Analysis Of Black On The Block By Mary Pattillo

There were a number of problematic themes throughout Dr. Mary Pattillo’s book, Black on the Block, but the most taxing was the criminalization of the poor from the black middle class and majority of the “actors” working towards the revitalization of North Kenwood-Oakland. Dr. Pattillo addressed these issues to the reader, however my quandary was connected specifically to the responses from the black brokers and outside participants in repairing NKO.
Throughout the reading, there was little to no deeper analysis of the conditions, which caused the decline of the neighborhood from the black gentrifiers and decision makers. Instead, there were numerous mentions of the ill behavior, influx of drugs and crime as well as lack of community pride

Demonizing the high rises was hypocritical considering the Lake Meadows buildings in Bronzeville, which were also a part of Chicago’s urban renewal project in 1946, were also high rises that avoided much of the rudiments that were confined to those of NKO.
Ultimately, the focus in revitalizing NKO should have been figuring out ways to rehabilitate a people who had been severely underserved. Providing occupational training, creating jobs, implementing drug rehabilitation, building high performing schools and additional opportunities to revitalize the pride of a tragically broken people should have been on the solutions table as the top priority.
I am possibly an idealist and even a bit naïve to what creates the permanent underclass, but more importantly what rehabilitates them. My personal experience as someone who was an underclass resident allows me to believe in the investment of people and their ability to recover if opportunities for upward mobility present themselves. Collectively, our society must stop the demonizing of economically depressed areas and their residents especially if the reason behind the destruction is the same system that affords others opportunities for advancement while marginalizing others. Rapper and revolutionary Tupac Shakur said it best, “I didn’t create thug life; I diagnosed it,” so until our society at large understands this, neighborhoods and the social ills that exist within them like NKO will remain as a cancerous growth that America must