Gentrification: More Than An Innocent Movement Of Urban Renewal Understanding The Phenomenon Of Black Gentrification As A Mechanism For Black Resurgence

Abstract

This project is an original research paper centered on examining the process of gentrification in the urban centers of the United States, and moreover, exploring the role of people of color in this process. Can people of color gentrify? How is Black gentrification different from the overall process of gentrification? While traditional gentrification as perpetuated by white people is both a classist and racist process that involves the displacement of racial and ethnic minorities, a revival of the historic and exclusive dynamics of racial segregation, and the commodification of diverse cultures, Black gentrification follows a completely different set of trends. As a means of urban transformation, Black gentrification is motivated by the Black middle-class's desire to escape racism in the larger white world, build a stronger connection and sense of solidarity with the Black community, and reinvest into Black spaces. Furthermore, Black gentrification follows a model centered on a social justice agenda that limits displacement of lower-income Black people while maintaining the economic diversity of the community. Because of the glaring differences between these processes, I argue that Black gentrification is actually a distinct and unique process that does not mirror the same exclusionary and racist mechanisms as traditional gentrification. And as a result, this process should not be labeled Black gentrification at all, but rather a new theory called Black Resurgence. The conflation of Black Resurgence to traditional gentrification is a dangerous and irresponsible comparison that undermines the truly oppressive nature of gentrification carried out by white gentrifiers. Resurgence represents a coming to life, a sort of revival; this is exactly what is happening in these newly gentrified epicenters of Black life.