what is gentrification?

 

gentrification is a manifestation of fear. 

 

gentrification is but a symptom of unmitigated capitalist progress: a toxic cocktail of internalized racism and xenophobia and yes, white supremacy. a symptom with its own power-full side effects.

 

side effects may include systematized and stigmatized homelessness juxtaposed alongside superfluous luxury. 

 

side effects may include You.

side effects do include Me. 

 

We may be implied on the heavier end of the side effect seesaw

the weight of colorless guilt borne by Our shrugged shoulders cementing Our presence, cementing Our power, power met only with consternation. 

 

concerns as to “where to go” and “why we gotta” meet Us cradled inside Our power, 

center it off kilter, and interrogate it into disturbing disproportion.

 

on Our backs We no longer feel Our ground beneath the feet. 

Our turn to stand under the other.  

Our turn to stand with a neighbor, in the worn slides of their lived experiences, yes experienceS, We couldn’t possibly know before We ask. 

 

the women in those slides have stories to tell and far too vast an audience to do it alone. far too powerful a pulpit that keeps them out. 

 

side effects do not include a happy ending. 

side effects may include Us doubled over in shame

 

as their stories answer the questions Our bodies were too inhumanly afraid to ask. 

 

gentrification is a manifestation of fear. fear is the symptom of unmitigated capitalist progress.