Recently, I was in Denver, Colorado for a wedding and had the opportunity to visit two museums with radically different ideological projects: The Black American West Museum and the Denver Art Museum. It was interesting to have the opportunity to view these museums both on the same day and also with a group of lay people (my family), who had never thought about the role of museums in constructing a particular sense of history.
The Black American West Museum was founded in 1971 by Paul Wilbur Stewart, and developed out of his personal mission to uncover the history of black cowboys. He began simply by speaking to patrons at his Denver barbershop, who began to bring him memorabilia and family photos, which he kept on display. Once his collection out grew his barbershop, he established the museum by fusing his project with the project of commemorating the life of the first African-American female physician licensed in Colorado, Dr. Justina Ford.
Growing Disparity in the New Economy
One of the most under reported stories of the financial crisis is its impact on the disparity between African-Americans and whites. Last fall, I had the fortune to hear Congresswoman Maxine Waters speak on the issue of how the mortgage foreclosure crisis would likely impact African-American communities by striping them of years of hard earned gains, and making it difficult if not impossible to rebuild. But recently, Brandeis University published findings depicting an even more disturbing account showing a fourfold increase in the wealth gap between whites and blacks created over the last 23 years. From 1984 a 20K disparity between blacks and whites ballooned into a 95K gap by 2007. In real terms, this 75K differential is a child's college tuition or the savings to weather a job loss. So, African-American communities were clearly in crisis before the crisis.
The disconnect between income and work that has culminated in the recent financial crisis has no doubt influenced this trend, and will no doubt widen the gap. Since in our neoliberal capitalist society money is no longer primarily generated from labor, but rather money begets money to extreme degrees, the luck of birth will increasingly be the determining factor in an individual's future, unless we turn this tide and collectively figure out ways to stand against this type of social order.
The Racial Wealth Gap Increases Fourfold
White Families Now 95K Richer Than African-American Families on Average, According to New Study
Don't Blame the Dream of Homeownership
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