Not many people know of United States' terrible history in seizing land and exploiting it, nor
do people know the extent to which this affects the present state of
affairs. One thing that impacted people was Land lotteries which
prompted Indian removal. Land lotteries was simply giving away land to
white immigrants like in Georgia.
Another impact was creating systemic
racism in the form of African/African American slavery. Even after
slavery, Black families were not allowed to get loans to make small
payments on property, Blacks were segregated, and now there is a
phenomenon now that keeps Blacks segregated called Redlining. There are
many systematic factors that contributed and still contribute
historically to the racist policies, laws, customs, mores, etc which
keeps people of color from owning land in the United States.
Another
example of this
environmental racism includes deforestation in Central Africa (Congo)
and South America, and
pollution/contamination (e.g. Flint water crisis) affecting poor people
especially people of color, and the global division of
labor. People around the globe still face violence, war, poverty,
exploitation of land, which is why many people are displaced in this
world that want to live in their own home and land in peace. According
to Rosenberg (2016) "There
are an estimated 11-12 million refugees in the world today. This
is a dramatic increase since the mid-1970s when there were less than 3
million refugees worldwide.
However, it is a decrease since the 1992
when the refugee population was nearly 18 million, high due to the
Balkan conflicts." The people of Sri Lanka, the people of Syria, the
people of Myanmar, the people of Standing Rock, the people of Niger, etc
just want their homes back. Roseberg also states that "Some consider the hundreds of thousands of evacuees from Hurricane Katrina in 2005 as Internally Displaced Persons."
Our
history has
created systematic disadvantages for poor urban and rural people which
is why even today there exists a segregation of the worst schools, worst
neighborhoods,
and worst environmental/housing conditions. Those in rural areas were greatly disenfranchised during the Industrial age in Appalachia because of coal mining and timber companies. For
example the
expansion of surface mining leveled thousands of acres of mountaintops
because
the coal industry benefited from mountaintop removal (Eller, 2008.)
Additionally, corporate chains like Wal Mart affect small local
businesses in those rural areas of Appalachia, especially when the
profits do not trickle down into the community because they go out of
the region. The Appalachian Land Ownership Task Force found that large
corporations and land companies controlled up to 90 and 100% of the
surface
land and the mineral resources in 80 Appalachian counties (Eller, 2008.)
This was a significant study during this time and it's shocking
information. Other data the study found was that 8 million acres—more than 40% of land surveyed—was owned and
operated only by 50 private owners and the federal government (Eller, 2008.)
Another example of this is that for
14 West Virginia counties, 25 companies owned 44% of the surface land,
yet only
assessed for 20% of the area’s taxes (Eller, 2008.) This means that
taxes from these large corporations are not going to the community while
the poor community pay higher taxes or more taxes to support it's own
community. Likewise, these systems of racism has led to the extreme wealth of a select few white families. Today,
the median wealth of white families is 20 times greater than the median
wealth of black families (and 18 times greater than Latinx families).
Subsequently, some of the programs put in place to aid those disadvantaged did nothing to help disadvantaged
people of color. In fact, FDR was able to pass the New Deal including
Social security and other beneficial programs, as long as they excluded
domestic service workers and agricultural workers (which meant
predominantly people of color.) This gave preferential treatment to
whites. Secondly, the dream of home ownership granted mortgage loans to
Americans, where 98% of all recipients were white. Third, GI bill was
passed to give low cost mortgage, living expenses paid, and paid tuition
for veterans, which exclusively benefited whites, and excluded black
veterans.
Additionally, The 62 of the richest billionaires own half
of the world’s poorest populations. Those that have accumulated all the world's resources simultaneously destroy natural resources at an alarming rate. Those richest people are the ones that destroy the
land (trees, soil, crops, air, water, animals/aquatic life), those
people buy all the land, and try to keep people from being truly free.
We do NOT live in a free and equal opportunity country, and
it is essential that we (the 99%) take back stolen land, take back our
stolen creativity and individuality. In an effort to save, protect, and preserve nature and all its species,
we cannot continue to deforest the planet, pollute, and kill off
ecosystems.
Moreover, the middle class own more land,
but it's usually for farming, growing soybeans or corn for livestock to
eat, or for hunting grounds (more family owned operations). I'm not sure
how anyone figures
they own the oceans, but they also wreak havoc on that too, and capture
to
exploit and kill aquatic life. Those who own the majority of land on
this planet are the rich who exploit it for drilling and fracking,
mining, infrastructure, etc. In fact the families who own most of the
world's resources are the reason the number of trees
has fallen by 46% since the start of human civilization. There are over
20,000 different kinds of trees in the world. Actually, 3 trillion trees are left on the Earth. Somehow
these same people who don't own land will go to different countries in
Africa or South America to mine for gold. And they too are part of the
destruction of land, trees, wildlife, and the last remaining tribes.
As
mentioned, all of these examples are the many ways land and resources
are taken away from the poor and persons of color, and consequently,
this land is often used for big business, corporations, coal mining,
logging, or fast food chains. What's truly depressing is that absentee
owners of land have taken thousands of acres while rich families keep
land in the family for to be passed down through generations. I'm not
sure redistributing land (redistributing wealth) is feasible, but it
sounds effective. And in fact when I think about the few people that own
half of the world, this wealth disparity is unfair, and simply unjust.
This cannot be normal, this cannot be how the system works. There is
much land to be "bought" but there is much land already owned on a large
scale.
Simply, if all people were given land to build their own houses and grow
their own
food, there would be less corporations, less logging, mining,
fracking, pollution, etc. If all people had an acre, no one would want
to cut down all the trees on their property for a quick buck. People would perhaps use
their land to make a home business and then this would
create a local economy where everyone had a service to offer.
This
isn't about poor people paying taxes, because in fact the tax system is
not fair for the poor to begin with. Poor people shouldn't pay taxes,
only the rich! Poor people pay the same tax rate as the rich, if not
more taxes. And something most people don't realize is that half of the
US budget goes to funding the military. So, clearly the tax system is
not fair for the poor, but it should be used to regulate the rich
because they are clearly exploiting people, resources, polluting land,
and those are the people that came from money that was passed down to
them through the generations of a system that favored the imperialist
white supremacist capitalist patriarchy.
I am one of the
many people who do not own land. Even if I bought land, I still do not
"own" any of the trees, the sky, the birds, the deer, the soil, rocks,
and rivers. People often talk in terms of ownership like "my girlfriend", "my daughter," "our Earth", "our galaxy", "my America."
I find this to be problematic because this suggests that we have a
culture that cannot look outside of capitalism, imperialism, and
colonization. I fear that if the culture continues to use rhetoric that
reflects ownership and possession, then it will be one where the
disparities, inequality, destruction will be even greater as
civilization ages within this world. But, if those of us don't
collectively buy up land to take away from capitalists, then what will
be left for those of us that want to protect it? True
equality is the providing access to healthy living conditions, healthy
food and land to grow food, and education for
everyone.
References:
Eller, Ronald. D. (2008). Uneven Ground: Appalachia Since
1945. Lexington, KY: University of Kentucky Press.
Rosenberg, Matt. (2016). Refugees:
The Global Refugee and Internally Displaced Persons Situation.
ThoughtCo. https://www.thoughtco.com/global-refugees-overview-1434952
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