Since August 2010, DCentric has been a place to read and participate in a nuanced discussion about the intersection of race and class in Washington, D.C. We have written about unemployment, the digital divide, food deserts, the black middle class, gentrification, These and other timely topics, often pushed far from the front page, have lived above the fold on DCentric.

On a personal note, I moved to Washington D.C. in early 2011 and this blog was a terrific resource for me, teaching me about the unique history and complex issues that make the district such an interesting place to live. I’m thrilled to have been part of a blog that contributed to an important conversation on the city’s changing demographics and how they affect many aspects of residents’ lives.

DCentric was a grant-funded endeavor, existing initially through funds from the Corporation for Public Broadcasting and the Knight Foundation, and most recently through generous support from Ginny McArthur. With the exit of blogger Elahe Izadi this week, we believe the time has come to end DCentric, at least for now.

Should we locate funding for the blog that would enable us to staff it appropriately and maintain the quality our online users deserve, we will re-launch DCentric. Until then, we extend our sincere gratitude to all the regular and occasional DCentric readers.

I have my own highlights, among them: producing a series on D.C.’s unemployment divide; asking why the local crime and punishment museum hires black men to wear prison jumpsuits; exploring what’s behind rock bands playing D.C.’s Ethiopian restaurants; and writing about gentrification — a lot. I’m also grateful that I’ve been able to share some personal stories about identity. I hope you’ve enjoyed reading my posts at least half as much as I’ve enjoyed writing them.

This beat has been challenging, too. Race and class can be loaded, emotionally-charged topics, and they typically come with broad declarations of what’s right and wrong. I’ve learned a lot in my time here, but above all, it’s that things aren’t usually cut and dry. I hope meaningful conversations about these issues continue to happen in D.C., and that they grow in number. Such discussions will be important as we figure out how to navigate all of the changes our city is going through.

So, many thanks to my colleagues, both here at WAMU 88.5 and elsewhere. You’ve provided me with support and feedback, and for that, I am grateful.

And finally, of course, I’d like to thank to you, the readers. I strongly believe in DCentric’s mission: to explore race and class and open up a space for elevated discourse. If I’ve had any success here, it’s in large part to the readers. Thank you for following my work, questioning it, offering insightful comments and contributing to this ongoing conversation, whether in person or over Twitter. I’m moving on, but stay in touch. Seriously!

Zervas / Flickr

The U.S. Postal Service is planning a downsizing, which could disproportionately hurt African Americans,

The black middle class has been hit particularly hard by the recession; many of the economic gains earned over 50 years disappeared between 2007 and 2009.

The foreclosure crisis, lack of accumulated  wealth and the role of a college education in boosting job prospects have all contributed to the decline of the black middle class. Another big factor: cuts to government jobs. Much of the black middle class was built upon public sector jobs, which for decades allowed African Americans to circumvent discrimination in the private sector.

African Americans are over-represented in government jobs [PDF]. So even as the economy slowly adds jobs, government job losses continue to rack up, disproportionately affecting African Americans. Reducing government has been a hot political topic since 2010, particularly with the surge of the tea party movement, which has been accused of having racist undertones. But NPR points out that 70 percent of government job cuts happened in 12 states, all with Republican-controlled legislative bodies, and suggests that such job cuts have fostered resentment among African Americans. From NPR:

What Republicans call an attack on “big government,” many blacks see as an attack on their livelihoods, given their heavy reliance on the public sector for employment.

[Steven] Pitts, the Berkeley economist, calls it “nonracial policies with racialized outcomes.”

The country has 586,000 fewer government jobs now than it did in 2008.

Since 2011, the overall homeless rate grew by 6 percent, while the number of homeless families swelled by 15 percent. According to the survey, D.C. is home to 6,954 homeless people. About one in 100 District residents is homeless.

Homelessness has been on the rise since the start of the recession. Large swaths of the city have chronic, high unemployment rates. Affordable housing is disappearing in D.C., with the median rent for a one-bedroom apartment having increased from $735 to $1,100 over the past decade.

The situation is dire, advocates tell the Washington Post, particularly since the District is expected to lose $7 million in federal money that pays for homelessness programs. 

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• Source: Washingtonpost

Walton, 32, suffers from multiple sclerosis. She lost her job as a medical technician and her apartment last year. On Monday, she moved into a subsidized apartment and says she will not miss having to take six buses every morning and evening just to get her daughter to and from school.

Still, it’s tough.

“You know, I catch myself crying. I get really depressed . . . it’s been heartbreaking,” Walton said.

Read more at: www.washingtonpost.com

Elahe Izadi / DCentric

Teacher Bernadette DeSario works with students conducting historical research on wireless tablets.

Coolidge High School students sit in small groups as they prep for their Advanced Placement U.S. history exam. They’ll be expected to write essays on the materials they’ve learned.

“How or why did the anti-slavery movement become more radical during the period between 1815 and 1816?” teacher Bernadette DeSario asks the students during a class last week. ”We’re going to look at a couple of websites that will provide us with primary source documents.”

The students hunch over small, wireless tablets, swiping the screens as they read letters and other 19th century documents, looking for information to support their answers.

Coolidge doesn’t have many computers, principal Thelma Jarrett said. These students get to use tablets provided by Verizon Wireless, through a program running at four D.C. high schools. It’s intended to level the playing field for high school students in low-income schools, particularly as they get ready for college. The program includes tablets that students can use during class, and also a bus converted into a “learning lab,” stocked with tablets, printers and other devices. The bus, which visits the school once a week, is where students go to get help from Howard University tutors in writing college essays and applying to schools.

