Latinos in the U.S. are often thought of as having lighter or brown skin, rather than being of African descent. This, despite the fact that the vast majority of enslaved Africans ended up in Latin America, not the United States — 4.8 million to 450,000. In D.C., 5,735 people identify as both Latino and black, according to 2010 census figures. These individuals represent 1 percent of D.C.’s total black population and 10 percent of D.C.’s Latino population.
Navigating identity issues for black Latinos in the U.S. can be tricky since people are often categorized by race and skin tone. A number of prominent black Latinos – including Soledad O’Brien and Tatyana Ali– talk about their struggles with identity in this short documentary, produced by Telemundo’s mun2 cable network. At one point, O’Brien jokingly states, “I literally just try to mess up the census. It’s such a flawed system. So I just check everything that applies, check, check, check, across the board.”
It took years of organizing and lobbying — even a Stevie Wonder song — to get Martin Luther King, Jr. Day recognized as a federal holiday. People typically observe the day by volunteering as a way of paying homage to King’s legacy of service to humanity.
Or you could go to the club. King’s birthday and his image are being used to promote numerous parties around D.C. this year (Martin Luther King. Jr. Day is on Monday). The Washington Post’s Going Out Gurus have quite an exhaustive list of club fliers brandishing King’s words and face, and as they note, this isn’t the first year these images are being used to promote drink specials.
A new Express series, “Standing Still’s Not A Choice,” explores D.C.’s physical activity disparities and how some people are overcoming them. The problem is about more than simply trimming waistlines — 15 percent of deaths in the District are related to obesity-related, Express reports.
Just 8.9 percent of white residents are obese, while 34.9 percent of black residents are. Those with less than a high school education are nearly three times as likely to be obese as college grads. The same goes for income level — 38.5 percent of people making $15,000 or less are obese, compared with 13.1 percent of those earning $75,000 or more.
Unfortunately, none of these statistics came as a surprise to the DOH’s then-director, Pierre Vigilance, who recognizes them as a reflection of nationwide problems. “Poverty affects not only your time, but it also may affect your energy level,” says Vigilance, now a visiting professor at the George Washington University School of Public Health and Health Services.
On Monday, we wrote about how a nonprofit’s plans to open a transitional housing building in downtown Anacostia for homeless women has sparked protests by neighbors. Some feel Anacostia is becoming a “dumping ground” for social services, and this is hurting the neighborhood’s chances for economic development.
DCentric commenter Ann-Marie Watt, who is opposed to the project run by Calvary Women’s Services, had this to add:
A couple of years ago, I was volunteering and spoke with a homeless man in McPherson Square park. He said that he was an advocate for the homeless and operated a blog on homelessness issues. He was sooo angry at DC and other groups moving their services to Anacostia. He said that people were trying to get rid of the homeless population by moving them to the other side of the river. He also said that it would be more difficult to get back to the other side every day. So, what about that?…
Gentrification occurs when middle and upper-class people move into low-income communities, heralding renewed investment in these neighborhoods. It often results in some displacement of low-income people. Usually people think whites are the ones doing the gentrifying, particularly in D.C., but that’s not always the case.
An ongoing discussion is taking place on DCentric and our Los Angeles-based sister blog, Multi-American, which first wrote about “gentefication:” the process by which upwardly mobile and second-generation Latinos invest in low-income, Latino immigrant neighborhoods. We asked whether a more specific term should be use to describe what’s happening in some D.C. neighborhoods, where middle and upper-class African Americans are moving to and investing in low-income, black communities. Multi-American breaks down the discussion by reviewing readers’ comments.
For those concerned with housing costs in minority neighborhoods, the fear is that what are traditionally considered building blocks of gentrification – developers, high rents, wealthier white residents from outside the area – have a tendency to follow first-wave investors regardless of their ethnicity, with the next step being the area’s lower income residents pushed out as prices go up.
Readers of both blogs had quite a bit to say on the issue, good and bad.
