Cultural Ecopsychology:  Issues of Displacement and the Urban African Community

Displacement and Oppression for Urban African Americans
 
At some moment, all one’s imprecations, all one’s pleas to ancestors, all one’s evoking of spirits, sound in the ears as the hollowness of one’s own voice. At such a moment, he would sense the most dreadful meaning in what had happened. He was alone, abandoned by all he knew that could have given him support and anchor: village, family, and even his gods (Huggins, 1977, p.31).
The last chapter explored the areas of systems, culture, and the western society of the United States, looking at how this western culture is both oppressive to the natural resources of the earth and to peoples from non-western cultures. The author then examined some possible definitions of what a healthy, sustainable culture entails, deducing that it is a place-specific relationship between the human population and the immediate surrounding landscape. The present chapter takes some of these more generalized ideas and places them within the context of the urban African American community. Specifically, the author looks at how and why displacement from their ancestral landscapes have affected the well-being of this community.
A central theme of this paper is that the current problems of urban African American communities are interlinked with two historic displacements. The first occurred as a result of the slave trade, where an estimated 50 million people from Central and West Africa were unwillingly taken from their homelands (Zinn, 1995). The second occurred during the post-Reconstruction era of the United States, where a majority of Blacks moved from the agricultural South to the industrial areas of the northern and western cities. For the enslaved Africans and their descendants, both displacements resulted in a disconnection from their traditional cultures and placement within a dominant culture which was and is oppressive to Blacks. This chapter will define displacement and explore the consequences of displacement for African Americans.
 
Displacement
In order to proceed, it is necessary to define displacement and identify ways in which it affects a population. In the context of this study (which is in the field of Cultural Ecopsychology), displacement occurs when a specific cultural population is moved from its original homeland or bioregion and relocated to a different setting. In the last chapter, the author emphasized that a living, sustainable culture is one that models its laws and customs from the local landscape. It is place specific. Its worldview and means of survival are directly related to its location. Hence, when a culture is relocated to a different setting, it often loses its relevance because the landscape has changed. For example, if a culture that was located along the ocean was suddenly relocated to the desert, things would change drastically for its people. Their means of travel, types of food, clothing, access to water, and many other factors would no longer be the same as the landscape would be so different. A sustainable culture is embedded in its local landscape. If the landscape changes, if the people are displaced, the culture’s way of life is forever altered.
There are many resources which address issues of displacement. Most do not address the loss of relationship with a landscape, yet focus instead on the psychological issues involved from the process of displacement. For the purpose of this study, the idea of displacement as a loss of relationship with landscape will be the primary focus. However, the more traditional approach, that looks at psychological issues resulting from displacement, is important to look at as well.
It is interesting to note that all people of the United States are, to some degree, displaced from their original homelands and traditions. Practically all "Americans" are descended from a landscape different from where they currently live. In fact, the only cultural group that has longstanding roots (prior to the era of colonization) are Native Americans. However, even Native Americans suffer from displacement. When Europeans came to the North American continent, the Native American populations were greatly reduced with the introduction of foreign diseases and as a result of the Indian Wars (Zinn, 1995). The Native Americans who survived these afflictions were finally forced to live upon segregated reservation lands, most of which are still in place today.
It also interesting to note that while all peoples of the United States are displaced, most people came to this country through voluntary displacement. They came either to obtain greater freedom (i.e., to escape religious or political persecution) and/or to obtain a better standard of living. The exception to this idea of voluntary displacement is in the case of Native, African, and some Hispanic American populations. Through citing the work of Ogbu (1988), educator, Frederick Yeo, calls these groups "caste-like minorities." These groups were:
"...assigned their grouping by virtue of ascribed racial/ethnic attributes and [had] few or no options for escape. They are [were] involuntarily structured within the society through slavery or conquest... (1997, p. 12)."
These groups did not choose to come to what is now the United States. They were either already here and were forced into colonization or were brought here through forced enslavement. These groups are perhaps most affected by displacement because they were then placed into a larger culture that was oppressive to their established way of life.
In his article, Mental Health Issues Among Refugees (2000, March 24), Charles Kemp provides an excellent example of the traditional psychological issues resulting from displacement. As a health practitioner, Kemp outlines the psychological issues displaced peoples experience. He looks specifically at refugees who are forced to leave their homelands and must then relocate to a new landscape which is very different from their original culture.
One might argue that most "Americans" are refugees since even the pilgrims left their homeland to escape religious persecution. However, this argument is unjustified. Although the Europeans who came to this country may have been escaping persecution, they established a new culture in which they were the dominant population. Thus, they colonized the new landscape and changed it to fit their needs. Furthermore, the Europeans who came in the following centuries and decades already shared a similar sense of identity with the dominant culture of the United States, reducing the possibility of "culture shock."
