Urban Renewal slides transcript

Slide 1: The construction of highways through American cities are are result of intertwined processes of racism and post-war capitalism that put White supremacy into concrete.

Slide 2: “Urban renewal” is a phrase that describes a series of policies that took place in the U.S. after WW2.
With Americans returning home from war, leaders were bothered by the poverty they saw intercity - largely in Black and Brown neighborhoods.
1950’s policy makers worked closely with private industry heads to both reconstruct the city and line their pockets. They called it urban renewal.
In practice, it was the destruction of minority neighbors to build infrastructure for the White, modern American. Instead of funding social services, they built shopping malls.

Slide 3: The greatest of these post war investments is the the Federal-Aid Highway Act signed for the creation of the U.S. interstate system.
41,000 miles of highway was built across the country. If you look at any American city today, if there is a highway, then it was likely built through a neighborhood of color.

Slide 4: Explaining the logic of decision makers: “We’re not going to put [a freeway] through a community that has power and that can oppose us, we are going to put it through a community regarded as weak, that we can bully. And that’s basically why every major city in North America had a black community that had a freeway run through it or run on top of it.” - Wade Compton, “Secret Vancouver: Return to Hogan’s Alley”

Slide 5: Investing in highways meant:
1. There was a budget and an excuse for the  destruction of poor and minority neighborhoods
2. A new kind of segregation - Whites could now travel from newly created suburbs to downtown business centers all while physically removed from the neighborhoods of color below
3. Devaluation of public transportation
4. Automobile industry leaders - who had lobbied for this act - could make a tidy profit

Slide 6: Acts of racism doesn’t just happen on a personal level. Racism operates at a level of policy. Racism can be found at sites where Black communities are present, but also where they are absent.

Let communities grieve their lost neighborhoods.
Stand with them as the reclaim and defend them.
Know that your world is designed, and it is designed for White supremacy.
It’s your job to help design a new one.


Slide 7: Sources:
“Race, Culture, Politics, and Urban Renewal: An Introduction” by Eric Avila
“Secret Vancouver: Return to Hogan’s Alley” by STORYHIVE
Also read:
“Driving While Black” by Paul Gilroy
Imaging Transit by Sikivu Hutchinson