this post was submitted on 17 Feb 2024
112 points (98.3% liked)

News

23259 readers
3359 users here now

Welcome to the News community!

Rules:

1. Be civil


Attack the argument, not the person. No racism/sexism/bigotry. Good faith argumentation only. This includes accusing another user of being a bot or paid actor. Trolling is uncivil and is grounds for removal and/or a community ban. Do not respond to rule-breaking content; report it and move on.


2. All posts should contain a source (url) that is as reliable and unbiased as possible and must only contain one link.


Obvious right or left wing sources will be removed at the mods discretion. We have an actively updated blocklist, which you can see here: https://lemmy.world/post/2246130 if you feel like any website is missing, contact the mods. Supporting links can be added in comments or posted seperately but not to the post body.


3. No bots, spam or self-promotion.


Only approved bots, which follow the guidelines for bots set by the instance, are allowed.


4. Post titles should be the same as the article used as source.


Posts which titles don’t match the source won’t be removed, but the autoMod will notify you, and if your title misrepresents the original article, the post will be deleted. If the site changed their headline, the bot might still contact you, just ignore it, we won’t delete your post.


5. Only recent news is allowed.


Posts must be news from the most recent 30 days.


6. All posts must be news articles.


No opinion pieces, Listicles, editorials or celebrity gossip is allowed. All posts will be judged on a case-by-case basis.


7. No duplicate posts.


If a source you used was already posted by someone else, the autoMod will leave a message. Please remove your post if the autoMod is correct. If the post that matches your post is very old, we refer you to rule 5.


8. Misinformation is prohibited.


Misinformation / propaganda is strictly prohibited. Any comment or post containing or linking to misinformation will be removed. If you feel that your post has been removed in error, credible sources must be provided.


9. No link shorteners.


The auto mod will contact you if a link shortener is detected, please delete your post if they are right.


10. Don't copy entire article in your post body


For copyright reasons, you are not allowed to copy an entire article into your post body. This is an instance wide rule, that is strictly enforced in this community.

founded 1 year ago
MODERATORS
 

Predatory developers often target Black families whose generational land lacks clear ownership. Now, more families are securing deeds to keep their land and create real wealth.

A street sign on a dirt road leading up to a large plot of land in Nakina, North Carolina, lets you know you’re traveling down Roland Smith Lane. On that land sits a large white house — the only house standing on the 60-acre plot — that has become a vacation home for several generations of the Smith family to gather at.

The Smiths say they have done everything right to hold on to their land — and they have no intention of selling. Still, Evelyn S. Booker, who inherited the land from their mother, Esther Smith Morse, says she and her seven siblings receive letters and texts weekly from developers with offers to buy.

“We’ve established that if anyone wants to sell their property, they will do so to a sibling and not an outsider,” Booker said.

By 1910, Black Americans like Smith’s ancestors had acquired a cumulative 16 million acres of rural land, according to the American Economic Association. But over the century that followed, 90% of that land was lost because of threats, violent force or systematic rejection from programs offered to white landowners to help keep land through economic hardships like the Great Depression.

you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments
[–] tb_@lemmy.world 0 points 8 months ago (1 children)

Yet there are white people who do own land from before 160 years ago.

Oh, right, slavery.

[–] Kraven_the_Hunter@lemmy.dbzer0.com 1 points 8 months ago* (last edited 8 months ago) (1 children)

Yes but the point being made all throughout this thread is that even that white people land from >160 years ago would not be considered "ancestral".

Yes, you're trying to point out the role that slavery has in denying black people property. It's a completely different point than was being made though, and could have been it's own comment thread instead of a misguided response to a comment about the inappropriateness of the word "ancestral" here.

Sheesh. Trying to have a conversation with the well ackshually crowd around is rough!

[–] tb_@lemmy.world -1 points 8 months ago

I wonder why black people don't own much land from before 160 years ago?

There are more recent reasons than native Americans explaining why black people don't own more land.

I agree with the sentiment native American land being ancestral as opposed to "white" owned land.