OUR SOUL IS OUR PEOPLE: RESHAPING COMMUITY BUILDING IN APPLE’S VISION
A Thesis submitted to the faculty of San Francisco State University 54 In partial fulfillment of Z -0)$ the requirements for 1 the Degree
Master of Arts
In
Women and Gender Studies
by
Connie Guzman
San Francisco, California
May 2018 Copyright by Connie Guzman 2018 CERTIFICATION OF APPROVAL
I certify that I have read “Our Soul is Our People: Reshaping Community Building in
Apple’s Vision” by Connie Guzman, and that in my opinion this work meets the criteria for approving a thesis submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirement for the Master of
Arts in Women and Gender Studies at San Francisco State University.
Professor, Women and Gender Studies
^Jillian Sandel/LPh.D. Professor, Women and Gender Studies OUR SOUL IS OUR PEOPLE: RESHAPING COMMUNITY BUILDING IN APPLE’S VISION
Connie Guzman San Francisco, California 2018
Apple’s recent store rebranding to a community gathering space is examined through a critique of the companies’ lopsided community engagement in San Francisco and its labor practices in both retail and corporate spheres. This project focuses on Miranda Joseph’s critique of capitalist branded communities in Against the Romance of Community and Sara Ahmed’s concept of “conditional happiness” in The Promise of Happiness. Both works demonstrate how for a community to succeed in capitalism, it must produce happiness that corresponds with the empire. In the case of San Francisco, much of the happiness involves pleasing the tech companies and start-ups that produce revenue in the city’s economy, the reasoning being that “empire becomes a gift that cannot be refused”. To juxtapose Apple’s vision, an oral history of 3 Latinx to counter the monolithic view of community. The Latinx identity is a diverse group in itself so it is imperative to look beyond Latinx only possessing one shared experience from the past when identifying the results from gentrification.
s a correct representation of the content of this thesis.
Date ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
I would first like to thank my thesis advisors, Professors Juiletta Hua and Jillian Sandell for their support and helping me finally cross that finish line. I would also like to thank Professors Deborah Cohler and Kasturi Ray whose positive affirmations and insight aided me throughout the development of the thesis. To Betty, Luz and Noemhy, thank you for allowing me to share your stories into this thesis. Your presence will remain in San Francisco history in small part by this thesis. Best of luck with all that follows in your lives. To my 2014 cohort, I wish I was able to graduate with you all, but I am at least thankful I had the chance to spend a great deal of time learning and appreciating all of your amazing insight, creativity and great energies. We all did it!
To my dear friends Jessica, Christine, Wendy, Brandon, Yajaira, Renee, Yuri, Manuela and Omar, thank you so much for your valuable words, encouragement and your insights as you read and discussed with me at length what I needed to add in my thesis. You are all the best and I owe you lots of love and good compensation for your labor.
Last but certainly not the least, I would like to thank my mother, Gloria Elena, brothers Jorge Rene and Ruben Ernesto and twin sister, Stephanie. You have always been there for me since day one despite how outlandish you thought my goals would be. I hope you are as proud of me as much as I am so grateful to have your love and support throughout this somewhat difficult time called grad school. Don’t worry, I am still a Dodger fan at heart!
v TABLE OF CONTENTS
Introduction...... 1
The Concept of Community...... 8
A Brief History of The Current Tech Boom...... 11
Gentrification...... 15
Why Oral History?...... 23
Chapter 1...... 33
Think Different: Apple’s Community Vision...... 33
Discomfort in the Neighborhood...... 51
Chapter 2 ...... 67
Oral History: Retracing and Reimagining Latinx Space ...... 72
Oral Histories: Where Do We Go From Here?...... 84
Conclusion: Think Different? I Think Not!...... 87
Reference...... 93 1
Introduction
My visions of San Francisco were much different when I was a little girl. I was born and raised in Los Angeles, California. I am far from a Bay Area faithful as I have a large dislike to some of the regions’ most cherished symbols including their sports teams like the San Francisco Giants. However, as a little girl from the San Fernando Valley, 1 remember vividly watching “Full House” and imagining I was Michelle Tanner seated in the vintage convertible as the camera pans out to show the Tanner family riding on the iconic Golden Gate Bridge. Along with my childhood love for Full House, my original perception of the city of San Francisco before moving was one where I imagined the city to be a haven for non-normative communities to be free; one that was anti-corporate and pro-community building. I would indulge in stories from junior high and high school peers and teachers who attended college in the Bay Area and would rave about the beauty found in the city as well as the acceptance: “San Francisco is easily the friendliest of cities, Connie. You’ll find it much easier to be there than over here”, my twelfth-grade
AP Government teacher would proclaim. Even as an Angelino, San Francisco was always perceived to be the much more “liberal” and easy-going city that had heavenly ocean views from all corners and better public transportation.
When I got the acceptance letter to San Francisco State, I was excited that I would finally get my chance to bask into all the dreams I had of living there from my fantasies and friend’s experiences. Most importantly, I wanted to feel like I belonged to an
“inclusive community”. However, in my naivete, 1 had no idea in what 1 meant by the 2
latter. As I finally moved to the Bay Area to embark in my graduate studies, my perception of the city turned out to be a fantasy due to the gentrification I was seeing.
My view on San Francisco changed further when I began working for Apple three months into starting my graduate studies. While the workload was not the most desired option, I realized that the cost of living in the Bay Area would make it extremely difficult for me to continue my studies without supporting myself with a part-time job. I eventually saw the symbol of San Francisco has drastically changed as technological
(tech) companies such as Apple and Google have emerged as city markers by tourists and tech enthusiasts. Apple’s presence in the city is felt everywhere through their headquarters in nearby Cupertino and as the location of their conferences and showcases:
The World-Wide Developer Conference (WWDC) and Keynote, their main events that reveal their newest products and software. WWDC and Keynote have been frequently presented in the George Moscone Center1 and Bill Graham Civic Auditorium; two very notable venues used by businesses and entertainers when they need to have a visit in San
Francisco.2
Amid the pomp and circumstance of Apple’s branding, I noted the change in communities including the Mission District, where businesses and houses inhabited by
1 Owen Thomas. "Apple: Hello, IPhone." CNN Money. January 9, 2007. Accessed December 5, 2017. http://money.cnn.com/2007/01/09/technology/applejobs/.
2 Zac Hall. "Apple Keynote Decorations on Display at Bill Graham Civic Center Ahead of 'iPhone 7' Event [Gallery]." 9to5Mac. September 03, 2016. Accessed February 20, 2017. https://9to5mac.eom/2016/09/03/apple-keynote-decorations-bill-graham-civic-center-iphone-7- event/. 3
Latinx owners were closed in favor of upscale restaurants and live-work condominiums.
Another notable marker of tech’s presence in the city is through the presence of the
“Tech Buses”, shuttle buses chartered by various tech companies to ferry their workers to and from the Silicon Valley. These tech buses most notably stop in very busy bus stops in the city, most notably right in from of BART’s 16th and 24th Street Stations in the
Mission District. Additionally, I noticed a rise in property fires happening in the Mission where large numbers of Latinx families were displaced.3 Today, that narrative paints San
Francisco as a technological capital of the world, home to endless amounts of tech companies that promote their products. It is this transformation in San Francisco’s reputation that is happening at the same time many Latinx and other cultural communities are being displaced and priced out in the city of San Francisco.4 The displacement of many cultural communities on the rise in areas like the Mission District, where it is predicted that Latinx will only constitute only a third of the population by 2020.5
Despite the displacement of various cultural communities in the past 20 years,
Apple has tried to refocus their brand into an “inclusive community” with its focus on making San Francisco the example of what their vision of a community looks like. Since
3 Ted Goldberg. "S.F. Fire Officials Try to Quell Concerns About Blazes in Mission District." KQED Education. December 22, 2015. Accessed May 15, 2016. http://ww2.kqed.org/news/2015/12/21/s-f-fire-officials-try-to-quell-concems-about-blazes-in- mission-district/.
4 Joe Fitzgerald Rodriguez, On Guard: 8,000 Latinos displaced from Mission, group says”, San Francisco Examiner, March 31,2015. http://archives.sfexaminer.com/sanfrancisco/on-guard- 8000-latinos-displaced-from-mission-group-says/Content?oid=2925111
5 Ibid. 4
Tim Cook’s promotion to Chief Executive of Operations (CEO) following the death of co-founder of Steve Jobs in 2011, Apple has attempted to continue the corporate brand mission to center around “customer experience”. For Apple, this “customer experience” is the belief their customers will find a personal connection with the device that transcends a mere purchase.6 Therefore, Apple considers that a personal connection will eventually allow the customer to embrace their communities through their iPhones. It is no surprise as to why the Apple brand has attempted to market themselves as part of the community, as most of the company’s employees currently work at their retail stores.7
Since the retail stores inception in 2001, Apple has tried to brand their stores into an extension of their community as they try to hire a “built-in fan base that ensures a steady supply of eager applicants and an employee culture that tries to turn every job into an exalted mission.”8 Tim Cook and other executives have made it their uttermost effort to brand Apple’s place into the community, especially in San Francisco through the following: a much-debated participation in 2015 San Francisco Pride, as well as Tim
Cooks’ employee emails about emphasizing diversity and his criticism of President
Donald Trump’s travel ban earlier in 2017.
Apple’s most visible demonstrations of their “community conscious” rebranding
6 Denise Lee Yohn. "Apple's Most Innovative Product Isn't A Product At All." Forbes. October 11, 2016. https://www.forbes.com/sites/deniselyohn/2016/10/05/apples-most-significant- innovation-isnt-what-you-think-it-is/.
7 David Segal. "Apple Stores' Army, Long on Loyalty but Short on Pay." Lhe New York Times. June 23, 2012. http://www.nytimes.com/2012/06/24/business/apple-store-workers-loyal-but- short-on-pay. htm I.
8 Ibid. 5
has been conveyed through the remodeling of their stores, most notably the opening of their first “Global Flagship” store, Apple Union Square in San Francisco. For the company, this store opening was a tremendous feat as the store was the start of the company’s rebranding to community spaces. Even Angela Ahrendts, the Senior Vice
President of Apple Retail, touted the opening as “an evolution of “our store design, [and] its purpose and greater role in the community as we educate and entertain visitors and serve our network of local entrepreneurs.”9 By looking at such acclaim of the Apple
Store, one can look at how Apple tries to place their imprint into the romanticizing of San
Francisco’s vision as this progressive and open minded community that “educates” its residents and visitors with openness to otherness. One of their retail stores core given is to assume that customers positive intent when purchasing Apple products.10
Despite the rosy and vague language found throughout new store opening,
Apple’s vision of bringing the community together is rather dismissive of the harsh realities faced by many San Franciscans. While Apple attempts to give customers positive intent in their customer experience, their store opening, gives anything but. The reconfiguration of San Francisco through gentrification gives opportunity of re- evaluation and re-definition of community, something that San Francisco has changed throughout the last few decades.
9 Jim Dalrymple. "My Thoughts on Apple's New Retail Store Strategy." The Loop. May 19, 2016. http://www.loopinsight.com/2016/05/19/my-thoughts-on-apples-new-retail-store-strategy/.
10 Sam Biddle. "How To Be a Genius: This Is Apple's Secret Employee Training Manual." Gizmodo. June 17, 2013. https://gizmodo.com/5938323/how-to-be-a-genius-this-is-apples-secret- employee-training-manual 6
Through the two years I spent as a specialist in their retail stores, I saw firsthand how Apple has changed their branding to view their products as ways to create communities. Two and a half years is also the average tenure for a retail employee at
Apple. I realized as I began offering product solutions to large numbers of tech workers who were always in a hurry for a business meeting or for a big presentation, I became all that I avoided becoming, a middle-woman of gentrification. Or in the words of my ex and former co-worker, “We are the arm dealers to the tech companies”. As he uttered those words as he dropped me off to my house after a long day at work, I became aware of the violence I was contributing; my job in selling generic pitches for overpriced electronics to tech companies potentially affected communities in the city who could not afford purchasing a full price iPhone or MacBook and would also be potentially displaced by the same faceless tech workers I am selling the products to. Those same tech workers who demanded to be seen for a Genius Bar appointment when their devices weren’t functioning to their desired potential. However, they were the same faceless tech workers who found the products to bring closeness to their families. They were the same faceless tech workers who found the products to be beneficial to their everyday living. Regardless of the complexities I began to see, I had been complacent in allowing the displacement and subjugation of marginalized communities.
Throughout problematizing my contribution to gentrification through my occupation, I realized that this thesis will act as my performance of a conscientious objector. While the term conscientious objector is a term usually embodied by military 7
personal who object against their and their country’s active participation in warfare, I look at my past occupation as a tech worker as one that aids in gentrification which has been in way that has amplified state violence against marginalized San Franciscans as well as the increased local government intervention in supporting tech companies which I will discuss at length later this literature review. As the term conscientious objector implies the objection of violence caused by war, violence does not necessarily have to occur in the battlefield. Violence can appear through the approval of legislation that displaces communities; violence can come through the implications of technology that are advertised to serve only highly educational and affluent groups. Therefore, this thesis is my objection to tech companies’ attempts at rearranging community as a ploy for more profit.
The following literature review will frame the complexities found in naming community through capitalism found in Apple’s “community centers”. First, in conversation with Miranda Joseph’s argument that capitalist-based community is a practice usually found in reproducing homogeneity into neoliberalism. I will also consider Sara Ahmed’s concept of “conditional happiness” in The Promise of Happiness where citizens in communities are expected to abide to the demands of the empire. In this case, it is the assumption that tech companies’ presence in the Bay Area creates happiness and togetherness to all the residents, which I will get back to later in this literature view. I will demonstrate the complexities of the San Franciscan community through creating more oral histories that situate in San Francisco and extending 8
observations made by Nancy Raquel Mirabal’s work. Lastly, I use affect as a means to convey the significance of gentrification as a feminist issue since the subjectivity and livelihood of many communities, namely queer Latinx communities, are seen marginal to the demands and the power of tech companies privatizing public rights. This is a significant issue for a larger audience because San Francisco is painted as a global city that welcomes those who inspire to become part of the American Dream of prosperity and diversity. I want to humanize the situation and look at these women beyond their production value. These oral histories, which I will present in the second chapter, will serve as what historian Nancy Raquel Mirabal mentions as creating a “shared authority” on their existence in city through the manifestation of different and complex natures.111 hope to use these narratives to not only demonstrate their historical presence in the
Mission but also dispel the mainstream narratives that their experiences need to be shaped into one monolith narrative that can be rearranged or recoded for mainstream consumption.
The Concept of Community:
Miranda Joseph regards community as a concept that is almost always invoked as
“an unequivocal good, an indicator of a high quality of life, a life of human
11 Nancy Raquel Mirabal. "Geographies of Displacement: Latina/os, Oral History, and The Politics of Gentrification in San Francisco's Mission District." The Public Historian 31, no. 2 (Spring 2009): 7-31. doi: 10.1525/tph.2009.31.2.7. 9
understanding, a life of human understanding, caring selflessness, belonging.”12 As community is often conveyed through positivity, Joseph asserts that communities often emerge during times of crisis through the common belief that the formation will bring co operation and equality. The positive connotations found in community assumes that anyone who is part of community will eventually encounter happiness and harmony. The rosy outlook leaves little room to explore the potential tensions a community can encounter through the intersections of race, gender, sexuality and class. Therefore, it is imperative to understand that community while unified can also bring tension and division. Community is viewed as “pressing any sort of cause” that “mobilizes constituents and validates their case to a broader public”.13
Therefore, the assumption of community formation results in the equality of the constituents who can now celebrate their validation by the public. For example, for the city of San Francisco, this display of public validation of community is present through the city’s reputation as a queer friendly city which is commonly assumed to have begun in the 1970s in the Castro District and the city’s current push to market themselves as a
“Sanctuary City” that protects immigrants, many who identify as Latinx, from being deported. Given the potential tensions that can arise through the presence of multiple identities, Joseph argues that capitalism and modernity are dependent on the discourse of community to justify the social hierarchies that are present. Therefore, the subjectivities
12 Miranda Joseph. Against the Romance o f Community. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press, 2002. v.
