53 issues · 2020–2023
Editor and organizer Andrew Lee discusses his latest book and unpacks what people get wrong about gentrification.
Much of the Young Lords' success came from their innate ability to provide hands-on community service programs while also doing attention-grabbing acts of civil disobedience.
The devastation of the Hawai'i wildfires is connected to a history of colonialism and U.S. capitalist exploitation.
Jason Aldean’s “Try That in a Small Town” faces backlash for glorifying vigilante violence and the legacy of sundown towns and lynchings.
A group of Black boys were criminalized for breaking into a public pool, echoing a history of banning Black people from public swimming spaces.
Lack of infrastructure and accountability from local U.S. governments has led to public distrust in tap water.
Stop Cop City protesters and bail fund organizers accused of "terrorism" in the latest attempt to stifle discontent for the project.
Fights to defend community land are intensifying nationwide as organizers and neighbors build connections across differences and movements.
Tragic building disasters will occur as long as corporate landlords get a free pass to exploit a weakened housing market and those desperate for shelter.
Youth homelessness is a national problem causing many to face assault, trauma, and structural barriers to education and employment.
The Fair Housing Act broke down barriers in the housing market, but over a century of discriminatory practices continue to linger.
Philadelphia's Chinatown has successfully fought off previous developments, and a coalition of organizations has formed to stop the planned arena.
The murder of Breonna Taylor is a reminder that gentrification, white supremacy, and police violence are all tightly connected.
The City of Atlanta and the Atlanta Police Foundation's plan for Cop City would result in a community being pushed out through terrorism, fear, or poverty from taxes rising.
Railroad workers warned that a wreck like a derailment in East Palestine would occur unless officials mitigated railroad companies' power.
An upcoming national week of action to Stop Cop City is underway, supporting one of the most crucial social justice fights in the U.S.
Community Movement Builders joins the fight to stop the construction of a sprawling police training facility that activists call Cop City.
Black ranchers in Colorado have been the target of racial harassment after purchasing land in a predominately white area.
Last year became the deadliest year for fatal police encounters, despite calls for reform and racial justice after the 2020 protests.
As Chinatowns around the world reel from racial and economic injustice, young women are organizing to save these iconic neighborhoods.
Though the home is the center of our lives, housing in the United States is not a right but a privilege for those able to afford it.
A poor and Indigenous people-led movement is changing how poor people are discussed and empowering their own solutions by centering themselves.
Initiatives like land rematriation aren't just reparations but a clear way to dismantle white supremacy and center Indigenous communities.
Beyond the legal segregation of the Jim Crow South, the U.S. is full of municipalities that were dangerous for Black travelers.
Like the MOVE bombing victims, museums hold the remains of marginalized communities, often without community support or consent.
Thanks to anti-homeless legislation, U.S. cities are penalizing those who give food to unhoused people.
West Philly residents from the People’s Townhomes are fighting to maintain accessible housing for families and seniors.
The memorialization of social justices leaders and victims, as in the case of MLK boulevards, is meaningless without systemic change.
Nationwide, numerous U.S. cities are dealing with some form of water contamination, lack of drinkable water, and outdated infrastructure, similar to the water crisis in Jackson, Mississippi.
Hostile architecture is an inhumane corporate and governmental response to the unhoused crisis that started in the 1980s.
Cities throughout the country are tackling homelessness by issuing encampment sweeps, further displacing unhoused people.
Activists are taking direct action to stop the development of a police training ground, Cop City, in Atlanta’s largest remaining green space.
Outdated housing policies, like redlining, continue to have rippling effects on communities and Black maternal health.
Black Americans were less likely to take advantage of the mortgage refinancing boom due to unaddressed racial inequities in banking and real estate.
Despite laws prohibiting segregation, restrictive zoning practices push people of color into hazardous communities and away from affluent white neighborhoods.
The Nextdoor app's racist practices by users underscore the inherent problems of integrating unchecked stereotypes into technology.
The recent affordable housing fires in Bronx and Philly are the result of underfunding and neglect from public housing.
Community land trusts like the SBCLT keep housing affordable and community-controlled by removing it from the private market.
The gentrification of cities like Santa Ana displaces immigrant communities and culture—many of which were already uprooted by U.S. policies.
