It's Bigger Than Hip Hop: The Rise of the Post-Hip-Hop Generation by M.K. Asante Jr
Authors: M.K. Asante Jr
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lived in me very viably. I was anchored by Black-owned businesses and Black-run institutions. Believe it or not, “crime” during this period was not a problem in me. But then…
Crack?
Whoa—not yet, slow down. That’s later.
Way before crack, there was “nigger removal,” as it was sometimes called by government officials.
Okay, yeah, you mentioned that earlier.
Right. Officially dubbed Urban Renewal, this program was designed to transform poor neighborhoods into new, architecturally attractive structures that would attract tourists and increase business. The Urban Renewal program had its shaky origins in the Housing Act of 1949, but it did not get under way in a serious fashion until 1954, when the Eisenhower administration made several changes in the law.Of course I was chosen for Urban Renewal because the people who lived there didn’t have any political power. Whites during this time made all the decisions for Blacks with no input or say from Blacks.
Under Urban Renewal, I was razed and rebuilt and the Blacks who lived in me were forced out.
When you say “forced out,” what do you mean?
I mean forced out. Eminent domain, the process whereby the state seizes private property for government or private use, gives the government the authority to
jack
residents.
Where did the displaced Blacks go?
Uncle Sam decided that they needed to construct new areas for these displaced Blacks to live. So they built shabby, health-hazardous, cheap housing in me called housing projects.
For every ten homes they destroyed, they built one unit in the projects.
So is this why you are the way you are today?
Not quite—there are a few more things that happened to me that I feel contributed significantly to who I am today.
On top of “nigger removal,” the federal interstate system had a devastating effect on me physically and psychologically. When I wasn’t razed for Urban Renewal, they would build highways that went right through me and separated my people from others. This created further isolation for Blacks and it simultaneously created insulation for whites as they fled to the suburbs.
Thanks to these new highways, though, whites could get into the city when they needed to. Between 1950 and 1970, 70 million whites fled the city and moved to the suburbs. The reason this white flight was so devastating is that whites took jobs with them whenthey left and eventually moved businesses out of me and into the suburbs.
Soon after, the factories left, too. See, post-World War II the factories had been one of the primary ways for Blacks to climb out of the quicksand of poverty. However, those jobs fled with the whites.
To the suburbs?
No, overseas. Multinational corporations got out of me and headed for places like India, Indonesia, and other impoverished nations of the world. Places where the wages are dramatically less, unions are illegal, there are no environmental or labor laws. So, they’ve got twelve-year-olds working sixteen hours, making pennies per day. When companies don’t go overseas, they use prison labor instead of creating real jobs, which is, in essence, slave labor. I mean, the rates they pay prisoners rivals what they might pay a child in an impoverished country.
Major corporations do this?
American Airlines, Boeing, Compaq, Dell, Eddie Bauer, Chevron, Hewlett-Packard, Honeywell, IBM, JCPenney, TWA, McDonald’s, Microsoft, Motorola, Nordstrom, Pierre Cardin, Revlon, Sony, Texas Instruments, Victoria’s Secret, and Toys “R” Us, to name a few.
In addition, the mechanization of many low-skilled jobs left a lot of people well below the poverty line. So jobs in the domestic and service sectors are all that’s left for low-skilled workers. Since 1975, however, these jobs have been declining in real dollars and in relation to other sectors.
What about Black professionals?
Integration was another fierce blow to me.
After the end of legal segregation, the Black middle class—who had
Crack?
Whoa—not yet, slow down. That’s later.
Way before crack, there was “nigger removal,” as it was sometimes called by government officials.
Okay, yeah, you mentioned that earlier.
Right. Officially dubbed Urban Renewal, this program was designed to transform poor neighborhoods into new, architecturally attractive structures that would attract tourists and increase business. The Urban Renewal program had its shaky origins in the Housing Act of 1949, but it did not get under way in a serious fashion until 1954, when the Eisenhower administration made several changes in the law.Of course I was chosen for Urban Renewal because the people who lived there didn’t have any political power. Whites during this time made all the decisions for Blacks with no input or say from Blacks.
Under Urban Renewal, I was razed and rebuilt and the Blacks who lived in me were forced out.
When you say “forced out,” what do you mean?
I mean forced out. Eminent domain, the process whereby the state seizes private property for government or private use, gives the government the authority to
jack
residents.
Where did the displaced Blacks go?
Uncle Sam decided that they needed to construct new areas for these displaced Blacks to live. So they built shabby, health-hazardous, cheap housing in me called housing projects.
For every ten homes they destroyed, they built one unit in the projects.
So is this why you are the way you are today?
Not quite—there are a few more things that happened to me that I feel contributed significantly to who I am today.
On top of “nigger removal,” the federal interstate system had a devastating effect on me physically and psychologically. When I wasn’t razed for Urban Renewal, they would build highways that went right through me and separated my people from others. This created further isolation for Blacks and it simultaneously created insulation for whites as they fled to the suburbs.
Thanks to these new highways, though, whites could get into the city when they needed to. Between 1950 and 1970, 70 million whites fled the city and moved to the suburbs. The reason this white flight was so devastating is that whites took jobs with them whenthey left and eventually moved businesses out of me and into the suburbs.
Soon after, the factories left, too. See, post-World War II the factories had been one of the primary ways for Blacks to climb out of the quicksand of poverty. However, those jobs fled with the whites.
To the suburbs?
No, overseas. Multinational corporations got out of me and headed for places like India, Indonesia, and other impoverished nations of the world. Places where the wages are dramatically less, unions are illegal, there are no environmental or labor laws. So, they’ve got twelve-year-olds working sixteen hours, making pennies per day. When companies don’t go overseas, they use prison labor instead of creating real jobs, which is, in essence, slave labor. I mean, the rates they pay prisoners rivals what they might pay a child in an impoverished country.
Major corporations do this?
American Airlines, Boeing, Compaq, Dell, Eddie Bauer, Chevron, Hewlett-Packard, Honeywell, IBM, JCPenney, TWA, McDonald’s, Microsoft, Motorola, Nordstrom, Pierre Cardin, Revlon, Sony, Texas Instruments, Victoria’s Secret, and Toys “R” Us, to name a few.
In addition, the mechanization of many low-skilled jobs left a lot of people well below the poverty line. So jobs in the domestic and service sectors are all that’s left for low-skilled workers. Since 1975, however, these jobs have been declining in real dollars and in relation to other sectors.
What about Black professionals?
Integration was another fierce blow to me.
After the end of legal segregation, the Black middle class—who had
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