Posted on 09/01/2020 11:47:05 AM PDT by Diana in Wisconsin
In the middle of the protests over police brutality and a pandemic, 19 black families have joined forces and purchased 96.71 acres of land in Toomsboro, Georgia. They plan to build a new, safe city there.
Ashley Scott, a Georgia-based realtor, started The Freedom Georgia Initiative with a few like-minded people.
In an op-ed for Blavity, Scott explained that the idea came after the death of Ahmaud Arbery, a black man who was killed by a group of white men while out on a jog.
“I am concerned. At times distraught. For the first time ever in my life, I felt disempowered. So much so that the overachieving, solution-oriented, practical, non-emotional person that I am had to stop,” Scott wrote.
“I sought counseling from a black therapist and it helped. It helped me to realize that what we as black people are suffering from is racial trauma. We are dealing with systemic racism. We are dealing with deep-rooted issues that will require more than protesting in the streets. It will take for us as a people, as Atlanta rapper and activist Killer Mike so eloquently put, ‘To plot, plan, strategize, organize and mobilize.’ So that’s what I and my good friend Renee Walters, an entrepreneur and investor, did.”
Together, they began to look for ways to change the world for the better in whatever way they could. “We wanted to make some kind of difference that could ensure the safety of our black sons and black husbands when they went about their lives just breathing and being. We wanted to do something to amass black power to affect real change.”
“We considered the reality that even in Atlanta, with an exceptional black woman like Mayor Keisha Lance Bottoms, there was still no respect for the humanity of blacks,” Scott continued. “Even with Erika Shields, a black woman chief of police at the helm, there was the murder of Rayshard Brooks. We can see there is something much deeper happening. Politics, as usual, isn’t the answer. Something new has to happen.”
The group joined several Facebook groups discussing building black cities and new Black Wall Streets, and it turned out there were more people who shared the same desires. “It was clear to me that developing new cities was necessary because these old ones, even with strong black leadership, have too many deep-rooted problems.”
As a realtor, Scott has been sitting in on zoning and city council meetings. “At first, I attended wanting to get a few new clients, but seeing the progress of the newly created city of Stonecrest, Georgia, inspired me.”
It motivated Scott to look more deeply into local politics and how cities are created. “My research into cityhood gave me insight that this is how we change our communities and build real black power.”
Black power comes from wealth,” Scott explained. “Wealth is created through cash-flow and assets. Who has more cash flow and assets than governments? Where does the cash-flow come from? Taxes and bonds. Who pays taxes? Landowners. Who runs governments? People. We are the people. We have to be more involved, especially young people!”
Scott said she knows people might start wondering, ‘What in the world does all this have to do with why you all purchased land in the midst of protests and a pandemic, and how you used cooperative economics to do it?’ According to her, everything.
“We figured we could try to fix a broken system or we could start fresh. Start a city that could be a shining example of being the change you want to see. We wanted to be more involved in creating the lives we really want for our black families. And maybe, just maybe, create some generational wealth for ourselves by investing in the land. Investing in creating a community that is built around our core values and beliefs.”
The plan is to create a community with green, environmentally safe, and eco-friendly building materials that honor Mother Nature, a community that is self-sufficient and thriving with a living food system built by black farmers to provide food security for all their neighbors, a community that prioritizes diversity and inclusion by hiring BIPOC and women vendors, suppliers and contractors, a community that boasts accessible spaces for all people, finally, a community where all black folks could come home without being murdered by police.
“We made a PowerPoint presentation the day after we left the ‘Toomsboro for Sale’ open house. We called our like-minded friends and family. We impressed upon them the urgent power of now. We brought 19 families together on one accord during a series of online meetings. We started an LLC. We considered a field and we bought it. We bought 96.71 acres of land!”
That .425 mule is not going to be worth a damn.