13 Ibid. 10
found in a community are not constructed by identity but rather through “the practices of production and consumption”. She concludes that fetishizing community only makes us blind to the ways we might intervene in the enactment of domination and exploitation.
This fetishizing of community ensures that the players involved are those who can participate in the production and contribute to consumption. Therefore, community becomes a marketing tool that seeks to find participants that purchase real estate and property in said community.
In the case of San Francisco, the desired participants in the past few decades have been those who work in the tech industry. As the definition of “community” found in tech companies like Apple are rooted in capital and commodity, my goal in this thesis is to frame community in opposition to such a simplistic and exclusionary rule. To elaborate on what I mean with exclusionary, using capital as the marker in the community results in creating the myth that possession of capital will make one a valued member of their community. This idea is most certainly not always the case as I will expand in the first chapter. Obtaining the latest Apple product can be unattainable for a number of residents in San Francisco. I also seek to convey throughout the thesis a definition closer to
Joseph’s work on contrasting groups of individuals who at times must work on their differences to co-exist. This is not to romanticize that my definition of community with a motley crew of identities can co-exist voided of conflicts. However, by recognizing the complexities in community, my definition of community is in opposition to that found in 11
Apple’s goal of creating “community” as Apple is entrusted in assuming that community can be made through the just the commodity of owning their products.
A Brief History of The Current “Tech Boom”
When Ed Lee took over as San Francisco Mayor in 2011, he began promoting a
1.5% tax break to twenty tech companies in a way to extend their stay in San Francisco.14
One of the most notable conditions of tax break was to move its headquarters around the
Mid-Market and Tenderloin districts15 which at that point was perceived by to be a
“cesspool” as the neighborhood what some considered to be one the most unattractive areas in the city. This assumption was brought by the fact that many low-income single room occupancies and shelters surround the Tenderloin.16 However, the perception of the
tax breaks changed once Twitter, the social media site that began in South of Market
(SoMa) decided to participate in the tax break. With Twitter’s participation, the tax break
became colloquially known as “The Twitter Tax Break”.17 Despite Lee’s optimistic
approach to the measure, many residents soon feared that the tax breaks would do
nothing in addressing the rising costs of housing as well as the increasingly wage gap due
to the tech boom. While the city boasts about the decrease in the unemployment rate from
14 Marissa Lang. "Companies Avoid $34M in City Taxes Thanks to 'Twitter Tax Break'." SFGate. October 20, 2015. http://www.sfgate.com/business/article/Companies-avoid-34M-in-city-taxes- thanks-to-6578396.php.
15 Ibid.
16 "History of S.R.O. Residential Hotels in San Francisco." Central City SRO Collaborative. Accessed March 16, 2018. http://www.ccsroc.net/s-r-o-hotels-in-san-francisco/.
17 Ibid. 12
9.3% in 2011 to 3.3% in 2015,18 the tax break has failed in addressing a few public concerns. Statistics show that the city lost $34 million in 2014 which could have gone to public services and there was much push from companies such as Twitter to threaten moving out of San Francisco to avoid paying for more taxes.19 Twitter and other company’s threats in moving away from the city amplifies Sarah Ahmed’s concept of the
“conditional happiness”. For tech companies like Twitter, their contributions to what they view as their community is a “gift that cannot be refused”.20 Because of the implicit promise of their “gift”, their presence must not be questioned. It has become apparent that the presence of tech companies and their coziness with the San Francisco government has resulted in how the “communal subjectivity” is “constructed by practice of production and consumption.”21
In addition to tech companies’ perception that their production is a “gift” to the community, there has been quite a longstanding tradition that prominent figures present their companies in the forefront of progress regardless if the community is open to this
“progress”. Additionally, the presence of the “gift” allows the “social glue’ of happiness
18 Emily Green. "S.F.'s Unemployment Rate Drops to 3.2 Percent." SFGate. October 16, 2015. Accessed May 16, 2018. http://www.sfgate.com/bayarea/article/SF-s-unemployment-rate-drops- to-3-2-percent-6574597.php.
19 Marissa Lang. "Companies Avoid $34M in City Taxes Thanks to 'Twitter Tax Break'." SFGate. October 20, 2015. http://www.sfgate.com/business/article/Companies-avoid-34M-in-city-taxes- thanks-to-6578396.php
20 Sara Ahmed. The Promise o f Happiness. Durham: Duke University Press, 2010: 125.
21 Miranda Joseph. Against the Romance of Community. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press, 2002. v. 13
to return to an age of less tension. Because with happier people, it makes societies more cohesive.22 Hence, the “gift” that tech companies have been advocating is the “gift” of progress and prosperity, a “gift” that cannot be refused because capital and production relies on the participation of people without giving an option to opt-out if they refuse.
Along with the tech companies holding the “gift” from the empire, in the past two decades or so they have tried to appeal to San Francisco by making the cityscape an extension of their brand community. A brand community is a specialized, non- geographically brand community based on a structured set of social relationships among admirers of a brand.23 The community becomes specialized because at its core is a branded good or service. It is also a network of social relations marked by mutuality and emotional bonds. Additionally, tech companies are obsessed that with the participation with the community, they can become legitimate. Legitimacy in a branded community is a process that differentiates between true members and those who participate for the” wrong reasons”. Like many tech companies in the Bay Area, Apple does not deny membership to those in the community as they hope to have as many people to be part of their community with the most current of technology. It also amplifies that assumption that Apple is accessible to consumers. Another example can be found in Mark
Zuckerberg’s post around his crusade to creating a “global community”. In his February
2017 post entitled “Building Global Community”, Zuckerberg, a co-founder of Facebook,
22 Sara Ahmed. The Promise o f Happiness. Durham: Duke University Press, 2010: 126
23 Albert M. Muniz and Thomas C. O'Guinn. "Brand Community." OUP Academic. March 01, 2001. Accessed May 16, 2017. http://www.academic.oup.eom/jcr/article/27/4/412/1810411. 14
states that the “greatest opportunities are now global”.24 He claims that the because of the global possibilities, “progress now requires humanity coming together as a global community” to address terrorism, global warming among other social issues. It is apparent that by framing community as a global effort to stop the evils of the world, it creates this assumption that we, as in the reader of the post and users are as responsible to stopping the evils of the world with no option to opt-out of that responsibility.25 He then states that originally the idea of a global community was one that was not controversial at first but must now enact. Zuckerberg’s reasoning in his post is that Silicon Valley can only be successful if it steers away from the political unless action is the last resort.
Zuckerberg declares that “history has broken through the bubble and upset the algorithms, history must be put back in its place. Technological determinism must again be made synonymous with historical determinism.”26 The intervention from tech companies into community implies that the communities without a global mission are plagued with unhappiness and turmoil and that with Facebook as the “savior” of the global community, these “unhappy” communities can find the progress, the Empire, tech companies, assume communities seek. Additionally, by claiming that even Facebook and
24 Mark Zuckerberg. "Building Global Community." Facebook. February 16, 2017. Accessed May 7, 2017. http://www.facebook.com/notes/mark-zuckerberg/building-global- community/10154544292806634/.
25 Sara Ahmed. The Promise o f Happiness. Durham: Duke University Press, 2010: 122-3
26 Mark Zuckerberg. "Building Global Community." Facebook. February 16, 2017. Accessed May 7, 2017. http://www.facebook.com/notes/mark-zuckerberg/building-global- community/10154544292806634/. 15
other social media sites “oversimplifies important topics and pushes us toward extremes” even Zuckerberg is aware of the limitations of the medium his company in addressing the meaning of a global community. Rather than finding that “progress” through “global community”, he instead insists on affective yearning for a unified global community rather than execute it on purpose. Regardless of the intentions, Apple, Facebook and other tech companies claim, it is extremely difficult to keep their platforms as a neutral place. Digital technologies are not neutral as they are socially constructed to reflect the values and assumptions of those creating it; namely the highly educated, affluent class.27
Therefore, it is imperative that tech companies begin to lose the urge to universalize their systems as their biases.28
Gentrification
Gentrification is a word that can be rooted into many emotions depending on the location. It is essential the displacement of a poor neighborhood in order to encourage middle class and affluent settlement. For example, such changes include the increased population of business and yuppies moving into the area as well as the arrival of boutiques, coffee shops and other establishments that cater to the needs of the new transplants creating an instance of familiarity. Given that the word gentrification, first coined by English sociologist Ruth Glass in 1964 is seen with negative connotations
27 Ramesh Srinivasan. Whose Global Village? Rethinking How Technology Shapes Our World. New York City: New York University Press, 2018.
28 Ibid. 16
many developers and capital ventures often use rosy language such as “revitalization” or
“redevelopment” to justify the impending flux on higher income residents and posh ambience. Other ways that gentrification has been justified is through the focus on bringing in more jobs, particularly tech companies and businesses that benefit the economy. However, for those that live in the so-called cesspools, gentrification has been quite the opposite in terms of change. In many instances, the changes involve the decreased chances of continuing normalcy in their environments; including the rising housing costs, the loss of longtime establishments and in many instances, the loss of cultures and history
In Ruth Glass’ work, London: The Aspects of Change, she states that the “social status of many residential areas is being ‘uplifted’ as the middle class—or the ‘gentry’— moved into working-class space, taking up residence, opening businesses, and lobbying for infrastructure improvements.”29 Glass then suggests that a switch from “suburban to urban aspirations” was due to “the difficulties and rising costs of journeys to work.”30 As many areas that were becoming gentrified were close to central financial districts and other areas of business, it made moving into poorer communities much more attractive.
She then stated that gentrification “powerfully captures the class inequalities and injustices created by capitalist urban land markets and policies.”31
29Tom Slater. "Gentrification in the City." Edited by Sophie Watson. In The New Blackwell Companion to the City, edited by Gary Bridge, 571. Hoboken, NJ: Blackwell Publishing, 2011.
30 Ibid.
31 Ibid., 570. 17
Given the negative connotations that are associated with gentrification, Glass attributed the usage of alternative words including that of “regeneration” as “the language of gentrification tells the truth about the class shift involved in the ‘regeneration’ of the city, it has become a dirty word to developers, politicians and financiers.”32 After
Glasses’ creation of the term, gentrification had not only generated a large international literature; it had become word around which class struggles and urban social movements that strived to fight for those in the bottom class so they could “mobilize and gain visibility and political momentum.”33 Although much scholarship focused on similar
interventions on how social classes became recoded for communities to rearrange for in
accordance to gentrification looked upon only on how inequality among social class was
affect through the displacement of the lower class in favor of a booming affluent class.
Sharon Zukin’s works on Brooklyn bring much more insight on how
gentrification is a complex issue that involves the subordination of non-normative
subjects. She states that gentrification is at the very basis, “the production consumption of
the demographic structure.”34 Gentrification in many ways reflects what the hegemonic
Western society wants to envision as valuable citizens. These needs oftentimes create an
“investment in culture that may augment limited means. In the same way as Glass, Zukin
32 Ibid., 571-2
33 Ibid.
34 Sharon Zukin,. "Gentrification: Culture And Capital In The Urban Core." Annual Review o f Sociology 13, no. 1 (August 1987): 133. doi: 10.1146/annurev.soc.l3.1.129. 18
viewed gentrifiers as a “distinct habitus due to many identifying as upper middle-class professionals in the workforce.”35 She also looks at how local government and agencies oftentimes promote gentrification through the intervention of zoning laws and historical district designations which gives the state the power in defining the “economic and social value of an urban area.” This “designation” in certain areas oftentimes resulted in attachments that involve buildings over the livelihood of others. While works focused on how gentrification is an ongoing process, Zukin viewed gentrification as a situation that comes in “pockets of declining.”36 As with a new influx of residents, many of them who identify as white, Zukin describes their participation in terms of their “discomfort” with interacting with longtime residents that oftentimes results in the policing of these same longtime residents, many of whom identify as Latinx or Black. This is demonstrated in the change of San Francisco’s demographics. In 2014, San Francisco saw a rise in white male residents, many who make up 75 percent of the city’s tech workers.37 As a result of the findings mentioned above, gentrification is a feminist issue since the subjectivity and livelihood of marginalized groups including people of color and women. As San
Francisco is becoming increasingly white and male, those who are marginal to the demands and the power of tech companies privatizing public rights are being displaced
35 Ibid., 136
36 Ibid., 138
37 Dan Kopf. "San Francisco's Diversity Numbers Are Looking More and More Like a Tech Company's." The Atlantic. May 09, 2016. http://www.theatlantic.com/business/archive/2016/05/san-francisco-diversity-migration/481668/. /. 19
and diminished in the city’s demographics.
Along with the looming chances of displacement from the city, Latinx living in
San Francisco must encounter commodification over their culture particularly when it comes to marketing Latinxs. Despite Latinx population diminishing in San Francisco’s demographic on a daily basis, Latinx culture has been increasingly in the forefront of marketing and business savvy companies that have targeted Latinos into possessing serious buying power. In the past four decades, marketing towards the “Hispanic” market has reached into multibillion dollar status, especially when it is spread throughout many
U.S. cities that have a large Latinx population, (this includes San Francisco).38 While it may seem that marketing towards the Latino community may be beneficial in increased visibility in the United States, nevertheless, Hispanic marketing is still responsible presenting what Arlene Davila describes as “dominant hierarchies of representation.”39
In this case, the way Latinx are marketed are as a monolith group composed of Mexican individuals. Advertising has been a method used to assimilate immigrants into both
American culture and mass consumption.40 This is especially apparent in the Mission
District due to the many taquerias that are around the radiuses near the 24th and Mission
BART stop that usually have a long line of white residents waiting to get their taste of
38 Arlene Davila. Latinos, Inc.: The Marketing and Making o f a People. University of California Press, 2001.
39 Ibid.
40 Alexandra Chasin. Selling Out: The Gay and Lesbian Movement Goes to Market. New York City: St. Martin's Press: 2001.102. 20
“ethnic food.” Another example of this is the alcohol industry’s cooptation of Cinco de
Mayo, the commemoration of the Mexican army’s victory in Puebla against the French, as a celebration and a prelude to the summer.41
By looking at this history, it is no wonder that while the people who identify as
Latinx are disappearing but the to the point of the remnants being a spectacle of their imagination. The presence of Latinx community is not measure by the physically Latinx bodies but rather the fragments of the culture that tend to be myths. The myths are amplified through the increased consumption of Latinx foods or the excuse to wear oversized hats and scream “Cinco Del Drinko” when May 5lh rolls around. Therefore,
Latinx culture can be accessorized instead of inhabiting. This is not to say that Latinxs are not present in San Francisco. That is far from the truth. They are present as workers but not present due to the presence of the U.S. Hispanic market main marketing tool is
“promoting pride in all things Latin.”42 Latinx advertisers seen their work as a business and “uplifters”. While “uplifters” can be seen as representation of what can Latinxs aspire into in regards of succeeding in the U.S., “uplifters” are also used to appease the U.S. media. “Uplifters” are largely placed in advertising through the industry’s desire for highly “educated, bilingual Hispanics whose ethnicity does not present a problem to
Anglo clients and who can accurately represent and translate Spanish creative concepts
41 Zoe Henry. "How to Capture the $1.5 Trillion Spending Power of Cinco De Mayo." Inc. May 4, 2016. www.inc.com/zoe-henry/cinco-de-mayo-marketing-opportunity-for-startups.html.
