Impact of Gentrification on African Americans in the United States over the Past Ten Years
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Abstract
Gentrification is an emerging issue that affects various cities in the USA. Scholars, activist and community groups have debated the impacts of gentrification and its meaning. Scholars have also discussed the adverse effects of displacement on African Americans in various neighborhoods. African Americans who have been displaced face racial inequalities in their access to public goods and services such as child health care facilities, grocery stores and other vital resources. It has also contributed to differences in home values and appreciation. This paper will help to provide our understanding of the impact of displacement on minorities and its related factors. The case study of this paper is in New York City, and different articles, case studies, reports and newspapers will be analyzed. A comparative research design will also be used to identify the impact of displacement on African Americans compared with whites who move into gentrified neighborhoods.
Gentrification is an emerging issue that affects various cities in the USA, primarily where African Americans have settled. In metropolitan areas, it has resulted in the transformation of the economic situation, demographics and physical forms as a low-income society are renewed into a higher middle or upper-class society. In the last ten years, increasing migration to central city neighborhoods has brought the conversation about gentrification to the fore. Scholars, activist and community groups have debated the impacts of gentrification and its meaning. The central theme of these debates is the impact of gentrification on residents that is who suffers and who benefits from it. African Americans are mainly those who suffer as they are removed from their homes and moved to isolated communities. Moreover, they are denied access to wealth-building opportunities while the whites benefit from these efforts.
Gentrification is the process by which central neighborhoods with low income are changed through investment, and the community is renewed by an in-migration of middle and upper-class residents. It has always been a tool used to achieve a specific goal or outcome through intended or unintended consequences that results from the process of transforming these low-class neighborhoods characterized by poverty levels and racial segregation, especially on minority groups. Regardless of time and place, this process happens to communities with bad physical form (Zuk et al., 2018). This process is controversial as it affects people mainly at the neighborhood level as it disrupts the existing ties of a place and creates a disoriented new group. For the displaced people, the neighborhood becomes unaffordable for them, and in these cases, it is often considered as a means of excluding the minority usually the blacks (Richardson et al., 2019).
In the past years, the government has been involved in this process through various investment in several urban areas. These policies coincide with those that ensure equal access to resources and opportunities in society. Community activists in African Americans region believe that it does more harm than good to the people (Jackson, 2014). African Americans who have been displaced face racial inequalities in their access to public goods and spaces. They also have difficulties in accessing services such as child health care facilities, grocery stores and other vital resources. It has also contributed to differences in home values and appreciation. Many of them who have low income are forced to move and do not get to enjoy the benefits in the transformation of the community (Jackson, 2014). By exploring how gentrification happens and impacts the livelihoods of African Americans, this paper will help to contribute our understanding of the impact of displacement on minorities and its related factors. The research question addressed are how African Americans have been affected by gentrification and subsequent displacement? How has movement from their neighborhoods impacted their lives?
Problem Statement
Today, African Americans are facing structural racism promoted by current U.S housing system policies which have contributed to the displacement, social segregation and exclusion, especially in metropolitan areas such as New York. This has led them to seek alternatives such as relocating to isolated communities and the impoverished regions. They also suffer from unemployment and loss of wealth.
Hypothesis
Gentrification has prevented African Americans from retaining homeownership, access to affordable and safe housing and led to the loss of wealth and unemployment while the whites benefit.
Literature Review
In the last ten years, white residents have been moving to inner cities neighborhoods that have been culturally dominated by black communities. These groups change the existing social class and culture in these neighborhoods, and minorities are displaced and the value of properties increases (Zuk et al., 2018). This process also involves economic and political factors as the government policies impact the transportation and availability of services in a community. For decades African Americans have been destabilized by the policies implemented on housing systems. Black people are usually removed from their homes and in urban places, these policies are implemented in the name of creating public spaces, changing the physical form or improving the economy. With time, the African Americans find themselves in a state they cannot afford to own property or even a home (Solomon et al., 2019).
While the desires for people in community differ, research on gentrification is also divided. Various researchers view that gentrification involving displacement is a complex issue and that residents from low-income families are also unable to move and replace the existing families as housing costs escalates. Other researchers found that displacement was rare. These differences may be due to differences in urban patterns, and the process of gentrification involving neighborhoods can be rapid. The displacement also may be in different forms on ethnic backgrounds, class and norms (Richardson et al., 2019). This makes it essential for one to be clear about the type of gentrification and how it is being studied over time.
Displacements, as a result of gentrification, may also affect the financial status of residents. Residents may also feel displaced due to the loss of community which leads them to move as even services provided by the new community do not conform to their desires. In a family, displacement leads to loss of access to opportunities, loss of wealth as the homeowners mainly move without realizing the increased values (Bates, 2013). People who rent also may fail to afford the price of the increasing importance in the neighborhood. Individuals from low-income families may be displaced by rising rent cost, property taxes or loss of subsidized. When there is inadequate housing in a community, there is an overall economic impact on society. With African Americans being destabilized by the policies enacted in the housing system, these policymakers have not helped in preventing structural racism. According to Solomon et al. (2019), 45 per cent of African Americans have experienced discrimination when trying to acquire a house. People of color are also viewed as a threat to local property values, and most of the homes in gentrified regions are acquired through contracts.
