In last weekâs paper, I wrote about a meeting held by Allyship, a local queer-rights group, about saving gay spacesâsuch as bars, apartments, and community centersâwhich have all been disappearing from Capitol Hill as rents skyrocket. Itâs an interesting topic, and Allyship deserves applause for bringing it up and bringing together folks of all ages, races, etc.
But I was a little strident in my report. Rather than give the group a blowjob for pioneering great work and pointing out that they would be taking future steps and that a few quiet people in the audience were quite reasonableâwhich would have been a dull-ass articleâI said Allyship should put a lid on the interminable babble about âoppressionâ and âprivilegeâ that dominated the meeting. Itâs not that oppression, privilege, prejudice, race, and homophobia arenât part of gentrification. They are. But maybe it was that I grew up attending predominantly black schools in the Central District and going to an overwhelmingly black church where we talked much of social injustice. Then I worked on drug policy and criminal justice reform, and talked about racial inequities some more. And Iâm fucking sick of talking about it, especially in the context of gentrification.
The impact of the real-estate market on queer housing and spaceâwe get it, rooted in social inequity, we get itâis a math problem... a math problem solvable in Seattle much more easily than conquering institutional oppression. But, because I was glib and because I mocked Scott Winn for starting the meeting by asking the group to acknowledge the Duwamish people who were the first people gentrified out of Seattle (seriously), I knew that someone would be upset at me in the comments of my article. And recently, someone posting as Scott Winnâprobably Scottâposted this retort:
The article was also no surprise after seeing how Holden carried himself as a panelist. From referring to his new neighbors in the Central Area as âcrack dealersâ to his short-sighted vision of what is possible by asserting that gentrification caused by development will always exist, he made clear that he was no friend to communities of color. Important to note, Holden silenced what represented half of the forum: a focus on the history of racial gentrification in Seattle, and resistance to it. This erasure, while not surprising, is sadly typical of many white liberals who have not addressed their privilege.As for my recognition of the Duwamish Nation, it was sad and racist that Holden chose to ridicule me for it.
Iâm sure Iâll never appreciate my privilege as a white man. Iâm an oppressor. And it was mean to make fun of Scott for acknowledging the Duwamish Nation. But I take umbrage with one thing. I called the âcrack dealersâ in front of my house âcrack dealersâ because theyâre actually selling crack. (Perhaps Scott could reconsider his assumptions that crack dealers are people of color.) I live on 21st and Union, right next to the Union Market convenience store. Itâs no secret to anyone whatâs happening on that corner. The guys wait in front of the store or on my steps, wait for a car to pull up, walk over, exchange a small bag containing some off-white lumps for some green pieces of paper, and then the car drives off. My white neighbors, black neighbors, Asian neighbors, gay neighbors, and African American housemates have all agreed: those are crack dealers.
Also, while I said that land values will increase in a growing cityâgentrifying some districtsâI also made the point that we can do plenty of things to keep residents in their neighborhoods. I listed six ways to do that. Call those options short-sighted, but a long-range vision for challenging oppression wonât help get a better deal on incentive zoning, the Pike-Pine rezone, light-rail designâthe things that will actually preserve these gay spaces now. Working toward those goals, which I admire Allyship for doing, is worthwhile. But talking about oppressionâor claiming people who sell crack aren't crack dealersâis what drives practical people away from activism.