42 Arlene Davila. Latinos, Inc.: The Marketing and Making o f a People. University of California Press, 2001. 21
for Anglo clients.”43 Most Latinx centric marketers are at odds with the “average
Hispanic consumer in terms of class, race and background” as many marketers come to the United States with a post graduate education44 and “secure jobs in the industry after having worked in transnational advertising companies in [Latin America].”45 The marketers privilege demonstrates from their start their lack of actual connection to the complexities of the Latinx diaspora in the United States. In particular marketers do not
share the many complexities of the immigrant Latinx experience especially the trials and tribulations many encounters when first arriving to the United States. So how can they really “uplift” the community when their privileges and occupations frequently pander to
a largely apathetic U.S. consumer market. Not to mention, a large number of executives
in major Hispanic targeted networks Univision and Telemundo are white men whose
successes in working the Latinx market results in their “contacts” closely tied to their
“Whiteness” as opposed to any actual knowledge around the Hispanic market.46
Additionally, many White Marketers working in Hispanic markets view Spanish
programming as “tacky” and “cheesy” while ultimately selling Latindad as “hot, sexy,
and cool.” Lastly, many marketers have mentioned that their clients are “currently
ignorant and the sales go better if they don’t have to worry about saying the wrong or
43 Ibid, 35
44 Ibid.
45 Ibid, 36
46 Ibid, 37 22
insensitive thing.” It is no wonder that Latinxs have a difficult time in navigating in the
United States when even programming supposedly geared towards them is commodified, rearranged and presented into tired tropes by white executives who have little regard to their actual needs. This not only dehumanize Latinxs to the point of seeing their existence as a farce but these sentiments further the subordination of Latinxs living in the United
States. In essence, the tactics used by advertisers is created to “produce homogeneity” where the uniformity depended on the “erasure of ethnic differences.” Additionally, once
Latinxs assimilate into consuming American marketing, they are promised by the mass advertisers the promise of U.S. citizenship and all its benefits- freedom, rights, justice and opportunity.47 It is a result of this idea of “homogeneity” that draws so many Latinx immigrants to attempt to find the opportunities of a better life and the American dream in a society and culture that has little regard to their needs or their agency. Additionally, these narratives created by American advertisers create only a singular story of Latinxs that is deemed respectable in a larger society. The danger of a singular story creates this notion of Latinx immigrants being get rid of our accents [when talking in English].”48
Unfortunately, Anzaldua’s account on being structured to assimilate to the dominant language presented in the academic institution is one that has always been around to challenge for marginalized groups. Language often times is used as a method to create
47 Alexandra Chasin. Selling Out: The Gay and Lesbian Movement Goes to Market. New York City: St. Martin's Press: 2001:105.
48 Gloria Anzaldua. "How To Tame a Wild Tongue." In Borderlands/La Frontera: The New Mestizo, 4th ed. San Francisco: Aunt Lute Books, 2012. 76. 23
hierarchies amongst those who participate in the institution, thus, creating more obstacles
for marginalized groups to endure. In that process, Anzaldua argues that by “selling out”
from their ideologies of their culture, their history and their language in favor of the
acceptable knowledge of the dominant culture, they become tokenized in the pursuit of
adhering to the “language” and “expectations” of the mainstream society open program
access to these marginalized groups.
Why Oral History?
In the past twenty years, the city of San Francisco has experienced a couple of
tech booms that have drastically changed the perspective of the city. Despite the
technological advancements that have transpired in the city, the necessity of oral histories
to preserve history is at an all-time high. This is not to romanticize San Francisco’s past
as better than the present as that mentality erases the city’s legacy of racism and
displacement from some of the most marginalized communities in the city. While
gentrification may eventually change the physically presence of San Francisco, the
emotional affects found in oral histories preserve a history that has physically
disappeared. As this idea of community has loomed, oral history can be a reminder of
what was lost the years that have passed. In the case of San Francisco, it means
communities, community gathering places and even perspectives that have been
displaced along with the individuals who interacted with them This is not to romanticize
the past in any way but to find ways to amplify cultures without the intervention of
appropriation. This is a significant issue for a larger audience because San Francisco is 24
painted as a global city that welcomes those who inspire to become part of the “American
Dream.”
As mentioned earlier in this literature review, San Francisco is becoming younger, white and male centric. This is very significant in my oral history as all of the participants
identify as women and/or femmes. These oral histories will serve as what historian Nancy
Raquel Mirabal mentions as creating a “shared authority” on their existence San
Francisco community through the manifestation of different and complex natures. I hope
to use these narratives to not only demonstrate their historical presence in the San
Francisco but also dispel the mainstream narratives that their experiences need to be
shaped into one monolith narrative that can be rearranged or recoded for mainstream
recognition and consumption.
When Nancy Mirabal first conducted her oral history project with her Latino/a
Studies class, the first oral histories were recorded in 1999 as San Francisco was
experiencing the first “tech boom” where communities were being displaced and
disappeared. Mirabal argues that gentrification in the Mission District was interconnected
in reconstituting spaces to cater to whiteness and white residents.49 In many instances, the
spaces are then rearranged into expensive restaurant, cafes, antique shops and boutiques
that cater to a wealthier population—namely white people.50 This reconstruction resulted
in what Mirabal calls a mutual “forgetting” of Latinx presence in the Mission; Latinx
49 Mirabal, Nancy Raquel. "Geographies of Displacement: Latina/os, Oral History, and The Politics of Gentrification in San Francisco's Mission District." The Public Historian 31, no. 2 (Spring 2009): 7-31. doi: 10.1525/tph.2009.31.2.7.
50 Ibid. 25
families; business, restaurants and other buildings. Mirabal’s contribution to oral history scholarship was the emphasis of documenting the “forgotten” presence of communities displaced by gentrification that had not been saved and were displacement in favor of redevelopment and preservation of buildings. The oral histories Mirabal and her classes yielded were histories that haunted the San Francisco developers and legislation who otherwise would have rather left them buried in the ground.
Compared to the hundreds of people that were interviewed in Mirabal’s project, I decided there is still a necessity in adding more histories into the oral history of San
Francisco as there is more displacements happening in the past decade compared to the twenty years. Additionally, there is a necessity in continuing conducting oral histories because the same statistics are still showing, a large number of displacements and businesses, I also wanted to amplify issues that have also amplified in the current political state including citizenship and occupation. I also wanted to conduct 3 unique perspectives but the similarities were in that they identified as Latinas who happened to call San Francisco once in their lives. While the situation of gentrification in San
Francisco, during all the chaos and turmoil that occurs when dealing with gentrification in the city, I am still drawn to expressing the social agency that Latinx in large studies around the gentrification of the Mission District. I would like to instead give voice and create an oral history that is unfiltered to the experiences of Latinx community. As to my reasoning in focusing on a project that considers the voices of Latinx I consider the words
of Nancy Raquel Mirabal who states, “It was then that I realized that this oral history, this 26
analysis, has no end, because gentrification and displacement have no end.”51 There is no doubt that to conduct oral histories we must revisit dark and silent spaces. Especially when those spaces are tied to loss, erasure, emotion, and death, is, as the anthropologist
Ruth Behar has called it, ‘a vulnerable act.’ By collecting oral histories of displacement, we recorded endings: the end of businesses, nonprofits, community agencies, local arts programs, and the affordability of homes.52 While Mirabal’s seven-year student collaborated study on the changing landscape in the Mission District has served as a resource in this research, I feel that there needs to be an update on how those living in the city in 2018.
Creating oral histories for Latinx narratives is an act of decolonial thought as it infers the instance that their histories are not subjected to colonial threshold. When looking at this from the Latinx perspective, I am becoming self-aware of using Latino/a creates binaries. The Spanish language, like other tools used by colonialism creates the binary that a person’s experience is based on the binary of he or she. However, as the oral histories I have documented so far has demonstrated that the lived experiences and narratives of Latinxs in San Francisco varies from person to person. The following oral histories that I will share to amplify my point on the complexities found in the Latinx community in the city of San Francisco are three vast perspectives on their place in their community and in the city of San Francisco. While all three individuals in this oral
51 Ibid.
52 Ibid. 27
history identify as Latinxs who have either lived in the Mission or continue to live in the
Mission, that is where most of their commonalities end. In this section of the oral history
I will look into how identity varies by the experiences mentioned and therefore it is much more complex than the community identity Apple and other tech companies try to define.
In the second chapter of this thesis, I will forgo my analysis and perspective and allow the three individuals documented in this oral history to express their viewpoints.
One thing I will omit in the oral histories are their citizenship status but instead look at the uniqueness in their lives. In the past two chapters, I have looked at how works regarding gentrification look at the effects that have caused for Latinx womxn to disappear when discussions of both immigration and gentrification are involved. I also look to creating an oral history that is mindful in Mohanty’s critique of categorizing
“women” in universal shared experience as the categories undermines other power dynamics that can potentially affect their subject hood on a daily basis.53 With this in mind, the following three Latinx identified individuals I have interviewed for this oral history will demonstrate that there is not one monolith immigrant experience in gentrified
Mission District; but rather multiple experiences that happen to shape the Latinx community. Another theorist work that has been influential in my decision to creating an oral history is Gloria Anzaldua. I will particularly look into her framing of the una herida abierta in creating visibility for the Latinx. While San Francisco is far away from the
53 Chandra Talpade Mohanty. "Under Western Eyes." In Feminism Without Borders: Decolonizing Theory, Practicing Solidarity, 83-84. Durham, NC: Duke University Press, 2003. 28
open wounds of the Texas-Mexieo border, the open wound is still present through how
San Francisco whose borders are increasingly becoming hostile to immigrant and other non-normative communities in favor of capital ventures and government legislations that look at corporations as people first. Thus the “border culture” that regulate Latinx subjectivity have thus created many Latinx immigrants in San Francisco’s as the “las atravesados”, looking to find a way in navigating in an increasingly hostile environment of what was once a counterculture and non-normative haven54. While San Francisco is far away from the open wounds of the Texas-Mexico border, the open wound is still present through how San Francisco is slowly having its borders welcomed to those that have tech company connections and a large sum of income. Thus, the “border culture” that regulate
Latinx subjectivity have thus created many Latinx in San Francisco’s as the “los atravesados,” looking to find a way in navigating in an increasingly hostile environment of a supposed “counterculture and non-normative haven.” Sometimes there are instances where those perceived “atravesados” eventually find their community through being immersed with their culture. The city of San Francisco has been dealing with Latinx experiences for hundreds of years. While there is indeed some ending that have occurred in the city, there is still lots of continuing Latinx stories that have yet to see an end date. I will be identifying my subjects as Latinx as opposed to Latino/a as the latter defies the colonial binaries that have entrapped many displaced from their homes, their
54 Gloria Anzaldua. "How To Tame a Wild l ongue." In Borderlands/La Frontera: The New Mestiza, 76. 4th ed. San Francisco: Aunt Lute Books, 2012. 29
communities and their place in San Francisco. With using the phrase Latinx, I am also expanding the narratives to include the voices of queer and non-binary Latinx. Latinx is a word that has flourished by activists, writers and scholars who rebel against “the language and legacy of European traditions that were imposed on the Americas.”55
Therefore the oral histories in this piece do not reflect Western narratives but rather the complexities that can be found in what is usually to be considered a linear and monolith identity. As a daughter of Salvadoran immigrants, myself, the purpose of writing this thesis with an oral history of Latinx stories is to manifest that a community cannot be defined by sameness, rather it should be also defined by the complexities that come around with the community. It is also a reminder that not everyone who identifies as a
Latinx is Mexican which is a common misconception that is still placed in 2018 caused by fear mongering and xenophobia seen in high levels not seen since in the state since the passage and repeal of Proposition 187 in 1994-5. It is also a reminder that the act of the oral history itself is also an act of resistance. Because as the saying in Spanish goes, mi existir es resistir, (my existence is resistance).
Even with the ending of some familiarity, there were new changes that have also affected each person that was interviewed in the oral history. While the power dynamics are evident in each of the oral histories, there is the instance of “shared authority” given the complexities in each of the oral histories and the stories they have. These “shared
55 Tanisha Love Ramirez and Zeba Blay. "Why People Are Using The Term 'Latinx'." The Huffington Post. July 5, 2016. Accessed October 17, 2017. https://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/why-people-are-using-the-term- Iatinx_us_57753328e4b0cc0fa 136a 159. 30
authority” also amplify that their experiences and space in San Francisco holds as valid as the space tech companies inhabit. As Mirabal mentions, oral histories are not designed to
create solutions to gentrification and displacement but rather are tools. In this instance,
one of the tools I will use in this chapter is to view the oral histories as the tools for
resistance to the changing landscape of San Francisco through the existence of just three
women who happen to identify as Latinx.
As previously mentioned in the thesis, there is much literature over how
gentrification negatively affects the livelihood of certain districts and neighborhoods, but
there is not much focus on how it can affect and impact residents especially in the past
few years since the emergence of the Twitter Tax Break that have created a large number
of startups and tech companies to come around the city’s Mid-Market and Embarcadero.
In much of the literature attributed to the gentrification in San Francisco there is this
conception that gentrification is a recent occurrence that is looking to disrupt the current
diverse populations found in the today. Another common argument in literature
concerning gentrification is the politics of belonging and how those communities in the
city who are threatened by gentrifications are entitled to stay in the area due to their
generational ties to San Francisco. Despite the vast literature regarding gentrification in
San Francisco regarding the two reoccurring themes stated above, I instead look to
disrupt the themes by complicating and problematizing the concept of belonging and how
belonging used in much of the literature does not suit the history I plan to in my thesis.
First, the concept of belonging especially in this instance, benefits the dominant culture 31
and therefore benefits whiteness as the granting of accessing rights and property. As professor and activist Cheryl I. Harris once stated, “[The definition of property] laid the foundation for the idea that whiteness- that which whites alone possess - is valuable and is property”.56 Therefore, belonging does not work for the subjectivity of the Latinx community whose identity does not suit the need of the San Francisco government to protect or grant support in preventing displacement. The belonging can also be applied when talking about citizenship as even in 2018 we are still having to deal with difficult conversations involving Latinx subjectivity and citizenship. To place the stakes of gentrification through the politics of belonging negates the racist history branches of government in San Francisco has imposed on vulnerable communities. However, what I noticed in conducting these oral histories is that not all Latinxs I spoke with looked at these changes not as detrimental to their community. Rather, they viewed the changes as
saving graces from their initial memories in living in the city.
In conclusion, I use oral histories of Latinx in San Francisco to create more spaces that promote “liberation” in the academic institution. Additionally, I want to use the oral histories as ways to challenge the practice of the academy not always being truthful in the
way the experiences of Latinx are written. The “truth of the people” can only occur when the people acknowledge the power to express their experiences in a liberating space.
Although I understand it is impossible to cover the experiences of all Latinx affected by
56 Chery l I. Harris.“Whiteness as Property”. Harvard Law Review, Vol. 106, No. 8, 1721, 1993; UCLA School of Law Research Paper No. 06-35. 32
gentrification in San Francisco, the oral histories that have been included here are the embodiment of the idea of the Latinx experience in San Francisco’s ever changing gentrified landscape is unique and still valid regardless of the circumstance. I do not want to pit the livelihoods of Latinx against one another as each experience is different depending on the circumstances of resources despite the shared location. Even with the shared Latinx identity, there is not a lot of sameness due to the intersections of class, education and occupation. I also realized that coalitions with various groups is key to keep the momentum growing. This is especially important to create as gentrification has created displacement of cultures that once flourished in the city. How can we say we are a Sanctuary City, if we as a community need to continue resisting the stronghold tech companies have had on the dynamics of the city? There is still a lot of work [in this case coalitional work] that has to happen with the diverse Latinx community. However, in spite of the difficulty that will transpire through the Latinx community in the coming years in the city, oral histories are a necessary tool to convey the trials and tribulations that have occurred in each of the communities as well as look into the jubilation and fun that can also appear if given the opportunity. Lastly, oral histories are a tool of resistance as it can bring complexities that normally be pushed out of a conversation that in return looks to amplify sameness. 33
Chapter 1: Think Different: Apple’s Community Vision
"We have a deep commitment to the cities we work in, and are aware of the importance that architecture plays in the community. It all starts with the storefront — taking transparency to a whole new level — where the building blends the inside and the outside, breaking down barriers and making it more egalitarian and accessible.” - Jonathan Ive, Chief Design Officer, Apple.57
On May 21, 2016, Apple opened their first “Global Flagship” store, Apple Union
Square in San Francisco. For the company, this store opening was a tremendous feat as the store marked the beginning of the company’s rebranding to community spaces.
