Abstract
In my essays presented I decided to once again showcase what Gentrification can do to people’s lives. In this specific essay, my objective was to find an article or video and analyze them. The purpose of the essay was not to simply inform the reader about what Gentrification is but instead to help the reader have a better understanding of the text I choose. In this specific case, I wrote about the short film “Good White People” and I examined the film director’s argument he was trying to present and while doing this I also tried to offer my own argument on this topic as well. Below, you will only see one submission. Since I was satisfied with my first draft, I did not make any changes between the two.
Gentrification in Film
First and Final Draft
Gentrification is known as the process where a poorer neighborhood is transformed into a wealthier neighborhood through buying out all the old buildings and store and remaking them to attract a different croud of people. This process usually causes loss of jobs, homelessness, removing the old cultures, and overall displacement of the former inhabitants of these neighborhoods. In this film Good White People by Jarrod Cann and Erick Stoll we follow of life of Reginald Stroud and his family. They once owned a karate school and candy shop but due to the gentrification of downtown Cincinnati where he resides, he is forced to move away and start over again. Everything that goes on in this film is not an uncommon thing. It happens to many people just like Reginald Stroud who are also being forced to move due to gentrification.
By sharing the experience of the Stroud family in Cincinnati, Jarrod Cann and Erick Stoll reflect the struggles of minorities in the midst of gentrification which are shared by individuals across the country.
At the beginning of the short film, we are introduced to Reginald Strouds’ struggles that he is going through. In the scene, Reginald Stroud, the karate school and candy store owner, can be seen talking to his youngest daughter about how they will be moving next week. The daughter, although not actually heard, assumably asks “What about the store” or “Have you found a new store” since Mr. Stroud responds, “No, I haven’t found a store location yet, I’m looking. I don’t wanna go to many months without a store.”(Cann and Stoll 3:35-4:08). Reginald Stroud is essentially forced out of his home and is pushed to resettle elsewhere, and the store in question is his livelihood. Therefore, now that he is losing it, he will have no way to provide for his family. The creators of this short film choose to include this scene to show the struggles that Reginald Stroud is going through. He is now a jobless man, much like many others in similar situations. In an article by Duke University, it talks about how “Low-income, less-educated owners and renters, however, may not benefit from local labor market improvements as gentrification induce displacement of renters and gentrifying neighborhoods experience job loss in low- and moderate-wage positions for renters and owners, even while jobs overall increase.”(Qiang and Wang 1). The loss of jobs is very common for the owners of these stores and the overall residents who live or lived in these gentrified towns. Even business owners are unable to be sustained during gentrification, where fancy cafes are favored over a local variety store. As a result, people are forced to move somewhere that they can benefit from the labor market, since their existing homes are no longer a realistic option for them. What was once affordable is now pushing them to move away, just like Reginald Stroud is in this short film.
After Reginald is done talking with his daughter on the phone, we start to see the beginnings of a remodeling of downtown Cincinnati, the place that Reginald Stroud is being gentrified from. In this scene, we can see cranes and bulldozers remaking buildings and roads as white people plan the next steps and minorities watch in distress, as what they knew before is now being erased (Cann and Stoll 4:15-4:35). The directors of this short film first focus on the white people leading the charge to remake everything then pan over to the group of black people looking, as everything they once knew is now gone. This is all too common. An article by ithican.org, states that “When community stores close and change into art galleries, that’s when you know you’ve lost — for real. Things only got “better” when more white people decided to move into Bushwick, Brooklyn. No one really cared about us here before. We just dealt with it. We created a culture. We created a community among ourselves, and we were proud of it. Home stopped being home, and it took us by surprise (Giddens). Much like the black folks found in this scene, Malika Giddens, the author of this article, was also in the middle of a gentrification crisis. Her community was torn down and everything she once knew was now gone. This is a story that can be seen over and over again amongst gentrified communities. “Out with the old, and in with the new” is the big idea as articles and documentaries show how these places are all being torn down to remake a whole new image for a town.
