Race, Space, and Inequality - Summer 2023
Section outline
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How do you get to know the places you live or visit? What lenses do you use? How do we engage places respectfully as visitors or newcomers?
Listen:
Johnson, J. (2016, May 11). Anacostia Unmapped: The Nacotchtank and the First Gentrifiers. WAMU.
Read:
Mathuria, S. (2019, March 28). Place & privilege: Telling stories about places that aren’t yours. Progressive City.
Overly, S., Smith-Barrow, D., O’Donnell, K., & Li, M. (2022, April 15). Washington Was an Icon of Black Political Power. Then Came Gentrification. POLITICO.
(Read only pp. 37-41, 44.) Verloo, N. (2020). Urban ethnography and participant observations: Studying the city from within. In N. Verloo & L. Bertolini (Eds.), Seeing the City: Interdisciplinary Perspectives on the Study of the Urban (pp. 37-55). Amsterdam University Press.
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How and why do places change? Socially? Economically?
Read:
Kashino, M. M. (2018, April 4). The reinvention of 14th Street: A history. Washingtonian.
Giambrone, A. (2016, June 2). D.C. No Longer Has a Central Gay Neighborhood. Does That Matter? Washington City Paper.
(Read only pp. 724-738.) Zukin, S. (2008). Consuming authenticity: From outposts of difference to means of exclusion. Cultural Studies, 22(5), 724–748.
(Read only pp. 196-202.) Smith, N. (1984/2008). A Seesaw Theory of Uneven Development. In Uneven Development: Nature, Capital, and the Production of Space. University of Georgia Press.
Submit by 11am:
1) Response blog #1: What drivers of change stand out to you in these accounts? Who is involved? In what ways do people or groups claim or appropriate space? (250 words)
In class:
Field exercise: 14th Street corridor
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June 15 (evening)
Theater performance: Good Bones at Studio Theatre
7:30pm
1501 14th Street NW, Washington, DC 20005
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We see racial difference reflected in space, but does geography produce racial identities?
Watch:
Housing Segregation and Redlining in America: A Short History. (2018, April 11). Code Switch from NPR.
Read:
Butler, S. M. & Grabinsky, J. (2015, March 24). Segregation and concentrated poverty in the nation’s capital. Brookings.
Rothstein, R. (2015, March 30). Should we force integration on those who don’t want it?, and other commonplace questions about race relations. Economic Policy Institute.
Delaney, D. (2002). The space that race makes. The Professional Geographer, 54(1), 6–14.
Arena Stage study guide for Exclusion.
Submit by 11am:
1) Response blog #2: Explain how living and working in segregated spaces could shape somebody’s understandings of what race means: the significance of their own racial identity as well as the racial identities of others? Delaney and other geographers argue that the spatial organization of our society produces and perpetuates racial privilege and inequality. Do you agree? If so, how does that work? (250 words)
2) Good Bones response
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Friday, June 23 (evening)
Theater performance: : Exclusion at Arena Stage
8:00pm
1101 6th St SW, Washington, DC 20024
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What is gentrification and why does it happen? Do you see it as good, bad, or morally neutral? Who benefits and how?
Read:
(Read only pp. 3-13 and pp. 75-104.) Hyra, D. S. (2017). Race, class, and politics in the cappuccino city. University of Chicago Press.
Crockett, Jr, S. A. (2012, August 3). The Brixton: It’s new, happening and another example of African-American historical “swagger-jacking.” The Washington Post.
Franke-Ruta, G. (2012, August 10). The Politics of the Urban Comeback: Gentrification and Culture in D.C. The Atlantic.
Moulden, D. (2021). Is gentrification a municipal crime? Reflections and strategies on ‘Urban Activism: Staking Claims in the 21st Century City’. Radical Housing Journal.
Submit by 11am:
1) Response blog #3: How does Hyra’s idea of “Black branding” compare to what Crockett means by “historical swagger-jacking?” What is Franke-Ruta’s argument? Who is committing the crimes that Moulden describes? What parts of these four perspectives do you find most compelling? (250 words)
2) Case study Progress Report
3) Exclusion response
In class:
Speaker: Dominic Moulden, long-time community organizer, ONE DC -
What neighborhood is this? What makes community? And whose story is that to tell?
Read:
Hwang, J. (2016). The social construction of a gentrifying neighborhood: Reifying and redefining identity and boundaries in inequality. Urban Affairs Review, 52(1), 98–128.
Schweitzer, A. (2019, May 30). Some Say ‘East Of The River’ Has A Negative Connotation. Hello, ‘East End’? WAMU.
Flock, E. (2011, October 8). NoMa: The neighborhood now has a name, but it’s still searching for its identity. The Washington Post. (pdf link)
Submit by 11am:
1) Response blog #4: So what if people define a neighborhood in different ways and with different names? Do you think it matters? Why or why not? What significance does Hwang’s research ascribe to place definition of this kind? (250 words)
In class:
Field exercise: Neighborhood branding and identity
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What is power? And how do we increase the power of a group of people?
Read:
Garza, A. (2020). Chapters 3-5: First Lessons, The First Fight, and Unite to Fight. In The Purpose of Power: How We Come Together When We Fall Apart (pp. 47-94). One World.
A Primer on Community Power ,Place, and Structural Change. (2020). USC Dornsife Equity Research Institute.
Submit by 11am:
1) Response blog #5: What most resonates with you from Alicia Garza’s story? How does she frame the work of community organizing? In what ways have you been involved in organizing in your life? (250 words)
In class:
Speaker: Awad Bilal, Tenant Organizer, Latino Economic Development Center -
Read:
Green, G. P., & Haines, A. (2016). A history of community development in America. In Asset Building & Community Development (pp. 32-56). Sage.
DiNitto, D., & Johnson, D. (2021). Social welfare policy: Overview. In Encyclopedia of Social Work.
Submit by 11am:
1) Response blog #6: In your opinion, what characterizes people or communities deserving of society’s help? Who should pay for community development in places with inadequate resources? Who should get to control how that money is spent? (250 words)
In class:
Speaker: Leah Garrett, VP Development and Communications, Community of Hope -
Submit by 11:00am:
1) Draft case study report: Submit on Moodle and bring two hard copies to class. -
Whose place is this and who belongs here? How do you know?
Read:
Chason, R. (2017, July 21). Field wars: Organized league clashes with pickup players in a gentrifying neighborhood. The Washington Post.
Moulden, D., Squires, G. D., & Theresa, A. (2018, Oct. 10). The right to stay put. Shelterforce.
Submit by 11am:
1) Response blog #7: How do you know who belongs somewhere and who doesn’t? What gives somebody the right to stay put—or to keep playing soccer where and how they’ve been playing? Is it appropriate for a government to take steps to protect long-term residents from the displacing impact of gentrification and rising property values? Why? (250 words)
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Submit by 9:00am:
1) Final case study report and presentation slides