Celebrity Dollars, Part I…They Are Taking Over
I’m a conspiracy theorist. And being a conspiracy theorist, I’m prone to over analyzing and espousing sometimes ludacris (I honestly can’t remember how to spell that anymore) non-sense, that sometimes has some foundation…but more times than not…is really me just being…well…me.
And well today is no different. Because today, I’m going to shed some light on a revelation I made one day. It is a revelation that has changed my life forever and henceforth and forever more made me look at life differently, which is the same thing as changing my life. So today, I’m going to expose “the man.” And who is the man, you ask???
Starbucks.
Starbucks???
Yes. Starbucks.
Ladies and Gentlemen of the Jury…I present “The Man” aka Starbucks.
The Man. def. (noun) individual who is colorless, faceless, and nameless whose only goal in life is to stop disadvantaged people from creepin’ on a come up, until now…when we found the culprit and gave the Man a name and a face!
Have you all noticed how Starbucks’ keep popping up all over the place, seemingly harmless? One here, one there…here a bean, there a bean, everywhere a coffee bean. At first they were just in Seattle, then moved to major cities but mostly into the downtown areas. Nobody paid them any real mind. I mean its coffee…right? And who doesn’t love coffee? But then a strange thing happened. Starbucks’ started popping up in urban areas aka the black parts of town in major cities. SW Atlanta, Washington DC’s Shaw community, Harlem. This would still be harmless except that a few things happened when Starbucks showed up.
1) Property values started to increase, which on the surface is a good thing, but what also happened was,
2) Black people started moving out, and
3) White people started moving in.
Now these areas aren’t just black areas. They are ghetto areas as well. And I mean ghetto in the hip-hop sort of way. You know, street credibility inspired enclaves that rappers can claim as home and pretty much write their own ticket…to jail or the record company, which ever comes first. I suggest jail, nothing sells records like a record. But I digress…
These areas slowly started to experience gentrification, which for the uninitiated is the moving of les negroes out of poorer areas and the moving of les white folks in. Now, let me be upfront and honest here. I don’t have any problem with white people. My mother’s white…(which sounds a lot like saying “my best friend is black”, but its true) My problem is the system that allows these injustices to go on. It’s no secret that many black people in lower-income areas are renters. Which means they don’t own shit. Which means that when Starbucks comes in and raises property values, they can’t afford to stay there and must leave. But where are the black people going? Fuck if I know. But they aren’t staying there.
Have you seen Harlem lately? Old Navy, Bill Clinton, all kinds of factors are there boosting property values. And oh yeah, I’ve seen more white people in Harlem walking down 125th Street, like they own it (which they now do, thanks in part to Starbucks) than I do in freakin’ Soho (yes that’s an exaggeration). White people are buying up Harlem (parts anyway) like black dudes buy Air Force One’s. Wait one day, and its all gone.
Washington, DC. Home of Marion Barry, and lots of black people, and Howard University. The Shaw community, longtime know for its close proximity AS the ghetto is seeing a new face. In fact, lots of new faces. Lots of white faces. White people can now be seen walking dogs through neighborhoods that just a few years ago, BLACK people would be afraid to go through. And they are also buying up all the houses…AND MOVING IN. Lower-income areas aren’t so lower-income anymore, Toto!
And they are showing up in other places too. And what is the common thread? Starbucks. As soon as these damn Starbucks’ showed up, the neighborhoods started to change. There was a story a while back in the Washington Post about a Starbucks showing up in Southeast DC. For those that don’t know…that is like every other major cities “worst” AKA “blackest” part of the city….basically, MLK Blvd runs through there. Well there is now a Starbucks there. And guess what, the neighborhood, though still quite “ethnic” has been seeing some increasing property values and new faces. New developments have been springing up with plans to remake a major street there into a “lovely, new urban environment to live in!” In the story they remarked on how the neighborhood has been experiencing major changes and growth, as well as a different kind of people making attempts to move in. And its happening in communities across the country. These communities are being remade into mixed income communities that have rich and lower-income people in them as well. Which sounds good, except that ALL those lower-class people that had to leave aren’t going to be able to come back to live there…nope…fuck you, find somewhere else to live.
Starbucks fever has swept the nation…and gone under the radar. Which is how “the man” operates.
Coincidence…I think not! You can’t stop a Starbucks from opening up right now. In fact, nobody wants too. We have begun to love coffee as much as any other race, which is strange to me because I’ve always figured black folks as tea-drinkers. Shoot, we are as excited to see a Starbucks nowadays as we are a Krispy Kreme (which is the new crack…that’s another post).
People in Compton stopped Wal-Mart from coming. People in SW Atlanta stopped a Wal-Mart from coming. But NOBODY is stopping Starbucks from coming because we dont see the harm…until we can’t afford to live where we live anymore. Harlem is changing…black people are losing it. Washington DC’s Shaw community is changing overnight. Do not underestimate development that wants to happen! And in every black or minority community that is about to experience that change…there lies a Starbucks. I know of 3 in Harlem right on Lenox Avenue right now, with one on 125th and Lenox Ave. They are putting more in Atlanta’s black neighborhoods…hell, even MLK Blvd in Atlanta (my neighborhood) has all of a sudden seen a swarm of luxury apartments show up. And all that they are missing is a Starbucks…but I’ll bet its coming…
It’s coming to a ghetto near you! And there is no stopping it…
We have to pay attention before we lose our cities…and whats worse is, WE ARE DOING THIS TO OURSELVES!
Tune in tomorrow for Part II, “The Magic Johnson Connection”