This is not my regularly scheduled post. I promise you the regular real estate content is coming shortly. This has just been weighing on me and I wanted to get it out first. Early this week, I received an email from a subscriber telling me that they were considering unsubscribing after reading my post-election issue on Georgia because they prefer “non-political information.” I spent the day drafting a response and debated sending it.
You're right– everything is political. The people who are able to request that "politics" be separated from *insert another subject here* are the ones with enough privilege and access to do so in their lives (cough hwhite people cough) because they don't feel or experience the intersectionality the way the rest of us do. Thank you for your acknowledgement and honesty. We need more of that... as well as beautiful and aesthetically pleasing newsletters.
Anything Thomas Sugrue is super illuminating: The Origins of the Urban Crisis (1996) and his recent Neoliberal Cities: The Remaking of Postwar Urban America (2020). And for how liberal policy supported (enabled?) racist institutions, especially the housing and mortgage industries: How Race Survived US History by Roediger.
I read American Apartheid (https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/252034.American_Apartheid) a few years ago, and while the information is somewhat out of date (published in 1998) it was a fascinating academic angle on redlining, and how that morphed into challenges with public housing, and some of the fundamental issues that make integrated neighborhoods difficult to create in the US.
Your willingness to directly name the long, ugly, hateful history that underlies and permeates our "real estate escapism" hobby makes me a more invested reader/subscriber. Thank you.
As a foreigner who just came across this newsletter, it was very interesting to hear about the issue and how you responded. Politics is definitely a delicate subject but you have genuinely shown your thoughts, it resonated with me a lot. Thanks.
In the public realm, haters will be haters. Thanks for thoughtfully presenting yourself online. I appreciate it for just what it is and not read too much more into it.
You're right– everything is political. The people who are able to request that "politics" be separated from *insert another subject here* are the ones with enough privilege and access to do so in their lives (cough hwhite people cough) because they don't feel or experience the intersectionality the way the rest of us do. Thank you for your acknowledgement and honesty. We need more of that... as well as beautiful and aesthetically pleasing newsletters.
Anything Thomas Sugrue is super illuminating: The Origins of the Urban Crisis (1996) and his recent Neoliberal Cities: The Remaking of Postwar Urban America (2020). And for how liberal policy supported (enabled?) racist institutions, especially the housing and mortgage industries: How Race Survived US History by Roediger.
I read American Apartheid (https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/252034.American_Apartheid) a few years ago, and while the information is somewhat out of date (published in 1998) it was a fascinating academic angle on redlining, and how that morphed into challenges with public housing, and some of the fundamental issues that make integrated neighborhoods difficult to create in the US.
I love your honesty and candor. But most of all, that you used your platform as a way to kindly (and generously) educate!
Your willingness to directly name the long, ugly, hateful history that underlies and permeates our "real estate escapism" hobby makes me a more invested reader/subscriber. Thank you.
This is the first post of yours I've gotten. How lucky am I to start my journey with this blog knowing that we're on the same wave length. <3
As a foreigner who just came across this newsletter, it was very interesting to hear about the issue and how you responded. Politics is definitely a delicate subject but you have genuinely shown your thoughts, it resonated with me a lot. Thanks.
Thank you.Sometimes we have to speak up and you have done it eloquently.
Thanks, I appreciate you taking the time to write this thoughtful post. Also, thanks for the book list.
What an intelligent, thoughtful, and kind reply. Good job! (And thank you for the book list. There is so much I don’t know about that subject.)
I really appreciated this one.
Thank you for being your authentic self, and providing a book list as an antidote to ignorance.
In the public realm, haters will be haters. Thanks for thoughtfully presenting yourself online. I appreciate it for just what it is and not read too much more into it.