Memphis: the result of ignoring systemic inequality

More than 40 people have been shot in Memphis, Tennessee, since the beginning of 2016.

The weekend of Friday, March 5 through Sunday, March 7 saw 10 people shot, two people stabbed and three people dead. It was a bloody weekend that has left citizens of Memphis baffled, angry, and afraid for their city.

Bloody weekends have seemed to become all the more common in Memphis. We all know of someone, somewhere who was killed at some point in time during in the past few years or so. The news headlines depict a new murder almost everyday. A teen stabbed in Frayser, double-shootings and murders within a few hours of one another, someone being stabbed off of Chelsea Avenue, shootings taking place in the Wolfchase Galleria parking lot. If people are not being killed, they are being assaulted, robbed or sexually assaulted.

And if people aren’t being physically harmed, they are being harmed by gentrification. Housing projects that have housed families for decades such as Dixie Homes (which is now known to some as “Uptown”), Foote Homes and the Warren and Tulane apartment complexes are being put up for sale by the owners. The owners are people like Rev. Richard Hamlet, co-founder of Global Ministries Foundation, who has a reputation for being what is commonly referred to as a “slumlord.” It’s not a reputation that’s come out of nowhere; residents have complained of trash not being picked up, infrastructural and plumbing issues that have gone completely ignored to the point where it was unsafe to leave in apartments, and a general disregard for the well-being those who are not rich from the reverend. It’s similar to the bug infestation at Serenity Towers, where complaints against the landlord apparently fell on deaf ears to the point that it took a six-hour sweep with 40 inspectors to find only some of the problems there.

These housing units are being used for new development plans, plans that will inevitably lead to much more expensive housing in traditionally low-income areas. Those who currently live there are being “relocated” and will likely not be able to afford any new, more costly housing units that arrive in their place. People are being pushed out to usher in a new generation of renters and owners. And it doesn’t take much imagination to create a mental image of what this new generation is supposed to look like. If the relocation is not done with care, more than 700 people could end up without homes. It is one of the worst housing crises waiting to happen.

Memphis is going through a lot right now, and no one seems to know the cause. Many politicians and other “well-intentioned” leaders in Memphis may blame the crime and housing situations on the mentality of those living in undesirable conditions. The phrases “Section eight mentality” are the kinds of excuses that get thrown around in city government. It is a phrase certain politicians have used to absolve themselves of any responsibility in anything that involves the crime or homelessness problems in Memphis. And beyond being a disturbingly easy way to victim-blame people, it is a phrase that shows what one of the major problems of the city of Memphis is.

Memphis is the result of ignoring the systemic inequality that has been prevailing in the city for decades.

Every malady I have listed is the result of systemic inequality. Memphis is one of the poorest cities in the one of the most conservative states. Memphis is a city where racial inequality and economic is almost enforced by the decisions of the city government. The crime rates are not something that just magically appeared; they are the result of decades of anti-Blackness and classism forcing Black citizens into certain types of communities and then not providing those communities with proper resources or even access to basic necessities of life. A lack of education, shelter and employment are problems that plague predominantly Black areas of Memphis, creating environment that economically poor and structurally unsound, for lack of a better phrase.

And the initiatives that have been introduced to fix these problems do not address the systemic issues, instead focusing on the individual. Instead of analyzing these neighborhoods and trying to find the many causes of gang activity, they’d rather sweep through the neighborhoods and shove them into 201 Poplar or send them to the FCI (thus contributing to the seemingly never-ending profits of the prison industrial complex, but that’s an essay for another day). Instead of attempting to understand the mental and emotional effects of not having enough food or not being able to have a stable living situation, many dismiss poor citizens as being unable to learn or as contributing to their own living conditions. Instead of having frank discussions about how legislation plays a role in the problems that assault the city, we get told to pray more (and don’t get me wrong — I identify as a Christian still and I believe in prayer. I also believe that prayer without works is just complaining to God while He looks down at you wondering why you haven’t done the work He told you to do a long time ago).

The problems of Memphis cannot be solved without taking the first few steps:

1. We have to admit that there is systemic racial and economic inequality in the city (And we can’t derail the conversation by saying “But we’ve had Black leadership for such and such decades!!” One does not have to be white to participate in and uphold white supremacy).
2. We have to admit that these inequalities are the ultimate cause of the poverty, crime rates, and gentrification and stop finding ways to blame everything on everyone else.
3. We have to admit that legislation passed by city lawmakers actively help contribute to the ongoing problem of inequality and work to hold said lawmakers accountable to creating legislation that is for THE PEOPLE and not the profit.

I love my city. I didn’t realize how much I loved my city until I left it, but I love my city and I desperately want to see improvement. Improvement is a long road trip ahead with some awkward and hard conversations in the car. But we have to start driving anyway.