Alejandro Canelas
ENG103
Dr.Kitana Ananda
09/26/17
The first Research topic that I would like to look further into is Gentrification in NYC. This issue is one that I personally see around NYC and in all honesty it frightens me if it were to affect my neighborhood. I would like to explore the history of communities of color being displaced all due to capitalist agendas. I know that columbus Circle used to be an area where a Puerto Rican neighborhood once thrived and now the area is a tourist destination and shopping district. This little known fact makes me think of the recent Puerto Rican and Dominican displacement of neighborhoods like Williamsburg which was once referred to as “los surez” by locals. This issue has a historical component and i would like to explore if this simply is an economic issue or is it racial genocide? Or is it both? I would like to tie in housing issues and employment issues into the research as well. I would like to also explore on-going African American displacement in places like Bushwick, Bed Stuy, and Crown Heights. There is a historical component to this that I would to connect to in recent history.
My second research topic I am considering is the grossly overlooked contribution of LGBTQI people of color in the sexual liberation movement. Specifically I would like to point out how Trans gendered individuals were and are the catalyst of much of the freedoms experienced today. Often times the narrative tends to be centered around a White gay male’s perspective and I would like to explore how the Stonewall riots became such a white washed moment in history. I would like to even point out the recent issues that occurred in Orlando and how many Black, and Puetro Rican/Domincans died and their ethnicity was overlooked during the discussion.
These are both really interesting topics, Alejandro! I recommend doing a library search to start skimming or reading available sources–this will help you narrow down each topic, and decide which one you want to research in-depth.
In the first topic, it sounds like you are interested in specific communities that have been displaced, whether Puerto Rican and Dominican or African-American, in several different Brooklyn neighborhoods. This will be a lot to explore in one paper. You could focus your research on the effects of displacement and gentrification on one of these communities in one or two specific neighborhoods, or you could do a comparative analysis of the effects on two different racial/ethnic communities.
Your second topic is also the subject of a lot of new (and exciting) scholarship– You could focus your paper on a specific event, as you mentioned the Stonewall Riots. What would you want to argue about the role of LGBTQI POC in that historical event? What would you argue about how that connects to the movement more generally?