“Whole Foods” by Nateya Taylor

It’s the 1930s

The HOLC

Became self proclaimed artists

And decided to display their racism and artistry

With cartography: redlining maps

Defining the color of law

With red colored lines

That delayed and denied

Black folks from equal access

To neighborhoods classified

As grade A and grade B

Colored in as blue and green

If you had white skin you automatically got the green

light

But if you were Black you were barricaded by the yellow and red

Restricted to grades C and D

Not good enough for the best

Skin brown as A1 steak sauce but too brown for an A1 neighborhood

Too Black for comfortability

Does my blackness offend you?

Reinforcing segregation secretly

So sneakily

How these maps were kept secret from the public as if they signed an NDA

Don’t want blacks in your neighborhood but want them to play on your team in the NBA

Told to dribble and shut up

But historically Blacks have been shut out

Using redlining as a guide

To racially steer home buyers

To divide

Isolate

and

Segregate

It’s the 21st century and now they wanna

Spin the block

Displace

And gentrificate

Gentrify the hood

And now the neighborhood gets a Whole Foods?

Black folks for years couldn't get a half foods

Only had fast food

And liquor stores

Food insecurity and food deserts occupying every corner

Neighborhoods once labeled as hazardous and isolated Blacks

Have moved backwards

Moving in whites with higher tax brackets

Redlining illegalized

Yet still visible at 100% opacity

Redlining is only one part of racism’s complex anatomy

These red lines create barriers

But they also create magic

Transforming raggedy streets to perfect concrete from west to east Hampton

Dilapidated houses turn to brand new apartments

Corner stores turn to

Sendik’s

Pick ‘n Saves

And Whole Foods

But is Whole Foods really whole if it excludes

Who can and cannot have access to quality food?

Started 9.7.2021 4:13pm - Abandoned 10.30.2022

“A poem is never finished, only abandoned” - Paul Valery