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community (noun)
com·â€‹mu·â€‹ni·â€‹ty
a unified body of individuals: such as
a) the people with common interests living in a particular area
b) a feeling of fellowship with others, as a result of sharing
common attitudes, interests, and goals
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​Due to the personal and cultural nature of the show, the creators wanted to provide informational insight into the history of Brooklyn, New York, with specific references to the Canarsie neighborhood and what is traditionally known as "Black Brooklyn".
Canarsie
Brooklyn's Last Village
Canarsie is a neighborhood in Brooklyn, New York.
Between 1990 and 2000, the black population in Canarsie, Brooklyn increased significantly from 10% to almost 60%, marking the most notable racial demographic shift in any neighborhood in New York City.
Today, many of Canarsie’s residents are of Caribbean descent. They initially sought integrated neighborhoods, but instead found increasing segregation. In the late 1960s, Canarsie experienced heightened racial tensions, similar to the rest of the country. The neighborhood was predominantly middle-class Jewish and Italian, while neighboring Brownsville and East Flatbush were mostly working-class Black and Puerto Rican.
Racist zoning policies effectively segregated public schools in the area. In 1972, a plan was proposed to preserve the ethnic diversity of the neighborhoods. To prevent families from leaving, New York City Public Schools began offering a specialized honors program that students from all over the city could apply to. However, this well-intentioned fight against segregation unintentionally led to an increase in "white flight" and the concentration of specialized academies in the same buildings, resulting in competition for resources. These issues served as inspiration for one of the main points of BrooklynStart.
For more information about the Canarsie neighborhood, including demographics and details about the racial pressures that shaped the culture of this once-prominent Brooklyn village, you can visit the links to the right.
Black Brooklyn
Gentrification and Racial Segregation in Brooklyn
The Pace, and Face, of Gentrification
Community Resistance in Gentrifying Brooklyn
See Gentrification in Your NYC Neighborhood
If Brooklyn, New York was a city unto itself, it would be the fourth largest city in the United States. Among its many neighborhoods, there is a particular set that has traditionally been called “Black Brooklyn”.
These neighborhoods include: Fort Greene, Clinton Hill, Bedford-Stuyvesant or Bed-Stuy, Prospect Heights, Crown Heights, and parts of Bushwick.
In recent decades, large portions of Black Brooklyn have been gentrifying with sizable numbers of white residents moving to traditionally Black and Latinx neighborhoods. One would anticipate racial segregation to be declining in the areas that are gentrifying. However, this expectation of appaears to be false as gentrification has also led to the displacement of long-term African American residents, raising questions about its impact on the Black community.
Explore links to more information regarding "Black Brooklyn", including demographics and information regarding biases that have been and reshaping the community for over 30 years.
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