EPISODE 94 — Important Chunks of American History That Got Erased

[JulyDiaz 2797]

America is great at gentrification. Liberal oases like Portland and Austin are quickly being renovated to cover up their quirky charms, we knock down and rebuild stadiums to revitalize urban areas like it's our job and the city of San Francisco is basically one giant wifi-enabled Starbucks.

 

But to think the organized displacement of low-income and minority communities is a 21st century invention is foolish. America has been the Lebron James of that game since the Mayflower!

 

This week on the podcast Jack O'Brien is joined by Cracked editors Adam Tod Brown and Alex Schmidt to talk about America's history of forced gentrification, assimilation and deportation. The guys look at some of of the unique cultural communities completely wiped off the map by the course of history and examine the mechanism by which some populations are remembered and others are forgotten.

[GeorgeHnasko 50]

I am a first time listener and I really enjoyed this episode. I would like to point out that the New York draft riots were actually touched upon in the Scorsese film "Gangs of New York" and, to your point, is the only reference to this event I have ever heard/seen outside of this podcast and a college history class I had 100 years ago. Very interesting stuff.