Black History Month in SF’s Most Isolated Neighborhood
It’s time to get real about the significance of Black History Month among our youth! BHM is well known for its focus on Black stories, histories, trailblazers, and racial realities they have faced for centuries. It is a time dedicated to uplifting their voices and providing space to spotlight these ideas. Forty percent of Black Americans now, since 1964, consider themselves middle class, and 75% of Black married couples own homes. Sixty percent of Black women in the forties worked as domestic servants, while now the figure is 2.2%. There are 50 members in Congress who are Black and the Black poverty rate has been cut in half to 18% since the sixties. Undoubtedly, these numbers should be recognized as marks of definite steps towards equality.
City of Dreams works in a neighborhood of public housing complexes in the outskirts of San Francisco, a neighborhood called Bayview-Hunter’s Point of which holds the reputation for SF’s “most isolated neighborhood.” The reality of our work involves supporting the Black and other minority youth and families in this neighborhood who face underserved schools, higher crime rates, and social exclusion. The reality of our work is that we have to push past the boundaries set in place by institutions and the social society in order to reach equality.
The most recent “state of emergency” declared by San Franciscan parents of Black youth who have been failed by the city’s education system reaffirms the absolute necessity it is to defend our kids. The status of Bayview’s education gap is not the only accessibility measure in stagnation. The neighborhood was built in response to a need for workers at the Hunters Point Naval Shipyard, which was shut down in 1989 by the city after decades of providing 3,000 residents employment. The shutdown caused a tremendous impact on the stability of the neighborhood, at a time when drugs and violence began to infiltrate the city. Poverty became a common status. The shipyard, despite its closure, has been labeled as a “dumping ground for toxic waste,” ever since. Cold War fallout emissions from the site has been linked to nosebleeds, tumors, and breathing problems among residents. Since this shut down, many of the families remain trapped in a cycle of sickness and poverty, on the edge of a wealthy city. Among the list of disproportionation Bayview faces, radioactive fallout seems to also make the list.
Bayview Hunters-Point is home to the most elementary school children out of all the SF neighborhoods. It also faces the most dramatically declining rate of school enrollment from its peers. As a result, organizations like us have established pathways out from under the heavy hand of a broken economic infrastructure. We believe that this predominantly Black neighborhood at the edge of San Francisco should be acknowledged for the potential it carries, despite the turmoil it has faced. Many of our streets are actually named after pioneers in housing and civil rights! The large scale topics of an underrepresented community are easier to navigate with educated and supported youth. Organizations like ours and the community that participates in this work are the absolute example of Black excellence.
Our goal at City of Dreams is to uproot the poverty that has so deeply entrenched generations of these families, and assist in the achievement of their potential. Black History Month is also about this work. Much of what we and so many other organizations like us do is overlooked. We face unique challenges because of the population we serve and the policies and ideologies of the past. We encourage our youth, supporters, community and onlookers to consider BHM a practice in activism that can be extended past February and past its regular limitations.
The work being done should be met with meaningful language and positive acknowledgement, but not only because it is easy to market or influences slight compassion for the realities of Black people. In other words, Black History Month should be presented with the entire story, connecting past issues to the current ones, addressing the status of the work and the complexities of a world that pushes the Black community to the side every other month of the year. Educating youth on the cultural, political, and social contexts of the Black community and why BHM is much more than it is often marketed can be the path towards reparation. Educating ourselves can elevate the prosperity of growing Black youth and those after them. To Black excellence. Yesterday, Today, & Tomorrow.
Other local Bayview organizations to support:
Bayview Hunters Point Foundation
Bayview Hunters Point Community Advocates
Sources:
Barba, Michael, and Jeff Elder. “Underenrollment at Bayview schools causes 'ripple effect' across SF.” The San Francisco Examiner, 1 September 2016, https://www.sfexaminer.com/news/underenrollment-at-bayview-schools-causes-ripple-effect-across-sf/. Accessed 7 February 2022.
Hepler, Lauren. “New legal challenge revives 'huge war' over Hunters Point's toxic legacy.” San Francisco Chronicle, 18 June 2021, https://www.sfchronicle.com/local/article/New-legal-challenge-revives-huge-war-over-16257916.php. Accessed 7 February 2022.
“History BVHP.” Bayview Opera House, 2020, https://bvoh.org/culturehub/history-bvhp/. Accessed 7 February 2022.
Suzdaltsev, Jules. “Hunters Point Is San Francisco's Radioactive Basement.” VICE, 12 June 2014, https://www.vice.com/en/article/qbe3wv/hunters-point-is-san-franciscos-radioactive-basement. Accessed 7 February 2022.