The persistence of the residential segregation by race has become one of the key areas of the interest for scholars, community organizers and the policy makers not only in the New York City, but also in most of the American cities (Goetz 2011: 1588). The questions that are asked in this area and the answered that are obtained help people to gain better understanding of how racial segregation in residential areas affects urban concerns, such as poverty concentration, access to the public services, employment and the social mobility opportunities (Goetz 2011: 1588). Despite the fact that segregation between the whites and the minority groups occurs, it has never been as widespread as the segregation between the whites and the African Americans.

Although Gentrification has proven a powerful tool for improve communities’ living conditions and a robust solution to the long-term urban decay, it has become one of the controversial issues for the New York City dwellers. Studies have been carried out with the aim of investigating its impacts on the city dweller, but they have yielded varying results, with some providing positive results and others negative results. This has prompted this study to investigate the role gentrification has played in privatisation within the New York City, which results in the inequity in the minority group. It carefully examines the role it plays in denying the African Americans the right to the city in relation to Lefebvre’s ideas and theory.

The concept of the right to city was coined and used by Henri Lefebvre, whereby she argued that the city dwellers have the right to access urban resources to change themselves through transforming the city (Lefebvre 2014: 97). This is because the transformation and the shaping of the city is a collective responsibility, irrespective of the race, gender, and/or the level of education (Lefebvre 2014: 97). According to Feldman (2014), Gentrification refers to the process of the renewal and rebuilding that accompanied by the influx of the middle-class into the deteriorating areas, leading to the displacement of the poorer residents. It is imperative to highlight that this process was expected to help people in town, but the opposite became true.

Notably, instead of increasing housing turnover rates for the African American households who are typified by the low-income, it decreases the rates, despite the fact that the minority could be using a higher percentage to pay for the improved amenities (Feldman 2014). The reality of displacement and the question of the social benefits the influx of the middle-class residents, their culture and values is associated with gentrification. In fact, restoration has raised issues in the New York City with regard to those who are part of the original class and the culture of the neighbourhood as Feldman (2014) states. I addition, gentrification is associated with an increased cost of living that force the minority communities to relocate, denying them the right to city, which Lefebvre’s argues is a right to everyone (Lefebvre 2014: 100). Arguably, the level of education between the whites and the minority group differs significantly and because it determines the level of income, which dictates the type of housing, then, the minority communities have experienced difficulties with regard to affording the cost of living in the New York City.

The argument that is utilised by the whites to displace the minority groups is that they went there for other reasons other than settling in the city, and they were expected to go back to their areas. Evidently, with improved urban life, many minority communities cannot afford the cost of living, making them leave the city. Goetz (2011: 1590) has noted that an increase in gentrification results in an increase in segregation, implying that the minority groups are denied the right to participate in the development of the city.

Therefore, it is evident that gentrification adversely affects the minority groups in the New York City. It led to slum clearance, whereby the city administrators designated the areas occupied by the minority groups to the whites. The segregation that is evident in the New York City results from the high levels of poverty and the history of racial discrimination. Thus, the New York City has denied the minority community the right to the city, which results in inequality and poverty. In this view, the city administrators should try and redesign the settlement to allow them enjoy the right to the city, which Lefebvre advocates.