I fail to see racism in the quote, it seems to be describing demographic shift of the mall as it fell out of popularity.
> Then just as Harding Mall thought it was the end, it was not. Due to the high levels of foreign people and foreign languages, a local enteprenuer saw hope in the old mall cinema. He leased the space and ran movies that cost about 50% less than what other theaters charge today and they were all foreign speaking films.
> foreign language people and gangs took over this part of Nashville
This is clearly grouping "foreign language people" and "gangs" together. The phrase "took over" has negative connotations.
It's pretty clearly saying that it is bad that people who speak foreign came into the area, not just neutrally "describing [a] demographic shift of the mall "
One of the two local malls in my area suffered a similar decline and demographic shift for a time. The half not anchored by a Target and a department store became vacant save for a smattering of small local stores, many owned by enterprising foreigners.
The empty areas became frequent copping spots, and suffered a few drug related shootings and other incidents through the years before the City and the owners cleaned up and started getting more big-ticket tenants back into the mall. Nowadays the mall has sports facilities, a maker space,
That foreigners and "gansters" are involved the decline of an area doesn't make pointing out their coming in with the decline of the mall bigoted.
Ascribing intent to writing such as this says as much about the critic as it does the writer.
> The phrase "took over" has negative connotations.
If you want it to, sure, it absolutely can!
> It's pretty clearly saying that it is bad that people who speak foreign came into the area, not just neutrally "describing [a] demographic shift of the mall "
No, it really isn't clearly saying what you're ascribing. That's your reading into it what you want to see. No one cries racism when an article about affluent whites taking over a neighborhood. This is just a different shift.
>No one cries racism when an article about affluent whites taking over a neighborhood.
People absolutely do, even when words as strong as "took over" aren't used. Whenever race is mentioned wrt gentrification, it's one of the top comments|
> With the passage of the Civil Rights Act, we as a society decided that racial segregation was bad, and trying to demonize people people buying homes in a certain area due to their race was wrong
...
> Not okay to tell some one he ought not live somewhere because of his race. This is true regardless of what that race may be.
Well I was clearly wrong to claim "no one," but that has no bearing on whether the user-submitted article referenced was written with actual racial animus as asserted, or was just ill-phrased observation.
Dead wrong. Its not the same as overt racism, but it is indeed racist to make sweeping statements about the decline of "x" after such and such group showed up. In this case its more like xenophobia since being a foreigner or outsider to the community is not a race.
I feel like you misread the thread here and jumped hastily into taking an accusatory tone.
The argument in the thread was essentially:
Person One: It's bad to say that one group "took over" an area from another instead of using a term like "demographics shifted."
Person Two: Why is it bad? If someone said that White people "took over" an area it seems unlikely that a negative connotation would be assumed.
You responded with an offhand comment about gentrification being involved with racism, then painted a picture of the person you were responding to as someone who lives in a gated community playing golf with out of touch people.
The thread was already becoming a terrible exercise in whataboutism. This added element of describing commenters as if they were bad guys from 1980's summer camp films made it even worse.
I see your irony, but that's actually a specific case of a more general rule. Not speaking the predominant language of the place you live in will make your life more difficult and cut you off from the people and culture around you. It doesn't take much to see it as a precursor to crime, statistically speaking of course.
In many developing countries it is the other way round, expat enclaves where hardly anyone speaks the local language can be safer than the surrounding areas.
Here, try the entry for Lafayette Square in Indianapolis:
"The mall itself became a haven for urban stores as white shoppers left for much better malls like the ones named above. Blacks continued to shop at the mall, leading to all kinds of theft and robbery problems."
Granted, as pointed out by other commenters, it's user-submissions. But still, even as a former resident, yikes. (And, as a former resident, not that surprising.)
> Then just as Harding Mall thought it was the end, it was not. Due to the high levels of foreign people and foreign languages, a local enteprenuer saw hope in the old mall cinema. He leased the space and ran movies that cost about 50% less than what other theaters charge today and they were all foreign speaking films.