For Lease: a tale of whiteness, gentrification, and racial discrimination in Rondo.
Originally Posted on Medium · 6 min read
Nov 15, 2022
By: Ryan Virden
There are moments where white folks, collectively, can no longer avoid race. These are huge, often tragic moments where it becomes impossible to avoid the reality of racism in America. We express outrage. Maybe even our curiosities are piqued and we read a book or two. And perhaps some of us feel compelled to action. Maybe even our worldview shifts, and we are never the same.
But the problem is those most grotesque manifestations of racism are just that, the most grotesque. They aren’t the most common, and they aren’t the most insidious. While they happen entirely too often, the framing of our understanding of racism around those events limits our ability to actually understand racism, let alone to disrupt it. In fact, when we orient our “antiracism” around those events we often create, as my dear friend Shanene warns, better racists: white people who know the right words to say and quotes to post but continue to act in ways that perpetuate racism on a daily basis.
If we are ever going to make real progress, it is essential to understand the everyday workings of racism and whiteness. We must understand the ways we go about our business that inflict harm. These are the ways that whiteness functions to limit the life opportunities of people of color, especially Black people, and especially Black women. The following example is just one of millions happening right now in every city and every state across the country — and truthfully across the world.
Before we get into that, though, it’s important we are clear about what this story is and what it isn’t. It is not a woe-is-me-look-at-how-terrible-Black-women-have-it story, while that can and should certainly be a realization and a takeaway. It is not a call for saviorism: Keyondra doesn’t need or want that. This is a call for us white folks to understand how accepting this process, this framework, this way of relating, this way of being, actually furthers our own demise. We are accelerating our own spiritual erosion. It is a call to take responsibility and to act accordingly. That looks like holding John Higgins, Sylvia Frank, and everyone else who wields whiteness in these ways accountable. It’s a call to recognize we are healthy as part of a healthy ecosystem, and whiteness is poison to that ecosystem. Without further ado, let me show you how whiteness operates today.
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“Sounds like you don’t want to rent to Black people.”
The silence spoke volumes. I could see the blood rushing to his face and the clumsiness of what followed was exactly what you would expect.
John Higgins, a white male commercial real estate agent from Saint Anthony, MN, whose family owns several buildings on Central Avenue in Northeast Minneapolis and who has recently turned his attention to the Rondo neighborhood in Saint Paul, was caught off guard that Monday morning. But he shouldn’t have been. Let me tell you how we got here.
In the first conversation we ever had Keyondra was clear about two things 1) she was Rondo through and through and 2) she was an entrepreneur. When she spoke of her vision for the nail and beauty bar House of Hue there was no doubt it was going to be a wild success. She had done all the work, went through Neighborhood Development Center, had a business plan, dotted all the i’s and crossed all the t’s. All that was left was finding the space. Being from a family with roots in Rondo and having grown up in the neighborhood, there was really only one street that would do: Selby Ave.
Selby is currently in the throes of gentrification. After Interstate 94 displaced the thriving Black neighborhood, the area was crippled by the type of disinvestment that is the trademark of American inner cities. That is until recently. Recently, as is again typical of America, white folks have become interested in “revitalizing” the area, initiating the process of gentrification. Except this time the community isn’t having it. Saint Paul Mayor Melvin Carter, the first Black mayor in the city’s history, announced the intention of “reconnecting Rondo” and providing opportunities to Black entrepreneurs in the neighborhood. The program might as well have been designed for Keyondra.
In March 2022, Keyondra found the perfect spot for House of Hue, right on Selby in a thriving section of the neighborhood for small businesses. She called the number on the sign in the window and spoke with Sylvia Frank, owner of the building and architect with an office adjacent to the vacant space. Sylvia and Keyondra spoke and began the process of potentially signing a lease. Until Sylvia stopped responding, out of nowhere. Keyondra called, emailed, followed up, but heard nothing. Until August when she saw a new sign in the spot with a new number, John’s number. Keyondra and John met at the space, did a walkthrough, talked through the details and left with the expectation of following up. Keyondra emailed the requested information and waited for a response. Nothing. She called. Nothing. Texted. Nothing. After a couple of weeks Keyondra reached back out to Sylvia directly. In that conversation she was informed that they were just about to sign a lease with another tenet but would keep Keyondra in mind if something changed. Keyondra understood even if she was disappointed at being strung along.
Fast forward a few weeks. It was one of those beautiful October mornings in Minnesota. The kind you know you have to take advantage of because it’s about to be unbearably cold. Keyondra and I decided to walk a couple blocks to French Hen for brunch, which happens to be adjacent to the space she was interested in. As we sat at our table enjoying the beautiful weather and waiting for the server Keyondra noticed that the sign was still in the window. We both thought we knew what was going on: racism, but to be sure I called the number.
Sure enough, John Higgins picked up. According to John there was nobody interested in the spot, 520 Selby, and they were “eager to rent” the space. He even took the initiative to invite me to meet him at the space for a walkthrough the following Monday. I told him I would have to check my calendar and get back to him and we ended the phone call. Confirmation. I told Keyondra I would be down to take the meeting and expose the racism. She decided to give John one more chance: She called him that afternoon and left a voicemail.
I called John back on Friday to confirm the meeting set for Monday. He didn’t answer and I left a voicemail. There was a part of me that hoped he was just bad at his job and he would call Keyondra back. I woke up Monday morning to a text asking to meet at 520 Selby at 10:30. It was radio silence with Keyondra.
This is how whiteness works. The videos of the conversations with John and Sylvia capture the excrutiating logic of whiteness. You can see how it paralyzes both John and Sylvia. You can see neither is adequately equipped to have this conversation. Neither have any explanation for not being transparent with Keyondra about their intentions. Both blame the other for not following protocol. They rely on the vague explanations and rationales about “capital” and “fit” while ignoring the contradictions in messaging, lack of transparency, and failure to communicate with Keyondra. Neither seems capable of connecting how these things combine to guarantee the status quo. This is all exemplified perfectly in the conclusion of the conversation with John where he exasperatedly exclaims “what did you want me to do, say no?” He cannot imagine Keyondra, a Black woman, 1) had the capital and 2) deserved that most basic modicum of respect: being communicated with. This happens every day; white folks continuously operate with impunity in ways that perpetuate racial harm and then hide behind whiteness and normality. This is unacceptable.
It is the responsibility of white folks to understand how whiteness is operating. How dare white folks operate in Rondo, or anywhere else, without knowing the history and without acting in ways that takes into account how whiteness operates. This must be a prerequisite. It is long past time to make ignorance of race socially unacceptable. We must demand a certain level of racial literacy, especially from those in positions to influence the life chances of others.
This is our responsibility, those of us white folks who are committed to a world free from whiteness and white supremacy. We need to be the ones holding our people accountable. We need to be the ones on the front lines loudly advocating for truth-telling, racial literacy, and policies that explicitly move society toward some sort of healing. Folks like Sylvia Frank and John Higgins do not deserve our allegiance and solidarity. Let’s choose justice and let’s choose it today.
Source Link: https://medium.com/@LirCulturalCoaching/for-lease-a-tale-of-whiteness-gentrification-and-racial-discrimination-in-rondo-1c79cd1fd3ed
