TED Talk: Whitopia

[untonuggan]

Highly rec the following TED Talk about Whitopia (run time about 12 minutes)

As America becomes more and more multicultural, Rich Benjamin noticed a phenomenon: Some communities were actually getting less diverse. So he got out a map, found the whitest towns in the USA — and moved in. In this funny, honest, human talk, he shares what he learned as a black man in Whitopia.

Comments

[staranise]

Oh woooow. Searingly funny, and also a huge challenge thrown in my face as a white woman.

[untonuggan]

I think it really shows a lot how "unintentional racism" and "institutional racism" go hand in hand. (Along with some of the wince-worthy quotes which really did need to be there about Confederate flags...)

The number of times I've heard someone say that they "want to live in a diverse neighborhood, but they are worried about property values/'good' schools/etc..."

(And, yeah, I'm definitely doing some self-examination in my own housing search.)

I'm also finding in my own housing search that my priorities of "good medical care" and "near a pharmacy" are also creating some racialized search areas, whether I intend them to or no.

There's this terrible/interesting interplay between gentrification and also some "redlined"/historically POC communities just not having the same kind of services. Even in the DC area, PG County was where a lot of the black middle class were building a community -- but property values have *not* picked up at the same rate post recession as more "white" regions.

[sonia]

Thanks for this rec! At the beginning of his talk, I wondered if one of his spots was going to be Portland OR. wince.

[untonuggan]

:/

I mean, even areas of the DC suburbs just have that magical invisible line that everyone knows is there but few people openly talk about. (Not to mention DC aka "Chocolate City" which I think might *finally* get representation in Congress now that white millenials are moving into the city...)

[alee_grrl]

Very good talk. Apparently he's written a book on the experience as well. It definitely gave me lots of food for thought.

[untonuggan]

Oh, huh! IDK if I have concentration powers for his book atm, but good to know!

[silveradept]

Yep. That sorry if thing sounds depressingly like the place I grew up in, but we had the supremacists, the guns, the subdivisions, and the churches all together. I facepalm at my earlier self's excitement at the presence of an "actual black man" at our school.