Everyone knows what gentrification means. It’s when a rich, mostly white, people descend on a neighborhood and create an environment which displaces generations of people who have lived there, because of the economic costs rising in the form of taxes and property values.
Gentrification is also sometimes defined as making a person or an activity more polite or refined. Is there any doubt why the brown in me is not into gentrification of any kind?
So it really bothers me now, when a trend of gentrification has been going on for a decade or so and it goes unnoticed. In fact I have had opponents of gentrification condone this other trend, because they don’t see it. Or as in most cases when people are blind to something, its because they like it and their values are flexible.
Food Gentrification! Some of my best friends and my family are the biggest abusers of this, and don’t see it nor want to admit it. Gentrification takes the soul out. It all about being hip, polite, white centered experience. We want a sterile atmosphere, which we then convince ourselves its hip, modern, chic, avantgarde…..whatever works for you, but in the end its economic and taste apartheid.
Let me give the definition of food gentrification: Taking any cuisine, usually ethnic, reducing the serving size, tripling the price, and locating the restaurant in the gentrified neighborhood. The food may taste good, but it has no soul whatsoever. What is even more insulting is how bad it really is and how the crowd in these places are never culturally diversified. The brown in me and a handful of other non whites are the exception. If its a Mexican restaurant, you will not see Mexicans. if it is a Indian restaurant, you will not see Indians and so on and so on. That alone should be a sign. If you are white and you are attracted to an ethnic restaurant 80% chance its gentrified. Of course if you have a recommendation from someone from that culture, then its ok, but I will bet all the brown in me, no ethnic person is ever going to be recommending one these restaurants to you. The sad thing is great food connoisseurs are falling for this trend. The need to be hip, outweighs the need to be authentic. My detractors always claim its cost or I am biased to white culture. I actually have never considered cost when it comes to food and food I like. The white part is true, because its the white people who take me to these restaurants and they are never ever cheap!!!!! Why is that? How does $2 taco become $15? A white chef on TV serves it in fancy dish, with a drizzle an tells you its authentic. I have never had street tacos in Mexico which didn’t fill me up. I have never had Indian food which was one bite. I have never been to Africa and had to take a loan to eat a meal. Another sign of gentrification; when your server does not match the cuisine. An Italian cannot be telling me about Chinese food. That’s gentrification. The brown in me loses it when a blond tattooed hipster is describing Samosa’s to me at a hip Indian bistro. My goal is to go to India an open a restaurant which serves a bite sized piece of fish, sitting atop two french fries in an ‘X” pattern with a few drops of malt vinegar in a semi-circle around the food on a triangle plate for $15US. Gentrified English fish and chips. Sad part is I have friends and family who would take me to this restaurant, especially if it’s written up somewhere.
Source: ItsTheBrownInMe
