It is only Friday, but the Notting Hill Carnival is already in the air: the street furniture is being removed, store windows are being covered with plywood, signs warning the public of the time and route of the carnival are everywhere. But one can feel a change in the behavior of the black people one sees almost every day: they walk taller, people smile at them a bit more readily, they smile back with quiet pride. After all, this was their territory only a decade or two ago.