Real/Symbol Episode 2: Land, place, roots
In our second episode we will explore more deeply how our ideas about place and land shape how we might begin the healing and repair from the violence caused by displacement, gentrifcation and urban development. In our often enclosed narratives of extraction and profit, we have allowed the logic of capitalism to tell us what’s possible, but our imaginations can and must stretch further.
Memphis’ potential is about Black Memphians reaching theirs
Every time it seems that progress is being made, it is upended by another wave of repressive and oppressive laws and policies. Some people these days refer to Jim Crow 2.0, but truth be told, the residual impacts of Jim Crow 1.0 were never completely eradicated. The impacts were retained in institutional racism, predatory and discriminatory lending, barriers to opportunity and wealth, new restrictions to make voting more difficult, resistance to fully funding social net programs, obstacles to business capital, blame the victim poverty “reform” programs, lack of access to affordable and sustainable housing, entrenched racial income disparities, and neighborhood disinvestment.