Spatial Entitlement
Gaye Theresa Johnson has analyzed the Black and Mexican Americans and how they related to each other. She also discusses the social and physical boundaries that were in place in their locality in Los Angeles. Spatial Entitlement, according to Gaye, is the way the two groups came together to form an alliance on how to share the spaces they settled in. They formed partnerships despite their class in society and shared their physical spaces.
Spatial Entitlement was the most significant factor within these communities. The physical and discursive spaces included the sonic areas like the radios, while the physical spaces were focused on specific geographical location. Spatial Entitlement was now the new format of expression. The expression was done through music, class identity, and culture. The two groups used newspapers and history.
Hayes has focused on two political activists who fought for the rights of brown and black also their racial spaces, which they shared. Charlota Bass and Luisa Moreno use the sonic spaces to claim their power. For instance, they used radio to claim power through music. Johnson has narrated the story of the two groups’ struggles and how they used spatial Entitlement.
John Dolphin created a label that assisted in the distribution of Rhythm and Blues in California. This label brought together black and brown youths to the radio station. Hayes portrays how the sonic spaces were used to grow the spatial Entitlement that was inhabited by these two communities. The sonic spaces were used to create opportunities for the two groups.
Hayes has used resistance as a theme, she looks at punk music to come up with ideas about space. She recalls the origin of this punk music by the two groups and links the origin from the history and identity of the working class. In the 1980s, Los Angeles was becoming more rural; this led to many jobs being looked for in other towns. The military is said to be on the rise during that time of deindustrialization.
The deindustrialization led to an increase in income inequality as many people tried to outwit each other in various industries like service. The economic crisis motivated the growth of subcultural punks. The imminent reality of the lower class in the society and the working class influenced the punk groups greatly. The Los Crudos, who was a Hispanic punk group, did not accept the British traditional punk narratives.
Spatial Entitlement has done more as it doesn’t only set particular physical spaces and virtual ones. Still, it goes ahead to enable the oppressed communities to portray their suffering that has been caused by long term periods of racial discrimination. It ensures the people earn their right of being mobile and visible in any physical place. The Entitlement also provides these people can demand respect in virtual spaces.
The system of the country had caused a lot of injuries to the communities through the systemic oppression and racism. This has made people demand to be treated with respect and dignity regardless of them of this factor (incomes, being undocumented, immigrants, and communities they originate from.)
Martin Luther King advised the people to focus on the space, sound, and shared struggles they had. He added that the country was now sick and proclaimed that the freedom fighters were now tired of the injustices being instigated by the government. The disparities are evident in society, mostly in South Los Angeles, where many black and brown people called home. The society was filled with wage inequalities, labor discrimination.
Consequently, the black punks, Bus Boys, used satire and parodies to portray their hate for being associated with the white’s narratives. Punk culture enabled the black and brown punk groups to be able to inhabit their physical and virtual spaces, hence portraying how thy spatial enlightenment had been created.
Johnson explains that people do not only require a physical place to survive; they instead needed more. People needed access to free mobility to be able to settle wherever they want.
Johnson tries to show the relationship between black and brown Americans and how they came together and worked in harmony to create a spatial entitlement.Though the society had oppressed the two communities in Los Angeles. By being focused on the daily acts of resistance and social protests. Johnson has portrayed a picture of resistance strategies used by these two communities. Spatial Entitlement became the way of expression for many as it was envisioned both by culture and music.
Conclusion
Space was used to restrict the minority communities in America; this ensured they were confined in a particular region. This led to rise in the growth of alliances that granted spatial Entitlement to the two communities (Black Mexican Americans), this led to the invention of new methods to enable them to survive together and fight for their rights. They fought for their rights and demanded to be respected in virtual spaces and be given the right to be able to move and resettle anywhere.