The headline says it all: “Fear white influx will erase West Oakland history.”[485]
“‘It hurts. I’m not going to say I’m content with this,’ said Leander Muhammed, 34, a third-generation West Oakland resident who runs after-school and sports programs for kids in the neighborhood. ‘Suddenly there’s nonprofits and community gardens on every corner. Community gardens? I don’t get it – my granny was planting collards and tomatoes here for decades. It all seems crazy to me.’”
The history they are talking about is Huey Newton and other thugs killing people and dressing it up in leftist apologetics.
Oakland does have some real history: In World War II, German submarines were slaughtering cargo ships of people and food and equipment headed for the European front. Henry Kaiser figured out how to build one of these ships in 8 days instead of 8 months.
We flooded the ocean with these ships. German subs now had to take greater risks in attacking them. When they did, we ended up sinking more than 750 of them. And won the war.
Aristotle Onassis used these ships to start a shipping empire.
Henry Kaiser -- later, he of Kaiser Permanente fame -- became known as the Henry Ford of shipbuilding. All in the Oakland area.
Now that is history. See if you read about that in any of the articles about the destruction of Oakland history in the local papers.
Other papers are singing the same song.
Or as the Washington Post puts it: White people moving into a black neighborhood means that “a historically disadvantaged people has been disadvantaged once again.” Dr. Cornel West calls it the “New Jim Crow.”[486]
They even have black people in London singing the Gentrification blues.[487] Of all the “problems” in the world, this would be the easiest to solve.
If Spike Lee wanted to stop white and Asian people from moving into black neighborhoods, all he would have to do is make a movie about the truth: Black neighborhoods are a dangerous place for non-black people.
There are lots of stories to choose from: Idealistic young people who want to save the oppressed black people of the world. And the best way they can do that is move into that neighborhood, spread around some of that liberal mojo, and teach the world to sing.
Or whatever.
We’ve already seen in the story about the white woman who found herself released from jail in the middle of the ghetto of Chicago. Shortly after, she was thrown from a seven-story building and suffers permanent brain damages today.
At trial, the City of Chicago was forced to pay the woman’s family $22.5 million because of what a Harvard sociologist called R.A.T."Routine Activities Theory" which says that black people routinely attack white people in black neighborhoods.
And everyone knows that. That is why the city was negligent in releasing her there.
Urban pioneers move into black neighborhoods by design. Not accident. Most do not have small children. And many, many, many of them are surprised at how much time they have to spend fighting crime, fighting violence, fighting trash, fighting mayhem, fighting noise, and fighting people like Spike Lee who make them out to be the bad guys.
But most of all fighting the official indifference to their plight. Black crime is normal. Why fight it.
The urban pioneers thought they were exempt from that news: They are surprised because they also accept the Spike Lee view: White racists have done an enormous amount of damage to black people. To black neighborhoods like the one they just moved into.
But because they are not racists, they think to themselves, they can enter the black neighborhood, open their arms, announce their good intentions, and make right everything that so many white people before them have done so wrong.
They actually think that.
We saw how that turned out for Ray Widstrand in St. Paul.
Or you could ask Cap Black, an anti-crime activist in New Orleans. In the summer of 2014, the Wall Street Journal did a story about how Cap and local talk show how Jeff Crouere led an effort to get the charges dropped against a white homeowner who shot a black burglar.[488]
The initially reluctant District Attorney saw the light when the burglar --whom friends and neighbors say was an angel that was permanently damaged by the gunshot -- was caught burglarizing again.
Now cometh Cap Black with two more stories in just a few days of racial violence in the gentrified hood in July 2014: An art teacher is walking home when a black mob set upon him and beat him. NOLA.com picks up the details:
"I saw what was going to happen, and I ran," (the victim) Brumfield said. "But they had me on the ground before I could get there. They ripped my pants down. They stomped on my feet while I was trying to get away."
He fought back, wielding his house keys. But it didn't help. "They kept dragging me back - into the dark. I thought they were going to kill me," he said. "It was like they had a plan, and I just happened to be the person who walked up. . . . It's the closest thing I've ever felt to true evil."
At one point, he locked eyes with the boy he recognized from now-closed Drew Elementary. "He looked me straight in the eye, and there was nothing there," he said. [489]
And oh yeah, said neighbors, another happened just a few days before. And a few days before. And a few days before that ...
How about a little context on the art teacher from Cap Black: White people in black neighborhoods are targets.
“This moment of White benevolence was moot as they locked eyes during the mass assault. It also graphically illustrates the (often bloody) limits of such benevolence in neighborhoods where it’s a form of masochism.
“Liberal White folks, would-be "urban pioneers," plant their progressive or rainbow colored flags on ground controlled by people who see them as targets, not neighbors or allies against the system. The victim of this recent crime learned this lesson the hardest of all hard ways possible. Racial payback animates these outrages and no amount of progressive double speak or bouts of White Guilt can change this stark fact.”
