So...I've moved back to my hometown of Brooklyn. I've been back for almost two months now. I've seen a lot of the changes that have been happening here since I've been gone for the last 7-8 years...
And I
DON'T like what I see.
None of these changes were made to benefit the people who were originally here; they were made to benefit the Manhattanites who can no longer afford to live in Manhattan, and the newly arrived transplants who
disrespectfully carry themselves as if they are originally FROM here.
You're NOT!!! Stop fakin' the funk!!!!
A lot of this is what I was fighting against
before I moved out of the state. I saw the handwriting on the wall, so to speak, and saw that people just weren't prepared for what was coming, nor were they interested or inclined in trying to fend it off. It frustrated me beyond belief, and totally burned me out, among other personal issues that I was dealing with at the time. It got worse almost immediately after I left.
I've only been gone a short time. I would understand if I'd been gone a good 10+ years; progress and change is inevitable.
BUT...I've only been gone a short amount of time. I walk around the neighborhood I grew up in, and don't even recognize it. The borough that I love has lost it's flavor; it's become so stagnant. All you see around the way are these mainstream big box stores. The local mom-and-pop shops are falling/have fallen to the wayside. You have interloping transplants boguarding and regulating as if they're actually
from here, and putting a kibosh on any and all cultural activities that have been going on in our communities for decades before their arrival.
I DO see people keeping up the fight. Brothers and sisters are out there trying to maintain our cultural and artistic spaces, or are trying to create new ones for us. The supreme need is the support of the community so that these traditions and institutions can
never be lost to us ever again. They can
try to push us out; I think that it's about time that we started to
push back.
When our neighborhoods were defunct and crime ridden, they didn't want to have
anything to do with us. Now that we've brought our communities back, they want to leech onto our space, claim them for their own, and push us out. They abandoned us with 'white flight' back in the day, and left us to our own recourse, suffering with our lack of capital and resources. Once we brought our communities back, through grit and determination, investing in our own ethnic arts and businesses, now they want a piece of the action, and take over by pricing us out. I've recently been to Downtown Brooklyn; it looks like a little Manhattan. That disgusted me beyond belief. Brooklyn has IT'S OWN identity; we
DON'T NEED
nor WANT to be another Manhattan. Take that bullshit back where you came from!
Now that I'm back, I must help to do my part to keep that original part of us alive. This cookie cutter persona that permeates throughout this city of great originality
must be discarded!
WE are the trendsetters.
WE are the originators.
WE are the ones that set the standards for others to follow across the country, and the world.
WE are the innovators of fashion, music, arts, and style. We were
NEVER followers; we
are leaders!
To our youth...step it up, and think outside the box!! To our elders...provide that proper guidance that our youth need. This mockery of who we are cannot stand for much longer. Let's be the trendsetters and innovators that we truly are.
Fuck chasing the almighty dollar; your due compensation will surly come in due time. Besides, having a lot of money doesn't make you right, nor make you the best.
Reclaim that Brooklyn steelo.
Holla at ya boy!!!!
