moratorium

I propose a ban on the use of the word 'gentrification' when describing the displacement of D.C. residents by upper-middle class professionals in certain neighborhoods. Gentrification makes me think of 'landed' gentry ... like before women's and black suffrage, in the initial years of American democracy where only the 'landed gentry' could elect the leaders of our great country. It smacks of elitism, oversimplification of the problem, patronization, and for some reason interjects horrible memories of the L.A. riots inspired by the beating of Rodney King. People who use the word gentrification seem to think of themselves as 'gentry,' and I despise it because it accredits someone who is allegedly well educated some kind of superiority over another human being. So I guess all that education couldn't lead the DC 'gentry' to think critically of how all the resume bullets have inflated themselves to what they despised in Virginia and Maryland (namely self-segregation and homogeneity) and inspired them to move into the real, in-your-face, multi-ethnic, multi-age, myriad of experience, uber-diversified community we know as D.C.