Conclusion
The powers that be certainly don’t desire for us to have true liberation. True liberation means that the War on Drugs ends and that there is no gentrification (which is happening in communities of D.C., Oakland, New York City, etc.) in our communities. For decades and centuries, the oligarchy has harmed the lives of black people, the poor, the indigenous, and other human beings the world over. History is all about change too. The same injustices of class oppression, racism, and privatization of education exist in Chicago too. On the other hand, we also find that many human beings are tired of injustice and they want a change. Chicago is the home of the efforts of Ida B. Wells, Lorraine Hansberry, Fred Hampton, and other black people who saw evil and sought to fight it and advanced black solidarity in our world. Neoliberalism leaves the poor out in many instances and there is a book about Rahm Emanuel called, "Mayor 1%: Rahm Emanuel and the Rise of Chicago's 99%" (authored by Kari Lydersen) that talks about him. Gentrification is a calculated move without question. Back during the 1950’s, many cities used urban renewal policies to harm the social fabric of black and poor families. Also, this came in the midst of the peak of the Great Migration where African Americans left agricultural Southern locations to go into Northern, Western, and Midwestern cities (many of our people worked in the factories of Chicago, Milwaukee, Los Angeles, Detroit, Pittsburgh, etc. as a product of the Great Migration). Yet, many black people faced the same discrimination they found in the South as they found in the West, the North, and the Midwest. Even in the North and the Midwest including the West Coast, black people faced discrimination, struggling schools, police brutality, bad housing conditions, and economic exploitation. Some middle class and rich black people left black communities (especially by the late 1960's) to live in more affluent areas while doing nothing to help poorer black people. We know how classist gentrification is. Many big corporations use gentrification for the purpose of driving poor residents out of communities intentionally and that’s wrong. We want the growth of our black communities and our enterprises. We want an end to the surveillance state and the end to mandatory minimum sentencing. We also want a stronger environment. Dr. King and Malcolm X made it very clear that middle class including upper class black people have a responsibility to help out their poorer Brothers and Sisters. Fighting is part of our DNA. Regardless of how much they advance redlining, discrimination, and gentrification, we will fight for freedom and justice regardless.
By Timothy
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