Understanding Africville: Panthers Or Thieves, By Jennifer Nelson

David Marrella 3/18/2017 Anth 0833 Prof. Hilary Symes

Understanding Africville The community of Africville is a neighborhood located in Halifax that saw much oppression during the mid 1960’s ultimately leading to it’s destruction and relocation of residents. Jennifer Nelson, author of “Panthers or Thieves”: Racialized Knowledge and the Regulation of Africville, claims in her essay that racial inferiority, criminality, and social deviance of the poor, was used to illustrate the community as a slum in need of removal (Nelson 2011:121). Tina Loo, in her work, “Africville and the Dynamics of State Power in Postwar Canada” also provides her analysis of Africville. Loo agrees there was undoubtedly environmental racism incurred, but beyond

Africville was shaped by White ideologies in her eyes, and regulation of racialized communities was perceived to be of top priority especially during this era of urban renewal (Nelson 2010:126). The racial hierarchy established in current society, held the black community of Africville in extremely low regards. This was Nelson’s claim as the main reason the neighborhood was destroyed, “Africville’s destruction sits at the crux of the vilification of Blackness, the criminalization of the poor and racialized, and the degradation of the slum” (Nelson 2010:136). The unity of all of these factors, according to Nelson, led to the downfall of

Loo in her essay references Nelson openly stating race as the center of both of their views, “Race and space are also at the heart of Jennifer J. Nelson’s work.” (Loo 2011:26). Although she also attributes race to being the leading cause, she goes on to elaborate that what happened in Africville was much more complex than many think. The relocation was a part of the progressive political movement that was in swing during the late 1950’s and early 1960’s in the efforts to combat inequality (Loo 2011: 26). To the city of Halifax and law officials, the community of Africville was illegible and seen as a welfare problem (Loo 2011:27). The demolishment of Africville allowed for the residents to be better equipped for society. Loo states, “Racism might have been the reason Africvillers were disadvantaged and immobilized both socially and spatially, but the solutions liberals offered were aimed at meeting Africvillers’ needs – for education, employment, adequate housing, and access to capital” (Loo 2011:27). The previous residents of the neighborhood were now better educated and provided with better means of living that they may not have previously had in