Mainstream publications proclaimed the space creates an effect in the “human perceptual system” since [Apple is] using the space and materials to elicit the curiosity and emotional response of the store’s visitors.” Newsweek called the store as “a kind of cosmopolitan cool, a borderless sophistication,” saying “It is a place where you can consume without feeling like a consumer.” These sentiments are summarized in greater detail by the Senior Vice President of Apple Retail, Angela Ahrendts, who touted the opening as “an evolution of “our store design, [and] its purpose and greater role in the community as we educate and entertain visitors and serve our network of local entrepreneurs.” However, Apple’s envisioned role in the community is rather exclusive to those that have a lot of buying power and social capital, namely white affluent
57 "Apple Union Square Highlights New Design Elements, Community Programs," Apple, May 19, 2016,, https://www.apple.com/newsroom/2016/05/19Apple-Union-Square-Highlights-New- Design-Elements-Comm un ity-Programs/. 34
communities, many who work and interact with tech companies and other forms of businesses on a daily basis.
This contrasts my vision of a community that is a lot more inclusive to those of different ethnic backgrounds, socioeconomic status and education, including low-income and immigrant people of color who are in the margins of Apple’s supposed “community”.
In this chapter, I will demonstrate how Apple's co-optation of the concept of community through a capitalist lens fails to truly manifest an inclusive and open-minded community their retail models and corporate image attempts to present. Apple’s failure in demonstrating community also reflects the San Francisco community’s failures marginalized groups. By looking at such acclaim of the Apple Store, one can look at how
Apple contributes to the romanticization of San Francisco’s vision as a progressive and open-minded community that is premier in “educating” and “entertaining” their community members.
One of their retail stores’ main promises given to their employees is to give their customers positive intent, or the instance that their service is to assume all consumers are there to purchase for good. This is demonstrated in Apple’s Credo which is a mission statement that is only given out to their employees during store meetings and usually plastered in the retail’s back of house and manager offices as a way to inspire and enrich employees and customers. Here is the revised Credo, updated in 2016 in its entirety: 35
Enriching lives
We are here to enrich lives. To help dreamers become doers, to help
passion expand human potential, to do the best work o f our lives.
At our best
We give more than we take. From the planet, to the person beside us. We
become a place to belong where everyone is welcome.
Everyone. We draw strength from our differences. From background and
perspective to collaboration and debate. We are open.
We redefine expectations. First for ourselves, then for the world. Because we 're
a little crazy. Because “good enough ” isn t. Because what we do says who we are.
We find courage. To try and to fail, to learn and to grow, to figure out what’s
next, to imagine the unimaginable, to do it all over again tomorrow. 58
58 Ben Lovejoy. "Apple Introducing Three New Positions & Poetic Credo as Part of Retail Store Shake-up [Updated]." 9to5Mac. August 22, 2016. https://9to5mac.com/2016/08/22/appie-store- new-positions/. 36
Apple attempts to give customers positive intent in their customer experience and even goes as far as to envision their store as a “community" to deliver that experience, but in reality, it falls flat. Their store opening becomes another marketing tool to sell their products over the accessibility and happiness of their consumers over the product. Apple’s attempts to market themselves as a community center is especially baffling when the sole purpose of the store does not create or promote community
because of its capitalistic intent.
The sole purpose of the store is essentially to sell a product. In the end, stores
exist to meet sales quotas and strengthen brand recognition that pays into product
consumption. Apple attempts to promote community through the store's “photo walks”
and guest speakers, but no amount of flourish can hide how much the store upholds
capitalism and remains true to its ideals. This fact remains regardless of whether or not
their customers are tourists, international business people or ultimately consider
themselves to be community members within its ecosystem. Apple's idea of community
is not designed to be inclusive. As mentioned by Miranda Joseph, Apple’s vision of
community is assuming that their products create “empathy and concern” to their
customers’ needs while also implying that it is also just another way for Apple to make
more capital. Ultimately Apple’s “community" is secondary to the needs of capitalism.
There are also other conditions that directly contradict the store's branding of being
anything close to a true community center. 37
First, I would consider the location of the store, Union Square. As a tourist destination, Union Square lives and breathes affluence through the presence of retail stores like Nike, Tiffany’s, Hermes, Saks Fifth Avenue and other luxury brands that are not known to be the most accessible to many San Francisco residents. Apple is no different, especially since most of the company’s sought-after product, the iPhone, starts at a retail price of $705.79 for a standard unlocked model. Additionally, statistics have shown that Apple Store are typically located in areas with an overwhelming amount of affluence and whiteness. 251 of the 270 Apple Stores located in the United States are in predominately white neighborhoods.59 In spite of their recent rebranding of their stores as a “community center”, it is no secret through its introductions of the Apple Watch (with bands created by upscale retailer Hermes) and a staggeringly overpriced iPhone X, Apple has also rebranded themselves as a “high-end of the market” brand. This doesn't come to any surprise, since their latest stores are typically found in “upscale” areas. Some of their most recent store openings, including an opening in Brooklyn's Williamsburg are in areas that are experiencing gentrification and displacement of many communities of color.
Additionally, many neighborhoods that have an Apple Store have a medium household income of $73,475 per year. While San Francisco’s medium household is estimated to be
$96,677, there’s are still disparities within racial groups as white households in the city have a medium $106,919 per household compared to Latinx families who saw a medium
59 Brian Josephs. "Apple Only Wants to Put Its Stores Where White People Live." The Outline. November 22, 2017. https://theoutline.com/post/2515/apple-has-very-few-stores-in-communities- of-color. 38
of $70,290 per household, a tad below than the average found in Apple Store neighborhoods. Given how far Apple Stores are to neighborhoods with a large people of color (POC) population, many POC consumers would have to travel far distances in go to an Apple Store. They would have to choose more accessible third-party retailers like Best
Buy or Target to obtain the same product. These options tend to stock less inventory or lower quality products as they may not feature Apple “certified” products that Apple typically tends to showcase and sell in their branded stores.60 It becomes clear geographically that not everybody has the same access to Apple products, despite the
Credo’s claim that Apple is a place of belonging “where everyone is welcome.”61
For a community center targeting the mass population to be situated in the most affluent areas in the Bay Area is befuddling. Apple ignores how its presence can impact communities negatively as the strategic placing of Apple Stores contributes to an increasingly segregated and homogenized San Francisco. To understand how Apple contradicts the idea of community, one must understand the role it plays in displacing communities within San Francisco. This becomes relevant when to the monopolization of space and affordable housing gives way in preference to commercial development like
Apple's new store. This is demonstrated even in the construction stages of Apple Union
Square, Apple attempted to eradicate the Ruth Asawa Foundation, a foundation by late
60 Ibid.
61 Ben Lovejoy. "Apple Introducing Three New Positions & Poetic Credo as Part of Retail Store Shake-up [Updated]." 9to5Mac. August 22, 2016. https://9to5mac.com/2016/08/22/apple-store- new-positions/. 39
San Franciscan artist Ruth Asawa that is located at what is now the plaza between Apple
Union Square and the Grand Hyatt Hotel. Due to the uproar and anger from residents who refused to have the foundation dismantled, Apple backtracked their decision by claiming that the foundation was a “beloved local monument and an important part of
Union Square.”62
In 2013, more than 53 percent of low-income households lived in neighborhoods living in San Francisco at risk of or already experiencing displacement and gentrification pressures.63 From 1997 to 2013, there were about 12,000 “no fault’ evictions recorded in the city, an indication that San Francisco is becoming increasingly affluent and far from the “welcoming everyone” approach Apple seems to assume.64
Second, it is not usually local residents who frequent Apple Stores as there has been a large amount of evidence that international customers are the biggest population that frequent the Apple Store daily, specifically the Union Square location. Given that foreigners who will spend a few days around the area with little to no interaction with many Bay Area residents who most would like to spend much time at stores at Union
Square. Despite Newsweek’s claim that one can glance over the Union Square location
62 John King. "Moving Asawa Art for Apple 'Wouldn't Make Sense'." SFGate. June 01, 2013. http://www.sfgate.com/bayarea/place/article/Moving-Asawa-art-for-Apple-wouldn-t-make-sense- 4567723.php.
63 Kathleen Maclay. "More Gentrification, Displacement in Bay Area Forecast." Berkeley News. February 17, 2016. http://news.berkeley.edu/20l5/08/24/more-gentrification-displacement-in- bay-area-forecast/.
64 Ibid. 40
without “being a consumer” that is far from the truth. There is no logical way to be part of the Apple community unless one purchases their products. To even participate in their
iPhone and iOS Basics classes, one must have the latest iPhone and iOS downloaded to truly get the gist of the workshops.65 For those that have older iPhones, this means purchasing a new model as the latest iOS in which older model phones cannot
accommodate. There’s also the buying trends of ethnic groups to consider that vary. For
example, while the Latinx community buying power has been increasing, they are less
likely to buy smartphones as frequently as their buying preferences seem to favor more
towards laptops and tablets 66 Additionally, Latinx are also purchasing iPhones in the
same rate as Android phones.67 Therefore, they will not be buying the latest iPhone as
often.
To be part of Apple’s branded community after purchasing what can be a fortune
for the average San Francisco resident maybe include a statistic that further amplifies
how buying Apple would be a luxury purchase for a working-class SF resident like how
much their salary goes into living costs, only then will prospective community members
be “rewarded” with “free” workshops with topics ranging from the newest operating
65 Apple Inc. "Today at Apple." Apple. Accessed February 17, 2017. https://www.apple.com/today/.
66 Elaine Rita Mendus. “Latinos Purchase IPhones, Androids, Equally.” Mas Wired, Mas Wired, 3 July 2013, www.maswired.com/latinos-purchase-iphones-androids-equally/.
67 Ibid. 41
system to Apple’s iCloud storage. Only then will members have access to “free" events like Will.l.Am’s world premiere of the revamped “Where is the Love?” music video that launched and was made accessible exclusively on Apple's streaming platform, Apple
Music.68 One's buying power and capital is needed to truly “envision” Apple’s skewed vision of community, this skewed vision of community is also becoming a tech company and startup market trend throughout the San Francisco Bay Area. This is also apparent in some of the companies’ price points for their products.
Some of the company’s most “affordable” options are not beneficial for community members trying to stay afloat for San Francisco. In recent years, Apple has been pushing customers to purchase new iPhones through the company’s “iPhone
Upgrade Program” (iUP) that promises yearly upgrades after paying for half of the phone’s full price in twelve months. However, to use the iUP, a customer would have to have an account with the following U.S. mobile carriers: AT&T, Verizon, Sprint and T-
Mobile. Additionally, if a prospective community member is looking to find “affordable options”, many financing options including Apple’s iPhone Upgrade Program require a credit check 69 These credit checks are hard credit inquiries that can potentially hinder a customer’s chances to obtain a phone. It can also be problematic as these credit checks require the customer to possess a United States social security number and United States
68 Kia Kokalitcheva, "Will.i.am Calls for Making Computer Science Education Mandatory in Schools," Fortune, September 2, 2016,, http://fortune.com/2016/09/02/will-i-am-apple-computer- science/.
69 Apple Inc. "IPhone Upgrade Program Terms and Conditions." Apple. Accessed February 16, 2017. http://www.apple.com/legal/sales-support/iphoneupgrade_us. 42
issued credit. If a person does not possess neither item at hand, their only option in obtaining an iPhone is to pay full price which is over half of what the average monthly rent for a single room in city limits. Since the introduction of the iPhone 7 and 7 Plus, the program has changed from a hard credit check to customers inputting information about their yearly salary in order to participate in the program.70 Despite the absence of the hard credit check, there is still implication that individuals with high-paying occupations are best suited in getting an iPhone. This implication becomes apparent when Apple also provides a credit card application with Barclays, a third party financial service. These options are not realistic for the typical working-class individual that has not established the financial credit that Apple requires to purchase a product reasonably. Given exclusivity of Apple's community, when members attain access by purchasing through iUP that they give up their rights to privacy, which high-income consumers particularly white high-income consumers don't have to give up in order to join Apple's
"community." When considering the terms and conditions to the iPhone Upgrade
Program, the document states that by enrolling into the program. By enrolling in the iPhone Upgrade Program, the consumer is agreeing for: “Apple, its subsidiaries and agents, the Bank, and Trade-In Service Provider may collect, process, transmit, maintain, share, and use certain of your personal information, such as your name, mailing address, email address, and information related to your loan and loan status, to perform the service
70 Ibid. 43
and support obligations under your iPhone Upgrade Program.”71
Despite Apple’s tendency to appeal to the community, it seems that the company is “much closer to the powerful figurehead than to the lone rebel” in its attempts to appeal to everyday people.72 While it seems that Apple has tried to create a community, their
defense of their products’ expensive price points calls into question the validity of
appealing a community aspect. In response to the latest MacBook Pro price hike, Apple
executive Phil Schiller declared:
Affordability is absolutely something we care about. But we don't design for
price, we design for the experience and the quality people expect from Mac.
Sometimes that means we end up at the higher end of the range, but not on
purpose, just because that's what it costs."73
It seems by that comment alone, instead of finding ways to bringing community
together, Apple executives have lured only the affluent to its “community centers”.
Apple’s executives defense in their product’s expensive price points and credit checks as
two methods to purchase their products, continues a social hierarchy in terms of
71 Ibid.
72 Alexander Nazaryan. "Empire's End: A Visit to the New Apple Store in San Francisco." Newsweek. June 16, 2016. http://www.newsweek.com/san-franciseo-new-apple-store-shows- little-think-different-spirit-463576.
73 Juli Clover, "Apple's Phil Schiller: 'We Don't Design for Price. We Design for the Experience'." MacRumors. October 27, 2016. http://www.macrumors.com/2016/10/27/apples-phil-schiller-on- macbook-pro-price/. 44
possessing a MacBook.74 Schiller’s comments display the disconnect of creating an inclusive community. Instead, his comment assumes that the best community suited for
Apple is a community that corresponds with capitalism. In her book, “The Promise of
Happiness,” Sara Ahmed addresses that for a community to succeed in capitalism, it must produce happiness that corresponds with the empire. Therefore, “empire becomes a gift that cannot be refused”. With this logic applied to Apple's idea of community, if one can purchase the latest iPhone in the first day, then it creates happiness that is shared with the masses despite expense and quantity. When looking at Schiller’s comments about the expensive pricing points for Apple products, he creates the assumption that because
Apple are creating luxurious products for the experience, that experience is a gift that cannot be “refused” from the community.75 Henceforth, it amplifies Ahmed’s concept of conditional happiness where if Apple is happy at their “innovation” despite the misleading and exclusive price tag, then their consumers need to be happy for the
“experience.” The usage of experience is rather vague to really create some concise reasoning as how expensive laptops can create a fulfilling community again. It is just another case where Apple is saying a lot without explaining a lot. As Albert M. Muniz pointed out, Apple has succeeded as a “branded community” where Apple is a
“specialized, non-geographically bound community that is based on a structured set of
74 Albert M. Muniz and Thomas C., O'Guinn. "Brand Community." OUP Academic. March 01, 2001. Accessed May 16, 2017. http://www.academic.oup.eom/jcr/article/27/4/412/1810411.
75 Sara Ahmed. The Promise o f Happiness. Durham: Duke University Press, 2010. 45
social relationships among admirers of the brand.”76 The community Apple is promoting is one where consumers use their products in hopes of creating that community that rely on their daily lives with their Apple products. Therefore, Apple’s definition of community is a problem that defeats the purpose of a true community.