Refugees leave their homeland and culture with little hope of return. "Culture shock" is thus overwhelming and for older generations with less ability to adapt, unrelenting. A lifetime of memories, familiarity, and accomplishment is abandoned and a completely new and often incomprehensible and hostile world is entered. Language, customs, and values of the new world are not only different from those of the refugee, but also are perceived by some refugees and some people in the country of refuge as superior to the language, customs, and values of the refugee (Kemp, 2000, March 24, p. 3).
The author believes that Yeo’s "caste-like minorities"(Native, African, and some Hispanic Americans) and Kemp’s "refugees" share a similar experience of displacement. The main difference is that the former group has a longstanding relationship with the landscapes of North America which predates the establishment of what is now the United States and/or has historical roots of oppression within this country. Caste-like minorities are refugees because they were forced into a foreign culture. Their traditional cultures and their health as a cultural population became endangered through the legacy of colonization in the "new world."
Kemp outlines the stages a refugee typically experiences and identifies specific psychological ailments the refugee suffers such as posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and grief. He also offers some ways refugees can heal. What was most interesting about the article (in relation to this study) was its inclusion of a list of problems experienced by refugees. Kemp cites "The Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, 4th Edition (DSM IV) (8) which lists:
Problems with the primary support group, such as the death of a family member, family disruption, and abuse
Problems related to the social environment, such as death or loss of a friend, inadequate social support, acculturation problems, and discrimination
Educational problems, including illiteracy and academic problems
Occupational problems, including unemployment and stress at work
Housing problems, such as inadequate housing, unsafe neighborhood, or problems with neighbors
Economic problems
Problems with access to health services (and we would add staying in the health care system)
Problems related to the legal system
Other psychological and environmental problems, including exposure to disaster or war and unavailable social services (p. 5)
This list parallels the experiences of the "cast-like minorities" (Native, African, and some Hispanic Americans) in the United States. The economic, social, and political status of these groups, as a whole, are low within this country.
Many blame the problems of these groups on its people. As we saw in the last chapter, the western culture of the Unites States highly values individual competition, progress, growth, and material wealth (Winters, 1996). The histories and experiences of Native, African, and some Hispanic Americans contradicts the "American Dream", where everyone has an equal opportunity to achieve the western ideal of success. Many cannot understand why these groups have not achieved the "American Dream" and attribute this failure to inferior or dysfunctional characteristics within these populations. The author does not agree with this argument. It is important to remember that these groups did not choose to enter the western culture of the United States, but were forced into it.
Other immigrant and even refugee populations came to this country in search of some benefit (such as economic opportunities or political or religious freedom) and, in exchange for these benefits, willingly acculturated into the values of this western culture. Acculturation (or deculturalization) is "the adoption of the traits or patterns of another group (Stein, 1980, p. 6)." These groups chose to come here and willingly integrated into the mainstream culture. Yeo (1997), through citing Ogbu (1988), refers to these groups as "autonomous" and "immigrant" minorities.
The "autonomous" minorities are often part of the dominant culture who suffer some prejudice, but are not truly subordinated (usually racially white, such as the Irish, Italians, etc.)...The "immigrant" minorities are those who have come to the United States generally voluntarily and, although subject to discrimination and/or social subordination (which may or may not be based or racism), have not internalized the effects, particularly as a group (p.12).
In contrast, the "caste-like minorities" were either already here and were conquered or they were forced here through enslavement. Thus, they did not necessarily desire to acculturate into western culture, and in fact, many resisted acculturation, wanting to maintain the culture they already had. As we saw in the last chapter, western culture is structured in a way where these groups would naturally fall to the bottom of the hierarchical chain. Furthermore, the values of western culture are practically opposite those of the"caste-like minorities." Those within these groups that resist acculturation, and even those who wish to acculturate, have less chance of reaching the western values of success because they come from cultures with contradicting values.
In his book, "I Won’t Learn from You": And Other Thoughts on Creative Maladjustment (1994), educator, Herbert Kohl, identifies a factor in learning that many educators are unaware about. Kohl claims that when a person refuses to learn because the subject matter, text material, or teaching style contradicts with the learner’s sense of self, the person has chosen to "not-learn". Kohl suggests that failing to learn and his own term of not-learning are distinctly different:
Failure is characterized by the frustrated will to know, whereas not-learning involves the will to refuse knowledge. Failure results from a mismatch between what the learner wants to do and is able to do. The reasons for failure may be personal, social, or cultural, but whatever they are, the results of failure are most often a loss of self-confidence accompanied by a sense of inferiority and inadequacy. Not-learning produces thoroughly different effects. It tends to strengthen the will, clarify one’s definition of self, reinforce self-discipline, and provide inner satisfaction. Not-learning can also get one in trouble if it results in defiance or a refusal to become socialized in ways that are sanctioned by the dominant authority. Not-learning tends to take place when someone has to deal with unavoidable challenges to her or his personal and family loyalties, integrity, and identity (p.6).
