An Open Letter to Kim Mai-Cutler

 

About two weeks ago, I came across your article entitled: East of Palo Alto’s Eden: Race and the Formation of Silicon Valley (http://techcrunch.com/2015/01/10/east-of-palo-altos-eden/).  You boldly explain the demographic history of my hometown of East Palo Alto, California, from the 1950’s until the present.  You rightfully raise questions about the level of local diversity in the tech sector, and simultaneously acknowledge the charitable contributions that some of these companies have made to my community.  You convey, “Still, there’s this disconnect between the Valley’s charitable efforts and acknowledging how the structure (emphasis mine) of the region’s housing, job and educational markets create these disparities in the first place.”  Mrs. Mai-Cutler, Thank you, for asking the structural questions, in such a public forum. 

As a high school student, I rode the SamTrans bus every morning.  I left the often sidewalk-less streets of East Palo Alto to get to my high school, Menlo-Atherton.  When I looked out of the window, I didn’t see one street in Atherton without sidewalks.  Where I lived and where I went to school seemed like two vastly different worlds.  Yet they were so close in proximity.  Looking back, I never understood how such abject poverty could exist beside such prosperity. 

You continue, “Now that East Palo Alto has brought its crime from the high-water mark of the early 1990’s, the irony is that the community is now prone to gentrification.”  Over the years, I have heard people say, “Gentrification is inevitable.” I believe that the contrary is true.  This is because gentrification is not a force of nature; it is a human act, brought about by human agency.  While this letter does not offer an exhaustive list on how to “fix” gentrification, I hope that it will become a conversation starter, the same way that your article has.  At the same time, I am aware that gentrification is a trend that existed well before I was born, and will likely continue long after I am gone.  Yet and still, I want to present some facts to consider during the overall discourse on gentrification—for as long as these conversations occur. 

Firstly, throughout history, there has been a pattern of displacement of people of color from their land(s).  The Transatlantic Slave Trade, is a prime example.  Africa was robbed of her natural resources, at the hands of rapacious explorers.  Let us not forget, too, the zealous white missionaries, who boarded ships named, “Jesus,” determined to “save the heathen Negroes.”  But black people weren’t the only group uprooted from their home (land).  The Jewish Holocaust and the Native American Trail of Tears are other historic examples.  I believe such systematic displacement continues to impact the plight and the narrative of these people groups, today.  I wonder if gentrifiers have considered this history in their decision-making.  

  

Secondly, for groups of people, land carries a very symbolic meaning in both literature and culture, which points to identity.  In the biblical tradition, a familiar story regarding land is the Israelite exodus out of Egypt.  According to the story, after crossing the Red Sea, Joshua leads his people into the Promised Land.  Oftentimes in literature, the Promised Land is a metaphor for a better life—free from oppression, whose analysis may be applied to a literal social situation.  It is a story used, for example, in one of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.’s speeches shortly before his death.   He writes, “I may not get there with you… but we as a people will get to the Promised Land (emphasis mine)”!  By inference, for blacks back then, the Promised Land meant a world free from white terrorism (in the form of Jim Crow segregation).  

At its basic level, the question of one’s land of origin is tied to an existential question—“Who Am I”?  Therefore, land is a point of reference for a person’s history, literature, culture and identity.  All of these elements are apart of the fabric of East Palo Alto.  I wonder if the gentrifiers realize the humanity of the people whose land they wish to invade.  I wonder if they realize that land, especially for historically disadvantaged groups of people symbolizes: freedom, opportunity, equity, access, identity and community.  

Thirdly, it should be stated that there are those who don’t mind the process of gentrification and voluntarily sell their property.  Other times (when rents are raised) residents are forced to move out and relocate to cheaper areas.  My focus is on the latter.  Until recently, I had never examined the root word of gentrification—or gentry.

Gentrification is the buying and renovation of houses and stores in deteriorated urban neighborhoods by upper or middle-income families or individuals, thus improving property values but often displacing low-income families and small businesses (www.dictinary.com). The Gentry are defined as:

(1) The class below the Nobility

[The social class pyramid in Great Britain during the Middle Ages looked something like this: Royalty, Clergy, Nobility, Merchants (includes the Gentry), Castle Workers, Entertainers, Military and Peasantry [www.Google.com]).

(2) An upper or ruling class; Aristocracy

(3) Those who are not members of the Nobility… especially those owning large tracts of land 

In other words, the gentry can become the gentrifiers.  At the end of the day, gentrification is about economic wealth and dare I say, power.  Having one usually brings the other, but power must have checks and balances.  Mrs. Mai-Cutler, Thank you for raising questions about who has the power in the process of gentrification and how they are using that power.  Furthermore, thank you for highlighting the class issues inherent in the process of gentrification instead of romanticizing them. Too often, the rhetoric surrounding this process, is couched in a term like “development”— when really, the end result is displacement. 

Growing up in a low-income town like East Palo Alto, California, I have witnessed a city that went from hosting “mom and pop shops” to the franchises like the Four Seasons Hotel.  I have watched relatives relocate because they can no longer afford to live in Silicon Valley.  Since I was a high school student, local grassroots organizations, along with a few others, have been fighting to keep affordable housing complexes that benefit the residents in the community, as opposed to expensive condominiums, which push the residents out.  Perhaps gentrification is the modern day, manifest destiny and we have failed to realize it.  

One might ask, “What should we do about gentrification?  Should we just accept it or fight against it?”  I would add several more questions to the conversation: “Should there be ethics involved? Where does gentrification end? If people keep moving and moving, because of what is best for the gentry, then does it solve anything?  Is there an alternative to gentrification?”  In your article, you underscore the long-term and multi-generational effects of gentrification, which can’t be ignored. 

It seems that the gentry and the developers are more concerned about meeting the demands of the market (profits) and less concerned about uprooting families (people).  I’m curious to know if those in the power seat in these conversations are consciously aware of the weight their decisions have in my community.  Developers are bulldozing families, as if they are buildings.  Perhaps the alternative is for the gentry to see those who they force into this process of gentrification as bearing the image of God.  To put it another way, we all bear the image of God, because we were all created by God. So why is it that one group bearing the same image gets to displace another group?  I don't pretend to have answers to such a complex problem.  But maybe, the first step is realizing that the problem of gentrification itself should be displaced, altogether.  

Mrs. Mai-Cutler, Thank you for taking the time to research the history of East Palo Alto, interview residents and gather the narrative of my community.  It is a story worth telling.  It forced me to articulate my own thoughts on the topic of gentrification and put into perspective many of the disturbing disparities I saw and lived with, growing up.  You have reminded me why the work of justice is the work to which I have dedicated my life.   

Thank you, for being so courageous. 

Sincerely,

Kyra Brown