Does gentrification destroy diversity? Or does it thrive on it? Boston’s South End, a legendary working-class neighborhood with the largest Victorian brick row house district in the United States and a celebrated reputation for diversity, has become in recent years a flashpoint for the problems of gentrification. It has born witness to the kind of rapid transformation leading to pitched battles over the class and race politics throughout the country. Sociologist and feminist activist Sylvie Tissot's study reveals the way that upper-middle-class newcomers have positioned themselves as champions of diversity, and looks at how their mobilization around this key concept has reordered class divisions rather than abolished them. She explores these ideas with Boston historian Jim Vrabel. Image: "South End, sign protesting urban renewal" [City of Boston Archives](https://www.flickr.com/photos/cityofbostonarchives/ "")
