Final Project Part II

In the last blog I discussed the final project that my partners - Julie, Cynthia, and I put together.  The documentary was extremely enlightening, and even viewing it again in class made me more aware of some of the comments that I missed when watching it the first time.

On KAZI 88.7 talk radio, Jose (didn't catch his last name) - president of the East Side Community Neighborhood Committee, spoke on the detriment of gentrification.  While many people may be unaware that this pushes poor minorities out of their communities by raising property taxes and making living unaffordable, gentrification is able to fester and grow.  This will continue to develop unless we have meaningful conversation and spread awareness in these neighborhoods and communities.

The fact that there is a planning committee, made up of majority Caucasian members, that make decisions for the East Austin Community and report to town hall is appalling.  These residents are mostly newer residents of the East Side and have done nothing to include the residents that have lived there longer.  This ties into White privilege, which has been a theme in this course all semester long.  I don't believe that these conversations should be had in order to put Whites down, which some people can often take it as.  I do, however, strongly believe that this is something that needs to be discussed and the word needs to be spread about this.  I myself, had no clue and was not aware of this until I was informed by Julie, one of my group members.  When talking to my grandmother about this in the video, she was astonished at the fact that this group even exists.

I propose that inviting more minorities and residents of East Austin to these meetings could have the potential to render these conversations and possibly include these long-term residents.

Eastside Austin Community Project - Gentrification and its Toll

For the synopsis for this project, Cynthia, Julie and I have decided to post our summary onto my blog. This project has given us each a deeper insight on gentrification and what it means for the East Austin Community. What are your thoughts on the topic?

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Gentrification of historical African American communities, such as East Austin, has interrupted the once close-knit communities that served as protective factors for African American families. Karenga and Karenga (2007) argue that the Nguzo Saba (or 7 principles) comprise the fundamental value system to sustain African American families, communities and culture. These principles are: faith, unity, self-determination, collective work and business, cooperative economics, and purpose.

Our project sought to raise awareness of the impact of gentrification on the East Austin community.  Within our group, each of us had our own unique and personal connections to wanting to become involved, but through our diversity, we were united in wanting to contribute to the East Austin community. While Cynthia’s interest was fueled by her thoughts that East Austin was losing its roots due to heavy gentrification, Julie’s interest came more from her learning in this course and via a previous project in a social justice class.  Jasmine’s involvement came from a combination of learning in the class as well as a conversation with her grandmother about how the neighborhood she lives in used to be.  In this conversation, her grandmother expressed the nature of how the neighborhood was once a unified place, heavily using many of the Nguzo Saba principles. Overall, our combined perspectives were used to make a change and bring awareness about the impact of gentrification on the East Austin community.

In an article on Gentrification, the past, present, and future outlook on East Austin is highlighted.  The article speaks of how West Austin, also known as Clarksville, was once majority African-American and now is majority Caucasian.  Given these facts, the projected outlook on East Austin is that with the rising property costs and new developments, it too, will become majority Caucasian.  The article states, “The example of Clarksville in West Austin serves as the direction that things will no doubt go in East Austin” – (Emery, 2003-2006, p. 1).

The goal of this project was to collectively gather interviews and information about the gentrification that is in full effect east of I-35 and to raise awareness. The East Austin Contact Team was a committee that caught our eye through Julie’s connection to one of their members. This team is a group of Caucasian residents of East Austin that have moved into these neighborhoods recently.  The team meets monthly to discuss changes that should be made in East Austin, and report to the City Planning Commission about these necessary changes.  Their desire for improvement of the community is great, but highly flawed in its process.  The committee, being all White except for one member, has not sought to include older residents of the community or minorities.  This was seen as a huge problem in the opinions of our group, seeing how a small sector of this community was making decisions that excluded the whole of its residents.

This sparked a new direction in the plan of our group.  Seeing how the Contact Team was operating motivated us even more to want to get these interviews to them.  Revealing the thoughts and emotions shown through our video interviews laid the foundation for our hope that the Contact Team would change its approach and become more inclusive of all members no matter how old or what race they were.

We plan to forward this video compilation to Joy Casnovsky, a member of the Contact Team, so that the video will be shown in one of their upcoming meetings.  This video can be used in a variety of ways to unite the community of East Austin and to implement unified planning on future changes and to increase discussion amongst residents about this phenomenon.

