Looking for empty carriers soon, likely by Memorial Day 🪦 #PortOfOakland #ThePacificCircuit

#ThePacificCircuit view from the #PortOfOakland

page 154 of a physical copy of “The Pacific Circuit: A Globalized Account of the Battle for the Soul of an American City,” which is about my hometown of Oakland, CA I could’ve cried when I read this passage. For me, to feel seen is to have my heart filled right up I’ll begin on p. 153: “I sat on the couch in my office with the binders on my lap. The daylight leaked out of the room, light outside bending orange. The documents pushed me lower and lower. I couldn’t think, the sadness was overwhelming. It felt like something was being stuffed into my body. This trauma, even at two steps’ remove, still had so much dark power pulsating within it. The feeling was thick and suffocating and oily. “The abuse, the trauma, the collapse of Black Oakland pushed and pulled by American racism and technocapitalism, all the brilliant people out there scrubbing toilets to survive, poisoned by the paint in their walls and the air they had to breathe to live. And through everything, they were told that it was their fault, that it was their culture, the same culture that has forced America to deliver on its promises of freedom, that has produced so much of American music, that lies curled inside all our tongues, that is the American export that communities around the world embrace and love as a distinct contribution to human civilization. “All of that kept pouring into my body as darkness kept falling outside. When I was able to move again, sloppily, as if I didn’t have control of my limbs, I switched on a light, put the documents in a filing cabinet, and couldn’t work on this book for a month. “The ultimate privilege for all non-Black Americans is not to take on this suffering as our own, to not see ourselves enslaved, our families ripped apart, our life under apartheid, our babies shot by police, our communities bulldozed, our aspirations thwarted, our traumas passed down from child to child to child. “If we did, what, then, would our responsibilities become?”

the cover of the book, featuring a multicolored sculpture of shipping containers assembled over a burnt orange background with some of West Oakland’s hallmark Victorian homes in the bottom right corner the title, “The Pacific Circuit: A Globalized Account of the Battle for the Soul of an American City,” is splayed diagonally about the cover in white block lettering, along with the name of the author, Atlantic journalist and Oakland resident Alexis Madrigal I’m not finished yet but this is the best piece of nonfiction I’ve read since 1619. if you ever wanted to know how criminal and racist regional housing policies relate to the United States war machine, the creation of the modern supply chain, and the consolidation of massive generational economic gains by the assholes at the tippy-top, well, buy this book

anti-racism isn’t a prerequisite for good journalism; it’s an inherent quality

got gifted an advance copy of #ThePacificCircuit by @alexis-madrigal.bsky.social

containers full of research, generations of sources… way validating for this Oaktown boy! BUY 3/18/25

#bhm #globalization #gentrification