White Person in a Black Neighborhood
I’m a white person moving to a predominantly black (afro-caribbean) neighborhood and I feel conflicted about it. I’m part of a tidal wave of gentrification hitting Flatbush, Brooklyn after washing over Bed Stuy, Crown Heights, and surrounding neighborhoods. I’m a harbinger of rising rents, 311 complaints, and increased demand for city services. I wonder if my neighbors will resent me.
Before tackling what’s going on in Flatbush today, here’s some neighborhood history:
The original inhabitants of Brooklyn were the Lenape native people that included the Nayack and Canarsee who planted corn and tobacco and fished in the rivers. They started getting squeezed out when Dutch settlers spilled over from Manhattan and founded five villages: Bushwick, Brooklyn, Flatbush, Flatlands, and New Utrecht. Flatbush dates as a Dutch settlement from 1651, when it was known as ‘Vlacke bos’, Dutch for ‘flat woodland’. Flatbush was surrendered to the British in 1664, along with the other Dutch towns and together they made up Kings County. The Dutch were active in the slave trade and their descendants in Brooklyn were slave holders. At one point a third of the Brooklyn population were enslaved black people.
After the Revolutionary War, the neighborhood was mainly Irish-American, Italian-American and Jewish until the 1970’s when white flight triggered a big demographic shift. The Verazzano Bridge created an easy way for many white Flatbush families to move to Staten Island, leaving homes to be occupied by a growing Afro-Caribbean community.*
Maybe I’m bringing up this history to make the case that if the neighborhood is changing again now, then it’s part of a larger historical pattern. It just happens, right? But in all big neighborhood shifts there are winners and losers. I don’t want to move to Flatbush without acknowledging my unintended negative side effects and learning if I can do anything to offset these negatives.
One group organizing to protect vulnerable people in the community is Equality for Flatbush. They have some advice for new residents moving to the neighborhood:
You define yourself. You don’t have to call yourself a gentrifier if you come to this community with good intentions. Just call yourself a new neighbor.
Be aware of what you have and what others don’t have. Black people are disproportionately targeted by law enforcement and more likely to be victims of predatory evictions. Donate to bail funds so that your neighbors can get the legal help they need but can’t afford.
Think twice before calling 911 or 311. Police engagement may have a negative outcome you didn’t foresee.
Walking around the streets of Flatbush, not all of my interactions are positive. I sense a few glares from people and an occasional muttered insult. But the neighbors on my street have been wonderful. Across the street is a woman from Guyana who seems to be the mayor of the block. To my relief, she let me know that my house didn’t come to market because of a sad eviction story.
Next door is the last white person on the street who moved here in the 1950’s and never left. On my other side is a Jamaican family that seems very nice. While working in my backyard, a guy leaned over his balcony to warn me about a family of raccoons on the block. Another person called out ‘Welcome!’ while he was cleaning out his gutter. My neighbors seem ok with me.
As Spike Lee said: “Respect the neighborhood.”
Spike Lee’s Amazing Rant Against Gentrification: ‘We Been Here!’
* For more Flatbush history, check out this comprehensive study by Brooklyn College students: The Peopling of Flatbush
