PhillyzFinest
All Star
In Gentrifying Atlanta, Black-Owned Food Businesses Are Banding Together to Survive—and Thrive
Keitra Bates lost her restaurant due to a rent hike. Now she’s fighting to protect other Black entrepreneurs from the same fate.
Driving her minivan through Atlanta’s historic West End, Keitra Bates points out the signs of change. There are patterns, she tells me, when it comes to determining which houses are occupied by long-term Black residents and which ones belong to the mostly white newcomers. Patterns you might not notice if you don’t know what to look for.
“This one kind of throws you off,” she says, nodding toward a squat gray bungalow. “’Cause you’re like, ‘That’s an inside couch, out on the porch. Maybe it’s not gentrified?’ But then you see the Prius, and then you see the landscaping. And you’re like, ‘Oh, okay. That’s more like it.’”
Through the passenger window, riding past block after block patchworked with renovations and For Sale signs, I begin to notice the patterns too. Soon they become impossible not to notice. “Yep, the colors of gentrification,” Bates sighs. “Blue houses, gray houses, yellow doors, red doors. It’s like a smoke signal.”
Honestly? I'm so sick of this shyt.
They can have a whole lot of cities, but they can't have Atlanta.
Whenever white people want to move black people out of the way, they do this. And if push comes to shove, they get violent.
HOW MANY NEIGHBORHOODS HAVE BEEN DESTROYED BECAUSE OF CACS.
I say we do the same thing we do to them:
Burn it down. Shoot it up. Torment them. March and yell insults. Make them completely uncomfortable.
F IT.
Keitra Bates lost her restaurant due to a rent hike. Now she’s fighting to protect other Black entrepreneurs from the same fate.
Driving her minivan through Atlanta’s historic West End, Keitra Bates points out the signs of change. There are patterns, she tells me, when it comes to determining which houses are occupied by long-term Black residents and which ones belong to the mostly white newcomers. Patterns you might not notice if you don’t know what to look for.
“This one kind of throws you off,” she says, nodding toward a squat gray bungalow. “’Cause you’re like, ‘That’s an inside couch, out on the porch. Maybe it’s not gentrified?’ But then you see the Prius, and then you see the landscaping. And you’re like, ‘Oh, okay. That’s more like it.’”
Through the passenger window, riding past block after block patchworked with renovations and For Sale signs, I begin to notice the patterns too. Soon they become impossible not to notice. “Yep, the colors of gentrification,” Bates sighs. “Blue houses, gray houses, yellow doors, red doors. It’s like a smoke signal.”
Honestly? I'm so sick of this shyt.
They can have a whole lot of cities, but they can't have Atlanta.
Whenever white people want to move black people out of the way, they do this. And if push comes to shove, they get violent.
HOW MANY NEIGHBORHOODS HAVE BEEN DESTROYED BECAUSE OF CACS.
I say we do the same thing we do to them:
Burn it down. Shoot it up. Torment them. March and yell insults. Make them completely uncomfortable.
F IT.
. 2009 they literally paid me to buy my house.
