how christopher newport wrecked a black community (and ditto for other higher ed)

[Anonymous]

Winners look forward. Losers look back.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Happened 60 years ago, who cares.

Some of these people are still alive and likely have a tort against the state. They were paid 20% below appraisal value for the land and meeting minutes show that their neighborhood was selected because they were black.

So yeah, the local & state governments acted illegally

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Happened 60 years ago, who cares.

"the Shoe Lane community consisted of a church and about 20 Black families,"

Of course it is bad. But yeah, there were only 20 families, and the homeowners are probably all dead. Of course there was racism. But it was also about power and building a new university. These same forces can affect any marginalized community.

This is better than another rehash of Emmett Till. But did we need two stories? Surely there are more important contemporary issues? Maybe sexual assault on native-American reservations, mistreatment of migrant workers, foster care disfunction, health insurance denial, military suicides, elder abuse.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Happened 60 years ago, who cares.

Some of these people are still alive and likely have a tort against the state. They were paid 20% below appraisal value for the land and meeting minutes show that their neighborhood was selected because they were black.

So yeah, the local & state governments acted illegally

You just described why statutes of limitation exist.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I mean, we're all on stolen land. Everything we have is built on land that was never ours or meant to be ours.

No, that's not how it worked.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I mean, we're all on stolen land. Everything we have is built on land that was never ours or meant to be ours.

Nope, my house sits on land that we bought through the legal process from the developer who built our house.

If you stole land from someone, you should definitely give it back, though.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:https://www.propublica.org/article/how-virginia-college-expanded-by-uprooting-black-neighborhood

https://www.propublica.org/article/why-destruction-of-a-black-neighborhood-matters-to-me

extensively researched, part of our ugly history in the commonwealth

This was common in almost all towns in the US in the 1950s and 1960s - I grew up in an all-white town next to Watts and saw it in action every day. It’s unfair to say this is a Virginia issue when it was, in actuality, nationwide

+1

[Anonymous]

TL;DR.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:https://www.propublica.org/article/how-virginia-college-expanded-by-uprooting-black-neighborhood

https://www.propublica.org/article/why-destruction-of-a-black-neighborhood-matters-to-me

extensively researched, part of our ugly history in the commonwealth

This was common in almost all towns in the US in the 1950s and 1960s - I grew up in an all-white town next to Watts and saw it in action every day. It’s unfair to say this is a Virginia issue when it was, in actuality, nationwide

If it wasn’t a university it was an interstate highway that was built through and ruined minority neighborhoods in cities across the country.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Happened 60 years ago, who cares.

Are you okay?

[Anonymous]

We are flailing around with a national self-flagellation obsession while China is planting spies all over the US, building a strong economy, & expanding their military. They aren’t wasting time in grief therapy, whining about what a prick Mao was.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:https://www.propublica.org/article/how-virginia-college-expanded-by-uprooting-black-neighborhood

https://www.propublica.org/article/why-destruction-of-a-black-neighborhood-matters-to-me

extensively researched, part of our ugly history in the commonwealth

This was common in almost all towns in the US in the 1950s and 1960s - I grew up in an all-white town next to Watts and saw it in action every day. It’s unfair to say this is a Virginia issue when it was, in actuality, nationwide

Bingo. This is hardly unique to Newport News.

true. OP doesn't have the life experience or knowledge of racism practices in America to understand this.

[Anonymous]

I find it amazing that you Commies have such a selective approach to eminent domain. It's not like you don't want to take away everyone else's property but expect your to remain unscathed.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I mean, we're all on stolen land. Everything we have is built on land that was never ours or meant to be ours.

But what is "stolen" land? Simple definition is that it's land that was taken from its present occupier by force and settled by another once the previous occupier was forced out.
Often this is the result of a battle or a war. But isn't this literally how almost every society/civilization in history came to be on its piece of land? They were either there first and never challenged by another potential occupier OR they were challenged and won OR they were challenged and lost--to the the winner go the spoils? No?
If WWII had gone differently, the whole of France and England and maybe the US too would be speaking German right now. But Germany didn't win, so they didn't get to add that land to their empire.

Even the natives of "our" land battled it out in this manner. So if we gave it back, would there be consensus on who we give it back to? And why this land but not other land? Why wouldn't we give back California to Mexico? And since "we" (of these generations who live here now) didn't do the fighting that resulted in the win, is it even really "ours" to give back? This is all rhetorical. But it's an oddly recent notion, this thing of calling land "stolen" when there were wars and battles fought that brought about the result. Is war barbaric? I'd say yes. But it also resulted in the advancement of western civilization as we know and live it. There's always a tradeoff and hindsight of such certainty doesn't allow for nuance.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Interesting history but hardly unique and it’s not only Black people who’ve gotten a raw deal when developers coveted their land for some project. And the citizenry as a whole is well served by CNU’s growth.

Nope. It’s not unique. The history of SW DC and the communities that got destroyed in the name of urban renewal is a part of that history. As to the “citizenry as a whole” — that has long been a convenient justification for the destruction of minority communities, property, and lives.