Once the construction is over, we are pointed to one of the new restaurants in town. In the scene we can see a group of 5 white people, probably a family, walking into one of the new trendy restaurants, ignoring a black homeless man on the corner begging for money (Cann and Stoll 4:35-4:47). The family of 5, who originally would have never come to this part of downtown Cincinnati, is now ready to have a fun dinner at a restaurant at the expense of the past residents. To bring in these fancy new restaurants, they first had to kick someone else out of their home, leaving them with nothing. Mr. Stroud’s store and martial arts school will probably be next, as “for rent” signs plaster the windows. The directors of this film are trying to show us that gentrification happens at the expense of others and this can sometimes lead to homelessness, just like that man begging for money. There is a reason why the “greatest cities” have the greatest poverty issues. Many Americans are evicted from their homes and thrown into the streets so that fun new things can be built. An article by eric.ed.org states “The causes of homelessness also vary significantly; however, gentrification has been identified as one of the major catalysts leading to homelessness. Gentrification has been shown to influence both eviction and homelessness rates, as well as the social capital of minority groups” (Rosell). It has been proven that gentrification leads to homelessness, which helps to enhance not only the idea that the author wants to put in our heads about who is being affected by all of this, but also that what is happening in this film happens to people all over the country. When people are gentrified, they must eventually leave, and not everyone is ready for that. These are all low-income areas, so these people already do not have the type of money to be living in more expensive cities, or else they would have done that by now. Some have no other choice but to become homeless.
After we are shown the extent to which the gentrification of downtown Cincinnati is taking place, we are invited into Reginald Strouds’ karate class. They are learning valuable skills on how to defend yourself, but sadly it won’t be lasting any longer. Mr. Stroud has to move everything. He states “It’s a part of that change. I call it the gentrification of downtown. Them changing, buying up buildings and properties, turning them into condominiums. I’ve been here for over 10 years and I don’t have any control because I don’t own the property…since the school is here and the store is here and I live here I have to move all three of those items in question” (Cann and Stoll 6:45-7:11 ). Now that the building is being sold, he is forced to move everything at once. The directors of this film are trying to show us the displacement of Reginald Stroud and how it has affected his entire livelihood. This is not an uncommon thing that goes on when it comes to gentrification, it actually happens to quite a few people. A video by Tedx Talks actually explains this concept perfectly. In a video titled What we don’t understand about gentrification, it states “So imagine you’ve been living in a neighborhood, five years, 10 years, you’ve been paying anywhere between eighteen and two thousand dollars a month and then suddenly your landlord tells you that when your lease is up in 60 days and your rent is going up to three thousand dollars. When faced with a 50 to 65% increase in rent, what do you do? Most people have no choice, they have to leave” (Sutton 5:18-5:45). When you live in a place for over 10 years, which is how long Reginald Stroud has been living in downtown Cincinnati, you tend to build a budget around this rent, so when it suddenly increases 50%, the only thing most people can do is move away. Not many people can afford this increase since this tends to be the reason most of these people decided to live in these neighborhoods in the first place. Displacement of people is a common thing that can happen to anybody during gentrification, and as we can see, it’s currently happening to Reginald Stroud and his family.
Reginald Stroud now has no choice but to move everything, so that is what we can see him doing at the end of the film. In this scene, we can see Mr. Stroud and his family begin the moving process. They only have 2 more days to erase everything they had built up for 10 years and start over somewhere else. The children are playing around while this is all going down, but they will have to leave behind all their friends and are forced to start anew in a place they don’t know. As the family is seen for the last time driving away, the camera remains pointed at a new cafe that was made in front of the candy store. Through the window, we see white folks waving, dancing, making bunny ears, and overall having a great time as another family is gentrified from a place they once called home (Cann and Stoll 12:10-15:25). This is the last we see of Reginald Stroud in the film. He has now gone and left and all that remains is the white people that replaced them. As we see a man who has lost everything he has been building for the past 10 years pass by in his truck, we are shown the white folks having a blast in one of the newly built restaurants. They are oblivious to what is going on around them and are just excited for the newer, safer neighborhood that they believe is being built. The directors of the film uses this as the concluding part of the film to show us the effects of gentrification. As blacks and minorities leave, they are replaced with white folk. This is something that happens to all gentrified neighborhoods. Based on research analyzing the population of black and hispanic individuals against nonhispanic white individuals, an article by enterprisecommunity.org states that:
…regardless of the definition of gentrification used, gentrified neighborhoods consistently had fewer people of color and/or more non-Hispanic white residents move in (and the opposite trends in residents moving out) than non-gentrified areas. This contradicts the presumption that neighborhoods classified by different gentrification measures would have different observed outcomes. While the degree of change in racial composition varies by definition, the pattern relative to city-wide racial change does not (Enterprise).
This quote shows that these gentrified neighborhoods constantly get less minorities and people of color in their neighborhoods. They explicitly state that as people of color are drawn out, white people are also coming in. The pattern in this research shows that this is something that happens to every single gentrified neighborhood, and sadly as we have seen it has happened to downtown Cincinnati.