Vasudha Kumar is a resident of California’s Silicon Valley. After playing a leading role in a multi-year campaign to stop a new Google megacampus, Vasudha now studies the dynamics of economic displacement in cities around the U.S.
Noni Session is the Executive Director of the East Bay Permanent Real Estate Cooperative in Oakland, California. In a city with a deep Black radical history and some of the most pronounced modern-day displacement, EB PREC is building shared economic and community power by preserving land without landlords.
As the completion date of Line 3 nears, there's still much to be done to protect Indigenous activists and their land.
People are taking action along the supply chain from the coffee fields to neighborhood coffee shops to make sure coffee can be suitable for all of us.
In his article “Return the National Parks to the Tribes” David Treuer reminds us that national parks are the result of Indigenous dispossession. Everglades National Park is Seminole land. Olympic National Park was created by a violation of a treaty with the Quinault tribe. The first white people to ever see what is now Yosemite National Park were members of a California militia, intent on slaughtering and driving Miwok people off the land and into reservations. “Native people need permanent, unencumbered access to our homelands,” wrote Treuer, an Ojibwe author and historian. “All 85 million acres of national-park sites should be turned over to a consortium of federally recognized tribes in the United States" (The Atlantic).
Neighborhoods of color affected by redlining, historic bank and government-sponsored housing discrimination, are five degrees hotter than non-redlined neighborhoods since they have dramatically less tree cover. In Portland, OR, they’re a shocking 13 degrees warmer (NPR). Communities of color are where state and business elites dump toxic chemicals, coal-fired power plants, and chemical factories across the country. “The climate emergency will have a disproportionate impact on Black and Brown communities” (Guardian) since “the lack of equitable investment in low-income communities leaves people even more at risk for climate change impacts” (NRDC).
This San José flea market is threatened by the construction of a “transit village” around a new light-rail station.
Citizen is a privately-owned “public safety” app that reports neighborhood crime to residents. It has 5 million active users, more App Store downloads than Twitter (Forbes), and is backed by venture capital firms like Sequoia Capital, which is also investing in heavyweights like Cisco, Instagram, and YouTube (Sequoia). It’s a rebrand of an app called Vigilante, which actually encouraged users to go after suspected criminals (Tech Crunch). After the Pacific Palisades fire last month, Citizen sent the full name and photo of a suspected arsonist to 860,000 users. Citizen put a $30,000 bounty on this man, who was unhoused (Oaklandside), and, as in its days as Vigilante, encouraged its users to “get out there and bring this guy to justice” (Vox). As it turns out, he was innocent.
The Freedom Georgia Initiative springs from a “desire to create generational wealth for our families” in a place where “restoration, recreation, and reformation” are possible. The ability to conserve family resources and enjoy ample rest and recreation has been denied to generations of Black families. As an explicitly pro-Black city in an anti-Black nation, Freedom, Georgia hopes to be a new start (Complex).
Black homeowners are routinely experiencing low appraisal values, preventing them from building generational wealth.
In April, the Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors voted unanimously to make amends for a massive land grab rooted in white supremacy, though this remedy came almost a century too late (MSN). In the early twentieth century, Charles and Willa Bruce opened a Manhattan Beach resort that offered other Black families the opportunity to vacation under the Southern California sun. The white residents of Manhattan Beach were not pleased.
Just because we’re all affected by the pandemic doesn’t mean that we’ve all been affected equally. Women accounted for all 140,000 jobs cut last December. Black and Latina women in particular lost jobs, since employment for white women actually rose that month (CNN). The data is clear: Black and Latina women were the worst-impacted by layoffs, white men the least (Bloomberg).
Underserved communities are disproportionately becoming zoned as food deserts as access to grocery stores becomes limited.
To the average American, Hawaii elicits a fantasy. Palm trees swaying in the light wind. Hot white sands reflect a radiant sun and kiss a crystal clear ocean. Hula dancers wait at the doorsteps to a hotel overlooking the vast Pacific. But this fantasy is just that, and to many Native Hawaiians, their reality is quite the opposite. This continued exploitation of Hawaiian lands and culture to visitors, many of whom fail to appreciate its deep culture and culture, contributes to the systemic colonization of the Hawaiian islands.