If black Americans had been able to achieve the same kind of success through housing that whites had, gentrification would not be such a race-based phenomenon. Instead, the intentional destruction of black urban life has become the canvas on which gentrifiers now paint. Over and over again, media organizations, hipsters, and artists refer to Detroit as a “blank slate.” That ignores not only the 700,000 other people who still live there but also the historical reality that the “blank slate” was created through decades of brutal racism. The fact that gentrifiers are often taking advantage of the
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