Race, gender and the erasures of gentrification in Ezra Daniels and Ben Passmore’s BTTM FDRS

This article pays attention to gentrification, race and gender in the work of Ezra Daniels and Ben Passmore, as well as the specific forms of ‘erasure’ that connect these themes in their work. The erasure of identity that stems from racial, economic and gender disparity – the processes of marginalization that affect non-white voices and identities through logics of white supremacy and cultural appropriation – have been abiding themes of these artists. Reading Passmore’s and Daniels’s approach to these themes as part of a longer history of black comics activism, their work (like 2019’s BTTM FDRS ) can be seen as an example of an ‘intersectional’ urban conscience, one that is mindful of the underrepresented history of black women’s participation in urban struggle (whether in the form of direct action or the production of graphic media), and how this participation is a key nexus in the web that connects race and gender with the problem of gentrification.