I’ve been really struggling to write this post because writing about the historical context of a place and a movement is such a huge and complicated task. History can mean so many different things depending on which narratives you hear and listen to, and especially in a place like Oakland, which is one of the most multicultural and diverse cities in the country, it’s impossible to even begin to analyze all the narratives, histories, and cultures that have brought Oakland to where it is today.
My work and research around the concept of communications is very dependent on seeing links, and then being able to communicate those links and connections in a way that illuminates stories that appeal to people. I would definitely identify my site as Oakland and not a smaller neighborhood or sub-section, mostly because Rooted in Resilience has various projects across Oakland, and because my work has depended on me seeing the connections between various sites, rather than being immersed in one. However, I don’t want to look at Oakland in a vacuum because Oakland and the wider Bay Area are intertwined environmentally, culturally and socially, and as my work with the Resilient Communities Initiative has shown me, the larger grouping of the Bay Area is an extremely important part of Oakland’s place in history and the present, as is communicating those connected regional histories.
This makes my task in writing this post on historical context harder because history is often affected and defined just as much by what is left out as what is included. Too often what is left out are the stories of the people that the environmental justice movement is centered on–communities of color, Indigenous communities, low-income communities, and communities who have experienced environmental and other forms of racism. It feels important in my historical context to try to privilege those narratives over the dominant narratives of California and the Bay Area, such as the Gold Rush. I also know that however much I write, I will always be leaving something out and so I want to say that I know my historical context is flawed and I understand that this affects my ability to understand the present Oakland. I think the best thing to do is to write a three-part response for this question of historical context over the next few days. This post is the beginning and a way to present how I’m understanding historical context. I feel it’s important to dedicate a post to natural history and the ways in which the natural environment have shaped the present, as this is often left out in general narratives of history. I also want to dedicate a post to some of the social movements that have both shaped and been shaped by Oakland, such as the Black Panthers, modern-day environmental movements, and Occupy Oakland.
I want to begin with a map that I came across in an article I was reading about Oakland’s history and current gentrification. I was looking for historical context about North Oakland and this article provided some of that. Written by a self-proclaimed “gentrifier”, Brock Winstead, the article is about him working through the history of his newly-renovated home in the Golden Gate neighborhood of North Oakland. One of the elements referenced in his article is a map from 1937, showing redlining policies put in place in Oakland.
Home Owners Loan Corporation map, 1937. Source: http://www.slate.com/articles/news_and_politics/history/2015/02/ gentrification_in_oakland_a_new_arrival_digs_deep_into_california_s_history.html
Redlining was a policy that was introduced in the 1930s by the Federal Housing Administration that essentially devalued areas (marked here in red and yellow), and made it impossible for people in those areas to get loans, leading to disrepair, low homeownership, and general disintegration of the neighborhoods. This policy was racially motivated, as the devalued areas were predominantly black neighborhoods and the people who were refused loans were people of color, while white people were able to get loans easily during this period and live out the “American Dream”.1 It was a policy of segregation and prevented people of color from moving into better-maintained neighborhoods with better schools and opportunities. This map is especially fascinating because redlining has had lasting effects on communities and much of the poverty distribution today in Oakland matches this map. The green areas on the map are the most affluent and “desirable”, then blue, then yellow, all the way to the red areas, which were deemed unlivable and “undesirable”. These divisions are still standing in many ways today.
This connects to the natural environment and health concerns as well. It feels important to note that the green and blue areas are physically higher up and more removed from the industrial city center. The access to pristine environments and natural spaces is one that is often a privileged thing and one that communities of color and low-income communities don’t get to experience. This continues today with the central and flatter parts of Oakland being food deserts and having very little green and natural space, compared to the Oakland Hills and affluent neighborhoods up in the hills. In addition, an article on redlining by the Greenlining Institute points out that a map of the Current Air Toxic Hazard Levels from the EPA that shows a serious correlation between areas in red and yellow on the redlining map and areas that are currently facing hazardous air pollution levels.
Left: Redlining map featured above, Right: Map of Current Air Toxic Hazard Levels provided by the EPA
Source: http://greenlining.org/blog/2017/undoing-oaklands-history-environmental-racism/
In this way, Oakland’s history of redlining has defined its environmental future. The connection between a financial housing policy and the environmental health of communities also demonstrates the crucial need to think of all these issues as interconnected. Reflecting on the history of the natural environment and some of the movements in Oakland over the next few days will also help to puzzle through the interconnected nature of Oakland’s pieces of history and its intertwined present.
Sources:
http://www.slate.com/articles/news_and_politics/history/2015/02/gentrification_in_oakland_a_new_arrival_digs_deep_into_california_s_history.html
https://www.theatlantic.com/business/archive/2014/05/the-racist-housing-policy-that-made-your-neighborhood/371439/
https://www.greenlining.org/blog/2017/undoing-oaklands-history-environmental-racism
Very sensitive understanding of history and its uses — who tells it, who the audience is, where it starts and where it ends, how teleological it actually is, etc. I do think it’s still helpful to try to get the context of where you are, as you are doing, even if all you are doing is collecting stories about the place that will never quite capture an objective truth. (Any historian who believes, as they do on The X Files, that “the truth is out there” is kidding herself.) I’ve read the article you mentioned here about the history of Oakland and its gentrification. I wonder what your emotional reaction was to it? I love this line of yours: “This map is especially fascinating because redlining has had lasting effects on communities and much of the poverty distribution today in Oakland matches this map” and think, as you do, that this is really key to understanding Oakland’s entire development from the mid-century on. Do you know anything about Oakland pre-1930s, I wonder?