“Pale skin cannot change this deadly dynamic by osmosis. It's delusional and racist to think otherwise.”
In New Orleans, the neighborhoods near the French Quarter define gentrification. Heck, the whole city is being gentrified following the exodus after Hurricane Katrina. Remember the Mayor who assured black residents they did not have to worry about white people taking over?
He said New Orleans will always be a “Chocolate City.”
Now even the newspapers are having a hard time ignoring the epic levels of black violence in these new racially mixed neighborhoods. From July, 2014: [490]
Will Ford and Tim Swartzentruber said they have lived in the neighborhood for nearly five years, but after being attacked by three gunmen who robbed them Sunday, and hearing the stories of friends and colleagues who have suffered similar fates, they say they no longer feel safe.
"It's really sad, but I'm thinking this might be the last straw," Swartzentruber said. "I hate feeling afraid in my own neighborhood. It's just awful."
Four people were victims of armed robberies or attempted robberies in the Marigny in the week prior to these attacks, according to police reports. An additional three armed robberies were reported in nearby streets in the French Quarter during the same time.
And oh yeah, during the same time, a film director visiting his sick mother made the mistake of thinking he could walk home through this same gentrified area. He was attacked, beaten, taunted, hurt bad.
He waited a month to report it. He did not think anyone would care.
Cap Black is one of the good guys. One of an increasing number around the country who is begging people to open their eyes, because that is the only way we are going to do anything about racial violence.
In Wilmington, Delaware, a group of urban pioneers are trying to reclaim a part of town near Tilton Park. Visitors to the area can see the huge and imposing and newly restored homes surrounding the park.
Visitors to the local Facebook page see something else: Constant st
ruggles with crime and violence and mayhem. Constant dis-interest from the part of the black leaders who run the town.
In the summer of 2014, it came to a head. Here’s what one of the neighbors posted about just one episode:
A group of teenagers stole a homeless man's belongings. They were riding the shopping cart down the sidewalk and jumping out of it.
When a group of us went into the park to stop them they started arguing with us. They ripped their shirts off and started "flexing". As we started to leave they kept threatening us and throwing objects at all of us.
At the same time, my car was sidelined and the person took off.
I called the Police about the accident. As I am on the phone with 911 the kids were still throwing objects at me.
I now told the dispatcher about the fight going on with the group of kids. About 40 minutes later the Police show up. At the same time about 6 of the kids returned and were coming to confront me again.
When the Police arrived the kids ran off. The officer never even received a notice of the fight going on with us.
So I ask again....... how the F'ing hell do we stop this. These damn wannabe gangsta thugs, are untouchable? Because they are "Kids" nothing can be done?
How the hell do I protect my family?!?!?!
How can we hold events in our park when is nothing but daily chaos by the thugs?
This is why I am looking to move.
In the face of this chaos and danger, one of his neighbors posted a link from a liberal think tank to a web site that talked about Dealing with Crime and Disorder in Urban Parks:[491]
“There is usually a police response only when the "problems" in a park have gotten so bad that the public has demanded a visible police reaction,” says the site. “Until there is such a "crisis," the urban park isn't usually a policing priority.”
True that.
Let’s get to the bottom line: “There will always be many diverse and sometimes competing stakeholders, each with their own interests in the policing of an urban park.”
One minute, this urban pioneer was the victim of black mob violence outside his house while he is on the phone with police.
The next, he has been reduced to just one of many diverse and competing stakeholders with different ideas about policing.
I promise you not one of those urban pioneers knew that before they moved in. They thought they were the solution.
Turns out they are the problem. Even their own neighbors think so. Listen to the president of the community group describe the people who are terrorizing his neighborhood:
The kids on our street who are growing up are good at heart but being influenced by some bad ones. That dude with the taser and BB gun who used to live at 1308 is leading them on.
The president of the community group reported on their Facebook page that he walked through the park and the kids seemed nice to him. His solution to the crime and violence and threats: Reach out to the “kids” and ask them to stop. Throw them a barbecue.
Which a lot of people agreed with.
Then city officials broke the news: They would have to share the park with the misunderstood angels who were ruining it and the neighborhood.
There were however, a few group members who did meekly remind the urban pioneers of one thing: Oh yeah, that’s been happening around here a long time.
And of course it still is. But somehow, no one gives a R.A.T. about that.
The City of Wilmington is frequently on a list of most dangerous cities in America. The mayor recently hired a big time economic development consultant who figured it all out: Talking about epic levels of crime and violence and mayhem throughout the city is bad, he said.
It hurts the city’s reputation. So he urged residents to stop talking about it. That way, people who want to bring jobs there might not notice it.
Crime and violence and trash and mayhem: The new normal for the gentrification set.
This is the same city where the previous mayor said he liked young white people who moved to Wilmington from other cities: They did not know enough to be frightened about crime.
In Baltimore, Tracey Halvorsen said she was tired of living in a gentrified neighborhood because she felt as if she were always a target. And she had to borrow a pit bull to walk about the block.