What we saw happen to Reginald Stroud is not out of the ordinary, but it happens to many people across our nation. When gentrification comes, just as we saw in the film Good White People, loss of jobs, homelessness, removal of old cultures, and overall displacement is always soon to follow. The experiences which Jarrod Cann and Erick Stoll have presented in their short film reveal a much larger issue than the struggles of a single family; it reveals the struggles of hundreds of families.
Work Cited
“Gentrification Definitions and Racial Change: Considering the Evidence.” Enterprise Community Partners, 1 May 2020, www.enterprisecommunity.org/policy-and-advocacy/policy-development-and-research/gentrification-definitions-racial-change.
Giddens, Malika. “Urban Gentrification Destroys Cultures and Communities.” The Ithacan, 17 Sept. 2014, theithacan.org/opinion/urban-gentrification-destroys-cultures-and-communities/.
“GOOD WHITE PEOPLE: A Short Film About Gentrification.” YouTube, YouTube, 27 Nov. 2016, www.youtube.com/watch?v=xdUsZaJ80zI.
Qiang, Ashley J. “Displacement and the Consequences of Gentrification.” Https://Sites.duke.edu/, Duke University, sites.duke.edu/wenwang/files/2020/01/Gentrification_and_Displacement_Working_Paper.pdf.
Rosell, Brynn. “Gentrification and Homelessness.” Communique, National Association of School Psychologists. 4340 East West Highway Suite 402, Bethesda, MD 20814. Tel: 301-657-0270; Fax: 301-657-0275; e-Mail: Publications@Naspweb.org; Web Site: Http://Www.nasponline.org/Publications/, 31 May 2019, eric.ed.gov/?id=EJ1219250#:~:text=It%20is%20a%20complex%20issue,major%20catalysts%20leading%20to%20homelessness.
TEDxTalks, director. What We Don’t Understand about Gentrification | Stacey Sutton | TEDxNewYork. YouTube, YouTube, 15 Jan. 2015, www.youtube.com/watch?v=XqogaDX48nI&list=WL&index=2&t=293s.
Reflection
Throughout the semester I had decided to focus on one topic, that being gentrification. I was looking around for a good article to find and I decided to pick some random one talking about gentrification and the pros and cons of it. Kind of like an overview of topic. I found that doing an analysis of something that already analysis gentrification would be to difficult so I changed from that to instead using a film about gentrification. I looked for longer and shorter movies but in the end I decided to use Good White Poeople because it was not only interesting but it focussed on the life of one family alone so it would be easier to analyse and create a thesis for it. When I looked at the film it focused and went over all the common effects gentrification has on families so it would be good to focus on how what happened to him happens to many others and this is how I came up with the argument.
Finding information was the easiest part of the whole process. While I was analyzing the film I picked parts that focused on the affects of gentrification. For example, when I picked 4:35-4:47, I focused on the fact that the film director focused of the homeless man in a way to show what can happen from gentrification. Once I found this, and this is the thing I did for all 3 of the other topics, I just looked up gentrification and homelessness. For all of the topics I repeated this and just found the best articles and quotes to make my essay sound and flow well.
When analyzing the text, my first concern was how to cite in mla format. This was my first time using a video in any essay I have ever written. I didnt know if I could summarize a scene or if I had to cite word for word. Once I knew I could summarize the process was far easier. I just needed to find scenes from the film that showed effects of gentrification clearly enough so if someone was to watch it they too could see it. This is why of the sixteen minute film I picked only five different scenes since they showed the best what gentrification can do to the original inhabitants of the neighborhoods being attacked.
The sources I used all helped to contribute to my main argument that what happened to the Stroud family is not Unique but instead happens to people all acroos the nation. I picked basic articles and videos that would show the general effects of gentrification through research. One of the articles I used even used a personal event which allowed me to show a lot easier that this happens to a lot of people. If I can show the research and prove to the reader of my essay that this happens to people all over the world than this makes my job a lot easier of informing them of my argument.
Although this was the longest essay we had to write for the semester I found it to be the easiest of the three. I found in my opinon, the easiest video to analyse and to help prove my argument which made my job all the more easier. The first essay was fine but I was very rusty when it came to writing essay so it did take me a little but longer than I would have liked to write it. And when it comes the the second essay of the semester, I am the least creative person alive in my opinion. It took me about an hour of brainstorming alone to come up with the idea to do a collage where I showed a before and after of gentrification. Now I do like how all my essay turned out in the end but I do think I enjoyed this one the most.
