I got quoted by Gothamist in a piece Emma Whiteford wrote about that awful new bar, Summerhill. I still can’t believe this is all happening. I do believe it, because, of course racism exists. I just mean that I’m always going to be shocked by it, if not surprised.
I’m watching all the Black people get shoved out of this neighborhood and I hate it. And it’s somehow worse when the person doing the shoving acts like selling cocktails in ‘brown paper 40 bags’ and describes places where shelf brackets once existed as drywall as ‘bullet holes’ absolutely blows my mind. This place isn’t going to make it, because, who’s going to go and spend money here from the neighborhood? Everything about it is awful, from the menu to the drinks and the vibes are just wrong.
It’s year 1 of Trump’s presidency and the racism has gone from a 6 to 11 in the space of months. Or maybe from 11 to 20, on a scale of 1 to 10, depending on who you ask. It’s casual, and off-putting, and so many of the people spewing it act like that narcissist type who pretends they’ve never made a mistake, and so you’re the problem for caring about what they say, even though they’re saying it to get you to pay attention.
I’m paying attention. So many people turned out to speak up, and speak out, and it feels like this is a sign of what’s to come. I wonder, truly, how much worse it’s going to get. Check out what I said to Emma Whitford of Gothamist in her article Furious Crown Heights Residents Protest ‘Bullet Hole’ Bar: ‘People Of Color Are Not Props’.
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edit 2017.08.17 – picked up by Chris Crowley of Grubstreet People Are Still Protesting the Bullet-Hole Bar in Crown Heights
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edit 2017.08.21 – follow-up article by Emma Whitford Furious Crown Heights Residents Confront ‘Bullet Hole’ Bar Owner: ‘Our Only Demand Is For Her To Close’
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