In an unsettling report published this week on Vice, the gentrification of the Marigny neighborhood of New Orleans is causing social unrest to the point that gangs of kids as young as 13 are beating up members of the community who appear “other.”
And lo and behold, many of the targets have been gays and artists who stick out like sore thumbs.
One night when local gay actor and director Michael Martin, 56 was walking home after helping a friend move, a group of kids no older than 8th grade suddenly appeared and threw him to the ground. Helpless and outnumbered, Martin endured blow after blow to the head until he was left unconscious on the street.
“That neighborhood is under a ferocious amount of gentrification pressure,” Martin told Vice. “I mean gay is a bonus… if you don’t like gentrification, you probably don’t like old white faggots either.”
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And this wasn’t the first time Martin encountered violence firsthand in the neighborhood.
“(My partner Eric) and I were held up at gunpoint by a young man on a bicycle. That was on our way to a Harry Potter movie. I had my arm broken with an iron pipe in a French Quarter assault, back in 2002. We also had someone break into our house looking for drug money,” Martin said. “Mother fucker came in through the bathroom window.”
The area is one of the most violent parts of the country, and issues with drugs, poverty and racism are daily realities.
But the perpetrators of these attacks are getting younger, and that has many in the community truly frightened.
Christopher Brumfield, another recent victim who was ambushed while en route to a charity fundraiser to help troubled youth (irony alert), perhaps puts it best:
“The real problem is that we’re failing the kids all over New Orleans. We’re failing them socially, educationally, in every way. I’m watching kids in this city not get what they need again. It’s about poverty and it’s about kids and families that don’t have resources.”
No arrests have been made in any attack.
Read the full story on Vice
jd2222248
Where are kids parents? Where is the police? They just haven’t attacked the right person, yet. Give it time.
Shame on these kids!
Gothrykke
Well, what they need is a swift and violent death. There is a lack of education, and there is being a pack of rabid dogs that need to be put down.
Ummmm Yeah
Did everything you could to avoid saying all the attackers were black didn’t you Queerty. This whole thing is more about black racism than it is anything else. If the victims had been black with a little money they wouldn’t have been chosen as the target nearly as fast. Welcome to the non-tourist non-gentrified real New Orleans.
Aromaeus
What is black racism?
niles
If that guy’s just 56, I’m an 18 year old virgin.
Ridpathos
Not surprising to me that the teachers I’ve talked to online from the New Orleans area don’t believe in anti-bullying projects, and Gay-Straight-Alliances. In fact they don’t believe in treating gay people wit respect period.
Kids take their attitudes from the adult role-models in their lives. When people say that there is no need to be so politically correct, we shouldn’t care about kids calling each other ‘f@gs’ or calling bad things ‘gay’, I point to cases like this, and the alternative, the schools I’ve worked in, in California, where kids defend and back up gay students, and don’t know why ANYONE would ban gay marriage or treat gay people poorly.
Ridpathos
By the way, the point being, that in California, we penalize students who say f@g or use ‘gay’ as a derogatory term and have active anti-bullying initiatives.
onthemark
@niles: A poster “boy” for the dangers of a three pack a day lifelong smoking habit, no doubt. Never mind the drinking (well, everybody in New Orleans drinks like a fish.)
But that makes the story worse, if these kids attack a guy who looks like he’s 85 years old.
Ummmm Yeah
@Aromaeus: If you’re white take a stroll through the Marigny or any other part of New Orleans outside The Quarter and Garden District at night and you’ll find out. If you are black just get Al Sharpton to explain it to you. He has it down.
onthemark
There is a HUGE gay bar in the Marigny (called Phenix?), a lot of fun, but if you go there you pretty much have to stay all night til the sun comes up.
DickieJohnson
@Ummmm Yeah: Al Sharpton has said qu8te enough about the “poor & underpriveliged blacks”, etc., blah blah. Why doesn’t he, and the other “Rev.” Jesse Jackson, give their people some constructive ideas how to take some responsibility for change, instead of continuing to stir up SH!T? Some Blacks finally are beginning to see through their smokescreens.
peace of mind
@DickieJohnson: You are generalizing a race just as people have been generalizing gays for decades. I don’t know if you know all of the black people in the world necause obviously you do seeing as you can make such an informed comment about how most black people don’t take responsibility. Whether you meant it like that or not, that is how it came out and you are being ignorant. Gays have been descriminated against, and generalized so how are you going to do the same to blacks? On a situation you know nothing about. Sure some blacks may not like white people but have you ever considered there was a reason for it? Life is a two sided mirror so quit being one dimensional for one second and put yourself in someone elses shoes. No the man shouldnt go through this but, dont blame a race for peoples stupidity. In conclusion dont talk just because you think you are a big man on the internet. It is not meant to degrade people, this site especially is not meant to degrade people. Stop being hypocrites people and grow up, open your eyes a little wider…
DickieJohnson
@peace of mind: No, I am not generalizing Black Americans; you read all that into what I said. That’s a nice little speech you gave there, but, I’ve never heard of groups of gay thugs roaming neighborhoods and harming people, or looting, burning, and destroying innocent businesses. WTF does that do, but cause racism? The sane Black citizens need to lead, not fan the flames, or sit by and do nothing.