January 2, 2012 | 2:03 PM | By

How the Generational Gap is Becoming a Racial Gap

The median age of the nation’s white population is rising, while it’s dropping for non-whites, according to census data. That’s left some concerned that blacks and Latinos are disproportionately affected by cuts to public programs that benefit youth.

D.C.’s demographic make-up is somewhat reverse of national trends; African Americans have the highest median age at 37.7 years. The median age for whites is 33 years and 29.8 years for Hispanics. This younger population is behind D.C.’s record growth.


“Where the old don’t see themselves reflected in the young, there’s less investment in the future,” says Manuel Pastor, a professor of geography and American Studies & Ethnicity at the University of Southern California where he directs the Program for Environmental and Regional Equity (PERE) and co-directs the Center for the Study of Immigrant Integration.

“Our racial divide has become a generational divide,” Pastor says. “There’s this image of an older generation drawing up the drawbridge just as the younger generation is coming of age in America.”

More important, data show that states with a larger gap between median ages of whites and people of color tend to make fewer investments in social programs that once benefited older generations that were predominantly white, according to a new research project by PERE in conjunction with PolicyLink, a national research and advocacy organization based in Oakland, Calif.

For instance, Pastor says states with significant age gaps between white and nonwhite populations tend to spend the least on education and public transportation.

Read more at: americaswire.org

January 2, 2012 | 9:28 AM | By

D.C. Growth to Continue in 2012?

Last year was sort of monumental for D.C., which led states in population growth for the first time in more than 70 years. The Atlantic senior editor Megan McArdle discusses what could happen to D.C.’s housing prices — which rose in 2011 — and population size if the federal government shrinks.


In the next few years, it’s reasonable to expect that the ten year boom in government expansion will come to an end. Does that mean that the DC housing-and-retail boom ends with it? Will population stall?

One school of thought holds that it has to; when the government stops expanding, so will all the ancillary jobs–not just the services to people living and working in the district, but everything from think tanks to lobbyists to journalists covering all this added activity.

I’m inclined to think, however, that this is not quite right. I don’t know whether house prices will stay high–they increased at quite a clip over the last ten years, and they’ve barely fallen. Ultimately house prices can’t keep growing faster than area median income, so without New York’s absurd finance incomes, eventually they should stabilize or even pull back.

Read more at: www.theatlantic.com

December 30, 2011 | 1:49 PM | By

Race, Class and the District: Top Five Stories of 2011

As the year comes to a close, DCentric is looking back on the five big stories where race and class intersected. Do you think there’s something we missed? Let us know in the comments section:

Nicholas Kamm / Getty Images

Occupy DC protesters block the intersection of 14th and K streets, NW.

The Occupy Movement spreads around the world and takes root in D.C.

The Occupy Movement began in New York City and spread to other cities, including D.C. Protestors have focused much of their ire on the economic inequality that’s left the nation’s wealth in the hands of a very small minority. There has been a fair share of criticism of the movement, including some targeting its lack of representation of those who have been most hurt by the economic crisis: people of color. In recent weeks, protesters have decamped in numerous cities, but their presence remains in D.C.

D.C. no longer “Chocolate City.”

This was a landmark year for the District when it comes to demographics. D.C.’s black population dipped below the 50 percent mark sometime in February, according to census estimates. This comes after more than four decades of the District being “Chocolate City,” a nickname reflecting its status as a majority-black city. D.C. also led states in population growth in 2011 for the first time in more than 70 years.

Continue reading →

FILED UNDER: Around the City, Race and Class
December 30, 2011 | 9:58 AM | By

D.C. ‘Unhip’ Because It’s Too Expensive for Artists?

Is D.C. too expensive for artists, or is there still space for a thriving artist community, despite the increasingly pricey housing market? In a Slate piece Thursday, Matthew Yglesias writes that D.C. is woefully “unhip” because, unlike cities such as Philadelphia, it’s simply too expensive for the “semi-employed artist or guitar player” to live and create here.

Washington City Paper‘s Ryan Little, a self-proclaimed semi-employed guitarist, responds Friday. While conceding that D.C.’s rents may be expensive, Little writes that there are still cheap places to live. Also, he notes, D.C. offers a number of benefits that make the arts cheaper and more accessible than in other cities.


… If you’re looking for a city with a decent grant system, a slew of great venues, a consistent dedication to making the arts accessible, and a strong sense of community, I would argue D.C. easily tops [Philadelphia or Baltimore].

We have a gloriously free art culture here. Look at events from the Smithsonian hosting music & art shows with folks like John Davis and Kennedy Center’s Millennium Stage, to summer concerts series like Fort Reno, Fort Dupont, and the National Gallery’s Jazz in the Garden. There are the regular pay-what-you-can nights at theaters like Woolly Mammoth, the cheap or free boundary-pushing exhibits at Artisphere, and access to world-class art museums that don’t cost a dime. Those “large sums of money” that Yglesias says are handy for going out to dinner in D.C.? In New York, you’d be dropping them to visit the MOMA, instead.

Read more at: www.washingtoncitypaper.com

December 29, 2011 | 2:14 PM | By

Why D.C. Isn’t ‘Hip’

D.C. isn’t hip, and our expensive housing market may be to blame. That’s according to Slate’s Matthew Yglesias, who writes the District attracts politicos and high-end services. “But by the same token,” he writes, “if you’re a semi-employed artist or guitar player [D.C.] is much more expensive than Philadelphia or Baltimore and still smaller and less interesting than New York City, which has less than one-third our murder rate.”

Some District artists are finding themselves priced out of living and working in D.C. Go-go, D.C.’s homegrown music genre, is increasingly being relegated to the suburbs. Nonprofit and government-subsidized housing and grants present one solution to keeping artists within the District’s borders, but it may not be enough to keep it cost-effective for all D.C. artists to remain.


