Is This Racism?
In attempting to document the lapses of one Postie, our esteemed editor believes that white people gentrifiers don’t say racist shit out in the open, like, say, at a hipster joint on H Street. I disagreed at the time. And then this past weekend I witnessed a Great Moment in Gentrification, one that I think deserves some debate.
What do y’all think of this: It’s about 11:15 p.m. this past Saturday night. In front of Cue Bar, I wait to meet up with a friend and observe a squad of frat goons (you know the look: buzz cuts, thick necks, untucked dress shirts, jeans) approach an idling cab. These men are seriously drunk. One dude, maybe three ask the cabbie for a ride. The cab driver says he’s waiting for another fare. One of the dudes then yells at the cabbie: “We have a lot more money than whoever you’re waiting for!”
I thought: Yikes.
Racism? Classism? Or this is just what happens on the new U Street?
It turns out the cabbie was waiting for woman just getting off a shift at a nearby bar.
March 28th, 2007 at 10:41 am
This exchange doesn’t immediately strike me as overtly racist or classist. They were probably GW students or grads, and did, in fact, probably have a lot more money than whoever the cab driver was waiting for. It was probably a statement brought about more by inebriation, though.
I, too, thought the Post article was mostly B.S. and I didn’t believe that that particular conversation happened the moment I read it.
March 28th, 2007 at 10:59 am
According to the Citypaper, every movie, film, dinner and concert sucks. Everything just sucks according to your reviewers. After 6 years of reading, I’ve concluded that Citypaper is just a high school rag writ large.
March 28th, 2007 at 11:16 am
Though I wouldn’t put a racist comment past a typical gaggle of drunk frat boys in general, what you describe doesn’t sound racist or even classist to me. It sounds like garden-variety drunk smack talking. Big deal. Stop trying to read between the lines, sometimes a cigar is just a cigar.
March 28th, 2007 at 11:27 am
Bobby D. I’m taking your bait:
Here’s three positive reviews! (I can find more)
http://www.washingtoncitypaper.com/display.php?id=948
http://www.washingtoncitypaper.com/display.php?id=1022
http://www.washingtoncitypaper.com/movies/movie.php?name=THE%20LIVES%20OF%20OTHERS
March 28th, 2007 at 11:38 am
That Jason Cherkis–hates white people, loves glorious chant-and-hand-clap motifs.
Incidentally, I’m here because they never let me write for my high school newspaper. Who’s laughing now, preps?
March 28th, 2007 at 11:39 am
On one hand, we got a bunch of drunk guys talking smack on the weekend. On the other hand, what they does have a hint of elitism in it. The person the cabbie was waiting for had a job, and lot more dignity than these drunk jerks put together.
March 28th, 2007 at 12:46 pm
It may have been classist and bigoted. And that’s just t, it MIGHT HAVE. To say that it wasn’t and to not even factor in the possibilities says that biased minds think alike.
March 28th, 2007 at 3:45 pm
“It may have been classist and bigoted.” So what? There might be a teapot floating in space between here and mars, try and prove there isn’t. You have no idea what those guys were thinking. Nor does it really matter.
Why do people spend so much effort TRYING to find racism in these kinds of situations? I don’t doubt that you will find some out there, becase racism exists. Nobody’s denying that. And then what are you going to do when you’ve finally caught some “gentrifier” red-handed with a classist or racist comment that is indisputable? Cal in the national guard? Alert the press? Feel superior because you are so enlightened? Believe that your data point of one frat boy is representative of all white people?
March 28th, 2007 at 8:50 pm
One time in Cleveland Park I saw a cabbie refuse to pick up some dudes and then they shouted the N-bomb at him. Now THAT was racist. This, not so much.
March 28th, 2007 at 9:39 pm
Crassly classist, yes. Racist? Hard to say.
March 29th, 2007 at 11:39 am
It’s true that gentrifiers don’t say racist shit out in the open–I still have a hard time imagining a member of the Langston Lofts set having the balls to use the term “ghetto black neighborhood” in public. But frat boys aren’t gentrifiers! When was the last time you some some guy wearing a ratty UVA sweatshirt and a pair of Tevas walking out of a PN Hoffman building or a fixed up Cap Hill rowhouse? Although I wouldn’t call this incident racist, frat types are much more likely flaunt their prejudices than gentrifiers. This is like comparing organic, locally grown apples and oranges.