In the last ten years a lot has changed in Brooklyn. We got our own basketball team back; they have remodeled and changed the downtown Brooklyn. The demographic of Brooklyn has changed tremendously. We no longer live in an area where people are scared to come to live. Now you see better stores, rent is more expensive, you have more access to resources that we had to travel to get to at one point. Brooklyn looks like a whole new borough to me and I'm proud to be a part of it. I live in Bed Stuy, Brooklyn where movies like “Do the Right Thing” was filmed a few blocks away from where I live. I'm happy that gentrification played a role in making my community better but it's also a slap in the face to all the hard work people that have occupied this space, when nobody could see themselves living in this part of Brooklyn. My point is that gentrification, in my area, has showed me that people of color still are suffering from institutionalize racism, oppression, exploitation, lack of unity and love for one another. People of color have the most buying power in the world. People of color spent over a trillion dollars last year buying things like cars, clothes, sneakers, jewelry, and a bunch of other things that don't appreciate with time. Why is that we can't come together and fix our community? Why do we feel like its ok to kill one another, and steal and hurt one another? History shows you that individual’s battles only get you but so far. If you really want to implement change and progress then we have to come together. Imagine if we used that trillion dollars and spend that money on schools, jobs, opportunities for the youth and young adults. Imagine if we put that money into cleaning up our communities. Imagine if we used that money to get back control over the real estate in our community. Imagine if we used that trillion dollars to create black business in our communities. The only way we are going to change our community is if we start controlling what comes in and what goes out. We have to teach the youth what to do with their money when they get older. The problem is we have been taught through history that our salvation is an entity that is given to us but the truth is your salvation is dependent upon the amount of love you have in your heart for others. The only thing we were supposed to be bound by was love, everything else is a form of control.

I think people of color forget their greatness so let me help remind you of your greatness. Our ancestors were Kings and Queens and created civilization as we know it. People of color have endured more death, marginalization than any other ethnic group. We have been buried and sacrificed by this county but like seeds in the ground we rise. The worse disease that has ever been created was racism; people of color have suffered for over 500 years because of  skin color. I see why it's so hard for people to recognize the God in them because as a race we are not acting like we were created in God’s image. The image that I see was created by man and through man distortion, death, poverty, oppression, violence and inequality exist all across the land. An injustice to one of us should be an injustice to all of us. As I said earlier, the only thing that we were supposed to be bound by is love, everything else is a form of control. Racism, classism, oppression, stereotypes, are all put in place to divide the human race. It has been scientifically proven that there is only one race but we act as if your ethnicity defines your human identity.

I'm going to end this with a story: the other day I was talking to one of my friends and their perspective on the issue of police brutality, and police fatalities was that people of color should be upset but we should focus more on that fact that people of color kill themselves as well through gun violence, drug overdose and physical abuse. She made a great point but if you look at the cause and effect of slavery and Jim Crow it's one of the main factors of why people of color at a mass level can't find a way to put themselves in a position to become financially stable. The after effects of slavery created modern day poverty in black communities. Institutionalized racism plays a role in why people of color are leading the numbers of people incarcerated in the United States. Institutionalized racism is the reason why the judicial system works against people of color, it's also the reason why laws are passed so that particular communities receive better funding for their communities, yet other communities will not receive the same contribution. It's funny because this is true for all communities where people of color are the majority. You see Chinese restaurants; you see liquor stores, restaurants that only sell fried and greasy foods. Gentrification brings change but that change is not always beneficial for the community. Now does that mean gentrification shouldn't happen? No it doesn't. What it does mean is people of color have to do a better job at maintaining their own community, making sure the resources that are being provided to the community create real change. People of color know how to create and support one another. Before the Civil Rights bill we had no choice but to create our own or we would't have had it. Desegregation helped break some stereotypes and relieved some stress, but at the same time it broke down the structure of Black owned businesses. People of color have to get back into taking care of themselves.