Three Photos Inside Oakland, California

Two Cities, Separate and Unequal

Two Cities, Separate and Unequal is a takeoff from an infamous line in the Kerner Report (1968): “Our nation is moving toward two societies, one black, one white - separate and unequal” (p.1). Oakland is a diverse city as measured by almost any standard. However, the city is not exempt from capitalism’s tendency to concentrate wealth in the hands of a small minority while increasing the immiseration of the masses. A life of luxury and leisure can be found in Oakland (as represented by the woman in sunglasses), but only for a (mostly white) minority. The play areas of the rich and famous, as well as the main hubs of capital, are protected through various forms of architecture, policing, and the overall structure of the market (as represented by the bars). Today, Oakland has become synonymous with gentrification, the technology industry, and unaffordable housing.

Justice for Philando Castile

Justice for Philando Castile contains many messages. The center point is a repetition of posters depicting Castile, who was murdered by a police officer in 2016. Castile was driving in Minnesota, but police violence, especially against black men, is routine in Oakland and held within the historical DNA of the department (the “Riders” are a more contemporary example, alongside the murder of Oscar Grant by BART police officer Johannes Mehserle). Oakland’s radical history spans generations, and the city is covered with various art projects commemorating past struggles and lives lost. We are also blessed with a picture of Huey P. Freeman, a television character from the television show Boondocks named after Huey P. Newton, the Oakland native and co-founder of the Black Panther Party for Self Defense (BPP). 

At the same time, we see the Castile posters adorn a plywood barricade constructed to obscure a new housing project – a very real example of a housing boom built on top of displaced families (again, mostly poor and black). These new apartment buildings are ugly and monolithic. Yet, the true spirit of Oakland survives as depicted in the various pieces of art adorning the barricade. 

Lil' Bobby Hutton Park

Lil’ Bobby Hutton Park depicts the rich and radical history hidden in plain site in Oakland, and also alludes to a long history of renaming city spaces after fallen or deceased heroes (Oscar Grant Plaza instead of Frank Ogawa Plaza; “Lil’” Bobby Hutton Park instead of DeFremery Park; Marcus Garvey Park instead of Grove Shafter Park). Merritt College students Huey Newton and Bobby Seale founded the BPP in Oakland on October 15, 1966. Two years later, the BPP held a “Free Huey” rally at DeFremery Park. At some unknown point, the park was remained in honor or Bobby Hutton, the first recruit of BPP and victim of police murder at the age of 17. 

The same issues that plagued Oakland in 1966 – poverty, unemployment, homelessness, police violence, racism, and sexism – still haunt the city and the nation to this day. Oakland does not need more social workers and it does not need a lecture about resilience or the importance of a strength-based perspective. First, we must understand that there is no “Oakland” singular. There are, in fact, two Oakland – those who will benefit from the reorganization of society and those who feed off the immiseration and division of the masses. 

Despite its many faults (and there were many serious faults), the BPP, birthed from the bruised and beaten men and women of West Oakland, represents a watershed moment in the long history of struggle against capitalism and white-supremacy. Within my lifetime, Occupy Oakland and the Oakland teacher’s strike of this year represent other examples of the city’s desire to create something new.