#28 I would first like to say that your situation is quite unfortunate. Given your experience I certainly understand your ambivalence in the matter. Racists exist everywhere, even among black and hispanics. I personally am latino and even I experienced racist remarks from other latinos and blacks. However, it is something I came to understand as a result of closed minds and uneducated individuals.

I would like to clarify something and it’s that when we refer to “black-owned” business es we mean locally owned business. It just happens that the local demographics in Harlem is comprised of blacks/latinos. And in promoting minority ownwed we’re stressing the fact that the money coming into harlem should benefit the people of harlem. I would also like to add that I agree that there have been many cultures that have come through harlem and moved on. And their history is no less important than those of the current residents. The difference is that those waves of people moved out because their socioeconomic make-up improved and saw it fit to move on to better neighborhoods. It was an issue of upward mobility. In this case when we refer to the suburbanization of harlem it is the act of forcing out the current demographic make up by means economic forces that make it unaffordable to live in neighborhood.

When I first came to New York, I moved into an apartment in Harlem, for the simple reason that it was the first place that I viewed that was available, and within my budget. I was living in a glorified homeless shelter since getting off the plane, and after 2 weeks of searching for something better, Harlem happened to be the place.

Since I moved here, I’ve been called names, which don’t mean so much to me as I’d never heard them before. I’ve seen that black people are just as capable of racist comments as anyone else.

There are people who tell me I could move to a white neighborhood in the outer boros for the same rent. There aren’t any neighborhoods specific to my country and identity. Am I supposed to feel an affinity towards white Americans based on the color of my skin?

Forgive me if I don’t understand the logic behind promoting “black owned” businesses. I shop at a variety of stores, and would prefer to, but don’t always, shop at independantly owned businesses, as a half-hearted anti-capitalist. The race of the owner makes no difference to me.

Harlem has seen different waves of population that have inhabited it since the Dutch, so why should things be different now? Is any one group of people in Harlem’s history more important that the others? I’m sure they would all say so.

When people talk about Harlem losing it’s identity as an entirely black area, it sounds to me like promoting the voluntary segregation of people into areas of a city based on race. Is that something to aspire to? Isn’t diversity healthy? It seems like the problems of racism, that America tries to sweep under the carpet, can’t be dealt with if people do their best to avoid different people and opinions.

When I first came to New York, I moved into an apartment in Harlem, for the simple reason that it was the first place that I viewed that was available, and within my budget. I was living in a glorified homeless shelter since getting off the plane, and after 2 weeks of searching for something better, Harlem happened to be the place.

Since I moved here, I’ve been called names, which don’t mean so much to me as I’d never heard them before. I’ve seen that black people are just as capable of racist comments as anyone else.

There are people who tell me I could move to a white neighborhood in the outer boros for the same rent. There aren’t any neighborhoods specific to my country and identity. Am I supposed to feel an affinity towards white Americans based on the color of my skin?

Forgive me if I don’t understand the logic behind promoting “black owned” businesses. I’m sure someone will explain. I shop at a variety of stores, and would prefer to, but don’t always, shop at independently owned businesses, as a half-hearted anti-capitalist. The race of the owner makes no difference to me.

Harlem has seen different waves of population that have inhabited it since the Dutch, so why should things be different now? Is any one group of people in Harlem’s history more important that the others? I’m sure they would all say so.

When people talk about Harlem losing it’s identity as an entirely black area, it sounds to me like promoting the voluntary segregation of people into areas of a city based on race. Is that something to aspire to? Isn’t diversity healthy? It seems like the problems of racism, that America tries to sweep under the carpet, can’t be dealt with if people do their best to avoid different people and opinions.

HAHAHA. Romanticised crap. That “Harlem Renaissance” was what, 75 years ago? So what, praytell, differentiates Harlem from say, The Bronx, these days? What makes it so special?

Here’s a word for ya: crack. Dogshit on the sidewalk from the thugs walking their pitballs – ‘cuz it ain’t ‘gangsta’ to clean up after your dog. Reggaeton blasting everywhere; the cops don’t care. That’s Harlem. Yeah, SAVE HARLEM!@#$!@# Whoop-de-do.

The only color that matters in this world is green. Everything else is a diversion for suckers.

so am i to blame for stripping harlem of what makes it great? or is there room for both?

Anyway, I do shop the chain stores (MAC, Aerosoles, Old Navy, H&M, etc.) on 125th but, in my experience, I rarely see whitefolks in these places. For example, it’s only been in the last year that the New York Sports Club has been so chock full of whitefolks. During the previous 5 years, NYSC was primarily — and robustly — full of blackfolks. To me, that supports the notion that there is actually a more sizeable population of blackfolks who can and will stay in the area and support commerce there than the article may want us to believe. It’s this part . . .

“[E]ven those who can afford it won’t want to live there anymore. They won’t want to live in a neighborhood that’s not really a neighborhood, where homes are little more than investments and the local businesses come and go with the vicissitudes of a capricious global market.”

. . . that I find very telling. Anybody else think this is potentially stereotyping what we actually want and expect from our own community?

No, not in this century or the last, I think of racism as an area of predominantly one color, when a person of different color arrives he may hear racial slurs thrown in his direction, given dirty looks, made to feel unwelcome, told that the area is lessened by his presence, should go back to where he cam from, stick with his own type etc etc.

This sound like some southern redneck town we should be ashamed of.

Unfortunately this is Harlem 2007, we should be ashamed of it.

As for Butts being a slumlord, that is what the papers make him out to be. It goes with being in the public eye.

Plus, there are a lot of white people who are slum lords, but are they dragged through the papers like that? Not really.

Now…besides that ONE beautiful article that was posted, do you know of the positive things that he has done in the community?

Granted, most don’t. A lot of people go by what is posted in the papers and by word of mouth and not by what is fact. That is just they way we function as humans. It is like the telephone game, by the time the message gets to you, what was the original statement? You will never know.