An excerpt from When Our Kids Own America [NPR | Code Switch]
Oakland, Calif., is two time zones away from Brooklyn Park and a whole continent away from Harlem. It could either be a utopian vision of some multiculti urban future or its dystopian, post-industrial present. For a long time, Oakland was the cultural anchor on the West Coast for black Americans. If Harlem gave us the Cotton Club and the Harlem Renaissance, then Oakland gave us the Black Panthers (and thus the modern gun rights movement) and a groundbreaking resolution on Ebonics. Oakland’s black population, tiny before World War II, exploded largely due to an influx of workers at the city’s shipyards, and eventually composed nearly half the city.
But now white people make up the biggest group — Oakland’s 34 percent white, 28 percent black, 25 percent Latino, and 17 percent Asian. It’s one of the few cities in the country with significant populations of several major racial groups. It’s become a haven for young, skinny-jeaned, creative-class types — Forbes recently named the Uptown section one of the 10 best hipster neighborhoods in the country — all while the city has remained pretty violent. Although black people make up just over a quarter of the city’s population, they made up three-fourths of its homicides in 2012. Meanwhile, local television news crews are spending less time on the streets reporting on those crimes because their equipment keeps being stolen. It’s a city with neighborhoods on alternate timelines.
The aforementioned Uptown used to be a hub of black life in the city. But today …“The Chocolate City notion — gone, gone, gone!” said Benjamin Bowser, a sociologist at California State University, East Bay. “There are multiple cultures: chocolate, Vietnamese, you can’t even say Hispanic anymore, it’s Mexican and Salvadoran, Nicaraguan. We even have enough people from Africa to say there’s Nigerians, Senegalese.”
What’s happening in Oakland is definitely gentrification, but it’s not the way we often think of gentrification. It’s not white people pushing out black folks; in Oakland, it’s black folks leaving of their own volition, black folks being pushed out, black folks staying, and everyone else moving in.
![Seen at Oakland Art Murmur.[via Roberto Lovato on FB]
Don’t forget to vote.](http://25.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_md1yuxkUdO1qzs6yjo1_1280.jpg)
Seen at Oakland Art Murmur.
[via Roberto Lovato on FB]
Don’t forget to vote.
Hey #obama (Taken with Instagram)
Mexicanfoodporn & Tamarindo at Oakland
I live by Tamarindo but I’ll admit that I’ve only been inside to try their drinks. With regards to their prices and judging from your photos, they seem on par with comparable upscale Mexican/ Latin America restaurants in the Bay Area. I’ve ate Mexican food all over the Bay, from the more upscale (Tacolicious, Comal, Bocanova, Cancun in Berkeley) spots to those that are or seem more traditional in the United States (El Farolito, mom and pop shops and other such establishments.) They all have their good and bad items. These are things that maybe only those of Mexican descent can identify as good or bad. However there are also some exemplary fusions or newer takes on traditional Mexican cuisine that the aforementioned may not welcome or enjoy. For example, would my family love vegan tamales or feel that higher prices were justified because the meat was acquired from Niman’s ranch? I have no clue but that hasn’t stopped me from embracing changes. Anyone who has traveled through Mexico will tell you that food made in one region of Mexico (say Nayarit) are completely different from mariscos made elsewhere in Mexico (Puerto Nuevo). There is no one proper way to make Mexican food, trust me. Don’t be afraid of change and don’t be afraid to pay a little more for Mexican food the way you might with other food because, I’M TELLING YOU, you might be surprised in pleasant ways
With that said, I feel blessed because I was raised in Southern California which, without a doubt in my mind, is the best region for Mexican food in the United States of America. You’ll find it all, across all spectrums. I’m also fortunate enough to be able to splurge, but I don’t tend to look at it like that. If anything, I’d like to think that I’m approaching Mexican restaurants the way others may approach French restaurants. Seriously though, hit up Comal in Berkeley if you can.
Bienvenidos a Oakland.
President Obama’s Oakland campaign headquarter’s last night, it looks nice.
The words on a sign placed in front of President Barack Obama’s campaign office in downtown Oakland by undocumented students who refuse to leave until President Obama’s administration halts their deportations. (h/t: Michelle)
The sit-in is part of a national campaign to disrupt Democratic campaign offices. Protesters want an executive order from Obama halting deportations of young people brought to the country illegally when they were minors.
Students took over Obama’s Denver campaign headquarters in a similar protest last week, sparking a round of sit-ins now erupting in Los Angeles, Michigan and Ohio.
O’Brien, Matt. “Undocumented students occupy Obama’s Oakland headquarters”. Inside Bay Area. 14 June 2012. Web. [source]
