I've never visited New York City, but if I ever make it to the Big Apple, I'll probably find that the Harlem I've long read about no longer exists. The Harlem I've studied teemed with black intellectuals, artists and musicians. It was the nation's black cultural epicenter in the 20th century and an area where white faces were few and far between, except for the hipsters who liked to sneak into local bars and clubs at night. But the New York Times reports that Harlem is now a mixed-bag of sorts.
In 2008, just one in four Harlem residents was black. Meanwhile, the number of whites and Latinos in Harlem has steadily risen.
"Since 2000, the proportion of whites living there has more than doubled, to more than one in 10 residents -- the highest since the 1940s," the Times reported. "The Hispanic population, which was concentrated in East Harlem, is now at an all-time high in central Harlem, up 27 percent since 2000."
Some of the newcomers have been greeted ambivalently, the Times reported.
The paper interviewed Geneva Bain, district manager of Community Board 10, who called, integration "very subjective." She continued, "One person's fellowship is another person's antagonism. I am one who thinks that central Harlem has become a better place because of integration."
One source of tension between blacks and whites in Harlem is that blacks make up a small portion of property owners there.
Howard Dodson, director of Harlem's Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture, pointed out that the only way Harlem can remain a black enclave is if blacks own it. That said, he pointed out that it was problematic for blacks to want Harlem to remain black when they oppose whites who want to keep their neighborhoods racially homogenous.
Dodson told the Times, "You can't have it both ways: You can't on the one hand say you oppose being discriminated against by others who prevent you from living where you want to, and say out of the other side of your mouth that nobody but black people can live in Harlem."
Does Dodson have a point, or is there a difference between African Americans wanting to keep a historically black cultural center majority black, and whites who wish to keep blacks out of neighborhoods amid fears of crime and lower property values?
Comments
Really. “Does Dodson have a point…?” Do you have to ask a question like that? It sounds like conversational race-baiting to me.
He’s correct in his thinking. In my opinion, you are attempting to keep racism alive with this circular pseudo-argument. Stop it!
Or are you afraid that if we ever were to solve the racism dilemma you would have nothing left to talk or write about?
Like Dodson said, you can’t have it both ways.
I would love to see racism end tomorrow, and if it did, I’d have lots of other things to discuss/write about. I asked the question about Harlem because the concern here seems to be cultural preservation rather than keeping out “undesirables,” which seems to be the thinking when whites seek to keep blacks out of their neighborhoods.
I would tend to side with Nadra. It is a valid point from which to launch a discussion. There are many forms of preservation.
For example, the National Historic Preservation Society helps preserve the architecture of neighborhoods. That is one form of preserving culture. I was in Chicago a few months ago and walked down a lovely street of turn-of-the-century row houses punctuated by places where the home had been torn down and replaced with a modern loft. I like both forms of architecture, but it was startling and upsetting at first glance.
That said, people are not houses. But culture is an ever changing form and archeologists love sifting through the layers of towns and cultures compressed one on top of the other in other parts of the world. I’m sure Harlem was built on the past also. People change, times change. Museums do a good job of suspending time and preserving the culture of another era. Grieve, wax nostalgic then and move on.
A bit off topic, but interesting to think about.
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The diversity freaks are always endlessly reminding us how overjoyed non-Hispanic white Americans should be when neighborhoods add residents from non-Western backgrounds. Likewise, Harlem is becoming increasingly wealthier, more white, more diverse, more educated and more affluent. The author should be celebrating this and the double standard is pure BS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!