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For me, having an editorial mandate to cover solutions among the economies of disinvested urban areas/marginalized groups, it’s interesting to think about how bad things usually have been & yet there is still the human agency to come together to try & build something that works. https://twitter.com/lydiadepillis/status/1254396254316044288
Like, it’s bad out there, and it’s been bad.
In Boston median white wealth is $248k while median black wealth is $8.
One little loan fund is not going to fix that, but that’s not my point. My point is, this is happening out there among the $8 crowd. https://nextcity.org/daily/entry/the-first-democratically-managed-investment-fund-launches-in-boston
In Boston median white wealth is $248k while median black wealth is $8.
One little loan fund is not going to fix that, but that’s not my point. My point is, this is happening out there among the $8 crowd. https://nextcity.org/daily/entry/the-first-democratically-managed-investment-fund-launches-in-boston
One new building under shared ownership of working class tenants and community based organizations isn’t by itself going to stem the tide of gentrification in San Francisco, but it is happening out there and that should matter to somebody. https://nextcity.org/daily/entry/who-has-the-right-to-build-wealth-in-a-gentrifying-neighborhood
One new-fangled multi-stakeholder cooperative isn’t going to stem the tide of displacement and the racial history of disinvestment in Oakland, but it’s happening out there and it should matter to somebody. https://nextcity.org/daily/entry/a-new-kind-of-cooperative-in-oakland-fights-against-speculative-development
One little nascent community group isn’t by itself going to reverse a history of racial exclusion and isolation, but it does represent a newer response to the challenge of how engage a neighborhood outsiders often ignore or paint over with a broad brush. https://nextcity.org/daily/entry/the-particular-challenge-of-community-engagement-in-chinatown
A growing number of disinvested communities are turning to worker-owned cooperatives as a business model that works better for them, for a variety of reasons. One seemingly small legal change won’t by itself clear all the barriers they face, but... https://nextcity.org/daily/entry/clearing-the-legal-and-financial-pathway-for-worker-coops-in-illinois
In the Deep South, where things have basically never been “good” economically for black people, one credit union isn’t going to reverse the legacy of slavery and Jim Crow and white supremacy, but that credit union is still overcoming barriers to growth https://nextcity.org/daily/entry/heres-what-investing-in-economic-justice-looks-like
I concur w/the paper @lydiadepillis tweeted, our collective view of the economy gets shaped by the media & media tend to report on the economy from the perspective of billionaires. It shows the value of things like @econhardship, that media has to try to do something different.
I also want to add that reporting from the perspective of historically disinvested and marginalized groups doesn’t have to mean all doom and gloom all the time. Yes it’s bad out there and there’s more work to be done on reporting that...
...but those who face the structural violence of our economy on a daily basis are not merely victims or damsels in distress, and media would risk further damage if it simply lifted up pain and suffering and hoped somebody in power might do something about it.
Yes, it might seem more democratic to make the powerful respond to pain and suffering they have long ignored, but the manner in which the response emerges can also as a by-product reinforce the power structure that created the structural violence in the first place.
That’s why I have chosen to continue reporting on responses to structural violence starting from the perspective of the disinvited and marginalized who are coming together to do something about it.
If/when the powerful finally respond, I want my work to be there both as documentation that the powerful are late to the game and to maybe just maybe guide them to respond in ways that acknowledge, value, and respect the vision and agency of those they have been oppressing.
I am not w/o my own biases and have certainly fallen short of my own aspirations at times, but since 2015 I’ve had a mandate to report on economic solutions from the perspective of marginalized communities, & I can point back and say here’s how hard I’ve tried to stick to that. https://twitter.com/oscarthinks/status/1253097962047254532
