On Spike Lee and Whites doing the "Christopher Columbus" to Blacks in Brooklyn.

Filmmaker Spike Lee

Recently Spike Lee let out what is called "a rant" about gentrification in Brooklyn.  It seems he feels others moving into traditionally Black neighborhoods have a "Christopher Columbus" type attitude about people living in these trendy upscale neighborhoods.

You know what gets me about this whole gentrification thing in Brooklyn and Harlem? I recently saw the comments where some people were responding with sentiments about the traditionally black neighborhoods were run down and that whites made them more upscale than before.

As a person that lived in Brooklyn for like 12 years I know that's a bunch of crap. Black folks started buying the brownstones in Downtown Brooklyn and also uptown in Harlem when nobody else but Blacks wanted to live in those areas.

Once Blacks made those areas trendy and upscale then gentrification started. Others moved in to live in these areas after Blacks upgraded the area. It's happening in more central Brooklyn too in Bed Stuy.

Now Blacks are persona non grata. SMH.  Some blacks complain that we don't band together (especially our celebrities with money) and plan to buy up the real estate in our communities like you see other ethnic groups doing in Little Italy and China Town.

Rev. Calvin Butts Founder of ChairmanAbyssinian Development Corporation

Well while we haven't seen celebrities do it so much, we have seen Churches buy up properties and renovate them in Harlem. For instance Abyssinian Development Corporation, headed by the renowned Pastor of Abyssinian Baptist Church, Rev. Calvin Butts, built a lot of affordable housing, also purchasing commercial real estate in the area, and has built schools, homeless shelters, and collects about $20 million dollars a year in rent from commercial properties they purchased.  I understand Abyssinian Development Corporation, has over 500 million dollars in commercial and residential real estate investment (source Wikipedia).

In fact, if it wasn't for Abyssinian Baptist Church, and others like them, Harlem would probably be much more of an alien place for Blacks now.  It's been reported that Richard Parsons, former CEO of Time Warner, owns two restaurants in Harlem now - and a lot of Blacks still own property and businesses in the area.

I know Spike did own a lot of property in Downtown Brooklyn once, and so did a lot of other businesses people.  According to the media he is selling one of his brownstone town houses for about 30 million dollars.

I personally knew a brilliant entrepreneur and visionary in Brooklyn who made his money sponsoring trips to Africa.  He brought property in downtown Brooklyn for museums "The Simmons Art Collection" that has to be valued at 3 or 4 million dollars or more now (in just RE with art I'm sure valued at much more) with an invaluable art collection.

Nana Stan Simmons a Pioneer of
Cultural & Economic Development
in Brooklyn, NY

Nana Stan Simmons (seated as a chief in Africa) is an ancestor now, passing away in 2010, but he spent many hours with me telling me about the value of our proud heritage and investing and owning our traditional communities.  He is sorely missed.  He was an exceptional visionary in this regard. Nana Simmons sponsored more than 40 cultural tours to many parts of Africa, South America, and the South Pacific exposing Blacks to these parts of the world.

There may be more Blacks investing in the area than we know they just aren't going public with it.  Carol's Daughter was a little neighborhood business until Will Smith, Jada Pinkett, Jay-Z, Mary J Blige, and other celebrities invested in the local Brooklyn business and helped take it national on a larger scale.  They are reported to have raised 10 million dollars for the neighborhood business.

Ft. Greene Brooklyn Me & Spike's Ole Stomping Grounds

It may be Blacks are more open to other people moving into our neighborhoods. However, once other ethnic groups move into them, and we welcome them - or at least accept them, they then want to do the "Christopher Columbus", on us and act like they discovered and made the area upscale like we never existed.

I don't know how welcoming Little Italy or China Town residents would be about an insurgence of Black business owners in their area.  I could only imagine.  We've experienced discrimination and would probably be less inclined to want to practice community bias against others.

Kamau Austin Former Community Activist in Brooklyn

I don't mind a salad bowl mixture in an area that Blacks made upscale but please have some mutual respect.  Don't come into our traditional communities and then make us persona non grata.

Don't move into our area and then start calling the cops on every block party or community event we try to have.  This is what I think is annoying Spike Lee and others in Brooklyn.

New comers are coming in and creating enclave type communities.  Parts of Bed Stuy become "Stuyvesant Heights."  This is very annoying and no way to be a good neighbor.

Below is a video which looks at the issue from the advantages of gentrification which I think is worthwhile.  It makes the point gentrification finally offers blacks the tremendous wind fall profits and wealth long denied or eluding them as an ethnic group.

Therefore, many Blacks in historic neighborhoods could be finally getting tremendous wealth creation other ethnic groups have enjoyed for centuries. Talk about Karma.

Tell me what you think about Blacks and Gentrification please in the Comment Section after seeing the video below..