In Chicago, real estate value is fixed by race through the process of gentrification. I present findings from an ethnography of the black, Mexican, and Puerto
Rican neighborhoods of the greater West Side. Gentrification here is a “racial fix”:
a consensus-building process to inflate value in a speculative market reliant on
the historical legacies of racism. The white flight era devalued neighborhoods
now facing speculation and hyperinflation as increased global investment, debt
culture, and debt financing fuel the growth machine. The discourses of residents,
randomized survey results, and a built environment scan show that property value
corresponds more to white residence than material improvement. White people
cultivate the currency of whiteness through gentrification to build social status,
capital, and the city of their dreams.