. Now the views are commanding amenities you pay for. The open floor plans are done because, truth be told, if there were wall you’d see the places are little more than glorified closet spaces and utterly claustrophobic.
Oh and the now universal granite counters, 42″ cabinets and stainless steel appliances that EVERYBODY ELSE HAS.
I can hear the sound echoing throughout the Loop as realtor showing off units saying “a an and and w we we have have gr gran granite nite ite…
I feel so special now. BOOOOOOORRINGGGGGG!
I can imagine being on HGTV, “Oh, I love the open space. I can cook, have company at the same time and smoke out my friends with my burnt fritters (because I wasn’t on task from talking too much). How could I forget there no place to have any privacy unless I hole myself away in the walk in closet. No matter where I sit I see you. I mean, I love you but…GET OUT! Go to Starbucks – in Waukegan!
Yes, my balcony’s sliding doors are the only natural light source, but seeing the Water Tower makes it all worth it. Wait, is that a foundation for a new building being poured in front of my place? Oh Geez!
Yes, you’re right, but you have to remember (or maybe you don’t know history) that when Whites FLED IN FEAR of, at first, one or two minority families moving in they wrenched the stores and the businesses with them, did not serve them, and city services like trash pick up illegally refused to pick up the trash. Good jobs were still withheld from certain people, and the houses, already in need of repairs because of the belching soot of the steelmills all over deteriorated fast. That’s what made then ghettos.
Neighborhoods like Pill Hill, Avalon Park and Chatham were fortunate enough to have middle-class Blacks with the means to build them back up and make them envies of the South Side. There are pristine gated communities in Chatham and Avalon Park that are 100% African-American.
I’ve been through them many times and they’re as gorgeous as people remember with vibrant business districts. There are Starbucks on East 79th and West 87th Streets. Let’s not forget the historic Drexel Avenue mansions are almost all Black owned and have been for generations when the first minor White Flight occurred in the 1920s. Go figure. So I think your “they became a wasteland and ghetto devoid of civility and legit culture.” line is a bit harsh and not universally true of all the urban areas relenquished – forefeited – given up to minorities by White people to scared to deal.
I’m confused.
I’m a married middle-aged white guy. We raised our kids in the burbs. Simply couldn’t afford a (cool) place in New York City.
Now our kids are grown and on their own. We both recently got jobs in Manhattan (where there are [or were] jobs to be had).
We bought a two bed room in the Financial District. Its two blocks from my job and three subway stops (against the flow) from my spouse’s. (We got the apt before she found a job.)
Before there were apartments in the Financial District, there were only offices. There were no bodegas or delis or supermarkets. No dry cleaners or shoe repair. I don’t think anyone was displaced, because no one lived there.
Some people think we are ahead of the curve to live in the financial district, but most people find it pretty dirty, crowded and bleak. Decidedly unhip compared to numerous other neighborhoods in the city. Not remotely as cool with our peers as the suburb we moved from.
The new residents are very “diverse” since the financial district is less expensive than Soho, Tribeca, etc. I guess the one thing there isn’t any of is poor people, although it seems to me that the large number of people moving in are creating neighborhood mom and pops, as well as jobs in the nearby hospital, in new schools, in restaurants and service businesses.
So I’m wondering. Are we creepy white gentrifiers? Where should we have gone?
By the way, we love the convenience, the commute (none) and as hard as the developers try to make our neighborhood “luxiouious”, the unpretentious run down naturalness of it. It doesn’t stand for anything. It just is.
Iโm Black and IโM doing it. Iโm rehab mad and loving it. I love Starbucks and Border Books, live in a still barely gentrified, sleepy neighborhood, but a great many things from the list are regular passions for me, my partner and my friends, Black and White – and East and West Asian, and Spanish (Spain), andโฆ
However I donโt hate my parents, or like not having TV. Not a sushi fan, and who in the hell is David Sedaris?
Stereotypically Whites are the โMascotsโ for this List of Stuff, but by all means nothing on it is exclusively theirs.
You can read that White people donโt necessarily embrace the entire list either. And at least one is racist. From the posts he even follows the stereotype demonstrating a low IQ and racism regularly go hand in hand.
Maybe itโs because Iโm not a descendant of slaves (just like Barack Obama) and know my lineage back to the 1700s, having an Irish Great-great-grandfather and a Native American Great-grandfather. Maybe not.
Iโve never, ever, EVER felt less privileged than White people and canโt understand the mind that does. I mean, we age better, have sexier physics and donโt need tans. I can walk in a room full of all Whites and not feel the least bit self-conscious. If Iโm confronted with racist innuendo I tend not to catch on and never personalize any of it. If I know itโs directed towards me my reaction is pity not anger. โYou poor thing,โ I think, and move on.
Iโm rehabbing a wood framed Chicago workers cottage I bought for 70k in 2001 (now appraised at 250k) in a heavily Mexican occupied section of neighborhood that is earmarked for the most ambitious development project in Chicago since the World Columbian Exposition, where world-class developers say itโs going to become the newest Chicago Lakefront destination. The community of mostly single family homes already has a few amenities thankfully off the radar.
In what was once the hood, it is now my urban vacation getaway on a double lot surrounded by 7 foot, solid constructed tongue & groove car siding privacy fencing I built myself, a new two car garage with a party door and lushly landscaped views from every west, south and east facing window.
The house has rare century old Eastern White Oak floors cut from oak savannahs long vanished from the Chicago wilderness. Iโve refinished them throughout and they are beautifully golden! No drywall needed on the main level, the 108 year old plaster walls are in perfect condition and custom painted in a neutral olive-gold that looks pale green and gives off golden highlights in the sun. The house has thick cedar beam construction thatโs has cured to stone hardness. No decks for me, the front and back porches are fashioned after the original style-plus!
Tongue and groove and custom railings and private balcony off the new master suite faces the lake with views as far north as Hyde Park. Iโve redone the electrical, put in central air and a tankless water heater.
A finished basement includes pottery shop, exercise and laundry rooms, plus 1/2 bath. The attic is now a master suite (with full bath and WIC, and a 4th bedroom with a sunset balcony over the front porch.
The IKEA kitchen has a breakfast nook and French door entry to the back porch.
My Mexican neighbor directly across the street has totally rehabbed his wood frame three flat and turned it into on huge house with three stories AND a basement on a triple lot he fenced in and landscaped like I did.
The micro climate is such that when itโs 30 degrees out, just for a few hours I can enjoy my morning sunrise coffee on my east facing backporch in 60 degree temps. Simply luxurious as I listen to NPR, before going to my work-from-home gig.
A 2 minute walk from a really nice and clean eat-in Mexican restaurant. A 10 minute walk from the lakefront and shops and steps from bus routes and a double-decker, restroom equipped, quiet and gentile, grade level Metra-Electric Lakefront Line terminating in the heart of the business district with a brand new, block long station.
Iโm at ease in this โhoodโ and escape to my private cottage every time I come home. With lingering gang activity quickly diminishing Iโll certainly not miss the authenticity of that, but there are private owned restaurants galore โuptownโ from Americana, Asian to Italian and lots of Mexican. Even Nigerian and Polish. The neighborhood is off the grid from the rest of the city, which I love, and farther east (3000+ E.) than the upscale, monolithic New East Side of greater Loop fame, but there are no high-rises, no towering structures blocking the views of downtown Chicago to the north from the newly planted lakefront park. The area has THE ONLY portion of ORIGINAL beachfront in Cook County, which is also sparsely occupied because most people donโt know itโs there. Itโs virtually exclusive to the neighborhood and was once a portage for the Pottawatomie that hunted in this region for 1000s of years. The neighborhood retains has an uncanny suburban feel. The best of both worldsโฆwith just a few White neighbors to complete the diversity.
If thereโs any gentrification going on here itโs not White people doing it.
also applies to numerous areas in and around Washington, DC
as a buppie… I agree.
Prime example of an artificial market, maybe. Look up the history starting with the places you can see from your window views. Find out how the whole thing got started and who did it. It’s the genius of urban renewal projects to make a no place into a someplace. And that starts with history. What type of architecture are most of the buildings? Find the singularly most unique one. The oldest and the newest. If you care enough, blog about all of it.
Bucktown, Chicago e.g., a degrading lower-working-class neighborhood and Latin Kings, Crips and Bloods stronghold as late as the 1990s is now an upscale community of 500k to 1 mil homes, condos and lofts.
When the “community” gets to a certain level of population cleanups will occur on a more vigorously and the services will increase. Stay put. Even in the slow economy your digs will doubtless increase in value exponencially in the next cycle. However make sure you like it. If you don’t enjoy where you’re living you’re defeating the whole purpose of having a home. Everything else, property values, appointments, amenities, even security is superficial if you aren’t statisfied with your home or the area it’s in. It becomes an exercise in futility, emptiness and a major waste of time. The first thing is if there are any points of interests you’d care to frequent, a cafe or a restaurant close by. Are you willing to wait for them if there are none at the moment.
This is funny to me because I am moving to Copenhagen and when I told my sister I was not going to get an apartment in Nรธrrebro she was a bit “What have you got against living in an immigrant neighborhood? You’ll be an immigrant… have you got something against immigrant neighborhoods?”
Uh let’s see – I could live in a boring neighborhood that never gets any press OR I could live in a vibrant, thriving community full of immigrants and disgruntled university students – home of the famous Nรธrrebro riots where a bunch of cars & gradeschools got set on fire. Seems like a no-brainer to me.
OMG!!!! reading that posts makes any sane White person start to think that Europe would be better off had Germany won the war.
Why would a Swede want to live in a neighborhood of non-whites where the crime rate is higher? Where there are Muslims? Have European whites lost their sense of who and what they are, that they’d be so intrigued by these third worlders?
” follows the stereotype demonstrating a low IQ and racism regularly go hand in hand.”
Oh save us the bullshit. Actually it’s the exact opposite.
Are you saying Spike Lee and Tavis Smiley and Cornell West have low IQ’s?
You are foisted on your own petard.
LOL I DATED SOME WHITE BITCH FROM SAN FRANSICO HERE IN ATLANTA THAT BOUGHT SOME PROPERTY NEAR LITTLE FIVE POINTS THAT LOOKED LIKE SHIT. SHE SAID SHE WAS GOING TO MAKE BANK ON IT THOUGH
LOL SO TRUE
Hey everyone has the right to choose where they live!
If I want to live in a walkable neighborhood with old architecture and lots of interesting people then so be it! Even if I am white!
Beats living in the suburbs and getting fat driving everywhere.
I used to work alot on the East Side of Chicago when there were steel mills there; that could be real nice, right by the lake and Calumet Park and beach.
The Lakeside tavern on Ewing used to have fresh walleye and lake trout Friday nights, I wonder if they still do? And there’s that fish shack on 95th St. by the Blue Brothers bridge.
Yeah, the East Side could be prime gentrification territory.
Sweet Jesus. You should see the North Side of Chicago. Rogers Park man. Whole Foods and Starbucks on every corner.
A little fact the hipsters repress:
Critics of gentrification often cite the human cost to the neighborhood’s lower-income residents. The increases in rent often result in the dispersal of communities whose members find that housing in the area is no longer affordable
Source: wikipedia
Dear Confused,
No you are not a gentrifier. You are a dumbass. You are not a gentrifier because that neighborhood was NEVER a poor, working class neighborhood with reasonably affordable rents. It went from offices to luxury condos & lofts overnight. Plus haven’t you heard of Battery Park City? What do you think you gentrified?
Why are you a dumbass?…because you moved to the site of the WTC disaster which is still ridden with toxic remnants, like asbestos, etc. Good god! That’s why your rent is a less than SoHo.
Love,
Taffey Dollar
Con safos loco
Coffee coming out of my nose is SO worth it on this one! And it wasn’t even April 1st when you posted.
“And all those Irish, Germans, Russians, Poles, Jews, Italians, and so on did have to put their pride on the shelf and set aside their old world differences to become Americans. That is what โwhitenessโ meant. It meant setting aside all those European national and religious hatreds.”
Wow, you do realize you just defined American as a fundamentally white identity? I’m just checking, ’cause back when all those noble and enlightened Europeans were peacefully assimilating, Jim Crow was jumping high and thousands of Chinese immigrants were slaving over railroads. Maybe they just had too much “pride” to be considered Americans?
Um Bruce. This is more than we needed to know!
Africa. The Entire continent. Yeah. The New *Ccancun!*
Others have concerned with this suggestion. You’re actually not alone in this suggestion!
I made a typo. I meant to say “others have concurred with this suggestion!”
Che Guevara logo items is dead on!
The ancestors of the ethnic minorities had even less than the arse poor white folk living at that time-perhaps I’m missing your point!
If we put “them” with civilized people, they too, will become civilized?
Umm. What makes you so special?
I second this! We can’t win for losing nothing!
Man, I like some of this too. But some people use this subculture to be smug as opposed to being *progressive*.
It’s not like all these things are bad to like.
DI-TTO
To paraphrase you poking fun at people who have had priviledge is not the same as poking fun at people who haven’t had priviledge.
Bingo!
Why should someone feel the least bit sad when neighborhoods when nobody steps outside after dark and the only businesses are pawn shops and liquor stores become trendy coffee spots? Maybe instead of scheming how to hold up the new Starbucks young residents should think about making themselves presentable and getting a job there. You know, taking part in the world instead of resenting it.
Maybe because after they are driven out of whatever used to be their home/neighborhood however modest-the only other alternative is a shelter if they are lucky and the streets if they are not! Being that affordable housing ain’t that commonplace! And about the job at Starbucks, if it is like the other jobs in the area, it is encouraging the phenomenon-gentrification- currently being discussed about without contributing to the neighborhood by hiring said residents in the neighborhood! And not all these residents have given up looking for employment!
And if you don’t want white people or any other people moving into your neighborhood, buy it. Of course, to have money to buy a neighborhood you must make yourself useful and engage in commerce with your fellow human beings? That’s how it works? Otherwise? Nobody has a right in this country to keep people out of neighborhoods because of their race or skin color. Freedom means freedom for everybody.
Buy the neighborhood with what?With unemployment, underemployment, and low-paying, long hour jobs?With what!This is addition to the rip-off strategies like subprime lending, check-cashing places and other financial institutions that suck already meager resources. As for businesses, what resources that are pooled are pooled for needed necessities!There goes social capital! To be considered for a bank loan is out the question.Then local residents have to deal with folks who are the often unintentional face of gentrification indirectly luring vultures who aim to destroy what little modest things old residents have in exchange of offering nothing in place of this and they should not be worried. Come on.
Exactly!
But the residents for the most part were cool!
astute observation!
Haven’t ya heard some yuppies have turn some sharecroppers shacks in Mississippi into a motel.
Half of the neighborhoods were well on their way to being crap before the first minority ever step foot in them -they were not in that good a condition. Which is partly why the previous residents eventually left.
Minnorities have no sympathy for invaders er. neighborhood pioneers. Grow up. You initially left the neighborhoods. You did not want them. Leave them to us!
You may not like any of this, but it is in many of your own communities nevertheless!
Yep!
Whites are the victims of crime.
Cracker cry ME a river-and that’s for the groid’s and spic comment crazy bastard. Whites are not above crime themselves. They have their biker gangs, the Yiddish mobs, the Italian Mafia, the Russian Red Mafia, and Eastern european crime. I can go on and on. Just spare ME!
They built that neighborhood, not the blacks.
And they left-for what they thought was greener pastures.They gave it up!
Sure-there was crime-but there was plenty of (sometimes very violent)crime in the neighborhood I grew up in, WAY before the Blacks and Hispanics came.(As though the presence of blacks and Hispanics necessarily implies an increase of crime….)
Kudos for stating a truth the super pro-white and pro-gentrification zealots rush to overlook!
Monsters?? Can you say Iraq dipshit.
Yes white boys likes them some glue. But, Latinos loves huffing paint. Really, though, crank is drug of your white trash scumbag. White people blow themselves up making this crap.
This is a very important fact that covers a lot of things white people do that they think are so great and so beneficial. They think that if it’s good for them it must be good for everyone else involved. Ummmmmm, nope. That’s not the case. Sorry. Try again. On second thought, maybe we’d all be better off if you didn’t try again and let people do for themselves. Thanks for the thought, though.
OK, if white people moving into crappy neighborhoods is known as gentrification, what is it called when black and brown people move into middle class, white neighborhoods? Crappification?
Yep, what a drag it is living in a nice, quiet neighborhood. The wide streets and peaceful neighbors–who actually let you know things like when you have a busted sprinkler or that a rash of car breakins has been going on and that the police were aware (thus ceasing the rash because it was more than likely caused by a couple of neighborhood teenagers and the flyers went to every home in it) is horrible. I would rather live in the neighborhoods I see on TV where gangs are blasting on each other every night and the police are a virtual occupation force. Yeah, give me some MS13 or Crips. Life just doesn’t seem right if there are no wrought iron bars on the whole house. Yes sir, give me a crack house on every corner. That’s for me boy! Give me horrible schools with massive drop out rates. Give me liquor stores instead of supermarkets. Wow, that would be sweet. Who wants to get fat in the suburbs when I can turn into a bloated corpse in the morgue of some ghetto?
Losers.
Yes!! Good observation.
There is not a single whole foods in Rogers Park. There are two in Evanston though.
As I was reading all the comments, it all came up really clear that we can also observe gentrification at a larger scale just just by looking at the way America has been trying to “help” many “countries in need” (or not up to par) to “get better”… Yup! wars, occupations, embargos. On the softer side, many countries also have seen hamburger chains, coffee chains and other corporate beautification “invading” their space.
I lived in Highland Park which is culturally near to Echo Park but about a half hours drive. We TRIED to make the neighborhood better but those damn Mexicans wouldn’t budge. We jacked up the home prices. We added all kinds of new taxes. We gave them recycling (three different containers!). We gave them Starbucks and closed down the taquerias (health certificates: DO NOT HAVE). But they just wouldn’t leave. So we lef tinstead, and made bank on the house flip! Lol now I live in Seattle: Uber White.
Gentryfication ???
The “Real Gentry” would only move where there is room for their horses and pack of hounds!
Darn, now my tonge is stuck in my cheek!
Yeah, I suppose that is better then living in a down and sinking neighborhood.
Jeez those white people. How dare they want to live in an up and coming neighborhood. So typical.
Given that this is a site for white readers by white readers, a chance to gently laugh at their own, sometimes inane behavior, why don’t you racist ghetto-fucks take your aggressive attitudes elsewhere and stop making actually racist and mean statements every chance you get?
oh and why are a majority of such comments by loud, obnoxious black women who are justifiably the least married race-gender group?
PG County where I live (aka, Ward Nine). Fine with me, let Maryland deal with them for a while!
I remember when I was a wee lad being able to stroll through the North side and see topless hookers walking freely. Damn you white people for chasing them away! Damn you to hell!
There’s no such thing as “reverse racism”. Racism involves both institutional and economic power. I’d hardly say that white people as a group are oppressed economically/institutionally. Get over yourself.
White Privilege: Unpacking the Invisible Knapsack:
http://seamonkey.ed.asu.edu/~mcisaac/emc598ge/Unpacking.html
The Original Gentrification!
http://www.survival-international.org
(i dare any muthafucka to retort this!),
oh, and by the way, does the kind of Stuff White People Like include things like Justice, Equality, and Truth?
Come on AA,
of course they do. There’s nothing more satisfying to white people than to use urban slang and euphemisms. Its instant street cred for their other white friends. It never fails for a good laugh when a whitest of white sorority chick throws up a westside gang sign, or a “Hell-to-the-no!”
In fact, I’m surprised that this isn’t a category post. If it isn’t it should be. nudge nudge hint hint;o)
Always loved that name. Here in Dallas, we all live in harmony. The harmony of paying the mexicans $150k to move out of their near-downtown bungalow in order to improve it and turn it in three years for $300k. Now my house has great curb appeal and less Mexicans.
Scoreboard!
Well Texans are just Hillbillys anyway, I’ll take the Mexicans.
Deterioration.
haha!
Hey, it’s a great way to always be in the middle of another ‘reno’!
Plus it takes your mind off the fact that you hate your wife and your kids are outta control crazy little monsters.
Score x2 for the white folk!
Now added, Bed stuy,
Harlem and
Red Hook.
Sorry I can only reference New York.
Your take is the most dead-on of all of these. They move to the city from the suburbs after college for their big urban adventure like it’s a fucking field trip or another “studying abroad” semester. Then they meet someone and move back to the suburbs, because god knows you can’t raise kids in the city. The most hillarious thing is when severely white, recent grads try to act like they did grow up in the city. Like the ass whipping line, because I went through that.
black people don’t sniff glue…
Holy Shit! I already knew about this trend but as a non-white attempting to reach the level of “almost white” I have just realized in which area I should buy my first house. This blog really does help non-white people get more familiar with white people. Thanks peeps.
So, seemingly my family just fails at being white. We lived in Rogers Park for years before deciding to move to a town somewhat more devoid of car bombs (a popular form of entertainment in Rogers Park at the time). Yet now, driving down my old street, I find that the houses have become very nice, and the residence have become very…white. I guess we just didn’t make very good trendsetters, as it took white people with better connections (or possibly just very small dogs) to alter the neighborhood.
I got no love for the standard dialects.
Ahhh, man you’re so WRONG! White people can lose, as the mortgage lending debacle is proving from California to Florida. Only here in NY has the bubble not fully burst, but it’s about to! That’s when the dumb ass white people who moved from Poduck, Nowheresville in order to live the life of a TV show (take your pick Friends, Sex in The City, Seinfeld whatever).
These white asses are about to get the ‘BIG PAYBACK’ (I believe that’s the name of some old 70s blaxsploitation movie and quite apropo).
Think about all these Yuppie and Hipster assholes who invaded neighborhoods like Bed-Sty, Bushwick, Harlem, Washington Heights, and everywhere else they weren’t wanted nor invited.
This last decade has been one gigantic ABERRATION fueled by the assinine lending policies that could not, cannot and will not be sustained. The onset of **Recession** and the burst of the bubble has begun—the deflation has begun.
All you white assholes are in DEEP FUCKIN SHIT!
You’re ALL about to learn that you are entitled to nothing, but to runnnnnn. You won’t be able to sell your over-inflated houses—-you’re STUCK! You’re about to learn the meaning of being surrounded at the Alamo. The meaning of Fort Apache, surrounded DEEP in Indian Country. You wanted to be **pioneers**. Hahaha, you liberal assholes gonna be calling up Charleston Heston to bring the guns! The problem is he’s DEAD! Hahaha.
What are you people going to do? John Wayne is dead too.
Living in LOISADA like you all belong there….
Shit, the ABCs ain’t a fucking playing ground—it’s a GHETTO!
Man you people are in for a world of hurt, and don’t even know it.
Do any of you fucking dumb asses know where the hell you are?
New York ain’t no TV show! The TV show of this decade called New York has been *Cancelled*.
The worst part is that the City is going to have a change of government just as the Recession and The Big Burst hits. Guiliani is long gone, Bloomberg is a lame duck, and the likely new mayor will be Christian Quinn! A red-headed Ed Koch in drag! Kelly, the Police Commissioner, if he’s smart (and he is) is NOT going to run for Mayor, and will exit the premises along with Bloomberg. I hate to wonder who Quinn will appoint as the new Commisioner—but, I guarantee he will be more in line with the history of incompetents the city is more used to.
Hahaha, you people are in DEEP SHIT!
The best part is all those good ole black people you bought you’re lovely brownstones from, are going to be sitting back in North Carlolina, Florida, Georgia, etc., laughing their asses off with their well deserved millions from the houses they sold you all. Reading the newspaper headlines:
New York in Chaos. White People on The Run! Abandoning Their Houses.
City Government Forecloses on Thousands of Homes Across the City for Back Taxes. City Spending Millions Closing Abandoned Houses.
City Ready to Auction Backlog of Foreclosed Homes for ONE DOLLAR to anyone willing to Buy and Renovate Abandoned Homes.
Government Guarantees for Renovation Loans. Low Guaranteed Rates.
Urban Pioneers Returning To City. This Time They’re BLACK!
Hahahaha…..
Hmmmm…wait a minute. I think those are the same damn headlines from the 70s! Life is nothing but a Circle. Only thing different is there’s no DRUGS! Never fear, life is but a Cirlce.
CRACK WILL BE BACK!
Dumb asses.
No White people I know.
Who wants to be down with you? And what are you contributing, some sort of dysfunctional ambience?
Sorry but there is nothing authentic about crack vials,drive by shootings, and a shitload of people hanging out with 40s. Maybe you could get an exhibit in the Smithsonian.
Hey I like it. What is this street cred BS? What kind of White people validate themselves by how Blacks view them?
Stop living a politically correct life. You are not on this earth to suit other people/ If you think you are, they will take you up on it.
IF YOU HAVE NEVER SEEN THIS, I PRAY YOU NEVER DO. WHAT A MESS !
I think Ponzi is ashamed to be Italian.
AND WHY NOT!
OK,Put down your 40 and go to bed. You need your rest to be useless tomorrow.
yeah what he said fear 4 your life white people cuz nuccas got that yellow Cake!
http://aniggaincyberspace.com/2008/04/19/black-game-makers-speak-out/
San Francisco is experiencing expansive gentrification all around the city. Even places like Bay View and Hunters Point ( neighborhoods that have extremely high crime rates) are gradually getting invaded by white people who want to be “cool”. I used to live in the Mission District , but we had to move out of San Francisco because rents were getting super crazy. I swear, this really makes me hate white people. Go back to your suburbs.
I wish white people would realize how horrible their presence is to the neighborhood. Low income families who have lived in these neighborhoods for generations have to move out because of you, leaving their communities and other resources that have sprung up in that neighborhood. Really if you can afford to live in Pacific Heights get your ass out of the Mission.
White people love angry screeds with tasty phrases like “Lord Rent”. Thanks for making my day; I have to go get a frappucino!
“I can’t be racist, because I have defined myself outside the definition of racism.”
Ah, how dreadfully convenient…
“Hey everybody, notice how white people can only relate to our communities in terms of cool or trendy..hereโs a hint, that cool neighborhood is MY HOME”
Sorry…not any more. You have 72 hours to vacate…
“Hey man, you know whatโฆthat shit [bike riding, fair-trade coffee] is irritating. Thatโs whatโs wrong with it.”
I bet you also hate fresh vegetables, sad, sad person.
I don’t want to be a hipster–I just want a shorter commute. Can I have your place when you move out?
Thanks!
–ibc
Actually I think you win if you moved out before the neighborhood was esentially changed you could take an elitist stance against an already elitist practice the whole time pretending you did it on purpose, thus making you the whitest person in your neighborhood, and requiring you to host eighties night and discuss the sitcom weeds from Showtime (another thing white people like)
ok what about white people that move from metropolitan areas to rural parts of the country to escape the hetic city life only to turn the small mountain, beach, lake etc. towns they move to smaller versions of the city they came from. Cause we all know they wouldnt move there unless it was done by other yuppies first, then they just start building starbucks and GAP’s next thing you know………..again increasing the worth of the property they undoubtably own….not to mention in the rural area they can feel very superior, while being laughed at by locals of course
white people loves it.
Ok, I’m going to make this so simple a white, bleeding heart, class defecting, poverty worshiping member of the granola ghetto can get it and the ungrateful no everything/no nothing bunko “minorities” they support can understand.
1) By definition gentrification is a CLASS issue and not a race issue. So you’re misusing and abusing a turn ergo. you’re a douche nozzle.
2) 99% of these so call “black” neighborhoods where once white to begin with. I think Malcolm X called that “the chickens coming home to roust”. So drop the act my brutha.
3) Once again we see the disparity between poor blacks and poor white. When gentrification (the class one not the new-speak race one) comes to the white ghettos of America theres no Jesse Jackson’s or Gloria Allred’s to be found.
In short, the only reason blacks have a voice on this issue is obvious. Self hating, poverty worshipping, class defecting, college educated, social Marxist WHITES!
