COMMENT: As detailed in the brilliant documentary Tricky Dick and the Man in Black, Johnny Cash performed a new song called “What is Truth?” to the sitting president of the US, Richard Nixon, for whom he had much contempt.
Cash was in two minds whether to perform or not; his pride in the nation state and the American working class clashed with a man and institution he abhorred. Cash saw the divide growing between those born at the turn of the 20th century and those born halfway through it.
Since 1964, the war in Vietnam had been claiming the lives of countless young men. As it dragged on to the end of the 1960s, many questioned whether its purpose was just. In true rebellion, Cash stood in the White House and performed a protest song stating the importance of listening to the youth.
“It may be his turn to lay his life down
Can you blame the voice of youth for asking
‘What is truth?’”
As history rests on the edge of a sixpence with the upcoming elections in the US, and the UK navigating Brexit amid a likely economic depression, we’re going to need new ways to solve existing and emerging problems. Creating resilient people and places was going to be hard enough, but now with depressed consumer spending and tax revenues, increased debt and social divides it’s going to require more brainpower than before. We need to create more with less. But I have hope.
One thing lockdown enabled me to do was take the time to find voices that are skilled and ready to make change. This article is concerned with young voices looking for truth and a world that dismantles oppressive systems.
Guppi Bola is reimagining public health by decolonising economics.
Amahra Spence is leading the Black Land & Spatial Justice Fund to help redefine the black community’s relationship with land, property and ownership.
Andre Reid is leading a civil movement in Walsall to rebuild a neglected town from the community up.
Imandeep Kaur has co-founded Civic Square in Birmingham to co-develop with citizens new economic models for effective distribution of resources and finance.
Akil Scafe-Smith designs equitable and resilient communities through collaboration with young people and underrepresented people.
Araceli Camargo, my business partner, is leading a campaign for urban health justice.
Akil Benjamin is running a programme to mentor 500 black businesses with M&C Saatchi.
This list goes on.
Real estate claims to want change, to increase diversity and opportunity, but key to this is who helps guide the problems it’s solving. Akin to the campaign to open buildings again, we should be opening boardroom doors to the people who can show the real issues to solve out there and how real estate, through its power, agency, finance, politics and business models, can solve them.
Real estate, cities and their economies rest on finding “the truth” or settling back into the convenience of the past, wash-rinse-repeat. The Overton window of what is possible with our cities has shifted with Covid-19. Roads are being carved up, as we speak, for bike lanes many never thought possible. The murder of George Floyd brought back to public attention the systemic racism still plaguing societies, and there’s no going back now.
Change rarely comes from within, innovation even more rarely. We can only progress by shattering our preconceived notions about what we’re doing and who should be guiding it.
Yeah, the ones that you’re calling wild
Are going to be the leaders in a little while
This old world’s wakin’ to a new born day
And I solemnly swear that it’ll be their way
You better help the voice of youth find
“What is truth?”
Josh Artus is co-founder and director of CentricLab
