Harlem On Our Minds

While I was reding this piece I was struck by how much we lose by not appreciating all communites, not just our backyards but all around us.  I remember last semester when we were placed in Camden, I was so shocked by the lack of literature in the classroom.  Not only was there no black author literature there was no white author literature.  So if not for literature where does a student begin to understand the world around him?I felt a sense of loss for these youths in Harlem to have to fight for their neighborhood because of Columbia.  A student named Phillip asked, Why we have to have gentrification give us things we should already have based on the fact that we're human, we're people?"  Gentrification of any cultural neighborhood has both pros and cons.  If the inhabitants of these neighborhoods don't want it, who ia anyone to force it down their throat?  The country we live in is truly melting down to an innocuous, PC, bland territory.  We only have to drive down I-95 to see how different cultures are disappearing.  There was a time that we could only get grits in the south, now we can get it anywhere.  Even the Amish are getting in on big business and the perks that go with it.  I have seen Amish going to work in cars, putting on lipstick.  Is this another culture that will go by the wayside?  One thing I have learned in my classes is that literacy is not just about reading, writing or music or...it's about the total package of knowledge and connections to our world.