The H Street Northeast corridor has plenty of new bars and restaurants that draw evening crowds, but the area is low on daytime foot traffic. A new grant program is intended to change that by boosting the corridor’s retail options.
In the past, we’ve written about the $1.25 million grant program and about some fears that businesses catering to newer and wealthier clientele would benefit rather than longtime businesses. The grant was made available to new or existing businesses, as long as they weren’t restaurants, bars, liquor stores, hair salons or barbershops.
The first round of winners were announced Wednesday morning. They include Bikram Yoga Capitol Hill, H Street Care Pharmacy and Wellness Center and The C.A.T. Walk Boutique, all of which opened along the corridor between 2006 and 2010. That may lead to easy charges that the program is benefiting newer businesses over older ones. But also winning a grant: Stan’s Inc., a clothing store that has been in D.C. since 1947 and on H Street since 1978. DCist reports that owner Leon Robbins will renovate the store and expand its clothing line using the $85,000 award.
Remember playtime, when you would use your imagination to create a world of your own, with little structure or guidance? That kind of activity, called “free play,” helps boost childhood development and leads to better behavior in schools. But a new report by the American Academy of Pediatrics found low-income children in cities have limited opportunities to play.
It would seem that free play would be quite accessible, given that you don’t need expensive lessons or toys to participate. But there are a number of socioeconomic factors preventing low-income children from playing. Here are three:
Anacostia's commercial corridor is filled with vacancies.
A vocal group of Anacostia residents have been rallying against a nonprofit’s plans to open transitory housing along the neighborhood’s business corridor. Calvary Women’s Services hopes to open along Good Hope Road, SE by summer, and provide semi-permanent housing for 50 formerly homeless women.
On the one hand, the objections can be viewed as typical NIMBYism. There’s also fear that placing transitory housing on an underutilized commercial corridor will cripple future economic development — while many of D.C.’s neighborhoods have undergone a transformation in which vacant buildings are converted into coffee shops and sit-down restaurants, Anacostia has lagged behind.
But the opposition in Anacostia is complex, which many residents say has become a dumping ground for social services because of the community’s demographics.
“There’s this perception about Anacostia that it’s all a bunch of poor black people who are out here struggling, and that they’d be happy to have [more social services] here,” said Nikki Peele, Congress Heights on the Rise blogger.
Unemployment is down, but not for everyone, according to the U.S. Department of Labor. White and Latino unemployment rates dropped between 2010 and 2011, but unemployment among blacks in is the same as it was a year ago.
Latino unemployment is at its lowest since 2009, at 11 percent. White unemployment is 7.5 percent and black unemployment is 15.8 percent.
The black unemployment rate has been roughly double that of whites since the government started tracking the figures in 1972, Bill Rodgers, chief economist with the Heldrich Center for Workforce Development at Rutgers University, explained to CNN.
“Minorities and women are heavily concentrated in public sector jobs,” Rodgers explained to CNN. “With these major cuts we’re seeing in public employment, you’re going to see minorities pushed out of these jobs.”
Love Cafe is closing on Jan. 29 after nine years on U Street.
Businesses move to transitional neighborhoods because space is cheap and there’s potential for future growth. But sometimes the economic success of these neighborhoods leads to the demise of the early gentrifiers.
Love Cafe opened at 15th and U Street, NW in 2003, two years before Busboys and Poets moved into the corridor and signaled rapid change in the community. This week, Love Cafe owner Warren Brown announced he’s closing Jan. 29 because rent has gotten too high. H Street Playhouse on H Street, NE is closing moving after it opened along the corridor in 2002, ahead of the trendy bars, restaurants and high rents.
Of course, some businesses that moved into neighborhoods at the beginning stages of gentrification do remain. They could be at an advantage because they got their feet in the door early. But gentrification happens in stages, and just like the longtime businesses that successfully weather gentrification, newer businesses also have to keep adapting to neighborhood changes in order to survive.