Coolidge is a Title 1 school, meaning a high percentage of its students come from low-income homes; 64 percent of the student body qualifies for free or reduced lunches. DeSario said many of her students don’t have access to technology, and that the using the tablets helps them develop good, online research skills.

“It’s putting them so far ahead,” she said. “When they get to college, they’re going to be expected to know how to use this technology.”

DeSario has seen increased class participation and better grades from some students after they starting using the tablets. “They’re so much more engaged,” she said.

Senior Lidya Abune said using the tablets has been useful, for both class work and in preparing for college.

“We can access research and we’re exposed to the technology,” she said. ”We didn’t have a lot of chances and opportunities to use the computers. And we have no Internet at home.”

That’s not uncommon in the District, which has a clear digital divide. Many people in low-income neighborhoods are not connected to high speed Internet.

Principal Jarrett said many students go to the library to use computers. She’d like to see the tablet program expand, which can pose an interesting alternative to standard computers. For one, they don’t require much space and they can be cheaper than desktops, she noted. The pilot program, which is at eight schools in D.C. and Maryland, is one that Verizon hopes to eventually expand.

Paying for college?

The Verizon Wireless program may provide some support in helping these students get into college. But there’s still the matter of how to pay for it. The cost of college has gone up dramatically — it’s tripled over the past three decades — and it’s increasingly becoming out-of-reach for the middle class, too.

Abune said she received help in fill out the Free Application for Federal Student Aid and didn’t know a lot about the college application process. Her family “couldn’t afford it, but I really wanted to try and go to a good college.” She’ll be at Bucknell University in the fall on a full scholarship.

Others have applied to scholarships, but are prepared to take on student loan debt, such as senior Zenayda Berrios. She’ll be attending Bennett College, where tuition, room and board comes to about $24,000. The high cost isn’t deterring her from pursuing a degree in psychology, though.

Principal Jarrett said her approach is to not let the cost of college get in the way of students’ ambitions to attend.

“We encourage them to go for college, and then we’ll worry about paying for it,” she said.

She also noted that many students at the school qualify for federal Pell grants, given their income levels. But she acknowledged that many will have to turn to student loans, and “I know that is a last resort.”

Figuring out how to pay for post-secondary schooling will likely become a big issue in the District; a new D.C. measure requires all high school seniors to take a college entrance exam and apply to a college or trade school in order to graduate from high school.

The D.C. region ranks first. But while people from around the country flock to the District for jobs, many residents are out of work, with large sections of the city facing chronic, high unemployment. The reasons behind such a disparity are complex and interwoven, ranging from many lacking the education credentials needed for jobs in D.C., to others having criminal records.

• 
• Source: Forbes

The human resources firm Adecco Staffing U.S. looked at the U.S. cities with the fullest employment, according to the Department of Labor, as well as internal data around job growth and demand, and then determined which areas are the best for finding a job. Here are the top 10 cities for jobs right now.

Read more at: www.forbes.com

What do you think of how the media depict gentrification in D.C.?

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• Source: France24

H Street, a long avenue that heads into the heart of the city, has been cast as the next Georgetown, an affluent neighborhood filled with world-renowned shops and home to many of Washington’s richest people.

Such comparisons may be premature but traditionally African-American areas in Washington such as Columbia Heights, Adams Morgan, and U Street, have fallen like dominoes in recent decades, with whites and Hispanics moving in.

Read more at: www.france24.com

The demographics of the ward have undergone changes over the past decade, notes the Washington Examiner. The white population more than doubled between 2000 and 2010.

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• Source: Washingtonexaminer
• Via: @LizFarmerDC

Here’s how the experiment worked: researchers gave a poorly-written essay to a group of 113 white teachers. Teachers who thought a black or Latino student wrote the essay gave more praise and less criticism when grading it than when teachers thought a white student wrote the essay.

Kent Harber, the lead psychologist behind the study, talks about the “positive feedback bias” from white teachers and the implications of his findings.

• 
• Source: Rutgers

“The social implications of these results are important; many minority students might not be getting input from instructors that stimulates intellectual growth and fosters achievement,” notes Harber. “Some education scholars believe that minorities under-perform because they are insufficiently challenged—the ‘bigotry of lowered expectations,’ in popular parlance,” he explains. “The JEP study indicates one important way that this insufficient challenge might occur: in positively biased feedback,” according to Harber.

Read more at: www.newark.rutgers.edu

tunnelarmr / Flickr

Dancers representing the Virgin Islands participate in 2008's D.C. Caribbean Festival.

After weeks of speculation as to whether D.C. Caribbean Carnival will take place because of financial woes, the show will go on. Well, sort of.

The parade that typically marches down Georgia Avenue won’t be in D.C. this year. Organizers announced that the D.C. event will join with Baltimore’s annual Caribbean Carnival/Festival for a parade taking place July 14 at Baltimore’s Lake Clifton Park.

D.C. Caribbean Carnival usually holds a Pan Jam, with steel bands and costume judging. That will take place in Bladensburg, Md. during June 23 and 24, the original date of the festival.

The annual parade has been cited as a boost for businesses up and down Georgia Avenue, many of whom protested last year when the route was cut short (again, due to financial troubles).