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- Deric's Debate: Clean up your own backyard
Deric's Debate: Clean up your own backyard
- By Deric Muhammad
- Published 02/15/2010
- Editorial and Opinion
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Deric Muhammad
Deric Muhammad is a Houston-based community activist who blogs at http://www.askbroderic.blogspot.com.
Once President Lyndon Baines Johnson signed the Civil Rights Bill of 1964, with Dr. Martin Luther King looking over his shoulder, Black people who had a little money couldn’t wait to move from segregated small towns into the big city. But, by the time Black folk got moved in and they jumped the picket fence to go and meet their new neighbors, White folk had already moved out.
Soon after, those Black families went back to those small towns and spread the word about the inner city. The new neighborhood was now populated with the same folks from the small town they left. They all may as well have stayed where they were.
White folks moved to these rural areas, renamed them “the suburbs” and bought all of the land that we left. Thirty years later, in a move to reclaim the inner-cities of America, called “gentrification”, they began to aggressively repurchase urban properties owned by Black people that they lost during the sixties.
Two generations later, the same families that “broke their backs” to get into the inner city were now “breaking their necks” to get out. The move to “gentrify” the inner city was not as easy as they thought it would be. A lot had happened in the decades since integration.
The advent of “crack” cocaine and the violence, turf warfare and human casualty count it brought about turned many inner city neighborhoods into the shanty towns that our families left for a better life in the sixties. We should have learned a valuable lesson. The Neighborhood does not make the people; the people make the neighborhood.
The first thing we must do is unite and create a common agenda for the betterment of our neighborhoods. We, then, must do as City Councilman Jarvis Johnson says: “team up to clean up.” A dirty neighborhood is not a decent neighborhood. Others will respect a clean community.
We must then become watchmen of education and law enforcement. We must pack the schools at PTA meetings and demand from elected officials what is necessary to better educate our children.
Since we are nearing a 50 percent dropout rate, we must create alternative education opportunities. We must meet with the police chief and advise him how our communities should be policed. We must demand the reassignment of officers who abuse our youth, rather than correct them.
Drug treatment facilities, little league sports teams and after school programs are crucial. We must partner with every pastor in the community and make sure that anyone doing business by extracting resources from the community is giving back. Once we unify, we will be amazed at the brilliance that lies dormant in our neighborhood. If we make our own neighborhoods a decent place to live there is no need to move to a “nicer” neighborhood. The “nicer neighborhood” will have moved to us.
Soon after, those Black families went back to those small towns and spread the word about the inner city. The new neighborhood was now populated with the same folks from the small town they left. They all may as well have stayed where they were.
White folks moved to these rural areas, renamed them “the suburbs” and bought all of the land that we left. Thirty years later, in a move to reclaim the inner-cities of America, called “gentrification”, they began to aggressively repurchase urban properties owned by Black people that they lost during the sixties.
Two generations later, the same families that “broke their backs” to get into the inner city were now “breaking their necks” to get out. The move to “gentrify” the inner city was not as easy as they thought it would be. A lot had happened in the decades since integration.
The advent of “crack” cocaine and the violence, turf warfare and human casualty count it brought about turned many inner city neighborhoods into the shanty towns that our families left for a better life in the sixties. We should have learned a valuable lesson. The Neighborhood does not make the people; the people make the neighborhood.
The first thing we must do is unite and create a common agenda for the betterment of our neighborhoods. We, then, must do as City Councilman Jarvis Johnson says: “team up to clean up.” A dirty neighborhood is not a decent neighborhood. Others will respect a clean community.
We must then become watchmen of education and law enforcement. We must pack the schools at PTA meetings and demand from elected officials what is necessary to better educate our children.
Since we are nearing a 50 percent dropout rate, we must create alternative education opportunities. We must meet with the police chief and advise him how our communities should be policed. We must demand the reassignment of officers who abuse our youth, rather than correct them.
Drug treatment facilities, little league sports teams and after school programs are crucial. We must partner with every pastor in the community and make sure that anyone doing business by extracting resources from the community is giving back. Once we unify, we will be amazed at the brilliance that lies dormant in our neighborhood. If we make our own neighborhoods a decent place to live there is no need to move to a “nicer” neighborhood. The “nicer neighborhood” will have moved to us.
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2 Responses to "Deric's Debate: Clean up your own backyard"
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said this on 21 Feb 2010 9:55:34 AM MST
Nice article, but cleaner neighborhoods won't change our future. Our children are our future and as long as we ignore the negative impact illegitimacy has been having on our children these past 40 years, the future of black America remains in jeopardy.
It's all about our children and 70% illegitimacy rate is devastating us. |
Author/Admin)|
said this on 02 Mar 2010 3:31:37 PM MST
Not so sure I agree, Mr. Hervey. Environment affects us both consciously and subconsciously. Environment reflects who we are and helps to develop our self-esteem. Environment is important. I would suggest a study in crime and graduation rates before and after a concerted effort to clean up a neighborhood to determine if our opinions are valid. What do you think?
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