Within the creative class we have seen a trend towards entering the service industry. This discussion was fruitful and brought up many thought provoking ideas as to why this may be occuring in the present day. One idea that resonated with me personally was that these highly educated millenials are going into cities and taking the jobs that some people of the lower classes depend on. I believe there are two ways to go about thinking of this comment.

In one way we can see that these highly educated people are not actually taking these jobs, but are really working in a different job market. What the creative class does is that they enter into a place that is up-and-coming and they create new businesses that are ultimately more succesful than the businesses they are driving out. This is creating competition, but these more high-end businesses are in a different sector than the lower priced ones. If a person wants to get an artisan brewed beer in the city, than there is a place for them. If somebody wants to go to a cheaper bar than there is also a place for them. The places serving the more wealthy by virtue must employ people with more cultural capital. This means they need people with college degrees and the ability to associate and align with the wealthy class that they are serving.

To oppose this thought we can also see it from the side of those beign driven out of their business and community. With this new class coming in and gentrifying the area they are not only losing their livelihood, but also the place they live. With increasing prices of living the ability to feel comfortable in this neighborhood is impossible and thus they move out to somewhere cheaper and once again underserved. This is not seen as simple competition within the urban context, but an attack on the lives that they used to live. When we bring in the idea of Black Branding we can see how trying to celebrate the formerly black poplus can be even more offensive. This place was taken from a people and now the new populus is attempting the culture that was formerly there.

Although gentrification is often a very negative subject we can attempt to think about how this can create new walks of life and improve the urban environment within America. By pumping money into American cities we can see more wealth being developed and created in the city. At the same time due to the nature of Capitalism there must be a group that gets the short end of the stick and loses. For most examples those that lose are ethnic minorities. Will there ever be a time when these groups will have oppurtunities to not just break even within the American system, but to actually excel? Only time can tell us this answer.

Throughout our discussion of Hyra’s idea of Black Branding we can see how this attempt to steryotype a groups culture can have many negative effects on a group. Within the Shaw/ U Street neighborhood we can see how the current majority white populus has tried to establish certain aspects of black culture in the neighborhood without keeping some of the most important aspects. Artisitic pieces have been created such as murals and statues that celebrate the neighborhoods African-American past, but is this only a front to hide how much this neighborhood has changed?

After giving the idea of black branding much thought it is difficult what to think of it. On one hand it appears to be very racist. Taking the pieces of ones culture that an outsider deems the most important and worth celebrating does not seem like a fair or even excusable idea. On the other hand I can also see this as a form of attempting to understand another groups culture. By working with figures in the community who have experienced the culture within that place a group may be able to truly understand the culture of the people they are trying to “celebrate”.

Ultimately what this has come down to in my eyes is a question of effort on the part of those who want to brand places they are taking over. Are those who are appropriating culture actually trying to understand this culture or do they just want to not look bad for coming into a place and discplacing another ethnic group? This is not something only seen in the Shaw/ U Street, but it is a trend that can be identified across the country in many cultural realms. Take for example music. For those who are not black that listen to rap music is this for pure enjoyment of a musical genre, or is this to understand the “struggle” that black people go through in their daily lives? If it is for the latter, why is this the form of culture that is so accessible and easiest to see? Why is it deemed that this is the “authentic” form of culture that people see and not all of the other forms of culture? This would be like me listening to screamo rock music and generalizing to say that all white people must be like this because this is a majority white music genre.

To wrap up this thinking I want to propose a question. How is it that Black Branding is accurate, but also destructive to a culture? This helps me to understand our discussion of the idea. It is very helpful because it gives people a picture into the way that some black people do live their lives. The keyword here is “some” as not all black people live in this way. Not every black person living in an urban environment is walkign around with guns shooting anybody they can, but at the same time not every black person is living as a new age renaissance. In reality most black people in the city are living somewhere in the middle trying to establish themselves as people within a society that has left them uncared and underserved for generations.