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Job lock-outs plus gentrification equals genocide
“To understand what’s going on in Hunters Point you have to do an exhaustive study on gentrification,” says Khalid Muhammad, publisher of the magazine, First Impressions Home Improvement Guide. Muhammad grew up in Bayview Hunters Point and heads his own painting company, First Impressions Painting.
His magazine is the first of its kind – a Black-owned and operated publication that focuses on showcasing Black contractors and business owners. “There is so much negative media about Bayview Hunters Point and so much untapped talent,” he says. “There is racism for Black contractors. Business is definitely warfare.”
Muhammad is a UC Berkeley graduate who studied business and mathematics. Still, he fell back on his construction experience to start his own business.
Many Hunters Point residents are looking to become entrepreneurs through training in the construction trades. Unfortunately, after getting their contractors’ licenses, many find that the doors that so readily open to their white counterparts are closed to them.
The City and County of San Francisco pays billions of our tax dollars to private contractors to come into our communities and “revitalize” them. Residents in our communities, however, aren’t given priority when it comes to contracts or jobs on these projects.
Just this weekend, I saw a sign at a construction site in the Fillmore that read, “No Onsite Hiring … Call Ella Hill Hutch (Community Center).” Many believe that despite the positive press EHH has been getting, the organization is a twin of Bayview Hunters Point’s Young Community Developers. If it were not so and participants had in fact been given training and effective job placement, why then is the unemployment rate in these communities not declining?
Young Black men, who by any account are just as talented – if not more so – than their white and Asian neighbors in the Sunset or Nob Hill, continue to have the lowest employment rate and the highest mortality rate in the city. How can that be so?
Read More
http://www.sfbayview.com/122805/joblockouts122805.shtml
Muhammad is a UC Berkeley graduate who studied business and mathematics. Still, he fell back on his construction experience to start his own business.
Many Hunters Point residents are looking to become entrepreneurs through training in the construction trades. Unfortunately, after getting their contractors’ licenses, many find that the doors that so readily open to their white counterparts are closed to them.
The City and County of San Francisco pays billions of our tax dollars to private contractors to come into our communities and “revitalize” them. Residents in our communities, however, aren’t given priority when it comes to contracts or jobs on these projects.
Just this weekend, I saw a sign at a construction site in the Fillmore that read, “No Onsite Hiring … Call Ella Hill Hutch (Community Center).” Many believe that despite the positive press EHH has been getting, the organization is a twin of Bayview Hunters Point’s Young Community Developers. If it were not so and participants had in fact been given training and effective job placement, why then is the unemployment rate in these communities not declining?
Young Black men, who by any account are just as talented – if not more so – than their white and Asian neighbors in the Sunset or Nob Hill, continue to have the lowest employment rate and the highest mortality rate in the city. How can that be so?
Read More
http://www.sfbayview.com/122805/joblockouts122805.shtml
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Its very sad that the author has no idea what genocide is. Someones refusal to hire you for any reason is not genocide. You insult the true victims of genocide when you equate it to boorish behavior
"Young Black men, who by any account are just as talented – if not more so – than their white and Asian neighbors in the Sunset or Nob Hill.."
Test scores, year in and year out, refute this contention.
Test scores, year in and year out, refute this contention.
While I am opposing the previous 2 comments, I do appreciate their opening a dialog on these issues.
1. Poor test scores do not equate lack of talent or ability. Some of the best achievers I've ever known were terrible students in high school. Some were tops in their grad schools. Some were successful business people. Some of the top test takers in schools wind up unsuccessful in life. From what I've read and seen (admnittedly I am not from SF, so I only know HP from documentaries and reports), the people in Hunters Point thrive despite the adversity thrown at them.
2. Certainly genocide can be an active violent overt act, as in the Sudan, Turkey, Rwanda, and Europe. But it can be in subtle yet just as violent acts, such as slavery, or enforced violent ghettos. Because one group was victim to the overt genocide doesn't mean we should turn away from those left to intentionally die .
1. Poor test scores do not equate lack of talent or ability. Some of the best achievers I've ever known were terrible students in high school. Some were tops in their grad schools. Some were successful business people. Some of the top test takers in schools wind up unsuccessful in life. From what I've read and seen (admnittedly I am not from SF, so I only know HP from documentaries and reports), the people in Hunters Point thrive despite the adversity thrown at them.
2. Certainly genocide can be an active violent overt act, as in the Sudan, Turkey, Rwanda, and Europe. But it can be in subtle yet just as violent acts, such as slavery, or enforced violent ghettos. Because one group was victim to the overt genocide doesn't mean we should turn away from those left to intentionally die .
I agree with the prior post that use of the term "genocide" is an insult to the victims of real genocide and trivializes the term. The murder of millions of Jews, Hutus, Cambodians, or Sudanese is a little more serious than an allegation of unfair distribution of employment.
I see this continully on the left side of the political spectrum and it hurts their credibility and takes away from real issues. I'm not denying that there should be more job opportunities for minorities, just don't call it genocide.
I remember when the US attacked the Taliban and there was a story about an errant US bomb hitting a house and killling four civilians, and the KPFA announcer was screaming that the US was conducting "genocide" against the Afghans. Give me a break. The left needs to focus on their issues without constantly using ridiculous exaggerations of "genocide", "fascism", "police state", etc.
I see this continully on the left side of the political spectrum and it hurts their credibility and takes away from real issues. I'm not denying that there should be more job opportunities for minorities, just don't call it genocide.
I remember when the US attacked the Taliban and there was a story about an errant US bomb hitting a house and killling four civilians, and the KPFA announcer was screaming that the US was conducting "genocide" against the Afghans. Give me a break. The left needs to focus on their issues without constantly using ridiculous exaggerations of "genocide", "fascism", "police state", etc.
The most powerful way to think about genocide is as the systematic destruction of culture. This is meatier and more relevant than the idea that it means "exterminating everyone of a given ancestry." In the second case, it would be hard to prove that any episode has ever constituted "true genocide."
Ebony Colbert's use of 'genocide' is ludicrous in any case, but the idea that class elites are out to systematically destroy any resurgence of black culture (having destroyed past versions repeatedly) isn't ridiculous at all. It makes full sense of a lot of things.
Ebony Colbert's use of 'genocide' is ludicrous in any case, but the idea that class elites are out to systematically destroy any resurgence of black culture (having destroyed past versions repeatedly) isn't ridiculous at all. It makes full sense of a lot of things.
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