Recently The Gordon Parks Foundation discovered over 70 unpublished photographs by Parks at the bottom of an old storage box wrapped in paper and marked as “Segregation Series.” These never before series of images not only give us a glimpse into the everyday life of African Americans during the 50′s but are also in full color, something that is uncommon for photographs from that era.
Yesterday I was driving through Blaine and I saw a bunch of mobile homes packed together in a lot. There was a sign that said “________________’s International Community.” It seemed real fucked to me that someone had the idea of taking all the immigrants and people of color and putting them up in mobile homes in a particular area of the city. It was on a stretch of highway not especially close to anything. My friend mentioned there is this problem in urban studies (I forgot the actual nomenclature) where housing is built for low-income people to live all together, but it’s isolated from any job they could ever get. They don’t have cars so they can’t get to their job, and in a place like Blaine, there’s no city bus or other public transport to get to where you need to go. So what the fuck. The “Lots for Colored” photo above reminded me of that.
I drove by that lot on my way up North.
