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January 19, 2007
Blood money: Nets arena to be named after bank founded on slave money
The Brooklyn Papers
By Gersh Kuntzman, with additional reporting by Ariella Cohen
The future home for the Brooklyn Nets will be emblazoned with the corporate logo of a British bank that was founded on the slave trade, collaborated with the Nazis and did business with South Africa’s apartheid government.
Atlantic Yards developer Bruce Ratner announced his mega-deal with Barclays Bank on Thursday — but critics slammed the developer for plastering the controversial bank’s name atop the arena after having courted African-American support for his mega-development.
“[Black] supporters of Atlantic Yards were just tools used by Ratner to get this project passed,” said Councilwoman Letitia James (D-Prospect Heights), an Atlantic Yards opponent who is black.
“Now that the project has been approved, they don’t serve his purpose anymore. Now, he can insult them by signing an agreement with a bank that financed the slave trade and supported the apartheid system. He’ll take money from anyone.”
Barclays is a London-based bank — one of the world’s biggest — with holdings around the globe, but whose history is inextricably linked to some of mankind’s lowest moments...
Posted by lumi at January 19, 2007 12:13 PM