Episode 158: How Notions of 'Blight' and 'Barrenness' Were Created to Erase Indigenous Peoples

Episode 158: How Notions of 'Blight' and 'Barrenness' Were Created to Erase Indigenous Peoples

"It is safe to say that almost no city needs to tolerate slums," wrote New York City official Robert Moses in 1945. "Our ancestors came across the ocean in sailing ships you wouldn't go across a lake in. When they arrived, there was nothing here," Ross Perot proclaimed in 1996. "We proved we can create a budding garden out of obstinate ground," beamed Israeli president Shimon Peres in 2011. These quotes recurring themes within the lore of settler-colonial states: Before settlers arrived in the United States, Israel, and other colonized places throughout the world, the land was barren, wild, and blighted, the people backward, untameable, and violent; nothing of societal importance existed. It was only when the monied industrialists and developers moved in, introducing their capital and their vision, that civilization began. This, of course, is false. Indigenous people inhabited North America long before Europeans did. Poor, often Black and Latino, people populate many neighborhoods targeted for gentrification. So how do these people–inhabitants of coveted places who prove inconvenient to capital–become erased from collective memory? And what role do media like newspapers, brochures, travel dispatches, and adventure books play in their erasure? In a previous Citations Needed episode (Ep. 155: How the American Settler-Colonial Project Shaped Popular Notions of 'Conservation'), we discussed the erasure of indigeneity, we explored the colonialist and racist foundations of conservationism in the US and elsewhere in the West. On this episode, follow-up to that episode, we explore how images and narratives of barrenness and blight are manufactured to justify the settler-colonial project, from 15th Century colonial subjects of Europe to urban neighborhoods of today. Our guest is scholar Stephanie Lumsden.

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Episode 224: Corporate Self-Regulation and the Fine Art of 'Preempting" Public Outrage

Episode 224: Corporate Self-Regulation and the Fine Art of 'Preempting" Public Outrage

In this episode, we detail the classic PR gambit of corporations anticipating regulation, offering to "self-police," implementing token or superficial reforms, waiting for the outrage to blow over, th...

16 Juli 20251h 11min

News Brief: ADL, Corporate Media, Dem Elites Manufature "Antisemitism" Scandal to Discipline Mamdani

News Brief: ADL, Corporate Media, Dem Elites Manufature "Antisemitism" Scandal to Discipline Mamdani

In this News Brief, we break down recent bad faith attacks on Zohran Mamdani, the ADL's DO YOU CONDEMN extortion racket, and the broader "antisemitism scandal" playbook to derail moderate social democ...

1 Juli 202538min

News Brief: Natural Disaster-izing the Deliberate US-Israeli Starvation Campaign in Gaza

News Brief: Natural Disaster-izing the Deliberate US-Israeli Starvation Campaign in Gaza

In this News Brief, we are joined by Ashley Bohrer and Ben Teller of Jewish Voice for Peace Chicago to discuss media indifference to the US and Israel-imposed starvation of Palestinians, how sectarian...

19 Juni 202529min

News Brief: Pundits Speed-Run 15 Months of Iraq War Propaganda for Iran in Five Days

News Brief: Pundits Speed-Run 15 Months of Iraq War Propaganda for Iran in Five Days

In this News Brief, we break down the insta-talking points to sell war with Iran––from Ticking Time Bomb '24' plots to cherry-picked, dubious anecdotes of Iranians supposedly begging for Israeli bombs...

17 Juni 202532min

News Brief: US Media, Top Dems Assist Trump and Israel's Unprovoked Attack on Iran

News Brief: US Media, Top Dems Assist Trump and Israel's Unprovoked Attack on Iran

In this public News Brief, we detail how the NYT, Washington Post, and CNN reinforce every faulty premise of Israel's attack and how top Democrats in Congress and former Harris aides either ignore Tru...

13 Juni 202530min

Ep. 223: The Empire Strikes First, Part II — 'Abundance' Pablum as Counter to Left Populism

Ep. 223: The Empire Strikes First, Part II — 'Abundance' Pablum as Counter to Left Populism

"Can Democrats Learn to Dream Big Again?," wonders Samuel Moyn in the New York Times. "The Democrats Are Finally Landing on a New Buzzword. It's Actually Compelling," argues Slate staff writer Henry G...

11 Juni 20251h 25min

Ep 222 - The Empire Strikes First Part I: Party Elites Who Lost to Trump (Twice) Blame Everyone But Themselves

Ep 222 - The Empire Strikes First Part I: Party Elites Who Lost to Trump (Twice) Blame Everyone But Themselves

In Ep. 222, "The Empire Strikes First Part I: Party Elites Who Lost to Trump (Twice) Blame Everyone But Themselves," we detail how our media allows the same party flacks who got the Dems into this mes...

4 Juni 20251h 21min

Episode 221: Anti-Science Mugging on the Right and the Ascent of American Anti-Intellectualism

Episode 221: Anti-Science Mugging on the Right and the Ascent of American Anti-Intellectualism

In this episode we detail demagogues' favorite faux populist schtick of taking scientific studies out of context and mocking them, often with help from mainstream media. with guest Brenda Ekwurzel, di...

28 Maj 20251h 8min

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