< 3/5: Examining the Consequences of 400 Years of Inequality
March 17, 2017 | The New School
Call to the meeting:
In 1776 the Declaration of Independence boldy declared, "We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal..." Reality belied that statement, as millions were then held in bondage, and the Founding Fathers decided to count those slaves as "3/5's of a person." That tension between our dream and our reality is a destabilizing force in the US, which finds itself heading towards a pinnacle of inequality. William Morrish, Robert Sember and Mindy Fullilove have been working with colleagues to understand the long history of inequality and to gain perspective on the present moment in our national life. At this working meeting, we will tackle three topics: the timeline of 398 years of events, the nature of the present moment and the agenda for the next two years and beyond.
Summary of the meeting:
The conference room was organized around four tables holding the timeline of events occurring over the course of the 398 years between the Africans landing at Jamestown, to be sold into bondage, and that day. The timelines had been created by students in the course “400 years of inequality.” William Morrish set up a fifth table for making a visual representation of the meeting, a long drawing of all that was considered.
Attendees carefully examined the four segments, each representing 100 years. This was followed by a discussion of what we had seen and what it meant.
We broke into small groups to name the present moment in which we found ourselves. Students in the course “Situated Big Data” helped to set up the idea of situation analysis and naming the moment. After much conversation, we agreed that “divided we had fallen,” into the divisions of race and class which permitted the small cliques of the wealthiest people to dominate political life and drive policies that undermined security and stability for majority.
The two years of work, we then concluded, involve helping people understand how the long history of inequality divides and weakens us. We can use this anniversary to make a “People’s Platform,” finding our way towards a future of solidarity and equality.
In 1776 the Declaration of Independence boldy declared, "We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal..." Reality belied that statement, as millions were then held in bondage, and the Founding Fathers decided to count those slaves as "3/5's of a person." That tension between our dream and our reality is a destabilizing force in the US, which finds itself heading towards a pinnacle of inequality. William Morrish, Robert Sember and Mindy Fullilove have been working with colleagues to understand the long history of inequality and to gain perspective on the present moment in our national life. At this working meeting, we will tackle three topics: the timeline of 398 years of events, the nature of the present moment and the agenda for the next two years and beyond.
Summary of the meeting:
The conference room was organized around four tables holding the timeline of events occurring over the course of the 398 years between the Africans landing at Jamestown, to be sold into bondage, and that day. The timelines had been created by students in the course “400 years of inequality.” William Morrish set up a fifth table for making a visual representation of the meeting, a long drawing of all that was considered.
Attendees carefully examined the four segments, each representing 100 years. This was followed by a discussion of what we had seen and what it meant.
We broke into small groups to name the present moment in which we found ourselves. Students in the course “Situated Big Data” helped to set up the idea of situation analysis and naming the moment. After much conversation, we agreed that “divided we had fallen,” into the divisions of race and class which permitted the small cliques of the wealthiest people to dominate political life and drive policies that undermined security and stability for majority.
The two years of work, we then concluded, involve helping people understand how the long history of inequality divides and weakens us. We can use this anniversary to make a “People’s Platform,” finding our way towards a future of solidarity and equality.
10:00 AM |
Welcome and Introductions
|
10:30-Noon |
Examining the Timeline:
Students in the course "400 Years of Inequality" will present the timeline they are composing on the history of inequality in the U.S. since the arrival of the first Africans. Dr. Robert Fullilove, Professor of Sociomedical Sciences at Mailman School of Public Health, add commentary. |
Noon-1:00 PM1:00-2:30 PM |
Lunch
Where Are We in This Moment?
Students in the course "Situated Big Data" will present the conclusions they have reached through a "Naming the Moment" exercise. Robert Sember will lead the discussion. |
2:30-4:00 PM |
The Anniversary and Beyond
Considering the two years to the Anniversary of the arrival of the first Africans to America, what activities help us to address both the present moment and the next decades of struggle? Molly Rose Kaufman and Aubrey Murdock, leaders of the University of Orange, will facilitate the discussion. |
|
|
Organizers
Mindy Fullilove, MD, Hon AIA
|
William Morrish
|
|
Dedicated to the psychology of place, Mindy’s research started in 1986 when she linked the AIDS epidemic with place of residence and she continues to focus on the health problems caused by inequality. For the past 30 years, Mindy has been investigating how broken connections between different sections of cities harm public health and explores ways to reconnect them. Previously, Mindy taught at Columbia University and was a lecturer at Parsons.
She has published numerous articles and six books including Urban Alchemy: Restoring Joy in America's Sorted-Out Cities, Root Shock: How Tearing Up City Neighborhoods Hurts America and What We Can Do About It, and House of Joshua: Meditations on Family and Place. She has received many awards, including inclusion in many “Best Doctors” and two honorary doctorates (Chatham College, 1999, and Bank Street College of Education, 2002). Mindy is a board-certified psychiatrist who explores the ties between environment and mental health. She received her bachelor’s degree from Bryan Mawr College and her MS and MD degrees from Columbia University. |
William Rees Morrish is an architect, urban designer and Professor of Urban Ecologies at Parsons The New School of Design in New York City. Collaborating with a network of interdisciplinary city actors, he has been leading an effort to revaluate urban policy and design practices in order to construct the next generation infrastructure that he calls; “urbanizing ecologies”.
He has authored and co-authored an extensive list of interdisciplinary publications and articles on urban history, community planning, architecture and urban ecology. They include but not limited to the following: Building for the Arts: A Guidebook for the Planning and Design of Cultural Facilities, Planning To Stay, Learning the See the Physical Features of Your Neighborhood, and "Infrastructure for the New Social Compact". Bill holds a Bachelor of Architecture from the University of California, Berkeley (1971), and a Masters of Urban Design in Architecture from Harvard Graduate School of Design (1978). |
