A “what’s that?” bumper sticker. Rural Social Justice is the Social Justice that hasn’t happened yet; and if Urban Colonialism continues to hold its grip — it never will.
Urban Colonialism, “characteristic of, or constituting control by a city over a rural area or people,” is the de facto policy in New York State. As urban authorities co-opt increasing amounts the state’s rural land for their food, recreation, infrastructure needs [and as an “out of sight” dumping ground]; they act as if they are “bringing civilization to the natives.”
Rural residents are ungrateful obstructive, and ignorant people, who won’t accept their place in a City-centric social order. Rural communities are resettled, restructured, and the natives are marginalized, driven out, or destroyed.
In Tompkins County’s most recent Comprehensive Plan: there is no rural community — just a scattering of “urban nodes” in a landscape that supplies food, raw materials, and low-level labor to a “vibrant urban center” — can you get more colonial than that?
