The Terms of Displacement
The following words are defined by Webster’s Dictionary:
Eminent Domain : a right of a government to take private property for public use by virtue of the superior dominion of the sovereign power over all lands within its jurisdiction.
Gentrification: a process in which a poor area (as of a city) experiences an influx of middle-class or wealthy people who renovate and rebuild homes and businesses and which often results in an increase in property values and the displacement of earlier, usually poorer residents.
Redlining: the illegal practice of refusing to offer credit or insurance in a particular community on a discriminatory basis (as because of the race or ethnicity of its residents.
Be quiet
You were already red lined
Go softly without fuss
Forget this place that you call home.
You no longer live here
You no longer own the steps that you walk up and down
The foundation is gone.
You have been eminent domained
Even though you built a life here
Raised your family here
Churched here
Banked here
Schooled here
Worked here
Beauty and barber shopped here.
You no longer belong.
You have been gentrified
Pack up the dishes and throw away the baby’s first feeding spoon.
Forget how hard you worked for the down payment and the weeks that you spent learning about first-time home ownership.
What about the blue house on the corner? Who will remember that family? Who will remember how they loved?
You have been displaced for the sake of public good
This place is closed to your memories.
This door knob will only fall off into your hands. The keys will not work.
This house will cease to exist
Leveled to the ground
And you?
You have been fairly compensated.
Move on.
A new hospital or fire station
A highway
New churches and schools.
Progress will be made
Without you.
I’m pleased to be part of the Iowa Writers’ Collaborative. Please consider supporting our members:
That’s the truth. Former residents of such neighborhoods should visit them, find the newcomers who are reasonable, and tell them what it was like. They need to know.