Kohl believes that not-learning and failing to learn are very different. When someone fails to learn, it is because they have not developed the skills to master specific information. In contrast, when someone chooses to "not-learn" they are rejecting specific information because it contradicts with their sense of identity. A person who chooses to "not-learn" is actually asserting the power to refuse information. Within his book, Kohl applies this principle to a range of situations. Many of these include learners from different cultural backgrounds who choose to "not-learn" in standard classroom settings.
The concept of "not-learning" can be applied the situation of the "caste-like minorities" within the United States. As stated above, Native, African, and (some) Hispanic Americans did not choose to be apart of what is now the United States. They were forced to be a part of it through conquest. These groups already came from rich and very different cultural backgrounds with which they identified. In addition, the values of their cultures were in sharp contradiction with the values of western culture. For many in these groups, acculturation into western culture was another form of conquest. Many in these groups resisted and are still resisting acculturation. They are fighting to protect their traditional cultures and sense of integrity as a group.
People from these groups choose to "not-learn" many of the values of western culture because it means rejecting the values of their original cultures. Of course, there are many instances of failure to learn within communities of color as well. However much of this failure can be linked to both the historic oppression of these groups within this country which have created numerous psychological, economic, political, and environmental problems. This failure can also be linked to "culture shock" where people of color came equipped with a set of values that were in contrast to those of western culture. They were not skilled to succeed within western culture because they had a different set of skills.
One might argue that the people of color ("caste-like minorities") should simply accept the process of acculturation because until they do they will maintain low status within the United States. However, this argument ignores two factors. The first is that although many people of color have successfully integrated and achieved success through the ideals of western culture, one must still remember that western culture is based on a hierarchical model. This means that even if people from "caste-like minorities" achieve success within the framework of western culture, another group will still be on the bottom. The hierarchical system relies on accumulation, taking from another group. In the age of colonization it took over land and other natural resources of the world including non-western peoples. The present economy of the United States relies heavily on the natural resources of other countries. These natural resources include cheap human labor. If all people of color successfully acculturated, they would increase the demand for these resources.
This takes us to the second factor — this acculturation would heighten the ecological degradation of the earth, for it would increase the level of western consumption. The beginning of the last chapter highlighted that people in western culture consume more natural resources than any other group. Furthermore, with the information about more relational cultures provided in the last chapter, it can be argued that the traditional cultures of the "caste-like minorities" are actually more sustainable than western culture. If our aim is to address our present ecological crisis, we need to start looking at different, sustainable ways of living. Indigenous, earth-based cultures provide important models. Acculturating into mainstream western culture is not a sustainable model.
Returning to issues of displacement, the author has acknowledged that people of color should recognize that their inability, as a group, to successfully acculturate is actually an empowering action. However the trauma of displacement coupled with the oppression experienced in this country has not been empowering. The present status of many Native, African, and Hispanic American communities are not healthy — they are plagued by a wide range of problems which are interconnected. These communities need serious attention. The author’s contention that these groups should not acculturate does not erase their problems and, in fact, could exacerbate them because it wipes away the goal of attaining the "American Dream." If solving the problems of these communities is no longer about achieving success according to western values - what is the answer?
The author does not have a simple answer for this huge question. She believes that in finding a new model to live, communities of color should look to their past sustainable traditions and see how they apply to their present state and place. However, in order to start mediating a relationship with their present landscapes, the trauma of displacement still needs to be addressed.
Kemp (2000, March 24) ends his article with some steps to start healing the trauma of displacement. He provides a list called the "task of bereavement" which addresses ways in which refugees can acknowledge and deeply explore the trauma experienced in order to move on to greater health. These steps include:
Telling the story of the loss or trauma
Expressing and accepting the sadness and pain
Expressing and accepting guilt, anger, and other negatively perceived feelings
Reviewing the relationship with what was lost, e.g., loved ones, culture, sense of self, trust, dignity and so on
Understanding common processes and problems in responses to trauma
Being understood or accepted by others
Exploring possibilities in the new life (p.10)
The history of conquest and enslavement in this country is intense. Many cannot fully acknowledge the atrocities that occurred here because it is very painful to look at. However until we are able to, the problems within communities of color will persist. Kemp’s steps involve looking deeply at the trauma. Telling the story is a powerful place to begin because it not only unlocks pieces of history we rarely look at, it also allows one to see how the present problems are inherently interconnected.
