Greer Little

Greer is a fourth-year student majoring in Anthropology and minoring in African American studies, and they are curious about the ways in which neighborhoods shape and are shaped by the identities of their residents. Their work is largely inspired by the energy that arose from the 2020 Uprisings, as they occurred alongside a global lockdown, and the increased consciousness of the housing crisis here in Los Angeles. While Greer was still a student at Pasadena City College, the city re-passed Los Angeles Municipal Code 41:18, a sit, lie, law that criminalized the unhoused. Curious about the ways in which this law was affecting Black life and belonging she carried her research aspirations to UCLA. Thanks to the support of her community college professors and the broader community of scholars who have supported her work here at UCLA, the research has finally taken shape. Her work explores how Black unhoused residents in North East Los Angeles neighborhoods narrate a sense of place and belonging. Their stories offer a critique of white space that says something not only about Black identity, but about the ways in which unhoused residents navigate and resist marginalization and displacement. Born and raised in Los Angeles, this project has helped Greer explore her own relationship to Blackness and she has a deep desire to contribute to the sustained belonging of people of color in Los Angeles and beyond.