I met this white environmental biologist with an architect husband who lived in the tenderloin district in san francisco. she was reading david sedaris on bart. when she told me she bought a place in tenderloin, I said “wow, it’s kind of scary there.” she looked so self-satisfied. hahahaha
the funny thing about the mission district is that is has some less bad parts, but white people won’t live in those parts. I lived in outer mission cause it was affordable and not too bad, but so many white people tried to one-up me by mentioning how they lived near 16th st, etc. I’m sure it was only so they could live closer to the hipster bars. I can’t believe people will live near crazy crackheads just to fake street credibility
why would you want to live in a gang banger dirty gross hood? You don’t take care of your houses, yards, cars, etc. You park 20 cars on the side of the streets. Your yards is like a junk yard. You got gang bangers walking the neigborhood and stealing, breaking into cars and homes just for a crack fix. You got beggars walking around begging for money. you got that stupid loud booming music that really just sounds like rattling metal. Why do you want to live this way? Do you not have any self worth? Why are you doggin white people when they come to live in “your’ hood and then they try and do it better? The neighorhoods are usually so poor and disgusting it’s better to get all of that shit out of there. Wouldn’t you rather have a safe nice place to live? Seems weird to me that you are always bitching about this issue.
Sound like yet another “white” with plenty of white guilt and no white pride.
I have a similar story to ‘ not white’s’ from a client of mine who told me she was moving out of Ladds Addition ( an area full of single story historic houses in South East Portland Oregon) and into North Portland (read- granola ghetto) because there where “too many white faces”.
I put a 7.62×39 FMJ in her brain if she had one.
fo shizzle!
there is an episode of “king of the hill’ about this. peggy is a real estate agent and starts to sell houses in a mexican neighborhood to all the hipster-yuppies. with hilarious results.
Oh yea, Rogers Park is SO nice.
You must’ve smoked too much crack, which I’m sure you got from the thugs around the Morse L station there in “gentrified” Rogers Park.
The neighborhood still has a LONG way to go before it’s fully gentrified, but I will admit that it’s getting off to a good start.
I thought the exact same thing when I read this! I was like, “why didn’t anyone tell me this before I started college?????” It would come in handy and maybe I wouldn’t have felt so alienated and out of place all the time
you know i cant agree with you more,im from south philly been thru the 1966,its defintaly a circle we have kepped astrong hold of our hood im white also whole area,was real happy until the yup yup tried to push us out it amazing when i walk my dogthe encounter a so called educated yup they always seem to be walking a pit or half rot reason moved from the burbs need it for protection this isEDUMACATION,,
Funny, and this is coming from a white bread amigo. Ha!
As Taffy said, you are not a gentrifier. There was nothing in the Financial District before you got there. If you had moved to Chinatown, East Harlem, or any of the neighborhoods in the Bronx that are next on the list to be “converted,” then you would be.
I bet the hipster decorate there houses with Dio De La Muerto kitchy bullshit. This is especially ironic because “white people” already have a day of the dead called Samhain. Once again “white people” co-opting non white culture and ignoring thousands of years of European culture. Oh so trendy…
Note to black people:
I have zero interest in living in or around your neighborhoods. In kind make it a point to stay out of mine. You have a right to have your areas run by your best and brightest solely. Black police, black judges, black mayor you get the idea. Total autonomy for you. You have that right and so do I.
P.S. Please feel free to mug or kill any wiggers you see. We don’t want them. Thanks-
is it hard to type with that hood on?
I not sure the Klan would except me seeing as I’m technically a minority. Nice try though. The reason why I have the opinions I do is due to the fact that I have lived in black neighborhoods for about seven years in the past. Before that happend I was probably someone who would be in political alignment with the likes of you e.g. clueless.
I have to say that i originally stumbled upon this blog looking for places to pimp out my podcast, but this site is hilarious as shit and you hit on some real real stuff. This place kind of proves that not only does racism exist (which it does, undeniably), but it’s one of the funniest things going (when used properly).
Either way, props.
I have this podcast called Buncocky Cast.
You can subscribe through itunes by going to the itunes store and searching “Buncocky.”
You can also hear it here: http://www.switchpod.com/f66704.html?puser=none
Any feedback or reviews would be well appreciated. I think, based on the humor of this site and the talkback, some of you may like it.
also, become our myspace friend (and listen to the previous week’s episode) at http://www.myspace.com/buncocky
Ain’t that the truth! Let the blacks pontificate all day long about the evils of gentrification….about the deleterious influence of upper-class whites “discovering” neighborhoods inhabited by wastrels and bottom-feeders, and forcing “said” groups out of Dodge. On the same token, isn’t it funny to watch that relatively small portion of the “unwashed” embrace all the trappings of “whiteness” once success tosses a crumb or two in their direction? They sure don’t make em’ like ol’ Malcolm Little anymore! The biggest dream of most black ghetto youths involve owning fancy “luxury” vehicles, and overpriced footwear (probably manufactured by dirt-poor Asian children in some squalid sweatshop….one that could make the plight of black and hispanic Americans look as silly as the “existential dilemmas faced by affluent white hipsters). The socioecomically depressed blacks lap up media-constructed status symbols just as readily as yuppies embracing the merits of organic foods and overpriced coffees.
Ha! The Jews, Koreans, and Chinese can flourish within one or two generations in the old USA, owing to their well-established habits of frugality and good, sound common sense — but, generations later, the blacks still have trouble nailing the basics.
Because gentrification is a form of class warfare that only the poor will lose.
Because no one that has privilege to live where they want ever bothers to think about how their presence can interrupt/impinge/outright destroy the lives of those that do not have privilege.
Because certain portions of the white community have decided that non-wealthy people are not really people, but mannequins in some exhibit of urban living that they like to look at–mannequins that give a neighborhood “authenticity,” but that don’t actually have the right to live in that neighborhood anymore when enough whites move in.
Beacuse the city council here just voted in a bill that allows developers to rezone Harlem–meaning that, in about ten years, there will be a single block on 125th street where Blacks are allowed to live, called “Historic Harlem.”
Because the city council here thinks that the way to “preserve the historic roots of Harlem” means that they won’t tear down the Apollo Theater.
Because the premise that not all white people live on their parent’s dime is wrong in more ways than you’ve considered. You are still “living on your parent’s dime” if your parents had even a bit of wealth, because that smallest amount of wealth has given you more opportunities than probably all of the people that lived in gentrified places before you got there can ever imagine.
Because the children of first generation working class immigrants that arrived in New York City in the late 1800s should never have to compete with “hipsters” to live in the city their grandparents built.
Those are only some of the reasons to take this post seriously.
Simple. Think before you act. If the consequence of the action you are about to take has the effect of harming people that are not like you, then don’t take the action.
In the case of this city, it might also be helpful if the kids that move to NYU every year understood that just because you live in Manhattan doesn’t mean that life is going to be like it is on “Gossip Girl.”
Thank you, Soul. I can’t tell you how much I thank you.
White Girl,
Gentrification has nothing to do with race exclusively. It has everything to do with class, and how certain populatiopns are allowed to ignore ethics and ruin neighborhoods on the basis of the argument that privilege alone allows them to do so.
Hopefully this blog does more than just “improve the way hatred is spread.”
If some of these very eloquent posts encourages even one person that is considering moving to an “up and coming” neighborhood to NOT move there, this blog will have done a magnificent thing.
If even one of these very eloquent posts exposes the incredible hypocracy of the modern, young white privileged class, this blog will have done another magnificent thing.
Because here’s the secret that white gentrifiers do not want to admit:
Gentrification=Segregation that we pay our government to maintain.
The Malcom X comment was made in response to JFK’s assassination.
I hate rich people.
http://stuffgodhates.wordpress.com/
I’m half-white, and I live in what I hope is an up-and-coming neighbourhood. I missed my chance to move to what used to be an up-and-coming neighbourhood before: it got too gentrified for my wallet.
Yes. This is something I like to call irony. I-r-o-n-y. GOT IT!
And what happens to those Polish immigrants when they suddenly discover that the job they have, which only gives them about 40 or 50K a year, is not enough to live in the neighborhoods they fixed up anymore because young, upper class whites have decided the neighborhood is suddenly “trendy” and “authentic?”
Your grammar could really use some college education.
LOL for real…i never thought i woudn’t be able to afford an apt in the ghetto-I love NYC, but screw this, i’m moving to the 3rd world!
safe nice places cost $$…is this really so hard to grasp? not every cheap neighborhood was so horrible either, some of them were pretty decent, but then when the white people move in, no one can afford it and they have to actually move to the real ghetto…this has happened to me several times U.U
dear longlivedeath,
good job missing the bus on this entire website. you must have missed the part about this website having a strong foundation in this crazy thing called “satire”. way to go, son.
your friend,
crystal
Watch out for the asians, they are the new whites. At least in LA.
https://stuffwhitepeoplelike.wordpress.com/2008/05/12/99-grammar/
precisely- myself included lol
I understand this site is satire, but it’s still racist to see all the hate against whites. It’s like non-whites who hate whites were given an open forum to freely bash us, something blacks would sh*t a brick over and call everyone from the ACLU to the NAACP to shut down.
Gentrification is a CLASS issue and in LA you have as many asians moving in as whites so the racist comments calling out whites for it are moot.
Furthermore, whites IMPROVE every neighborhood they move into in LA (and everywhere else). You can hate us for ‘invading’ and forcing out the people living there, but most of them haven’t been there all that long anyways (because many are illegals) and those neighborhoods were white once to begin with.
I live in Echo Park, one of the more widely known/ridiculed gentrified areas in LA. I have been in this neighborhood for 5 years- before the hipster invasion- but even that defense is part of the joke against us. We didn’t all move to the ghetto to be cool, some of us came because it was simply affordable and we’ve been to enough shitty areas to not be scared in the ghetto. Hell, I was shot at in Iraq during Gulf War Pt 1, so these little hood rats popping off a shot or two in the night are nothing to me.
I divorced my ex and left for a completely new and affordable area, I couldn’t have known it would explode like it has. To be honest, I can’t wait to get out of this shithole and move back to a nicer part of town because I’m sick of all the dirty ass 3 foot tall- 4 foot wide mothers with 8 kids and 3 strollers and is knocked up again digging through every trash can within miles just for a tin can.
This place SUCKS and why anyone would move here to be cool is beyond me. Dumbasses.
Oh, and yes- you bitches need to learn some grammar and punctuation. That one hit this nail on the head, lol.
…and i’m sick of 2 to 3 broken strollers on every corner…abandoned shopping carts in front of my building…entire families in 1 br apartments…3 generations of the same family in a 2 bedroom apt and not a single one of them speaks a word of english…the most raggedy of 1981 4 door Nissan Sentras with dents in every panel and peeling paint still is shined and coated in Armor All, as if the shine of Armor All makes a car less of a POS…plastic chrome spinner hubcaps…15 year olds with 2 kids…I could go on.
At this rate in a couple of years white people will have taken Harlem, Compton, Broolyn, QueensBridge, Chicago,
Browsville, and ATL from the Blacks and Puerto Rico, South Bronx, Miami, and the rest of Florida from the Puerto Ricans.
And whatever parts of Texas and California the Mexican’s live in. They are easily capible of it. Remember, The Indian’s use to own the whole country, we saw how that all played out.
……………and dont forget all the china towns in all the states.
I find it interesting that this doesn’t happen as effectively without racial diversity. I live in a slowly gentrifying mill town in the northeast. I was going to buy a 120 year old house for 85k and restore it. my realtor told me that that neighborhood, even though it is on the Hudson river with proximity to vermont (white people Love Vermont) and all the cheap renovatable houses. there are too many poor white people. it would take me years longer to flip that place. white people don’t like to see poor white people.
I agree, seriously get rid of all of them
Man, i think this is me. I’m a 24 year old white guy from Fairfield County and now I live in El Barrio, Spanish Harlem. I would say that I feel a little more hardcore than before.
It’s was a funny joke to tell all my midtown pals about ‘the hood,’ until me and my roomates got robbed. We lost 2 computers, 2 xbox 360s, 2 digital cameras, and a smart phone.
However, I’m no d-bag who would ever compare the abstract idea of ‘real’ and ‘fake.’ And, I rent, unfortunately.
Great article, I have been sending this out to all my friends who live in more ‘white neighborhoods.’ Thanks for the laughs.
I almost wrote the same, lol
They want to buy in “La Carniceria Tapatia” It so autenthic, and makes them feel diversify, but the problem is that they don’t speak english in La Carniceria and usually white people get scare when “Los Tigres del Norte” o “Los Tucanes de Tijuana” CD starts playing.
Let the gentrification commence! It gets rid of the shite. If those people want to live like pigs they can do it outside of Manhattan. I live in Washington Heights and I can’t wait til the gentrification is complete. People there just drop their trash in the street while they’re gnawing on chicken bones. Send in the f*ckin tanks! Money always wins out in the end in this country. IF you don’t realize that, you’re living a lie. Move to a third world country to get your fix of the so-called real.
Keep New York beautiful and white (if that’s what it’s really about?)
You’re an idiot. Many of them are illegals and haven’t been there that long? Most of the neighborhoods used to be white to begin with? You realize that L.A. used to be MEXICO right?
Vomit.
All of you people bitching about gentrification should take a visit to Detroit, which has experienced almost none of it. Huge, huge sections of the city are ghetto neighborhoods that crumble more each year as the people who have saved enough to leave do so. Sure, Detroit is “real.” It’s also extremely poor and has no tax base. Whoo, no gentrification!
And before L.A. was Mexican, it was Spanish, and before then, it was Chumash, and before then, it was probably something else. So? Things change.
detroit sucks.
besides, there are too many blacks there for white people. white folks can tolerate most other ethnicities but they’re still afraid of blacks. I think that’s because there is almost always a pronounced disdain for whites in black neighborhoods while asians and hispanics integrate into the white mainstream more than blacks. blacks want their own thing but don’t have the political or social capital to make it happen, that’s why they’re still stuck in the ghetto. The ones who do make it out spend their money on Escalades and blingy garbage.
Good for you, Steve. If you’ve found your way to this blog my bet is those inner-city ass whippings didn’t leave too many scars.
Pinche Bolio’s. I walk into the local Starbucks with the daughter to buy her a stinking frapachino. Y right away I got the feeling that I step back into a Jim Crow moment. I pay for her frap, and vamanos.
OMG, that is so funny. Who do you think built those neighborhoods? Who moved out, when the crime rate rose as “low-income” types (read: minorities) moved in?
I have to crack up when people complain about gentrification – it’s basically just white people moving back to their old neighborhoods.
Longlivedeath,
Are you loved? Were you in the trench coat mafia in High School and picked on by the “brown folks” at school? So very sorry to here that. Telll your mom/roomate about the stockpile of weapons you hide in the garage. She can probably find help for you with her HMO plan. You need some Abilify (look it up it works) I give it to all my stuborn patients with delusions of grandeur.
love the Doc.
Im telling you try the Abilify it works
Love, the Doc
A white bitch? I can see why she is not dating you anymore. I would not date a sexist, racist jerk like you, either.
OMG, Is this a forum for white and black folks to express their hate. I quote this sm character who wrote, “why would you want to live in a gang banger dirty gross hood?”
I have to tell you, you are just as nasty as the people you criticize.
How about he starting with the seventh grade?
How about their lacking desire, ambition, energy or in plain gutter—-they don’t give shit bout nothin.
But doc, I think all he needs is a good masturbation session. It relives alot of pent up stress and anger and helps you get a good nights sleep.
r u longlive death fag black or white or whatever?
cuz u probably classify to all these, like #101. 99, 83,82, 62, 20, 18, 7, 2. thats just from reading ur stupid post’s. so shut up will u? give us all a break from ur know it all comments.
they are less than a mile apart
If wikipedia said it, well then it must be so.
that is when we begin to see “white flight.”
Amen, Catalina. Truer words were never spoken.
Jules
hey uuh, how…how ’bout…..how ’bout them Jews?
european culture was created by the jews
white people aren’t TRYING to be cool. trust me we have nothing to prove to anyone else except ourselves. blacks on the other hand, whoa, if it aint a complete desocialization, he’s definitely got something to prove with them dubs and loud music on his voyager. now THAT is trying…
they got a SoNo in Atlanta now, finally I’m so sick of downtown being stuck in racist 70’s black america. Its like you can almost smell the riots coming…..good thing the dems surpressed the female vote and not the black….
omfg….you made me piss myself laughing!!!!
VIVA LA RAZA!
lmffa!!
FTW!
Huge sections of the city are beyond crumbling; they’re hardly urban anymore, what with the woodlands returning after decades of abandonment.
Still there is some “gentrification,” for lack of a better word, up in the Cass Corridor (now dubbed “Midtown” by the realtors) area.
what is your age ?
Are you 17 ?
Meet the new Miami Beach, even downtown Miami (LOL).
As a young “WHITE” girl, I grew up there in the 80’s (the “Cocaine Cowboys” days), before the Versace crew took over. Yes, it was crime ridden in parts (never bothered us, and my daddy used to be a coke dealer!), but it the had heart and soul from the locals, that is now lacking. Not to say it is totally obliterated, but it sure is a far cry from what I call, the good ol’ days.
I don’t care who the hell moves in, just don’t push out the locals.
Like someone once said, “You can’t go home again.”
If anyone is from Miami, do you remember the angry homeless vet selling Heralds on a South Dixie median strip?
We went to a party in a gentrified neighborhood and frankly, the whites (mostly gay in this case) who are fixing up homes in these run down neighborhoods are doing a service to the community. The homes have been mostly abandoned. You can still see the homes that haven’t been fixed up and they are places that no one would live in. What we need in this country is to send these talented types who can fix up old homes all over the country. It is a shame to let these old homes become abandoned. So this is a good thing us white folks are doing.
Right, cause the birthrate of white people is 50x that of everyone else combined, right?
As far as shit ‘plays out’, I’d find the brain damage you inflicted from all that dope interesting but really couldn’t give a shit. paranoid fuckwad.
idiot.
I find it disappointing that none of the comments I’ve read so far reflect the overall irony of the blog.
Poor people exist everywhere-and they come in all colours.
This particular entry reflects more a class issue (albeit in a jocular, tongue-in-cheek sense): something that Americans tend to avoid discussing; and we should all know that class crosses colour boundaries.
I’ve lived in neighbourhoods in Canada that are mixed affluence and I’ve never had problems with crime (that doesn’t say it never happens); but I think that the point of this particular article on gentrification is to make us more cognizant of the type of attitude that prevents any kind of compassion or ability to relate to our social geography.
WTF….?
Why not call it what it was called in the 60s and 70s — blockbusting.
It was “social justice” when a “new” family paid above market value for a house, screaming racism if they were not allowed to buy it. Then they painted the house a horrible color, stopped maintaining the yard, and left trash all over the place to rot. Some neighbors complained, and of course were yelled at for being racist. Other neighbors sold for whatever they could, and moved to the suburbs (white flight). Once a block had been busted, it was time to move on to the next block. Wash. Rinse. Repeat. Ghetto.
They had “their” neighborhood and “kept it real.” Working sucks, dealing drugs is where the money is at… turf wars followed, leaving a once thriving neighborhood a hollowed-out war zone. And they cried racism again.
White people started realizing the value in the construction of the older homes, and value of being able to walk vs. drive everywhere suburbs. The “current” residents would never sell out to “those people”, but not because they’re racist, but because they are “preserving community”. Eventually a few houses are bought and fixed up, and make the indigenous population look really bad and lazy. Do they pick up their game? Nah, they break in and steal whatever they can, and take other actions to make the neighborhood even less appealling. Dollar dollar bill wins out in the end, and while it isn’t illegal to refinish hardwood floors, it is illegal to sell drugs and shoot people.
So the lazy have to find somewhere else to be lazy and the bad people go to jail. The end.
The yuppies that would gentrify NoDa are buying condos “uptown” and Southend near the Lynx stations, or houses in Dillworth and Fourrth Ward instead.
Sorry, but you’re stuck with hippy d-bags until the north half of the blue line comes online.
That was beautiful ncwebguy, and true.
I’m a little confused by your vague references. Exactly who are these “new” families? Who is “keeping it real”, “selling drugs”, and leaving a once thriving community in what? Hold on ….. sorry a neighborhood “a hollowed out war zone.” That in and of itself sounds pretty racist my man. I’m going to assume that you are speaking from some kind of personal experience, and not making this shit up as you go along and say this; It is wrong ; and by wrong I mean immoral, inaccurate, and just plain ignorant, (and I’m not one for alliteration) to try to paint a people or peoples with the broad brush of laziness, indecency, or what have you, based on your own personal experiences however valid or invalid.
And if you are going to try at least have the balls to be specific about whom you are speaking
one more thing: this ain’t the 60’s or 70’s this is 2008
“GET ON BOARD OR GET LEFT BEHIND”
IAN
This I had not heard of. Living in depressed areas never really appealed to me. Though I do like shows and documentaries about such places (e.g. Sanford and Son, Good Times, Hoop Dreams). I guess maybe that counts.
LOL- Im going to be a bit direct here …The image that the rest of the world get of White Americans is that you are so stuck up and scared shitless of blacks that you let them abuse you.I know most probably that the law in america prevents that you as a white person can retaliate against a racist black dick head. Black people are all racicst bro.They feed on the past, without the struggle from the past they are in fact …NOTHING in live .They are the biggest racist of the world ,they hate white people not for what they have done to in the past but for what they can do even now…i can go on and on but every white guy out there knows even if he doesnt want to , that in the face of a black ,protected buy law, you have to kneel down in the black mans racism …WHITE PEOPLE WAKE UP DO YOU REALLY WANT TO SERVE UNDER THE DEVILS SPAWN?!!!
Comments with bad grammar and excessive racism are going to change the world. Good for you for making a difference. The power of your opinion has sent shock waves through the nation. The Devil’s Spawn should be under control in no time.
Detroit?
you know, i learned in anthropology that there’s actually no such thing as different races
oh how white people love getting offended as you’ve probably read. but most people from every race pretty much piss themselves whenever someone makes a “racist” comment. get over it, shit happens.
think so? i don’t think the man gave a flying fig
totally, there’s nothing wrong with fixing old homes..and i doubt those who do it do so to make the people in their neighborhoods look bad. if they did, they probably wouldn’t have had the balls to move into such a neighborhood.
yeah totally. they need to gentrify the trailer parks. ahaha.
Oh, yeah, it’s ssssoooo boring here in the burbs. Let’s see, my house has been broken into, um, never! That would be ZERO times. The guy sleeping on my doorstep would be a friend of mine who was a recent party guest. Oh, I’m suffering.
You sure you know black people. That statement is what is wrong with the perception of black Americans among whites. I really think you ought to get out more and stop watching VH-1. Just because the media focuses on Blacks with issues does not mean that all of us have those issues. Think about it! Do all white people blame the black man for the deterioration of the fabric of this country. I would hope not. WHo controls te majority of this country? SO, think about the things you say. I hope this is not how all “white” people think. Though I am a man of African descent, I can say that I for one don’tholld a grudge over something I did not experience, however my grandfather had a right to complain living in the south being the youngest of nine brothers and the only one not to experience life as a slave. Did your grandfather experience that? Probably not…….bottom line. If you look at the history nearly every race in this country, they all have had some kind of struggle (white, black, asian, jew, native american). The most important thing that so many of us forget to realize is that we are all Americans. Some born with more privilege than others some born in poverty. As you rad this think about this one thing…. When the terrorist hit in Hew York, did they stop to ask who was who or did they just try to kill everyone in those flights and buildings? That’s right, they didn’t stop to check ID, they were intent on killing Americans, black, white, latino, it didn’t matter. We need to get over these petty differences( which in the grand scheme of things mean nothing) and think about making this country the best place for our children to live regardless of any of those stereotypes.
You know what, I believe you are right. Those people should not be allowed to live in your neighborhood. Since all of them, every last one of them all over the country, in the burbs, the city and the outskirts, do all of those things you say. Are you serious??? You’ve got to get out more. My neighborhood is emaculate. And guess what, all of “those people keep thier yards cut and their isn’t any trash piled up in their yards. You know something else, they don’t live in the ghetto. Are you amazed that some of them can be clean???
I feel the same way!
what’s a wigger???
Wow! You watch too much TV!!!
ARE YOU SERIOUS??? WOW!! No wonder America is in such bad shape. White people think the the same way as other races. “Let’s blame our issuse on somebody who is not us!”
Your fear of your fellow Aericans has you blind with hatred. There are several issues that cause our nation to be in such a horrible state socially, morally and the like. One of them being the lack of respect for other peoples culture and lifestyle. Why is it ok for white people to hang onto the 50′ and 60’s , Father Knows Best, Leave it to Beaver Days, but when black people want to hold onto something meaningful it’s somehow an outrage? Another amazing thing that Makes this country so great is, you have the right to express yourself the way you want, and should not have to apologize for that. I’m sure no one complains about your bars and stars. Most could care less…. be a sport let other people feel free to express themselves without the fear of being ridiculed for being who they are.
Yeah, I’m black and don’t give a damn about street cred. I kinda like living in an area whaere the crackheads are not trying to steal the hubcaps off of my car. I don’t think race has anything to do with that, I think that has more to do with people who have the means move to where they feel safe.
I don’t have dubs on my Expedition. Am I the exception or the rule. What do you tink. Every black person is trying to be flashy and one up thier neighbor? I doubt it! The ones I know, are just trying to make ends meet without roadblocks and these kind of stereotypical views that are glorified on TV. MTV is entertainment that is not how all black people live.
This whole conversation is crazy. Why would white people want to move in a neighborhood where most of the people that live there are working day and nught to try t get out of? That makes no sense! For some friends who behind closed doors could really “care less”. That’s stupid!
One neighbor hood does not make you an expert on blacks. Is this an attempt to justify your own existence by shooting hatred towards another group of people? Did you not get any hugs as a child? Were you breastfed? See, these kind of things cause people to search for a purpose and blaming others is a good way to make yourself feel better.
If it makes you feel any better, it’s no fun being held up every other week as a black guy in a black neighborhood either.
WHat the hell is a hipster. Is that what you guys think of all black people because we listen to different music and dress differently. Wow! We still have a long way to go….
Again I ask>>>> Wjat the hell is a hipster?
You know what! The people who lived there before didn’t want the crackheads there either but the city officials let them stay so it would run down the propert value so your rich friends could buy it up and run out the good citizens that lived there too. Sure, they got rid of the crackheads, but there were a lot more hardworking citizens trying to make ends meet before the drug pushers were allowed to come in, and don’t get confused by what you see. How do the drugsget into tose neghborhoods? Some of those same people you glorify are the ones destroying this country from the inside out. Liveing right next to you….. Thnk about it! How many people from the hood own airplanes or have ever been to South America on business, how many of your neighbors have?????
Just a little food for thought.
I don’t care who the hell moves in, just don’t push out the locals.
I hope there is not any implied anti-immigrant vibe since some people simply hate the fact that there are a lot of bilingual/non-English speaking residents in Miami but even excusing that you got a point. Most people, i.e. the locals are not necessarily that upset about people renovating their homes in those areas, it is more people renovating the homes and neighborhoods and attracting affluent *people* that will eventually price those earlier residents out. Where they risk being forced in housing situations they do not like or maybe homelessness in some instances. I am sure newer residents may encounter residents with poor attitudes but would you like being at risk for this? Nothing against homelessness if I in any way offended!Granted, this process is very noticeable in poor black neighborhoods/ghettos, but folks in barrios,Asiantowns, trailerparks/ethnic white slums, and reservations don’t much like this either! I say this because some people on hear are making it out as if black folks generally and other folks particularly have no right to have reservations like this!
Some of my sentiments exactly. Both of yall are so wrong…but oh so right!
Temper temper. The divorce ain’t low in Mayberry,Agrestic, and Orange county!
They think that if it’s good for them it must be good for everyone else involved.
Bingo!
Don’t drink the water.
I don’t think any one was displaced, because no one lived there.
