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.
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