was gonna rebut the article calling gentrification a myth but people did that very very well: observer/2015/01/gentrification-may-be-complicated-but-its-not-a-myth-and-neither-is-displacement/ https://commonwealmagazine.org/blog/gentrification-no-myth I might still add my remarks because people use the same argument for why we should not apply our understanding of apartheid to global sub/urban governance, via discriminatory housing, schools, zoning, and prisons, or why we should put the term systematic racism to rest. Neoliberal meritocrats always claiming that theres a lack of clarity in discursive political theory tend to argue the clarity point to a nit-picky a specificity and concrete historicity that is itself mystical. Simply because trends dont repeat with perfect replication everywhere does not mean a phenomenon is no longer measurable or that we cannot conceptualize larger connections. Just because poverty can be measured in 1,000 different ways or wealth can be defined in contentious discursive contexts, does not mean that poverty and wealth are not two vastly distinct experiences or that those experiencing it dont know theyre going through it? Gentrification, though complex, though personal, though politicized is an experience of those who were forced to live in places because majority elites refused to live around them at any cost, then survived by building a community there, and only when the suburban sprawl becomes so expansive, it becomes high supply low demand, and generally uninteresting, folks decide they want to move into the neighborhood they packed you into sardines, but they are still indifferent about your experience to that point, your participation in any revitalization and moreover show an implicit, even if subtle, indifference to your existence. Of course, you would have to listen to first hand accounts and decolonize the narrative position to hear from the position of those people moved as opposed to always hearing from the perspective of those doing the moving. Ultimately, whether the term is apartheid, institutional racism, or gentrification (which are by no means argued into thin air by disavowers in a similar fashion by coincidence), folks need to realize that being tired of hearing a term does not make the word meaningless-- it means you are not prepared to really candidly face what the word means and the implications of the reality to which is corresponds in the world.
Posted on: Wed, 21 Jan 2015 04:53:23 +0000