No, If no one lived there to displace, you didn’t displace anyone.
That happens all the time.
I hardly see why Whites returning to formerly White neighborhoods is bad in any way.
That’s just it. Those neighborhoods are *formerly* white, not predominantly white any longer until they are recolonized by *pioneers*!
Whites are returning culture to the neighborhoods that have been devoid of it since non-whites came in and did nothing in these areas, except let all the property depreciate.
Whites are not returning culture when some are not even all that sure they got one. The locals have their own culture. It is just different than WASP culture and they don’t need assistance in this department. Also, the property had depreciated alot years before when it was white before the first minority had usually set foot! So much for upkeep! If it had not, whites would not have move to greener pastures even before they fled from minorities! As for the maintenance of areas, those areas are not necessarily unclean and to the extent some white neighborhoods stay clean, it is because many of these residents pay minorities/poor ethnic whites to do it-people *some* so love to despite. It’s not because they all keep it up. Maybe if some of these people were not taking care of your yard and home, ,maybe theirs could be clean. Then again, who’s to say that the areas of residents are not often that way regardless!
My sentiments exactly.At least some of the people being gentrified are white. Some of these areas are going down to because some whites may be actually facing economic problems too and everything that entails!
WTWORLD?
My sentiments EXACTLY!Seriously!
Yes! Always!Thought it was just me!
Laughs
O-oops!
But in most cases, they have the financial means to live ANYWHERE they want.
Which is why local residents often wonder why many, of all places, they choose to live in ethnic neighborhoods if they have problems with the residents and area in the first place and why they are giving up suburban living for the city when some of them want all the amenities they had in the suburbs and would eventually back move anyway!
There is just as much drug dealing, and using…
Exactly!Ditto to this whole paragraph baby…and they-many of them- got all these problems despite the priviledge, opportunities, and money available to them.
… and that’s when they’re not taking their curious arses to I guess what you call ‘lower class arses’ to do it all.
Truer words having been spoken again sister. Yet the whites complain are the same stuffy people quick to blast the area play a noticeable role by endorsing the very social problems and “so-called elements” they rush to decry! They patronize the drug dealers as much as the locals, they patronized the pimps and prostitutes by soliciting sex, and do other stuff-yet they are the first to complain about it all and judge people. What hypocrities. You know what else, half these artsy types probably become artsy and probably be escaping suburbs to get away from the homegrown predators that reside in those areas as we speak! That is just my admittedly half-baked theory-albeit one with a grain of truth.
I will be the first to say all minorities or poor people do not walk on water-or that we are all virtuous by nature but the assumption that minorities and poor people lead in all that is bad is hogwash and ho-oey as well! No, white people commit as much crime and social problems as everybody else, and no amount of ducking and docking will override these unsavory truths. Superiority complex aside!
I only partly disagree with you about disliking watermelon. But here again I’m like you with this because big deal-every ethnic/cultural group has distinct foods they enjoy and all ethnicities like watermelon.
BTW I am a black female too!
Exactly.You are definitely on to something here. This is largely referencing bourgeois bohemians, the bobos, particularly and the way they use their preferences as a way to be elitist and not progressive like some claim!There may be times the particular article strays from the post, but I have not found to many instances where it has! I am not sure I have found any to be honest!
But because of the new voucher system brought to you by HUD, the ghetto can now move into these condos.
Pity. It is what it is! Unexpected I suppose, but the “suburbs” did invade the ghetto without the consent of the traditionalresidents.
Greedy landlords/unit owners who don’t live there could care less what you have to put up with.
If they don’t, they are acting no different than they were before the arrival of yuppies. Afterall, they could’ve care less about what the old residents. i.e. locals, had to put up with!
And their relatives now in some cases have to endure poverty and sufferingon a level those arse poor whites then could not comprehend.
do you need a hug?Give mama a kiss.I still love ya,white boy.(you are funny.)
Look baby,it’s not that we don’t want you guys in our neighborhoods,we can care less.Cool.Just stop trying to change the whole culture/traditions of the neighborhood.you guys move in,then flip the whole agenda to YOUR liking.Stop complaining stuff that aren’t neccessarily bothersome to everyone else there never complained about.i.e.:vendors,drum circles,the group of old men sitting on the corner talking,music,etc.Stop putting up more Barnes & Nobles,Starbucks and Japanese fusion resturants in our hood.And further more…Stop moving us OUT of our own hood.I feel if you move into an area that things been goin on forever.leave it alone,that’s the beauty of moving to a neighborhood you’re not too familiar with.You soak up the vibe of that hood,chill and roll with it.We wouldn’t try to move to your neighborhood putting up Rib Shacks,Roti Shops and Rasta stores.So,chill,brother…it’s not that serious.We actuall give more respect to white folks that live in our hoods.Shows humility,acceptance and some empathy for their neighbors.Remember,this is beyond race…This is about keeping the integrity of a community,whether it’s a black community,an Italian community,Eastern European,Caribbean,etc.Gentrification affects the ones who DON’T have.It’s about only one color…GREEN.
Screw the poor. If they can’t take of their crap, then too freaking bad if someone else takes it and makes it better. You are not economically feasible outside of being unthinking epsilons. Now go obey your Alpha overlords.
Why the hell should they care about you? You didn’t want them there in the first place. It was good for blacks to move into predominantly white areas back in the 60’s but it wasn’t good for the whites. The blacks obviously didn’t care about the whites then did they?
What goes around comes around.
Yeah but, your culture is crap compared to WASP culture. Have seen a wigger? Absolutely pathetic sight. Personally I thing all the inner city neighborhoods should be paved over so us folks in the suburbs can get to work faster. You inner city rats can be shipped off to Brazil or some other god forsaken country that loves ghettos.
I hear all this stuff about white people being racists and all and yet about the only people in this whole country, and I’ve been everywhere…the ONE and only people which I’ve heard the most racist remarks, blatenly and out loud are from black people. Many of them, especially the women, are hateful and brassy and will not hesitate to yell out a racial slur about anyone, white, hispanic or asian. They hate everyone but don’t you dare say “black hole, angel food cake or devils food cake” or that’s your career. I’m not white, I’m not black. I’ve lived in both all black neigborhoods and I’ve lived in all white neighborhoods, and out of experience I can tell you that I’m glad I’ve been able to make enough money to afford the latter. My kids have never been beat up because of their race like I have…not by whites but by blacks….Blacks. And another thing, If you’re so hateful of other races and nationalities and such then stick to your own sistas and stop trying to fuck every other thing that moves. It’s an abomination.
hey RedCent, i hope someone breaks into your house and steals all of your Dave Matthews cd’s.
Too late for noda. The yuppies are here in full force with their decked-out IKEA “lofts.”. A few “Touch of Grey Era Hippies” with “funky” colored homes can’t hold ’em back. We’re out.
I’m sooo tired of people whining about THEIR experience with (insert race) people and therefore most people of that race are exactly the same! GET OVER IT. I suggest you seek counseling to get over your issues with black people, especially black women. My experience has been the exact opposite, but I would never dare say that most blacks are wonderful! They are people just like you. Iโm sure you have been a jackass from time to time, but that wouldnโt make me think that everyone who looks like you is a jackass. Grow a brain.
Oliver…that’s simply because white people are closet racists.
๐
Gentrification can get you killed….check it out! Seattle black-on-white crime….beware people who like to garden!
http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/localnews/2008051777_trafficcircle15m.html
Seattle police are looking for a 28-year-old Renton man in connection with the fatal beating of James Paroline during a confrontation Wednesday at a Rainier Beach traffic circle.
A video of the assault filmed by a neighbor shows Paroline getting “sucker-punched” by the suspect, identified by police as Brian Keith Brown, according to charging papers released Monday. Paroline, 60, who suffered a fractured skull when his head struck the pavement, died a day later, the papers said.
The attack came after Paroline was confronted by three teenage girls who were angry that he had set up traffic cones in the street as he gardened in the traffic circle in front of his home at 61st Avenue South and South Cooper Street. The girls threw a jug of water at Paroline and they claim he responded by squirting water at them from a hose.
Police say Brown intervened a few minutes later.
When interviewed by police, the girls initially told investigators that they didn’t know the man who punched Paroline in the head. A day later the girls offered up Brown’s name and admitted he was a boyfriend of a friend, according to the charging papers.
Brown has been charged with second-degree murder and a warrant was issued for his arrest. The King County Prosecutor’s Office is requesting that Brown be held on $500,000 bail when he is arrested.
Brown has prior convictions for third-degree assault, drug possession, obstructing a law-enforcement officer, theft and criminal trespassing.
Brown pleaded guilty to assault in 2005 and was sentenced to four months in jail after he attacked a woman in her Renton apartment. The victim said Brown choked and head-butted her after Brown and his girlfriend showed up at the woman’s apartment, according to court charging papers
sorry – but that’s the way things work….no one ‘forces’ you out of the hood…pay your bills and dont sell out…or buy a house somewhere….
stop complaining and start working
Ignorance at its best. I’m sorry some black people moved into your neighborhood when you were growing up and your family moved away. I am also sorry that this scenario did not actually take place across the country like you seem to think it did.
just in: driving cars, also can get you killed.
being white in a black hood can get you popped
Not really dude. It has to do with tribalism, who you grew up with, class etc. Black people are closet racists, everyone’s a goddamn closet racist if they never actually experience other people and only hear about stereotypes. Watch f-ing BET comicview- there is a lot of vitriol directed against white there that comes from the same place any subconscious “racist” feeling comes from in white people
whatever that means. Certainly there are genes that underpin the amount of melanin in your skin and the way your face looks- uhh, that’s why we tend to look like our parents. Humans are very closely related in general- but hey, that doesn’t mean there isn’t genetic variability or genetic traits more common in certain races.
Wow. It’s wrong to paint people with a broad brush. Um, then this whole blog is offensive.
And by the way, it seems pretty clear to me he’s talking about black people.
The more you read about this sort of thing, the more you understand why the whole Ron Artest thing happened to happen at the Palace in Detroit.
I’m in love with you
You are the funniest person in the world . . . LOL. Oh my God . . . too funnny.
Newsflash,buddy. Many white people and other non-blacks are just as racists towards blacks as blacks can be toward them. For this reason, I am glad that the non-blacks/whites “that don’t want to be there” move!I have heard non-black people both out loud and under their breath say negative things in reference to black people. This is in cases where blacks have not bothered them. I have heard an Asian say at a store that they work at that they did not like African Americans when the people/person they directed the comment to were contributing money to the store they worked at. This too when blacks were the customers that patronized their store.Don’t get me wrong, I am not saying that every white/immigrant has had good encounters with blacks because some of us do do shady things. But non-blacks and whites have done shady things to blacks at times too and call them out there name in their many different languages. As for the comments about black men dating other women-other non-black women are often attracted to black men in these cases referenced. In other words non-blacks/whites often like to “fuck” the black men moving!With that said, African Americans have a high internal marriage rate that is probably as high as whites or other minorities.
Screw the stupid acting affluent. They have the beach, the suburbs, and other places. Why the need for the takeover of poor areas when you have the other areas at your whim. Anyway, poor people often do take care of their stuff and rich people stuff stay kept together in alot of places only because they pay other people to do it. If this was not the case, the places would not necessarily be clean since *some*/ “some” affluent folks are lazy and unclean! Anyway, you do not know the feasibility of anybody personally or collectively to make the judgement call of anybody being economically unfeasible. From your comment, you should not be quick to deem anyone unthinking either. Go obey your effete, stupid misleaders!
Jackbutt, I don’t drink and I can stay up whenever I want since I am grown. Take a break from the neo-nazi rally and get your rest!
Whites left the areas “they are supposedly taking back” for greener pastures! They left areas that they had run down to a noticeable degree before the first black/minority resident step foot on the scene!They left the neighborhood in bad shape then complain when they do not look perfect! Anyway, the whites could have stayed but they gave the communities up! Why beg people to stay in places they don’t want to!
Bull! The fact that you have Wiggers and before that Beats that supposedly emulate blacks, hippies that in many cases do their best immitation of Native Americans, Asians, Pacific Islanders and other indigenous peoples of the Third and Fourth World, and yuppies with their appropriation of aspects of Japanese and other Asian cultures along with the women, speaks volumes about the vapidness some whites perceive in their own culture despite the fact it is the “dominant” one! You lily white suburb whackjobs that act silly should just stay put in your suburbs that are dropping in value and going to pot since they are getting foreclosed!
This is off topic but if it makes him feel better, I do not like getting stopped by the police at times because I am the only black person in the predominantly white suburb!
Great blog, yes let’s again blame the white folk for the blacks downfall. How about the Asian and Hispanics that have moved here and had to overcome language barriers? I’d say they’ve been pretty successful here and aren’t constantly looking around for someone to blame for their failures. If blacks got rid of the weak victim prone leader ship like Jackson/Sharpton and actually took accountablility for their actions, they could actually get move on and succeed here.
Perfectly said, thank you.
The city I live in, the black neighborhood stayed black (and mostly rental) because the banks ‘red-lined’ the area, up until the 80’s- they would not make housing loans in the area of town that was (and is) predominantly black. We bought a house in this neighborhood just recently, through a land trust program, because it is close to where my wife’s mother lives, we like the layout better, and it is closer to work for me. And because we are poor and can’t afford the prices in most of this city. There is crime where we live, and stupid stuff, but pretty much the same as where we used to live, which was predominantly white. The other mostly white neighborhoods that we could afford to live in just means trading gang members here for meth addicts there. At least gang members here get some sleep.
Community is a weird thing and there are plenty of people who don’t get it. I mind my own business and don’t press my values, and just do my thing, and be friendly. There are jerky kids and teen and twenty-something knuckleheads around here but again, same anywhere else we could afford to live. There are also lots of friendly people. We came here to live, we aren’t flipping houses or taking things over. Sometimes I hear folk around here talking about the influx of white people and how back in the day white people wouldn’t come down here or to this park… I think a lot of that is just romanticizing the old days, especially since my wife who is also white rented in this neighborhood during the times they are talking about. Seems like plenty of people here, including me, like a neighbor of any persuasion that just does their thing and doesn’t raise a lot of drama or infringe on others.
This site interests me because a lot of white people don’t know what their culture looks like to other people and don’t think they have any sort of distinct culture (not to be particularly proud of, just to note trends and perceptions.). It is making me think and laugh.
MALCOLM X HAD THE RIGHT IDEA!!!!!!!!!! Whites live among whites, blacks live among blacks.
How about the Asian and Hispanics that have moved here and had to overcome language barriers?
Ummmmmm sorry to break it to ya toots but…….thats just a wee bit different.
BLACKS THIS BLACKS THAT. You’ve got to be kidding me.
By your logic black people either live in the ghetto feeling sorry for themselves, OR get money and waste it all on Cliche rapper novelties.
Turn the TV off and go FIND some REAL black people to talk about. You’re in freakin LA it shouldn’t be THAT hard.
You can’t possibly think that there aren’t threads bashing blacks elsewhere on the net.
this is depressing. i don’t score many white points really – probably because I’m a complete alien to your so god damned typical could never happen anywhere else but in the states discussion. and I’m the one who looks like a 6 feet jar of skimmed milk! thank god I’m not American – so I don’t have to worry about living up to my skin color by clinging to stereotypes.
Gentrification is horable! and im white…it destroyes communities,not just black ones but others to…if a group of people work to build a community its just sad when people come in an put in a condo or something like that!
A few questions….I’m not saying I’m right or your wrong…but I just have a few questions….
Do you think it is beneficial for crime rates to rise, test scores to continue to drop and to keep the cycle going or is it beneficial if we build affordable housing (ie. habitat homes) and also allow people who have become successful (white or black) to move into the inner city and help mesh the two together.
Or is it better to keep isolating people and make people feel as if they are doing right by living in racial and economic divisions?
Reality is that some people will be displaced, but if we look at changing the system and not just avoiding it and saying just stick to yourself then MAYBE, just MAYBE we can start to see the poor helped!
where are you from? we don’t behave based on skin color- we behave based on what we learned from our families. the fact is that with such a history of segregation, the cultures between races are different. racism is everywhere- it’s based on an archetype called ethnocentrism. don’t generalize us and speak from ignorance.
it’s been my experience growing up in a poor neighborhood, that people that own their homes, care more about their condition, appearance, and overall cleanliness. the man
(a black man) that owns the home next door to mine, when he lived there the grass was green, the trees were trimmed, and the home and yard looked pleasing.
so because of the property value rising so much in so little time. he was able to buy another home in another neighborhood with less gang activity. something any parent would do if they could.
but the problem is, not that he still owns the home, before he moved i remember talking to him about new resents. he said hes was going to rent the house out as “section 8” that way he could get top dollar. now there is a single woman and her six kids, the live in boyfriend that if the state knew was there they would stop the her funding. ok the amount of people doesn’t bother me, i’m poor i know how it is. what bothers me is the lack of care and respect the people have. i guess they have never lived in a home where they had their own yard, because they literally throw trash out their windows. never picking it up. i guess in the projects there are workers that care for the grounds outside. now the owner comes by every year or two. but because he is getting twice the price for rent than any other home in our neighborhood it doesn’t bother him so much. after all he moved away.
here you can walk down the street(if the locals know you) and you can tell just by the appearance who owns and who rents. ok not with everybody. the mexican people take care of those houses. i think its because their so happy to have a place to live and so afraid of loosing it. but the black people their rude, don’t say hello, the yards are full of trash, screens are off the windows.
now i know i can call the city and report them, but i’m not trying to be a rat. right now i’m just venting. and if you think gentrification is bad. what you would rather have another housing project go up instead?
Overall I think this blog is important because like much cultural critique today, it sparks debate by using uncomfortable humor and effectively gets people to discuss race. As a young black woman who just graduated from a white liberal arts college I found that people were afraid to discuss race because like many other
well-intentioned/scared white folks they were afraid of being perceived as racist. I’ve never been much into blogs and most forms of internet expression because it allows for the kind of anoymity that causes people to speak without thinking. Throughout the comments on this blog I’ve seen people give “impressions” of other races based on their extremely limited interactions and Frank is no different.
Let us please remember that not caring about your neighborhood is not race-specific. It’s not up to white people to come in and rescue the natives who can’t seem to care for their neighborhood. And black people not being polite to white people is a phenomenon that causes way too much concern. I have spent my entire life being ignored in all-white settings save for some idiot assuming I was there as a service or novelty to them and some how I made it through.
Poor Americans of all races are put at the bottom of our nation’s list of priorities. This is not to say that we are not all responsible for ourselves and what we do, but one bi-product of growing up without support and a sense of value is that this is sometimes reflected in way a person lives. And of course some people are just kind of nasty. Messy neighbors is an unfortunate problem never made better by ignorant racial generalizations. If you’re in NYC, 311 that shit.
And fools live among fools – so why don’t you go live with them?
Gentrification was created, to move less desirable minorities out and move europeans in. Bottomline it’s designed for europeans , to make a large profit at the expense (literally ) of minorities. When individuals or companies buy distressed properties, from these economically challenged people. They come in as saviors , but they have a hidden agenda. Seize the property , upgrade it , and rake in the profits. What if the minorities had the financial opportunity, to partake in these purchases ? What if they had knowledge of the property value, of these distressed homes they were lving in ? What if the city, developers , or individuals didn’t wear the mask ? Minorities feel they have bee displaced and bamboozled by gentrification. You can call it urban revitalaztion , gentrification , or hostile real estate takeover. When communities include minorities , instead of taking advantage of them . Then you wouldn’t have to worry about gangs or minorities. Demonstrating behavior like modern day Robin Hood and his merry ( scary ) men. Taking from the rich, who now live in gentrification of the city.Because they feel others having stolen their cake. Then gave them crumbs or nothing at all !!!!!!!
To quote…”What if the minorities had the financial opportunity, to partake in these purchases ? What if they had knowledge of the property value, of these distressed homes they were lving in ? What if the city, developers , or individuals didnโt wear the mask ?”
That’s a lot of “what ifs”…I’ve got the answer. If they could, then they would. But since they don’t, what’s wrong with someone coming in and making the most of the situation. That’s capitalism. I’d rather have a city of cookie cutter housing and a Starbucks on every corner then some run-down ghetto full of graffiti and gangs. I just don’t understand why wanting things to be nice and clean is wrong.
http://twowhiteboys.com/2008/
“What if the minorities had the financial opportunity, to partake in these purchases ? What if they had knowledge of the property value, of these distressed homes they were lving in ? What if the city, developers , or individuals didnโt wear the mask ?”
are you saying that being a minority mean you are not allowed to teach yourself things about the economy? or how real estate works? are you saying that minorities are not allowed loans? thats bullshit… “what if they had knowledge” (see thing white people like #62)
” if given money and education that all poor people would be EXACTLY like them”
so do you believe that if the poor minorities had the money they would be exactly like the evil white buisiness men that bought thier home from them? bought not stole.
http://alfonsogober.blogspot.com/
read under: Gentrification: Explained, For The Tragically Unhip
I live in Harlem and my neighborhood is changing every day. More and more white people are coming to live in the community and it’s bringing the neighborhood down.
I have to say that I hate when white people refer to any neighborhood as “up-and-coming.” It implies that the neighborhood was a wasteland before they arrived and that they are “saving” the neighborhood and its inhabitants.
I don’t think that gentrification is the only way to revitalize a neighborhood. It creates a sense of division among the members of the community. It often displaces hardworking people. It also strips the character of a neighborhood (by the way, are you idiots STILL spending $6 for a cup of weak-ass nasty coffee at Starbucks?).
Mexicans are clean because they’re so happy to have something and so afraid of losing it? ? ?
Yes, we’re so happy to have left our straw huts in Mexico and to have swam the river so that we can get a real house with four walls!! Let’s clean and pray the Migra doesn’t come for us and take away this big American house from us.
Mexicans in general are clean because of the work ethic. Not because of desperate circumstances. Ass.
Is it really a shocker that 20-30 somethings with decent jobs/rich parents want to live in a thriving city as opposed to a suburb 20 miles from the hub? With transportation costs rising by the second, I’d be fairly shocked if most of America’s big cities(500000+) didn’t resemble Paris(beautiful, middle to upper class) and its suburbs(ghettos) before long. Get in while you can…
When white people move to an urban area it’s called “gentrification”. When white people move away from an urban area it’s called “white flight”. Gentrification usually causes homes to be improved, property values to increase, and crime rates to fall. White flight is blamed for causing homes to fall into disrepair, property values to fall, and crime rates to rise. Many people consider both gentrification and white flight to be bad.
Gentrification supposedly destroys communities by pushing out the existing habitants. An influx of upwardly mobile white people into a “black” neighborhood is seen as just another example of how poor blacks are abused by whites. Would anyone dare to complain about how an influx of blacks into a “white” neighborhood destroys the neighborhood. Actually there was plenty of complaining in decades past when whites were complaining about blacks moving in next door but that has largely been silenced by the constant accusations of racism on the part of white people. When the white people moved to the suburbs, it was branded as “white flight” and assumed to be motivated by racism also.
It would seem that no matter what white people do, they will be criticized. Does anyone get upset when a black person moves into an urban area and fixes up his house? Is that black person blamed for the urban area’s deterioration when he moves to a big house in the suburbs? This all seems to be consistent with a pattern of blacks blaming whites for everything while turning a blind eye to their own actions.
Such a typical comment from someone who decides to make stupid, simple observations about black people without any credible knowledge of our culture, our history, or our struggle.
You don’t know a damn thing about what it takes to survive – YES SURVIVE – as a black person in America. I WISH I could sentence every white American to five years of being black in this country so they could know EXACTLY what it feels like – what you put us through on a daily basis.
So before you go and surmise that we blame all our ills on white people without any truthful basis, go and educate yourself! Take an African American History class (taught by a black professor) if you dare!
THEN MAYBE you’ll understand where we’re coming from!
Whaaa WHaa Whaaa Booo hooo hoo. Keep crying and blaming white people for every hardship every black person has ever had. Give me a F*****g break. with civil rights, the naacp, equal opportunity this that & the other thing, blacks today (if they wanted to apply themselves) have a huge advantage over any other race. Boo hoo hoo your grandfathers grandfathers grandfather was a slave. not anyone you know today, or any of your relatives have ever known. and if you would look past the color of your skin. every single color at some point in time (history goes back further than the american period) has been a slave. Many to their own “color”.
Yeah, well anywhere blacks live you know it’s going 2 hell.
First, so everyone knows where this is coming from: I’m white. A white male even.
Second, I find everyone here to be absolutely hilarious! I never knew 66 pages of comments to a blog could keep in tune with the satire of the main article! Brilliant!
To the guys railing against gentrification: ho ho, how funny you are! Just as you equally pretended to be pissed when whites left the cities and it was derided as “white flight!”
And to the guys supporting gentrification: you are comically blessed! Like black people want anything to do with white people at all anyway! And then you claim to be putting neighborhoods on the up and up! Ho ho, hilarious!
No, seriously now, everyone here is a complete fuck-wit. On the last page alone: SR, Malcolm X’s last idea would be white with whites, blacks with blacks. You’ve completely mis-interpreted him. Pre-1960s, it wasn’t uncommon at all for blacks to be lynched, beat up, and arrested for absolutely no reason, and then whites pretended all was normal. This all had the effect of making it so that those of black skin could not have pride in themselves back then. Hence conked hair and other attempts to be “more white” in black culture prior to civil rights.
Malcolm X’s idea was to remove those maladies, he knew you couldn’t be proud of being a color but you could be ashamed of it. It was his idea to build the African American spirit so that blacks and whites could live together as equals, from EQUAL FOOTING. Even today, the African American spirit is one of “us against them.” There are still attempts to be white, and now (going against what X wanted) attempts to define what is “black.” You see it in the culture, black people who do not act “black” are outcasts. Or worse, they are “white.” Remember the first “Beverly Hills Cop” where Eddie Murphy tells a black detective he has been hanging around white cops to much, deriding him for the way he spoke? Yah, its not a new phenomenon.
And eo: you couldn’t be a bigger sell out. You might as well have written “I’m not racist” in that comment, because it rings the same way. I’ve met tons of you: white kids trying as hard as they can not to be gentrifying the neighborhoods they move to, and trying to rail against the process. All the same, you are a part of it. And please, don’t cop out claiming that any of the communities whites are moving to were “communities” to begin with. With the possible exception of Harlem, most are enclaves of poverty. I’ve yet to meet a resident of any of these neighborhoods who did not want to move out of them. I never said “move to the burbs,” I just said they wanted to move to better neighborhoods.
Slums are not just a black phenomenon either: ever been to West Virginia? There are towns, I’m descendants of residents of one of them, that do not even have water and electricity. Mostly, they are former slave owners descendents (I am too), who only had worthless Confederate currency post- Civil War and moved West to avoid Union troops rampaging through the south. Ever since they’ve lived there, impoverished and forgotten by a US Government they still resent.
All in all, I think only the most unintelligent of Americans has visited this blog, with the exception of myself and Sydney from August 5th. Mostly, because we forget all this is satire in the end.
Jiggaboo, why dont u go back 2 africa. and dont say i brought u cuz i aint white
I can think of at least one epithet that applies to you- but I will say this- the barrio’s don’t always look stellar either joker. Hugh cities with majority Latino populations don’t all look like Monti Carlo so lets not kid ourselves. As it stands, some areas look good-some don’t. PERIOD
What’s your opinion on Farrakhan Allen? He loves the idea of black nationalism and segregation.
Most African American neighborhoods, in Chicago at least, declined with blacks moved into them. Misdirect by citing slums in West Virgina all you want but the percentage of white neighborhoods which are in poverty is much, much, much less than African American ones, and I think you know that.
You say you’ve yet to meet a resident of any of these neighborhoods who did not want to move out of them. They just want to move to a better neighborhood. True, but how did their current neighborhoods get the way they are? And what would they do different in their new neighborhood to prevent the same thing from happening? Oh, I know, I bet the white people who live there are morally obligated to stay and teach these folks the basics about decency, property maintenance and respect. Sure.
