Belongingness and the Harlem drummers

• Autores: Khadijah White
• Localización: Urban geography, ISSN 0272-3638, Vol. 36, Nº. 3, 2015, págs. 340-358
• Idioma: inglés
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• Resumen

  • In this article, I analyze a recent conflict over drumming in a Harlem park to understand the ways in which cultural and racial symbols are employed in negotiations of space within cities. Specifically, I argue that racial belongingness�a racialized claim to space that exists outside of property rights and demarcated through iconography�can be used to both resist and facilitate gentrification in urban locales. The Harlem case illustrates how racial belongingness functions as a device that allows groups to contest power, representation, and access to public space across temporal, physical, and aural boundaries. Thus, I look closely at the city as a canvas and stage upon which passive forms of communication manifest in a racially and culturally coded fashion. Additionally, I argue that contemporary public space discourse is overly preoccupied with class, often neglecting the significance of race in the constitution and experience of urban space.