Ditto from D.C.: A reader of White Girl Bleed a Lot moved into a gleaming condo complex in South East Washington, D.C. The black part of town. He and his neighbors never leave at night. They are trapped.
The diverse stakeholders in their neighborhoods have competing ideas about whether the new residents should be victims of constant and vicious racial violence.
Seven years ago in Portland, Oregon, black people were attacking white people riding bikes in black neighborhoods. They still are. The head of a local bicyclist group understood how it was the bikers’ fault. Remember this gem?
And I think any mention of race must also include the realities of gentrification in Northeast Portland. I think there remains resentment in the black community about gentrification…but whether that has to do with bikes and whites is hard to say.
Are bikes somehow symbolic of whites and gentrification to the eyes black community? I’m not sure, but it’s a question I’d like to delve deeper into. It’s certainly obvious that Portland’s cycling population could be more diverse.
Translation: We would like to apologize for forcing you to attack us all the time. And oh yeah: That is still happening today.
Sometimes a news outlet figures it out. Almost. The Daily Caller ran a story in July 2014 about a crowd of “teens” having a nice little riot in Washington, D.C. They figured out half of it: in the headline: Flash Mob Breaks Out in Gentrifying D.C. Neighborhood. [492]
The episode underscores boiling tensions in a neighborhood that— like many inner-city communities across the country— is trying to launch a major“revitalization” project that will see the opening of upwardly-priced new apartment units this summer to accompany a major new chain store.
But the “teens?” Come on, man. At least one of their readers figured it out:
I love these gentrifying neighborhoods, replete with wannabe implants from lily-white suburbs like Shaker Heights, OH, who think the inner city folks are just "misunderstood". It's fun to watch them realize that everything they've been told about the inner city people has actually been true all along.
And of course tons of people pointed this out: ‘Oh yeah, that has been happening here a long time.’
The Daily Caller gave a great review to White Girl Bleed a Lot. Maybe we should get a copy to their reporters.
Back in New York, the Daily News documented a new group of “anti-gentrification warriors” in Brooklyn. Message: Successful white people are bad.[493]
At least one person in New York figured it out: Keeping people out of a neighborhood because of their race sounded familiar:
Anti-Gentrification"....actually means anti-white. As much as I dislike the Hipsters moving into the city, at least they buy up a neighborhood legally, instead of terrorizing them out through criminal violence.
This is what minorities did to make all these areas "theirs" to begin with. Sunset Park wasn't always black, they drove out the white people through violence. Now they claim "their" area is sacrosanct? I wish we could have done that, I loved my old neighborhood, but their criminal behavior drove us out.
Amber Long moved from a small town in Central Pennsylvania to Philadelphia to study architecture. She stayed. Lived in a gentrified neighborhood.
She thought she was immune from the violence around her. That she could ignore it. She was one of the good guys.
In January 2014, she and her mom had just gotten off a bus and were on their way to pick up their car. As they were strolling through the gentrified neighborhood at 11 p.m., two black people drove by in a car and saw them. They turned around, parked, pulled up their hoodies, got out of the car, attacked the two women, and killed Amber. [494]
All on video. Amber�
��s parents told the ABC affiliate:
Their daughter came to Philly to study architecture and was now working at a local architecture firm in the city.
“She moved here to go to school and when she came here for school she loved the city and she stayed. She just wanted to get a job here so she got a job here, she loves Philly,” said Troy Long.
The shrinks call it “infantile omnipotence:” That is how they describe a person who, like an infant in a crib, believes the entire world is safe because her crib is. Sometimes it is fatal.
How many of those stories from gentrified Oakland, Brooklyn, Detroit, Chicago, and Philadelphia do you need? Whatever the number, that is how many there are. The New York Post figured it out in the summer of 2014. They let us eavesdrop on what cops all over the country are really saying about the urban pioneers, in this case, living in Brooklyn:[495]
“All I can say is there should be a sign that reads,‘Buyer beware,’ ” said a police source who works in the area. Another police source said,“A lot of the white folks moving into these areas are from out of state.”
“They walk around as if they own the place . . . then they get robbed.”
“The problem is they’re moving into their beautiful home with all these housing projects around them. That’s where the crime comes from.”
If Spike Lee made a movie about Amber Long, he could stop this whole gentrification thing in a heartbeat.
Spike, have your people call my people.
NABJ Starting with Jacksonville.
Black reporters ignore black mob violence.
Terry Pulliam was flummoxed. This Jacksonville reporter and card-carrying member of the National Association of Black Journalists was on the scene of a riot: 750 black people were fighting, destroying property, stealing, assaulting, rampaging, jumping on cars, laughing, taunting, creating chaos and attacking police at a Jacksonville movie theater and mall.
All on Christmas Day 2013. Terry just could not figure it out.
'Don't Make the Black Kids Angry': The hoax of black victimization and those who enable it. Page 24