[sudo-discuss] Stop with the race baiting immediately

Fri Nov 29 13:14:10 PST 2013

Hi Solarimix,

I am late as usual in adding my voice to the discussion!  I agree with you and Marcus.  I would, however add,  perhaps a better way to fix our current system would not be to dismantle capitalism, but to use our numerical superiority to take control over it, and restore its rules to their original intent,  to promote wealth and prosperity for all.   Sadly, through our non-engagement, we have allowed  an elite minority to coop our economic and political system and subvert it to being a vehicle for their enrichment at the expense of the majority working class. The key to reversing this, is to fight, march and protest  for a progressive income tax, based on multiples of the minimum wage.  For additional information read my paper on this subject.

William

From: sudo-discuss-bounces at lists.sudoroom.org [mailto:sudo-discuss-bounces at lists.sudoroom.org] On Behalf Of solarimix
Sent: Wednesday, November 27, 2013 1:54 PM
To: Marcus Owens
Cc: sudo-discuss
Subject: Re: [sudo-discuss] Stop with the race baiting immediately

Yes Marcus. You're so correct.

Cappuccinos and cupcakes..lol. I prefer the grit. Keep that acorn affordable to P.O.C.

One Love

Marcus Owens <owens.marcus at gmail.com> wrote:

Just to chime in having observed this thread, and having previously restrained myself from noting 8th/Alice is not west oakland, and in the wake of the bizarre white guilt racism on the recent threads- I don't want to be pedantic but as an urbanist I usually shudder when bay area liberals start talking about gentrification, invariably bringing identity and cultural politics into the mix. Identity and culture are important but gentrification is an issue of political economy, period.  <http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2013/oct/10/gentrification-not-urban-renaissance>  As geographer Dave Madden writes in this on-point guardian piece, 

"The least useful way to criticize gentrification is to obsess about an area's character, coolness, or even worse, "grit". Lamenting the proliferation of cupcakes and cappuccino is a staple of reporting on places like Williamsburg or Dalston. But this kind of story reduces something that's all about inequality to middle-class agonizing over authenticity."

In short, while people such as ourselves are often able to leverage our relative economic, social, cultural capital in securing housing more so than other segments of society, real estate is not reducible to a consumer choice akin to buying a t-shirt or an mp3 off itunes. White people didn't "just decide" to leave Oakland in the post-war years, and young people aren't "just deciding" to move back to the city for kicks. I don't know about you all but my choice in housing wasn't between getting a mortgage in the suburbs or moving to east oakland. It was between a few places like east oakland, and has been in every city I've lived in. 

There are political and financial forces shaping the way we live and work that are stronger than the few choices we may have in finding housing, however greater these choices may be than those that more marginalized members of society have. It's important to keep the focus where it belongs- dismantling capitalism and the system of white supremacy that keeps it in place and building community, not self-loathing white/middle-class guilt. 

m

p.s. David Madden is basically riffing off the late great geographer Neil Smith. One starting point for further inquiry:  The new urban frontier: Gentrification and the revanchist city. Routledge, 1996.

On Wed, Nov 27, 2013 at 12:39 PM, Jenny Ryan <tunabananas at gmail.com> wrote:

Some clarification:

The new location has been completely neglected for the past 15 years, and we were intentionally invited by the folks behind Creative Development Partners <http://creativedevelopmentpartners.com>  as the kind of community-oriented maker/project space they're hoping to see thrive in this neighborhood.

Jenny
http://jennyryan.net <http://jennyryan.net/> 
http://thepyre.org <http://thepyre.org/> 
http://thevirtualcampfire.org <http://thevirtualcampfire.org/> 
http://technomadic.tumblr.com <http://technomadic.tumblr.com/> 

`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`

"Technology is the campfire around which we tell our stories."
-Laurie Anderson

"Storytelling reveals meaning without committing the error of defining it."
 -Hannah Arendt

"To define is to kill. To suggest is to create."
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On Wed, Nov 27, 2013 at 12:12 PM, Andrew <andrew at roshambomedia.com> wrote:

I totally agree with batkid. As a black person who has contributed directly to the gentrification of west oakland I'd like to say that gentrification is an issue that can not be reduced to race, social status, industry, etc. I would encourage people to think critically about how their actions affect the communities they live in, but not to get caught up in liberal guilt land unless you plan on taking some kind of direct action.

On Wed, Nov 27, 2013 at 12:02 PM, Craig Rouskey <craigrouskey at gmail.com> wrote:

Huh? I thought the new location was unoccupied?

—
Craig J. Rouskey
contact at craigrouskey.com
http://www.craigrouskey.com

On Wed, Nov 27, 2013 at 11:59 AM, The Batkid <batkid at gmx.com> wrote:

I don't understand the strange self flagellating threads about gentrifying people out of Oakland while searching for a space.
It's not productive and I truly do not understand what the end goal is here.  We're not going to solve racism in the bay area
with the mailing list.

It's ok to displace the Chinese, but not blacks?  WTF?

Incentives applicable at this location:

*	The City of Oakland is offering business license and sales tax abatement as incentives
*	The State of California's manufacturing equipment sale and use tax exemptions
*	The State of California's California Competes income tax credit
*	The State of California's New Employment Credit
*	No African Americans would be displaced, only Chinese

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