Gentrification and Incarceration in Postcolonial Dialogue

Capturing the Issue
Video Recorders, cell phones and digital cameras have given people a unique opportunity to see first hand the effects of gentrification and incarceration on our society. By extending our eyes beyond what we see in the mainstream media and giving us a more objective view, we can begin to make our own judgements. Sometimes these unsensored events are horrific and brutal but nevertheless, they are real and often times under the radar of society. However, digital video has born a whole new era of activism and violence can be a rapid catalyst for action. Police are often the first to react to these types of event and we are seeing increasingly that they don't posess the proper judgement skills to handle these situations. So they remain the main pervayers of a colonial society. Dealing with this defect of society will be our focus and the intention is to unveil some of the causes these acts. Our proposal is to make the explicit connection between violent events in the community and the reactions of modern activist, poets and musicians.

In the words of — Frederick Douglass Those who profess to favor freedom, and yet deprecate agitation, are men who want rain without thunder and lightning. They want the ocean without the roar of its many waters. Upholding our implicit morals is a difficult task when the vast majority of society are very passive to this process. Without the passion for change many humans ignore societies greatest problems. Artists are sometimes societies moral compass and it is important to pay attention to what they are saying.
Cole E. Trout-Audett

Likewise, the connections between social phenomena must be acknowledged in an explicit and accessible manner. If this is not done, the symptoms of economic exploitation will be allowed to run their course as series of “unrelated” events. With this in mind, it is necessary to probe the relationship between police brutality and the gentrification of communities in the Denver Metro area. With greater tax revenue going toward police departments in communities subject to “urban renewal”, the manner in which community members with lower incomes or overlooked social positions are interacting with increasingly more heavily armed and privileged police forces is a relationship needing investigation if one is to evaluate the implications of forms of economic development and policy in social, political and economic dimensions. Seth Goodman