Dispossession
There are some words that, even if you don’t know what they mean, you get bad vibes from just seeing or hearing them being spoken. Dispossession is one of those words. It is not a really long word, and can be easily broken into its four smaller parts. But when you say or hear it, other “dis” words tend to come to mind: disrespect, disagree, dispute, disloyal, disconnect, disease, disqualify, dispose …… These words are often disturbing, distasteful and disconcerting.
So what is dispossession (prefix “dis” meaning negative, not, none) anyway?
According to IGI Global, international publishers of researched and peer reviewed information, dispossession is “The wrongful, non-consensual ouster or removal of a person from his or her property by trick, compulsion or misuse of the law, hereby the violator obtains actual occupation of the land.” Simply put, when you take anything from a person, you dispossess them of it. When you are dispossessed of something you own, it was taken away from you. Dispossession is the act of separating someone from a real property; land, buildings, or other tangibles; and, by means of some rogue process, depriving that individual (or group, tribe, community or culture) of the usage, enjoyment, and/or ownership of the property.
The term “dispossess” was coined for the expressed purpose of defining the phenomenon of losing land assets. Many people, groups and cultures have been dispossessed of property and for many reasons. Black dispossession, however, has its own unique features and characteristics. It intentionally, systematically and brutally targets racial minorities (Black people) for the manifest purpose of diminishing that group’s socal, cultural and economic growth (for example, Black Wall Street, which occurred May 31-June 1, 1921; Red Summer in Chicago, which occurred in 1919). It involves subtle and tactical maneuvers; at the heart of which is the clear and obvious belief that nothing really belongs to Black people. Codified in laws (health care, territorial rights, gentrification) is the tacit belief that Black people are somewhat less deserving of rights, privileges, and protection than their white counterparts.
After Emancipation, African Americans – like my grandparents– began to buy land and other resources, and were met by thugs and other vicious groups who did not believe that they were real human beings, deserving of good prosperous lives. Later, laws were enacted to negate these marginalized people’s participation in their version of the American dream. Between 1877 and 1950, there were 4,000 lynching in 12 Southern states. During that time, Black people were dispossessed of 12 million acres of land; half of which occurred between 1950 to 1969. (The period that ushered in the Civil Rights movement). Meeting with racial discrimination and other hardships, many Southern Black farmers abandoned their land and joined the mass exodus to the Northern states where factory jobs promised better outcomes and more opportunities for economic success.
As I write this, in my mind’s eye, I see them both; John Henry and Sally Davison. As freed people, they had been promised “40 acres and a mule” which they never got. So they set out to work hard and preserve; believing in something called “The Declaration of Independence”, which they probably had never heard of. Proudly, they amassed a small fortune of land assets, a legacy they hoped would someday be passed on to me.
And what a gift that would have/could have/should have been. The socioeconomic advantages of owning land in a capitalist society such as ours cannot be overstated. Having land assets can virtually elevate the life chances of entire families for generations and often provide a ladder for economic growth that, without it, a family may be hard pressed to achieve. In a capitalist society, whoever controls the land controls the wealth, the food chain, and the natural resources. Furthermore, it can be said that land ownership offers the potential for one to be his own boss, control his own fate, and to quite literally, as the Bible boldly proclaims, reap what he sows.
The term dispossession can be complex. It is more than just an opportunistic occurrence. It is also an official construct, steeped in the establishment of laws (federal, state and local), rationalities and a narrative that justifies it. At its core, it pits the powerful against the powerless. It uses tactics and language that are predatory and is designed for corporate interest and around corporate goals. Simply put; Parcels of land that don’t produce revenue or don’t serve what someone calls the ‘greater good’; land that appears abandoned or not used in the business of commerce or is not being cultivated or improved, can be considered waste land by corporate interest. The owners of such land have ambiguous property rights since land only becomes property when it is in use or is in some way connected to labor or money. I don’t know how all the nuances of dispossession come together; but a stroll through history makes it clear: All land is there for the taking. When conditions are right, there will be takers. Which, in my mind, begs the question: What does the creation of a bustling sawmill town in Monroe Co. Alabama (1910) have in common with eighty acres of pine, hemlock, spruce and oak in Monroe County Alabama (1964)?
“Those things,
which you have both learned,
and received, and seen in me, DO:
and the God of peace
shall be with you.”