Read and annotate the poem “Dinosaurs in the Hood” by Danez Smith and the excerpt from the book-length poem “Citizen” by Claudia Rankine (both are in your email). Select a section from either reading to analyze in relation to gentrification. How are these writers making an intervention onto what Sarah Schulman calls “gentrification of the mind”? (We can loosely define this as the way gentrification homogenizes and flattens a community even in its ability to imagine difference, diversity, and new ideas.)
In your response to this post, write a 300-word analysis on how either of these writers tries to combat a “gentrification of the mind”. This is a rhetorical analysis (so be sure to mention audience, intention, and genre) but also a textual analysis, so be sure to reference details from the text you select.
Sarah Schulman discusses not only gentrification but gentrification of the mind as well. Gentrification of the mind is the removal of the dynamic mix which is the familiar interaction of different kinds of people working together. It restrict new forms of thought. The excerpt from the book-length poem “Citizen” by Claudia Rankine includes many short personal stories that discuss gentrification of the mind. These personal stories discuss the many different times the author, Rankine, has experienced racism directed towards herself or to others around her. She has seen this occur while being on a plane sitting next to a girl who remarked “this is not what I expected”, to her neighbor calling the police on her African American friend who was merely being a great friend and watching her kids for her. These stories give us a sense of ethos, considering Rankine has experienced these stories first hand. There is also the use of pathos that really connects to the readers’ emotions through the heartfelt saddening stories. Rankine also spoke about a time where she was on the subway where a man had knocked over a woman’s son over. The boy was okay, but something that was certainly not at all okay was the fact that this man had just kept walking. No apology given from the man. No help given from the man to this boy. He simply just walked away. Something that really stuck out to me was what the author has said after this story. “You want the child pushed to the ground to be seen, to be helped to his feet, to be brushed off by the person who did not see him, has never seen him, has perhaps never seen anyone who is not a reflection of himself.” We see here the idea of spiritual gentrification-gentrification of the mind. There are men and women who are close minded and maintain the ideology that all people not the same race as themselves are criminals, inferior, not able to work as well…etc. Often at times during these stories, Rankine dis not speak up and neither did the people around her. We need to speak up together and fight against this ideology that people obtain, in order to prevent these situations from happening to others.
Christian Boyle
Dinosaurs in the Hood attempts to combat the gentrification of the mind by pointing out how gentrification of the mind has occurred in the past and suggesting a movie in which it does not occur. Part of the way this is done is by showing how popular culture perceives black people. The Wayans Brothers are mentioned as a lot of the humor they use stems from racism to other minorities. Even though they are not being racist toward the black community, the fact that racism needs to exist in a comedy movie where the lead actors are black supports racism against black people, even if it is in a comedic manner. It is a subconscious racism that allows people to watch and enjoy these movies and still maintain their racist views. Will Smith is also mentioned, as many of his roles are a cheesy lead action hero, but the writer of this poem wishes for more. They wish for a movie starring black actors where the focus isn’t on them being the race that they are, but a movie created about everyday people of color in typical movie hijinks just existing in the culture that they belong to. The writer wishes for a movie that can inspire young black children the way that most mainstream media is able to inspire young white children, by featuring them in regular movies without making it a huge deal that they are who they are. The writer wishes for a child of color to be able to see kids that look just like them going through wild adventures, stimulating their minds and making them dream bigger.
Akif Rahman
Dinosaurs in the Hood by Danez Smith combats the gentrification of the mind. Smith is trying to direct his/her poem towards the general population who watch movies. Smith uses specific examples from many movies with black characters. Smith specifically points out towards the middle of the poem how he/she does not want movies that show black people suffering or using guns. I think Smith uses this to hint at the fact that black people are always portrayed negatively in films and how many films are upon negative but accurate aspects of black people’s lives in terms of their suffering as a community. “This movie can’t be about race”. Smith is suggesting that too many movies are race-struggle based when it comes to black folks. Instead, she is insisting that movies be made about inspiring black kids. Smith repeatedly says “do not kill the black boy”. Smith points out a common thing in many movies where the black character always dies. Smith also might be talking to the directors of the movie. He/she refers to “The little black boy on the bus with a toy dinosaur, his eyes wide & endless his dreams possible, pulsing, & right there.” Smith seems fed-up with movies and their representation of black people. Instead, she wants to push towards a more positive movie that puts black characters under a positive light.
