Triumph on Dudley Street

Alula Hunsen and Cierra Peters of the Nonprofit Quarterly reached out to the Dudley Street Neighborhood Initiative (DSNI). They found it had been so successful that the Executive Director, John Smith stated, “DSNI’s mission is no longer ‘organizing to gain those very physical, tangible benefits [of a cleaner, safer neighborhood], but organizing to retain those benefits.’”

What was the success? We thought you’d never ask.

A Collection of Collective Organizations

A neighborhood in Boston, Massachusetts called Roxbury has historic Black and working-class roots. These working-class roots date back to colonial times. Evolving into a working class black and brown neighborhood during white-flight of the 1960s, Hunsen and Peters cite luminary activists like Ruth Batson, Malcolm X, and Chuck Turner viewed this neighborhood as a base of support.

Thanks to the strong history of bottom-up community organizing, strong organizations rooted in community vision, and a dedication to closed community economic development, Roxbury built a relatively successful firewall against gentrification and sky rocketing rents.  Organizations like Boston Ujima Project, DSNI / the Greater Boston Community Land Trust Network, Chinatown Community Land Trust, and the East Boston Neighborhood Trust have worked together to help residents build democratic processes to stay in control of their neighborhood. These organizations built a protected local economy through democratic means to help residents maintain the way of life they have worked hard over decades to attain and avoid displacement at the hands of gentrifying capitalist extremists.

If you have time this week for one long think piece to help frame modern issues of economic equity and maybe learn how to apply some of these ideas in your work or volunteerism, we think this is the one to read.

The Lineage of Colonialism is Gentrification

You can see echoes of colonial history, in the phenomenon of gentrification. Colonial exploitation has created stubborn wealth disparities, setting the stage for economic injustices we fight today. Land dispossession and displacement, a hallmark of colonial rule, resonates in the forced evictions marginalized communities face at the hands of gentrification. If you don’t believe that mass forced evictions are still in place, check out this piece about Brooklyn’s policy failures and the intense advocacy of some Black grandmothers trying to stay in their homes.

Concluding Roundup

If you’re an A+ intersectionalist, here are some additional articles to add to your reading list this week from important BIPOC owned news outlets on various economic equity issues affecting a broad intersection of American communities.

• Can you imagine calling an ambulance but you don’t have a proper home address? What about getting a package or filling a job application? This is a reality for many rural residents including the Navajo tribe in Utah. Did the government fix it? No, the Rural Utah Project took matters into their own hands. Read the article from IndiJ Public Media here.
• Indigenous people make up 3% of the US population and 5% of the Canadian population, but when surveyed, the percentage makeup of venture capital received is too small to count. The gap will not close if Indigenous entrepreneurs can’t access capital.  Read more about Indigenous women and an Indigenous-owned venture firm seeking to change this on IndiJ.
• Speaking of land and home ownership, Minnesota is seeing the same issues of rising housing costs as Roxbury. The Sahan Journal is reporting that this rise is disproportionately affecting black and brown people and the effectiveness of state policies meant to close the gap are in question.
• The Advocate is reporting when people report they are nonbinary and use they/them pronouns, they are less likely to receive a job. Read here.