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housing protest in Harlem


560drive

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Interesting photograph Steven.

 

Are these people even remotely aware of what their banner is saying?

 

Harlem Tenants United Against Gentrification.

 

It sounds like they are watching to much Like It Is with Gil Noble on Sunday afternoons. If they really want to help themselves they should stop electing Charlie Rangel to congress.

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Steven sorry but your photograph is innately political even your title for the thread makes it political. Some how it is now just a photograph?

 

I was only pointing out how ridiculous even bigoted the message on the banner sounds coming from the Tenants of Harlem.

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Steven:

 

There is nothing wrong with your photograph making a political statement even if that was not your intention. Isn't it wonderful that we live in a democracy where we have freedom of expression? You can't please everybody.

 

Hasta la Victoria Siempre!

Wilfredo+

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Steven in no way did I say there is anything wrong with your photograph or did I say people should not have the right to express themselves.

 

You have taken a very powerful reportage image whether you or Wilfredo realize it or not. You have highlighted a very serious and ugly problem that exist in Harlem. If these people are marching against gentrification then what is it they are marching for segregation. That puts them in the same league as the Ku Klux Klan. The KKK has the right to march but we quickly recognize the hate they represent.

 

Again great photograph. Thanks for sharing it.

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Gepetto,

 

Let me try to clarify my thinking on this issue. First of all, after your first post, I suggested that we should respond to images as images rather than debate the wider issues that they might appear to provoke. All images are political, in some sense, but we don't need to debate their politics here. For example, I don't think that it would be appropriate to launch a debate about the war in Iraq (or wherever) based on the posting of a photo taken in Bagdad. Nor should we debate the merits of the Brazilian soccer team based on a photograph posted of Ronaldinho (a Brazilian soccer player). Yes, these are valid discussions but this doesn't seem to me to be the place to have them.

 

Second, since you have pursued this line of discussion, let me clarify a few things. Gentrification is an economic process that leads to the raising of property values and, as a consequence, of rents. And very often by illicit means. This was not a "race" protest, as you seem to suggest, but a multi-racial, multi-ethnic protest against the displacement of working and low income people (white, black, Latino, etc.) from the neighborhoods that they have lived in for decades. Attorney General Spitzer, for example, has just opened an investigation of the Pinnacle Group, a major landlord, for the illegal harassment and eviction of hundreds of residents of Northern Manhattan. If you, sincerely, would like to know more, Google "Pinnacle + Spitzer." To suggest that "these people," as you refer to them, are the moral equivalents of the KKK is just, how shall I put it, wrong-headed. In any case, shall we put this polemic to rest?

 

Thanks for your comments on the image. Best wishes, Steven

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Steven is this better for you.

 

What a pretty photograph. I really like the colors.

 

Gentrification is not solely about raising property values. It is about raising up the entire community as a whole. It is about better schools for their children. Lower crime rates. Better local services like health care. Even better housing.

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