Dislocation

Our discussion last week about racism and how it effects housing reminded me of a documentary I watched in my Urban Sociology class. It was directed by sociologist Sudhir Venkatesh and is titled Dislocation. It covers the lives of a various tenants of the Robert Taylor housing projects prior to its demolition. The building was coming down to make way for new developments, and the tenants were given a 180 day notice of eviction. The documentary follows as the predominantly black tenants struggle to find new housing.

Some problems they run into include:

· Struggling with paperwork (in some cases due to illiteracy)

· Mail only arriving about once a week

· Landlords turning them down

· Not wanting to leave their homes

· And more…

It was an interesting documentary that sheds light on many of the problems our government has regarding race. We are still recovering from past government policy such as redlining and all of its indirect effects.

More info about the documentary at www.dislocationfilm.com