The rest of this chapter will look at the two historic displacements for, what is now, the urban African American community. By looking at the process and implications of these two displacements, the reader should be able to recognize the five stages outlined by Bullard (1993) in Confronting Environmental Racism. Bullard claims that oppression for "people of color" have five commonalities:
1. They enter the ‘host’ society and economy involuntarily;
2. Their native culture is destroyed;
3. White-dominated bureaucracies impose restrictions from which whites are exempt;
4. The dominant group uses institutionalized racism to justify its actions; and
5. A dual or ‘split labor market’ emerges based on ethnicity and race (p. 16).
While much of this information is painful and somewhat depressing, it is essential to acknowledge. Although the author stresses the importance of telling the story, she cannot fully present the story of African Americans within this paper. There is much work already done in this area and anyone interested in learning more comprehensively about African American history should utilize the wide array of resources available. The next section will detail pieces of the history in relation to issues of displacement. The sources utilized should not been taken as a comprehensive account of history, but instead look at the factors that surfaced as a result of displacement.
 
The first displacement
The first displacement occurred with the enslavement of peoples from Central and West Africa during the slave trade, where millions of Africans were stolen from their homelands and forced into slavery in the new world. The majority of enslaved Africans were taken to the Carribean islands and Brazil. The first enslaved Africans came as early as 1619, with the slavery period of the United States lasting until 1865 (Conniff & Davis, 1994) with the Emancipation Proclamation. Within the time period of the 1600's to mid-1800's somewhere between 600,000 to 650,000 Africans, who survived the middle passage, came to the east coast of North America (Kolchin, May 21, 2000). The enslaved Africans came from numerous and diverse tribes which include the: "Bambara, Fulani, Mandinka, and Wolof from the Senegambia, the collection of peoples from Dahomey called Whydahs, the Ashanti, Coromatees, Fanti, Ga, Hausa, Ibo, Yoruba, Angola..." (Huggins, 1977, p.3).
It is important to note that although the enslaved Africans came from diverse tribes that had different customs and languages, they shared a common geographical area and similar manifestations of culture. This idea comes from C.H. Long in his essay, Perspectives for a study of African American Religion (Fulop & Raboteau, 1997). He refers to another scholar, Forde, contending that the region where the enslaved Africans came from had "...a structural unity discernible in language and religious forms (p. 26)." The identification of this cultural and regional unity is essential to this study. The author contends that the descendants of the enslaved Africans come from common earth- based traditions. These traditions were not exactly the same, but the importance is that they reflected a mediation with their local landscapes, which were extremely similar.
The enslaved Africans were brutally disconnected from their homeland and native cultures. The African slaves initially became a cultural group through the distinction of "not being white" (Huggins, 1977, p. 4). As was mentioned above, they came from numerous tribes, and thus spoke different languages. This made it difficult to communicate with one another, adding another dimension to their displacement. Slave traders and plantation owners were certain to keep Africans from the same tribes separate in order to avoid rebellion. Despite their differences, a strong sense of community and family ensued during the slavery period. Many of the relationships and practices which emerged were similar to life in Africa.
The African American slave family, like the traditional African family, was extended. It reached beyond the nuclear family, following lines of kinship and familiarity of community members (Huggins, 1977, p. 162). Parenting was not just a responsibility for one’s children, it was for one’s village. The nature of slavery did not support families in terms of legal marriages and establishment of two parent households. It was common for members of a family to be separated by a sale to a different plantation. Husbands and wives were rarely recognized by the law, and even so, could be separated by their master’s whims. Mothers were conditioned to see their children taken from them once they reached a certain age and became valuable commodities to plantation owners. Slavery disrupted establishing families. In spite of this, the family was strong on the plantations. Kinship extended beyond bloodlines, with the elderly caring for the young, the community collectively became family. Family arose through one’s place of living, not simply through one’s biology.
Religion played a tremendous role in the African slave community. Blacks adapted the western culture’s Christianity, blending it with their own natural mysticism. It was a way to practice traditional beliefs through a guise that whites would accept. Other more traditional modes of religious expression, such as drumming and dancing, were banned. Much of Christianity supported their own beliefs. However, the other worldly redemption of Christianity was initially replaced with the recognition of the divine life force within this earth and cosmos. "The African transformed their sense of cosmic life force into the term "God" and in that way they never quite lost the idea that everything was subsumed under it, even man (Huggins, 1977, p. 74)." This idea of the life force and the religious connection Africans have to the earth will be explored in the next chapter. It’s importance here is to recognize that the African slave community had an earth-based orientation.
It is important to note that the African slave kept a close relationship with their new landscapes through working on plantations. They became the experts on the land and entered into relationship with it. Huggins suggests that this bond with nature was a constant reminder of the greater forces in life, allowing African Americans to see beyond their slavery, having faith in a larger process and fate.
