HOW HAS HISTORY IMPACTED LAND AND GROWING IN PHILLY?
And how has history created long-term ADVANTAGES and BARRIERS to land ownership for YOU?
The history of agriculture in American is rooted in racism. We must understand the historical context of racism and land in America to tell the story of growing in Philadelphia. The goals of this station are to:
Understand historical events in order to place ourselves today in the reality of how racism plays out in our food system and ultimately in urban agriculture.
Learn from the ways communities have self-determined through these oppressive conditions.
After you EXPLORE THE ABBREVIATED TIMELINE, please COMPLETE A SURVEY that explores your long-term advantages and barriers to land ownership.
Four pressures drive the Cycle of Racialized Land-Based Oppression:
Pressure 1: Displacement of Black, Indigenous, and People of Color (BIPOC) from ancestral homes and sanctuary communities through time through forced migration, colonization, and gentrification.
Pressure 2: Commodification of Land - Western capitalism and values shift human relationships with land. The privatization and individual ownership of land is established as a concept. Land is gradually seen as non-living, exploitable, and a means for building private wealth.
Pressure 3: Exploitation and Erasure of BIPOC Communities - colonialism consistently exploits labor and appropriates culture from BIPOC communities, while simultaneously using these exploits to uphold colonial power over the long-term and keeping BIPOC communities at a disadvantage.
Pressure 4: Exclusionary Institutions - colonial institutions, both private and public, historically prioritize white communities. Corporations continue to gobble up community enterprises, while public resources favor the wealthy. These institutions offer resources and opportunity to compound generational wealth and power. Meanwhile, BIPOC communities are systematically excluded from said institutions.
Collective Action & Self Determination: Throughout our history, BIPOC communities have been organizing solutions on the ground in response to these compounding pressures.
This is a practice in systems thinking, critical analysis, and interconnection. These themes still exist today. Let us see how the themes play out and how they compound over time. The presentation below highlights specific events that demonstrate the way racism operates in food and land in historic contexts. Pay attention to how these patterns create cyclical pressure over time and space, and how you might see these themes play out in our City. How do we break this cycle and move into self determination and collective action? Click the image below to explore this history.
consider your Long-term Advantages or Barriers to Land Ownership
This timeline is not only about the legacies of land access and dispossession. There are current day barriers and advantages that must be considered in policy creation for urban agriculture.
We want to know more about your long-term ADVANTAGES or BARRIERS to land ownership. Do you identify with any of these statements?
Please answer Yes, No, or I don't know for each of the following:
Thank YOU for CHECKING OUT THE TIMELINE and FILLING OUT THIS SURVEY!
Click here to move on to the next station about LAND ACCESS.
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