Rosie Revisited
First Rosie was on Brian Lehrer. Then we blogged about it. Then she led a panel at WNYC. Then New York Magazine cornered her and blogged it. Here’s a clip from the New York Mag post: Perez got pretty slammed on the Brooklyn blogs for her comments. As much as I find Rosie Perez to…
First Rosie was on Brian Lehrer. Then we blogged about it. Then she led a panel at WNYC. Then New York Magazine cornered her and blogged it. Here’s a clip from the New York Mag post:
Perez got pretty slammed on the Brooklyn blogs for her comments. As much as I find Rosie Perez to be a decent actor, sexy and certainly part of NYC’s charm, I must say comments like these make me want to kick her in the shins, wrote one commenter on Brownstoner. We cornered Perez after the show, and she was happy to clear up what she worried was a hostile comment. What I really wanted to say was that, yes, I’m nostalgic for the past, but I’m also excited about the present and hopeful for the future,” she explained. “Things do change. Water always has to flow or else it becomes stale. But with change, you can bring along some of the good minerals that came from the top of the waterfall.” She said she’d read some of the blogs and seen the nasty comments. “I think it’s their guilt of being the gentrifiers. They don’t know how to take it,” she said. “But I had to look at myself and I realized it came off a little hostile, to be honest.
Her parting words? “Even if you’re in a bad mood, just give me a nod. We’ll do one better: Come to the Flea tomorrow, Rosie, and we’ll buy you a pupusa!
What's Your Take? Leave a Comment
Oh Biff, there you go again, trying to be all reasonable and such.
To take Broklin’s argument one step further, we should all return to wherever our ancestors came from and give this land back to the few surviving Native Americans. Short of doing that, hasn’t New York been a city with constantly evolving neighbourhoods? In Manhattan, haven’t areas like the Lower East Side and Harlem (to name two of many) constantly undergone changes in their demographics as new immigrants arrive and old ones move to other areas?
miss priss…I don’t know what its like in Ft Greene but in Bed Stuy, EVERYONE says “Good morning” or “hello” to everyone else. It was amazing moving here from Manhattan and experiencing this every day on the way to and the way home from work. Maybe Ft. greene is really too close to Manhattan, in which case some of the comments are actually spot on.
“I have a brownstown that has been in my family forever”
How nice for you. The rest of us had to work for our homes.
Arkady…will definitely have a field day correcting Broklin’s post.
well, so much for the air of mutual respect we were hoping for. Change happens- I’m not the biggest proponent of change for its own sake, and there is some truth to Rosie’s feelings- although I would never hire her as a psychologist.
The problem is that it seems the worst examples of any group get the most play. But the so-called gentrifyers who are good neighbors, who help in their communities, who try to make it better for everyone, who bring in businesses and are very aware of the impact of gentrification and work to mitigate it- those people you never hear about. Yet many of them post on Brownstoner but they don’t get the attention the way A Rosie Perez does, or a Park Slope Stroller Mom.
A: give me an f-ing break.
B: I’m white and I greet all my neighbors and frankly, very few of the old timers will look me in the eye and greet me back, so all this drivel about how newcomers just parade around with no sense of community is bunk. Shortly after we moved in, I was walking past what I now know to be Rosie’s house and saw her bitching out a guy who was slipping supermarket circulars into her gate. Since that’s something that drives me nuts as well, I, not realizing who she was, interjected, “yeah, it drives me crazy when they do that!” She turned, looked at me like I was dirt and went inside.
C: I’m also a woman and while this is slightly off topic, it’s come up in past posts, so I’d like to address it. All those people who talk about white women crossing the street or averting their eyes when they see a black man – are you f-ing kidding me? In Fort Greene? Would any of these women have moved here if they trembled in fear of merely passing a black man? Get your head out of the 40s, my friends, and stop flattering yourselves that you’re so big and scary. This is your kneejerk response and you’re so wedded to it because it fuels your sense of injustice. there is injustice and it should be addressed, but don’t take away from it by talking smack. I and at least all the white women I know (some of whom are married to black, asian, native american, etc men) don’t have an issue with you and just because we don’t look you in the face doesn’t mean a thing. I don’t look random white men in the face either.
stop calling race when it just isn’t the issue, so that we can better deal with it when it IS.
thanks.
As far as I could tell from the article, and as one person pointed out because of her accent, Rosie is definitely NOT a Ft. Greene native. Im assuming she recently bought this “celeb” house, correct???
slopefarm is correct…why even interview her about this???
i think the gist of the whole think is that rosie thinks brooklyn these days is too whitebread, and it has NOTHING to do with white or white people. it’s just white people that think they are in merryweather and want everything to adapt to them asap. i mean you all KNOW it’s true but some people just dont like to admit it.
*rob*