Changes can be made to improve East Austin and to keep the Nguzo Saba principles running throughout the community, but discussion and awareness must be brought in first.  We believe, through this project, that we can help bring about this change.      

References

Allen, B. L. (2012, April 11). (J. McElrath, Interviewer)

Burditt, G.  (2012, April 18).  (J. Burditt, Interviewer)

Emery, M. (2003-2006). East Austin Gentrification. Austin Now .

Higgins, A. (2012, March 30).  (C. Martin-Carnline, Interviewer)

Gilson, C. (2012, April 10). (J. McElrath, Interviewer)

Karenga, M & Karenga, (2007).  The Nguzo Saba and the Black family:  Principles and practice of well-being and flourishing.  In H. P. McAdoo (Ed.), Black Families, 4th Edition (pp. 7-28).  Thousand Oaks, CA:  Sage

King, C.  (2012, April 7).  (C. Martin-Carnline, Interviewer)

J. Casnovsky (March 19-April 19, 2012)

Turner, B.  (2012, April 18).  (J. Burditt, Interviewer)

Service Learning Projects - East Austin and Gentrification

For the service learning project that I am apart of we are attempting to spark dialogue, conversation and awareness around the gentrification that is currently impacting the Easy Austin Community.  East Austin, a couple of decades ago, was comprised of mostly minority residents.  Recently, there has been heavy gentrification going on in the East Austin community. 

What sparked my interest in this project was a conversation with my grandmother about how things once were in our neighborhood. I grew up in East Austin and she has lived there the majority of her life.  My grandmother informed me one night of the togetherness and sense of the Nguzu Sabaa principles that were carried out throughout the neighborhood.  Once before, people would work together, would help each other out when bills were due, buy groceries for residents who could not afford it, bring in speakers to speak to the neighborhood on ways to use less energy and lower their bills, etc.  It was pretty much like a community that worked together.  I took a look at how my community is now and realized that it's completely different.  I also noticed the fact that the East side of I-35 is becoming heavily populated by more Caucasion people, and that more minorities are moving out.  I had to think to myself why this is happening and what the effects are. 

In efforts to enlighten the East Austin Community and spark conversation about these changes, my group mates - Julie and Cynthia, and myself came up with the proposal to create a documentary that would raise awareness and gain more insight on the positives/negatives of these changes. 

To implement and carry out this vision, we have each collected video interview of past and present members, as well as activists for the East Austin Community. 

We will combine these interviews to share it, pass it along, and perhaps come to a conclusion and create more awareness surrounding these recent changes.

Hip Hop and What it's Done for Black Culture

How much rap did you watch when you were a teen?  I remember coming home everyday when I was growing up to shows like Smart Guy, Sister Sister and Evan Stevens, etc.  I also remember that when 5:00 rolled around, it was time for 106 & Park – BET’s top ten video countdown.  Never did I stop to evaluate what was being shown on this program.  Almost every video featured women who were half-naked and men with champagne bottles and big jewelry.  The lyrics were not uplifting at all either.  Not all of these videos were like this, but the majority were.  What has changed now?

After viewing the video shown in class I realized that not much really has changed in the realm of hip-hop.  I had seen this video before in another class some years ago, and viewing it again made me even more aware to these things that the Black community is faced with in the world of Hip Hop.  The commentator in the video stated that Hip Hop is the cancer to Black people.  This is sad, to think about a genre that we are the face of, is seen as negative and portrays negative images.  My qualm with this is that showing one side of what Black people go through is fine, but the positive sides need to be shown as well.  It would be nice to have a more intellectual type of hip hop blown up with rappers like Lupe Fiasco and Common to name a few.  These will never be the face of what people first think of though, because as people will say “sex sells”.  In watching a documentary on video vixens on VH1, a commentator noted that “crack sells” too.  Just because it sells and cashes out does not mean it’s good or beneficial, it can actually be something that tears a community down. 