You’re right — seems only the most unintelligent people visit this board. Here’s to you….Duhhhhhh!
The whole damn thing is a joke about white sterotypes,not an in-depth social discussion…
…you’re kind of a tool.
Here in London, we have bent over backwards to help our black population. There are anti-discrimination laws on the books, you can get locked up for using a racially offensive word, there are government quotas and targets for everything race-related, our blacks get free social housing, free schools for their kids, free medical care, unending welfare..the list goes on and on. To be labelled a racist in 21st century Britain is akin to being called a paedophile. This is probably the most fair-minded and tolerant country on the entire planet.
And despite all this
– around 50% of blacks still live in public housing
– they make up 18% of the UK prison population (whilst making up only 2% of the overall population)
– 65% of the working age population are economically inactive (not in education, employment or training – or in prison)
– the vast majority of those that do have jobs are non-wealth creating/public sector positions (i.e. government employees)
My honest belief is that blacks are quite simply unable to help themselves. Why else are they still langushing at the bottom of society? Do they hate themselves so much that they simply don’t give a damn? No other immigrant group fares as badly as they do, and yet it somehow always becomes whitey’s fault. What a load of horse-shit.
Black people – wise up to the fact that most white people couldn’t give a fuck about you or the ‘legacy’ of slavery. The rest of us are way too busy trying to live productive and decent lives.
Want everyone else to stop treating you like pond scum (right-wingers) and/or helpless children (left-wingers)? THEN HELP YOURSELVES AND PROVE THAT YOU AREN’T INTELLECTUALLY AND MORALLY INFERIOR.
Not a fair comparison. You can’t expect results in only a few decades, and it’s not something that only the English can help. I’d say a nice chunk of it has to do with black identity. Blacks cannot at this time legitimately point to black accomplishments that parallel or suprass those of whites. This goes way back to the beginning of man’s migration from Africa and simply can’t be helped. Whilst Europe and the Middle East and Asia were constantly exchanging ideas, Africa fell behind. That legacy lives on in the mind’s of all blacks, and I think is especially poignant in the mind’s of educated blacks. To be an educated black man is an exception whereas with whites it is the rule. This is why you can only expect results over an extended period of time. There needs to be a sizeable black middle class to serve as effective role models. You may say my argument is senseless or daft, but I do think whites have a sense of cultural superiority or a superiority complex which leads them to achieve higher and greater things because they know they have a legacy to prove they can do it. Of course, this cannot last forever owing to the inevitable equalizing effect of globaization.
the overriding effect of extreme poverty over hundreds of years does not correct itself in only 20 years….whites have excluded blacks from even having blue collar jobs WELL INTO THE 80’s. If you are going to cite Chicago as an example of where blacks turn neighborhoods into swamps, then what about the former ghettos of brooklyn and queens which are now flourishing from the effect of renovation? Welfare in modest proportions and better education will, over the course of another FEW GENERATIONS (30-40 plus years) correct the problem of black poverty. Blacks need to be able to compete on a level playing field and the only way to achieve that without displacing or burdening whites is to allow them to catch up in large steps so that they will eventually be able to compete with whites. For heaven’s sake Black identity is constantly being subverted by whites…look at michael jackson and whitney houston for example.
“It is not the strongest of the species that survives, nor the most intelligent, but the one most responsive to change. “-charles darwin
Wow, what a bunch of retards. This is hilarious!
I’m Black and agree with Allen, he’s on point and honest unlike most White people who are in denial. In the minds of Whites, Blacks will never be equal to Whites no matter what and Black Americans on a whole will never, ever recover from slavery. Slavery worked White people, it really worked. Two thumbs up to you!
And this is coming from a rich, proud multiple property owner from Harlem!!!
Amen!!! Finally someone said it!!!
Just because I love Liverpool FC, doesn’t mean I won’t bust David Hammond’s ass about the post concerning blacks in England.
You can’t compare benefits in one country to the situations of all blacks around the globe. Chances are you are white, David, so you will never know.
On the other hand I’ve seen many a black person stealing a dollar pound cake, getting shot over it, and using slavery as a crutch as he tells his story from his hospital bed on the 6:00 news.
This is about gentrification, and white people shamelessly love doing it…just as black people enjoy moving into the suburbs and tearing it all up from the minute they hit the driveway.
By the way, I’m mixed asian-cuban/black so be easy black and white people.
We don’t have to prove a thing to you or anybody else-nowhere in the world. Many of us are hardworking,law-abiding, and more of us are prospering by dint of hard work. More and more of us are creating businesses everyday-so there! If anything, some of you need to worry about your situation. The wealth of enough white people has been gotten of the backs of the whole world, yet yall are the first to holler self-reliance when anybody else gets anything perceived as handouts. On top of this-with all the advantages acquired, you are at risk of losing many of them as as a whole everyday.Or the first to blame everybody for your own problems when things do not go right. If you want people to stop blaming you for their problems- some of you need to stop hedging up obstacles.
Give me a break. Alot of nonblacks have gotten the same level of assistance in some form or another as blacks supposedly have,have been offered jobs at times that blacks have not,have certain cultural traditions that were not targeted to be destroyed, and have plenty of activist organizations as a result, and are not defined by their past-yet they have it soooo soooo soooo much worse than black people ALLL THE TIME to let THEM tell it-give ME a break! Cry ME a river! Boohoo for your plight and your sense of entitlement that you claim ONLY black people have a monopoly on! Some of you judge black people by their color and history of slavery despite having had ancestors in slavery,indentured servitude, or serfdom- then have the nerve to tell them to look past it. Get the devil outta here. Cut that mess and one more thing, all of you are not THAT successful. Some of y’all act as if every member of your group is awash in millions of dollars. Bull. All of you are not industrious, law-abiding, enterprising,morally pure or nothing else either. Some of your members are as lazy, criminal, nonenterprising, morally enept and flawed as everybody else. I will not hesitate to say that the black community has both bad and good, non-productive and productive members but this goes for others.
You know what Sydney, you do not have to justify the personal habits of poor people to non-poor people because even with a sense of value, support, and in some cases, education about keeping their places clean- some non-poor people are just as nasty as *some* of them claim most/nearly all poor people are-and they have less of an excuse for it. Some of them are this way because they are disorganized or don’t know how to clean up or like their working poor counterparts don’t have the time-but some are just plain nasty or lazy too!
That is just the thing! Not all of them are successful despite hard work and perseverance even with their situation being a wee bit different.(And I applaud them in the areas they are successful in DESPITE this observation! Many are-but NOT ALL!This is the case for Asians,Latinos,or Whites. Anyway, many black people are doing ok despite barriers although some are not. Either way, most blacks are not blaming others for their problems, they are just bringing up things that happen to be the unfiltered truth that other people have a problem accepting. Other people don’t want to hear anything about hardship unless they are talking about their own. When they do it-it is talking about their struggle. But when blacks do it, it is complaining. WHATever! Anyway,I recommend others heed their own advice.
Exaactly!!!Pleeenty of them. Plenty of threads bash blacks on their own sites. The persecution they suffer!
white people act like they are the creme-de-la creme, or the best thing that ever happened to the earth, when at the end of the day, they are not. i absolutely hate that about them. they are quick to call an african american person a racist, when they create underhanded undertones of blatant racism then they look around as if they’ve done nothing wrong, when others outside of the caucasion persuasion, pull their ivory cards. come on now, clear people act like they obtained the USA on merit, when they outright stole it right out from under the native americans feet. then they wanna get on this righteous, sanctamonious kick about morals, and values, when your ancestors aint have any. at the end of the day, whiteys are a bunch of egotisitical, backstabbing, blood hounding oppurtunists, and should be treated with that mentallity. the us still isn’t ready for a black president, although i am fully supporting barack, the government is gonna find a way to steal the election once again, and put mccain in office.
if barack somehow DOES make it, the man will be wesley sniped.
This dialogue is hilarious. All of you, white people and black people, talking about this land as if you really belong. I am Native American and I just wish all of you would get the hell off our land.
The author of this comment is obviously an asinine racist. Perhaps, that particular string of words is redundant, I am unsure; but I would like to applaud her/his verbose attempt at ‘stickin it to the man’.
Wake the fuck up fool! This is a blog based off stereotypes aiming at humor. This is supposed to be funny. This is funny. Everyone needs to stop being so damn sensitive, and this author needs to attend a university so that she/he, in the words of this blog, can make the “white choice”. You fuckin lame-ass.
p.s. This blog is funny. People looking to get anything else out of this blog are delusional. In lay terms: crazy.
What about how white people just stand and watch while one of their friends is getting beat up by a group of black people? There is no sense of loyalty among whites when it comes to physical confrontations. Its every man/woman for himself/herself.
Blacks who don’t even know one another will stick up for each other out of a sense of loyalty. I don’t condone violence but in a pressing situation things happen. Loyalty is an admirable quality white people lack in these pressure situations.
I really do not understand this thinking. We, any race applies, have all been slaves. I do not discriminate in the fact hat every race has been enslaved by another for some eason or another. Asians were forced to build the railroad and shape the United States along with African natives. Jews were enslaved a number of times. Scottish were enslaved by the English. What gives one race the rights over being enslaved ove another race. Too many Afican Americans and other races have givn their lives, in Civil Rights movements, so we as americans can live free. What have we done with it. What does this blog do for the cause of us as humans to have better lkives without poverty andinfluence of government in our lives? If it makes you feel better to blame everything on the white man then go ahead. Sit on your ass and write about how a mans skin color makes you wat you are. I am white and that does not make me rich smart or any other stereotype you choose. I as a person detrmine what I will be and what I am. This country was stolen from the native americans so none of us have a right to complain about anything except them. If we do not like it then we should go back to our native coun tries and see how well we would do there. We need to quit complaining and start doing. I understand tha this is just a joke blog but this is the real thought process of some people no matter what their skin color is. We need to quit worrying about the past and move on with the future. We don’t fix the future by looking backwards. We must look forward for our children’s sake.
This is an ignorant comment. Loyalty is not higher with one race more than the other. Is it our rsponsibility to help our fellow man no matter what his color in a time of need? Why do you have the experience of watching white people get jumped on? You seem to have witnessed the act enough times to have formed a judgement about the reactions of white people during these situations!
I’m a living example of this one. My friend moved to a neighborhood like this in Boston and I moved a few blocks from here when getting her from Florida. However, I recognized this and thus would tell my friends when they heard the area was ‘undergoing gentrification’, that it was just code for “the white folk are moving back in”.
I’m a living example of this one. My friend moved to a neighborhood like this in Boston and I moved a few blocks from her when getting here from Florida. However, I recognized this little phenomenon and thus would tell my friends when they heard the area was ‘undergoing gentrification’, that it was just code for “the white folk are moving back in”.
I think you just solidified #101 (Being Offended).
You (as a self-identified white person) take yourself way too seriously. Chris Lander is providing this blog so you can see some of the funny aspects of his/our culture. His examples don’t apply to every white person out there, but a few of them will.
And moving to the rougher area of a city (the one being cleaned up and Starbucks is moving into) is related to several other aspects he’s already mentioned: #78 Multilingual Children; #71 Being the Only White Person Around; #62 Knowing Whatโs Best for Poor People; #59 Natural Medicine (because the poorer “rougher” areas will have a Chinese herbs store around the corner); #49 Vintage; #20 Being an expert on YOUR culture; #14 Having Black Friends; #7 Diversity; and #1 Coffee.
Haven’t you seen King of Hill make fun of this phenom two season’s ago?
Peggy Hill sold a house to a young white “artist” (a rich kid who has no job, and who’s parents bought the house for him) in the Latino area of Arlen, Texas. When he goes back to his friends to tell him how “cultural” it is, they all move over there and buy houses.
Then the Latinos start moving out of the area because the “artists” are ruining the area. They think it sucks.
Finally, the white “artists” realise that the thing they loved the most about the area (the “culture”) wasn’t there anymore, so they move away. The Latinos move back in after the white guys have left.
Brilliant show! Ahead of it’s time!
This blog is pure funny. I mean c’mon, I am black and I know full well there are things in our culture(american blacks) that we like and that it is hilarious to us and others. He is white and is discussing what he knows and what he has seen. It’s funny and it’s not like he is saying stuff white people like:
pedophiles
serial killers
kissing dogs
Well maybe that last one could work ๐
love it! http://www.SHOP-LUSCIOUS.com
David,
You can’t write, spell, or punctuate worth a damn. I am willing to let that all go by the wayside except for the one mistake which is beyond belief. “American” is always spelled with a capital. Put that in your brain and practice it daily.
Take your glass dildos and stick one in every orifice of your body. After that run as fast as you can into the first brick wall that you find. Enjoy yourself.
I know someone who lived in the same apartment building as the 9/11 hijackers, but he doesn’t make a big thing about it.
This one is all wrong. White people hate gentrification, because it is inauthentic. The conversion of a bohemian neighborhood into a residential neighborhood is tantamount to the sack of Constantinople.
White people especially hate it when their own neighborhood of many years undergoes gentrification, because others will assume that they are simply more affluent white people in an affluent suburb, rather than original inhabitants. This is the equivalent of one’s favorite indie band cutting a non-ironic album of vocal standards.
Could you restate that with smaller words lamens terms are appreciated
Take a gander! Back in the early seventies in NY many landlords (called slumlords) abandoned their apartment buildings and left the residents, so called minorities, non whites, to fend for themselves. After complaining to no avail the residents began to fix up the properties and even purchase them as they were abandoned. This became a trend. This was also being done by homeless squatters who lived in the abandoned apartments, particularly the Lower East Side of Manhattan, the Bronx and Brooklyn. They could actually purchase the property for as little as a dollar, no lie, as long as they agreed to fix it up. This was becoming a very successful venture. So successful in fact that it made the landlords sit up and take notice! Needless to say you can’t do this anymore in NYC.
That is an amazing concept!!!
In the end who gets the last laugh (or cry?)
Sad But So True!!
Another sure indicator of Gentrification…Joggers!
And Speed Bumps and Stop Signs…where there should have been one years ago after the neighborhood complained because of so many accidents.
This is more than white people getting things done
it is reflected in local governments that take care of who they want to take care of
In Atlanta the government gives a 5 year tax break to those who move into ‘distressed’ neighborhoods. But the taxes remain the same for the ones who already live there. These are often older folk who own their homes but now can’t afford to live there because along with the property values their taxes are raised.
Fuck you harvard going prick, use english niggas can understand bitch
your an asshole
suck my weenus
I like gentrification, and happen to be white, but it is not because I think it’s hip to live in a neighborhood that has a reputation for being rough or diverse. It is because I am business savvy and would like to make smart purchases that eventually turn into big profits.
It is unfortunate to read posts from people that talk about being disappointed with white people in black neighborhoods, because if the same things were so loudly echoed in the opposite direction, there would be an uproar. In my experience, this reverse-racism (black people hating on white) is MUCH more prevalent than white on black — just look at most black stand-up comediens (Dave Chapelle, Kings of Comedy, Eddie Murphy, etc.). I don’t think I’ve ever seen racial white comedy. Regardless, the fact is that the spread of ideas like these (and the ideas in this blog) are promoting separation in our society.
PS – In my opinion reparations suck and are also contributing to separation. First of all, today’s black people did nothing to deserve them, and neither did I. Slavery has been dead for almost 150 years – it’s time for people to start taking responsibility for their own actions. Time and time again people from less than desirable situations make it with out of them with hard work — my parents are two of those people. And just because I come from a white, middle class family now, that doesn’t mean that I am going to be carried to some fancy lifestyle, I’ve gotta earn it just like everyone else. Until the rules are fair and objective, no one is going to think of them as such, making it too easy to look as a group of people as “them,” which is bad.
Did you just say racism has been dead for 150 years? You are fucking stupid. I hope you are dead.
I meant slavery. She is still stupid though.
Here’s the perfect way to identify liberated (ie gentrified) territory: Put up signs at the borders emblazoned with:
“No American Cars Beyond This Point!”
fail
I don’t think you can really speak on what black people experience in this country as far as racism and systematic discrimination, because you’re not black. With that said, I do think racism in this country goes both ways- everyone finds some reason to dislike each other. It’s an issue that is so far-reaching I don’t think we can explain it by stereotypes and generalities like you have attempted to.
I have experienced racism from whites all my life and while I have not let it hinder me, I know for sure that racism is alive and well. That doesn’t mean I let it dictate my life, but it does have an effect on it, whether I want it to or not. And while slavery has been over for a long time, the system that was in place then, is still in place now. The effects of slavery on both blacks and whites is deep penetrating and it may not be as overt as it was 30-40 years ago (which is not a long time), it’s niave to believe that the struggle is over. It is not our job to try to judge everyone’s situation as if we can somehow relate to it. Because the truth is we can’t. Everyone has a story.
I think you should educate yourself more on real stats, real stories and real life and maybe you can approach things from a less biased and more open-minded view point. Unfortunately, you’ll never know how it feels to be black in America. As an eduacted and very much independent black woman I can tell you its definitely not a walk in the park.
White communities have “white flight” – its the reverse of gentrification. Blacks are concerned when communities are being redeveloped simply because the poor people who live there will be displaced. When they are displaced they are put into other communities where the cycle will repeat itself. This is not just bad for the poor people – in a market economy like ours, its bad for everyone.
We need to look out for each other and love each other instead of worrying about blacks this, or whites that. It’s so silly on all levels to base our decisions on prehistoric values that less evolved generations have put in place for us. Let’s think for ourselves and maybe we can see past the color. I’m tired of it being an issue.
Have we really been reduced to explaining everything with a white and black spin on it. It’s sad. I wish everyone would wake up – stereotypes, generalities, racism, hate, etc. is counter productive for everyone. I know it feels good to try to prove some silly point about how blacks are underachievers, and whites are perfection or how blacks are treated so unfairly and whites are demons trying to hold the black man down. It may be true in certain cases (in many cases even) but where does it get us? Do we really want to continue living like this? I hate to sound corny, but we need to love each other. Period. I want my children to live in a world where people love each other. Not in a world where people are so judgemental, so hateful, so mean. Slavery- and just the way this country was founded in general, was harsh, but we have to be intelligent enough to know that love is greater than hate. Hate is what started all his mess and love will put a rest to it. Just give it a try- please!
Sorry white master, but you are a moron.
“this reverse-racism (black people hating on white) is MUCH more prevalent than white on black โ just look at most black stand-up comediens (Dave Chapelle, Kings of Comedy, Eddie Murphy, etc.). I donโt think Iโve ever seen racial white comedy. Regardless, the fact is that the spread of ideas like these (and the ideas in this blog) are promoting separation in our society”
I’m white. I grew up listening to Eddie. I watched the Kings and Dave when I was in university. My friends and I all laughed because being able to look at one’s culture and see the funny aspects in it is good for everybody. If you’re offended by it, you have work to do. It’s not (reverse) racism to find the humerous side of white culture and laugh a bit at it.
In history, white people were making jokes that go way beyond the lines set by these black comedians. They laughed at the differences in their physique, perceived brain size, stereotyped facial aspects. If a guy like Dave Chapelle wants to make a harmless joke about white people having no ass, who is it really hurting? He knows that white people will still make up the majority of Americans, that white people will make more money, and go to prison in lesser numbers.
As a white person, you will never understand what privilege you (still) have today.
And by the way, being offended is #101 on Lander’s list.
Historically speaking, although you don’t have any specific examples, I’m sure that you are right — there have been (unfortunately and embarrassingly) very racial white “comics”. I was more talking about what I’ve seen during my lifetime, say, the last 20 years or so.
Secondly, I am not offended by the comedy, and never said that I was — it was probably just a weak attempt at trying to cite a mainstream example of member of the black community acting in a manner that separates people on a racial level. And, while you’re right in saying that it isn’t reverse racism to look at the humorous side of white culture and laugh at it, you are naive to think that all of the comments made in these shows are simply that. Eddie Murphy especially makes jokes about being mistreated by white Americans. It is all supposed to be good fun and, truth be told, I have also watched and laughed at all of the acts as well. But I feel that it is “innocent” acts such as those of stand-up comedians that make real impressions on people. People of any race start laughing at those jokes, repeating them and eventually believing them. It gets people thinking in a direction that is not necessarily the correct one. You can say that this isn’t true, but I know it is.
I have plenty of friends that are African American, many of them come from good family situations, have money, grow up in the same nice neighborhoods at the same elementary and high schools, go to good colleges, etc. etc.. but they feel different for no reason other than that they are black and they have knowledge and are aware of the past.
People can say that I will never fully understand because I’m white, and that’s probably true. But I think some of this can be avoided by dulling down the spread some of the ideas. I’m not saying not ignore history, but no one has gotten anywhere by feeling sorry for themselves or dwelling.
It is my belief that people should be judged on their character and experience. If we want applications/etc. to be considered objectively then we should eliminate all of the fields that could give information about a person’s age, race, gender.. not encourage a quota. Systems like that lead to A.) people feeling like they haven’t earned their place based on achievement, only on their background and B.) people that were declined feeling like it was political as well; whether they are white or black
what does this even mean… you suck
first of all, i’m a male. secondly, slavery has been dead for 150 years in the US. go read a history book dumbass
13th Amendment ratified in December of 1865…. 143 years in December
“Me” is right though… I don’t really think ‘reverse’ racism is a problem today, but I think it is exactly as big a problem as racism in general. Maybe just cause I live in a state that never had slavery (Oregon).
You’re right! And for those who wanted this in lehman’s terms, Mike said:
“This wrong. White folk hate when more white folk move to their hood cause that makes it seem less real. They no want people to think they moved there cause it’s nice now. They want people to know I lived there before it was cool. That way they seem like they start trend. Same way they no like unknown bands when they become known.”
one other thing us white people like….jealousy from minorities. remember your not white unless everyone else hates you.
1) very racial white โcomicsโ
I’m referring to them specifically. What about blackface?
2) It is โinnocentโ acts such as those of stand-up comedians that make real impressions on people
Eddie Murphy had a great skit on SNL: he got dressed up as a white person to see how they live. Do you think people saw the white people partying on the bus (after the last black person left) and took it at all seriously?
3) I have plenty of friends that are African American
And I bet you never forget that either. ๐
4)It is my belief that people should be judged on their character and experience.
In a perfect world, ideas like this would make loads of sense. Today, in our world, they don’t.
People always say “It shouldn’t matter if you’re black or white or polka-dotted, the most qualified person should get the job.” These same people use examples like two people applying for the job of a firefighter. “I wan’t the best candidate to get the job, and not just have it handed to a visable minority” Both quotes are bullsh!t.
First of all, nobody’s going to hire a black man (as a firefighter) who isn’t qualified to be a firefighter in the first place. If he’s 400 pounds, or in a wheelchair, or a confessed heroin addict, they’re not going to hire him. But our imagination likes to believe that he could get hired to dismiss ever thinking that employment equity might be right in some occaisions.
In a large percentage of jobs, you are not required to have a lot of specialized experience or qualifications: you’ll have two people of different races (one white, the other black)going for the same job; both have their GEDs; both have some prior work experience in construction; both want to work in the demolition team for a construction company; neither is more qualified than the other; neither seems like a nicer person than the other. How is it a big problem to choose the black person?
Unfortunately, this is the only way (that I can think of) to guarantee that companies are doing the right thing.
come to Toronto. everyone just pretends to tolerate each other here
This one actually made me snort as I was reading it. I live in Chicago and I have way too many friends guilty of this one. They all deride my recent decision to move out of the realest of the real sections of the city and into the burbs. What can I say? I’m sick of sucking on bus exhaust, crappy car exhaust and lord knows what else every time I try to take 2 steps outside my door. I moved less than 10 miles from my old haunt, but it might as well have been the hinterland as far as my pals are concerned.
I’m delighted to read that others find this silly as well.
1.) Your example is not a well-known, current example of white on black racial comedy. Blackface existed predominantly from the 1830 to the 1930’s. Even in those years, this performance garnered serious criticism across the world. Blackface barely exists today – at one random festival in the Netherlands – and, based on what I’ve read, is not meant to be racist by the performers; rather it is traditional. Still, this it is not seen as funny and, as I mentioned, is widely considered to be inappropriate. I had never even heard of it until I looked it up either — Not really on the same popularity level as an Eddie Murphy or Dave Chappelle…
Again, it is society’s refusal to stop lingering on the past that is building up racism today. Until we stop making a big deal about things that people we didn’t even know did 80+ years ago, we will never rid ourselves from them. Again, we shouldn’t be ignorant about the past, just stop dwelling.
2.) No, I don’t think they took that act seriously, and that is not what I have been saying. I think you understand what I’m trying to say and you’re just dumbing down my example on purpose, but if you’re not, think about it.
3.) A cliche thing to say, I agree…
And an even more cliche response to come back with.
4.) I don’t think it is wrong to hire the black person at all. But I guess I would have several questions in response…
a. How does an employer decide between two qualified candidates of the same race? Someone always has to lose out and it sucks for that person- they might even have been the better person for the job in the end. Regardless, I don’t think that a case where you find two people with the exact same qualifications and capabilities come up often, because different people bring their own set of intangible assets to the table, and are hired based on those factors almost as much as their experience.
b. In this supposed instance where the two people are equally qualified, should a minority even want to work for someone who hired them with race as the deciding factor? If an employer didn’t want to work (or only accepted working) alongside me because I’m white, which I suppose could happen, I don’t think I would even want the job.
c. Is it right that the white guy, who is just as qualified as the other, doesn’t get the job because he ISN’T a minority? He may have even come from a lot more difficult situation than the other guy. As a matter of fact, he could have immigrated here from a country where HE was denied privileges and taken advantage of — A situation that the minority guy only complains (and sometimes even jokes) about. He never held slaves or had a racist thought in his life. He did nothing to deserve affirmative action, just as I haven’t… but it exists.
I guess I just think it is unfair for all parties in a split race employment situation that the idea of “equal opportunity” has to be at the back of their minds. As long as systems like this exist, and until decision-makers are able to actually think and make objective decisions on their own, racism will always exist around this topic because the ability to finger-point will be there.
I do understand what you have to say as far as trying to keep the system fair, it just seems like it doesn’t solve the underlying issue in the long run. And that, at least to me, is a problem. We may have to agree to disagree on this one.
Don’t worry, Me. When you’ve graduated from college you’ll understand what wjs is trying to tell you. ~_^
Just remember to take some classes that aren’t in the Econ department.
suburbs suck. minimalls for miles and miles.
haha i love how people just take digs and have no point whatsoever…
i have graduated college already peggy mcintosh.. a very liberal college with hippies everywhere calling for equal opportunity and contributing to what i think is the problem.. and i had two econ classes the whole time because they were required.
and he’s not trying to tell me anything… these responses are for the f’ing sheep… if we still NEED these systems in place, then we are admitting that racism still exists, which means the systems arent really working very well.
change them by thinking about the problem and why it is still around — because it is very subtly interfused into our thoughts through programs and comedy shows, etc.
we are all almost taught how and why minorities are different and that they need help.. this puts us all in different corners from the get-go.. i think its unfortunate
“these responses are for the fโing sheep”
You know, I bet your three good Black friends would love to know how you feel about that. If they actually exist, go talk to them about it and see how far you get. In fact, bring it up to any friend you might have that isn’t white.
“if we still NEED these systems in place, then we are admitting that racism still exists,”
Are you saying that racism today is in question? Are you questioning that racism still exists? I think everybody agrees with your math on that, but you have to take out the “if”.
Me.. you’re obsessed about comedy shows aren’t you. ๐
1) Dave Chapelle’s mocking flat white asses is not raising an idea from the past. But somehow you’re associating his brand of humor with keeping racism alive. It doesn’t really work.
2) Exactly. They’re not taken seriously and don’t cause any problems… unless you’re looking to cause problems of course (and I can’t say you come across as anything but a guy who likes to cause problems).
