Gentrification – why does it always have to be about race?
Posted by chinesecanuck on June 17, 2008
Lots of “ethnic” neighbourhoods are now being gentrified, and many blogs, including a post on Racialicious today, seem to argue that it’s driving the old residents, mostly non-whites, out. But is it always white people who are moving in? Or is it a class issue? Say they gentrify Toronto’s “old” (i.e. not Scarborough or Markham) Chinatowns by opening a T&T Supermarket. This drives out the smaller grocery stores (who IMHO, are often on the brink of breaking health codes, if they haven’t already. I won’t buy meat there.) While T&T does have non-Asian (or rather, non-Chinese) clientele, the majority of those who shop there are of Chinese descent (or married to someone who is of Chinese descent). It’s unlikely that Chinatown will be completely “white-washed.” It’ll just be yuppified. And one doesn’t need to be white to be a yuppie.
This entry was posted on June 17, 2008 at 11:23 am and is filed under Asian, Chinese Canadian, culture, ethnicity, gentrification, minorities, social class. Tagged: Asians, cities, ethnic, gentrification, gentrify, non-whites, old neigborhood, old neighbourhood, shopping, supermarket, whites. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.