Although the institution and realities of slavery were both atrocious and traumatic for the enslaved Africans and their descendants, the author feels that the psychological trauma of slavery does not fully explain the problems of present urban African American communities. She feels that the greatest trauma was the disconnection from the landscape and culture experienced by the enslaved Africans. It removed the point of reference from which their cultural worldview originally sprang.
Both Huggins (1977) and Zinn (1995) reinforce this point. The practice of slavery was not foreign to African peoples. They owned and traded slaves themselves. However, slavery was much different in Africa, because it occurred within their contextual landscape, and there was a human relationship between slaves and other members of the community. In fact, It was not uncommon for a slave to marry within their "master family". In contrast, slaves in western culture became a commodity. Within the capitalistic western world, slaves, like the land, became things of monetary value rather than living, spiritual entities.
African slavery is hardly to be praised. But it was far different from plantation or mining slavery in the Americas, which was lifelong, morally crippling, destructive of family ties, without hope of any future. African slavery lacked two elements that made American slavery the most cruel form of slavery in history: the frenzy for limitless profit that comes from capitalistic agriculture; the reduction of the slave to less than human status by the use of racial hatred, with that relentless clarity based on color, where white was master, black was slave (Zinn, 1995, p. 28).
The author believes that the greater trauma was displacement from their home, their landscape and community. Slavery caused Africans to lose their context for living since their meaning and order were intricately tied to their sense of place and community. Initially slavery signified a cut-off from this community and cosmology.
Huggins (1977) claims that this was the greatest trauma for the African lost all markings of her/his identity. He explains that although the African cosmology was attuned to the dynamism of cyclical change, the African people were not suited for other modes of change. Huggins describes "status, stability, and order" as the central characteristics of the African world view (p. 17). In other words, the African was used to a continual adaptation to changes in their landscape, but they relied heavily in the permanency of place. Thus displacement from one’s community and landscape was the greater trauma.
This does not mean that the practices of western slavery were acceptable, for they were one of the most brutal treatments of humankind. However, the African identity was rooted in extremes. Brutality was not a foreign concept. The African experienced the highest and lowest levels of emotional experiences (ie. pain or ecstasy) rather than keeping within the middle (Huggins, 1977). Intense suffering was expected for it correlated to the African world view where the elements were harsh and unpredictable. But taking them out of their cultures, a place where the community interpreted ways of living through their natural landscapes, erased the stability of their world view.
Although this first displacement resulted in a tragic disconnection from their original landscape and culture, it important to recognize that the new landscape of the South shared some strikingly similar connections to their native homelands. This idea surfaces with the work of Carl Anthony and Wendell Berry. Anthony reveals that the landscape where the enslaved Africans originated were not drastically different from the Black Belt of the United States, where they were forced to live. Berry shows that the enslaved Blacks were still embedded in an earth-based means of productivity, working the plantation land.
In a personal interview (1999) with the author, Carl Anthony, Director of the Urban Habitat Program, demonstrated that the regions the enslaved Africans originated and those in which they were enslaved in (what is now) the southern United States, also known as the black belt region, have very similar characteristics. Anthony pointed out both geographies on an elevation map. When looking at the black belt region and comparing it to West Africa, it is clear that they are both in green areas, having similar elevations, and somewhat similar landscapes. In addition, Anthony pointed out that West Africa was a distinct geographical area in terms of similar elevation, which was distinguishable from the rest of the African continent.
The significance of Anthony’s connection between the geographies is that the enslaved Africans came to a new location which was relatively similar to their original landscapes. This would ease, to some degree, their displacement. Indigenous cultures model their customs and laws according to the landscape they inhabit. Their worldview is directly tied to the geography of place. Through displacement to a different geography the culture’s worldview and practices may no longer be relevant. However, if a culture is displaced to a landscape that is similar, much of their cultural worldview and practice can be maintained.
Wendell Berry (1989) adds another dimension to Anthony’s insight. He acknowledges, that although the institution of slavery was wrong, the enslaved peoples maintained a beneficial connection with the land which was integral to their health.
As the white man has withheld from the black man the positions of responsibility toward the land, and once consequently the sense of a legally permanent relationship to it, so he has assigned to him as his proper role the labor, the thousands of menial small acts by which the land is maintained, and by which men develop a closeness to the land and the wisdom of that closeness (p. 78).
Berry recognizes that working closely with the earth is how a people gain the wisdom necessary to function healthily. He parallels this to his own childhood as a member of the white southern class which was moving towards the industrialized world in the 1930's. At this point, the occupation of farming was no longer valued by his society and was replaced, instead, by the accumulation of status and materials goods. These pursuits took the Southern white culture into the cities, leaving the more valiant occupations of working with the land (and the body) as a thing of the past. A new structure of hierarchy occurred - one that was slightly different from the racial hierarchy of the past. This new one segregated its society by class, the upper or acceptable class residing in the city and gaining employment in occupations of the mind. While the lower class, those who worked with their bodies and the land, remained in the rural areas or became the caretakers of the elite class in the urban areas.
