This past month, murals of historical Black Americans are being displayed in an old delapitated building across the street from the YMI cultural center at 39 South Market Street that is the last of the last for the African American population in downtown Asheville. These images are of historical Black Americans (Harriet Tubman, Martin Luther King Jr. Wilma Rudolph, Sojourner Truth ) created by local white artists. Yes, it is productive to display the images of faces who broke barriers for the African Americans, however; what exactly is the point of these pictures?
Is it to evoke emotion? To remember the ones who laid down the foundation of civil rights? To remind the predominately white downtown population to remember Asheville and America’s black history. The murals are located on the intersection of Eagle and Market Streets, in a neighborhood where the black population once actually populated. Today, the neighborhood is being swept away, rejuvenated some would say (although the term doesn't quite address the lack of the blacks.) It is a sensitive subject for many, with gentrification written all over.
Gentrification; sweeping away the locals to stimulate the local economy. Gentrification; out with the old, in with the new. Gentrification; to “beautify” something that was once beautiful within itself. Here in Asheville, there is an unsaid separation between the blacks and whites. With an African-American population of about 18%, where exactly are the African-Americans downtown?
Their faces are displayed in the mural project, provoking questions about their presence. Are these images helpful or harmful? Harmful in the sense that they are their to represent strength but being swept away by gentrification. Helpful in the sense that they get people thinking. These images are powerful, representing history, but it may be just that. Black History Month calls upon us to think about how far we have come, how civil rights are in the past, but somehow they are still lurking in the present. Presently, the only reminisce of the African-American population downtown are in the images in an old condemned building, which is in the process of being renewed and turned into something to cater the community; out with the old, and in with the new.
3 comments:
I hate checking the ‘Caucasian’ box on forms & surveys; I always have. I hate when people ask my heritage & my response is whiter than white, palest of all pales—Irish, Scottish, British & German. Essentially, I’m saying “My ancestors stole this country from its natives & exploited another set of peoples in their own pilgrimage to freedom.” Thanksgiving makes me want to vomit small pox blankets into the faces of today’s newly formed sectors of the KKK. This blog has a similar effect.
You ask: “what exactly is the point of these pictures?” as I ask: “what exactly is the point of your blog?” There are so many errors of so many kinds that I’m not sure I’m reading it correctly. I’m not sure if you understand the words you use. Dilapidated (which is what I assume you mean by ‘delapitated’) is being in ruin or disrepair, which is exactly what the buildings in this part of the city are, with their busted out windows of abandon & squalor. The buildings that were once prominently occupied by African-Americans are now shadows of the beauty they once held. I imagine these buildings to be occupied now by raccoons & cats with the occasional squatter or homeless person; I imagine they smell of piss & shit & mold & must that the floors are ruined by rain that has come in through leaks in the roof & the holes where windows used to be. In comes gentrification, i.e. the renovation and improvement to meet middle class standards, or essentially, to be refined & dignified. With the way you speak of the gentrification of this dilapidated building, its almost as if you suggest we leave it to rot because it ‘belongs’ to African-Americans. Where are the people this building belongs to? Have they been evicted because white people want to come in & make it pretty & useful? I think not. They’re long gone. Perhaps there’s something else to blame besides the easy (racist) target of whites. No one is being suppressed here. African-Americans aren’t being killed, beaten or run out of their neighborhood. They’re leaving on their own. Perhaps increased popularity of the city, in turn, appreciation of the land, rising property taxes, etc., are to blame. Regardless of who or what is to blame, the locals are not being “swept away,” they’re already gone.
There is an unsaid separation of whites & blacks everywhere. The thing that strikes me as most unusual in your discourse on this subject, is that you insinuate that whites shouldn’t revitalize this neighborhood because it’s a black neighborhood (or was) & should remain that way. Do you not see in your own words, the hypocrisy? You suggest that integrating this community is the wrong choice. That it should be left in the care of the African-American community that apparently hasn’t the resources or interest to bring it up.
Where has segregation gotten us? It got us to the Civil Rights movement that the faces on this building you speak of were the voices for, the strength behind & the advocates of equality between ALL people. , The mural, whether whites, blacks, reds, purples, rainbows, ponies or possums painted it, is a tip of the hat, it’s a respectful memorial to those who fought & won. We all won! We are integrated & we may interact as we wish. We are free. What these people fought for is what you are, perhaps unbeknownst to you, fighting against. You suggest that by redeveloping this part of town, people are being pushed out, when in all reality, what is happening is these buildings are being renovated, opened up to serve the purpose they were originally meant to serve: to be used and to be used by the entire community, not one colored portion of it. If we seclude each other or ourselves into neighborhoods that cater only to our kind, we digress 40, 50 years, back to a segregated world with separate bathrooms, churches & schools. This action would send Civil Rights to the past. Civil Rights are the rights of all people to be free, to vote & to be equal. It’s not lurking in the present, it is the present.
We are integrated. We are equal. We are free. As for the dilapidated remains of historical buildings, let them be free, too. Beautify & renovate & bring our beloved city up to par with its natural surroundings. Let’s do it together, hand in hand, all of us.
straight to the point?, no, your moving straight away from the point i feel like any intelligent point would be pearls to swine.
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