The culmination of Apple’s vision as a brand community can be found in a store feature called “Today at Apple”. Apple Stores view “Today at Apple” as bringing the community at large including “the world’s most talented artists, photographers, musicians, gamers, developers and entrepreneurs to inspire and educate [Apple] customers to go further with the things they are passionate about.”77 Some of the programs Apple Stores promote as part of “Today at Apple” include photo walks throughout the affluent neighborhoods in which community members “level up their iPhone photography skills on an inspiring photo walk through neighborhoods” that are safe to post on Instagram for social capital. Other “Today at Apple” programs include music performances and guest speakers promoting their latest apps and Apple compatible. Although Apple promotes “Today at Apple” as a free event for community members, it is essentially an Apple advertisement.78
As mentioned, Apple’s community outreach is similar to the outreach used by
76 Albert M. Muniz and Thomas C., O'Guinn. "Brand Community." OUP Academic. March 01, 2001. Accessed May 16, 2017. http://www.academic.oup.eom/jer/article/27/4/412/1810411
77 “Apple Union Square Highlights New Design Elements, Community Programs." Apple. May 19, 2016. https://www.apple.com/newsroom/2016/05/19Apple-Union-Square-Highlights-New- Design-Elements-Community-Programs/.
78 Ibid. 46
many tech companies situated in the Bay Area who consider the city as outlets of a
“shared economy”.79 Thanks to the pandering of elected officials ranging from former
San Francisco mayor Ed Lee,80 the sharing economy found in San Francisco envisions an “halo of positive branding to avoid the discussion of what regulatory structures need to be modernized to deal with these platforms.”. However, despite the “positive intent” that can be usually associated with tech companies ignores the actuality that companies like
Apple, Uber and Airbnb are ultimately first and foremost, a business. Additionally, tech companies are not concerned with sharing resources and ideas as they are profit-making companies.81
Then again, Apple's idea to create and emulate communities is a ridiculous claim when analyzed from the surface. A function of community is to co-exist (for the most part) despite the diverse ethnic backgrounds, education and viewpoints. For example, while I am typing this thesis on a MacBook, I do not feel inclined to be an active participant of the so-called Apple community. When I use my iPhone to keep in touch with my family and loved ones, the last thought that comes to my mind is “I feel inclined for my family to be part of the Apple family”. In the end, my decision to use an Apple
79 Or what is otherwise known as capitalism’s failed attempts to try to use elements of communism for profit.
80 Through the implementation of the “Twitter Tax Break” of 2011 mentioned in my literature review
81 Adam Chandler. "What Should the 'Sharing Economy' Really Be Called?" The Atlantic. May 27, 2016. http://www.theatlantic.com/business/archive/2016/05/sharing-economy-airbnb-uber- yada/484505/,. 47
product is based on having to fulfill the demands with being a productive member of this capitalist society.
However, Apple has been able to reach to a community that subscribes to a brand, since the company has been able to obtain a cult following over the years. Since the introduction of Apple Retail Stores in 2001, Apple enthusiasts can be seen locally through the stores and their websites including Cult o f Mac and 9to5Mac that keep fans worldwide updated through news regarding Apple products and Apple Retail changes.
Both sites covered the opening of the Union Square location with the former raving on how it was “Apple’s most amazing store in the West Coast”.82 9To5Mac complimented how the store’s design” connects San Francisco’s most famous square to a rejuvenated plaza to the north, creating a “beautiful gathering place for the community”.83 With these kind of acclaims and Apple presence in San Francisco, it furthers the company's notion of making their capitalist imprint on the city. Apple’s branded community approach is not something new as this technique is readily available through capitalism. Building community and distorting the message behind it to serve the company's function becomes advantageous to Apple's capitalistic goal. Apple executives still find profit in the reimagined stores as “community centers” or “town squares.” In fact, Apple Senior Vice
82 Buster Hein. "Apple Gives Sneak Preview of Flagship Union Square Store." Cult of Mac. May 20, 2016. Accessed May 16, 2018. http://www.cultofmac.com/428882/apple-gives-sneak- preview-of-flagship-union-square-store/.
83 Jordan Kahn. "Apple Previews San Fran Union Square Store W/ Revamped Design & 'Genius Grove' Ahead of Opening." 9to5Mac. May 19, 2016. https://9to5mac.com/2016/05/19/apple-san- fran-union-square-genius-grove/. 48
President of Retail Angela Ahrendts described the stores’ essence to the company brand as Apple retail stores are “the biggest product we produce.”84 Ahrendts concluded as a major company, Apple, has “a huge obligation right now, and the bigger the company, the bigger the obligation. We are thinking about what the community needs.” 85
The idea that Apple has an obligation to help their local community (In this case
San Francisco) begs the question of who in the community is Apple willing to support?
Additionally, Apple assumes the notion that communities are positive connotations that are not seen in “crisis mode”.86 For many tech companies living in San Francisco, their business creates a positive community despite their main motivation to create profit over really connecting with the community. As Joseph points out, the usage of “community” to refer to social practices that attempt to enact and produce identity, unity, communion, and purity”. Apple attempts to idealize the harmony desired in a community while erasing and ignoring the oppression and social hierarchies that are involved within that same community. The social hierarchies that are created in Apple’s “community” is exclusive for individuals who can produce and consume their products. Capitalism and modernity depend on creating the discourse of communities to legitimate social hierarchies, which in the case of Angela Ahrendts’ idea on “communal subjectivity is
84 Leena Rao, "Apple Retail Chief Angela Ahrendts on Turning Stores Into Town Squares," Fortune, October 16, 2016,. http://fortune.com/2016/10/18/apple-angela-ahrendts-stores.
85 Ibid.
86 Miranda Joseph, Against the Romance o f ('ommunilyiMinneapo 1 is: University of Minnesota Press, 2002). 49
constituted by practices of production and consumption”. 87 In addition to the push, tech companies are finding ways to take focus on community building through participation with government officials and in San Francisco it is no different.
To visualize how capitalism is tied to community building in the city, I will consider the concept of biopower. The term biopower was first described by French philosopher Michel Foucault as “an explosion of numerous and diverse techniques for achieving the subjugations of bodies and the control of populations."88 Additionally,
Foucault looks to biopower as a way “to make live or let die.”89 In this essence, I find
Foucault’s focus on biopower in deciding “who lives and who dies” a vital concept that is entangled in the lives of marginalized communities who are only viable subjects in San
Francisco’s gentrified climate if they in the background. This is not to say that marginalized communities are not present in San Francisco, they are only visible in working conditions as means to survive as opposed to visibly living in the city. My reasoning in considering biopower at the rebranding of community is twofold. First, the power of ideologies- the ideology of the tech companies and the San Francisco government- have factored into diminishing as well as subordinating the bodies of residents who cannot produce or consume. These same residents must attempt to stay present in a landscape that rather focus on the successes of the affluent class. The
87 Ibid.
88 Michel Foucault, The History o f Sexuality, Volume 1: An Introduction, vol. 1 (New York: Vintage Books, 1990). 140-142.
89 Ibid, 141 50
ideology found in San Francisco depicts the city’s culture as one that is diverse and vibrant, however that ideology is a farce when the culture is slowly turning into one that benefits the dominant tech companies who increasingly gain control of the power in city, thus determining how one can live. Second, former mayor Ed Lee’s administration incentive tax breaks to tech companies who move into Mid-Market and Tenderloin demonstrates that there is clearly no communal support from the government for low- income and homeless San Franciscans. This is significant as the Tenderloin and Mid-
Market districts have historically been home to marginally housed and homeless individuals who live either in the single room occupancies (SROs) that are situated in the areas or sleep nightly in nearby shelters including Next Door. The city government and other community members have yet to offer a viable resolution to support marginalized communities in housing and other protections. Instead, ballot measures including
Proposition Q and outreach such as the Homeless Outreach Team (H.O.T.) have been implemented that harass encampments (the former) or have little presence or monetary support to aid homeless individuals (the latter).90 Therefore, the fetishizing of Apple on what makes a community is a blindness of the exploitation and disregard to residents who cannot consume the very products or if they are able to obtain an Apple product, are subject to paying high interest rates if they cannot pay those products in full. For those
90 Heather Knight, "Did Apple Provide Too Much of a Good Thing at Pride Parade?" San Francisco Chronicle, July 02, 2015,, http://www.sfchronicle.com/bayarea/article/Apple-provides- too-much-of-a-good-thing-at-Pride-6363728.php. 51
partaking in Apple’s branded community, assimilation is happiness because it reinforces the power structures of community through consumerism. Yet it is also violent because public spaces are organized, which requires the suppression, relocation and regulation of communities along neoliberal lines.
Discomfort in the Neighborhood
Since the tech boom, it is become apparent that that capitalism and modernity is depended on communities to legitimize and continue social hierarchies. As San Francisco becomes a notable tourist destination, the city is idealized for its perceived inclusiveness to all those who do not fit in the mainstream. While San Francisco itself has been responsible in “developing” the prominence of communities such as the queer community, the communities are also susceptible to becoming one with capitalism as the tech boom has shown that those communities will eventually be exploited by capitalism as while capitalism has sought to show itself to be and equal to each community, it does not result in “equal sites of production and consumption”. Apple contributes to this form of capitalism through their selective “activism” in various social movements like the
LGBT community which I will discuss later on. This disparity is especially visible in San
Francisco as the city has increasingly becoming segregated and expensive for those who seek to remain in the city. While many officials throughout the years including Mayors
Willie Brown, Gavin Newsom and Ed Lee have praised the emergence of tech companies in helping developed the city into the “Tech Capital of the World”, nevertheless, this overreach affect marginalized groups even more. The exploitation of communities among 52
neoliberal lines affects especially working class Latinxs as they are oftentimes in tech
company offices through service work including janitorial and cafeteria labor.91
Apple’s vision of community through their community relates to the growing
presence of gentrification in major cities. Sharon Zukin’s work on the racial project of
gentrification also bring much more insight on how gentrification is a complex issue that
involves the subordination of non-normative subjects. She states that gentrification is at
the very basis, “the production consumption of the demographic structure”.92 In order
words, gentrification in many ways reflects what the hegemonic Western society wants to
envision as valuable citizens. These needs oftentimes create an “investment in culture
that may augment limited means. Zukin viewed gentrifiers as a “distinct habitus due to
many identifying as upper middle-class professionals in the workforce. She also looks at
how local government and agencies oftentimes promote gentrification through the
intervention of zoning laws and historical district designations which gives the state the
power in defining the “economic and social value of an urban area”. As with a new influx
of residents, many of them who identify as white, Zukin describes their participation in
terms of their “discomfort” with interacting with longtime residents that oftentimes
results in the policing of these same longtime residents, many of whom identify as Latinx
or Black.
91 Jessica Guynn, "Report: Tech Creating Black, Hispanic Underclass," USA Today, August 25, 2014,, https://www.usatoday.com/story/tech/2014/08/25/black-hispanic-service-workers-silicon- valley-working-partnerships-apple-google-facebook-diversity/145 88021/.
92 Sharon Zukin, Naked City: The Death and Life o f Authentic Urban Places (New York: Oxford University Press, 2011),. 53
Therefore, San Francisco, like many cities in the nation encountering gentrification, are becoming wealthier and whiter. What this means for nonwhite residents is that they will most likely not reap the benefits of the city’s newfound wealth and whiteness. Despite tech communities’ attempts to find positive ways to interact with their newfound communities, there are still instances where tech workers’ interactions with longtime residents have been confrontational. This has happened in an Apple Store
in 2015 where six black male teenagers were escorted out by security guards who told the high school students senior management at the store was worried the teenagers were going to steal merchandise.93 While the incident occurred in Melbourne, Australia, there was another notable incident surrounding community members and tech workers that
occurred in San Francisco.
On the evening of late 2014 at the Mission Playground, Kai, a longtime Mission resident, confronted a group of Dropbox and Airbnb employees. The group were
attempting to eject young children from playing at the park’s soccer field as the group
claimed to have a paid reservation on the field.94 Once the video continues, the Dropbox
employee in an act of rage, insisting to Kai, that he paid tor an hour usage of the field
93 Triple J. Hack, '"It's Not the First Time': Black Students Kicked out of Apple Store Blame Racial Profiling," ABC News, November 12, 2015,, http://www.abc.net.au/news/2015-11- 12/melboume-students-accuse-apple-store-of-racial-profiling/6936750.
94 Jay Barmann, "Video: Tensions Arise Over S.F. Soccer Field Between Neighborhood Kids And Recent Transplants," SFist, October 10, 2014,, http://sfist.com/2014/10/10/tensions_arise_over mission playgro.php. 54
insofar as putting the document in his face and demanding the young boys to get out. As the video of the confrontation unfolded, San Francisco Parks and Recreation stated that
during their park’s renovation, they implemented new rules including the addition of a twenty-seven dollar an hour reservation fee for the soccer fields. In response to the
negative community protest and reaction, park and recreation would ultimately drop the
reservation services.95 By looking at how the tech worker reacted to the presence of Kai
and the children, he assumed that their presence in the community was broken and
needed to be swiftly resolved. This is not an isolated incident as San Francisco
Recreation and Parks also have created reservation systems for popular sites including
Dolores Park. The privatization of public space is troubling as the reservations assume
that the experience is best enjoyed with a certain amount of income. In a strange way, this
replicates Schiller’s words of paying for the experience. The “disruption” caused by tech
workers presence in perceived public spaces is what author Jeff Chang calls “an
unqualified good”.96 These implications of employees of tech company’s co-optation of
community space also does apply to community events as well, and Apple has
demonstrated that firsthand in their participation in San Francisco Pride. As Miranda
Joseph points out, one of these efforts is “pure or perfectly oppositional to capital flow
95 "San Francisco Recreation and Park." The Official San Francisco Recreation and Park Department Website. Accessed February 17, 2017. http://sfrecpark.org/permits-and- reservations/picnic-area-rentals/.
96 Jeff Chang, We Gori Be Alright: Notes on Race and Resegregation. (New York City: Picador, 2016).67. 55
and none involve a complete abandonment of identity or community.”97
This is evident through Apple employees giving out iTunes gift cards which could further encourage parade goers to frequent the store and buy into their community.98
Additionally, the strategic routing of the parade passes by the Apple Store and other affluent areas of San Francisco. Tim Cook, usually reclusive, has publicly participated in
San Francisco’s Pride Parade since 2014. Cook’s and Apple’s presence has been met with some negative criticism. In Apple’s presence at the 2015 Pride Parade, the company brought a record number of 8,000 employees who marched onto the parade 99 The large number of participants caused an uproar from the community as the large Apple crowd caused the parade to run seven hour and thirty-three minutes.100 This was well above the five-and-a-half-hour average Pride usually takes. While some called it a “nice show of support” in their participation in Pride there was still an uproar from “grumbling from city officials and other parade participants that such a big block of people from one company slowed everything down way too much.”101 Because of the controversy
97 Joseph, Miranda. Against the Romance o f Community. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press, 2002.
98 Sam Byford, "Apple Celebrates Diversity and Equality in San Francisco Pride Parade Video," The Verge, July 08, 2014,, https://www.theverge.com/2014/7/7/5879557/apple-marches-in-san- francisco-pride-parade-video.
99 Heather Knight, "Did Apple Provide Too Much of a Good Thing at Pride Parade?" San Francisco Chronicle, July 02, 2015,, http://www.sfchronicle.com/bayarea/article/Apple-provides- too-much-of-a-good-thing-at-Pride-6363728.php.
