October 14, 2025: The Disposables

Voices of Resistance (our new old name) asked the following question on Tuesday, October 14 (the day after Indigenous Peoples' Day, or in GA, Columbus Day):  The Disposables, from 1452-2025.  Co-hosts Opollo and Barbara talked about America's first disposables:  the indigenous who were in the way of land to be stolen and riches to be extracted from Columbus' "discovery" in 1492.  The settler colonists "discovered" the solution in 1607:  take the land (because savages, as named by the Catholic Church Doctrine of Discovery cannot own land), murder the savages, and detain the survivors on reservations.  By 1619, a new group of disposables arrived in chains from Africa to be enslaved, disposable when not docile and obedient or no longer productive, particularly after 1865, when their enslavement was abolished.  Migrants were welcomed to build the USA's infrastructure, work in the sweat shops, and feed its growing population until the building was completed, the USA deindustrialized, and food was imported.  Then those from southern America were disposed of via detainment and deportation.  

Many of USA's other disposables, the elderly, poor people, persons with disabilities, felons in and released from prison, are disposed of in more slow and subtle ways as they are priced out of housing, food, healthcare, and the means to earn a living wage.

We now see settler colonialism dispose of the indigenous of Palestinians in the State of Israel via guns, bombs, starvation and lack of healthcare.  This time, the world is watching via social media from those computers in our pockets.  And we are all learning about disposability and the fate of the disposables.

Before we signed off, we reminded listeners to stand up and support Savannah's disposables--poor people of color whose homes on the Yamacraw bluff are planned for demolition with no formal promise of a right to return.  Email Barbara at bellenlever@gmail.com for help drafting and submitting a letter to the City of Savannah no later than Wednesday, October 15, to support the Yamacraw Tenant Council get a contractual agreement for a rebuild of affordable housing and a right to return on Yamacraw Village land.

Consider attending the No Kings rally at Emmet Park on Saturday, 10/18 at 1 pm and tune in next week to Voices of Resistance as we talk migration:  it's what living things do.