Thread by @damienISgoodmon

Husband of musical queen @Beyonce & multimillionaire who gentrified his own hood using #EminentDomain #BarclaysCenter tells others #NipseyHussle was doin the same 2 #Crenshaw & crowd goes wild 🤦🏾‍♂️ I really thought I’d be spending my Sunday differently.
#GentrifyYourHood #JayZ /1

1st the source: A/b 7 yrs ago I 1st saw the documentary #BattleForBrooklyn which talked a/b #JayZ & #Beyonce's role in supporting the Brooklyn Nets #BarclaysCenter I dont think I've been able to fully 4give them 4 it, then again neither has apologized. /2

Gentrification isnt simply “neighborhood improvement” but is SYSTEMIC use of private forces & PUBLIC POLICY 2 forcibly displace low-income & vulnerable residents/biz owners from land & replace them w/more affluent ppl/uses to generate capital returns. Just ✔️ the root word. /3

Those displaced are Black/Brown & the “gentry” almost always yt, leading 2 more well understood synonyms 4 gentrification of “cultural erasure” “ethnic cleansing” “neocolonialism,” & #JamesBaldwin’s “Negro removal.”

Just as those terms r recognized as bad so is gentrification /4

However the obvious racial overlap has allowed elites, politicians & capitalists to bamboozle a lot of ppl (incl Blk ppl) to think the only problem w/gentrification is the race of ppl moving in & not the oppressive processes, entities & system itself (*cough cough* capitalism) /5

On capitalism a brief word from Brother Malcolm. But continuing...
#MalcolmX /6

It also allows serves as a distraction of the real pain inflicted on the lower class (of all colors) in every community by displacement.

@kingsbruh hits this point. /7

https://twitter.com/kingsbruh/status/1122199250727624704

This trickeration is firmly at play n the #Crenshaw community that #NipseyHussle & The Marathon Store calls home. New biz & homes priced at 2-4x what xisting residents can afford is evaluated by Blk elites politicians & media through a lens of Blk/yt face w/o mention of impact /8

#Crenshaw is home both to abject poverty (not a single census tract in Baldwin Village #TheJungle has a median household income of FOUR higher than $26,000/yr). But... censusreporter.org/profiles/14000… /9

It is also home to the two richest Blk communities in US & adjacent to the 3rd. #ViewPark #WindsorHills #BaldwinHills #LaderaHeights

It can sometimes be a challenge to help the folk on the hill realize two things...
/10
blackexcellence.com/10-richest-bla…

1) "Rich Black" is really just "middle class yt." Almost none can compete w/white "gentry."

I typically begin gentrification talks at their homeowners assoc. mtg askin folk 2 raise their hands if they can afford 2 buy their homes 2day. Never had more than a handful. /11

Most of even "Black professionals" (docs, lawyers, school admins) bought their homes on the hill during yt flight/post 1992 Uprising & r paying mortgages lower than market-rate rent & they dont have the 20% n cash to put down on their now million dollar homes.
/12

2) Even though they're on the hill they're in a community w/poor tenants & at-risk homeowners.

90008-the zip code w/#BaldwinHills (2nd richest Black comm in America) #LeimertPark & #TheJungle median household income for fam of 4 is under $37K! ...
/13

censusreporter.org/profiles/86000…

90043-the zip code w/#ViewPark & #WindsorHills (the richest Blk comm in US) & #NipseyHussle's #HydePark #TheMarathonStore the median household income for fam of 4 is under $42K.

censusreporter.org/profiles/86000…
/14

2 compare: Median household income for fam of 4 n LA County (upon which affordable housing income levels r based) is $69K.

So literally the majority of ppl n #Crenshaw dont even make enuf 4 "low income" level of affordable housing let alone can they afford market-rate rent! /15

To qualify for a "low-income" level affordable housing unit in LA County - a fam of 4 has to make between $48-78K/yr. #AffordableForWho

It's y folk call 4 a replacement of (county based) area median income with "neighborhood median income" /16

But the bulk of these projects, *INCLUDING SOME ON F-ING PUBLIC LAND* (shame on @MRTempower, @metrolosangeles & @wattcommunities for #CrenshawCrossing) is market-rate!

la.streetsblog.org/2018/09/29/pro…
/17

Those who I think 4 accurately described as "Black neoliberal puppets", like 2 focus comm attention on said projects on whether there is a Blk face involved, or whether Blk ppl will get jobs building/operating that dont pay enuff 2 even live n the units or shop @ the stores.../18

..completely ignoring the displacement impact of the gentrification projects on the surrounding low-income community of color & the broader objectives of private capital being facilitated through public policy to gentrify 'hood. /19

They trot out Blk celebs like #JayZ and/or Blk biz owners (almost always backed by yt capital) to provide an inclusion illusion & mask their economic warfare on communities of color (e.g. #BarclaysCenter), to repeat dumb shit like "gentrify your own hood."
/20

They state that: the real reason "neighborhood improvement" hasnt happened is that Blk ppl havnt pulled ourselves up by our own bootstraps - the road to liberation is thru #BlackCapitalism iggin the system of oppression &role Blk politicians play n it /21
verysmartbrothas.theroot.com/why-buyblack-h…

We r told the lie that Black ppl have a $1.5 TRILLION in spending power, we're simply misusing it & if we just did like good old #JayZ we'd be liberated!

@IMIXWHATILIKE Prof. Jared Ball "The Myth of Black Buying Power" is requisite reading! /22
imixwhatilike.org/category/the-m…

Of course Blk ppl completely reject tokenism as a response to systemic oppression. Sayn “B/c America elected Barack we’re not racist anymore” will get u a room full of sideeyes.

Yet when Blk millionaires/celebs #JayZ use the same dumb logic re: gentrification some eat it up /23

And just as we should rightfully call out & aim 2 hold accountable Blk politicians for pushing an oppressive agenda, given #JayZ's history #BarclaysCenter & #444, its hard to not see "gentrify your own hood" as intentional.
@blkagendareport
/24
blackagendareport.com/jay-z_parasiti…

.@MehrsaBaradaran pt out n her book "The Color of Money: Black Banks & the Racial Wealth Gap" this tactic of claiming racial inequality intrinsic n the exploitative system can b mollified by manipulating said system been pushed since Reconstruction /25

lareviewofbooks.org/article/bankin…

A word from #AudreLorde...
#BlackCapitalism
/26

This "Black exceptionalism" #BlackCapitalism Wil Save Us! is all an effort to prevent the most politically radical ethnic group n the country from leading a move on the oppressive exploitative racist capitalistic system. Modern roots go back to Nixon! /27
theatlantic.com/business/archi…

The last time a real threat to this system was made n the 60s (a time Hoover deemed MLK "the most dangerous man in America" - note y he really was assassinated) Nixon literally appropriated Black Power/self-determination rhetoric. /28

azquotes.com/author/8044-Ma…

Now w/a man-made housing affordability crisis + evisceration of benefits/social safety net + nearly all profits from increased labor productivity goin 2 the investor class = a critical mass (includin middle class yt ppl) ready, we get #JayZ talmbout gentrify your own hood. /29

It is important that critique of the system, #gentrification & JayZ's dangerous comments/actions b made by those who share his celebrity status.
The profs + housing justice combined wont equal ur platform #BootsRiley @ImmortalTech
#NipseyHussle aint here 2 defend himself. /30