According to a study by Chronopoulos (2016), most of the studies conducted on black gentrification has been focusing on New York City with Harlem being the most researched neighborhood. These due to the political history associated with the region and also there is a large number of low- to moderate-income individuals in public and subsidized housing units. In recent years scholars have included other areas such as Washington DC and Chicago, and black people have been identified as gentrifiers rather than the whites. However, these differ with neighborhoods in New York as whites move into black areas. In the last decade, whites have outnumbered blacks in acquiring houses in the suburbs. They have led to a change in commercial and cultural practices in different regions. According to a study conducted in Fort Greene, a high number of black stores were closed due to various reasons. Business individuals did not have a connection with the new investors, the rent accorded by owners was unaffordable and also were worried by the decline in the number of blacks around the region. Different policies also implemented by government organizations were viewed as harassment as things such as ticketing made the running of business expenses.
Urban scholars and lawmakers have identified the benefits and importance of gentrification in ensuring affordable housing and economic development. However, the introduction of quality resources and lifestyles also differs in their benefits on long term residents who are mainly the African Americans who are from low-income families. Most of them feel the fear of being displaced and being isolated. The different new businesses opened in the neighborhoods makes them feel uncomfortable. As the prices are unaffordable, unique lifestyles, new activities and new economic status, which affects them psychologically too (Valli,).
Methodology
This research methodology discusses gentrification of African Americans based in New York City. It will utilize a qualitative research design to determine how African Americans have been impacted by displacement in New York. Various articles on gentrification in neighborhoods based in New York were analyzed. Different case studies conducted on these neighborhoods were also used to examine the impact displacement has caused to the life of African Americans. A qualitative research study was also vital in reviewing secondary sources such as news articles and reports that have been conducted in this region. The case study is in New York because it is one of the metropolitan areas where white residents have been moving into African Americans neighborhoods at a high rate (Badger et al., 2019).
Data on the impact of displacement on minorities and its related aspects were collected from studies conducted on neighborhoods around New York and articles from New York Times that discusses the displacement and movement of whites into black neighborhoods were analyzed. Articles from L.A Times that discusses the existing displacement on minorities were also analyzed. Through qualitative analysis, various variables such as low income and middle-income earners, age and race were identified. Comparative context focusing on the impact of displacement between the African Americans versus the whites will be used as a research design. These design fits with the study as it compares two significant groups and identifies similarities and differences between these groups in an attempt to conclude. The relationship between these two groups using equivalent concepts also can be analyzed using a comparative research design (Esser & Vliegenthart, 2017).
With comparative context, the various articles indicate that African Americans suffer when they are displaced as some of them relocate to isolated areas and impoverished regions. Some of them also end up homeless as they cannot afford the rent costs in gentrified areas or are denied the chance to access safe and affordable houses. Using a comparative research design, these impacts will be compared with how white gentrifiers benefit from relocating in these neighborhoods. The significance of comparative research design is that it will ensure equivalence that is the data collected from different articles were comparable and lacked biasness in the various instruments, sampling and measurement (Esser & Vliegenthart, 2017).
The significance of comparative research design is that it reaches a conclusion using various cases and explains the differences and similarities between the subjects analyzed. The relation between these two objects is identified against the backdrop of their contextual conditions. It also enhances the understanding of an individual society by placing the known structures against those of other systems. The comparison of these structures also enriches our awareness of different cultures, their patterns of thinking and behaving. Comparison design also allows one to contrast these patterns and systems. It provides for the testing of theories across multiple setting and evaluation of a phenomenon. It also prevents scholars from over-generalizing subjects based on their understanding and experiences. Furthermore, it also allows for access to various alternative options and problem solutions that facilitate a way out of a problem (Esser & Vliegenthart, 2017).
The limitations involved in comparative research design on the impact of displacement is that one has to consider various units of analysis and integrate them into one single design. Second is that it is difficult for one to include several cases beyond the two that are analyzed and compared. Finally is that the logistics applied and used in comparative research design are rigid. They lack flexibility compared to other research design, such as description. The sample selected in this research is the low-income African Americans based in Harlem and Fort Greene neighborhoods. The validity and reliability of information from various articles and newspapers were vital in measuring the concepts. The consistency of multiple articles in identifying the impact of displacement on African Americans was determined. The content and construct validity also were used in measuring the validity of the information.
References
Badger, E., Bui, Q., & Gebeloff, R. (2019, May 1). All-White Neighborhoods Are Dwindling as America Grows More Diverse. Retrieved from https://www.nytimes.com/2019/05/01/upshot/all-white-neighborhoods-are-dwindling-as-america-grows-more-diverse.html
Bates, L. K. (2013). Gentrification and displacement study: Implementing an equitable, inclusive development strategy in the context of gentrification.
Chronopoulos, T. (2016). African Americans, gentrification, and neoliberal urbanization: The case of Fort Greene, Brooklyn. Journal of African American Studies, 20(3-4), 294-322.
Esser, F., & Vliegenthart, R. (2017). Comparative research methods. The international encyclopedia of communication research methods, 1-22.
Jackson, J. (2015). The consequences of gentrification for racial change in Washington, DC. Housing Policy Debate, 25(2), 353-373.
Solomon, D., Maxwell, C., & Castro, A. (2019, July 7). Systemic Inequality: Displacement, Exclusion, and Segregation. Retrieved from https://www.americanprogress.org/issues/race/reports/2019/08/07/472617/systemic-inequality-displacement-exclusion-segregation/
Richardson, J., Mitchell, B., & Franco, J. (2019, October 18). Shifting neighborhoods: Gentrification and cultural displacement in American cities. Retrieved from https://ncrc.org/gentrification/
Zuk, M., Bierbaum, A. H., Chapple, K., Gorska, K., & Loukaitou-Sideris, A. (2018). Gentrification, displacement, and the role of public investment. Journal of Planning Literature, 33(1), 31-44.