Abolitionist or devil-take-the-hindmost?: the walking tour

Come along on a walking tour surveying real estate and social justice by way of a look at some San Francisco social movements including the 60's Diggers, the Black Panthers, Alcatraz in '69, the Mormons in 1848, and housing travails today.

The challenge for marginalized groups is almost always whether to find genuine emancipation from relegation to the back, or to endure life at the margin.

For our white sisters and brothers (or any sitting in the catbird seat), the challenge put to you is "Are you an Abolitionist or a Free Soiler?"

Back in the days of American Slavery, the so-called good guys in the North were basically of two sorts. The Free Soilers, comprising the overwhelming number of whites, weren't so much for outlawing slavery as they were against the extension of slavery into requisitioned Native lands; their concern was having to compete with slave labor wages. For this majority Black emancipation in the South wasn't of much moment.

White Abolitionists, on the other hand, were the real deal. John Brown and William Lloyd Garrison and Thomas Starr King stood and sometimes died to see through emancipation for all as a spiritual and economic absolute.

Today, when it comes to real estate, we see the same great spiritual divide amongst white folks (and everyone else, too). Do you stand for the Earth as the birthright of all people, or are you content to share the vote, but balk at full socialization of land values because that crimps your personal investment in the land underneath all people.

Come on this walk if you dare explore the possibility of your being an Abolitionist.