When No One Is Watching

In When No One is Watching, Brooklyn Brownstones are both a setting and symbol. Brownstones are houses made of or resembling those of brown sandstone intimately tied to New York neighborhoods. They symbolize home and historical significance, being standing monuments to cycles of community-building and immigration. When the novel’s white gentrifiers increasingly force Black residents out of their homes, the stolen houses become an homage to lives lost to white supremacy. Kim’s determination to renovate her new Brooklyn Brownstone is symbolic of her lack of care for the history that permeates the house. In cleansing the house of any sign of its former occupants, Kim and the other gentrifiers seek to whitewash the important Black history of the neighborhood. By contrast, Sydney Green’s house is a symbol of generational wealth and potential stability. She plans to do whatever it takes to keep her house, even risk her life. Thus, the Brooklyn Brownstone is not just a building to Sydney, but a representation of her mother and the larger community. Mr. Perkins’s house is another symbolic Brooklyn Brownstone, as it is a central meeting place for the neighborhood (via community events and shows of friendship). The Black residents losing their homes to gentrification means losing their identities.