In our first year of the podcast, Pam Taylor talked with us about declining Black home ownership. Two years later, we are coming back to the issue from a different angle. The cohesiveness of many Black communities are being destroyed yet again! But this time, it’s through gentrification. Professor Audrey McFarland from the University of Baltimore Law School walks us through how the process of gentrification works. In a sense we are asking Can Black Culture Survive Gentrification?
Black communities are and have been continually under assault through governmental disinvestment and discriminatory so-called urban renewal projects. Urban renewal was a short hand for breaking up Black communities. Disinvestment in Black communities is a chronic problem. Now, communities find themselves in danger of being displaced by gentrification efforts. As Prof. McFarland points out, our communities do want economic development. But, we don’t want that development to erase our cultural centers.
People can disagree on whether gentrification has any positive impact on a community. People being displaced or having the place where they lived turned into a hostile environment by newcomers don’t see the value. But other, mainly financially driven business interests, see net positives when gentrification occurs. However, even when there are positives, the negatives are borne by the people in the community least able to fortify themselves such as elderly home owners and lower income renters. Prof. McFarland helps us think through a way to approach gentrification and also preserve our communities.