In “Citizen”, Claudia Rakine attempts to portray what it is like participating in gentrified places, such as schools and neighborhoods, as a person of color. Her book-long poem reads almost like a memoir of her own experiences. She writes the poem in a chronological order, beginning with her experiences in childhood, and working her way up to her experiences with gentrification as an adult. The beginning stood out to me in particular, when she recalls a classmate who cheats off her as telling her she “smells good and has more the features of a white person”. This particular part stood out to me because I believe it truly shows the dangers of gentrification. Claudia Rakine recalls this memory from childhood, a time of innocence. Despite the fact that she is only a child, another child makes a racist comment to her, showing how poisonous gentrification can be. This moment she recalls is the perfect example of the flattening and homogenous effect it can have. Her classmate is so used to only seeing people of her skin color, to the point where she, as a child, feels threatened by the author and can only compare her features to her own, instead of accepting her for who she is. The author also recalls that her teacher never noticed this behavior perhaps because “she never actually saw you there”. By stating this, the author expresses her sentiments that she felt almost invisible as a child, all due to fact that her skin color was different from the others. Finally, she never mentions actually standing up for herself, implying that is frustrated but has accepted the treatment she receives from the Caucasian people in her community.
Brittany A Cevallos
To tie to Schulman’s idea of “Gentrification of the Mind” Poet Danez Smith writes poem about a young black boy and his toy dinosaur. He envisions a movie around this young black boy but “Dont let Tarantino direct” he doesn’t want it to be violent due to his famously known works. By mentioning someone well known as Tarantino he is able to illustrate how audiences with exposure to mass media are able to perceive the topic as media pursues it to. With being able to set up “Tarantino movies = violent ” hes able to tie back to this young black boy and the way mass media narrowed not only his passage into life but the subcultures that reside in society as well. Smith is against the conatations we push onto people unconsciously hence the “Gentrification of the Mind”, through mass media ideas are embedded into the audience’s mind. Absolutely refusing anything that flies off from the main purpose of his dinosaur movie because at the end of the day the innocence of a child is able to perceive based on the fundamentalism of the core object. To remove the accepted cliches and stereotypes is the goal behind his piece. But the part he repeats at the end ” & no one kills the black boy. & no one kills the black boy. “, what he does with this is after expanding on the multiple suffrages he mentioned with race and gender and the display of it all is to tie back to his central point. Hes able to create contrast between society and self , all of the awaiting images society has to impose on upcoming youth vs what the focus of how life should be focused on the core.
Gentrification is usually of two types, the first being the renovation of a particular urban region by the influx of many wealthy inhabitants. The other type is gentrification of the mind. This changes the way people think and interact with one another. Gentrification of the mind can deal with stereotypes and racism. Both of these concepts show how we interact in our everyday lives. Racism is something that has been around since the beginning of time and even happens very often today. Before racism was more severe when there was slavery in the United States of America.Since then it has obviously lessened in magnitude but it is still part of society today. Due to gentrification of the mind racism is something that will never be fully terminated. This is talked about in the poem Dinosaurs in the Hood by Danez Smith. In the poem she talks a lot about the different stereotypes that revolve around our society today. She states that she doesn’t want a movie that shows black people using guns. This shows the stereotype that black people are prone to using guns very often. She also says that she does not want the movie to be about race. She is trying to imply that many of the movies that we watch today involve racism at some extent. Also at the end of the poem she states “Besides, the only reason
I want to make this is for that first scene anyway: the little black boy
on the bus with a toy dinosaur, his eyes wide & endless his dreams possible, pulsing, & right there. She wants to break the cycle of racism and stereotypes that usually have people chasing their dreams. It basically inspired the young black children to strive for happiness and fulfill their dreams. It makes people open their eyes to what nowadays movies are actually portraying.
