Red, White, Blue, and Black

Those of you who follow absurd racial grievances and the liberal white people who bow before them will recall all the attention given to efforts in Portland by something known as the “Office of Neighborhood Involvement” to foster greater understanding of “gentrification.”  The Oregonian hyperventilates here, and the NYT catches up a month later here.  Gentrification is the latest academic buzzword to describe when white people move to what has been historically black neighborhoods.  Longtime black residents are understandably upset when local businesses are replaced with pretentious java shops, organic grocery stores, and outdoor apparel stores, in order to serve the growing community of over-educated, condescending, vegan, emo members of the “creative class,” i.e. unemployed coffee house musicians with a trust fund.  But, hey, it’s a free country, and I imagine if blacks started to move into white neighborhoods no one is going to justify whites’ discomfort, let alone use a government office for white people to explain their uncomfortableness with this new diversity.  The reason for this post is an article in the July 29, 2009, edition of the WSJ.  Reporter Douglas Belkin tells the story of Montana, where 200,000 newcomers “are reshaping the way this state looks, acts–and votes.  Along the way, these new Montanans have sparked a testy culture clash and, for the first time in a generation, opened the door for a Democrat presidential nominee to win the state in November.”  A long-time resident complained that the newbies, overwhelmingly Democrat-leaning, well-educated, and not familiar with the culture of the state, are turning Bozeman into “another Aspen.”  This has altered the makeup of the state so much that the state where George Bush won by 20 points in 2004 now has Sen. Obama up 5 points.  Of course, there is no hand-wringing about a loss of culture and tradition.  Instead, we have a celebration of the possible loss of another red state and their backward ways.  As a liberty lover, private property is private property.  But it struck me that the real cultural imperialists are well-educated, upper middle class Obama voters.  They are invading minority and rural areas, replacing their tradition and culture with organic arugula and bike paths.  Diversity and tolerance, to a leftist, only work if you agree and live like them.