Where Black lives matter less than libraries

THE BARACK Obama Foundation, which is charged with selecting the site for the Obama presidential library, has approved the University of Chicago's bid for the South Side of Chicago to house the library.

Following the press release, University of Chicago President Robert Zimmer sent an e-mail to faculty, staff and students at the university asserting, "We believe opening the presidential center will mark a watershed moment for the South Side and the city, serving as a catalyst for economic and cultural opportunities as well as community programming."

The project will cost an estimated $500 million to build, with the cost met largely through massive fundraising efforts that are already underway. The Foundation, as well as the university, which carried out an aggressive campaign to host the library in the face of competing bids from Columbia University, the University of Hawaii and the University of Illinois at Chicago, argue that the library will provide a much-needed boost to the South Side community.

Soon after President Zimmer's announcement, however, a large crowd of activists from the Black Lives Matter movement and the Trauma Care Coalition--made up of South Side community groups like Fearless Leading by the Youth (FLY), Students for Health Equity and We Charge Genocide--marched through campus to call attention to the twisted priorities of the university's decision to pursue the presidential library while it still has not considered establishing a trauma center.

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http://socialistworker.org/2015/05/21/where-black-lives-matter-less