3) I agree that your reference to having black friends is a frequently used clichรฉ that white mention when they want to defend statements that can be perceived as racist
“Oh no! I’m not racist. I have three black friends!” (hand goes up with three fingers out)
That’s why you shouldn’t use it. You don’t sound racist but you do sound like a smart guy who’s sitting on the fence on the issue, trying to decide which way to go , not quite committed to either but playing devil’s advocate.
My response comes from a Chris Rock stand up show. I like it:)
4) Again, in a perfect world: the workforce would represent the population at large, nobody who needs a job is without a job, everybody’s happy and making good money, and everybody’s doing work they like.
In the imperfect world we live in: we have racist employers, imperfect employers who aren’t racist but are trying to fix the problems racist employers are creating, imperfect justice and prison systems that are filled with a disproportionate amount of people from one race and not from another, and imperfect solutions to fix everything. Employment equity is not perfect. You can find loop holes in it. And employers often find themselves at odds when trying to chose what to do.
But businesses have showed us that they can’t always be trusted to do the right thing (except Apple right?). Let’s hold them accountable for the mistakes they make.
YAY for making the world white and kicking black people out!! ah…. JK. I love black folks.
Hi. My name is trey.
EEK! Are you human? I’m embarrassed to share the human race with you let alone skin color. For a hot minute I thought maybe I was living in the past when it was okay to be so blatantly biggoted, and, oh, ignorant. People can be really damn scary!
Hmmm. My husband and I moved back into the city from the burbs we were raised in because the government and the economy sucks. We could no longer afford two vehicles, let alone fill the gas tanks and drive into the city daily for work. We moved back into the city for our own personal economy as well as to effort putting our money in places other than the Wal-Mart’s of the world. I ‘get’ what the serious people posting on this board are offering in way of their opinions but beyond the ‘cool’ factor of living in the neighborhood we chose to move into it was a life decision based on need and not necessarily want….even though we are pretty cool.
What I’m saying wjs is that you don’t actually have an original thought on this problem and how to fix it; I’m saying that your thought process follows the masses. The masses had slaves when the idea was commonplace; the masses in Germany in the 1930s and 40s supported Nazis.
I bet you think we shouldn’t be in the war in Iraq, but that after 9/11 you were screaming for invasion of the Middle East. I bet you think the reason our country has financial trouble is solely due to George W Bush’s politics and that you loved Bill Clinton as a President. I bet anything Obama says is music to your ears and you can’t wait to be first in line at your local church to vote! But hey, at least everyone else thinks just like you. If it weren’t for free thinking this country never would have gotten anywhere; it might not even exist.
I will repeat again that the single biggest problem with racism is that people are so aware of it and bombarded with it subtly on a daily basis.
I’m really not on the fence on this issue at all, either. I really do think we should all be treated equally. I just don’t think either side deserves a leg up for a 150 year old reason that I have nothing to do with. I do think money should be invested into poor sectors of the country to improve public education because a weak education is the main reason why most people that do get stuck in these areas never make anything of themselves. It just doesn’t seem fair to me that white people living in these areas don’t get as much assistance only because they are white — they still need it. And as I mentioned in an earlier post, there are plenty of black people that live in nice areas that I really don’t think need or deserve the help but they still get it.
And, haha, I know it seems like I’m obsessed with comedy shows but I’m really not — while I do like them, it is just the example that I tried to run with and I thought I would give it one last shot just to see if I could get a point across but I guess it was unsuccessful.
And I’m not saying that racism doesn’t exist; I’m saying that it does, and that the hiring system just hasn’t done its part in helping to eliminate it. I’m saying that this fact merits a change. You seem to be pretty good at putting down my ideas. How would you go about fixing it?
PS – I think I’m voting for Obama and just thought I’d let you know before you make any republican comments.. My Obama criticism comes solely from the fact that I think many of his policies are undeliverable and that I think he is dead wrong about Iraq, as I’m sure you can tell. His policies sound nice in principle but there is just no way to cut enough to fund all of his ideas and there’s no way he will convince everyone to pass all of his bills. I guess that is what Presidency is: empty promises, and also the beauty and evil of the checks and balances system. Regardless, our country is in dire need of a charismatic speaker and I think John McCain is anything but that (my friends, pork barrel, earmark, maverick, lipstick — these are all words that I don’t want to hear in the next four years). McCain is also slightly retarded, on the verge of keeling over and looks lost when talking about economic policy which should scare people…
I’m doing my thesis on Gentrification, in the form of animation. Thanks for the inspiration!
http://thesis09.wordpress.com/
One thing white people like doing is being self righteous about other races. They enjoy appearing compassionate and understanding of other races by rattling off all the black, asian, mexican, etc friends they have. The number of times they have actually met outside of a professional situation or school? 0. Why don’t we get over our self righteousness? Voting for Obama doesn’t make you multi-cultured by the way.
Heil Hitler.
ridonkulous but mostly racist
I’m from Canada, so all my opinions about American politics aren’t as relavent as yours. I will say that Obama will be better received by Canadians.
Rhetorical question , Me: Who does have an original thought on the problem? You don’t, I don’t, and nobody else does either. I’m sure there are companies that follow your mantra about fairness to white people. There are also those that follow mine. And some who don’t care how they look.
Again, in a perfect world, everything would be fair. We agree on that. We disagree on how these unfair problems should be dealth with in this imperfect world. I’m Canadian, and my employer (the federal govt) has been trying to raise its employee %’s of women (it succeeded), the disabled, visable minorities, and Aboriginals, so that they represent the workforce in Canada. Not more, not less.
Chris Lander is Canadian. Maybe that’s why your troubled with this brand of humour? ๐
PS. I certainly wasn’t screaming for a mideast invasion. You’d lose that bet. And George Bush is not (solely) to blame for our economic crises either. Sure, Iraq must have cost a lot, but one can’t blame W. for banks who mortgaged out houses to the unemployed. ๐
Now come on… the point of him bringing up the comedy is that we all know that whites would never get away with making fun of blacks in quite the same way in today’s society. We could never have a White Entertainment Network or a White! magazine (and yes I realize that much of Tv and print is focused on white culture, we do not proclaim it “WHITE ONLY!”). We shouldn’t have these things, we shouldn’t be making fun of blacks and their history or our treatment of them, or stereotype them. But for black comedians this is still ok, accepted even, and this is not the road forward.
I think you know that this was the point, and yet blackface is the example you bring up? Way to be relevant.
“Whites” get social privlage wherever they go, especially in a globalized world where “whiteness” is exported through the media, business, and eurocentric based education. In most countries, they have established themselves as the the superior norm. They have benefited from the trans Atlantic slave trade, imperialism, colonialism, and economics tailored for their culture. They have mobility because of this and can choose to live wherever they want. Their privilege and control of resources equals wealth in the system they have created for themselves. They choose who they want to live next to and prefer to live next to what they perceive to be “model minority” cultures like many so called Asian ones or anyone who accepts their ideology. The unacceptable ones to them like Africans and Hispanics are at their mercy because they own all major corporations in the “developed” world. So the cycle of poverty of these groups continues. In the process of gentrification they use the police to reinforce this control because the police never like to serve and protect the poor. This is where they get their population in order to increase profits for prisons and build more. Thus “white” superiority flourishes and they continue to choose what and who is acceptable to live in their society. The hope for the poor is that this will end because wealth cannot be sustained amongst only whites. The more they anger “people of color” with their abusive power and privilege, the stronger the backlash will be against them. In underestimating the intelligence of people of color they ultimately destroy themselves.
Look, maybe I’ll reword it so you understand how relevant it is to me, Tylergirl. Relevance is subjective:
Whites had their turn to make fun of blacks, and they did. They were in the majority, and that makes it even more of a low blow. They had nothing to fear from what they did: whether it was blackface, or a Belgian exagerating black features in his cartoons, etc. Michael Richards. Is that contemporary enough?
Now black comics have a voice, and can make fun of themselves AND white people.
White people are still in the majority. We still benefit from being white. We still chose to live where we want to, even if it’s the Latino corner or Black corner.
Are we so inflexible that we can’t take a few jokes about us? Are we so sensitive to these light-hearted jokes that we can’t accept that we have some funny aspects about us? ๐
Me’s point was that jokes like Chris Lander’s are making things worse and “promoting separation in our society”. I don’t agree. The success of Chris Lander’s blog and book say that Me’s POV is not the popular one.
You’ve been Canadian this whole time! Have you been spelling that way the whole time too??
I feel so used…
The president at my college loved talking about being down with the races. His grandchildren, after all, were black. He let us all know this during a Black History month colluquey. He is an amazing man.
oh, shut up.
Only a liberal fag believes that.
Mixed race couples in the “right neighborhoods” are super popular in Seattle! This is so funny because the area we live in is only six blocks from a more ghetto area reffered to as the Ave or any area around that (that) isn’t campus. People love to talk about the values of the homes in their area around here.
-A white chick “on the good side of the freeway”!
LOL…..true dat!!..
well said!
DAmn, it’s so harsh that white people don’t get to blame a specific race for all our problems. We have to make do with corporations instead. You have it easy.
I’m a white person (and a male, too) and NONE of this crap that “white people like” fits with me at all. I find it amazing that stuff I didn’t do combined with how much Bush sucks means I’m supposed to nod my head at this reverse-racist garbage.
First of all there is no such thing as reverse racism, no offense Kyle, but racism is rasism no matter how you look at it. I get the fact that the overall idea of gentrification is jacked up. And moving the hood around does not solve the problem of poverty and poor education. But come on, author of stuff white people like. Generalizing all white people or whatever you want to call us, isnt the best way to get your point across. I grew up in the hood, got nephews, nieces, and sisters who are black. I think it might be a good idea if you do a little more research before laying your own clouded opinions on people. There are alot of “white people” who are down with gentrification, but not the only people! Looking at gentrification, racism, seperatism ect…. as a human disfunction might go you better, who knows…….????
Boo-hoo! Stop yer cryin’! This site has it nailed on every aspect on what it is to be a middle-class white American today.
Bravo, Mr. White. You know me better than I know myself!
good job taking the entire site so seriously
I bet u like to take credit for a lot of things u have never done, oh im sorry i meant to say we, I bet thats your favorite word since it makes you feel included huh I bet u think u are really smart I bet u are ugly and fat and u think the taco stand made that way oh and thats right we wouldn’t since we knew your fat ugly RACIST ass would u are lucky to have moved so far maybe you can get some sleep now that you are in a gayer community where not so many mexicans live.I bet u are just mad because mommy and daddy never spent any time with you and in case u didn’t know last I checked Highland Park is also full of white trash and rednecks that love tacos and never been to one of those nice starbucks I bet u have never owned so tell me what did you give them. Better yet please do not answer who cares what you have to say since you don’t live around here anymore thank seattle for taking you in maybe they can burry you there with a health certificate and star bucks by your side. take care homo I mean ebery whity shit for brains
Cory brings up another good thing white people like, feeling like their individuals. Moreover, if this list does not apply to you, then clearly you are the wrong type of white person.
Their? Clearly you are also not the right kind of white person.
Screw gentrification. I grew up in an upper lower middle class section of Brooklyn with mostly asians and hispanics (Sunset Park) and it was great. When I meet intrepid, doe-eyed white midwestern-expat newcomers to NYC who have moved into predominantly black ghettos like Bed-Stuy, Brownsville and Bushwick I’m always like WTF?! Are you serious? I would never want to live in those places, even if I could find a two-bedroom with an affordable rent. It just wouldn’t be worth it to have such classless people as my neighbors. If I want to be around black people I just go to Boerum Hill or Clinton Hills or Park Slope where the black folks are educated, sexy and non-violent.
You don’t really get this site, do you?
Yes, as the author said it:
“Get it? Itโs not offensive, because when she says racist or sexist things she knows they are offensive. So itโs ok.” in “Sarah Silverman”
Maybe replace “she” with “I” and replace “things” with
“generalizations”.
Dead on, Gentrification sucks, I live in the Bronx, NY and wow how has it changed. Before going away to college for undergrad and then relocating to Upstate for my masters you’d rarely see white people around my way, and when you did it was either 1), they were lost or 2), looking for drugs. Now all of a sudden its cool to live in the hood, lol, get outta here, thanks to you land lords jackup the rent, oh and btw the place isnt better, still the same shit whole
I resent your Bed-Stuy Statement…. for the most part those who hate bed-stuy havent spent anytime there. I am BLACK, educated and sexy and I love this neighborhood.
P.S.
Fuck gentrification
Those monsters you speak of are mostly dirt-poor unemployed Newfoundland fishermen and Inuit peoples.
One seal will eat three times its body weight in fish every day, and because polar bears are becoming extinct they have few natural enemies left; they are becoming overpopulated and destroying the aquatic ecosystem.
Even the seal hunters cannot sufficiently curb their numbers; we’d need to take more action but unfortunately organizations like Greenpeace have forced the government to reduce the number of hunting licenses issued.
Many seal species are instinct but not these seals ; if they were they would be too difficult for environmentalist organizations to find and use to get people worked up enough to give them money.
…and killing baby seals is illegal
when i was 9 i asked my dad what urban renewal was, he answered “negro removal” and went on to tell me how white people weren’t comfortable living around minorities but did want to live in “hip” areas, so would have all of the minorities moved out of an area in the name of gentrification… lol i still cant hear the words urban renewal without saying negro removal to myself lol
*hole
Wow, am I the first White person to find this site brilliant? I think the “reverse racism” charge is bullshit. White people started this country claiming that conforming to whiteness, masculinity, richness and heterosexuality was the only way to be normal. And if you think that when someone who STILL feels that today is being “reverse racist,” you’re ignorant of what race even is.
It’s a shite position to be the white person who moved to bed-stuy not realizing that that was a racist and destructive thing to do. But it was. So face it and get out, and take your hand made mittens and fresh produce with you and leave the people of Bed Stuy and Bushwick to gentrify themselves. They don’t need your culture and values imposed on them to do it.
Kudos on the above written. Pioneers also equal colonizers. Love the idea of generalizing about “white culture,” as if it were some foreign custom. It kinda is to native New Yorkers. and to us ‘differents.’
Fuck liberal mono-culture America’s invasion of Brooklyn.
With love and sincerity,
Mickey G
Do you mean to claim that white people are misunderstood? I’d say they’re over-understood…..
M
You can’t honestly believe this is an accurate take on middle class white people. Maybe… maybe way upper super high middle class, but certainly not the average white person.
Have you ever heard of white people who live in a neighborhood because they can not afford anything else?
We, as white people love moving into established, ethnic neighbourhoods and going to all the ethnic delis and bakeries and going around the with our dogs and our fancy fair trade-organic coffees and just generally feeling good about ourselves in that we’re coping with all this “diversity”. Only white people know what you’re really up to…. it’s a yuppie invasion. So if you live in one of these neighbourhoods, watch out for a couple in their early/mid thirties- he’ll be wearing a corduroy blazer with a plaid scarf and boot cut jeans,, she’ll be wearing designer rubber boots, a big wooly sweater and a over sized sun glasses…and most definetly, a baby either in a vintagey red wagon in tow or on a rustic tricycle… This can only mean one thing… whitey hipster take-over!!!
Did you know? Starbucks will buy up land years before the white person invasion even begins, so that, when the time is right and that first few white people creep in, BANG! they’re open and serving up $4 cookies and coffees.
fuck all ya
bitch
Yeah, its called a trailer park=wrong kind of white people
I hate Gentrification with a passion. I miss the days when whites were scared to even think of coming into “the inner city” unless they were junkies…sigh those were the good ole days, I rememeber when I was younger on the train I knew all the white people were going to get off by Grand army plaza or kingston if they were jews then I would get a seat…but not anymore I was sooooo surprised to look around the other morning and see 90% white people all with their Obama pins…my my my how things have changed. Ever since 9/11 they’ve infested Brooklyn and continue to make rent go sky high, pretty soon its going to be 100% white *shivers* if you ask me they need to go back to Manhattan and stop being so cheap and scared of terrorists…Bring Brooklyn back
I’m from the Bronx and luckily they haven’t spread over my way….I would die if I saw them on Southern Blvd.
Let’s pray it doesn’t come to that! I like being able to afford where I live.
This exact scenario was on an episode of king of the hill
wow, its nyce to hear that racism is supported by so many. its what we really need as a community. i will be sure to teach my children to judge other races. it just feels so good to belong. segregate and survive!
nosy…
you’re an idiot
You are obtaining or already have a Masters degree and don’t know the correct HOLE that corresponds with the context of the sentence. Seriously, let’s talk about that for a moment.
You know itโs funny how we can argue about how white people are moving into Bed-Stuy pushing the poor black people out. Yeah, Iโm not crazy about it, but instead of being upset about it, when are we going to get up off our behinds and try to make things better? Why canโt we fight for affordable housing? The first thing we need to do is ban together and get the gangs and drugs out!! Yes thatโs frightening. But Iโm so tired of the constant shooting. Every New Years Eve my family and I welcome the new year on the floor of the living room. Most of the shooting seems to be along Gates Avenue between Marcy and Lewis Avenue. During the summer months it gets worst. Almost every night there is a gun going off. I walk around all summer like a zombie because of the shooting, fighting and people who have nothing to do sitting outside all night with loud radios keeping the working people awake all night. Most nights in the summer it cools off enough to turn off the ac and enjoy the breeze. Yeah right! My Coned bill was so high this summer because even on cool nights I had to run my air conditioner. The noise was unbelievable.
When are we going to fight to get decent supermarkets in Bed-Stuy? Most of the supermarkets are disgusting. They offer nothing but fruits that look like they were knocked around in a baseball game. There is no variety. The same high sodium high in fat foods are offered. Oh, but our neighborhood have the highest rate of hypertension, diabetes, and obesity. But yet in still we have more fried chicken, Chinese restaurants and liquor stores in our neighborhood. Some markets the smell of rioting meat hits your nose as soon as you walk in. But even after complaints to the board of health, they still remain.
Why canโt we get rid of some of these fast food places and replace them with a salad bar or health food restaurant? Iโm getting sick and tired of lugging healthy foods from Park Slope or Brooklyn Heights. I want to walk around the corner and get something healthy for a change.
Landlords also need to get involved. Get rid of the people causing most of the problems. I know in my building the glass doors are broken so many times because people are allowed to hang out in front fighting and arguing all night. Yeah, we have a security guard but what do you want one person to do against 10 unruly people.
Yeah, we can go on and on, we can complain we can argue among ourselves. We can blame the white man for all our problems. But Iโm still looking for this phantom white man who comes into our neighborhood putting guns in peoples hands, making people commit violence against other people, making us throw garbage all over the place, making us not care about our children or community. Last time I checked, we have choices. No one person can make another person do anything that is wrong. Or we can stop blaming and start doing something about it. Yes, it will be a hard, long and often frightening journey. But the end result will be worth it all. And yes, I hate to say it but we need the police help in this. We canโt do it alone. And maybe we can get rid of the officers who think we are all animals anyway.
Well, I just went on and on, and maybe Iโm just an old school fuddy duddy. But I just want to live in peace and with neighbors who care. I donโt care what color they are.
nosy – you are correct. Racism is fine, as long as it is against white people, it seems. I am dealing with that in Durham, NC right now. It’s a sad world we live in now. Imagine the outrage if the word ‘white’ was replaced with ‘black”. OMG!
I don’t know why this all has to be white on black. I’m a pale, white, 100 percent Irish-Catholic who lives in a neighborhood in Boston, MA. Same fucking town where Good Will Hunting and The Departed take place: South Boston. Triple deckers are homes to countless other Irish-Catholic families and a few Italian ones here and there. I’m poor, my families poor, everyone here is poor. It’s mostly all white here. This isn’t because of racism, but because the Irish just congregated here during the potato famine. Now, sadly, yuppies (white, some black) are buying up the low cost properties and jacking up the property taxes, etc. My lower class people are being forced out and there rich pricks with there Mercedes are building up condos wherever they can. Few pubs are left, now it’s cafes and fucking four star restaurants. My friends, it’s not about race, it’s about socio-economic status. People with money fuck us broke, working class laborers over.
Fuck Yuppies, and fuck GENTRIFICATION!
Long live neighborhoods, death to condos!
I’m a brother and I wished whites moved in my hood. Maybe we could get some city services.
Yeah, I don’t know about other cities but here in LA it’s so expensive to live that we had to make the choice of either being able to save for a better future by living in a shit neighborhood (trust me, I don’t think the graffiti, puddles of bum piss and roach infested mini-marts qualify as “authentic”), or living hand to mouth in a good neighborhood. I realize the third choice is to move to a less expensive city, but for the time being we’re stuck because of my husband’s job.
saying “stuff white people like.” isn’t being white racist it’s funny now how the word racist is now redefined a look in websters is really warranted for those in denial of it’s true meaning.
You misspelt colour
In 20 years I think it is very likely that the suburbs will be the new ghetto because of gas prices and gentrifacation and the city will likely become a lot more like the suburbs in the 1950s. If you wan’t to see how this effect has taken place just look at some of the northern suburbs of St.Louis where poor people have been driven out of the city.
This is very true about New York. Im from Chicago and I am REALLY surprised at how segregated New York City is. I thought Chicago was bad, but New York is so much worse. All of the really chic gentrified neighborhoods in Manhattan and a few in Brooklyn are probably all white. It’s terrible and something really needs to be done about this imbalance. Diversity is so important, to Americans everywhere, and the gentrification of wealthy white people is ruining that. Stop it!
sadie you don’t have to leave Bed-Stuy to get healthy food at all. There is so much on Fulton street, Bedford ave as well. All of the halal steam table resteraunts on the block of the mosque have a large selection of healthy vegetarian and fish dishes.
There are also many caribbean resteraunts serving ital and vegetarian foood. There are many many tropical grocery stores that sell every type of fruit and vegetable.
But you’re right it’s too much violence and rowdiness especially in summer time, and many police who are trying to hide the fact that they are scared to death have a bad attitude which you know as well as I do how dangerous that can be.
Good post…very true all the way around.
I moved to East LA because I’m white/gay and love Latino men! I don’t care about being hip, the cheap rent, living on the edge….
It’s all about getting laid and I am like a kid in a candy store!
All I need is a 12 pack, reassure the hombre I live alone, and shower him with much needed compliments that his fat wife obviously deprives him of.
Sure it’s exploitative, but I pay for the beer and the blow job is a nice consolation prize.
I never understood why girls get offended when they are called “baby”…because it always works for me.
Men are pigs and I love it.
as a man you aren’t nearly as vulnerable to sexual dominance or violence.
u are truly a faggot and should be burned at the stake.
Come on, everyone knows :real: white people don’t go to Starbucks
I’m just another blonde, blue-eyed East LA resident… about to hike my ass down to the taqueria for breakfast…
Keep in mind, if your taxes go up, it’s because your property value did.
Its so true….gentrification has basically pushed all of the minorities out of their ethnic neighborhoods and into the outlying suburbs and outer boroughs. Immigrants don’t come to NYC anymore because wealthy white yuppies and hipsters have basically committed a genocide against the working class whites & minorities. The level of segregation in such a “liberal” city is disgusting. I’m a native New Yorker who currently lives at the edge of town because I cant afford to live anywhere remotely near Manhattan.
And the worst part is our city council is full of yuppies themselves who don’t COME from NYC so they just encourage gentrification at the expense of us real New Yorkers.
Real talk, brother
Long Live the workin-class neighborhood!
Pretty much we are all racist, hypocritical, and going to hell. So if you’re white and get shot by a black person, embrace it. If you’re black and your rent goes up because some white yuppies move into your part of town, embrace it. We’re all ending up in hell together so we might as well get use to it now.
There was a time when one could say it was all about racism (meaning those whites in power, subjugating those who they controlled). But, it is now and has been for a while about economics. The rich getting richer off the backs of those who earn less than a million. White collar criminals strategizing on how to walk away from their corporations with hundreds of millions, putting away money in their family foundations, giving money to their friends on their way out as they take their bail out money. Who knew about the housing crisis before it arrived, and who benefited? Follow the money. Initially everyone blamed the dumb poor homeowners for taking out the crazy loans; people who were strapped for cash for whatever reasons (years of Bushism). But, that was all a distraction, getting the public to focus on the stupid homeowners while the real thieves were getting away with billions and knowing all the time there would be no repercussions. no penalties.
If everyone (who is not a multi-millionaire) would wake up, stand up and choose to stop these thieves from constantly sticking it to the middle class and poor, then we could all stand a better chance of economically improving our lives. But as long as we allow them (the super rich, those who control what you eat, how you eat, where you live, etc) to distract us from what they are doing to us, they will continue to benefit until the world as we know it no longer exists as bad as it is, it can get worse.
wake up people. It is not the brown, black, white, yellow, man, it is the man behind the joy stick, sticking it to all of us.
peace, don’t get confused; get enlightened and don’t believe the hype.
Yeah but now all those disgusting shitholes you “real” New Yorkers used to live in are nice. Thank you white people!
Whoever gets out and busts theirs humps can buy stuff. Everything has a price tag on it. The price tag doesn’t care what race you are.
I am one of those white people living currently in Bushwick, Brooklyn. I prefer the term “urban explorer.”
There is a reason birds of a feather flock together. It is a white people fantasy that we can all live together in one big neighborhood happily forever. A lot of compromise has to be made in mixed neighborhoods and there is always a grin and bear it from all sides when things are going well. When they are not is the time one group doesn’t understand why you would not want to hear their favorite music at top volume all day and night. Even neighborhoods with one dominant group can not agree on what is acceptable behavior all the time. New York is still a very diverse place where people work and play next to each other, but don’t be mistaken ethnicity and income have always kept people living in their own financial and cultural pockets. If you want to see a culture where pretty much everyone has the same values, income and vacation time check out Sweden.
Prefer what you want.. we’ll still just call you a poser ๐
Actually, your writing fits perfectly under #18 Awareness.
yeah… this is so white
It’s called institutional racism. The economic slide is clearly tilted in one direction benefiting white people far more than other ethnic minorities which has subsequent implications for housing environment. Think about things more thoroughly.
word.
Being a Socialist wanting free healthcare for all American citizens, I think we need more government programs, like the section 8 vouchers and affordable professionally managed apartments so the hoods can stay cheap and the yuppies can purchase their over priced ass condos. I love sexy young black and white girls in the hood. They walk dogs with tight ass shorts in the summer WHICH GIVES ME A HARD ON! This is why gentrification is the best thing happening to urban housing.
Is that you, God?
holy shit this pic was taken in my bed-stuy neighborhood
Except ur a retard and nothing is free, it’s always paid by somebody, as in people like me who plan on actually paying for stuff unlike u bottom feeding assholes.
Actually, just as a point of contention, we would ALL be paying for the healthcare if it was “free” through taxes and whatnot. And I’m not sure if you meant it as irony, but when you call someone a “retard” and use “ur” in the same sentence, it sort of invalidates your point. Ur a retard.
I live near Belvedere Park in East L.A. and lo and behold, the other day I saw 2 lesbians making out be the lake !!! The ‘hood is changing rapidly !!!
As stated earlier in my comment, I want free healthcare for all American citizens because as the economy tanks and people lose jobs, the healthcare provided by their corporate positions goes to China and India; workers have no insurance to cover them, the spouse or children. The corporate thugs even outsource programmers, engineering and 2.0 jobs in Silicon Valley to low wage economies. So, while you call me an asshole for wanting something that’s a moral right as a human being, you should use critical thinking before responding. Stop being so fucking serious, I know their is no free lunch and don’t think providing services to our citizens happens to be bottom fishing, it’s a moral right just like other social programs, fire, police, public schools, transit, community colleges, hospitals etc. Gentryfying areas are cool, but don’t look down on people you are moving out who may not have had the same opportunities to succeed in life like some of you commenting on this blog. I still love having Socialist ideals and desires to hang out with fit, young and attractive yuppie females in tight shorts in the summer! WOW!
Here here, Lexi.
I think The Socialist’s tounge is firmly emplanted in his cheek John.
