That’s a great piece! And now I’m hungry for some antioxidants.

Also this is the best companion piece EVER for the OP : http://nikkiandthecity.com/black-neighborhoods-become-white-hilarious/

Best line: “If you don’t know what gentrification is it’s when a bunch of white people move to a fucked-up neighborhood and they open up cupcake shops everywhere.”

For what it’s worth, “bougie” is an equal opportunity word, as far as the Californians I know, and I’m AfAm, was born in SF, and went to Mills in Oakland, not that this means anything much,

Also, this seems to me DEFINITELY a case of “Us” talking about “Them” and, Oh, my perky bad, this time, Them was listening, and offended and rightly so. Nobody wants to get hassled or shot, but the fact is, it can happen anywhere, and it’s unfortunate that this person was fine with taking a confidential tone about where best to stay away from “Them” and still be able to take advantage of the super-cute little cupcake shops.

This reminds me of how gentrification happens: ooh, look what we could do with where you are, if only you weren’t here! Now, how can we move you nasty little people along?

::sigh::

Apparently that’s not the case anymore! OR, and I suspect this is more the case, this white writer – who specifically says she’s an artiste, not a writer, so okay, she shouldn’t get any more writing work I hope – purposely uses this word to self-identify as someone who’s DOWN with the MOVEMENT. Hamfisted and awkward!

That being said, I think that the “us” audience she was going for was “frightened San Franciscans,” and for newbies to Oakland, I guess she thought, the easiest entry point would be somewhere like Rockridge or Piedmont.

Whether that’s necessary, desirable, or in the least bit socially acceptable is another matter. I am really boggled that she thought this would be okay. (And that she found it accurate. Apparently she’s lived in Oakland for the past 10 years, but I find that very hard to believe.)

Frances, you nailed it. Except for the part about cupcakes. I’m not wild about cake in general.

However, my understanding is that in the UK these are called “fairy cakes.” That helps.

As for the rest of the story, it is another case of someone thinking that they are talking only to people like themselves, or worse thinking that there only *are* people like themselves. I’m sure it never occurred to the writer that the people who live in those neighborhoods might read her piece because she didn’t give any thought to them as people in the first place. But as for the apology, it boils down to 2 classic avoidance techniques: 1) we didn’t mean to offend and 2) we’re sorry that people were offended, instead of an actual apology which would be something like “We’re sorry we printed something so offensive.”