Berry continues, claiming that the values of the white southerners submitted to a hierarchy of success, where money was the ultimate attainment. Happiness was now limited to the attainment of this success, thus suspending the idea of happiness in the moment. People began to live for some future goal, overlooking daily pleasures. Those institutions, such as the church, which once supported more ethical way of living, suddenly lost their influence as a moral guide changing into a social function of a particular class. In sum, the purpose of life became isolated from the actuality of life, becoming a theory, rather than an earthly, pleasurable pursuit.
While Berry seems to romanticize the types of values the southern communities originally had, his writing makes a strong connection with the psyche of the enslaved Black who worked with the land. In the era of slavery, most Blacks worked with the land, maintaining a close relationship with the earth. This working relationship is, perhaps, how a culture attunes to the wisdom of the earth, and then models its laws and customs accordingly. If this relationship is lost, the culture begins to lose its connection with the earth, and its worldview and practices become unsustainable.
Hence in the first two hundred years in which Blacks were enslaved in the South, they were still able to have some degree of cultural cohesion. They established slave communities in which many of their original traditions were maintained and they continued to have a relationship with the natural landscape. Although the conditions of slavery were cruel, the earth-based cultures of the African descendants was not decimated. This would occur with the second displacement.
 
The second displacement
The second displacement is marked by the Reconstruction era which began with the adoption of the Emancipation Proclamation in 1865, which freed the enslaved Blacks. Many believed that with this new freedom, African Americans would advance their position within the society of the United States. However this was not the case. Instead, Blacks remained in impoverished conditions within the racist, hierarchical conditions of this country. Freedom did not mean justice, nor opportunity. Due to poor conditions in the South, Blacks were eventually forced to migrate to the urban areas of the North and West in search of better conditions. For Blacks, the migration periods signified a displacement from a landscape that was similar to their ancestral homeland and also marked a change from working with the land to working in industrial cities, reducing their connection with the natural world.
Most of the information in this section comes from the outstanding work of social scientist, Donna Franklin in her book, Ensuring Inequality: the Structural Transformation of the African American family (1997). Franklin provides a very thorough history of urban African Americans. There are many other sources that provides this information.  The information presented here has been cross-referenced, but no other source has been as comprehensive and explanatory and anyone interested in this subject should utilize them. However, due to the incredible amount of information contained within this history, the author elected to keep the focus narrow and to the point. The purpose is to provide an overview of the plight of African Americans as a result of the Reconstruction era and the migration to urban areas, which latter materialized into the present "ghettos."
With the adoption of the Emancipation Proclamation in 1865, enslaved Blacks were now free. A major issue arose involving employment opportunities for newly freed Blacks. Instead of fostering economic opportunity, the post-emancipation era resulted in a forced dependency of southern Blacks on White land owners. This dependency and resulting lack of economic opportunity eventually led to the northern migration of Blacks to urban areas, and later, the establishment of Black ghettos. This era contributed both to the breakdown of the African American family, a marked separation with the natural environment, and the disastrous economic, political, and social conditions of urban Blacks today.
The period of 1865 to 1920 (reconstruction) marked a time where African Americans, in general, remained in the southern United States working on the former slave plantations. The practice of sharecropping arose as a result of northern Whites’ attempt to assuage southern Whites who feared they would lose their Black labor supply (Franklin, 1997, p. 28). Sharecropping was quite similar to slavery in that most of the Black families were now employed by one plantation owner. Most arrangements adopted the "fifty-fifty contract" where the
...profits from the crops were to be divided evenly [between the plantation owner and the Black sharecropping family]; but in return for providing a house for the sharecropper’s family on a yearly basis, the landlord could deduct from the worker’s share of the profits the furnishings and supplies given "on credit" during the year (Franklin, 1997, p. 29).
On a whole, the sharecropping arrangement resulted in the Black families being dependent on the plantation owners. In fact, it was common for the sharecropper to be in debt to the plantation owner as a result of this arrangement.
Black sharecropping families were unable to support themselves. At the same time, there was an economic incentive for Black females to migrate to the northern cities where there were abundant jobs for them as domestic workers. Eventually, Black males would follow the women due to the failure of the sharecropping arrangements. Unfortunately, there was not an abundance of jobs for the Black men in the urban areas (Franklin, 1997, p. 39). In additions to the failure of sharecropping, Franklin cites soil depletion as another impetus for Blacks to move north. "One major factor in the northward movement of Blacks was the decline in opportunities for agricultural workers caused largely by problems of soil depletion (1997, p. 100)." Not only was the agricultural industry of the South oppressive to Blacks, it was oppressive to the natural environment as well.