You are absolutely correct. The walkability of cities, mass transit, etc. make it deal for white people. European cities are all like that, rich people in the inner city and the poor in the outskirts.
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Obviously a racist site. MAny White People are involved with Human Rights and Socialism. MAny Whites doi not even benefit from Affirmative Action, and yet support it. Wouldn’t ti be nice if we all from Solidarity and we can fight for the same causes.
Oh God I wish I was!
Wow. How does it feel becoming a parody of yourself?
lexdiamondz,
It’s not just NYC. San Francisco is gentrified too and it is terrible. What really irritates the hell out of me is when people from the Midwest or East Coast come out to vacation or live in San Francisco and go on and on about how multicultural it is. I guess multiculturalism and diversity are relative to what a person is comparing it to.
Yes you are right about the classism too. There is class warfare in America, despite what Rush Limbaugh would have everyone believe. It’s getting worse too.
This is not a racist site, it is satire. the purpose of this is to get people thinking (particularly white people, like me.) although not all of these apply to me some of them do and i can always think of several people for each blog. because i can see these things in people it makes me think of why we act that way. If you really want to think about the racial aspects of this site think of the reverse. stuff black people like: fried chicken, stuff asians like : pretending to be black, stuff jewish people like: pretending they don’t wish they had christmas. if these sites actually did exist it would be anarachy!! the real racial question is why is it socially acceptable for sites like this to exist but not there opposites, also if you say that i’m racist your only saying that because your hypocrital. it’s okay make comments on race about white people but not any other races? if you think that im a racist for saying this i dont care if your purple your just an idiot.
the only way there would be anarchy if those sites go up is if white people put those sites up. Then it would be a racial.
Ti would be nice if we all from Solidarity! For true!
If people continue to be unable to laugh at themselves in terms of silly stereotypes, racism will be a part of our lives forever. The problem is not that such stereotypes exist; rather, it is that some people consider them valid in their initial and/or faceless interactions with individuals. Since there are situations where the stereotypes prove even vaguely or partially valid for a particular instance despite the fact that they are being referenced in a racist way, it is necessarily more useful to educate and remind people that those situations are exceptions than to try and attack the existence of the stereotypes themselves.
Think about how people learn: tell a kid to never do something, and he’ll probably do it as soon as he has the chance. Give him a format for doing that something, and it’s very likely he’ll begin to do it primarily within that format. Granted, there are some things for which there are no safe formats, but I would argue this is not one of those. As such, if we make humor the format for these stereotypes, it is much easier to begin to remove them from the situations in which they are inappropriately called upon.
This site is an example both of causing stereotypes to be laughable and of helping to remove them from inappropriate situations by showing they are often not just funny but ridiculous to assign to every individual of a given category one may encounter.
Honestly — if a person can’t laugh at these posts, I would guess they have some internal racist thoughts with which they are still struggling.
Seriously, the next post on what white people like should be their self ritious white comments on how they are so enlightened that they can wright long winded retorts to the low hanging fruit comments of someone less educated than them.
I’m Lebanese, ass. However, you are right, Dooli — I am self-righteous in my belief that people should get over themselves and stop being little bitches — especially the people (white or otherwise) who get on this site and bitch about it being racist. Does that speak your language a bit better?
I’m sorry my English is good enough that you thought the only explanation was that I must have been white — you and Tino Rozzo are clearly shining examples of how non-white people should write, so I will try to forget how to spell and how to form sentences, just to stay in kind with what my ethnic background permits.
Oh, also, please let me know if this comment was too long again and perhaps I can write a shorter one just for you.
seeing as how u identify urself primarily left of center, are you for abortion? because if u are, you can no longer declare anything as a moral right. it is a moral right to provide children with ‘free’ healthcare, but not a moral right to let them live to need healthcare…socialism blows..but being from a majority minority (lol) town, i must say ghetto white girls are really effin cute…a white girl in a flat billed giants hat backwards….ooo so sexy
i don’t understand…besides you going on and on about people waking up and being enlightened…let me see if i get this right though: the rich people offered the poor people a shitty deal that they couldn’t possibly live up to. then the poor people signed the dotted line. so now they can’t pay. dam those rich people!
Tino, obviously you don’t understand the racism that is connected gentrification. Class priviledge and race priviledge are closely tied, and gentrification is a major example. You know nothing about this issue, you must not be stepping out side or looking at the rising amount of families being evicted to make room for rich yuppies. While this site does apply to white people largely, it is really just trying to show how extremely stupid mainstream american culture is, which is dominated by white people. And yes, it does have a racist tinge to it, but this article is pointing out an obviously racist issue.
Hi I’ve lived in Chicago for about a year. I moved from out of state. I was adopted so I don’t know exactly what the hell I am. I’m not white, I’m brown. All I know is that for me Chicago has been a very segregated place in terms of socializing. I can walk into most bars in town and not get fucked with, but nobody exactly wants to be friends. In a crowded white bar the seats on either side of me remain empty. (I don’t smell) I’m just looking for a diverse place where there’s a little bit of everybody so I don’t have to be the odd man out in a room. I’d go to a club, but I really don’t like DJ’s and dance music. I like rock. Maybe I’m bringing this apon myself because I like white music! I play the guitar. It’s been a year and I don’t know anybody accept my neighboors who are white bike messangers. Does anyone have any suggestions? I live near Humbolt Park. There is a Puerto Rican presence that does seem to resent the yuppie and sorry to say white invasion from the Suburbs from some people I’ve talked to. As an outsider, I’m neutral. I just want to make friends with somebody and want to go to bar that is not dominated by one ethnic group or another including white people. I hate being the odd man out in a room because I suspect I’m a mixed race of some sort. Sorry if I’ve offended anybody. I can understand a lot of peoples arguments here, and I really like this blog. Thanks.
Fuck fetuses; they’re not people.
You are aware this is a humor site, aren’t you?
some people get it and some don’t just like anything else therefor if it makes one laugh fine if it offends some well that’s fine also even God couldn’t make everyone happy so this silly site sure as hell can’t
What gentrification means to me is that when I go back to my old neighborhood street in Chicago, I see all the soul sucked out of it. This is what is now called Wrigleyville. The area was a mix of white, a smattering of blacks and a lot of Puerto Ricans.
Neighborhood kids knew each other and played in the street. Yeah, there were gangs and mural graffitti, but now everything is white washed, sand blasted and everybody stays in their little walk up. Now it’s exlusively white. They kicked all the poorer people out. Today it’s a model of soulless, yuppie, cleanliness and shinny white stone brick. It’s sad.
stop gentrification!!!
STOP GENTRIFICATION!!!
MORE AFFORDABLE HOUSING NEEDED WITH INCOME CAPS IN POOR NEIGHBORHOODS!!
the funny part is on the internet you read so many good things about these “up and coming areas”. the reality is a lot different. a LOT. places like harlem which is seeing a lot of luxury condos being built are still crap holes. you have luxury condos down the block from projects and across the street from tenements notorious for drug activity in neighborhoods with crap schools, tons of pollution, high poverty and a population that hates the newcomers. yea there might not be hundreds of murders in harlem anymore but there are still a lot. a lot of killings, robberies, shootings, domestic violence and a lot of problems. still a place where people sell drugs on their stoop and start a fight becuase you looked at them the wrong way. what a neighborhood…
I just stumbled across this website while searching for articles on gentrification. I don’t like the process either, but to portray this as an exclusively white phenomenon is absurd. It’s more related to property owners capitalizing on an areas cultural capital when they see more affluent people taking an interest in it.
People are attracted to this “cultural capital”. It is inevitable that people with money, will try (and succeed) to buy their way into these neighborhoods, often without an understanding of what makes them “cool”.
I live in a neighborhood that could be described in this way. (Deep Ellum, Dallas, TX) I don’t have money, I share an apartment with my brother. We moved from the suburbs of Dallas so we could be closer to the music scene in the area. I personally don’t think this falls into the realm of gentrification. But I’ll let you be the judge.
My understanding of the purpose of this website is very limited so excuse me if I misunderstand, but many of the comments have an air of racial sneering towards white people. I thought most people had learned better by now.
A place doesn’t have “soul”. The people who live there do. Gentrification doesn’t eliminate neighborhoods with “soul”, it moves them. Who gives a shit if your old neighborhood isn’t as cool as it used to be. They’re just fucking buildings.
“Today it’s a model of soulless, yuppie, cleanliness . . . It’s sad”
What a pretentious prick. I’m sorry everything can’t go back to the way you remember it, but get fucking real. Things change, people move, this isn’t some new phenomenon. The people who gave your neighborhood all the qualities you appreciate just moved somewhere else, stop acting like it’s the end of the world.
Hi:
I saw this book last night and laughed and laughed on how “white” I am.
There was a circle of Gentrification on the book that I was telling to a friend and I wish you had it posted on this site. I know I can buy the book and show it to her, but hey like every other white person I am addicted to Internet and want to have the info immediately:)
Money.
Money gives people rights in this culture. But it’s an illusion.
If land and resources are exploitable and someone comes along with the resources to do the exploiting, well, people be damned, it’s time to exploit. And then move on to the next exploitable thing.
Gentirifcation isn’t really a white thing, but white people have the means and motivation to make it happen. Gentrification was Plymouth Rock, manifest destiny and white flight to the suburbs.
One can’t blame anyone for wanting a “good life” and a “tribal” sense of security (which is enhanced by homogeneity)…but it’s always at someone else’s expense, it would seem. That’s where the outcries come from. When there are less affluent people, people with less “means and motivation”, they are dislocated and relocated without regard to any of their humanity. And that’s never going to be right. It’s shortsighted and bad foundation. And the bourgeios middle and upper middle class gentrifiers: sooner or later you’ll learn you’re just tools. Pawns of the ultra rich power brokers and corporations for which you slave.
I wondered where all the more affluent people in my town were moving out to. Probably the same place all the new black people are moving in from.
Yeah…gentrification is “really a white thing.”
i’m a white girl in harlem and i’ve never had a bad experience. i love it here. the crappy new condos suck but i don’t mind people who have the money buying up old brownstones that are just sitting there. might as well be used for something.
Yeah…it really is. When was the last time you heard of Working-Class people being priced out due to an influx of rich minorities?
On the other hand, when we move in Whites tend to flee the neighborhood in droves.
But we dont live in them anymore, so it doesn’t matter if theyre nice or not because we wont benefit.
Ok, so in my town there was a thriving downtown that is made up of mostly white college students and older artists (also mostly white), and there has been a concerted effort by the state to gentrify this downtown core. So that state workers who live and work up the hill can feel comfortable going shopping or going out to eat on their lunch breaks, and to bring more money in to businesses that are opening. I can no longer sit on the side walk legally, I get harassed by cops for chilling out by the artisan well, rent has gone up and shut down businesses that catered towards a less affluent crowd.
My point is, this happens in areas that are mostly white as well. This is a *class* issue, not just a race issue. While white people do tend to be the rich ass holes coming in and gentrifying things, they don’t only due it to neighborhoods with “soul.”
uhhhh….woah… so socialism = I *heart* ‘minorities’. Does that include Mugabe?
calm down, it is all tongue-in-cheek ๐
Anyone who tries to use “bourgeois” is probably a freshman in college who just came out of a socialism/communism 101 class.
this is called imperialism.
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/06/08/nyregion/08trustafarians.html
I just moved into a brownstone in harlem!
http://www.beabetterproducer.com
the adverts are probably the funniest part of these articles
I WANT A MILLION DOLLARS!!! Can one million RICH WHITE PEOPLE send me one dollar apiece, puh-lease????
I donโt want money from any Asians, or Blacks or Hispanics. You guys NEED your money. I only want one dollar apiece from RICH WHITE PEOPLE who seem interested in WASTING their money on real estate in up-and-coming neighborhoods.
Waste it on me instead. Thanks so much! (First person who comments โYou ARE a waste.โ is a rotten egg. You thought it. I know you did. Stop lying. See? I knew it.)
http://thepighasacurlytail.wordpress.com/million-dollar-fund/
Touche
People miss the point. Itโs not yuppies which is a euphemism for rich people. Or corporate commercial businesses, Williamsburg still doesn’t have these types of business and that was a major gentrification with a lot of people displaced. The key component to a neighborhood becoming gentrified is a lot of cheap unproductive commercial space. Most “urban pioneers” are not people seeking inspiration from the grit to feed their artistic drive. Most are savvy business minded people. Itโs not an accident that most of these places first become known for their night life, galleries and restaurants.
The new residents are not soulless and are usually much more interesting than the previous uninspired inhabitants. Here you might sit in a coffee shop next to someone who is on a Richard Forman work, a member of a modern dance troupe or working on a documentary, etc…
Also, an area goes through many cycles before commercial interests start noticing and it usually happens way after the area has been successful yanked of its previous tenants. The L.E.S is barely getting high rise condos after 20 years of gentrification. So when the yuppies come in, itโs at the tail end. The true urban pioneers are always happy to see them because it means their investments have appreciated substantially.
hahaha you people make me laugh. what happens when you get mugged in your new ghetto home? gonna show off about that too? i sure hope so.
nobody reads long posts. (mental note).
lol, so true.. i started reading then realized how long it was and skipped to the next one.. u gotta keep it brief. give us the synopsis and then call it a day
LOL. I’m white and had a group of three friends move to Philly about 2 years back and LOVED to brag about how rough their neighborhood was. One of them went on and on about the time they got mugged walking home from a convienient store. I later came to find out from one of their roommates that they rarely ever left their appt. due to fear of their neighbors ๐
This is pretty funny. White people do like gentrification. However, there’s nothing wrong with “renovating an old property”…just when you do it to flip it or want bring a Whole Foods with you.
The gentrification trend is nothing more than “white flight” in reverse: every major city and older suburban town are experiencing the phenomena. To have a strictly white core surrounded by black-brown majority suburbs, this is also known as the “Johannesburgization” of America. Look at what’s going on downtown L.A., the docks in Long Beach and formerly all-white turned all-Hispanic now going back to white central Santa Ana in where else: Orange County. +
The “model minority” story turns out to be media myth invited in the 1970’s to portray Asian-Americans didn’t need “white men’s help” compared to black-Americans. It comes to show the media could well hold racist attitudes, the TV news’ predominance of crime reports with the suspect composites are mostly black males aged 18 to 29. +
Unfortunately, not all Americans can live in prosperity like you & your husband are able to acheive. Millions of us are born in a class: be it earning under $250,000 a year and never inherited any financial stuff from parents/generations before us. I wish to earn more than $50,000 per person, except I never completed community college and wasn’t born in a yuppie/wealthy/elite family. In addition, my Mom is partly American Indian and my Dad didn’t live with her for over 20 years (they’re divorced) and to top it all, I have high-functioning autism/anxiety-depression disorder, and I grew up in a not-so-prosperous end of the Palm Springs area where the majority aren’t white nor Anglo anymore. +
In California, most predominantly black communities like east Compton, Florence, Fillmore st. in San Francisco and west side Oakland…are no longer mostly black “ghettos”, they became mostly Hispanic/Latino in the last 20 years. Demographers and sociologists dubbed it “black flight” by middle-class blacks abandoning the cities for the suburbs or in some cases, back to their grandparents’ home states in the deep South where they left during the depression or WWII era. The “Great migration” in reverse had started with more blacks moving down South in the 1990’s than moving out of the region, ending a 80-some year trend began in 1910, the northward population movement of African-American migration that changed urban America. +
In the 1980’s pedophiles were the most vilificated group after homosexuals. By the 1990’s, we treated anyone with one ounce of pot/weed worse than serial killers running loose on the streets. And kissing dogs in the ’00s became another “repressed sexual minority” of zoophiles. What’s next in 2010? Liberals and Conservatives placed on the wall in a federal military camp? The second American revolution has began. +
You’re right David, African-Americans aren’t the only ones oppressed in world history. What about the Armenian genocide by the Ottomans during World War I? The Korean peninsula under the brutal imperial Japanese era? And the Polish people didn’t have an independent country ruled by Germany or Russia for over 500 years? Slavery was also used in Babylon, Rome, Greece and ancient Europe when the Germans traded Slavic people captured in tribal wars to Celtic buyers, thus the origin of the term “Slave”. +
“King of the Hill” is the right-wing version of “Family Guy” for its liberal-based humor (the spoofing of President Bush), and more politically satire than the “Simpsons” ever was. One of the first episodes was about a Californian transplant child services worker mistaken Hank’s son Bobby’s eye injury from little league an act of “Child abuse” and another on a Bostonian dressed in a cowboy outfit acted flagrantly at Texans, your “out-of-towner” attitude who showed up 150 years later in Hank’s words “this isn’t the 1840’s”. +
I HOPE U KNO NOT ALL POOR PPL ARE SUSPECTS TO CRIME , AND EVEN THE RICH ONES ARE ALSO SUSPECT TO CRIME, THEIR ARE ALOT OF POOR PPL WHO WORK AND MAKE IT OUT OF THE GHETTO , PPL LIKE YOU ARE JUST SELFISH , AND I BET YOU HAVE NO SOLUTION INTO WHERE THESE PPL WE GO AFTER YOU YUPPIES TAKE OVER
If white people move into non-white neighborhoods, it’s called gentrification.
If white people move out of neighborhoods that were traditionally white, it’s called white flight.
Gentrification means that it is more expensive for the non-whites to stay in their neighborhood, and white flight means that it is cheaper for the non-white to move into that neighborhood.
My question is this: Why do white people think it’s a badge of honor to know that wherever they go, prices go up? It’s like a built in ‘white person’ tax, and white folk don’t seem to mind.
Being white is expensive.
In my experience in Chicago the newly gentrified neighborhoods usually follow this path:
1)Completely non-white
2)Poor white people move in, usually artistic type people
3)As their numbers rise the neighborhood starts to show it
4)When upper class white people start to notice they start showing up
5)This gentrification then forces out not only the non-white people that were there first, but the poor white people who started it all because all rents in the area skyrocket.
6)The neighborhood then lives on for awhile until all of the real reasons is was popular in the first place die out and it then becomes a piece of **** covered in glitter with a bunch of phonies and posers trying to “keep it alive”.
exactly. PREACH!
In San Diego we lost millions by trying to turn an area east of downtown into a hipster neighborhood for white folks. We built a ball park and hundreds of apartment complexes that no one wants to rent. Now the city is broke and the people who lived in the area before the white tidal wave have no where to live.
Won’t be long.
Someone is bitter? Yes, the poor artistic types with degrees from Amherst and Williams. innocently drawn to these neighborhoods for their cheap abandon warehouses and boarded up storefronts. Their galleries, restaurants, music venues and bars are just gifts to their new cracked out neighbors.
Its because San Diego is full of idiots. Don’t they know that white people don’t like sports and take pride in being the ones that “discover” a place. So your city deserves to be broke, plus I didn’t know there were white people in San Diego.
There is no more white flight, that was only in the 60’s when black people got all crazy over their new founds freedom and started burning everything down.
So cheaper? Yes. but you get what you paid for, dilapidated rodent and roach infested hellholes. “White people” make the slumlords renovated and buyout all their crackedout tenants.
Gentrification is not things getting too expensive, its people suddenly getting alot more equity for their shitty houses in these slums and seeking the good life. All slum people want the good life in the burbs.
Right…on the beachside neighborhoods, that is. Anywhere south of Chicano park in the barrio known as Logan Heights hardly has white people. Most of the middle-class whites moved northward to Poway, Escondido, Carlsbad and the Inland Empire such as Temecula, Murrieta and Elsinore. +
I was liking the idea of gentrification at first, to make ones neighborhood safer, cleaner, useful and has more stuff. But all I know is renters drive up cost of apartment or housing, and drive out the non-affluent out, may end up homeless in many cases. Good people do live in bad neighborhoods, but they need the money, ability and will power to repair their troubled decrepit communities by themselves.+
I keep forgetting about that! LOL, I wrote a few long postings in my internet life…and some really hate them.
To make ones’ neighborhood a happier, more enjoying place to live is the people should never accept illegal drug sales or intense devaluation of homes at the first place…but they can’t help it whenever the market price flatuates up high or down low. +
…and the most likely to get thrown outta here. Keep it up Beg-a-thon, you bless your stars you’re not in communist China, where spambot server owners are well penalized. +
True, the reaction on allowing minority people (couples and families) to move in, what about inter-racial married couples or families of mixed children? What year is this: oh 2009, and some white people continue to grasp the idea it’s not good to allow black people into the suburbs. At the same time, aging whites after their grown kids leave the nest are putting homes on sale…and guess who shows up? Blacks, or in some areas: Hispanics, Asians or Middle easterners. +
Actually, I don’t know what the fuck I’m talking about. I just like to see myself say stupid shit and pat myself on the back for it. +
I’m such an asshole.+
@jobo; In MY experience ( being black, born/raised/ on the SOUTH SIDE of chicago ) u got it half way right pal. Those “poor” whites that u call the “artistic” type usually aren’t that poor.Hell, there aren’t any “poor” whites that reisde/live in the city,middle class but defintely not lower class whites. If so, show me a neighborhood in the city where poor whites live? They just appear 2 be lol, cause thats what their “lifestyle” promote ( I.e shopping at thrift stores, buying used jazz records, etc). Anyway, the perfect example of gentrification couldn’t be described more eloquently than the Robert taylor homes ( where I was Born by the way ). If you’ve been in chicago for 5 plus years, u know what i’m talking about ( or maybe u dont). Or the Cabrini Greens! Just 5 yrs ago those ares where litered with high rises/poor blacks. the last 50 yrs, those (projects) was pretty much the residence for the avg blacks and whites lived in places like Naperville, or Wheaton, or whatever suburb. Now, fast foward, whites want those areas ( metropolitan area) back! More convient for their lifestyle. Meanwhile, those same people who where displaced, are set up in the suburbs where whites once lived. i call it the NEW ethnic cleansing of America.
That’s retarded. Ethnic cleansing has to do with systematically exterminating an unpopular minority. This is more about people living wherever they darn well please. If a bunch of white folks like your neighborhood and move in and make it nicer, great, they’ve made it nicer. If you can’t afford to live there anymore, you have to move. Again, what’s the problem? Mobility is a fact of human existence and should be fostered, encouraged, not lambasted for being racist. That’s completely retarded.
Totally agreed.
so they move to Tijuana. I know a handful of white folk that moved there.
Thats pretty much the story of New York. Hardly any Ethnic neighbourhoods still exist within a 30 minute commute of manhattan. F*ckin hipsters and wack ass yuppies come through and drive out working class people.
The shoving around of poor people should be fostered?
I could get with what you’re saying only if it actually benefited people other than the rich. But the fact that ONLY rich people benefit from it, and the fact that most of those rich people are Whites, just shows how corrupt it is.
Its like, you wouldn’t invest, build a library or a new school here 20 years ago when the hood was all Latino and Black, but now you wanna build fuckin skyscrapers for White folk? Fuck you.
I applaud you for this.
Why not just build new neighborhoods out west for the displaced poor people can live in? Many of the Latino inhabitents are illegal so they can and should be deported, if they are loyal to their home countries (to the point of having Spanish spoken in certain AMERICAN schools) why not just stay in those countries? Of course the legal ones should stay if they want provided they are loyal to our country and culture.
Gentrification has it’s good parts however: To get rid of ugly graffiti, reduce crime, make the cities more beautiful, add needed tax revenue, bring real culture (the greatest musicians and philosophers lived 300 years ago such as Bach and Vivaldi, at best we can just replay what they have written. How far the world has sunk when people listen to the so-called “music” of criminal ghetto residents utilizing vulgar lyrics, extremely heavy bass, and limited scales in their primitive noise they call “music” The downfall started with the invention of Rock which is also limited scale, immoral, and sings about drugs and sex) bring literacy back into the public lexicon (i.e.: No more double negatives or uneducated parlance such as “Pimping” “Peeps” and “Crib”)and perpetuate Christian values and culture that the Founding Fathers dreamed about.
I see no problem whatsoever with building new neighborhoods entirely for the new poor, and those poor could be given jobs at a nearby (clean, green) factory and work at the police force. The higher classes have already built new suburban towns for themselves, which I agree with as it insulates them from the kitsch pop-“Cultures” and crime.
Speaking of Modern “Art”:
It was actually invented to rob people of their money so the peddlers of modern art would then purchase actual pieces of art from classical artist. A square with lines, random assortments of colors, and a figurine of Lord and Savior inside a jar of bodily fluids (I kid you not) are not art. Sometimes they are downright offensive such as what I mentioned.
if you’re poor, it’s your own fault. where do you get the idea that someone else is supposed to build anything for you?
I concur. The poor whites typically do not live in urban areas. They live in the suburbs or in rural areas. The young hipsters that come to gentrify a place are only poor in the sense of young middle class people starting out are poor.
You can bet in many cases their mommies or daddies are helping them foot the bill. How do I know? This is the case of many young, white friends I have living in gentrified areas. I am like them, except black.
I live in the city, but not the heart, in a house dab smack in the middle of a poorer area being gentrified.
People can be poor for reasons that aren’t their fault, just as the opposite is true. So if you don’t know somebody’s circumstances it’s easy to say “it’s your own fault!”
I know I was poor. I had the misfortune of being born to teenaged parents and growing up in the inner city. Yes I got out, but I had a support system and grew up in an environment that was more nurturing. Not everyone is as lucky.
Be grateful for the privileges you have enjoyed and realize that but for the grace of God go thee…just sayin’
Jay, many people enjoy modern art. It has to do with understanding symbolic language and colour theory. That’s why it’s often referred to as the artist’s art. Piss Christ was a message misinterpreted, from what I just read in your two posts you and Serrano have a lot in common on the basis of strong Christian ideals.
You’re dumb.
I completely agree. Those who believe that you shouldn’t help the poor because “it’s their own fault” don’t deserve the life they have.
My parents came here with no money (they spent what they had on tickets to come here), no English, and no “support system”.
Over a short 20 years, they achieved a lot (including higher education at well respected universities) with help from no one. They now live in a large single family home with a pool and 2 acre backyard, in a wealthy suburban area. They have another 2 family house which they rent out, and a vacation apartment in Europe, as well as a boat and various other toys.
They were poor, and it wasn’t “their own fault”.
Guess what? They’re not poor anymore.
If rents get too high in an area, leave. If you say it’s just the rich people getting what they want, well it is.
That’s how life works. Those who can pay for something they want, can get it. Those who can’t pay for something they want, cannot get it.
i love bass heavy music
dude… you have that totally right! just think about the caveman…. he moved from place to place ……. now the location can be the same, but an environment in that location can change…
You’re right. If those houses were in fact owned before gentrification then your property value will increase. Gentrification has done you a favor. And if you don’t own a home work until you’re in a position to do so. It’s a great feeling!
A true standard in comedy blogging.
Another great site is http://www.SomethingYouShouldRead.com
“Many of the Latino inhabitents are illegal so they can and should be deported, if they are loyal to their home countries (to the point of having Spanish spoken in certain AMERICAN schools) why not just stay in those countries”
First of all, America is not an authoritarian regime committed to a uniform culture. People are allowed to retain their native cultural beliefs and practices without being branded as traitorous. Furthermore, the reason these people don’t stay in their home countries is because of the widespread poverty and violence they face there. The majority of Latin American and South American countries are classified as 3rd world. They simply want to have a better life. Who the hell are you to deny them that?
I would also like to point out that America was by no means intended to be a Christian nation. We were founded by Christians, but the First Ammendment and the “separation of Church and State” clause indicate otherwise. America is simply founded on the ideals and values of the Enlightenment. This isn’t a theocracy, because that in of itself limits the power of the people through religion’s will
Everybody deserves the life they have, since it’s their life and they made it into what it is…
no I think it was something special about that one. i stopped after two lines, that doesnt usually happen
This article is shorter than, like, all the others, and the discussion seems a lot more informed about the nuances of this issue. Does the author not know what else to talk about because Wrigley Field was already used up?
Ha!
