Philadelphia is a city that has been touted as one of the most diverse in the country. It’s also one of the most segregated, even though Africans comprise more than 44 percent of the total population.
According to an article in Philadelphia Magazine, Philadelphia is the fourth most segregated city on a list of the 100 largest cities in the country.
Philadelphia is also a city of neighborhoods. It is within each neighborhood where segregation is the most apparent.
This alone is not so alarming, considering families and groups of similar cultures tend to reside together, often for generations: Chinatown in Center City and the Italian Market area of South Philadelphia are a few examples.
The contradiction, however, is the lack of availability and accessibility to resources within the African neighborhoods, especially now during the current COVID-19 pandemic, which are readily available to other neighborhoods.
While the people in the previously mentioned areas rarely need to leave their neighborhoods for basic necessities as they are usually self-contained and self-sustaining, such is not the case for Africans.
Forty-four percent of the city’s population has limited resources and what we do have comes from outside merchants who have set up shop in our communities to build wealth for themselves, contributing very little to nothing except hostile attitudes and higher than necessary prices.
The majority of those businesses are now closed under State mandate, leaving us without the means to sustain and reproduce life in our communities, or to protect our health and our lives.
To make matters worse, African neighborhoods are under constant police occupation, which is a threat as opposed to a comfort to the people’s safety!
These dire conditions, not only in Philadelphia, but around the world, are why the Uhuru Movement has declared war, The People’s War, against the colonialvirus of COVID-19!
The People’s War Commission was formed under the leadership of the African People’s Socialist Party to battle the ravages of the Coronavirus while also providing political leadership to the global working class African community.
Dr. Aisha Fields, who leads the All African People’s Development and Empowerment Project (AAPDEP) is also heading up this incredibly important strategy to inform and protect the people.
Adhering to social distancing and other physical protective protocols, we are working and organizing on the ground among the people by distributing informative printed materials, such as brochures and posters relevant to our communities door-to-door.
In other words, we are bringing hope to African communities and letting the people know that not only are they not forgotten, but are invited into the process to push back against this imperialist-imposed pandemic and to organize to get free!
For more information on what you can do to get involved please visit, developmentforafrica.org.
Uhuru!
“AAPDEP believes that African people must take responsibility for our collective health.”
