So, what if he's a reclusive type and doesn't care to involve himself with neighborhood activities, minds his own business and doesn't make waves?

Do we conclude that he's not "being a neighbor," or that he's failing to integrate? Or worse, do we assume that he moved in as "an act of rebellion" or is making some sinister "attempt to improve or upgrade things with his presence"?

Introversion is racist!

That does it! Introverts of the world, unite!

...in very small groups and for very short periods of time.

We're here!
We're uncomfortable.
And we want to go home.

Patrick, I've organized a support group for procrastinators. We haven't met yet.

Introvert Power!
Introvert Pride!
Introverts are woke!

Patrick, I've organized a support group for procrastinators. We haven't met yet. ~ James Armstrong at November 27, 2017 2:57 AM

You should subscribe to the official magazine, Procrastinators Monthly, published quarterly.

There's an awful lot to unpack from this knapsack. The only bit I have time for this morning is to add onto Amy's observation thus:

"No, it's not 'black people' who lose their space, their place, but people of any color who don't have the money it takes to stay in LA."

Kaplan has misread a class conflict as a race conflict. California's upper classes like their elbow room, their living space. They like having worker bees around during the day, building their houses and catering their lunches and mowing their lawns and putting out their fires and stuff. But they would like for them to all disappear at night. The easy way to do that is to impose a bunch of restrictions and regulations on building. Drive prices up. It's a win-win: the upper class sees the value of their properties go up, and those nasty working people all have to go live in the Valley. Off to Ontario with them! Those among the middle class who are fortunate enough to have good jobs can stay for a while, but eventually they'll be forced out too.

This is odd. White people are supposed to be so oppressive and doing horrible things to black people. But she promotes segregation.

She denounces gentrification, but a Jewish guy who managed to make himself at home and be a good neighbor is "integrated."

Why is integrating seen as a virtue when whites (or at least white Jews) do it, but something to be avoided by black people?

Once again, the double standards that I detest so much have asserted themselves. If white people want their own space, they're racist, but in blacks, it's lauded.

The reason people are priced out of neighborhoods is mostly due to zoning laws and rent control that prevent housing from being built. This is almost always a Democrat policy. Yet minorities vote heavily democrat, probably because they are not aware of where their pain comes from. Another cause of higher prices is urban renewal (in the positive sense). But renewal also brings jobs and higher pay. So the author would prefer that white people stay out, keep they jobs away, and let the neighborhood decay? But if they stay out that is racist too.
there is this curious claim inherent in the essay that white people are so powerful that they make black people do all sorts of things, from single-motherhood to shooting each other. The era of Jim Crow is gone. Anyone can buy a house anywhere. Yet the magical white power is everywhere. yikes

File under 'Ta-Nehisi Coates, West Coast Edition'.

The era of Jim Crow is gone.

Replaced by Lyndon Johnson and the War on Poverty.

Racism: The failure to facilitate the flow of more money and prestige or to show sufficient deference to black people, who would all be immensely more wealthy and famous if not for the subliminal prejudice of all but one or two white people.

I wish I could figure out how to tap into some of that white power. Maybe I could use it to move out of this tiny apartment near the extremely high priced, exclusive liberal bastion of Seattle and into a more introvert-friendly cabin in the country.

Kaplan has misread a class conflict as a race conflict. ~ Cousin Dave at November 27, 2017 6:49 AM

This.

So much of what is being called racism today is actual about socio-economic conflicts.

Just as so much of what is being called "black culture" is low socio-economic class behavior - what Thomas Sowell called redneck culture: "an aversion to work, proneness to violence, neglect of education, sexual promiscuity, improvidence, drunkenness, lack of entrepreneurship,… and a style of religious oratory marked by strident rhetoric, unbridled emotions, and flamboyant imagery."

SNL did a "Black Jeopardy" skit with Tom Hanks as a white redneck, MAGA hat-wearing Trump supporter seemingly out of place among the black contestants and audience. His answers to questions and knowledge of the categories revealed how much he actually had in common with the other contestants and the audience.

The so-called white working class has much in common with inner city African-Americans. But grievance peddlers won't tell you that because they need a bete noir and "white privilege" is it.

In the early '60s, my aunt lived in a fancy Long Island neighborhood which was upscale and all-white. When she wanted to move to a much smaller home, she put her house up for sale. The first people to see it were black, said they were both doctors, and were willing to pay full asking price and all cash.

She had promised to show the house to two other couples, so she said she would be back to them the next day.

Later that night, a neighbor she had known for over ten years visited her, crying and begging my aunt not to sell the house to blacks (likely she used a different word). The woman was in near-hysterics about how the house values in the neighborhood would plummet.

My aunt caved in and sold the house to a white couple for somewhat less.

A month later, the hysterical neighbor sold HER house, full asking price and all cash, to the black couple.

Within two years, the black couple had moved out and the neighborhood was almost all black. And yes, prices had taken a nosedive.

A month later, the hysterical neighbor sold HER house, full asking price and all cash, to the black couple.

What a conniving person! I am in awe of the ruthlessness displayed. Ol' Niccolò would be suitably impressed as well.

UN footage of the escape and rescue of the North Korea soldier.

How he managed to run while encumbered with those gigantic steel testicles I will never know.

Yeah, I know. Wrong thread. But it makes you wonder if life is so bad for Kaplan why she isn't fording the Rio Grande to freedom in Mexico?

Gog makes a great point. Of course, we all know what the answer is.

"Within two years, the black couple had moved out and the neighborhood was almost all black. And yes, prices had taken a nosedive."

The same sort of thing happened to the neighborhood we lived in when I was a young child. It was a solidly middle-class suburb, and safe enough that my parents seldom locked the doors at night. (And back when cars had ignitions switches that allowed you to remove the key with the switch unlocked, they were usually parked that way at home -- because "someone might need to move it".)

Several things started happening around 1967. In a lot of the families living there, the men of the house were young engineers, accountants, and managers working in the local aerospace industry. As they advanced at work, and made and saved money, and as their families grew, they started to aspire to larger and fancier digs, closer to work. New neighborhoods were being built on the other side of town, closer to the major employers, with larger and fancier houses, and access to better schools. Some people started moving out of the old suburb. There were several instances I can think of where several neighbors picked up and bought houses near each other in the new neighborhood, such that they and their children picked right back up with the friends they already had.

And yes, at this time, some black families were starting to move in. And yes, racism was a factor in some people deciding to move out. The combination of that, and the glut of houses resulting from families that had already moved across town, caused prices to take a nosedive. Back in the days when mortgages were assumable, my parents sold our house in 1968 to someone who agreed to take up the payments -- they got no cash out, other than a small payment for closing costs.

As prices dropped, many houses were purchased by absentee landlords. Due to proximity to a local college, some of the houses became student rentals, with predictable results. (I was a student once; I know how that goes.) I still drive through that neighborhood occasionally, although only in the daytime. The streets are potholed; the sidewalks are broken up, and many of the houses have overgrown yards and need paint and repairs. A few are abandoned, and a few have burned down and not been rebuilt. Although the location of this neighborhood was out on the edge of town in 1960, where it is would be considered an "near-in" subdivision today. You can still see touches of the modernist architecture in the houses, which are mostly ranchers. I've at times fantasized about getting up a syndicate to buy a bunch of the houses, fix them up, and then sell them to young couples starting out. The problem is that most of the houses are 1- and 2-bedroom, which there is no market for here, and the school district is considered one of the worst in the city.