An anonymous community member has posted a lengthy and personal discussion of this week’s eviction of Sisterspace and Books on a website calling itself “Think Tank Magazine.” Gentrification in the U Street district and other D.C. neighborhoods shows no signs of abetting, and DCist fears this sort of community displacement and its affiliated anger will become more common:

” … The gentrification engine grinds on full steam ahead. My first introduction to Sisterspace and Books was when I was on the hunt for book of Phyllis Wheatlys’ poetry, I had gone to mega bookstores, yes I was ignorant, all over the city looking for something anything on Phillis Wheatly as you may have already surmised my quest was satisfied at Sisterspace and Books. …

All the Marshals I saw were white and the eviction physical labor was African American. I heard through the grapevine that there is someone that goes to the shelters and hires the homeless to evict people for $5 an hour. The irony would be comical if it wasn’t so sad a trend of events. The only other whites I saw were from the media or gentrify[ers] walking out of the dessert shop across the street or picking up their dry cleaning. They were avoiding the growing mass of African Americans only taking time to crane their necks to feed a curiosity. Often the question is asked where are the African Americans when the community has an issue. They were there, we were there, and we are here. …

The country was founded on gentrification principles and shows no signs of letting up. Good, hard working, respectable people establish a neighborhood and make it a productive community resource and others move in to devour the fruit while the righteous have shaken the tree. …

Continue reading op-ed “Sisterspace and Books has been evicted”