By Phoenix Calida (July 8, 2015)
If you didn’t have shit to say when they turned housing projects into high rises and created turf wars; Continue reading “If You Didn’t Have S*it to Say (This Weekend in Chicago)”
Month: July 2015
We Can and Must Do Better: A Personal Reflection on Wealth Inequality
By Mark Naison (July 6, 2015)
The greatest sustained period of economic growth in the US took place between 1941 and 1970 when tax rates on the wealthy were much higher than they are now, when business regulation, especially of the financial sector, was much more rigorous, and when trade unions were much stronger. There are options within the US constitutional framework that could be invoked that will produce far better results that the current social contract, which has concentrated wealth at the top to a greater degree than at any time since the 19th century. Continue reading “We Can and Must Do Better: A Personal Reflection on Wealth Inequality”
Should Corvallis Rename Avery Park?
Making #blacklivesmatter in Oregon
By Joseph Orosco (July 3, 2015)
(Update 2018: Since this post was first published there have been many developments in regard to Joseph Avery’s namesake in Corvallis. In 2016, a process started at Oregon State to investigate the historical legacy of several buildings on campus, including Avery Lodge, to determine whether the figures honored with a building name engaged in actions or thoughts that are at odds with values of Oregon State’s educational mission. I was asked to be the co-chair of this process. Historians were commissioned to do new research to inform OSU President Ray and the Board of Trustees. And over the course of an academic year, community conversations and forums were held to discuss and assess the reports. You can read about the process here. The ultimate decision in regard to Avery Lodge was that OSU President Ray decided to rename the building.
The historical report about Joseph Avery can be found here. Based on this most recent investigation, I would moderate what I wrote three years ago. It’s unclear whether Avery help white supremacist views–the evidence is not conclusive. His membership in white supremacist organizations remains speculative. However, what does seems clear is that Avery appeared to have some kind of controlling interest in a newspaper that condoned white supremacist views and he was willing to disseminate these views for private political or economic gain–at a moment in which Oregon was enveloped in heated debates about whether to enter the Union as a pro- or anti- slavery state. It was on that basis that OSU President Ray decided that Joseph Avery was not someone that the university should honor with a public monument.)
Since the horrid massacre in Charleston, a seismic shift has occurred across the country in regard to the nation’s white supremacist history. Continue reading “Should Corvallis Rename Avery Park?”