Another explanation of the migration of Blacks to the urban, northern and western cities, were the two world wars. There were two "Great Migration" periods for African Americans. The first during 1910-1920 (Franklin, 1997, p. 72) and the second during the 1940's (Franklin 1997, p. 99). This was a time where many White American men (and some other ethnicities) were participating in the wars, leaving a labor vacuum, while at the same there were an unprecedented number of factory jobs available (Franklin, 1997, p. 40) due to increasing industrialization. During these periods, massive amounts of African Americans moved to urban areas. By the end of these two migration periods, "...the proportion of Blacks in urban areas would finally exceed those in rural areas..." ( Franklin, 1997, p. 99). This would isolate the African American community as being located in one central area.
Unfortunately there would be high unemployment rates for Blacks in the time between the two world wars, during the Great Depression. Although the entire country suffered, unemployment rates were highest for African Americans (Franklin, 1997, p. 62). The post-war era also resulted in high unemployment for Blacks, specifically Black men (Franklin, 1997, p. 113). Franklin illustrates that at the same time, Whites were moving from the cities to suburban areas due to better economic opportunities and the fear of living among minorities (1997, p. 126). This spurred a fear of deteriorating economic conditions from Whites who owned businesses in these now minority areas. The result were a series of economic programs instituted by both state and federal governments aimed to maintain the urban economy.
With White flight to the suburbs, racial clusters became more imbalanced in the inner cities. In addition to the concern that large concentrations of Blacks in urban areas would jeopardize White commercial interests, there was a growing demand for social services to help poor Blacks (Franklin, 1997, p. 129). The result was a forced dependency of Blacks on social programs, such as welfare.
The Social Security Act emerged during the presidency of Franklin D. Roosevelt. It provided benefits to workers in specific industries. Unfortunately, these industries excluded "two-thirds" of Black workers. This same act permitted the redlining of Black urban areas by banks, making loans to prospective African American business and home owners virtually impossible (Franklin, 1997, pp. 63-64). Another problem which contributed to the current economics of the Black ghetto occurred in the 1970's with a shift "from manufacturing and towards service industries" (Franklin, p. 187). Not only were the majority of Blacks not skilled for these jobs, but the jobs themselves were no longer located in their urban areas.
Despite popular opinion that the Civil Rights initiatives of the 1970's improved the conditions for Blacks, the 1980's actually worsened their circumstances. During the Reagan and Bush eras, the inner-city communities of color were hardest hit through economics and social policy. This was a time when affirmative action was often removed and called unfair, when welfare recipients were stereotyped as being unwed Black mothers. At the same time, the urban economy lost more jobs in factories to ones in technological areas located in the suburbs (Boyd, 1997).
In the article, City Jobs and Residents on a Collision Course: The Urban Underclass Dilemma (November, 1990), sociologist, John Kasarda, brings up several factors which worsened the conditions for urban Blacks during this time period. Although some of the social and economic policies such as affirmative action were designed to help poor communities of color, in reality, they were harmful. These policies benefitted skilled Black workers. Those without the necessary job skills did not benefit. What is worse is that many of the Blacks who did prosper, left the urban areas, removing an important support base. With the combination of Black and White flight, the small amount of businesses which were owned by Blacks did not have the patronage to ensure their success. In addition, a combination of different federal and state polices (i.e. public assistance) became programs of forced-dependency. These policies only alleviated short-term ills, failing to provide support for future growth and independence.
In his book, Black Corona: Race and Politics of Place in an Urban Community (1998), Steven Gregory, a professor at New York University, documents the unfortunate history of many urban Black areas, recognizing that many factors have come into play. He does this by concentrating on one example of urban plight in a Black community, Black Corona, located within the borough of Queens, New York As with most urban communities, the issue of white flight played an important role into contributing to urban blight. This is when White residents of urban communities moved, in mass, to suburban communities at the same time Blacks moved in. However, white flight did not result in a vacuum of stability and work and cultural morals, but instead resulted in a loss of political power within these communities. Both federal and state policies changed for urban areas at this time, blocking access to loans to potential Black home owners and small business entrepreneurs. At the same time, federal and state welfare-type policies brought a forced dependency on the inhabitants of these communities on the government. The result has been continual urban degradation within an entangled bureaucracy within the Black community.
Gregory points out that without local ownership, the residents have less political and economic influence and also care less about the local property because they do not have an invested interest. Home owners are more likely to care about their neighborhood than a renter because of property values and, more importantly, since they have chosen to create a home within the particular community. If the community deteriorates, their homes and families deteriorate.
