A girl walks by a mural featuring Malcolm X in New York City. (Photo: Tarnie)
If we look at what is happening today in major cities throughout the United States, the same principles and legal precepts are at work. Now, instead of military might, overpowering economic forces are pushing low-income people of color out of their neighborhoods and often out of the cities and into the suburbs. This is happening because public and private investments in the downtown business core have made these areas extremely important and valuable. As the core of the city expands, the neighborhoods that abut the downtown area and those along transportation lines leading to downtown have dramatically increased in value.
Investors and their partners in the public institutions have “discovered” these communities and swooped in to take control of abandoned and vacant properties, at first; but soon all properties in these neighborhoods become targets for takeover. The outside investors then develop the land to fit the needs of the downtown elite. They build new and high-cost apartments and high-rises and demolish and get rid of properties suitable for people of more modest means. Many of the first people to move into a changing neighborhood are described as “pioneers,” the same term used to refer to the initial invaders of North America who imposed the White man’s ways on the Native peoples.
…The current gentrification of US cities is an economic conquest backed up by the courts. … It is all legal, built on decades of laws based on the rights of the powerful few and not on the human rights of the many.
Read more at Truthout
Categories: Economic rights, Ethnic discrimination, Human rights, Indigenous peoples, Opinion/Editorial, Political commentary, Politics, Racial discrimination, Self-determination, Social policy
World News Forum 
Nailed it. This is happening across this nation. Rather than investing in government programs, we are giving corporations access to our money. People say that government programs are not accountable and stealing money but look at our history. When I was young, there were government programs that helped our poor, our veterans, our middle class, our children, our women, our disabled, etc. These programs created that middle class. Our infrastructure was growing and complex. We solved environmental problems. Our education was rated as one of the best in the world. Our veterans were paid to build our infrastructure or create a business. I do not know what people are talking about when they claim that government is not accountable. Government was accountable and all the states had to follow regulations and laws. Now we have corporate America basically stealing our revenue, changing our laws, and giving little if no value to the majority. When is this nation going to wake up?
LikeLiked by 2 people