Uhuru Radio: GENTRIFICATION KILLS: THE OAKLAND FIRE EXPLAINED

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On December 2, 2016, a fire broke out in a warehouse, known as Ghost Ship, that was used as an 'artist collective' by mostly white young people in the Fruitvale neighborhood of Oakland, California. This segment of Reparations in Action, featuring APSC Chairwoman Penny Hess and Oakland-based APSC member Maureen Wagner, will examine how the media's coverage of the warehouse fire conveniently ignored the overall context of gentrification, a decades-in-the-making public policy of displacement that has resulted in thousands of African people living in poverty and losing their homes. A majority of African families in Oakland have an annual income of less than $35,000 while the average rent is $2,600. The city puts most of its money into police to attack the African community, but also puts resources into gentrifying areas like Lake Merritt, where the life expectancy is now 17 years greater than in East Oakland!