LaToya Ruby Frazier: The Last Cruze

'In The Last Cruze, on view at  California African American Museum, artist LaToya Ruby Frazier chronicles the lives of workers at the General Motors plant in Lordstown, Ohio. Due to a confluence of circumstances, including the global outsourcing of labor, rapid automation, and the growing demand for electric cars, GM’s Lordstown facility stopped production in 2019 after more than fifty years of operation. This shutdown presented Lordstown facility workers with limited choices: relocate, sometimes leaving behind family and support networks, or find work elsewhere. Across the country, the trickle-down effect of economic decline and the corporate response to this decline disproportionately affects large groups of workers who have very little decision-making power within big corporations. And yet, their labor remains vital to the development and success of these businesses.'