100 Ibid.
101 Ibid. 56
surrounding the large amount of Apple participants, Apple picked their participants in the following year through a lottery system and a special edition rainbow colored Watch
Band to limit the potential outcry from a large crowd. In looking at community through neoliberal means, Tim Cook was not only merely pandering to communities, in this moment the queer community, but is also the seen as the means of getting a consumer base that will be loyal to the brand. The large participation of Apple at Pride was the furthering on blurring the lines of what is the marketer (Apple) and the customer.102 To elaborate, Apple and other tech companies who participate in Pride attempt to demonstrate that the companies “willingness” to accept queer individuals when in reality it is essentially a ploy from companies like Apple to get “gay dollars” simply by “getting involved in the community” through Pride.103 Furthermore, in interviews with the residents who attended Pride, they are not too keen on having Apple and other tech companies take up space in Pride. Some have compared the presence of tech companies
like Apple as a “big Miller Lite tent” as companies are “co-opting queer identity as ways to make money.” 104
102 Thomas C. O'Guinn and Albert M. Muniz, "Brand Community," OUP Academic, March 01, 2001, http://www.academic.oup.eom/jcr/article/27/4/412/1810411.
103 Sam Levin, "Too Straight, White and Corporate: Why Some Queer People Are Skipping SF Pride," The Guardian, June 25, 2016,, https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2016/jun/25/san- francisco-gay-pride-corporate-orlando-shooting.
104 Ibid. 57
By using Pride as a back wheel to promote the company as an “inclusive and accepting” company, Apple is demonstrating how their presence in queer spaces including Pride are simply large advertisement coated as a “sign of acceptance”. Apple’s idea of community is a facet of this advertisement — social movements are being coopted by companies. Apple’s presence contrasts Pride origins through the commemoration of the beginning of the LGBT rights movement mostly led by trans women of color who are still erased in favor of tech companies’ co-optation and capitalism. As Pride is also one of the most attended annual events in San Francisco, the acceptance of Apple and other tech companies to occur a historical political place, it demonstrates once again the government’s lack of oversight in tech companies’ stronghold. Therefore, the community building in San Francisco is dependent on namely white producers in society. Miranda
Joseph argues that that work of the community is to “generate and legitimate necessary particularities and social hierarchies (of gender, race, nation, sexuality) implicitly required, but disavowed, by capitalism, a discourse of abstraction and equivalence.”
As Apple has now considered their corporate and their retail entities to be in the same spectrum, I would now like to examine how their treatment and makeup of their workforce conflict their idea of a happy community that they try to integrate within their retail experience. In Tim Cook’s acquisition of the company following the death of co founder Steve Jobs in 2011, he has proclaimed diversity as “the future of the company”.105
105 Christina Warren, "Exclusive: Tim Cook Says Lack of Diversity in Tech Is 'our Fault'," 58
Cook claims Apple sees diversity as” Everything that makes an employee who they are. We foster a diverse culture that’s inclusive of disability, religious belief, sexual
orientation, and service to country. We want all employees to be comfortable bringing their entire selves to work every day. Because we believe our individual backgrounds,
perspectives, and passions help us create the ideas that move all of us forward.” 106
Because of the implicit promise of their “gift”, henceforth their presence must not
be questioned. It has become apparent that the presence of tech companies and their
coziness with the San Francisco government has resulted in what Joseph describes as
“communal subjectivity” is “constructed by practice of production and consumption. In
the website dedicated to the company’s diversity”, Denise Young Smith, the vice
president of worldwide human resources states that “Diversity is more than any one
gender, race, or ethnicity. It’s richly representative of all people, all backgrounds, and all
perspectives. It is the entire human experience.” 107
While looking at Young Smith’s words, it is important to note that Apple’s
workforce and their community atmosphere have had less than a rosy relationship both
on a corporate and retail level. One of these terrible instances of bigotry in the workplace
were obtained by emails sent to Tim Cook in response to dealing with a “toxic work
Mashable, June 08, 2015, https://mashable.com/2015/06/08/tim-cook-apple-diversity-women- future/.
106 “Inclusion & Diversity.” Edited by Apple, Apple, 2018, www.apple.com/diversity/
107 Ibid. 59
environment”.108 One of those emails, written by “Danielle”, recounts an uncomfortable instance where she encountered rape jokes made by male co-workers who claimed an
“office intruder would come and rape everybody”. In her emails, Danielle stated her uncomfortableness with the work environment as: "Rape jokes in work chat is basically where I completely draw the limit. I do not feel safe at a company that tolerates
individuals who make rape jokes."109 Despite Danielle’s attempts to reach human resources and her numerous formal complaints about the inappropriate behavior, she was never given a formal response. Ironically, after the release of the emails through Mic, it was noted that Tim Cook responded to Apple customer inquiries about new releases through open forums and emails.110 Tim Cook’s decision to respond to emails from
customers as opposed to responding to the concerns of his corporate employees’ concerns
with bigotry in the company is quite telling as the company’s attention with “showing
diversity” lacks the execution of acceptance to diversity. The same company that raves
about succeeding with “pay equity” as their employees have achieved but it does little to
address the bigotry that is still involved in their offices. These emails display that the
diverse community that Apple raves about through their public image are meaningless
promotional tactics. Another employee in the emails noted the racial inequity in Apple as
“White male privilege runs unchecked. The worst part is, you don't know who to trust
108 Melanie Ehrenkranz, "Leaked Apple Emails Reveal Employees' Complaints about Sexist, Toxic Work Environment," Mic, October 04, 2016,, https://mic.com/articles/154169/leaked- apple-emails-reveal-employees-complaints-about-sexist-toxic-work-environment.
109 Ibid.
110 Ibid. 60
and who you can reach out to without continued harassment and retaliation. I am beyond discouraged and disheartened at my treatment and the lack of foliow-up."ni Another employee mentioned the racial disparities in the Apple corporate structure was too much she resigned from her position. They stated that despite their attempts to:
...Seek justice within this corporation, the cries of several minority employees
about the toxic and oppressive environment have gone unanswered. I have
witnessed the complete and utter disenfranchising of the voices of men and
women of color, and the fault lies not only in the direct management staff but in
the response of those tasked with protecting employee rights. I write this letter
hoping to highlight the areas that these departments have failed to properly
support employees and as such have hence left Apple, Inc. culpable for various
EEOC and ethical violations.112
By looking at these emails, Apple’s community in their corporate offices are depersonalized from reality and organic connections.113 By ignoring the emails and the concerns of employees while responding to the emails of consumers, Cooks actions amplify Apple’s intention to follow consumer culture as the culture itself replaced the
111 Ibid.
112 Ibid.
113 Thomas C. O'Guinn and Albert M. Muniz, "Brand Community," OUP Academic, March 01, 2001, accessed May 16, 2017, http://www.academic.oup.eom/jcr/article/27/4/412/1810411. 61
humanity of the communal citizen and their concerns of their communities.114 Therefore, the instances of bigotry in their corporate offices, it seems that the idea of Apple’s vision of a harmonious community is really a farce.
This farce is further demonstrated through the numbers shown on their “Inclusion and Diversity” page in the company’s website. As I scrolled through the site, alongside the Young quote I used earlier, the page claims they have “steadily attracted” more women and “U.S. underrepresented minorities” (URM) as in 2016 there were thirty- seven percent of the workforce woman and twenty-two percent URM.115 While Apple tends to look at those slight gains as a cause for celebration, I scrolled down the page and noticed some alarming numbers regarding their workforce. In 2016 alone, over fifty-six percent of the Apple workforce globally identified as white. In 2017, there were little changes in the demographics as fifty-seven percent of Apple’s workforce were white compared to URM as Latinx were composed of eighteen percent and black workers were thirteen percent.116 As Apple’s workforce is still overwhelmingly white, their workforce trends continuities the whiteness that surrounded tech companies in the Bay Area.
Additionally, the overwhelmingly whiteness in their workforce also been challenged by the most unlikely of sources -Apple’s own shareholders.
1,4 Ibid.
115 “Inclusion & Diversity.” Edited by Apple, Apple, 2018, www.apple.com/diversity/.
116 Ibid. 62
In early 2017, there were a small group of shareholders who have felt that Apple made up too many excuses in their lack of diversity and needed to “pick up the pace” in hiring more people of color."7 One of those shareholders, Tony Maldonado, claimed
Apple was “leaning too heavily on retail stores to improve its diversity figures while doing little at the senior level.”118 Maldonado added "I dug into [Apple’s figures on their workforce numbers] and saw Apple has rarely ever had many people of ethnic or racial diversity within their board or senior leadership," he says. For a 40-year-old company
“that’s laughable. That's racism plain and simple. That's all it is. There has to be plenty of people with sufficient qualifications.”119 Maldonado concluded that Apple executives
“need to expand their viewpoints, and only by allowing others to come in to provide them their insight will [Apple] be able to tackle those challenges." Nevertheless, Apple’s board wrote a note denouncing the small group’s proposal as they already have "much broader" diversity efforts at work and have made "steady progress in attracting more women and underrepresented minorities." Apple then concluded the "is not necessary or appropriate because we have already demonstrated our commitment to a holistic view of inclusion and diversity."
Even if Apple has stated they are “committed” to inclusion, it is still rather difficult to create an inclusive community at the retail level as Apple corporate has the
117 Jacob Kastrenakes, "Apple Shareholders Are Demanding More Diversity, but the Company Is Fighting Back," The Verge, February 15, 2017,, http://www.theverge.eom/2017/2/15/14614740/apple-shareholder-diversity-proposal-opposition.
118 Ibid.
1,9 Ibid. 63
final say in decision making. For example, when I was working at Apple Retail, a few of my colleagues were briefly allowed to do bilingual workshops on iOS and the iPhones capabilities both in Mandarin and Cantonese as a lot of customers who frequent in the stores came from China and Hong Kong. In the brief two months my colleagues were allowed to run the workshops, each workshop was attended by over 30 to 40 people, easily the most popular workshop in the store. However, despite the large attendance and the multiple workshops per day, the store leader advised the committee to disband as the store was going to relocate to Union Square and stated bilingual workshops were not an
“immediate need” for corporate vision. For my colleagues including my dear friend
Wendy, this was disheartening as most of the customers we encountered while working at
Apple Retail were monolingual Mandarin and Spanish speakers who would often request workers who spoke their first language. As a Spanish speaker, I can personally confirm that most of my interactions with Spanish speakers did require a lot of time doing tutorials on the floor regarding iOS functions and iPhone related questions. Apple corporate’s reluctance to even provide workshops in more than one language furthers my argument that by Apple catering their services to an overwhelmingly white and affluent customer base, they are essentially failing in their proposed vision of a true community.
Despite Apple’s tendency to call themselves a community, we cannot rely on consume to dictate what community should look like because race is tied with money. 64
In conclusion, companies like Apple are co-opting community building by creating uniformity through production instead of providing accessibility to virtually all community members in such dire situations. Apple’s current rebranding to be a community company has several holes in its implementation. Apple’s responses (or lack thereof) in regard to their lack of diversity in their workforce should come as no surprise as Apple is a business like any other whose current mission to become a part of the community is essential a marketing tool that in reality is invested in white supremacy and the colonization of public resources and spaces. Apple Stores target white affluent neighborhoods who have the resources to purchase Apple products in the bulk and whenever a new product arrives in store. Therefore, Apple’s vision of community only contributes to the displacement surrounding Bay Area as residents who are not white.
Those same non-white community members have to travel far distances to be part of a community that can be too inaccessible to be part if they are looking to go to their nearest
Apple Store. Next, Apple’s examples of community tend to go towards the luxury direction as their current products can be difficult to obtain for individuals who do not have the means, or the resources needed to purchase said products. Apple’s vision is an extension of the politics found in tech companies and startups who embody the “sharing economy” aspect and that is to create products for profit under the guise of community.
In this reimaging of community, it creates this farce that Apple is an exclusive to those who can afford it for the experience, thus causing the community centers and town squares to be dismissive of the harsh realities that San Franciscans are facing in the age of 65
high rising cost of living and displacement. Additionally, Apple’s tendency to envision a harmonious community also erases the problematic aspects found both in their retails and their corporate offices where accusations of sexism and racism have appeared frequently.
By examining Apple’s faults in their perceived community, it allows us to become more aware with how tech companies like Apple can transcend accountability in their place in community and instead continue with notions of systematic oppression within their communities. With the examination of Apple’s community, we are ensured that a community created by corporate entities are not without fault and need to be critiqued and questioned as to how they can benefit in a community. In this case, despite Apple’s branding into being a brand geared towards the community, they are instead continuing disparities into the San Francisco community and ignoring some of their most pressing
internal issues. Maybe instead of focusing on how their latest iPhones can enrich lives in the community, they can admit that their products are not made for the benefit and
enrichment for the communities they try to claim they represent. This goes the same with the city officials of the very city of San Francisco who look at value of the dollar over the humanity and the well-being of their residents. Apple oftentimes place themselves on the
footnotes of the Bay Area history. However, with their disregard to their communities
both in their corporate offices and their stores, it seems the only imprint Apple succeeds
in filling is the participation of displacement and gentrification. If Apple claims to be a
“reflection of the world around us”, they have succeeded through their disregard to 66
marginalized groups and attentiveness to white entitlement in their retail and corporate models of “inclusion”. 67
Chapter 2: Oral Histories
In the past twenty years, the city of San Francisco has experienced a couple of tech booms that have drastically changed the perspective of the city. The city from their government officials to the presence of tech companies make a grand effort to tout they as a technologically advanced city in the world”. Even with the technological advancements that have transpired in the city, the necessity of oral histories to preserve history is at an all-time high. This is not to romanticize San Francisco’s past as the city’s
Post World War II housing development brought forth a legacy of racism and displacement from some of the most marginalized communities still seen today.
However, the importance of looking into the past is to find perspectives, communities or viewpoints that may either have disappeared or have evolved over time. Oral history is the essence of this paper. While gentrification may eventually change the physically presence of San Francisco, the emotional affects found in oral histories preserve a history that can potentially physically disappear. As oral historian Paul Thompson once stated, oral history is the “validity of retrospective memory as historical evidence”.120 Even with the adaptation of technology in our lives (and as I pointed out in chapter one Latinxs are buying more technology), oral history can still serve its purpose as oral traditions is still practiced in many parts of the world and the Latinx community is no different. Oral history serves as a reminder that we can have a duality in how we document our history;
120 Thompson, Paul. “Community and Individual Memory: An Introduction.” The Ora! History Review, vol. 36, no. 2, 2009, pp. i-v. JSTOR, JSTOR. www.jstor.org/stable/20628065. 68
a duality in valuing both digital and analog methods of sharing our history.
As this idea of community has loomed, oral history serves as reminder of the past who have dwelled in the city, the present aiming to preserve the past and the future that aims to carry it. I am still drawn to expressing the social agency that Latinx in large studies around the gentrification of the Mission District. I would like to instead give voice and create an oral history that is unfiltered to the experiences of Latinx community.
As to my reasoning in focusing on a project that considers the voices of Latinx 1 consider the words of Nancy Raquel Mirabal who states, “It was then that I realized that this oral history, this analysis, has no end, because gentrification and displacement have no end.”
There is no doubt that to conduct oral histories, we must also be aware that we are looking into experiences and practices that might be gone from us. Especially those tied to loss, erasure, emotion, and death, is, as the anthropologist Ruth Behar has called it, ‘a vulnerable act.’ By collecting oral histories of displacement, we recorded endings: the end of businesses, nonprofits, community agencies, local arts programs, and the affordability of homes. 121
While Mirabal’s seven-year student collaborated study on the changing landscape in the Mission District has served as a resource in this research, I feel that there needs to be an update on how those living in the city in 2018 as Mirabal’s student research ranged
121 Nancy Raquel Mirabal, "Geographies of Displacement: Latina/os, Oral History, and The Politics of Gentrification in San Francisco's Mission District," The Public Historian 31, no. 2 (Spring 2009):, doi:10.1525/tph.2009.31.2.7. 69
from 1999 to 2002. Creating oral histories for Latinx narratives is an act of decolonial thought as it infers the instance that their histories are not subjected to colonial threshold.