Here’s another good one: http://www.SomethingYouShouldRead.com
I don’t want to deny anything to anyone. I just don’t want have to pay for it
Much of what we now think of as “great art” was downright offensive when it was made.
You sound like the wrong kind of white person.
Unless they get cancer, or get shot in the face. Most people who have those things happen don’t deserve them. Just sayin’.
you sound like a jealous faggot
Modern art is cool, but there is some bad stuff. There are also some really boring classical portraits and landscapes among the great ones. Art seems to be primarily about conveying some form of truth, so it is not just realistic drawing technique that is responsible for greatness. Beauty is found just as readily in dissonance as in harmony, because without one the other has no meaning. It is realistic that art should draw from and embody both.
Ha ha, I hope you are joking.
If you’re holding your breath for the day that they begin playing classical music on top 40 radio, I expect that you will suffocate. Also, if you’re convinced that nobody has written classical music since Vivaldi and Bach, you need to lift up the rock and crawl out from underneath it. There has been a pretty good stream of unbroken creativity on the part of all sects of humanity since the end of the dark ages. The threads are passed from one person to the next almost unconsciously. Everything is connected, even classical music and stuff with heavy bass. Don’t overlook things simply because you associate them with a certain image that you believe has a negative connotation. There are many ways of looking at and reacting to the world. You may not relate to heavy bass, but other people do. Classical music evidently reflects your reality more accurately, but I think that music like rock and rap relates just as directly to reality. You can’t just dismiss it, it exists. People truly care about it and it is important.
I think gentrification is kind of shitty. I think the problem seems to be an overall economic situation in which there is a large gap between the wealthy and the not so wealthy. It seems that the solution is not “cleaning up poor areas” by replacing them with “comfortable” people and renovating, but to change the situation so that people in general are on more equal footing, because otherwise it’s just whoever has the least money continuously losing out and getting displaced.
Language changes. The language as it is used is most important. There are no hard rules to language, it is all made up, after all. If it has consistent rules of some kind that convey meaning, it is relevant. The words you mention have meaning, regardless of the connotation you apply to them.
You can depend on change and that’s about it. Stay abreast or get left behind.
Frankly, your plan sounds a lot like the beginnings of a certain “Final Solution” involving putting certain types of people in little camps to “insulate them from the higher classes” and maybe eventually deciding that maybe the “higher classes” should just get rid of them entirely since they are like a big canker on the face of the eugenics plan. Believing one type of person knows best for all types of people is always a mistake. Difference and disagreement are important. The warm fuzzy feeling of fascism occurs because the ideas are initially attractive or positive. The danger, of course, is that the ends start to become more important than the reality of the means.
I hope you were being sarcastic.
Best possible reply. Ever.
I’m an urban planning major and this, seriously, this is the fucking truth. People run in there because they want to see “real” and they end up ruining the culture, and all the people who lived there, almost always poor, end up being unable to afford living there anymore and they have to move.
STUPID GENTRIFICATION!
If you neva seen a homeless person drink or do drugs put your hands in the air ๐ I thought so
Sadly, this is what neighborhoods in Atlanta, Little Five Points (heck ALL of East Atlanta really), Ormwood Park (Where I grew up), Grant Park, etc have become. Like someone said it’s a nice idea (to fix up run down neighborhoods), but bad for the natives of the area. Even though it sucks you can’t entirely blame yuppies (well , yea most are to blame because most are carbon copies and like to follow each other from city to city and state to state) but developers are more to blame in my book than any one else. They sell the natives and the history of these neighborhoods out.
We like to have a “Stuff Hispanic People Like” blog: #1 dress like a rancher every time you go out: get out your boots, black pants and button-up shirt, plus a vaquero hat. Very common sight in Hispanic (esp. Mexican) communities and this is habit among farm workers from the rural interior states. It is hip to be Latino…and a vaquero/ranchero.
Young & attractive yuppie females are more likely to end up pregnant, but they rather blame the lack of birth control pills or the morning after pill (and gasp, MEN!) than their own “it takes two to tango” method of human reproduction.
Meanwhile, the white collar workforce continues to vanish without a trace, and not only the blue collar worker is dying, what’s gonna be available for Americans to work at? Oh yeah, McD’s or Wal-Mart, but that’s reserved for blacks (urban ghetto onwelfare) or Latinos (illegal aliens/migrant workers), because of this policy called Affirmative Action.
In suburbia, another form of racial “genocide” is the policy to make it very easy for blacks and Hispanics to buy homes in the wrong: suburban neighborhoods are experiencing a much larger white flight than the inner-cities 40 years ago. Today, it is white yuppies and the rich are into moving back in the inner-city, since many suburban areas are relatively cheap for not-so-wealthy people of all races to relocate in.
Oh man, I love this article. I wish I had cited this for my urban studies paper on gentrification a few years ago. Thanks!
Yo man I know what you mean I was there the other day and man I never seen so many white people in a black neighborhood like that before, they’re trying to fix it up, which is fine, but at the same time they trying to take over LOL.
lmao..If you happen to be white, I pray that what you just said was -intentionally- ironic- one thing white people REALLY like to do is PRETEND THAT THEY ARE NOT WHITE, especially when talking about gentrification.
PS, I’m hispanic and grew up in Williamsburg. Still here, waiting to be kicked out by one of you.
No, I’m not kidding.
You’re probably not hispanic, no real puerto rican, mex would call themselves hispanic, you must be white. Whites resent never being part of a victimized group and like to pretent to also have the same complex. Plus, puertoricans, etc left williamsburg by the late 90’s.
Come on you really live in bushwick, have a rent stablized sh!thole no one wants, or maybe? a mad hipper who being outprice by richer whiteys?
White people moving into neighborhoods formerly plagued by rats makes the neighborhoods more valuable and much better off. Glad you admit it!
Please just remember….not all white people are the same.
This is ridiculous…”lets all get pissed at white people for taking a shitty, dangerous area and making it into a decent place to live”. SERIOUSLY? Jealousy runs deep.
awesome
LOL Wow. You are so stupid. It’s a joke you know and BTW, gentrification is not all that bad but the idea to clean it up just to kick out the people who originally lived their and ruin the culture of the area. How about you shut the fuck up you dickwad.
More like an Americanized Hispanic person who is like this:
funny that white people think they are making a neighborhood “better”. Gentrification just makes the neighborhood better–for white people.
EVERYBODY SHUT UP ABOUT HOW WHITE PEOPLE MAKE THE HOMES BETTER… THAT’S NOT THE FUCKING POINT…
Are there impossible replies, you chucklehead?
My parents are Salvadoran and I consider myself ‘hispanic’
Why? because I was born in America not El Salvador. I eat both Salvadoran and American foods and my culture consists of a blend of both American and Salvadoran, but for the most part, American. Yes, I speak Spanish but everyone knows I’d rather speak English. Our family eats pizza, burgers and take out more than it does pupusas. We don’t own any cows, sheep or chickens. (I hate it when ignorant people ask me if my family owns any farm animals- really wtf? Stupid)
Hispanic = blend of American and Spanish cultures.
haha highly agree
Hispanic is used to refer to Spanish people from Spain and WHITE LATINOS. Hispanic IS NOT truly a blend of American and Spanish cultures. “Hispanic” comes from Spain, and it’s a term the Spaniards used to gentrify all of the indigenous peoples they raped during colonization. Mestizos were produced by the intermixing, and the self-hating Latinos who don’t want to identify with their “browness”–if you will– pride themselves in being “Hispanic”.
Excuse me, I should’ve said, Latinos of Spanish descent, compared to mestizos, afro-latinos, or indios. Thus, the label, white Latino.
Please learn basic grammar. Moreover, there is no evidence that Mars is homosexual, and even if he were, how is that relevant? Highland Park is in a good location but cannot progress due to the constant influx of undocumented aliens.
Haha what a troll
if you like this blog, check out http://justsomepetpeeves.wordpress.com!!
Some people live in multicultural urban neighborhoods because we love old houses (see the “Vintage” article). For those of us who earn modest incomes, these are the only places where we can afford one. I admit, however, that even if money wasn’t an issue, I wouldn’t want to live in an all-white neighborhood filled with snobs.
As a child, I first lived in an old neighborhood with some economic diversity, then a new development where most people were upper middle class. The houses, trees, and people in the old neighborhood were definitely nicer!
Suburbia sucks, both socially and aesthetically. . .
http://www.theatlantic.com/past/docs/issues/96sep/kunstler/kunstler.htm
Some of you guys are taking this blog a little more seriously than it should be taken. The author is obviously referring to hipster and “bro” subcultures rather than every white person in America. Please relax, at least for your own benefit.
this article is true, and very funny. people need to remember the downside of gentrification, which is that the original families that make these neighborhoods so “authentic” in the first place end up getting priced out. furthermore, the cultural landscape of neighborhoods changes. i live in los angeles, and areas/neighborhoods like echo park are prime examples of gentrification. communities that once had immigrant owned businesses/restaurants end up getting priced out to high end retail markets, “artsy” coffee shops, “eclectic” bookstores, etc. it really is sad. it is a win win for the people who move in, but definitely a lose-lose for the neighborhood’s original community.
it’s only funny to the people who aren’t displaced
didn’t know it was possible to like gentrification
but then I never gentrified nobody so i dunno
maybe it’s fun to screw people over
yes i know not all white people are like that but when you see that happening it seems like all white people are like that. like they’ll go grab mexican food, “the burrito” and have cocktails in the mission with their white peoples garb and stupid scooters, fixed bikes and all that crap. white people always think the can be a part of a culture and the only way they know how is to buy it. in reality white people don’t have culture. that is why they have to go vulture over to the next “up and coming” ethnicity. white people are freakin boring. oh and let me not forget how a vast number of white people go to other countries and rape the crap out of the culture and do stupid tours here and there. stay away from the freaking gringos. that is not where its at.
Oh and PS if the white people came into my hood in my country doing the same ish you do to all these neigborhoods basically making them hella boring, best believe your ass will be stranded on the side of the road. better yet, you’d be held for ransom because you prance around with all your $$$ thinking you are all that and a bag of rice crackers in a third world country.
I don’t think it’s limited to hipsters and brodog subculture… or artists, punks, and any other random white subculture for that matter. I think it’s more systemic than that. It happens everywhere and by all types of white people, and it’s pretty unsettling cuz the roots of gentrification run deep and are intertwined with city planners, property owners, and others with $$$ or are looking to make money. They may not always be white, but whiteness does play a big role in this process.
I must get super white points because where I live is totally off the white radar…an agricultural area where only 15% of the population is white. You carry a gun and a machete because you never know when you might have to defend yourself from an attack either human or reptilian
I think everybody would love to live in an up and coming nice neighborhood. should i be ashamed, not to mention the fact i am white, that i made this happen for myself by working hard every day?? lmao, and my circle of friends consist of my children that i provide shelter and go 2 work for everyday, such ignorance, how did i come across this nonsense?
nikki is a racist, she’s not allowed to comment on the hilarious article above because she’s white.
this site is supposed be a joke. i dont get why people get worked up about it.
Let’s not forget, in addition, that gentrification is one of those activities white people also like to do to other white people- usually the wrong kind. For example, when faux-green wealthy professionals move out into the countryside ahead of the wave of suburban sprawl, searching for an ‘authentic’ and ‘earthy’ home, displacing those few farmers and the rural poor (read: ‘rednecks’) still clinging to the boondocks while, as usual, completely missing the point of the environmentalist and social justice movements.
Well, yeah, if you’re in that situation AND you’re an upper-class or middle class white person, you’re pretty much gentrifying the living hell out of an agricultural area.
Otherwise, you’re probably not gentrifying.
I think you’re missing the real tragedy. It isn’t that the neighborhood’s lost its appeal- that’s the tragedy from the gentrifier’s perspective. It’s that a whole bunch of people got displaced, and those people had value beyond providing an authentic atmosphere for white people. Now they have to find new homes and communities. Gentrification breaks up communities and makes it difficult for poor people and people of color (usually the same people) to ever get organized or work together, because they keep getting knocked around from neighborhood to neighborhood.
Happens in rural places, too. Used to be, my community was just a bunch of rural people, not rich, who lived in and around a monastic college village in the middle of the countryside. Now we have lawyers and bankers moving out and putting up mini-mansions, with housing developments not far behind, stalled only for the recent economic crisis.
Now, some people might look at that and think the tragedy is that we’re losing our quaint character. I see the tragedy as this: Land prices are rising. People I grew up with might not have stayed in the country anyway, because there’s not much opportunity here, but now they sure as hell won’t, because they can’t buy land. Families that have lived out here for generations are dying off and their kids moving away. Businesses they ran are shutting down, and the only jobs replacing them are service work to amuse the gentrifiers. The newcomers aren’t investing in our community, our credit unions, or our cooperatives- so how the hell are we supposed to get a start out here? It’s wage labor in the urban industries for us all, if we can’t make it into college- in which case it’s salaried labor in the urban industries and the chance to gentrify another town.
To make things worse, it complicates everything. My parents went through a divorce, and to keep the farm, my dad had to pay off my mother. Because of the rising land prices, he has to pay her way, way more than he bought the farm for (even adjusted for inflation), and it’s basically used up the family’s money. He was the one person in a rural Irish Catholic family of eight kids to claw his way into a higher social class and amass some generational wealth, and now thanks to gentrification and the divorce, that’s gone. We could have used that to do some good in the world, like loaning it to our cousins or investing it in the rural cooperatives. But we can’t now. We don’t quite have to start over, but it’s a hell of a lot longer of a climb now.
The loss of the community is sad to the gentrifiers. It’s a tragedy to the people who lived here before.
hmmmm…what would black people do with the neighborhood??…….steal from all of the businesses so that they eventually wont be there, sit outside the one convenience store that remains and drink beer all day, paint every free surface they can with various gang signs, not take any care in landscaping or maintaining their property, throw trash everywhere, crime and drugs everywhere……….HOWEVER, IF THEY WERE SMART….THEY WOULD RIDE OUT THE GENTRIFICATION PROCESS AND SELL WHEN THEIR HOME IS WORTH TRIPLE THE VALUE, SOMETHING THAT WOULD NEVER HAPPEN IF THE “WHITE” PEOPLE DIDN’T MOVE IN….or they can keep complaining about the white man instead of getting a JOB!!!!
30 years ago, hardly anyone lived near Palm Springs: it was a desert, home to less than 10,000 residents, mostly white (esp. Jewish), elderly and near-rich lived there temporarily in the winter months. Look at it today: 10-20 times the year round population, brand new ups to million-dollar homes for the next 10-20 miles of endless suburban sprawl, and the older sections of town not in a country club are packed with illegal immigrants: service workers from Mexico, El Salvador or wherever Latino south of the border. This isn’t really a desert anymore except for the triple digit temp. highs, who wants to live in the summer when cooling bills are higher than ones’ monthly income? Oh, lots and lots of old white people from Canada or a colder western/northern/eastern state or part-time in the urban coasts in the summer (the L.A./OC/San Diego people) live off their retirement pension.
Well since you want to single out blacks because thats what you probably watch on the news, from your couch or movies… Did you ever think that maybe if you were born into a lower class society where books and education are usually unavaible in your school… just maybe thinking about trippling the value of your property wouldn’t be the thing on your mind..maybe finding a job with no college degree.. would be first..You should be greatful to be privilledged enough to get that education.. Dont think that because you’re not black that you couldn’t be in the same situations and environments.. don’t single blacks out…stupidest thing ever..
Im Black, recieved 2 college degrees before the age of 22
and could probably get a higher paying job faster than you could with my credentials alone!!!
Don’t be silly, lower class people are under priveledged and usually since birth…compare your childhood with theirs and I’m sure you’ll see the differences..
People like you are the reason lower incomed folks stay in the conditions that they are in…just imagine you being the boss of some corporation and had to hire an African American….smh..
trippling? lol.
Two college degrees and you can’t spell “tripling”? You should request a refund.
“Greatful”???!!?? Nay, DEMAND a refund!
I am sure someone has said this before in all these pages of comments but really:
WTF? Where is that finely tuned sense of IRONY. Y’all get so SERIOUS. Okay, so Freud said there were no jokes — but come on, he was a coke-head!
I miss NYC when I read some of this shite…oh there’s a pretentious white thing to do…pretend you are from the U.K. and spell things differently!
Well, as they say here in the southern hinterlands, “Did you see that hat? God Bless her.”
Translation: WTF does she have on her head? It looks like a raccoon took a dump on her and then weaved its tail around her head!
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We were just laughing about the “God bless so and so or Bless his/her’s little heart” comment the other day. Me and a friend are from the south and live in Baltimore and we were explaining the actual meaning of that phrase.
I do not see the problem of taking a trash-filled crime ridden neighborhood full of the desperate and getting city hall to start paying attention to it again because property values and (tax revenues!) increase. I live in the Detroit area and the only hope for many neighborhoods is getting people who are not on the edge economically to move in. Rents might start to rise, but jobs and economic activity might increase. I think that there is sometimes a siege mentality that grows up against any change that works to the detriment of the poor. Not all change is bad. We are humans. Adapt!
The problem is too many people assume that because a formerly trash-filled crime and poverty ridden neighborhood are beginning to thrive again that the poverty issue is getting better, when in reality, when property values rise the poor move somewhere else that they can afford, continuing to be poor. There are much better and more creative ways to address poverty than gentrification.
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Except that it forces cultures and communities that have been in those neighborhoods since they were established out of their homes, but yeah! Other than that it’s GREAT.
whoa, whoa, whoa…that is conversation for the section on “irony”
After reading the comments, I find it interesting that some people assume that white people are always middle or upper-class and non-white people are not. I’m white and have lived in poverty all of my life. I’ve been struggling to get out of poverty, but in the meantime, I’m getting another college degree, working, and I live in a neighborhood that is the most affordable for me (although I have classmates that won’t come visit this neighborhood) and someday may be “up and coming”. (It needs a lot of work right now and it is certainly not “up and coming”.) My best friend is African American and she came from a background of wealth, including the opportunity for college paid by her parents and her & her fiance’s wedding paid by her parents.
The author actually isn’t using the term “white people” to describe people of a certain race per se. “White people” is more of a term meaning middle-class, liberal, Democratic American than Caucasian (although some things on this list are more race specific than others). It just so happens that the vast majority of middle-class, liberal, Democratic Americans are white people, so it’s funnier to just say white people as a blanket term. I’m black and was raised in the middle class; a lot of this list applies to me. Though I can’t say gentrification appeals to me, or anything involving white guilt…
Why can’t they keep a certain number of these buildings under rent control ?- allow Section 8..That way most of the original inhabitants can stay. Yes, they will have to compromise and deal with yuppie hipster types, but at least the neighborhood looks nicer and is a hell of a lot safer. Can’t we all just get along?
what the hell am i doing here?
i have no idea what that means, but it sho sounds RACIST.
whenever in doubt, use that word, works great, less filling.
Yeah, you don’t know. Don’t talk about shit if you don’t know what you’re talking about… Someday, you’ll run in to somebody that does, and feel like an ass. Go ahead and use “Buzzwords” like, “racist”,and “sho?” To make it sound like you know what you are talking about. To give you…”cred” Anybody with half a brain knows you’re full of it, and that you should give up on trying to persuade folks otherwise. Try and relate, in your limited capacity, to others, outside your, narcasistic, anthropamorphic, ideas, before you make comments. Assholes use beer commercial slogans to get their points accross. Congratulations! Ignorant asshole!
YEah, I think he is using the term white to mean white. THis is spot on. THis is not racist, this is honest. The writer is white and it is okay to poke fun at your own kind. Besides, so what if he pokes fun at anyone…it’s just fun! Let’s not take ourselves so seriously. Geez, racist is such an over used deal.
ok, so racism needs to be redefined,
I am white,
I do not like this, I have my own culture and do not appreciate being categorized,
sorry but I agree with the person right below.
I am from a country where racism was never an issue like it is in America,
sorry but it also seems very double standard in that country.
The word “racism” is usually brought into a situation where someone isn’t getting what they want, or they think they deserve something that someone else has. Undereducated, unoriginal people throw it around for lack of a better word like “prejudice” for example, because they heard about lawsuits and settlements that others had benefitted from long ago and why not redistribute the wealth, right? The government certainly can create and nurture stupidity and laziness when they want to. So in my opinion much “racism” is actually instigated by the other-than-white person because they learned it from the parents and such. It’s crap. If there was nobody in the forest when the tree falls, it wouldn’t make a sound then. What if nobody used racism to explain a temper tantrum or to wriggle out of blame for something? If we didn’t hear it so much, would it even exist so much?
I recently moved into a newly established neighborhood. The entire neighborhood looked great. Shortly thereafter, a black family moved in. It didn’t bother me that they were black, but there is something that bothers me. Within a few weeks they parked an unsightly trailer in there drive. The pulled their car into their front yard. Their visitors started pulling vehicles over the curb and parking in the vacant lot where a house is yet to be built. They are the only people in the neighborhood who leave their trash containers out all the time. Their garage is packed full of God only knows what all and they leave their garage door open. I have to drive by this mess every time I leave me home. It doesn’t matter what color they are. Regardless of race, people that live like this decreases the values of our homes. This black family apparently has a fairly good income, but just cannot live like the rest of us.
How could any of this be better stated? It cuoldn\’t.
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This isn’t a white thing, it’s an upper-middle class thing. Don’t characterize an entire race based on the actions of the top 5% wealthiest Americans.
Long time reader here…Never commented but I have to chime in on this one…
I grew up in a lower middle class neighborhood…one which went through gentrification in the mid-80’s, and I can tell you firsthand the issue is two-fold:
1. When “white people” (socio-economic class, not color…as in “white bread” not “white skinned”…”Whiteness” comes in all colors) gentrify a neighborhood, not only does the local atmosphere change, but as property values rise, so too do property taxes…which forces many who have lived their entire lives in one place – in one house, in one neighborhood, often surrounded by loved ones and friends living in the same neighborhood – to sell. Not sell by choice…but sell because they can no longer afford to live in the only home they have ever known. Who cares that they can sell for more than they would have before? Some things, my friends, are more important than money.
In addition…local businesses that were patronized by the “non-white” former residents often lose money as the new “white” residents, slum as they might, prefer to eat, shop, and play “white” (organic, wheat crust pizza rather than the the slimy greasy heart-attack-on-a-plate the rest of us prefer, for example…or Trader Joes to the mom and pop grocery store that doesn’t stock “fair trade” coffee) …These businesses then either sell their businesses to more “appropriate” outlets or change their operation to accomodate the “newcomers”…and in either case prices rise to “white” levels as “white products” take over the local market, forcing those oldtimers who stayed on to shop further from home or move closer to business they can afford and will enjoy buying from. (In my old neighborhood, for example, Cove Pizza became “Cove Restauarant” and began to serve overpriced gourmet slop…and the local deli turned into a sports bar…Ironic as there was not a bar for miles originally.)
2. On a larger, deeper level…it’s HIGHLY INSULTING for those who can afford to live anywhere to choose to live in a lower income neighborhood so that they can “be down with the common man” like some modern day Marie Antoinette, pretending to be a peasant shepherdess. Wake up…barring some great financial catastrophe, you will NEVER know what it’s like to be poor.You can leave that neighborhood…and although it’s not impossible for those who live there orginally to do so, they don’t have the degree or the trust fund to fall back on when they get bored of slumming. End of story.
My story does have a happy ending…
I am sorry and i mean no disrespect but this site is wonderful. The posts are so well written that I have to suspect this is a kind of spoof. The writing style and sarcasm is fantastic. So good that I doubt some of you could not get a great job as writers. I personally agree with this site and the comments but i love the way things are presented. Its great really great restores my confidence in humanity . sanity and some damn good sense of humor even if that were not intended. Might I suggest that some of you use your talents and start a news paper or something. I guarantee it could get big and on a serious note this stuff needs to go public
Me too. These comments are great and should be put together in a book it would be a best seller. I could not be more serious but the greatest writing talent I have seen in a long time exists on this blog!!!!!
You must be English because I understand that expression.
From the posts I have read on this blog I think that the poor and the middle class and racism have been very cloudy. First there is real racism and there are legitimate reasons some people are poor. like racism and poor people we are using generalities and not dealing with the issues. Where I live, during the 80s,the city put up a lot of low income housing but for what ever reasons those dwelling in them were mostly black. Never the less i have known Black people who did not live in low income housing. When I lived in Lexington , Kentucky there was a lot of low income housing and the same situation and yet my girlfriend at the time (me being white and her being black ) lived in the middle of the city in a nice down town apartment. So there are choices to be made. It is really not a racial issue unless one wants to make it so. When I lived in Chicago there was the south side and the north side. The south side was a very bad area but not the north side and the north side had plenty of racial diversity. It even had a strong gay presence. I am no psychologist and cannot understand why some pick one kind of neighborhood over another.
The real issue is potential and motivation. What I mean by potential is, are you a mature mentally and physically able bodied person who with some motivation can accomplish something? Better your life some how. I have heard the “race” issue used as an excuse. People are prejudice by nature. Not all though. The reason need not be color or race. It can be being disabled or many stupid reasons.
As far as being poor is concerned it is not a label. Like I am poor and will always be that way. On the other hand there are people who do have serious disabilities who at best can learn to function some what. I have lived with both extremes. Also I do not think every American has to be forced to live a lavish life if that is not their thing. There has to be a middle ground here. We should do what we are able and not pull the “racism ” card. That excuse used to be legit but not any more. It has been shown in business that any one can get ahead if they so choose. Until now of course. Because now the super rich do want us all out of their way. And they are making it impossible for regular people to earn a “normal” living. This is the real problem now. Yes those of “great” means are not happy with any one else who is less then they are. It is getting to the point where those making 100,000 a year ( should most of us be that lucky)will be the “poor” in this country. Thus I thank the Occupy Wall St movement for trying to restore some sanity to this nation of ours. Hopefully and I kind of doubt it , every one will be able to live and work with dignity and that there remains help for those who truly need it.
Yes this blog pokes fun at white people and it is written by a white guy, Christian Lander. Read “About” derp.
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Thats the stupidest, most ignorant thing I’ve read in a while… You must be black
Yes, yes, and yes! Far too many people don’t understand that gentrification has real and harmful effects for those who were there first. Although I have never experienced it first hand, I have studied it extensively at uni. Still, I tend to look the other way and joke about gentrification because it’s easier, especially living in NYC where we’ve seen Brooklyn drastically change and Queens going the same route, there are just too many people to offend. Anyone who doesn’t want to recognize that this is a problem is living in denial and basking in white privilege. Yes, white comes in all socioeconomic forms, but even the poorest of the poor white person has privileges that are institutionalized which exclude even the wealthiest of the wealthy minority. If you don’t believe me read this: http://www.amptoons.com/blog/files/mcintosh.html If you still don’t get it then I guess you are a lost cause.
ugh…if we’re going to start being honest then i’m going to bed!
Ha….does anyone find it interesting that you’ve never experienced it first hand….but have plenty to say on the topic?
A cheap, beautiful house in need of good care… if they can give the house that care, who doesn’t like that, no matter what colour their skin has?
I myself grew up in a nice neighbourhood, suburb-ish. I was bored, lonely and unhappy. I moved into the city and never looked back.
WHat I love most about the city is the heterogeneity of the place. This place has a lot of different people, and I keep meeting funny creative weirdos that make me feel at home. I believe the area I live in in a gentrification process, and that I am a part of that process. My husband never the less wants us to move out, to something ‘nicer’. I’d rather die.
And then: I do NOT live here to impress my friends. I hate it that there is so much crime, but what I really hate is when someone is sure that I live in danger all the time.
I am sure it is a problem when someone cannot afford to live in their own neighbourhood anymore. But the real problem there is of course that money do not trickle down from anywhere. It ought to be a wonderful thing when old miskept houses were restored to beauty, for more different people came to live there, and the crime-rate went down in your neighbourhood – but then, it ought to stay your neighbourhood. For that to happen, it just takes a different approach on the distribution of wealth.