The article on Images of Sexual Stereotypes in Rap Videos and the Health of African American Female Adolescents really opened my eyes to the discussion of the effect of hip hop on young women.  One has to wonder why and how more and more women are wanting to be in videos or to date “bad guys”.  I can remember even from my middle school years that I, too would make jokes and comments with my cousins about being in music videos.  We would always argue about who’s going to be the girl by the pool, who would be the “main girl” of the video, and who would just be in the back blending in with the rest.  That’s usually the recipe for music videos.  The face that the desire or aspiration to be in a music video was prevalent says something about the effect to which these roles are glamorized among young girls.  The study, which found that the more young females are exposed to these types of videos and messages means the more that they will be willing to date young men who fit the role that these rappers put on, to accept dating violence, and to be engage in more risky sexual behavior really is astonishing.  I have to ask myself what can be done about this because it’s not just something of the past, it’s very much still a current issue.

The article on Enhanging Critical Consciousness in Young African American Men:  A Psychoeducational Approach was an uplifting source to the problematic outcomes of the images and messages in hip hop.  The Young Warriors program aims to educate young Black men on the messages that are put out in hip hop, and engages them in dialogue and discussion amongst themselves about these things.  I love the fact that it creates a space where young Black men can come together, look up to other respectable Black men, (creating alternative positive images for them), and where they can learn to openly discuss issues with other men in general.  The article also incorporates three of the Nguzo Saba principles.  The creed of the program promotes Kujichagulia, Umoja, and Imani.  This is a beautiful aspect of the program because it gets backs to the foundation of coming together as a community to improve as a whole.  I think that it’s great that these young men are addressed because they can then pass that on to the young women that they are friends with, come across, and potentially chose to date.  Not only are they coming together to be able to discuss these things, but those discussions, I’m sure, do not stop just at the program.  This is an example of a solution that has a lasting and spreading impact to tear down the problems associated with the Black community.

Baraka School, Achievement Gaps and "Acting White"

THE BARAKA SCHOOL FOR BOYS

Viewing the film about the Baraka school for boys initially gave me a lot of hope for the young men who were featured in the film.  I was so excited for them and the experience that they were receiving to be in a classroom setting where they were given more attention and were placed in an environment where they could simply be boys void of all of the stress they were under back in their homes, neighborhoods and school systems.  What Baraka did not do for the boys was give them an alternative.  The school, in a sense failed the boys.  The lok on their faces when their mothers told them about the discontinuation of the school was heartbreaking.  I immediately felt for them and their families facing the brunt of being left behind, once again, without a better alternative for these boys. 
After reading about the achievement gap in Michigan for Blacks to Whites, I realize that a lot of barriers were preventing the boys of Barka from succeeding.  As for systemic barriers - their classroom sizes were large so they were not receiving the attention and help that was necessary from teachers.  Also, is 76% of Black boys were not graduating from schools in Baltimore, one has to ask what's going on with the school system.  If it is a school system not invested in the children at the school, then most will fail for sure.  Individual factors that effect the Baraka boys being in the 4th quadrant lie in the fact that they each really do want a better education and to make something of their lives, but don't have the resources to do so. 
As for the differences found in the article on The Achievement Gap, I think that these findings are relevant. All students need to feel a sense of belonging. If Black students are walking in to a school where teachers may be holding racial stereotypes against them, this can hinder their learning experience.  As discussed in class, we are plagued with a nation that does not value school, teachers who may be discouraged from the desire to empower and believe in students because of giving up soon or the lack of education on how to deal with various populations of students.  In order to combat the issues faced by the lack of value on education, it's crucial that parents begin to take matters into their own hands, but then again what about parents who may have to juggle multiple jobs.  It's a tough situation, but there is hope for all of this. 
I believe that there is more so structural oppression that is going on that forces this gap for Black students.

Am I Black Enough?

In the study done on Black schools and acting white, I have gone through this.  Not in the manner that is talked about so directly in the article, but more so in my demeanor.  Oftentimes my peers at school, especially in elementary and middle school would call me "white girl" or "mixed girl" because of the way that I talked.  Since I did not use slang or talk the same way the other students did, I was called out on it.  In both middle and high school I was in magnet programs.  These magnet programs consisted mainly of  White and Asian students.  With me being one of the few Black students in these programs, it sometimes caused a rift in my relationships with Black students at school. I don't believe that "acting White" should be associated with excelling in school.  This is a misconception that has been internalized by Black students and perhaps some other minorities as well.  Since when did making good grades become something that only White students do?