Gentrification a matter of economics, not ethnicity - Greater Greater Washington

Is gentrification black and white? Or economic? Last week, at a meeting about the often ominous issue of gentrification, a panel of young black professionals rejected the common idea that gentrification means white people moving into black neighborhoods. Instead, they argued, gentrification is about economics and a product of market forces....

Speakers referenced demographic shifts in the history of the city. Georgetown had a reputation as a slum in the 1920's, and Anacostia was nearly 80% white up until the 1950's. Given this, there was a consensus that change is natural as people come and go between and within neighborhoods. Davis noted that there is an emerging group of middle class African Americans that are "not choosing to buy or if they buy they are typically choosing the big house in Prince George's County."