A 1963 article in the Lawton Constitution (Oklahoma Newspaper) features an interview with Raymond Rebsamen, the president of the Arkansas Urban Progress Association, who states, “urban renewal is good for business and good for any citizen in any city that undertakes the Urban Renewal Program.” This section about the city shows how business-focused individuals draw meaning and value in a city from its economic standing. Stating that downtowns are “dying” and must “rebuild to survive,” creates rigid binaries where the presence of poor neighborhoods equals death and despair while urban renewal equals happy, quality life and growth. The language continues this narrative with words like “let us use urban renewal to our best advantage and save what we have,” and “if Urban Renewal is good business and is good FOR business, then it’s good for YOUR business and YOUR city.” This article fails to mention race or displacement once. The affected communities are completely erased from the narrative of urban renewal and the program is justified through language that paints the government and businesses as saviors of dying cities and “slums.” It solely focuses on the economic advantages of urban renewal, implying the economy is the most valuable aspect of a city. Rebsamen states in the article, “Cities are more than places—they are part of the working capital of our economy.”

In America, the economy is often seen as the heartbeat of a city, preventing people from seeing and treating communities within it as more valuable than the buildings they live/work in and the profits they produce. This is easier to do when African American people have been dehumanized since the start of American slavery. Post-Civil War, African American communities had to depend more on each other because they were excluded from opportunities, money, and equality. This made their communities even stronger and more unified because they had to depend on each other's support to survive, as well as needed each other to further the fight for equality. The urban renewal narrative convinced the country that there was no value in the powerful ecosystems of the communities they destroyed because of the condition of the places around them. The overall narrative also failed to mention the racist role those in power played to create the conditions that caused slum-like conditions that they now state they need to save the people from. Underneath all of the layers of highly intentional language used in marketing urban renewal was the driving motivation to further segregation and destroy the progress African American citizens were making toward equality, financial independence, and success.