If DC ever becomes as safe as NYC and our schoolkids score as well on tests as New York kids, then I suspect Washington’s housing costs will rocket past New York’s already very high ones. I don’t think it’s a coincidence that the city was probably more culturally influential during its mid-eighties quality of life nadir than it is today as a richer-but-prohibitively expensive city.

Read more at: www.slate.com

December 29, 2011 | 12:54 PM | By

Gentrification? Try Gentefication.

Leo Reynolds / Flickr

Gentrification, the "G" word, can be a very loaded term.

We write plenty about gentrification here on DCentric, which can be a very loaded word. But what about “gentefication?” According to our sister blog Multi-American, gentefication is “the process of upwardly mobile Latinos, typically second-generation and beyond, investing in and returning to the old neighborhood.” The “gente” comes from the Spanish word for “people.”

Gentefication is being used to describe what’s happening in L.A.’s Boyle Heights neighborhood, where Latino investors are developing low-income areas, with businesses attracting second-generation and English-speaking crowds. Some low-income locals of Mexican descent are worried they’ll be displaced by all of this development, even if the business owners are Latino, too.

In D.C., gentrification has taken hold in working class black and Latino neighborhoods, and most of D.C.’s well-to-do newcomers are white; in a city that’s mostly black, 60 percent of households making more than $75,000 are white, according to census data. Therefore the word “gentrification” in D.C. tends to imply neighborhood changes have to do with class and race.

But gentrification, even in the District, isn’t always about race. Take Anacostia, where the gentrification that’s starting to occur is class-based; professional African Americans are settling in the predominately black, low-income area. And just as in L.A.’s Boyle Heights, some of these newcomers have roots in the city and are returning to the places they grew up. So is gentrification the best way to describe what’s happening in Anacostia, or do we need a new word, too?

FILED UNDER: Around the City, Anacostia, Gentrification, Race and Class, Rhetoric
December 29, 2011 | 10:03 AM | By

D.C.-Area Black Students Suspended More than White Students

African American students are suspended at much higher rates than their white peers throughout the D.C.-metro area, according to a Washington Post analysis. Why the difference? Although poverty may play a role, there may be some unintended bias against black students. Also, black students may be attending schools with more punitive leadership styles.

Such disparities in school discipline have come under the microscope by the U.S. Justice and Education departments. This summer, they launched an initiative to address the “school-to-prison pipeline,” a set of school policies that can lead to students dropping out and ending up in the criminal justice system.

Experts say disparities appear to have complex causes. A disproportionate number of black students live below the poverty line or with a single parent, factors that affect disciplinary patterns. But experts say those factors do not fully explain racial differences in suspensions. Other contributing factors could include unintended bias, unequal access to highly effective teachers and differences in school leadership styles.

… An increasing number of studies have looked into whether poverty, family background or other characteristics explain racial disparities, said researcher Russell Skiba of Indiana University.

“It is not just a matter of kids coming from poverty,” Skiba said. “Poor kids do get suspended more. But that does not explain why poor black kids get suspended more than poor white kids and why affluent black kids get suspended more than affluent white kids.”

Read more at: www.washingtonpost.com

December 28, 2011 | 2:30 PM | By

Combating Stereotypes Using Comedy

Comedy can be one of the most disarming ways to combat stereotypes. Four Muslim-American comics of Middle Eastern descent are touring the deep south on a mission: to use their using their jokes to dispel myths about Islam and to paint a broader, more accurate picture of Muslims and  Middle Easterners who also identify as American.


A major factor driving Muslim Americans toward comedy was the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks. “There were no Middle Eastern comics before 9/11 that anyone knew about,” Obeidallah said. “The phenomenon really grew in the last 10 years, because of the [anti-Muslim] backlash. I think a lot of people in our community started doing it as a form of political activism.” As they started appearing on national television, he said, “it spurred other Middle Eastern comedians to get involved.” Now, he said, there are about 10 full-time professionals and a growing number of aspiring professionals.

Read more at: www.washingtonpost.com

December 28, 2011 | 12:38 PM | By

How D.C. Changed in 2011

Elvert Barnes / Flickr

A diverse group of people ride up and down escalators at DC USA in Columbia Heights. D.C. experienced dramatic demographic changes in 2011.

The year is nearly coming to a close, so we thought we’d take a look back to see just how much D.C. changed in 2011.  Here’s our list, and feel free to contribute more in the comments section:

Continue reading →

FILED UNDER: Around the City, Census, Race and Class
December 28, 2011 | 9:00 AM | By

Wealth Gap Widens Between Congressmen and Constituents

Since the 1980s, the median net worth of the average congressman has doubled, a Washington Post study found. At the same time, the net worth of the average family has declined. The result: a widening gulf in wealth between lawmakers and the public.

There may be a number of reasons behind the growing gap. For one, the overall income gap between the poor and rich has grown. Also, political campaigns have become increasingly expensive endeavors, meaning the rich are more likely to run for office and win.


When Myers entered Congress, in 1975, it wasn’t nearly so unusual for a person with few assets besides a home to win and serve in Congress. Though lawmakers on Capitol Hill have long been more prosperous than other Americans, others of that time included a barber, a pipe fitter and a house painter. A handful had even organized into what was called the “Blue Collar Caucus.”

… “My mother and I used to joke we were like the Beverly Hillbillies when we rolled into McLean, and we really were,” said Michele ­Myers, the congressman’s daughter, now 46. “My dad was driving this awful lime-green Ford Maverick, and I bought my clothes at Kmart.”

Read more at: www.washingtonpost.com