Wrestling with Fort Greene's Transformation
In a first-person piece in The Times this weekend, artist Nelson George laments how Fort Greene has changed since he and his black artist contemporaries put down roots in the leafy brownstone neighborhood more than two decades ago. We’re interested to hear how the essay struck readers. What we thought was missing from the article…
In a first-person piece in The Times this weekend, artist Nelson George laments how Fort Greene has changed since he and his black artist contemporaries put down roots in the leafy brownstone neighborhood more than two decades ago. We’re interested to hear how the essay struck readers. What we thought was missing from the article was an acknowledgment of the current generation of black artists and intellectuals in the neighborhood and how they feel about the composition of the neighborhood. A mention of a place like Madiba where the diversity of the area is on full display, for example, would have added some valuable context for his discussions of the clientele at the Brooklyn Moon. Then again, this wasn’t meant to have been anything more than one man’s coming to terms with the changes around him. Thoughts?
Fort Greene: Strangers on His Street [NY Times]
Photo by niznoz
boofer- I think Mr. George’s reaction comes from experience which is the gist of it. there are people who will react negatively to a Black person despite never having any bad experience or even contact with them. I don’t claim any special knowledge but I do have first hand experience with it by virtue of my former marriage. I don’t want to dredge up old bad memories so let me just say, I think Nelson George speaks from experience. It may be that he just assumes the worst now, but he’s not reacting without some basis in fact.
Alot of “White Women” who may be afraid of random (black) men walking down a dark and lonely street are also quite possibly very happy to walk down the street with the same (scary to others) (black) man – if he wasnt such a “stranger”
Again, there are FAR worse problems (most) people have to face.
For example a very ugly person has to deal with odd looks all the time – no one is holding any charity events for the ugly…
Please come up with some real problems or move back to real issues.
Troy- you really have my sympathies. Several of my friends are racially mixed and I’ve seen what they have gone through.
And yes, re reactions- it is what it is, but like you I still don’t find it acceptable. The best you can do is realize those people suffer and lose out because of their ignorance. You can’t fix them unless they want to be fixed and most of them, sad to say, don’t.
Bxgrl
I am not denying racism. It is alive and well and it goes both ways. I’m just saying if you have the idea in your mind that white women are afraid of you…any reaction they have to you can be perceived as a sign of fear whether it is or it isn’t. If I smile will they think it’s a “nervous smile”, if I’m looking down am I trying to avoid eye contact or am I trying not to step in shit? If I turn around and walk the other way is it because I’m avoiding them, or did I just realize I forgot something at my house? If I cross the street could it possibly be because I live there? Maybe I saw some period details in the trash and wanted to get a closer look…
Pierre,
I didn’t overcome it in my teens. Adding to this specific issue, there was also being followed around stores constantly and even getting chased through Bensonhurst once plus all the myriad issues that come with being mixed and with being black/white but looking latino/middle eastern…. people constantly speak to me in languages I don’t understand and of course the really stupid things acquaintances would say when they found out I was half Jamaican/Half italian (please no jerk lasagna jokes).
Anyway, my obsession with almost cataloging the reactions of women in the street didn’t really fade until I passed my mid-twenties and couldn’t deal with continuing to make myself upset over something that will never go away. women do get mugged and raped and many other bad things. if I have to deal with their discomfort at my approach then I have to. It’s not malicious on their part, it just is what it is (not saying i completely accept it, it still sucks). But there are a lot more ignorant and a few malicious things I have had to deal with.
Alright I’ll cut it short now before this becomes Troy’s Catharsis on B’Stoner
“DIBS do us a favor and pay no attention to you know who…his pathetic attempts to make this a “race war” has failed. Please avoid him.”
Look Eurotrash I did not post this crap. I illustrated Brownstoner’s Covert Race/Class Warfare crap! If you took the time to think about it maybe you response would’ve been different. Plus I did not post anything here and this thread STILL reverted to issues of RACE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! What does that tell you?????????? Come on Pepe! Tell us!!!
From: Wrestling with Fort Greene’s Transformation
To: Also, I have to add something to the scared white lady discussion: I realize this is a real phenomenon. But twice recently I have been staring off into the middle distance, totally preoccupied with some kind of internal crazy lady dialogue, when suddenly I’ve been startled by something and suddenly moved to the side or — in one case– clutched my coat, and by extension my bag, because of a huge gust of wind, and then suddenly someone says something to me, and I come to, and it’s a black man who thinks I’ve been staring at him and that I moved away from him on purpose! In one case it was a 50-ish black man in Harlem who looked very intellectual and artistic. I was dismayed but by the time I even figured out what was going on we were both halfway down the block away from each other. So I’m sorry!
See how “Slippery” this type of crap gets but Noooooooooooo! The What is a Race Baiter!
Hey Pepe Suck balls!
The What
Someday this war is gonna end…
I think the point was people stereotyping and being automatically afraid of you because of skin color, not a question of oversensitivity.
There was actually a group of drunk white frat-type guys on S. Portland one night recently, I guess spillover from Moe’s. They scared me, as they always do, and I walked in the street to get home. It’s just funny how it relates to Nelson George’s story — same block, different situation, but same conclusion: there goes the neighborhood.
Not putting down anyones upset with having random “white people” be afraid of you – but that is on of those things that I just have only a little sympathy for (except in terms of false accusations or exclusion from stores, taxis etc…)
There are FAR worse things in life then having pure strangers be “afraid” of you on a dark street. Like for example not having strangers be afraid of you on a dark street.