'We've destroyed your homes; please keep buying our liquor.'

27 Feb

'We've destroyed your homes: please keep buying our liquor.'

In Georgia this week visiting family, I’m absolutely haunted by the Macon Telegraph’s front page before and after pictures of Macon’s long-lost, poverty-stricken, African-American community of Tybee.

In the first shot, taken in the 1950s, shacks surround a landmark coal chute.

In the second shot, taken in 2005, the coal chute still stands, but thanks to “urban renewal” the shacks are gone.

In place of the shacks? A billboard encouraging Negroes to celebrate their individualism by drinking Hennessy.

Jesus.

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