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gentrification

  • How Gentrification Destroys Black Voting Power

    Remember when the nation’s capital was so black that Parliament Funkadelic nicknamed Washington, D.C., “Chocolate City”? Maybe you’re old enough to remember when California’s Bay Area was so black that it birthed the Black Panthers and everyone knew what Sir Mix-a-Lot meant when he rapped about an “Oakland booty.” If you’re too young for that,…

    By

    Michael Harriot

    Published

  • Iron Fist Is Too Annoyingly And Inappropriately White To Be Any Good

    Iron Fist, for all intents and purposes, is televised gentrification pre-equipped with its own heroin addiction. It is painstakingly everything I hate about Williamsburg, Austin, San Francisco, and anywhere else hipsters meet & breed like drugged addicted rabbits in chinos. Honestly, I can break down many issues with the show like this without spoilers: It’s…

    By

    Joel Philip

    Published

  • The Man Behind the Viral Letter to His White Neighbors Speaks Out

    On Thursday a Harlem-based resident, Richard Brookshire, 29, became an internet hero when he delivered the clapback to a pair of neighbors who complained that he was too loud in his own apartment. An excerpt: This letter serves a formal response to a note left by you expressing, in no uncertain terms, your intent to…

    By

    The Root Staff

    Published

  • Black Writers Rally to Save Langston Hughes’ Home

    The home occupied by one of the great leaders of the Harlem Renaissance, Langston Hughes, still stands on 127th Street in Harlem today. Hughes used the top floor of the home as his workroom from 1947 to his death in 1967; it was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1982. The current owner,…

    By

    The Root Staff

    Published

  • Can Black People Be Gentrifiers?

    While I was not born in the United States, I spent the bulk of my formative years in Harlem. I went to elementary school on the north end of Amsterdam Avenue and middle school on Convent Avenue. While my mom was still getting comfortable speaking English when I was younger, she found solace in the…

    By

    Shamira Ibrahim

    Published

  • Blake Lively's Gentrified Booty, Explained

    Who is Blake Lively? For a while I thought she was Sienna Miller. Like, I’d see her and say “That’s Sienna Miller in that movie, apparently.” But she’s not Sienna Miller. And she’s definitely not Scarlett Johansson. Are you sure? Yes. So she’s just Blake Lively? Yes. She is just Blake Lively, a person who…

    By

    Damon Young

    Published

  • They Took Brooklyn And They Took R&B, But We Can't Let White People Take Shea Butter Too

    If you were too busy watching Empire last week, you may have missed the story of the “Brooklyn Settler.” A bystander recorded a White fella getting into an altercation with another melanin impaired carpetbagger who apparently pushed a baby stroller into his legs. The Settler offered up some gems that Cortes, Columbus, or the much…

    By

    Brandon Harrison

    Published

  • Explaining White People, Part 1: Why Whites Take Pics Of Other People’s Kids

    TIME Magazine’s vigilant quest to keep White folks in the loop — What does bae mean? …Why do Asians pose with a peace sign in pictures?…Why is the sky blue, why is water wet, why did Judas rat the Romans while Jesus slept? — has inspired us all. That’s why I’ve decided to just tackle the core…

    By

    Natalie Degraffinried

    Published