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

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

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.

Addendum - for anyone who’d like more reading:

https://whosedowntown.wordpress.com/urban-renewal-the-story-of-southwest-d-c/

[Anonymous]

I’m white. CNU bought my parents house almost 20 years ago and razed the neighborhood. They really had no choice. It’s not just racial (although clearly that’s where it started). They’re just gobbling up neighborhoods.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I’m white. CNU bought my parents house almost 20 years ago and razed the neighborhood. They really had no choice. It’s not just racial (although clearly that’s where it started). They’re just gobbling up neighborhoods.

Would you happen to know if your parents were able to sell their house for market value — or more?

[Anonymous]

Plenty of white people have land taken by eminent domain. It happened to friends of our family. It’s not a race thing. Sometimes individuals have to sacrifice for the greater good.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Plenty of white people have land taken by eminent domain. It happened to friends of our family. It’s not a race thing. Sometimes individuals have to sacrifice for the greater good.

And plenty of Black communities have been deliberately destroyed— decisions made by committees composed of white people. DC, for example, had no home rule or representation when SW communities were destroyed.
Just because things also impact some white people sometimes — that doesn’t in any way negate the fact that Black communities were deliberately targeted for destruction by white people.

“Greater good” is almost always a convenient synonym for white people with power.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I’m white. CNU bought my parents house almost 20 years ago and razed the neighborhood. They really had no choice. It’s not just racial (although clearly that’s where it started). They’re just gobbling up neighborhoods.

Would you happen to know if your parents were able to sell their house for market value — or more?

They could have sold it for more. Not to mention it had been in our family for multiple generations. Then the moving expenses. They ended up moving out of town altogether.

[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.

Stolen land and a land build on the backs and blood of enslaved Africans.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Plenty of white people have land taken by eminent domain. It happened to friends of our family. It’s not a race thing. Sometimes individuals have to sacrifice for the greater good.

Actually it is when it happens at a higher rate to Black families. From the article that I’m guessing you didn’t bother to read:

A federal program that provided financial incentives for university expansions was responsible for displacing nearly 20,000 families in the U.S. between 1959 and 1966, according to University of Richmond professor Robert Nelson, who has compiled an online database on the topic. While working-class white residents were also dislodged, roughly 40% were Black families, about four times the Black proportion of the U.S. population at the time. Local and state programs expelled thousands more Black families, like the Shoe Lane homeowners, for higher-education projects.

But go on. Tell us more about how there’s no racism because you know a Black family that’s wealthy and some white people that are poor.

[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.

This. Multiple groups have had things taken from them.

[Anonymous]

Aren’t people stealing from Ukraine right now?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I’m white. CNU bought my parents house almost 20 years ago and razed the neighborhood. They really had no choice. It’s not just racial (although clearly that’s where it started). They’re just gobbling up neighborhoods.

Would you happen to know if your parents were able to sell their house for market value — or more?

They could have sold it for more. Not to mention it had been in our family for multiple generations. Then the moving expenses. They ended up moving out of town altogether.

Thanks for responding to my question. I hope things worked out well for them after such an upheaval. It must have been hard to lose not only their home, but their entire neighborhood— and their community.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Plenty of white people have land taken by eminent domain. It happened to friends of our family. It’s not a race thing. Sometimes individuals have to sacrifice for the greater good.

+1
My grandparents had their home and property taken. They were white. I've always heard how upsetting it was for them at the time.

[Anonymous]

Yes, eminent domain can impact white people, but it’s also true that it can be (and has been) used to systematically harm and oppress black communities in different ways.

https://www.usccr.gov/files/pubs/docs/FINAL_FY14_Eminent-Domain-Report.pdf

Would white people say they are equally affected by other government actions, such as police stops?

[Anonymous]

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

OP, this is one of the main reasons for higher education providing generous admissions to URM. I don't think the groups bringing law suits understand any of the U.S. history behind what they are requesting be overturned.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

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.

Even if they're dead, had they been compensated fairly, they would have had more family wealth to pass on to the next generation. Would you be this complacent if it were your family who got ripped off?