Similarities between colonization of Jamaica( west Indies) and gentrification in Newark , jersey - Essay Example

t up their colony base in West Indies (Cheng 50) The colonization was characterized by slavery exchanged through slave trade and brutal working conditions in the British owned sugar plantations in the better part of the 17th and 18th century before Jamaica finally attended her independence in 1962 which saw an end to the British rule in the Caribbean island. Gentrification in New Jersey back in the 1980’s can be seen to have similarities with the Jamaican colonization because of the oppressive nature to the less fortunate in society (Lees, Slater &Wyly22).

Gentrification in Newark was characterized by the poor class which mainly consisted of blacks to be fazed out of “white” inhabited areas initially inhabited by the African Americans. This brings about the similarity in that the less fortunate are oppressed based on based on their races, culture and social status. Colonization in Jamaica and gentrification in Newark, New Jersey is majorly characterized by racial discrimination based on the races of the parties involved. In the 18th century the blacks who are the Jamaicans were oppressed by the colonization of the whites who were British.

Their rights were curtailed and inhumane acts done on the blacks who were treated as slaves (Giovas&Flitzpatrick 573). The island acted as a harbor for the slaves who later rebelled to gain independence from the British. Gentrification in Newark was characterized by the racial aspect in that whites moved into black inhabited neighborhoods and because of the racial superiority perception the livelihood of the Americans were made almost impossible because of the high standards of living that were brought along by the “whites” who are mainly made of high class and middle class levels forcing the poor class out of the “neighborhoods”.

A form of rebellion from the parties that appear oppressed seems to be eminent which in the two cases consists of “blacks” who feel their rights have been violated through the actions