New neighbors

OK, so we have to come to know how power relations are operating.
Yesterday, I started thinking about this idea of cultural inversion, and how it plays out differently for whites and blacks in America. I had kind of simplified it down to rebellion and wondered why we can think of tons of pop culture white rebels. They range from Billy the Kid to Johnny Depp (men and every once in a while, a woman, who opposed the powerful oprressor). But where do those exist for blacks? Black rebels are seen as dangerous and threatening. Whites are romanticized becoming the hero, and blacks become the thug. I considered jazz musicians, but I don't know enough, and then there was motown and later rap music. It seems like white people profit from a popularization of those music genres though. I have to research it more, but it was something I was thinking about.

We bought a house in a little master planned communuity outside of Denton last year. It's really not our style to live in a planned community. It wasn't our 1st or even 10th choice, but whatever. More houses have become foreclosures over the year, and our home value is slowly declining. Our neighbors moved out a few months ago and put their house up for sale or rent. As I have been researching race and ethnicity, we have been focusing a lot on residential patterns that promote segregation. I have noticed as foreclosures have increased, more African Americans have moved in. The research that I've been reading demonstrates how this historically lowers property values. It is so sad becasue our neighborhood has a lot of caucasian families who seem to be living beyond their means, so they foreclose on their homes, but there is a visible resentment for the increasing African American presence. So instead of the anger being directed at the whites who bought something they couldn't afford (and I realize that banks and developers are to blame for this as well), they blame blacks who are trying to have a part in the "american dream." Today a family of 7 moved in to the house next door, and I watched two neighbors give disingenuous greetings. I was outside with my pajamas on (it's a Sunday!), and they had just come from church very nicely dressed. As I came in, I thought, look at me, and they are the ones who will be blamed for lowering home values. As I study more about prejudice and racism, I can't help but focus on these double standars and inconsistencies.