Randolph Harrison
In the book length poem, “Citizen”, Claudia Rankine uses different scenes that reflect the ignorance and arrogance of the gentrified mind. The gentrified mind during these scenes do not realize the hurtfulness of comments and actions, due to unawareness. There is a disconnect and perhaps a lack of conscious empathy. The intent of the poem is to identify and explain situations in which the author has either experienced or heard about to a gentrified audience. One example of this is comments on affirmative action. Rankine identifies a situation where a woman is complaining that her son did not get into a school due to affirmative action. The author explains that she does not know how to react; she does not know if she should apologize, since affirmative action is for minority advancement. There is also that disconnect from the woman, who does not realize that her comments might make the author uncomfortable. As a result of telling this situation, the audience of gentrified minds will start to be more aware of situations like this where bringing up certain subjects might make someone else uncomfortable. The author wants to develop more empathy in the audience, so that comments and actions will be monitored more heavily. In the poem, “Dinosaurs in the Hood” by Danez Smith, he talks about a gentrified Hollywood, and how black people are portrayed in movies. He states that movies tend to show stereotypes of black people, which in turn shows the impression that the gentrified mind has on them; things like violence, which the author references Tarantino on. The author wants a positive movie on black people instead of a negative one, because in his eyes, it always seems to be negative.
In his poem called “Dinosaurs in the Hood”, poet Danez Smith attempts to combat the gentrification of the mind by suggesting that films with African American leads should be devoid of all the stereotypes, preconceived notions, and the old formula that incorporates both that’s used to perpetuate the “single story” about African Americans. Smith does so by offering a critical reviews and remarks of famous films with African American leads that he alludes to throughout his poem. Some examples of such are Will Smith’s Pursuit of Happyness, Ice Cube’s Friday, and the “racist” Wayan brothers movies. All these films reflect the single story of African Americans being nothing but tangled with life of poverty, crime, self-destruction, and narrow-mindedness. Following that up, Smith then states he doesn’t want an overly “cheesy” portrayal of African Americans such as the “Hmong sexy hot dude hero with a funny yet strong commanding black girl buddy-cop”. He simply wants the American film industry to also portray the other side of the African American story; the story of success, a life that isn’t tangled with crime, self-destruction, and narrow-mindedness – breaking out of the “single story”. These are elements that famous African American actresses such as Viola Davis and Cicely Tyson, who both play the role of strong African American females in movies, reflect – both of whom he refers to in the third to the last stanza of his poem. Smith drives this point home with his last two stanzas that reads “Besides, the only reason/ I want to make this is for that first scene anyway: the little black boy/ on the bus with a toy dinosaur, his eyes wide & endless/ his dreams possible, pulsing, & right there.” This was pretty much Smith coming out and pleading the American film industry to make the kind of movie that, like again, portrays the African Americans in a different light, breaking out of the single story.
Ka Lye Chan
In Danez Smith’s poem, “Dinosaurs in the Hood”, he intends to portray how hollywood gentrifies the portrayal of minority groups. This misrepresentation can be interpreted through the metaphor that he uses, which is the dinosaur. The dinosaur symbolizes gentrification and how destructive it is since he chooses to use a T-Rex, ultimately the most fearsome dino out there. A lot of the contents in his poem have to do with movies and actors since he talks about how he wants a film that correctly represents black people and other minority groups. This poem can be directed towards the general public and those who are film fanatics. In speaking about who should direct it, he mentions how Quentin Tarantino should not be the one to do so and points out a small but important detail of the plot. Director Quentin Tarantino is famous for the “Kill Bill”, “Pulp Fiction”, and “The Hateful Eight”, but he is more notoriously known for frequently including n word in his scripts for movies that include black people in it. Tarantino says that it is an artistic choice but many black movie critics have commented that it is unnecessary for the excess use of the word. Smith makes a comment about this by saying that Tarantino would probably direct the movie a violent manner and call it an artistic choice instead of playing into the stereotype of black people being more violent. Another thing that Smith points out is that the kid that is holding a dinosaur would not be holding a T-rex but an herbivorous dinosaur instead. This could be seen as countering the Tarantino point in not playing into stereotypes. These all tie into gentrification and it’s dangers because those who are able to instill their beliefs onto others can portray minority groups as dangerous. It can make others believe that stereotype and change their own mind set to fit others.
