Columbia University is an ivy league private research facility in the Morningside Heights neighborhood of upper Manhattan in New York City.
It's the oldest institution of higher learning in the state of New York, it's the fifth oldest in the united snakes, I mean states and it's one of the countries nine colonial colleges founded before the american revolution.
Coincidentally, the other eight 'colonial colleges' are: Harvard, Yale, Princeton, University of Pennsylvania, The college of William and Mary, Rutger's College, Rhode Island College and Dartmouth College.
Harlem, New York is a neighborhood on the northern part of New York City that since the 1920's has been a major residential, cultural and business district for Black people in america. It's name is taken from a Dutch village called Haarlem in the Netherlands and quiet as it's kept, Harlem was once a Dutch-owned slave colony (reference the cigars named 'Dutch Masters'...put down those 'Dutches' y'all; 'cause these are the degenerates who own this company).
Since 2010, Columbia University has engaged in something called an 'expansion project' in Morningside Heights...and for those who don't know, Morningside Heights and 'Manhattanville' are upper-scale names given to the Harlem area.
I think back now to when I first heard that school loan debt had exceeded credit card debt in this country; I was shocked.
It was the first signs of how higher education was being used by the legal loan sharks of this country as their new hustle. That's why you see all these 'fly-by-night', pseudo universities popping up all over the place; like Phoenix University for instance.
And with the university system so flush with cash thanks to their 'debt hustle', they're now being used to do other nefarious things; like kick all the Black residents out of Harlem.
Just like european colonizers wouldn't first come in with guns blazing to take over a community, country or continent, Columbia U. is using an environmentally friendly initiative called the 'air monitoring program' in Harlem to show how much they wanna' improve things for Black residents there. This is tantamount to conquerors sending in missionaries before the armed troops are deployed.
They're disarming Black residents with their feigned altruism before raising their rents and kicking them out.
What Columbia U.'s administrators are actually doing is making the air quality of that area better for the white residents who are now occupying more and more of Harlem's residences. 'Cause for years Harlem had garbage incinerators running day and night near the community; so much so, that the rate of asthma for Harlem's children was twice the national average.
And this isn't just going on in Harlem, it's taking place in Chicago's south side, Nickerson gardens, Compton, Watts, and seemingly every place else where a large number of Black people live.
I remember a friend of mine who lives in a predominately Black neighborhood in Brooklyn, New York told me how suddenly white people starting moving back into his area in droves. He now says a white couple from Colorado lives next door to him.
Makes you wonder what the white elite have planned for us once they've completely moved us out of our neighborhoods, don't it?
I remember one of the dumb-founded talk show hosts of New York City's 'Hot 97' radio station, who calls himself 'Charlamane tha god', don't think he could of picked a more euro-centric, emasculating name if he tried; said when Spike Lee bought up the topic of gentrifying our neighborhoods, "...well, doesn't that make the community better?"
Better for who?
What good is the quality of life being improved in your community gonna' do you if you're forced out 'cause you can't pay the new, higher rents?
Unfortunately, this is the opinion of the majority of Black people in america.
Just the other day I was talking to a brotha who lived in Washington D.C.; and he ranted about how chagrined he was that he didn't buy one of the dilapidated row-houses where he grew up, 'cause his area is now gentrified and those homes are now selling for millions of dollars.
I've heard similar sentiments from scores of Black people saying, "...well, if our people had their sh@t together, then we would be the ones making all that money..."
So, as the brotha from D.C. continued searching for an answer as to why our people seem to always do this...I finally told him why.
If you've been reading this Blog for a minute, you know that it's main tenet is telling Black people that we've lost everything to the self-hatred we've been conditioned into by the white elite...well, the same holds true for this situation.
Now, before you think this is an easy excuse for Black people, I want you to ponder this...if you were taught everyday of your life that you as a Black person have no value, then what would you think about your possessions or your community?
You'd think they're valueless...like yourself.
Well, this is the reason why the Black Diaspora, and the brotha from D.C., didn't buy that row house back in the day. 'Cause consciously or sub-consciously, he thought they had no value.
When Black people live in any dilapidated working class or impoverished area, they're basically trying to get outta' there!
They're not thinking that in ten or twenty years, this row house or abandoned plot of land is gonna' be worth something. They're just trying to get as far away from their people and as close to white people as they possibly can, as quickly as they can.
Here is yet another symptom of our collective self-hatred.
If we valued ourselves, or got ourselves reconditioned out of our conditioned self-hatred, then we'd want to spend more money and time in our own communities, and we'd value our own company even more.
And again, I say conditioned self-hatred 'cause none of us are BORN THIS WAY! We learn to devalue ourselves from the carefully crafted american school cirriculums, TV shows, movies and other media that give us this self-hating message everyday. And we get this message more than any other ethnic group on the planet.
And again, IT'S IMPERATIVE THAT WE KNOW WE'RE NOT BORN THIS WAY!
'Cause if you go around thinking or saying that Black people are stupid for letting their communities be gentrified right out from under them, how could you not consciously or sub-consciously hate yourself for being Black?
Remember, our survival is predicated on reconditioning ourselves out of the self-hatred we've been coerced into our whole lives.
And again, I want to remind every Black person that our sub-conscious minds are the world's biggest and greatest battlefields of them all...and if we don't control those pieces of real estate, we as a people are as good as gone.
And I for one, don't intend to go down without a fight.
Kem Wesir!
MontUHURU Mimia
P.S.
Here's a video by the rap artist 'Vinny Chase' that sublimely talks about the gentrification of Harlem, New York.
What makes this video so dope is not only the great music, but Vinny and his co-horts have no idea how they're making political consciousness 'cooler' to their peers through this song.
I liken this song to N.W.A's 'Fuck tha Police'; because even though N.W.A. weren't politically 'conscious', they became that way just by reporting what was going on in their neighborhood; and it's message is still as relevant today, as it was back then.
Enjoy this vid!
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