By documenting these narratives. When looking at this from the Latinx perspective, I am becoming self-aware of using Latino/a creates binaries. The Spanish language, like other tools used by colonialism creates the binary that a person’s experience is based on the binary of he or she. However, as the oral histories I have documented so far has demonstrated that the lived experiences and narratives of Latinxs in San Francisco varies from person to person. Despite the mainstreams notion of creating the Latinx identity as a monolith group, each person has a different example of their experiences with the changes especially if they lived in the city as children. The following oral histories that I will share to amplify my point on the complexities found in the Latinx community in the city of San Francisco are three vast perspectives on their place in their community and in the city of San Francisco. While all three individuals in this oral history identify as
Latinas who have either lived in the Mission or continue to live in the Mission, that is where most of their commonalities end. In this section of the oral history I will look into how identity varies by the experiences mentioned and therefore it is much more complex than the community identity Apple and other tech companies try to define.
This paper in turn is turned over from my narratives and analysis which will then
look not for their work or their citizenship status but instead look at the uniqueness in their lives. I also look to creating an oral history that is mindful in Mohanty’s critique of
categorizing “women” in universal shared experience as the categories undermines other 70
power dynamics that can potentially affect their subject hood on a daily basis.122 With this in mind, the following three Latinx identified individuals I have interviewed for this
oral history will demonstrate that there is not one monolith immigrant experience in San
Francisco rather multiple experiences that happen to shape the Latinx identity.
The act of resistance by the oral history defies the dominant narrative that San
Francisco is solely defined by the tech companies that are present and how these tech
companies are seen as a soul of the city.123 The resistance found to oral history allows
one to document narratives and perspectives that are in the risk of being lost and
displaced. In this case, two of the individuals in this oral history are middle aged Latina
women, which is a resistance to the notion that San Francisco’s demographic is becoming
much older, richer and whiter.124 The other individual is a Latina in her late twenties,
another demographic potentially in danger of being displaced. While it is the truth that in
the past two decades since the first tech boom of the 1990s, San Francisco has
increasingly become a beacon for middle aged, white affluent individuals working in tech
companies. I hope to use my oral history to counteract that the residents who still live in
the city and are middle aged are composed of white affluent tech workers in the city.
122 Chandra Talpade Mohanty, "Under Western Eyes," in Feminism Without Borders: Decolonizing Theory, Practicing Solidarity (Durham, NC: Duke University Press, 2003),.
123 Richard Taylor. “San Francisco's Tech Boom 'Changing the Soul of the City'.” BBC News, BBC, Jan. 31 2014, www.bbc.com/news/av/business-25976110/san-francisco-s-tech-boom- changing-the-soul-of-the-city.
124 Heather Knight. “Families' Exodus Leaves S.F. Whiter, Less Diverse.” SFGate, San Francisco Chronicle, June 10, 2013, www.sfgate.com/bayarea/article/Families-exodus-leaves-S-F-whiter- less-diverse-3 393 63 7 .php. 71
Despite the resistance that can be found in recording oral history, it can allow be quite intense and draining however as Nancy Raquel Mirabal points out in her pieces, any topic regarding displacement and death is a vulnerable act. The way oral history can be vulnerable is through the fact that some oral histories can signal an ending. There is a lot of endings that have been discussed in the following oral histories: the ending of childhood memories, the ending of friendships, the ending of businesses. As Ruth Behar has mentioned in her work, it is difficult to work with people without having an emotional involvement with the material we are working with. 125 As we try to avoid our affect to our work we avoid the anxiety of the circumstances that have occurred before our research. I also have been struggling with how to write an oral history that while
showing my subjectivity to the themes of gentrification, displacement and death that my
feelings aren’t the outermost subject of this chapter. I have also struggled with how to write an oral history that avoids dehumanizing my subjects if their experiences were not
directly involved with my input into this work. It is imperative for me to express that their experiences in the city began far before my intervention into gentrification studies
and Latinx subjectivity.
The following oral histories were conducted from 2016 and 2017. All three
individuals were identified as Latinas and have lived a large majority of their lives in the
Mission District. That is as far as their similarities goes as all three individuals have a
unique perspective regarding this space in San Francisco and how they interact with the
125 Ruth Behar. The Vulnerable Observer: Anthropology That Breaks Your Heart. Boston: Beacon Press, 1996, 6. 72
ever-changing city dynamic. Two of the oral histories were conducted with English and one was conducted in Spanish. While I have translated most of their words, I have also left out important phrases in as I wanted to preserve her oral history. Each oral history will be present in two parts with my takeaways and themes to notice found in the middle of each of the oral histories presented. By having my takeaways of the oral history, I am not changing the oral histories any shape or form as these oral histories are not my perspectives and viewpoints. Rather as an outsider, I am aware that any emotional response can open a Pandora’s box of emotions that I have no connection. 126As the oral histories it is important to try to accept each individual story is the reflection of that individual’s lived experience and not a sole representation of the cumulative Latinx identity.
Oral History: Retracing and Reimagining Latinx Space
Betty, Mission District
This first oral history was conducted in April 2016. It was a nice and sunny day in the Mission District. As I sit in the third floor the colorful and vibrant Women’s Building,
I am seated across from Betty, a woman who doesn't look older than her mid-forties. As we were about to start on our conversation, there was laughter and cantor heard around us due to Mujeres Unidas y Activas (MUA), an activist started by two immigrant women in the late 1980s to advocate for immigrant Latina rights. MUA has just having wrapped up
126 Ibid., 19. 73
from their weekly meeting. As I sit next to her, I notice her smile and her eyes full of kindness. She has been living in the Mission District for almost 30 years. She has two adult children and one daughter who is currently in elementary school. She is a domestic worker who also participates in numerous organizations found inside the Women's
Building including San Francisco Women Against Rape (SF WAR) and MUA. She also spends some time babysitting some of her colleague’s children while they work. She is wearing a bright white shirt and nods at me to indicate she was ready to tell her story.
Here’s Betty’s oral history in her own words:
I don’t remember the year [I moved to San Francisco], but I remember it was somewhere in August...about twenty-eight years ago...actually, it was September. It was
September o f 1991. I was very scared when I first came here. I was loo afraid to go outside o f home. I came to the Mission with my ex husband’s sister, but I did not talk much with my husband. You know when I came here out o f necessity. My boys were babies and I wanted to give them the best lives I could possibly give them. I was also afraid to go out home as there were so many gangs. I was scared since I had three children, three boys. I thank God that my sons were able to avoid the gang life. There were so many Latinos. Compared to today, I am not sure exactly why so many Latinos left the Mission. I don’t know whether it was higher rent costs, or they went to move to better areas. I eventually had to enroll my boys to school, so the fear would wind down as I did it to better the lives o f my sons. Nowadays, there is less gang activity in the
Mission District, which I appreciate as I do feel a lot safer at home. However, there is 74
definitely a lot o f change in terms ofpopulation as there are significantly less Latinos living in the Mission. While there were lots o f Latinos leaving, there was a rise in Anglo-
Saxons (a term that she used that I plan to keep) It hurts to see that the higher rent in the Mission has resulted in the decrease o f Latinos living here. I realized that while I was able to stay in my apartment, there were apartments near me that began to only accept white people into the complexes. However, in my block, there are still Latinos in large numbers living here,\
As we pause a bit from Betty’s oral history, it is important to notice that Betty’s first affect when coming to San Francisco is fear. A fear of the unknown. She manifests that fear as she describes of her fear getting outside due to both the uncertainty of gang violence as well and the uncertainty of staying in San Francisco. While fear is a normal affect to embody when moving to unfamiliar areas, fear is also a constant affect found in this particular oral history. Another thing to notice about this segment of Betty’s oral history is family as Betty states the necessity to live in San Francisco was for the betterment of her children’s lives in spite of her fear. Her faith in her children is very apparent when she names enrolling her children to school as a way to challenge her fear of uncertainty. Family is another important theme in her oral history and the way her love of her family is a counterpoint to the fear of the unknown. Now let us get back to Betty’s oral history:
My life has not been easy; however I thank much of my survival to finding
Mujeres Unidas y Activas (MUA). I found MU A through a friend after my husband first 75
got arrested. I have spent over thirteen years with MUA. Since being a member o f MU A,
I feel better and different. I describe it as ‘un transformacion personal ’ which is one o f
M UA’s mission statements. When a mujer first comes to MUA, we are welcoming to new
guests that it gradually becomes easy to stand on your own two feetl have learned
through MUA to ‘volar sola ’ (to fly alone) and that was something I learned shortly after
my ex-husband returned to my life again. It was a dark period as I became involved in
domestic violence by the hands o f my ex-husband. No te precupes, estoy bien (Don 7
worry about me, I am fine talking about this). When he came back, I also became
unemployed, so I spent a lot o f time with him and that’s when the violence began.
Although the experience was hurtful and painful for me to truly endure, I do appreciate
him giving me una princesa, a baby girl who I love dearly in spite o f the violence. Along
with the violence, I became less involved with my friends and activism due his
disapproval and animosity towards the group. He continued his abuse until he was
arrested for the second time. That was over six years ago. After his arrest, it was very
tough trying to survive as a single mother once again, however thanks to the love and
support o f my friends and MUA, I have learned to stand on my two feet and realized “No
voy a morrir” (I am not going to die). MUA is un bedicion (a blessing). Thanks to my friends and groups like MUA, they have given me and others great opportunities to live
by. They give us permission to sell food as well as provide us options to work. I work a
couple o f days in the daycare over here supervising the children. This place has also
offered me in a helping hand during my time o f need. The women here have been helpful 76
in getting back on my two feet as I have in my uttermost support during their time o f need. We do not have the same problems and when I hear some o f the trauma some o f my comrades are going through I think to myself “Porque yo no? ” (Why can’t I move on). I realize that we all motivate each other for the better. I no longer feel afraid in being open with who I am in. While not everyone will approve o f my identity, I am happy with who I am so when I see an ignorant racist, I will turn to them and with a smile and say ‘Thank you sir ’ and move on with my day.
As we examine this passage from Betty’s oral history, I recall mentioning to notice fear and family being interconnected together. This is very apparent when Betty goes at length around the abuse she endured by her ex-husband. I would like to add after she mentioned domestic abuse, I told her that we could avoid mentioning the violence in detail as I did not want to trigger her further. She right away told me that not to worry about her as she was in a place where she can finally talk about it at length. Along with the common themes of family and fear, I also would like to point out how Betty’s oral history also embodies positivity through finding strength in her daughter and the friendships she created through MUA. Betty’s view on friendship it significant to notice in this segment as the support from her friends allowed her to conquer her fears of uncertainty and weaknesses. Additionally, her friendships and her daughter allowed Betty to persevere her fears and create her own identity. Lastly, the friendships that she has encountered at the Women’s Building has allowed Betty to face her biggest fears and be herself. Even when the changes found in San Francisco is becoming apparent, notice the 77
difference in affect from the first passage of the oral history to the second. There was fear that embodied Betty’s first years and the second passage embodies Betty’s current affect: strength and love. Lastly, one thing to notice around this oral history is there is no mention of tech companies. This was omitted as Betty was not too familiar with tech as she mentioned briefly that her work schedule and her activism do not give her a lot of time to use technology unless it involves her employer or her comrades in action.
Luz, Apple Union Square, San Francisco
The second oral history revolves around Luz. She in was raised in the Mission District where she currently lives with her husband and her two children. Luz is a janitor that is contracted with Apple. She frequently works at Apple’s Union Square and Stonestown locations in the San Francisco area. She has been working in her current position for the past few years. When I documented her oral history, Luz was in the middle of a short break and was able to give me her oral history despite her busy schedule. Given the short amount of time she was able to do, this is the shortest of the oral history. Despite the fact that the oral history took less than 10 minutes to conduct, Luz’s short answers still hold a bit of significance to them.
“ When I think o f community I think o f Ilispanics, — Mexicans, Central
Americans, South Americans. All the diversity in our culture is a community. My earliest memory in San Francisco...Really, when I was a little girl I moved to San Francisco when I was in the sixth grade- I was 11 years old. I remember going to school here and a 78
lot has changed even in schools since when I grew up. When I first came to San
Francisco, I fell in love with the views o f the city. I will never forget the first time I saw the city views from the Mission. Yes, [there have been] many changes in the city. The areas around the Mission District have drastically changed from when I was a little girl.
I ’ve lived in the Mission for my entire time in here San Francisco. There aren 7 that many
Latinos in the Mission anymore. I ’ve seen more white people in the Mission nowadays.
The same white people who have housing surrounding the Mission. There’s less Latinos living near me. Although my rent hasn ’t changed in the last few years, I ’ve had so many family and friends move away from the Mission.
As we pause with Luz’s oral history, I want to take this time to point out Luz’s observation on the changes in her neighborhood and her idea of “community”. She views
Latinx as a vital part of her vision of community. She has seen most of the changes occur through of decrease of Latinx families living there. She has also observed the increase of white homeowners in the city. Luz stressed her vision of community was the presence of
Latinxs, so it is significant to notice that Luz’s vision of community is less apparent now.
Additionally, Luz also emphasized the changes she has seen from school given that she attended most of her education in the Mission District. Although there is little talk about tech companies, their presence will be discussed at length in this next segment of Luz’s oral history:
I work in Apple. I use my telephone all the time. I don’t have a computer, so I use the telephone to stay in touch with family and to get on the internet. I tend to use 79
WhatsApp the most to connect to family. While I am not familiar with too many tech companies in the Bay Area, I still think having tech companies in the Bay is great for the community, especially with Latinos, as we cannot live without our telephones. While I do work at Apple, I haven t spoken to many tech workers on the job. However, near my house, I see so many o f them play their music loudly using Bluetooth speakers. I only tend to see them during events in the community including Carnaval, I think it is very important that Apple and other companies have a presence in the city as we are using more technology every day. Their presence allows us to have more access to computers and the internet than ever before. Before my phone, I wasn ’t able to search on the internet, so it is good to see tech companies here. Latinos really need all the help they can get to become better at using the internet. I do not have nothing else to say around tech companies other than how helpful they can be for helping our [Latinx] community out.
As we look into this passage, notice how Luz positively describes tech companies.
She views tech company’s presence as vital in creating community by citing her daily smartphone usage. She also cites the potential support tech companies can bring to her community. Luz also is knowledgeable of tech through her observations of her neighbors
Bluetooth speakers and how she talks about using WhatsApp, a popular third-party messaging application, in order to communicate with her family. This is important to notice as I mentioned in the past chapter the increasingly as Latinos are purchasing more technology than ever before. While Latinxs may not see as an adapter for technology, 80
Luz is just one of many adapting to smartphones to use apps like WhatsApp to stay connected to family both here and aboard.
Noemy, Daly City
Noemy, the last person I interviewed for this chapter, is a student currently attending Skyline College and an activist who grew up in the Mission District. She is transferring to San Francisco State University in the upcoming fall semester in Latino/a
Studies. Born in 1989 in San Francisco to Salvadoran immigrants, Noemhy truly feels connected to the city through her activism and participation in many cultural organizations in the Mission. When I sat down in her room to conduct the oral history, I noticed her love of San Francisco to be very apparent: through her San Francisco Giants apparel, her Camaval posters has she has participated in the festival committee for the past several years and a poster of Alex Nieto, a close friend of Noemy who was shot and killed by San Francisco Police in Bernal Heights on March 21, 2014 after joggers believed that he was a gang member looking for trouble (which was not the case).
Throughout our conversation, I right away noticed that for Noemhy, her presence in the ever-changing city landscape was a reminder of her community existence and resistance as a necessity in maintaining community presence in the midst of gentrification and displacement:
I have noticed a change in my community because I go [to the Mission] almost all the time. There is a lot o f gentrification and a lot more police brutality. I am part o f different organizations that have seen gentrification and police brutality, which 1 don ’I 81
agree with, but we need to keep on fighting. Whatever it takes to get votes on different measures, rallying, marching from 24th [Street, a big intersection in the Mission District] to City Hall, organizing—that's the only way we can keep on fighting”. [Community] is building a trust with the people you work with in the community. Also, when you build that trust it becomes a network and a family. From the times I have interacted with tech workers in my activist circles, the interactions weren ’t good. While some tech workers have told my activists groups they understood that housing is a major issue for many San
Francisco residents, they still felt they had a right to be in the city too. I don’t think they have a right to be here, because many fly in from a different state and only use apartment spaces for a few days and fly back. It is Columbusing, it is settler colonialism at play.
