Examples Of Gentfication In You Don 'T Have To Live Like This'

In Benjamin Markovits’ You Don’t Have To Live Like This, the reader experiences gentrification and views it from several angles. Because Detroit is a majority black city, being about eighty percent black, the racial tensions are severely heightened through gentrification. In context, race truly makes the first crack in the foundation of the gentrification project. Through the use of stereotypes, Markovits analyzes racial tensions throughout the novel and therefore, better satirizes and negatively characterizes gentrification in the United States. Robert James as a wealthy white man plays a pivotal role in the novel because he provides the funds for the entire gentrification project in Detroit. Robert fits the typical East Coaster stereotype,

However, having friends on both sides of the fight for and against gentrification, he struggles to pick who to side with. Trying to be neutral, Greg ultimately loses his black friends who are native to Detroit. He fulfills the stereotype of a white social liberal who speaks on ideas but cannot advocate for the voices he so often recognizes when it comes time to speak out. Cowardly, he only represents his black friends behind closed doors. When Gloria requests Greg to tell a story in favor of Nolan, Greg refuses and attempts to stay neutral: “let’s not have sides” (309). This unwillingness also leads to the demise of Greg and Gloria’s relationship, therefore the cutting of ties between Greg and the black community. As a character, Greg works as a bridge between the white gentrifiers and the black gentrified. For example, when Nolan stands in the way of Robert’s project and threatens to give it a bad name, Robert asks Greg to talk to Nolan in order to resolve the issue: “‘he’s starting to cause us a little trouble’...I said I’d talk to him” (235, 237). Additionally, Greg comes to understand both sides of the spectrum of gentrification. He builds a friendship with Tony, a white man local to Detroit, and learns the city from Tony’s perspective: “Detroit is a black city. They don’t want you living there” (63). However, he also maintains relations with Nolan, learning about the history of the black side of the city by running and driving through different neighborhoods. Through his friendship to Nolan and Gloria, Greg comes to understand racism and the real effects of gentrification, but he is still silent in the face of oppression. In the beginning of the novel, Greg has little to no knowledge of racism within society; he is insensitive to the topic. When Greg first meets Gloria, he inappropriately fetishizes her as a black woman: "you've got the most amazing skin I've ever seen on a human being"