Another factor which drastically affected Black communities was the sudden and devastating introduction of lethal drugs into the community. Watkins and Fullilove identify four factors which contributed to the current plight of urban Black communities: suburbanization, economic decline, epidemic disease and municipal public policy (Souls Journal, Winter 1999, p.37). "Epidemic disease" is attributed to the introduction of crack cocaine. In their article, Crack Cocaine and Harlem Health, they connect drug abuse with deteriorating health conditions in urban communities:
Harlem had the highest rate of age-adjusted mortality from all causes. The rate was more than double that of U.S. whites and was 50 percent higher than that of U.S. blacks living in other areas. Cardiovascular disease, cirrhosis, homicide, neoplasms, and drug dependency were the five major causes of death. Homicide, cirrhosis, and drug-related deaths accounted for 40 percent of excess mortality in Harlem suggesting a corresponding excess burden of substance abuse - associated morbidity (p. 37).
In addition, Watkins and Fullilove, raise an essential point about drug infestation in urban communities. They contend that drug abuse breaks down community ties, breaking down cultural unity:
Survival in poor urban communities depends heavily on informal social ties. When the network of social relationships and corresponding social controls that permit large numbers of people to live together is greatly disrupted, behaviors that would not normally be tolerated — like crime — increase. The presence of undesirable and illicit activity limits the movements of residents and thus decreases the frequency neighbors become estranged from one another and feelings of togetherness and security are replaced by fear and suspicion (p.43-44).
This is a crucial point for the purposes of this paper, for although the institution of slavery was traumatic and included many oppressive measures to break up the Black family, culture, and community, it was unsuccessful. However, over a hundred years after emancipation, drug infestations caused the culture of urban Blacks to eradicate.
Lastly in the work, Confronting Environmental Racism: Voices from the Grassroots (1993), Robert Bullard brings up some present day environmental issues affecting urban communities of color. Due to their poor economies (and need for jobs), diminished political influence, and disregard by mainstream society, communities of color consistently bare the brunt of the ecological damage that has been done in this country. While the mainstream environmental groups have gotten together and insisted that things like toxic wastes dumps not be put in their backyards, planners have moved them to communities of color. Industry has played a big role in these practices because these communities are easily lured by the promise of jobs by the polluting corporations. At the same time, people of color have less vocal voting records and clearly less political sway in Washington and with their local state governments (not to mention diminished political power due to the connection of incarceration and the loss of voting rights among Black men). Manning Marable claims that Blacks only comprise "...10-11 percent of the voters in most general elections..." and are forced to rely on "white liberals and moderates to articulate their agendas, in order to acquire majoritarian support (1983, p.8). Thus, with issues that are only central to the Black community, African Americans have little power in receiving wide-scale support from state and government representatives.
So not only are Black communities faced with deteriorating economies, urban plight, dependency on public programs, diminished political power, and infiltration of widespread drug dependency, they are also facing some of the worst environmental conditions (i.e. toxic waste, pollution) in this country. Bullard refers to this phenomena as environmental racism. Environmental racism describes a domination of people of color through institutionalized, unfair practices (by those in positions of power whether governmental or through big business) which inhibit true social justice and, specifically, pollute communities of color to an unparalleled degree. Bullard describes environmental racism as:
...racial discrimination in environmental policy making. It is racial discrimination in the enforcement of regulations and laws. It is racial discrimination in the deliberate targeting of communities of color for toxic waste disposal and the siting of polluting industries. It is racial discrimination in the official sanctioning of the life-threatening presence of poisons and pollutants in communities of color. And, it is racial discrimination in the history of excluding people of color from the mainstream environmental groups, decision-making boards, commissions, and regulatory boards (Bullard, 1993, p. 3).
The information presented here does not begin to address the atrocities that are occurring in Black urban communities, nor does it tell the stories of the individuals involved. However even this overview of the conditions are hard to digest. Urban Black communities in the United States are in a crisis, yet few outside of these communities are addressing these problems, while those who are addressing it from within often have little resources to initiate large scale change. The author does not have the solution to these problems. However, she does believe that the answers lie within the community and culture of African Americans.
The second displacement resulted in many perilous conditions, in terms of Cultural Ecopsychology, two stand out. First, there was a loss of connection with the natural landscape. Where once Blacks worked with the land and, as a result, became embedded within their local landscape, in urban areas they worked mostly in factories and as domestic workers. In addition the local landscape deteriorated with urban plight and environmental degradation. Second, the cultural cohesion of African Americans deteriorated. The combination of poverty, social stratification, and drug abuse worked together to weaken the ties among urban Blacks. With these weakening of ties, specific cultural knowledge and practice become lost. In essence the culture of urban Blacks has deteriorated. However, it is not fully destroyed. The author believes one key to reunifying this community is by taking a look back to its sustainable roots, specifically looking at the origins of its worldview in Africa.