It took me into my 20s to learn what Juneteenth was. It needs to be an American holiday – along with election day, December 6th (13th Amendment), July 2nd (Civil Right Act of 1968) and August 18th (which I humbly suggest should be Suffragette Day). Every time the vote – and therefore the privileges of democracy and citizenship – were expanded deserves commemoration, as do the days associated with the end of slavery. It’s our Original Sin as a nation.
Good. Document the hell out of this moment.
“The police are a reflection of a society. They’re not a rogue alien organization that came down to torment the black community. They’re enforcing segregation. Segregation is legally over, but it never ended. The police are, in some respects, a border patrol, and they patrol the border between the two Americas.”
I am going to re-up this as often as needed: Antifa is not a group, an organization, or a confederacy (pun VERY much intended). It’s at best a very loose philosophy. More importantly, it’s a right-wing propaganda point and often outright conspiracy theory to create a sense of false equivalence which is not born out by the facts. The extremist violence we are seeing is almost exclusively coming from far right groups – whether throwing up Nazi salutes in London to – checks notes – defend Churchill, or using the cover of protests in the States to carry out violence aimed to incite an actual race/civil war. False equivalence and whataboutism are dangerous. If you feel able, challenge it when you see or hear it.
Gonna go out on a limb and say stuff like this doesn’t make it easy for various communities to trust cops. Also a good media and propaganda lesson for everyone about how bad information spreads – bad actors and genuine sympathizers.
Also, at least six black men and boys have been found hanging from trees in the last two weeks. Transparent investigations NOW, with oversight, because the so-called best case scenario is a rash of suicides (horrifying) and the worst is a rash of hate crimes that call back to the worst days of black oppression. And either way, a lot of law enforcement are hella untrustworthy.
Here, a palate cleanser for us after a dose of heavy links!
We need less indigenous “inspired” creative work, and more spotlighting and space for actual indigenous creative work from the artists themselves.
The intersecting worlds of publication, beauty, and fashion have a lot of work to do. Caroline Hirons delves.
Trump never wanted the job in the first place. The real question is, how does a clinical narcissist who refused to acknowledge any kind of wrongdoing, loss, or error either 1) decide not to run, which damages his ego, 2) or risk losing, which damages his ego?
Small Dog Syndrome 