We are all Slave now.

[Pretty Little Flower]

Originally Posted by Adder

In Minneapolis, we're going through a huge fight over a periodic update to the comprehensive plan, in which the city has proposed a fairly large overhaul, in part as an attempt to address very stark racial disparities in our city and region. Realizing that we have good schools and access to parks and other amenities the large swathes of the southern part of the city that are currently zoned for single family homes, which happen to be very white and to have been redlined that way in the past, they proposed opening the whole city up to small multi-unit buildings up to four units, as a way to introduce greater variety and supply of housing, and thus indirectly ease access.

The result is an uproar from those very richest and whitest parts of the city, some of whom instead argue we should invest in the north side (stand in for "black part of the city", even though it's more complicated than that) so they have good parks and schools too. Nevermind the problem of funding for that, or if it's even possible or desirable to gentrify the north side.

Naturally, all of these rich white people who live in the city also view themselves as super progressive, and as standing against the evil developers who must be behind the plan to add housing to their neighborhoods.

Point being, people are real good at ignoring that they're standing up for racism.

(None of which is to argue that adding housing to those neighborhoods is really going to do all that much for racial disparities, but it is a chip against the foundation of our segregation)

I'm not nearly as up to speed on the 2040 Plan debate as many are. But if you are conceding that adding a greater variety of housing to those neighborhoods might not do much, if anything, to address racial disparities, why is it "standing up for racism" to complain about a plan that might not do much if anything to address racial disparities? This is a serious question because most people I know have extremely strong opinions (on both sides) about the 2040 Plan, but not a lot of facts or evidence backing up the opinions.