Fourth World Nation: a Critical Geography of Decline
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FOURTH WORLD NATION: A CRITICAL GEOGRAPHY OF DECLINE by Olon Frederick Dotson A Dissertation Submitted to the Faculty of Purdue University In Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy Department of American Studies West Lafayette, Indiana August 2019 2 THE PURDUE UNIVERSITY GRADUATE SCHOOL STATEMENT OF COMMITTEE APPROVAL Dr. Bill Mullen, Chair College of Liberal Arts, American Studies Dr. Leonard Harris College of Liberal Arts, American Studies Dr. Cornelius Bynum College of Liberal Arts, American Studies Dr. Stephen Paul O’Hara Xavier University, Department of History Approved by: Dr. Rayvon Fouché Head of the Graduate Program 3 This research effort is dedicated to Cloice C. Dotson. Without exception, you have been all that a father is supposed to be. If I could only begin to approach the level of responsibility and devotion that you have demonstrated as a father and mentor to me, you can be assured that your grandchildren, and someday, their children, will be able to make their way in this Fourth World Nation. With love and gratitude, Your son. 4 ACKNOWLEDGMENTS My late mother, my motherly stepmother, my sisters and brother, my friends and colleagues Wes, Lisa, Karen, Pam, Ted, Nihal, John, Michael and John, staff and faculty at Ball State, (first encouraged me to pursue doctoral studies) my Committee Chair: Bill Mullen, and Committee Members, Leonard Harris and Cornelius L. Bynum, my external committee member S. Paul O’Hara, Richard Hogan, Nathalia Jaramillo, Rayvon Fouche’, folk in the trenches, the late Grace Lee Boggs, the late Reverend Emory Davis, Malik Yakini, Imhotep Adisa, Pam Dorr, David Elkins, Wayne Curtis, Myrtle Thompson, Sylvester Brown, Elizabeth Patton-Whiteside. Bryan Stevenson, my Legal Team in New Orleans, and most importantly, my lovely wife Susan and our: my first, Chloe’, Jordan, Tristen, and my dear son, Lyle. In Solidarity, Olon Frederick Dotson 5 TABLE OF CONTENTS FOURTH WORLD NATION: A CRITICAL GEOGRAPHY OF DECLINE ................................... i LIST OF TABLES.............................................................................................................................. 6 LIST OF FIGURES ............................................................................................................................ 7 ABSTRACT ....................................................................................................................................... 8 INTRODUCTION .................................................................................................. 10 FOURTH WORLD: THE TERM ........................................................................... 30 2.1 George Manuel - The Fourth World: An Indian Reality ...................................................... 31 2.2 Joseph Wresinski - ATD Fourth World ................................................................................ 34 2.3 Manuel Castells - Fourth World: Polarization, Poverty and Misery ..................................... 38 2.4 Erykah Badu - Fourth World War ........................................................................................ 42 2.5 Olon Dotson - Fourth World Theory, Fourth World Nation ................................................. 43 FOURTH WORLD THEORY: THE EVOLUTION OF . ................................... 45 3.1 Gary And Fourth World Cities ............................................................................................. 65 A TALE OF TWO FOURTH WORLD CITIES: GARY AND DETROIT ........... 72 4.1 Richard Gordon Hatcher: Captain of The Titanic After The Iceberg Incident ..................... 86 4.2 A Conversation with Richard Gordon Hatcher ..................................................................... 96 GARY: A CRITICAL GEOGRAPHY OF A FOURTH WORLD CITY ............ 110 5.1 Introduction: In Memory of John Thadis Dotson ............................................................... 110 5.2 Journey to The Funeral Of Uncle Thadis ............................................................................ 116 5.3 The Cow, the Lantern, and the White City ......................................................................... 118 5.4 The Source of the Odor ...................................................................................................... 122 5.5 Gainin’ on Ya ...................................................................................................................... 139 MAKING A WAY OUT OF NO WAY ............................................................... 142 6.1 Sublime Madness: Foot Soldiers and Stakeholders for Survival in a Fourth World Nation .... ............................................................................................................................................ 146 REFERENCES ............................................................................................................................... 163 6 LIST OF TABLES Table 3.1 Regression: Multivariate Time Series Analysis .............................................................. 68 Table 3.2 Coefficientsa .................................................................................................................... 69 Table 3.3 ANOVA ........................................................................................................................... 69 Table 3.4 Model Summary .............................................................................................................. 69 Table 3.5 Descriptive Statistics ....................................................................................................... 70 Table 3.6 Correlations ..................................................................................................................... 70 Table 5.1 Gary Land Company Census in 1908 ............................................................................ 129 Table 5.2 Employment of Negroes at Gary Works, 1909-1918 .................................................... 130 7 LIST OF FIGURES Figure 5.1 Destruction of the Indiana Dunes for the Construction of the U.S. Steel Plant ........... 125 Figure 5.2 Housing Typologies ..................................................................................................... 126 8 ABSTRACT Author: Dotson, Olon F. PhD Institution: Purdue University Degree Received: August 2019 Title: Fourth World Nation: A Critical Geography of Decline Committee Chair: Bill Mullen The United States of America is a Fourth World Nation. It has earned this distinction as direct a result of the manner in which it was established, how it developed, and the fact that it has demonstratively failed to confront its ever-increasing disparity and unevenness. Fourth World Theory provides a foundation and framework for a critical investigation of society and culture though an analytical lens, and an examination of the inequities that are increasingly prevalent throughout a post-industrial, post-agrarian, post-developing space of inevitable decline. On the surface, and through a descriptive lens, this Fourth World Nation can be observed with its racially and economically stratified, physically, socially, and institutionally abandoned urban cores; to massive, hastily manufactured and rapidly deteriorating post-WWII old ring suburbs littered with vacant and undesirable shopping centers and parking lots; to automobile-oriented single-use zoned, poorly constructed residential districts; to a seemingly boundless array of depopulated small towns and rural spaces that vanish on a horizon of stolen land with a physical and social decomposition that was once a thriving agrarian society -- at least for some. Upon further reflection and through critical geography, these troubling descriptive characteristics are merely a physical manifestation of the remnants of a failed capitalist experiment -- a declining imperialist empire, founded on conquest, genocide, and slavery. The United States of America is indeed a crime, and 9 it is on the brink of collapse under the weight of its own individualistic, violent, manipulative, oppressive, and self-righteous history. During the course of this research effort, Fourth World Theory has evolved from a rudimentary and descriptive notion of a particular, often severely distressed condition of place, to a more critical investigation of space. Central to Fourth World Theory is the premise that the scale and magnitude of the institutional abandonment of inner-city communities, towns, suburban and rural spaces and places in the United States is not only costly to disadvantaged populations, but to all Americans. In the face of a trajectory toward nothingness, the primary challenge is for this Fourth World Nation to reimagine life as a means to heal humanity - a humanity that has been subjected to the ills of hatred, greed, and power for its entire existence. Out of desperation and absolute necessity, individuals and groups of individuals are emerging through grass roots organizations and movements focused on transformation, and survival. Nevertheless, the structural systems that serve as the foundation for this Fourth World Nation, challenge the possibility for such transformations. Failure to interrogate the structural systems that support the fact that the United States is a crime, makes one an accessory to said crime. By way of sublime madness, in solidarity, and as “crime fighters,” we must take the initiative to promote system change for the sake of transformation and survival. INDEX WORDS: American Studies,