What do you think?
Rate this book
African Americans and Gentrification in Washington, D.C.
This book uses qualitative data to explore the experiences and ideas of African Americans confronting and constructing gentrification in Washington, D.C. It contextualizes Black Washingtonians’ perspectives on belonging and attachment during a marked period of urban restructuring and demographic change in the Nation’s Capital and sheds light on the process of social hierarchies and standpoints unfolding over time. African Americans and Gentrification in Washington, D.C. emerges as a portrait of a heterogeneous African American population wherein members define their identity and culture as a people informed by the impact of injustice on the urban landscape. It presents oral history and ethnographic data on current and former African American residents of D.C. and combines these findings with analyses from institutional, statistical, and scholarly reports on wealth inequality, shortages in affordable housing, and rates of unemployment. Prince contends that gentrification seizes upon and fosters uneven development, vulnerability and alienation and contributes to classed and racialized tensions in affected communities in a book that will interest social scientists working in the fields of critical urban studies and urban ethnography. African Americans and Gentrification in Washington, D.C. will also invigorate discussions of neoliberalism, critical whiteness studies and race relations in the 21st Century.
194 pages, Hardcover
First published November 1, 2013
1 person is currently reading
29 people want to read
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 of 1 review
June 20, 2019
As gentrification becomes a stronger issue both in KCMO and KCK I have decided to use this ethnography with my HL IB Anthro kids this year - hopefully it goes well and we can add it to the SL curriculum the following year!
Prince uses her personal experience growing up in DC, along with extensive interviews and participant observation to study the impacts of gentrification on African Americans who have lived in "Chocolate City" for generations. She reveals the impacts of neoliberal policies that see cities as much colonists saw Africa and the Americas - underdeveloped places waiting for them to swoop in with their lofts, coffee shops, bike paths and dog parks to the rescue - forgetting that there are people who already live there. The people who already live there wonder why better streets and sewers and policing come only when the White Folks move in, but also wonder why the White Folks who move in don't say hi to them, don't talk to them before they call the cops on them, why they let their dogs poop on their church lawns.
Prince's language is often a little too academic for my high school students but I think what she has to say is worth the time it will take to for me to help them through it - and is sprinkled with enough interviews and stories to keep their interest. I think my students will hear parallels when they listen to their grandparents talk about the Sumner High that was the segregated Black High school in Kansas (what is now our public college prep magnet school) with great fondness - just like the older residents of Chocolate City Prince interviews talk with great fondness about the days they remember of a mostly segregated neighborhood where they were poor, but where neighbors helped each other, knew each other, played cards together, grew up together. I hear this same nostalgia for Sumner High - where the teachers looked like their students, came from the community, had high expectations, worshiped together, and the school was a center point of a tight community. The school was turned into a magnet school more than 40 years ago, but this shift still causes friction in the community. There are only two full grocery stores in the entire county; finally a grocery store is being built in our community - but it is a crunchy expensive all natural foods grocery no one in the neighborhood can afford to shop at - except perhaps the people who will be moving into the new lofts that are being built down the street. . .
Prince talks with community leaders and notes the neoliberal policies that value money over people, money over mental health, money over everything. And that "gentrification is preceded by disinvestment." Policies are put into place by developers and politicians to push existing people out of apartment buildings so they can be converted to condos and lofts. Market-oriented solutions will never solve poverty and housing issues in cities.
Prince uses her personal experience growing up in DC, along with extensive interviews and participant observation to study the impacts of gentrification on African Americans who have lived in "Chocolate City" for generations. She reveals the impacts of neoliberal policies that see cities as much colonists saw Africa and the Americas - underdeveloped places waiting for them to swoop in with their lofts, coffee shops, bike paths and dog parks to the rescue - forgetting that there are people who already live there. The people who already live there wonder why better streets and sewers and policing come only when the White Folks move in, but also wonder why the White Folks who move in don't say hi to them, don't talk to them before they call the cops on them, why they let their dogs poop on their church lawns.
Prince's language is often a little too academic for my high school students but I think what she has to say is worth the time it will take to for me to help them through it - and is sprinkled with enough interviews and stories to keep their interest. I think my students will hear parallels when they listen to their grandparents talk about the Sumner High that was the segregated Black High school in Kansas (what is now our public college prep magnet school) with great fondness - just like the older residents of Chocolate City Prince interviews talk with great fondness about the days they remember of a mostly segregated neighborhood where they were poor, but where neighbors helped each other, knew each other, played cards together, grew up together. I hear this same nostalgia for Sumner High - where the teachers looked like their students, came from the community, had high expectations, worshiped together, and the school was a center point of a tight community. The school was turned into a magnet school more than 40 years ago, but this shift still causes friction in the community. There are only two full grocery stores in the entire county; finally a grocery store is being built in our community - but it is a crunchy expensive all natural foods grocery no one in the neighborhood can afford to shop at - except perhaps the people who will be moving into the new lofts that are being built down the street. . .
Prince talks with community leaders and notes the neoliberal policies that value money over people, money over mental health, money over everything. And that "gentrification is preceded by disinvestment." Policies are put into place by developers and politicians to push existing people out of apartment buildings so they can be converted to condos and lofts. Market-oriented solutions will never solve poverty and housing issues in cities.
Displaying 1 of 1 review