On Wednesday, we began class with my expert question which related to Brown–Saracino’s article about Ithaca. In particular, I wanted to unpack the tension between ambient community and Real Community, but I don’t know if my question was clear/engaging enough. Many members of the queer community in Ithaca claimed that Real Community was lost despite the fact that queer identity was embraced and accepted in Ithaca. American culture privileges an integrationist ideology that many oppressed groups adhere to, but to some degree, this ideology has failed the queer community’s ability to find “Real Community”. I wanted to engage the class by first asking, ‘if the cost of integrationist ideology is real community, then what ends should the American public and minority groups be striving for  when dealing with issues of diversity?’ Perhaps more simply stated, ‘is ambient community enough?’

Honestly, the class discussion started off with a solid couple minutes of awkward silence. The first answer, solicited by Professor Greene, was simply “I don’t know”. I got the sense that most of the class, in fact, did not know. I’m still unsure myself. Lucia brought up that Real Community seemed tied to oppression, or one’s marginalized identity. Real Community was thus a product of such circumstances. This provoked me to ask a follow up question, “Is all [normative] white community ambient community?”.

Ambient Community provided residents of Ithaca with all of their basic needs: Close personal ties, access to community spaces, activity-based ties, a sense of belonging, etc. Queer Resident of Itacha were, however, missing things like community: centers, support groups, a Pride celebration, “Sexy Spaces”, etc. The lack of Real Community seemed to be felt most by newcomers to Ithaca, who were perhaps looking for something different than what they found.

In retrospect, I wish I had used a different quote to engage the class. I think reading Brown–Saracino’s piece was difficult for me because the experience that many of the lesbian women were expressing seemed to be one of privilege… but it feels wrong to say it like that, yet I still don’t have better words to express my confusion. Instead, I wish I had used this quote:

Derek Hyra discusses Black Branding in the Cappuccino City and the emergence of ‘Black’ entertainment, aesthetics, and life conditions  becoming increasingly “trendy and authentic” (Hyra, 11). This was especially true for elements of Black culture associated with crime. To prompt my expert question I borrowed a quote from Hyra which argues, “The relationship between authenticity and Blackness is related to the stereotypical association of Blackness with poverty, danger, and excitement, which in turn symbolizes contemporary subtle racism. I consider this a form of subtle racism, compared to the past, when people would not move into a Black community due to blatant racism” (Hyra, 101).

In the class discussion I wanted to focus on the concept of “subtle racism”. Frankly, I feel as though subtle racism is structural force tantamount and interconnected with economic forces that people use to explain gentrification. After all, American racism in it’s conception was quite economic, and continues to be to this day in many ways. Hyra even makes an economic argument as he connects blatant racism with white flight, a widespread occurrence with clear economic consequences. Is it then far fetched, or even radical, to suggest that perhaps even the most rational economic decisions which lead individuals to consume in historically black spaces might constitute some degree of racism? Hear me out.

Hyra begins chapter four, Black Branding, with a short review of blockbusting, and the impact it had on neighborhood home values. White flight left homes across American cities to be filled by hopeful Black residents and potential homeowners, but Blacks were forced to pay higher costs for ownership and rent. Once Blacks could finally move into these spaces, disinvestment followed irregardless of the particular cultures of a neighborhood, thus contributing to the urban decay of American cities for the past several decades. Finally, this process comes full circle once many of these communities have bottomed out, and property values begin to sky rocket in large part due to fetishization of black criminality and poverty OR a romanticization of the most palatable parts of Black history such as Black Broadway. The whole arc of the gentrification story feels highly racialized and racist to me, but as a class we were quite hesitant to take a stance on my main question: does the current phenomenon of black branding and diversity segregation constitute subtle racism?

With little social cohesion between new and old residents, the undeniable racialized economics of urban development and the popularity of Black Branding, subtle racism as a structural force seems difficult to deny. Of course, there are class elements too, and I do not mean to diminish these explanations. I instead hope to deepen our understanding of the economic explanation by supplementing it with the notion of subtle racism. Why are American tastes such that Blackness drives the flow of economic capital? What was the context that allowed for certain spaces to become so lucrative for investment? Finally, who/what are we rewarding with our consumption habits as members of the emerging creative class?

I’m not employing subtle racism here to wave a condescending finger at white peers. It’s bigger than that, and I think we’re all implicated in it — myself included. I also don’t want to place ‘value’ judgement on this phenomenon, nor anyone’s role in it. Bushwick is getting gentrified in this very moment whether anyone likes it or not. I do however think its important that we all recognize and admit what’s happening here. It’s less about individuals, and more about actions and their connection to societal, structural mechanisms. Sometimes nothing is worse than naïveté employed to preserve a sense of innocence. This goes for anyone and everyone.

“It is not permissible that the authors of devastation should also be innocent. It is the innocence which constitutes the crime.” – J. Baldwin, My Dungeon Shook