Well, but your racist approach to who is entitled to move into your neighbourhood and you knowing what their reasons are… I don’t respect that a lot.
this could be said of any city that is a word finance center (New York ,Toronto,Paris,Frankfurt, Sydney,London ) lots of rich white Americans with apartments in Paris working for Goldman Sachs. Same thing with hipsters moving to Berlin……. stupid hipsters and bankers. ๐
If gentrification in your area is simply unbearable and you need somewherehip and unheard of, try Berlin. Details on how to be a northenr Europena bohemian here: http://www.isitajoke.de/2012/09/1-z-of-kreuzberg.html
One thing to remember is that a large portion of the black neighborhoods being gentrified were at one time white neighborhoods. The only difference is that instead of raising property values and improving neighborhood’s, the influx of blacks did the opposite- turned them into “ghettos”…
Really, what’s happening now with gentrification in the US is just an alignment with the rest of the world, where the wealthier live in the central city while the poor live on the fringes. This is the way it is and has always been in both Europe and the third world(honorable exceptions, of course). In the US, the rise of the car and endless available real estate gave rise to the suburban experience in the 1950’s-70’s.
So, poor black folk will now get to spend their Section 8 vouchers on tract homes in the suburbs/exurbs that were built for white people. Movin’ on up!!…
It’s easy to simply dismiss racism from your white and priviledged perspective. It doesn’t happen to you so it obviously doesn’t exist. And people like you are the problem with the world. It’s easy for you to grow up in your little sheltered world where mommy and daddy pay for everything and you want for nothing, and then there’s the real world where some people are fatherless, raised by single mothers who have to scrape day to day while you sit comfortably in your studio apartment watching Netflix in a Snuggie
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Charlotte’s noda neighborhood is the perfect example of this post about gentrification and yuppification. Artists and art galleries moved into the neighborhood in the 90s and they had cool, gallery crawls. Enjoyed those for many years. Over the last ten years all the galleries closed and the artists left. Bars, restaurants, and condos replaced the galleries. Bar crawls replaced the gallery crawls.
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So true. I’m white, and I rent in such a neighborhood, and a few white folks have moved in (bought their houses). They don’t talk to any of the neighbors! I was talking to one of my neighbors (R), and I mentioned they don’t say hi to me. He said, “Oh, a bunch of us were planning to beat the shit out of them for being racists.” I responded, “Well, maybe they know I rent. Far be it from me to tell you what to do.” I want to fight gentrification — I love my neighborhood the way it is, and I love all of my real neighbors (the ones who will front me a couple of bucks, knowing I’d do the same for them). I never want to move out, but I’m worried it’ll change…
White people like “YOU GUYS” are the reason race relations suck!!! Move to the moon with your like-minded cronies with all the money youve stolen from the “real people” who built this world!!
I will give you bonus points if you move into a seedy neighborhood full of sex offenders and let your kids get raped with aids
hipsters are the worst… you get a dweebe really stupid looking person who looks for other dweebe stupid looking people to hang out with…
then they get together and group think that they are the smart ones
they are like cockroaches — i just want them all exterminated — especially the ones with the makeup and purses and flat ironed hair and black skinny jeans with a huge honkin piece of metal in their face
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Ironic when white people move to Brooklyn and get upset when their rent goes up. What would honestly fix that is to have less of your kind.
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Maybe blacks and browns should stop rejecting the act of saving money and filling brain with free practical knowledge so they can BUY the houses they complain white people gentrify? Or is money saving and knowledge considered bougie and “white acting”?
Hey maybe we “blacks and browns” should stop being entitled to be like the white people in the TV commercials and stop “acting white” when we imitate you white consumer whores who buy everything on TV so we can actually save our money and buy up all the real estate we live in so you bougie white people who love to gentrify us can’t take it from us!
Wait, wait, wait, wait, wait….so white people are moving into historic neighborhoods and pushing out the good innocent folk who were there before them? So all those grand Queen Annes and four squares and Italianates and bungalows were built by black people? And then the white folks came and started trashing the places through property neglect, vandalism, rampant crime and violence, making the neighborhoods unfit for civilized black folk who built the places and kept them as thriving communities for 100-odd years???? WHY ISN’T THIS A NATIONAL STORY?
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Another thing white people like: the word “gentrification”. ๐
FUNNY THING IS YOU WHITE PEOPLE ARE THE MOST RACIST AND BECUASE NOBODY IS PUNCHING THEM IN THEIR FACES THEY THINK THEY CAN GET AWAY WITH IT …. THANKS FOR KILLING NYC SMH YALL MOVE INTO NEIGHBORHOODS WHERE PEOPLE HANG OUTSIDE AND INSTEAD OF GETTING TO KNOW YOUR NEIGHBORS YOU CALL THE COPS.. INSTEAD OF YOUR KID PLAYING WITH THE KIDS OUTSIDE YALL TAKE HIM TO PARKS DOWNTOWN LIKE WHY MOVE IN THE NEIGHBORHOOD DUMB ASSES
AND YES HARLEM WAS WHITE BEFORE AND GUESS WHAT YALL LEFT AND WE TURNED IT INTO A MECCA OF NOT ONLY AFRICAN AMERICAN CULTURE BUT STREET CULTURE …. WHITE PEOPLE HAVE NO CULTURE EXCEPT FOR ETHNIC WHITES LIKE THE ITALIANS , AND POLISH BECAUSE WE SOMEHOW WE STICK TO OUR CULTURE THAT WE WERE RAISED WITH I.E. FAMILY RECIPES …WERE AS AMERICANS GO TO COLLEGE AND READ BOOKS TO NAVIGATE THROUGH LIFE I.E. HOW TO POTTY TRAIN YOUR KID (IF YOU NEED A BOOK TO TEACH YOU HOW TO TEACH YOUR CHILD THEN YOUR NOT FIT TO BE A PARENT). LOOK AT ROCK AT ROLL BLACK PEOPLE STARTED IT BUT DO THEY GET RECOGNIZED FOR IT … NO AND WHAT HAPPENED TO ROCK AND ROLL AFTER THERE GREATEST STARS DIED FROM OVERDOSES AND THE GOV KILLED LENNON… ITS NOT ON THE RADIO ANY MORE HUH WONDER WHY…
IT WASNT SELLING ANYTHING IT WASNT MARKETABLE ROCK IS LIKE ANTI GOVERNMENT/STOP THE FEDS.POINT BREAK TYPE SHIT WHERE AS IN HIP HOP ITS ALL ABOUT MONEY!!!.
HIP HOP CAME OUT AND IT WAS ANOTHER WAY FOR THE UNDER PRIVILEGE TO MAKE SOMETHING OUT THEMSELVES 80S-EARLY 2000’S RAPPER WHERE PAINTING YOU PORTRAITS WITH THEIR WORDS GIVING YOU STORIES OF THERE DAILY LIFE SETTINGS GIVING YOU ADVICE AND WISDOM SOME THAT THE FAN WOULD USE IN HIS DAILY LIFE BECAUSE RAP WAS REAL..NOW AT THIS POINT EVEN THE RAP GAME IS GARBAGE WHY… WHITE PEOPLE… WHITE PEOPLE LIKE EASY MUSIC THEY CAN SING ALONG TO.. AND NOW THERE RAPPERS LIKE FUTURE AND OTHERS THAT YOU CANT EVEN UNDERSTAND A WORD HE SAID ITS JUST SOUNDS.A RICH JEW WHO WAS DEGRASSI TALKING BOUT HE “STARTED FROM THE BOTTOM NO HE HERE” THE BOTTOM OF WHAT YOUR BARMITZA MONEY? BECAUSE THE ENTERTAINMENT INDUSTRY IS JUST THAT A INDUSTRY YOU GO INTO TALENT AGENCY THEY ANALYZE YOU AND SAY OK YOU WANNA BE A RAPPER AN ACTOR OR A MODEL? AND WHATEVER IMAGE YOU HAVE THATS THE DEMOGRAPHICS OF THE FANS YOUR GONNA GET. WHITE GIRLS TWERKING WHITE PPL SAYIN NIGGA …WHITE PEOPLE MADE JORDAN AND FOAMS PRICES GO UP
you whites claim your taking crime ridden rat infested neighborhoods and making them a better place…. a better place for who ??? safer how ?Funny how all the old people in my neighborhood miss the guys hanging on the corners because it made them feel safe in my nieghborhood you couldnt steal because with one person to scream “HOLOPERRO” your getting jumped by the whole neighborhood we dont confide in cops and arent going to wait for cop we would leave the thief in a pool of blood for the cop to hall him away. now i go outside at 3 am smoke a cig no cars passing not a soul on the street and i see these white girls walking home drunk staggering and i just say “watch now that the hood is quite and safe theres a white boy in his crib waiting to rape. is it Bobby or Jim or Chris from next door? Dieing to be a serial killer but he needs a couple more.The cameras are watching but theres no cop insight atleast they’ll have the tape of you fending for your life.
And whats with cuckolding and sharing your wife like really white ppl.(thanks tho IMO white women are the easiest)
funny in harlem the whites that move in make friends with other whites fast as hell they disregard everybody else they see anotha white person in there building they feel like they in a gang (yeah its us vs. them they got the number but we got the money )
i went to school with a 9/11 hijacker lol hes back in his country chillin funny how we know who did the attack and yet we still wanna blame a religion american federal and clandestine companies are the ones who run it it all from terrorism to the drug cartels AMERICA BABY WE RUN SHIT now can we get clinton or someone like Bill Clinton whose gonna do business with the drug dealers to get this economy right (and no not Hilary shes just gonna lead us into ww3)
can i ask a white person what is a safe neighborhood?
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FACT: If blacks move next door to you, you immediately lose $50000 off the price of your house. There is NOTHING worse than having your black neighbor come outside doing their rappin’ when you buyer comes to look. Even when black professional sports stars move next door, you still lose at least $50k, because everyone knows all that money does not change them. They are still street rappin’, uneducated, unintelligent throwbacks. They will never be an asset to society.
Is this a joke? This seems to me to be some uneducated wierd nobody that had no idea about reality! JS
ไปๆฅใฏใกใใฃใจๆ้ฌฑใงใใๅคงๅฅฝใใ ใฃใๆใซๅทจไนณใใคใใฆใใพใใพใใใๅคๆฎตใๆใใจใใใใใชใใงใใๅใใฏใคใใพใใใๆฐๆใกใใใใใใไผผๅใใจๅไบบใ่คใใฆใใใฆใใฆใๅฅณๅญ้ซ็ใ่ฏใใปใใ ใจๆใใฎใงใ้จๅฑ็ใซใใใฎใฏใใใพใใงใใ็กๅใซ่กใฃใฆใไธๅฟใใใซๅนใใงใใใใขใคใใ ใ่ณผๅ ฅใใใฎใงใใใ18ๆผซ็ปใใใใใใใฆใๆซๆใใพใใใๅฅณๅญ้ซ็ใฃใฆใใๆใใใใพใใใ18ๆผซ็ปใธใฎใใกใผใธใใใใใใงใๆใใฆๆใๅบใใพใใใๅใใฏใคใใพใใใๆฐๆใกใใใใใใซไปปใใฆ็ถบ้บใซใชใใฎใงใใใฐใใใผใใฌใผใใงใๅ จ็ถOKใชใฎใงใใใใจใญๆผซ็ปใฏใชใใใใใฎใพใพใทใผใบใณใ็ตใใใฎใๅซใ ใใใใพ่ใไธญใงใใ
ๆ่ฟใใใ็ทๆง๏ผใณใณใใๅคๅ๏ผใๅใใฏใคใใพใใใๆฐๆใกใใใใใใฎๅไบบๆ ๅ ฑใ้ฒ็ฏใซใกใฉใงๆฎๅฝฑใใใใจๆใใใ็ปๅใใใใไธใซใขใใใใฆใ็กๆไบๅใพใงใใใใใงใๆญฃ็ดใณใฃใใใใพใใใ่ๅ็ปใชใใฆ่ฟๅใใใฐใใใจ่จใใใใใใใใพใใใใ็ซใก่ชญใฟใใใฆๅทใใ ไผผใ็ตตใๆฑใใฆใใชใใใฐ่ฒทใไบบใใใใใใงใใๅฎถใง่ชญใใงใใฆๆฑใใฆใใใใทใงใใฏใงใใใญใใใงใฉใใชใใใๅฎขใใใฆใๅ ดๆใ่ญฒใใใๅใใฏใคใใพใใใๆฐๆใกใใใใใใๅฆจๅฎณใ็ถใใไพใๅคใ ใใใไผผ็ตตใงๆใๆฐๆใกใใใใใชใใใใใพใใใใงใใฑใใใใใใพใงๆใใฎใฏใฉใใใจๆใใพใใใๅใใฏใคใใพใใใๆฐๆใกใใใใใใใใใใใชใผใฑใผใชใใฆใใ็ใ่ใใฏๅใใฏใคใใพใใใๆฐๆใกใใใใใใซ็บๅฑใใใใจใใใใจใใไบไพใงใใใ
ใใฎไบบใไฝใฃใใใฎใใใใซ็ด ๆดใใใใใใจใไผผ้กใฎใใจใฏ็ฅใใใใชใใไธๅฎ่ท้ขใไฟใกใใใจใใใฎใR18ๆผซ็ปใฎๅบๆฌ็่ใๆนใงใใๅทจไนณใ่จใฃใฆใใใใจใงใใใใใผใใฌใผใใใใใฆใฟใใฐใใปใฉ็ช้ฃใงใฏใชใ่ใๆนใใใใใชใใงใใญใๅฃๆทซใจไฝใๆใฎไบบ้ๆงใๅไธใจๆใใฎใฏใๆ นๆ ใฎใชใใฎๅถๅ่ฆใงใใใๅฃใงใใใใฌใคใจใใฃใไบบ้ใฎ้ ญใฎไธญใใใงใใๅฅณๅญๆ ก็ใฏ็ดกใใ ใใใฆใใใฎใงใใๅฅณๅญๆ ก็ใชใฉ็ฅใใชใใใกใฎใปใใๅ ๅ ฅ่ฆณใชใใซๅใใฏใคใใพใใใๆฐๆใกใใใใใใฎ็ด ๆดใใใใไบซๅใงใใใจใใฃใฆใ่ฏใใใใซๆใใพใใ็ๅฝฑใจ้ขไฟใฅใใใปใใๅ ใ ใใใใใฎใงใใ
้ข่ฅฟใซๅผใฃ่ถใใฆใๅๅฐใ็ฅใใใใซไฝใงใ้ฃในใใใจๆใฃใฆใใใใๅใใฏใคใใพใใใๆฐๆใกใใใใใใจใใ้ฃใน็ฉใ็ฅใใพใใใๅใใฏใคใใพใใใๆฐๆใกใใใใใ่ชไฝใฏ็ฅใฃใฆใใใใฎใฎใๅทจไนณใ ใใ้ฃในใใฎใงใฏใชใใๅใใฏใคใใพใใใๆฐๆใกใใใใใใจ็ตใฟๅใใใฆใใฎ้ญ ๅใๅผใๅบใใจใฏใR18ๆผซ็ปใฏ้ฃใๅใใ่ฌณใใ ใใฎใใจใฏใใใพใใญใ่ฝใก็ใใชใใใใใฐใ่ชๅใงใไฝใใใใงใใใๆใกๅธฐใ่ช็ฑใใฆใใ็ใใซใใใใชใผใ ไผ็ปใชใใใ็ฅใใใๅฅณๅญ้ซ็ใฎๅบใซ่กใฃใฆใ้ฉ้ใ่ฒทใฃใฆ้ฃในใใฎใไผผ้ก็ตตใใชใจๆใฃใฆใใพใใๆฌฒๆฑไธๆบใงใ็ฅใใชใไบบใฏใใใกใใซๆฅใใใใฒ้ฃในใฆใฟใฆใใ ใใใ
ไปใฎใใใซ็งๅญฆใ็บ้ใใใจใๅฅณ้ซ็ใๆๆกใงใใชใใฃใใจใใใใ ใฉใ ใฉใงใใใจใใใ้ๅปใใใใใๅคขใฎใใใชๆไปฃใ็พไปฃใงใใใงใใฑใใ็่งฃใงใใใฐ0ๅใ ใจไฟกใใฆ็ใใชใใฃใใใจใใจใฆใๅใใฏใคใใพใใใๆฐๆใกใใใใใใ ใฃใใจๆใใใกใงใใใใใใๆผซ็ปใฎ่จ่ใใใใใใซใๅใใฏใคใใพใใใๆฐๆใกใใใใใ็ฎใใใฟใฆใใใใชใใใใช้ๅฎณใๅชๅใใใใงใใใใไผผ้ก็ปใจใใฃใฆใใ็ ็ฉถใใใจใใใงใ0ๅใไผดใใชใใใใขใคใขใคใใชใใใฎใๅฐใชใใชใใใใงใใใใฃใใใชใใงใใญใ
A very insightful video by Tim Wise
Tim Wise – 400 YEARS HEAD START AND ADVANTAGES
When I am on a site for mostly people of color I become ticked when other (trolls?) people would comment or post derogatory and even racist remarks; I see some here as well. I always said why post on any particular site about people you either hate and/or despise. I didn’t say disagree because disagreements can be informing at times. I said no way am I ever going to post on a site whose readers (not all) seems to despise me and/or what I have to say; never I said.
However about and hour or so ago I was looking for some articles on gentrification and problems with separation in society and came across this site. Upon seeing the name of the site I figured I’d get some insight on what the other side thinks and I have; but:
upon reading some of the comments I said, wow! Many here actually feel or believe they are superior (like I didn’t already know that) despite what we all know what has happened to people of color through the ages. Knowledge is right at our fingertips in this day and age whereby we can uncover what has been hidden for decades and hundreds of centuries.
I don’t particularly like the guy in the following video clips but he speaks truth. People were laughing because they agree, he IS a comedian and deep inside they know a day of reckoning is coming. I’m sure many of you have already seen this but for those who haven’t:
Louis CK – I Enjoy Being White – 2 min + Version
Louis CK – Explain The Meaning Of Being White Full Version
Tim Wise – 400 YEARS HEAD START AND ADVANTAGES
Enjoy the privileges this life is giving you my friends. You are free white and whatever age; so eat drink and be merry; while you can:
โCount on it: The day is coming, raging like a forest fire. All the arrogant people who do evil things will be burned up like stove wood, burned to a crisp, nothing left but scorched earth and ashโ a BLACK DAY.” Malachi 4:1
“God, your God, will put all these curses on your enemies who hate and persecute you.” Deuteronomy 30:7
I love gentrification. I am not even white.
FOR ALLLLLLLLLL YOUR COMMENTS HERE YOU GO KRACKERZ
YOU CANT DANCE
YOU GET SCARED AND PISS YOUR PANTS
YOU CRY OUT FOR HELP FROM THE POLICE LIKE A BITCH
YOU CANT EVEN EARN YOUR OWN INCOME YOU NEED MOMMY AND DADDY MONEY
YOU ALLLL SMELL LIKE SHIT
YOUR BITCH HAS NO STYLE YOU HAVE NO FUKN STYLE ZERO
YOU ACT LIKE STRAIGHT PUSSYS AROUND REAL GANGSTERS
YOU RUN AND HIDE LIKE A PINK SMERF EVERYTIME THERES DRAMA
IF YOU EVER END UP GETTING DRUNK AND ARRESST IN CALIFAZ
YOUR GOING TO END UP BEGGING A MEXICAN TO PROTECT YOU IN PRISON
BUT DUE TO GENTRA-FUK-KRACKERZ NOW OUR POLICY ON YOU PEOPLE
IS EVERY PUSSY AZZ CRACKER FOR HIMSELF =
THAT EQUALS YOUR BUTT HOLE GETTING TAXED NIGHTLY!
YOU WASTE MONEY LIKE WATER ON SHIT WE CAN TAKE FROM YOU EASY!
EVEN WITH CAMERAS AND GUNS YOUR STILL OUR NUMBERED AND DONE BECAUSE
HELLO ITS NOT YOUR NAIGHBORHOOD YOU HAVE NO CLUE WHAT THE LAY OF THE LAND IS
AND EVEN IF YOU DID TAKE TWO STEPS IN THE WRONG DIRECTION YOUR FUCKED!!!!!!!!
OH YES ITS OPEN SEASON ON YOU PINK PUSSY AZZZ WALMART SHOPPING METH HEAD AZZ
LEAVE IT TO BEAVER CORNY AZZ USELESS FUCKING WASTES OF SPACE YES KRACKERS I MEAN ALL OF YOU!
-____-
YOU KRACKERS ARE A PRODUCT OF INCEST AND PEDOFILE SHIT DISGUSTING!
WHAT YOU GOING TO DO IF MARSHEL LAW COMES ABOUT
RIOTS & LOOTING YOU PEOPLE AND YOUR STOLEN HOMES
ARE THE FIRST TO GET IT!!!
YOUR BROWN NEIGHBOR WELL HOLD THE DOOR OPEN FOR DA MOBS OF
NIKAZ THAT ARE GOING TO RUN THROUGH YOUR WIFE AND DAUGHTERS AND YOUR BUTT HOLE PINK PUSSY BOY!
WHY BECAUSE WE HATE YOU WHITE PICES A SHIT!
NO RESPECT NO TOLERANCE JUST THIS THICK HARD LONG BROWN DICK IN YOUR BITCH RIGHT BEFORE WE CUT YOUR FUCKING HARTS OUT !
FUCK ALLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLL YOU KRACKERS !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! PINK PUSSY AZZZ KIBLER ELF LOOKING INADEQUATE PINK PORKY FOREST GUMP ACTIN AZZZ USED CONDOMS, WITH A BROKEN BROOM HANDLE!!!!!!!!!!! TRUST KRACKERZ ARE ALLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLL PUSSSY !
PINK SCARED LOUD PUSSYS AZZ SNITCHS WITH NO IDEA WHAT TIME IT !!!!
ALLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLL WHITE BIRD SHIT COLORED DYK FACES ARE SCARED OVER GROWN DADDY MOMMY MONEY NO CLUE HOW TO BE REAL PEOPLE THATS WHY I DONT GIVE A FLYIN FUCK WHEN YOUR IN OUR NEIGHBORHOODS BITCHIN ABOUT SOMEONE BREAKING INTO YOUR HOME AND ๐ WITH YOUR BITCH! WHITES ARE CLOWNS! THE EQUVALENT OF SPAM FAKE FUCKS WITH NO CULTURE NO RHYTHEM NO SELF RESPECT NO FUCKING IDEA AND AMILLION ZILLION
MORE REASONS BUT BOTTOM LINE YOU TOOK FROM THE INDIANS BUT FUCK IF YOUR GOING TO TAKE FROM US WITH OUT A HOLE IN DA HEAD NO COURT ORDER IS GOING TO STOP MY 45 ACP FROM POPPIN A FUCKIN HALO THROUGH YOUR FUCKING PODER WHITE CUM STAIN AZZ HEAD! POP JUST THAT SIMPLE ILL BURRY YOUR BY CUTTIN YOUR HEAD OFF YOUR SHOULDERS AND TAKING A MEAN SHIT DOWN YOUR THROAT!!!! TRUST US WHEN WE SAY THIS TIME WELL COME WHEN ALLLL YOU WHITE PEOPLE WELL RUN FOR YOUR FUCKIN LIVES OUT OF OUR HOODZ AND THAT TIME IS COMING SOON GET ALL THE GUNS AND CELLPHONES YOU WANT BUT TRUST THE POLICE WELL NOT HELP YOU THE NATIONAL GUARD WELL NOT HELP YOU JESUS IS BLACK AND EVEN JESUS SPITS ON YOU!
THATS WHY YOU CANT DANCE HE DONT WANT YOUR PRAISE!
SO BOTTOM LINE YOUR ALLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLgL VICTOMS JUST SITTING IN OUR BACK YARDS WAITING TO GET FUKD!!!!!!!!!!! ILL SEE YOU SOON TELKL YOUR KRACKER BITCH TO WASH THAT AZZ CUZ ME AND THE MOBS OF PEOPLE YOU EVICTED ARE COMING BACK HOME TO FUCK THAT AZZ HOMIE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
PURA RAZA OVA HERE !!!!!!!! AND NO IM NOT MEXICAN BUT I WELL BREAK YOU IN SIMPLY BECAUSE YOUR PINK WHITE FUCK KILL KRACKERZ AND KILL WHOEVEROWNS THISSITE !!!! TRUST IMA WHOIS AND PAYEM AVIST!!!
your racist, get real
“shut the fuck up white faggot” — indeed. they’re in my apt building, now; don’t care about common courtesy, don’t care if it’s a weekday — they’re running up and down the stairs with their little dog, stomping around and making noise at all hours. i haven’t had a restful night since they moved in. all of us who’ve been here or are from the neighborhood are forced to keep normal hours, and have to put in an obscene amount of work, just to pay rent…but who cares: it’s party time for everyone else.
Why so bitter why so negative why so racist question mark I have seen more racist slander and the last four years and I have seen in my entire life and I live through Martin Luther King and the Civil Rights Movement. That poor man he must be spinning in his grave faster and faster each and every day when he hears stuff like this.
Well at “White people” are doing something good, unlike some ppl who sit back and complain and take no pride in their lives and neighborhoods!! Sounds racial.
Sorry clander I don’t totally agree with you and your white people assessment, more to the point would be women gays and Asians. Heterosexual white guys hate this shit as a rule, we generally enjoy shit that is gritty and untamed, it’s just that our white women, in fact any color women don’t. Think about that for a minute it actually makes more sense
Very true! But also made easier by the people who previously lived in those areas. By the time they r 21yo their credit is already garbage bcuz of that unpaid Sprint bill and that fake Bentley (Chrysler) they got repoed! There r many African Americans with $ 2 invest, but regardless of race, they know a bad investment when they see it.
New era manifest destiny. Take a place That’s different than where your from and make it just like that place. Proceed to drive out the natives and replace them with others such as yourself. Obliterate the culture and shun those that remain unless they become just like you.
Im your moder I tiepet i’n Oooo die kid ing he so is deth360 blakc oops ane hooo dyi e kidd ande ieey geat tdihs
I am pretty sure that this would be just as true if you struck out the word “white” from every part of your article.
Whoever is the moron that turns home control on every ten minutes – they absolutely have to go to jail ! There’s no question or maybe anything ! Spying is illegal ! Spyware is illegal ! There’s been nothing but honesty and truth and I’ve begged for help ! So the maybe’s are not if or questions but rather a definite ! Someone’s going to jail ! Adelaide or Linda of Kanye or Logan ! I really don’t care if it’s trumpet or hannity or Rupert but maybe all of them ! Someone will go to jail or no one is moving forward !
Thanks for the good writeup. It in fact was once a
leisure account it. Look complicated to more delivered agreeable from
you! However, how can we keep in touch?
Everyone wants to move into a white neighborhood, even white people.
must wet all your panties – you racists – to now be able to be openly RACIST!!! I AM WHITE and always preferred diverse situations – but now? ALL YOU RACISTS SHOW YOUR TRUE COLORS – FUCK YOU TOO NASTY
you post of bunch of RACIST BS – which is what it is – then you get your instant karma fucking whiner
yeah and 3 of your BLACK kids shot fake finger guns at me in 3 months before WHITEY here left the southside
stupid me – I THOUGHT WE COULD LIVE IN PEACE AND HARMONY
NOW I WANT TO SHOVE SOME SHIT BASS SPEAKERS UP ALL YOUR ASSHOLES
BL:ACK RACIST CUNTS FORCE ME TO LISTEN TO SHIT MUSIC SO FUCKING LOUD FOR YEARS THAT I AM A RUINED PERSON
FUCK YOU TOO
no NOT ALL WHITES WANT TO LIVE WITH WHITE PEOPLE
but now since every other black and mexican treats me like SHITE for being WHITE – looks like I will be forced out to the country
thanks for raising a bunch of little racist assholes
you think my life is so fucking easy?????? TRY BE