I do not support their reasoning but I definitely do support their effort in building such a community. It is similar to Amish community in Lancaster, PA.
conservatives uphold voluntary community, quite as they oppose involuntary collectivism. Although Americans have been attached strongly to privacy and private rights, they also have been a people conspicuous for a successful spirit of community. In a genuine community, the decisions most directly affecting the lives of citizens are made locally and voluntarily. Some of these functions are carried out by local political bodies, others by private associations: so long as they are kept local, and are marked by the general agreement of those affected, they constitute healthy community. But when these functions pass by default or usurpation to centralized authority, then community is in serious danger. Whatever is beneficent and prudent in modern democracy is made possible through cooperative volition. If, then, in the name of an abstract Democracy, the functions of community are transferred to distant political direction--why, real government by the consent of the governed gives way to a standardizing process hostile to freedom and human dignity.For a nation is no stronger than the numerous little communities of which it is composed. A central administration, or a corps of select managers and civil servants, however well intentioned and well trained, cannot confer justice and prosperity and tranquility upon a mass of men and women deprived of their old responsibilities. That experiment has been made before; and it has been disastrous. It is the performance of our duties in community that teaches us prudence and efficiency and charity.
This is totally an American approach to a perceived problem. I hope they are successful. Americans have the freedom of assembly. More power to them. They are not asking for anything to be given to them, only for the right to live as they please, within the current laws. I hope it works for them because this is what it means to be a free people. I may not agree with their agenda but then again I am free to not live in their new town. I see this as an approach that would be applauded by our founders.
19 Black Families Decide To Build Their Own Safe City, Purchase 97 Acres Of Land In Georgia
Segregation returns to the South
Plantation labor lines up
Thanks for the advice. I’ve been in contact with local relators and heard similar stories. Presently looking at raw land with the intent to build in the near future.
OMG! LOL!
“There is a not inconsiderable fraction of black people who feel unsafe around whites. They have a natural right to live separately, as do all peoples.”
They already are. It’s called the South side of Chicago. I used to live in Chicagoland before escaping to balmy FL, but I know the city of Chicago well, as I worked there and periodically lived in the City and explored every nook and cranny of it before moving back to the suburbs where I was raised, and then I took off for FL upon retirement.
The South side of Chicago is predominantly (like about 95-100%) Black, and it is chock full of crime, murders, culturally deviant behavior (drugs, alcohol, prostitution) and one could say is a model for Blacks living only with other Blacks, with no Whitey around. With the exception, of course, of the White and Black Cops that have to dive into these neighborhoods with great regularity to haul out the dead bodies, the violent homeless, the street walkers, and to deal with domestic disputes and violent fights, etc. etc.
Perhaps because these folks here will be establishing their Black Utopia with no Whites allowed (Whitey would be nuts to ever want to move there even if allowed, and they won’t be) in a more rural area, they might stand a better chance. Back to their roots (pre-1960’s) when there was a gentler way of life, but of course, then there was some racism to contend with.
Now, even though racism has been an insignificant part of living in this Country for a long time now, except for every 4 years at presidential election time when the White elitist liberal politicians and the MSM gin up the Blacks by pushing their emotional buttons to hate Whitey, we are once again back to Square 1 with accusations of “systemic” racism.
That translates into every White person in this Country being inherently racist and exercising White privilege. So folks, go live in your version of a Black Utopia; all the more (Black) power to you. We will see soon enough how it all pans out.
“I wish Trump would produce a TV ad showing Biden building the systemic racism.”
I posted an article a few weeks back that dealt SPECIFICALLY with Slow Joe’s DECADES of Racism and all the chitty legislation he came up with that put MORE blacks in jail and kept them on the Socialist Democrat Plantation. ACouple that with all ‘Heels Up’ Harris has done to incarcerate blacks, and you’ve got the perfect storm!
It got few replies. Probably already Common Knowledge by most Freepers. *SHRUG*
Joe Biden’s Six Decades of Racism:
Interesting...they want to provide guidance and protection for their black sons but I didn’t see any black MEN mentioned. I’m hoping for success but not counting on it. Plus, the practice of segregating based upon skin color seems to be at odds with the law.
Sometimes I say that and bam! an hour later, something else is worse.
We considered the reality that even in Atlanta, with an exceptional black woman like Mayor Keisha Lance Bottoms, there was still no respect for the humanity of blacks... Even with Erika Shields, a black woman chief of police at the helm, there was the murder of Rayshard Brooks. We can see there is something much deeper happening. Politics, as usual, isn’t the answer. Something new has to happen.
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