Gentrification contains two running defintions, the first being the act of renovating and improving a district so that it conforms to middle-class taste. And the second, is the gentrification of the mind. Gentrification of the mind shows our actions and behaviors in everyday life. The way the human mind precepts certain things and reacts to racism. Racism is belived to never see an ending due to the gentrification of the mind. In his poem, Dinosaurs in the Hood, Danez Smith talks about the never ending concept of the gentrification of the mind due to society’s ignorance to racism. Danez Smith believes that in order to get rid of the gentrification of the mind, movies with African American actors should not be given any stereotypical traits that most black people are believed to have, which suggested that preconceived notions should not exist. Some examples given by Smith are Will Smith’s Pursuit of Happyness, Ice Cube’s Friday, and the racist Wayan brothers movies. These movies all portray the story of African Americans having a life that is troubled with nothing but poverty, crime, self-destruction, and narrow-mindedness. In his poem, Danez Smith uses a joking tone but very seriously conveys that the portrayal of African American needs to show another side of these people. He simply asks of the film industry in America to also show the African American story of success, a life that isn’t troubled by poverty and crime – steering away from the common “single story”.
Claudia Rankine in her book “Citizen” and Danez Smith in the poem, “Dinosaurs in the Hood” combat the normalization of the way people of color are treated and symbolized in the media. An aspect of what Shulman claims “gentrification of the mind” is, is the ability to imagine diversity and new ideas. In the book “Citizen”, Rankine reveals true stories of the way her friends and her were treated, and how normal it was to be apart of these altercations. One example is when the guy called her friends the n-word, and then asked “why do you care” ensuing how insignificant it was to him. It is almost as he wanted to get a reaction out of them, by saying “there you go”. This phrase groups all of the people he has offended with the word, and got what he wanted, a reaction. This just shows how normal it is for somebody of color to deal with a person like this. The way she wrote it was effective, as it was told through the full lens of the person experiencing it. The poem by Smith combats gentrification of the mind as he wants the movie industry to steer away from the way black culture and people are portrayed. Instead of continuously following the same patterns of a black movie about pain, or about race, he advises for a movie with black actors but not focusing on their race or their history. He portrays through a lighter almost as he wants laughter, as he knows it is a new idea that wouldn’t happen.
Keshav Bhati
“Dinosaurs in the Hood” tackles gentrification of the mind by describing situations that would not be considered normal. It talks about a blockbuster film that by all standards seems very strange. It seems strange because it is not normal by our standards or norms. Danez Smith talks about scenes that he would include in this movie that would fully challenge gentrified ideas that most Americans have such as a pterodactyl pooping on a cop car. This one line in itself carries many different messages. One such message is the tainted relationship between African American communities and police officers. Everything described by Danez is just an exaggeration of the struggles faced by communities where gentrification is taking place. If you think about what he says in this context, the dinosaurs can be seen as the companies or government that is making this gentrification take place. This would make the scene he describes the grandmas fighting off the dinosaurs be like the adults and people who have lived in that community the whole trying to fight off gentrification. He also extensively discussed how he doesn’t want this to be a “black movie”, in other words a movie about just the black community and the problems they specifically place. He doesn’t want people to judge this movie for the cast but instead see the message. People would however not perceive the movie for the message because of how gentrification has changed the way people think and they would think of the movie in the ways he specifically didn’t want them too.
Jacob Kapustin
“Dinosaurs in the Hood” by Danez Smith is a poem in which the author discusses gentrification of the mind. The poet discusses the racism and lack of African American actors in Hollywood. Watching the poet perform his writing live, really helped portray the humor, narrative, and significance of their words. It was able to convey the lack of African Americans being portrayed as regular characters that a African American child would be able to relate to. The author says that they are tired of seeing the common African American characters such as will smith in superhero movies or the African American actor in Jaws who was killed off in one of the first scenes. The poet uses the little African American boy playing with a T-Rex on a bus to show the reader the type of role models he would like for the child to have. Smith wanted the child to not have to see limits for himself because of his race. Smith wanted the child to see actors who looked like he did, doing extraordinary things that would show him that he is limitless. It would allow for the child to let his imagination roam free, being able to see the world through a new perspective.