YouTube Ethnography: Latinx Youth Reframe and Resist Gentrification in Echo Park, Los Angeles, California

• In Event: 44.059 - Perspectives on Identity and Equity With Digital Media

Abstract

According to U.S. Census records, as gentrification occurs in the Echo Park neighborhood of Los Angeles, California, a long-term Latinx community faces displacement (Mapping LA). Recently, young, Latinx filmmakers have resisted and reframed gentrification by turning a lens onto the issue, giving voice to Latinx residents. Using a digital ethnographic design, this qualitative study explores four films covering the following major themes: the whitening of Echo Park, the presence of contested and uncontested spaces within the community, and the results of neoliberalism (i.e., systematic racism, shortage of affordable housing). These films provide a context for understanding gentrification lacking in many scholarly and popular articles about this community. Overall, this study uncovers experiences of a group affected by gentrification—Latinx youth.

Author

• Pamela Ezell, Chapman University