GUEST COLUMN: "Sam's Place and the Evils of White Gentrification"

On Monday, January 20, 14-year-old black teenager Andre McNatte was killed: shot in the chest with a .357 Magnum by Sam's Place clerk Kevin Dales. Dales says that Andre McNatte and a companion demanded money and that his companion held a knife. The police have readily taken his word, although there are no witnesses or concrete evidence to support his claim, and Dales has not been charged. The media has also used every means of sensationalism and insinuation to, in essence, try, convict and sentence the victim, McNatte, while covering up what we should really be concerned about: how workers at "hip" white stores in gentrified University City can shoot and kill a young black man and get away with it. After the shooting, Sam's Place was successfully boycotted by the community, and subsequently closed this past Friday. This closing was a victory for the black community, but there are similar boycotts still going on all over this city to protest the violence that the black community experiences at the hands of gentrifying merchants. Sam's Place was something of an institution among University City denizens. Sam's and stores like it provide white people with places to buy our fresh pastries and exotic coffees and to meet up with fellow anarchists or intellectuals. But by being a Yuppie mecca, Sam's was an integral part of the process of gentrification that threatens black people's very lives. Sam's Place sits in a small white pocket in the middle of a black community. It's clientele was both white people who can afford the fancy goods and inflated prices, and black people who mostly can't. In this country, black people and white people live under completely different economic conditions. Unlike white people, black people don't have the ability to patronize stores whose profits go back into their communities. The number of black-owned stores in West Philadelphia could probably be counted on two hands. Black people have no choice but to shop at white or Asian-owned stores where the prices are high, the merchandise is poor and the owners are at best rudely racist and, at worst, armed vigilantes like Sam's Place owner Dave Graves and his employees. And, yes, vigilantism is a necessary part of gentrification. It takes the form of "block watches," neighbors with vicious dogs and the .357 Magnum that your local grocer keeps handy. Dave Graves said it best himself when, after the shooting death, he told The Philadelphia Inquirer that he feels "a little satisfaction about being on the winning side this time." But we can stand up and say that we don't want the violence of gentrification to be carried out in our names, that Andre McNatte's life is more important to us than having a trendy place to drink coffee. Gentrifying merchants, like Dave Graves, need to be told that they cannot take the life of a black person without paying a price. That price is the loss of their customers who can denounce the war that is going on against black people. Those who participate in this violence against the black community know exactly what they are doing. Dave Graves speaks of being on the "winning side" because he knows there is a war going on. The media builds support for this war by exaggerating the risks to our lives. Yet recent statistics published by the U.S. Department of Justice show that the violent crime rate has not increased since 1973. The media hype covers up the truth: that many black people are being murdered by local merchants and by the police. Prosecution of these murderers is extremely rare. In the past ten years over 300 people have been killed by Philadelphia police, and only one policeman was ever charged with murder. In fact, those who survive police assault, like MOVE member Ramona Africa and former Black Panther Mumia Abu Jamal, are themselves charged with murder. In the 1800s, most people thought that killing Indians was part of "developing civilization." Well, the civilization that we "developed" through genocide and slavery is now here. As we celebrate the 500th anniversary of plunder this year, we continue to act out the values learned through this process: that holding onto our loot is more important than people's lives and that people with property are more valuable than people without property. People like Dave Graves, who care more about property than life, cannot be affected by appeals to conscience. They can only be affected by a threat to their economic security. Those of us who no longer want to participate in this war against the black community should take every opportunity to defend black people's rights to democracy, to protest the media's lies and to protest any and all violence against the black community. Sarah Goldfine is a 1988 College graduate from Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Theresa Weir is a Nursing junior from Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Both are members of the National People's Democratic Uhuru Movement.