“A Lighter Shade of Brown? Racial Formation and Gentrification in Latino Los Angeles” by Alfredo Huante analyzes the recent and ongoing gentrification of Los Angeles and the effects that the Latinx community have suffered as a result. Huante specifically references the concept and theory of “racial formation” and how racial and cultural dynamics are shifted and reshaped due to gentrification. “How to Kill a City” by Peter Moskowitz examines how communities that are impoverished and majority people of color are affected most by gentrification. The article dives deeper into the development of modern real estate practices and government policies which both are large contributors to gentrification and how gentrification is a systemic issue.
Both articles emphasize the destructive nature of gentrification, depicting the harsh impacts left on gentrified communities. Both articles identify how gentrification erases racial and cultural presences within these communities in a harmful manner. They depict the effects that Latinx communities across the country have been forced to undergo through the gentrification of their neighborhoods. These neighborhoods, harshly and often violently, shift towards mostly white, affluent neighborhoods while erasing the Latin culture and sense of community. Both authors push forth the idea of gentrification’s contribution to social and racial inequality and discrimination in America, and how the process of gentrification contributes to a larger process of the erasure and suppression of the Latinx community.
Moskowitz’s article takes a larger-scoped perspective on gentrification, analyzing the impacts that people of color as a whole suffer around the country. Huante’s article is more focused, specifically observing and analyzing the gentrification of Latinx communities in Los Angeles. While Moskowitz’s article gives more attention to the governmental and economic aspects and impacts of gentrification, Huante focuses more on the racial and anti-Latinx contexts of gentrification. While both articles have some overlap in this sense, a key difference between the two is the identification and specification of the intent behind gentrification, and each article analyzes a different aspect of the motivations behind it.
Both articles are mostly factual but also leave some room for interpretation and both authors mix in some of their own insights into the issues surrounding gentrification and the problematic nature of the process. In my opinion, both authors make very valid points about the negative effects of gentrification, and I agree that the violent and devastating nature of gentrification is why it is a process that needs to be gotten rid of altogether. While economic progression is important, and while it is necessary for societies to change and improve, it should never be at the hands of minority communities throughout America. These cultures are important and it is significant that these cultural practices and presences remain intact as American society continues to change. Progression should never be at the hands of any already-disadvantaged group, because in my opinion that outweighs any sort of economic or political benefit that may come with gentrification.
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