Yisel had no reason to mention that she was a Latina except that she felt it would give her some kind of credibility in argument. She’s a Latina, and hence part of the demographic I want pushed out? You’re relentless in your attempt to distract from the true matter at hand: filth and a general lack of civility with regard to noise levels. This has absolutely nothing at all to do with ethnicity, except that I happen to live in a predominantly Puerto Rican neighborhood so you pretend to assume that it’s the ethnicity itself I really want gone. I say “pretend” because I know that you know that I don’t hate Latinos, but you hate my message and want to slander me. It’s cool, I know the score.

As for the community, that is made up of the people of a neighborhood, not the physical neighborhood itself. I am not a member of the pre-2000s community.

Anon: Yessss, that’s what I have been waiting for, some hardcore hatred of white people qua white. Delicious.

Amanda: You could call me an asshole, a jerk, a boor even, but dumb? Come on. Disappointing.

There are Latinos and/or Hispanics who have commented on this post that agree with me, and I notice nobody even pays attention. Are they self-hating, maybe?

And how about this Latina from the Bushwick of the 70s, also mentioning the noise and trash of her childhood?

Where did he say he wanted Yisel or her “demographic,” pushed out of her neighborhood? And what demographic are you talking about?

In terms of responsibility to the neighborhood… yeah, some people like Jeremy, who is a property OWNER in Bushwick, have a responsibility to the neighborhood in so much as it will effect the value of their property. Outside of that, how can the yuppie/hipster/gentrifiers contribute to the community without being accused of changing things to meet their supposed white, middle class sensibilities?

There is a difference between complaining about the level of noise or the amount of trash on the street and simply wanting to erase an entire culture by replacing it with something “safe” and “white.”

Why, again, is it that the community needs to improve, but you, who live in said community, don’t have any responsibility to improve it? If it isn’t your race or class that sets you apart from those who do have said responsibility, then what is it?

In the interest of clarity, I’ll underscore that it was not my intention to imply that loud music is an integral part of Latin culture.

And, hey, if I, as you seem to imply, am only the most recent in a long string of people to tell you to move to the ‘burbs, maybe there’s something to that advice.

Also, my name isn’t “Sandy.”

And I never said the community didn’t need improvement — it’s clear enough that it certainly does. I simply reject the idea that it needs ME to better it, or that I have any responsibility to better it. I have no problems talking about how people are loud and dirty, if that is the case, and I don’t see why you should see a problem, either. It doesn’t help your case to accuse me of hating the poor and the brown, it’s ridiculous and the readers here know otherwise.

My neighbors do not blast their music, people racing by in cars do — you know, the “impoverished” ones in the chromed-out $50,000 SUVs? You got lost in your relentless sardonicism and didn’t end up having a point, but I’ll just restate that NO, blasting loud music out of cars is not “Latino culture,” and even if it were an intrinsic PART of it, it’s not anything like a significant part worth mentioning. What the loud music blaring from cars is is a bunch of thugs who don’t give a shit about the people who live on the street they don’t see for longer than it takes for the light to turn green. The only reason their ethnicity is brought to your attention is because it is usually reggaeton…although the other day as I bent down to pick up trash in the gutter someone blasted Metallica right in my ear.

As for race and wars, I never denied that there was a connection — I see it every day in the articles I read about our “heroic defenders fight’n fer freedom” in teh eyerack shoot’n up them “hajis.” Of course, many of those anti-Arab racist soldiers are black and Latino. No, my contention was that a lack of acceptance is not “why the world is such a mess” — since, as even a person who sees racism everywhere must agree, there are many other reasons for a fucked-up world.

“Move to the suburbs!” — oh, Sandy, covering some very old ground here! Maybe even…tired! Whatcha got that’s new for me?