Ever since Super Bowl City came into San Francisco, the perception o f the city has drastically changed. Although I can also agree Airbnb has a lot o f responsibility for that change as well. The city officials clearly don 7 care about the community, they only think about money. They especially broke promises to the homeless population as they were wiped out o f the city during the Super Bowl City spectacle instead o f going into shelters which [then Mayor Ed Lee] claimed he would have done. I am surprised that Ed Lee was one o f us before. He was a lawyer and he would fight for our rights. He was also a community activist. Ever since he went to office, he became a sell-out. He should be ashamed for selling out his own communities. For what, a weekend party? It’s cool that the Super Bowl was in the Bay, but they should have done it in Santa Clara where it was actually held. 82
As we pause from this oral history, one thing to notice is Noemhy’s definition of community. She views community as a place of trust. Noemhy’s community has received her trust through “working” and “fighting” to be part of that very community. As long as she and her community are fighting against injustices, they remain a visible community both in the city and in their lives. As she describes her experiences with tech workers, her trust in tech workers, a trait she values in her community, is not present. This distrust is also evident in her views regarding the city’s displacement of homeless encampments in the city during Super Bowl 50. Trust is once again a theme in this segment of the oral history as she states the city government “broke” their promises, and essentially, her trust on what she considers the mistreatment of the homeless community:
I am also aware o f tech companies’ power in the city through the Google Buses.
The Google Buses are not supposed to be there [at MUNI stops]. It was a dangerous decision to put Google buses in the Mission in the first place. As streets in San Francisco are very small, they [in reference to MUNI and tech companies] did the wrong choice in putting Google bus stops in major streets. The buses have caused accidents, longer delays in traffic and residents being more likely to be tardy whether in school or at work.
Now [tech companies] have the privilege o f driving down Mission Street when a regular car has to turn a right, it will only result in more traffic and accident. They have been way too many kids hurt by the buses. I hope the Google buses go away as it causes both accidents and headaches when going to the city. Google buses also are a pain in the ass as they cause more freeway traffic as well. I hate to say it, but San Francisco traffic is 83
just as bad as your hometown [in reference to me hailing from Los Angeles]. I am not dissing technology as I use my cell phone and computer every day. Technology is how I am able to stay in touch with my activism and my family. While technology is great, I don’t agree with tech workers and tech companies being in San Francisco. They ruined the city, they come in here thinking they own all the streets. They also think they can go anywhere, destroying our city and taking over. Tech workers even have the privilege o f drinking and smoking weed at Dolores Park. If it were black or brown people doing the same, they would get arrested right away. This all ties into police brutality. They should leave the city and live at Silicon Valley as that’s where [tech companies] are at. When they try to get involved with our community, they don 7 want us around. Us being Latinos.
I f you look at the numbers, 8,000 o f the Mission’s 10,000 displaced residents were
Latinos. Instead o f making a positive change in the community, they are ripping us apart.
One thing to notice from this section of Noemy’s oral history is that she finds the value in technology. She states that she uses technology to stay in touch with loved ones and comrades doing community work. Her criticism of on tech companies is not caused by the abundance of tech but rather those who are in power of producing tech. Power is another theme to notice in this section as Noemy states the power of tech has resulted in
“ripping apart” her community instead of, what she suggests in the last sentence”, creating a positive change in her community. Therefore, in Noemy’s point of view, tech companies and tech workers have divided rather than uniting the communities the interact and live around. This division is evident through her description on the increased traffic 84
caused by Google and other tech buses that caused for many San Francisco residents.
This power is what Noemhy considers a takeover which has resulted in what she views her community being displaced throughout.
Oral Histories: Where Do We Go From Here?
Through the examination of the oral histories, we can see there are three distinct stories and experiences around the significant changes that have occurred in San
Francisco. In spite of the uniqueness of each oral history, there is still a commonality with one’s interaction with technology. Two of the three oral histories expressed their interactions with technological devices through their everyday lives. While all three women in this oral history identify as Latinx, their interactions with tech companies and technology vary. While Noemy and Luz mentioned their relationship with tech companies through their activism and occupations, Betty has little interactions with technology. The three oral histories also distort the types of individuals who is technology inapt as we are becoming more technologically dependent in our daily lives.
While there is still a long way to go, access to the latest technology is not exclusive to tech companies, wealthy populations and government agencies. As I noted in the second chapter, Latinx increasingly purchasing technological devices. Therefore, it is becoming harder to suggest Latinx are not tech efficient
These oral histories also complicate our understanding on how Latinx view the gentrification surrounding their spaces. There is simply not one monolithic Latinx experience in regard to gentrification and displacements found in San Francisco. While 85
the stories of Betty, Luz and Noemy are just three of the thousands of Latinx who remain in San Francisco, their stories also preserve a past that would otherwise be forgotten and erased in the ever-changing dynamic of the city. Oral history does not only preserve one’s experiences as the histories can also haunt the dominant narrative of whiteness and affluence.
I use oral histories of Latinx in San Francisco to create more spaces that bring in different perspectives that vary in their ideas on tech companies in the city. Although I understand it is impossible to cover the experiences of all Latinx affected by gentrification in San Francisco, the oral histories that have been included here are the embodiment of the idea of the Latinx experience in San Francisco’s ever changing gentrified landscape is unique and still valid regardless of the circumstance. I do not want to pit the livelihoods of Latinx against one another as each experience is different depending on the circumstances of resources despite the shared location. This is evident in the three oral histories presented in this chapter. While Betty, Luz and Noemy are a part of the Latinx community in San Francisco, specifically in the Mission District, their experiences in the changes that have transpired contrast depending on their occupations and interactions in the city. Therefore, even if Latinx are affected by the gentrification in
San Francisco, these three oral histories demonstrate each individual’s actions to either partake in the changing city dynamic or to challenge that change in hopes of preserving their communities. Another theme to take away from these oral histories is how significant communities are to their everyday lives. To tie this back to chapter one where 86
I discussed on Apple’s attempts to integrate to the San Francisco community their headquarters are located in, there tends to be an exclusion of perspectives, experiences and social economical statues that are left out of the conversation and the community. In the case of Apple, to be part of their community, you had to purchase their products. In this chapter, I attempt to complicate the prerequisites of being part of a community. As demonstrated in the oral histories even the Latinx community is not a monolith in experiences but rather cumulative through the experiences of just three different and unique individuals who just happen to spend their time nearby each other. Additionally, each oral history did not view community into buying a product but rather how each member of the community interacts with each other. By diversifying the uniqueness in each of the oral histories conducted in this chapter, I bring forth what I also consider to be my definition of community; a space where contrasting yet vital perspectives can co exist. Even with the shared Latinx identity, there is not a lot of sameness due to the intersections of class, education and occupation. 1 also realized that coalitions with various groups is key to keep the momentum growing. There is still a lot of examining to do with exploring the diversity in the Latinx community. Oral histories are a necessary tool to explore the trials and tribulations that can manifest in a community. There can also be jubilation and togetherness that can strengthen the community. Lastly, oral histories are a tool of resistance as it can bring complexities that normally be pushed out of a conversation to negate sameness. 87
Conclusion
Think Different? I Think Not!
As I have finally reached the conclusion of this thesis It is completely difficult to comprehend what has happened in the two years since I began writing in regard to
Apple’s public perception and San Francisco’s political future (and how it might affect tech companies’ stronghold in the city). While change is always constant, what has happened to both Apple and San Francisco does leave a bit of uncertainty in the air. What kind of changes have occurred? I will first examine Apple’s public reputation in 2018.
In the two years spent writing this thesis, Apple’s public reputation has taken a bit of a downslide. Since the latest updates for both the Macs and iPhones, Apple has been dealing with security vulnerabilities that have left some of the Apple “community members” unsatisfied. In November 2017, Apple’s latest operating system (OS), MacOS
High Sierra encountered a major flaw where anyone could gain system administrative access to a password encrypted Mac computer by simply writing the word “root”. 127
Once an outside source was able to gain access, they would be able to alter files, passwords and Apple ID accounts. While Apple was able to release an update to fix the bug within a day of the breaking news, unfortunately, Apple created more bugs that further compromised user security. In January 2018, Apple was one of many tech
127 Welch, Chris. “Major Apple Security Flaw Grants Admin Access on MacOS High Sierra without Password.” The Verge, The Verge, 28 Nov. 2017, www.theverge.com/2017/11/28/16711782/apple-macos-high-sierra-critical-password-security- flaw. 88
companies affected by the “Meltdown” and “Spectre” bugs that would leave Intel,
Advanced Micro Devices (AMD) and Advanced RISC Machines (ARM) chipped hardware vulnerable to hackers.128 This security flaw was especially troubling for Apple as iPhones were also affected. 129 Similar to the “root bug”, Apple would eventually release a patch to the bugs in the following weeks urging users to download as soon as possible while stating that as the bugs were accessed by a “malicious app”, users were advised to download from “trusted sources such as the App Store [Apple’s digital distribution platform].” 130
While I must commend Apple for their swift action to download patches within days (or in the case of the root patch, within hours), these security vulnerabilities furthered my point in the chapter 2 about Apple’s’ reluctance to be transparent to the public unless it is positive publicity (like most businesses do anyways). These hiccups in
Apple’s rather positive reputation towards their devices’ security features also conveys the company’s pursuit for further capital gains in exchange with the lack of consideration in people’s livelihoods and privacy. In this case, one’s livelihood is not just affected by
128 Coldewey, Devin. “Kernel Panic! What Are Meltdown and Spectre, the Bugs Affecting Nearly Every Computer and Device?” TechCrunch, TechCrunch, 13 Jan. 2018, techcrunch.com/2018/01/03/kemel-panic-what-are-meltdown-and-spectre-the-bugs-affecting- nearly-every-computer-and-device/.
129 Statt, Nick. “Apple Confirms All Mac and lOS Devices Are Affected by Meltdown and Spectre Bugs.” The Verge, The Verge, 5 Jan. 2018, www.theverge.com/2018/1/4/16852016/apple-confirms-mac-ios-affected-spectre-meltdown- chipocalypse.
130 Apple Inc.. “About Speculative Execution Vulnerabilities in ARM-Based and Intel CP\Js.”Apple Support, Apple Inc., 29 Jan. 2018, support.apple.com/en-us/HT208394. 89
their ability to live in San Francisco but also on how secure their personal information is protected from hackers. These hiccups are also a reminder that our dependency and trust
in our devices for everyday use comes with a cost of our security.
San Francisco may be going into a different direction politically in the upcoming months. On December 12, 2017, Ed Lee, the mayor of San Francisco and instrumental in
city’s push for more tech companies, died after suffering cardiac arrest the night before.
As a result, on June 5, 2018, there will be a special mayoral election for Lee’s unexpired term. The candidates are composed of supervisors both past and present as well as
activists who can either continue the status quo of the city or change the dynamics. One
of the most notable candidates is London Breed, a San Franciscan whose campaign is
heavily financed by Ron Conway, the venture capitalist who was instrumental in
sponsoring Ed Lee’s two successful mayoral candidacies.131 Breed’s most prominent
opponent is Jane Kim, one of the authors of the Twitter Tax Break.132
Additionally, State Senator Scott Wiener is currently advocating for the passage
of a proposed statewide legislation, Senate Bill (SB) 827.133 If SB 827 passes, the bill
131 Joe Fitzgerald Rodriguez. “Tech Mogul Ron Conway Shakes down Supervisors to Support London Breed for Mayor.” The San Francisco Examiner, The San Francisco Examiner, 12 Jan. 2018, www.sfexaminer.com/tech-mogul-ron-conway-shakes-supervisors-support-london-breed- mayor/.
132 Rachel Gordon. “Twitter Will Get Payroll Tax Break to Stay in S.F.” SFGate, San Francisco Chronicle, 8 Dec. 2011, www.sfgate.com/news/article/Twitter-will-get-payroll-tax-break-to-stay- in-S-F-2375948.php.
133 Scott Wiener. “Text.” Bill Text - SB-827 Planning and Zoning: Transit-Rich Housing Bonus., leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/billTextClient.xhtml?bill_id^201720180SB827. 90
would allow taller, denser housing to be built near transportation stops. This would be a critical factor for San Francisco in particular as housing near MUNI Metro and Bay Area
Rapid Transit (BART) stops are some of the costliest in the city. SB 827 lax mandate would also let developers build high rise buildings in some of the already densest neighborhoods in the city including the Mission District.
Despite Weiner’s hopes of a SB 827’s victory, there has been some opposition from Wiener’s old colleagues, the San Francisco Board of Supervisors. On April 3, 2018,
Board of Supervisors voted 8-3 in opposition to the measure.134 Supervisor Aaron Peskin voiced their disapproval by suggesting the state focus on giving cities more housing funds as well as address the Ellis and Costa-Hawkins Acts, both laws concerning rent control and evictions.135 This was only the beginning of SB 827’s woes. On April 17,
2018, the California State Senate Housing and Transportation Committee voted 6-4 against SB 827, ending the state bill on its track for the rest of the year.136 While SB
827’s defeat is a small victory for those living near transit stops, it is essentially just a small victory that may become a defeat the next year. Wiener’s actions for the bill is also another element of uncertainty regarding affordability in San Francisco. Will the low- income and marginally housed communities ever catch a break from state and tech
134 Joshua Sabatini. “SF Supes Vote 8-3 to Oppose Wiener Legislation Changing City Zoning."77;^ San Francisco Examiner, The San Francisco Examiner, 3 Apr. 2018, www.sfexaminer.com/sf-supes-vote-oppose-wieners-sb-827-housing-proposal/.
135 Ibid.
136 Joe Fitzgerald Rodriguez. “Wiener Bill Allowing Taller Buildings near Transit Dies in Committee.” The San Francisco Examiner, The San Francisco Examiner, 17 Apr. 2018, www.sfexaminer.com/wiener-bill-allowing-taller-buildings-near-transit-dies-committee/. 91
company intervention? We will find out in the near future.
When I began writing this thesis, it began through my frustrations at my former workplace. In the first months of this thesis, I felt hopeless over what I considered to be my contributions to further displacement and gentrification. However, as I began to write down more of the thesis I began to realize that the displacement and gentrification surrounding neighborhoods in the city began much earlier than both tech booms. As San
Francisco is Ohlone land, we must also remember that we are too entrenched into settler colonialism to outright claim that tech companies and developers are taking away “our land” as technically that is not the case.
Even with my thesis conveying Apple’s motives to become part of the community is clearly a business model, I am not calling to end our usage with technology as that can be extremely difficult in this day and age when so many of our daily routines rely on the internet. Writing this thesis was used by tech, specifically a MacBook. What I am hoping readers get from this thesis is to become more mindful on how we use our technology and how we interact with businesses like Apple who claim to be part of the community . As technology complicates, so will our threshold and reliance of tech companies like Apple.
While billions will use iPhones and other Apple products in the near future, it is always great opportunity to revisit and rethink our usage and reliance. This same mindset can also apply to how we view marginalized groups. If we truly want to live in a community full of harmony and diversity, we must first rethink how Apple tries to configure and convey “diversity” and how we view groups like the Latinx community in our visions of 92
community. It is also time to also reflect on how community cannot always be monolith as one individual in the community is not defined by monolith experiences. While the future of Apple and San Francisco will most likely not change too much in the upcoming months, the same can potentially be said to Latinx still living in San Francisco. Only time will tell how that will work out. 93
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