Author Archives: Isaac Farhi

The Gentrification of NYC

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“Goodbye to the purveyors of gold teeth grills and shea butter body oils. Hello prepackaged salads and slim-fit khakis”. In these two sentences Jeremiah Moss is able to symbolically define the changes that have continued to occur in New York City. The poor people have been driven out and the rich business men continue to flock in. Places that used to have cheap rent have now become part of the most expensive areas to live in. These changes have not only been detrimental to those displaced but also to the city as a whole.

Moss discusses the specifics of the gentrification that has continued to occur in Brooklyn and in Queens as well. He gives many specific examples of areas that have experienced this shift and explains why this occurs. The whole drive behind gentrification is money. As areas become more popular business men jump on the opportunity to profit off of it. Moss also mentions social media’s impact on the process. Social media gets the word out so quickly about these changes. So, people can immediately see what areas are becoming “cool” and start moving their attention to those areas. Next thing you know, rent has been tripled, small restaurants have been replaced with big name eateries and everything is more expensive.

Among the specific places that were changed, Moss highlights Williamsburg and Bedford-Stuyvesant. Both of these areas were occupied by low income families and featured many mom and pop shops. Fast forward to today and everything is different. They are both featured among the most expensive rent in New York and it’s very sad to hear the stories of those who have been displaced. They were the ones that made the area what it is and next thing they know they are kicked out.

One specific case of people being kicked out was very recently during the project of building the Barclays Center in Brooklyn. Moss notes the son of a Holocaust survivor who draws a parallel between the Holocaust and the gentrification that occurred. He says that just like the Holocaust took everything away for his father, here comes the government again taking away everything from him. A comparison like this is so powerful in portraying just how tragic gentrification has been on the affected individuals.

But without knowing the fight that went into building these areas in the first place it is difficult to truly see why a comparison like this can be made. In the book Activist New York, Jaffe discusses the efforts of the people to maintain and build up the downtrodden areas they lived in. In 1975 the government ran out of money and many poverty-stricken areas lost all support they received and were decreased to nothing. But the people refused to back down and several organizations were created to fight the problem. EBC really took control of these efforts and helped rebuild many areas in New York City for the poor. Bedford-Stuyvesant was one of these places. Had they known that later on their efforts would be for nothing would they have gone to all that trouble? That shows the tragedy of gentrification in NYC.

IF

ACT-UP

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ACT-UP needed to find ways to get what they wanted fast. More of their people were dying every single day so they couldn’t afford to extend their movement at all. That’s where they began to use ‘sacred space’ in order to get their message across. The ‘sacred space’ they protested at included City Hall, the White House lawn, the Catholic Church and even at a hospital. Each one of these places holds high importance thereby increasing the publicity they received for their protests. That publicity is exactly what they needed to speed up their demands.

In the protests, they blamed the people for causing the deaths of their loved ones and continuing to allow them to lose their lives. Specifically, in their protest by the White House lawn, they poured the ashes of their loved ones that died from AIDS right on the lawn. This act really sparked up awareness showing the whole entire country that they would not go down without a fight. By gaining the viewing of the entire country their movement become much greater. This showed how public actions like this can be so powerful and can really invoke change.

In the activism against religious violence they can learn from here how to effectively spread awareness of the issue. If they can expose more people to the issue then they can attack the incorrect stereotypes right on the nose. This is how Jews and Muslims will be able to increase their chances of putting a stop to Anti-Semitism and Islamophobia.

IF

The Real Drive of the Civil Rights Movement

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There have been many myths about the start and execution of the civil rights movement that ultimately led to its success. Many people think that it came out of nowhere and gained the necessary support from a miraculous string of events. This is far from true as the roots of the civil rights movement have been growing from years before the success stories of the 50’s and 60’s. As stated in the reading “Singing Civil Rights”, the events were made possible by “countless hours, months and years of local activists from all segments.”

On that note, another myth was that the movement was mainly run by black men even though women had a very large part of the movement. Ella Baker was the prime example of this, leading the charge of the movement for many years. The amazing thing is, she continued to pursue freedom even without the same fame that the men were getting.

There are several other myths about the movement but these two seem to be the most important to get a true picture of what was really going on. With that said, the specific circumstances that pushed the movement to its maximum power can be seen in a true light. WWII had an immense impact on the movement. The reason is that the US was fighting against Germany because of the Nazi regime’s unfair treatment of innocent people. As the author states in “Singing Civil Rights”, “The irony that blacks were fighting Nazi racism in the name of a freedom they did not possess at home”. This really fully captures the lack of proper morals in the US that was finally coming to smack them in the face.

These causes were years after the movement for freedom originally began. So, what kept these people going all these years? Most analysts agree that it was music that kept them going. Singing freedom songs, specifically the words, “We will overcome”, powerfully influenced the black population to continue even in the darkest of times. There were many specific events that progressed the movement that were all started and sparked by the very music that they were singing.

Asides from music, photography really propelled the movement. The civil rights activists understood the power of photos in order to gain sympathy that inspires change. With that said, the various photos taken by Danny Lyon were very successful for the movement. The courage of Lyon putting himself in danger in order to take some of the pictures was very heroic. As Lampert describes in Chapter 18 of the book, photography became the eyes of the civil rights movement. There were many more photographers and specific events that helped gain ground.

Art also had a large impact on the movement. Emory Douglas and his art was designed to “rip the heart out of those oppressing the black community” (Lampart 199). His art become the icon for the Black Panther Party and its radical beliefs.

It can be concluded from here the importance of political art. It can propel a movement to unimaginable heights. We see this directly through the music, photography and art of the civil rights movement.

IF