#Also they already quoted MLK Jr.

[chronomally]

I'm attending an official corporate training program and they keep using the word "content" to refer to like. what they're going to be teaching us

[kemetic-dreams]

Introducing the West to world music, this Nigerian drummer also fought segregation with MLK, Malcolm X

From a Yoruba family in Lagos State, Nigeria, Babatunde Olatunji, while living in the U.S. after winning a scholarship to study at Morehouse College in Atlanta, wanted to become a diplomat. Thus, after graduating from Morehouse in 1954, he enrolled in the Graduate School of Public Administration and International Relations at New York University.

But two things later moved him towards a career in music. The first was his visit to Ghana as a delegate to the All African People’s Conference organized by Ghanaian president Kwame Nkrumah, who told him he thinks he should be a cultural ambassador. The second was his meeting with Columbia Records producer John Hammond after a concert at New York’s Radio City Music Hall. Hammond would help Olatunji produce his 1959 debut Drums of Passion album which some say may have been the first African music release recorded in a modern U.S. studio.

That album became a major hit, selling millions of copies globally and helping introduce Americans to world music. Olatunji would go on to promote African music, earning a Grammy nomination, being behind compositions for Broadway and Hollywood, as well as appearing on programs including the Tonight Show, the Mike Douglas Show and the Bell Telephone Hour.

In 1964, after performing at the New York World Fair’s African Pavilion, he used the proceeds to open his own Olatunji Center for African Culture in New York’s Harlem neighborhood, where he offered classes in African dance, music, language, folklore, and history. Soon, Olatunji became highly recognized as a pioneer in the fusion of African music and jazz. “…We were playing ‘Afro-jazz’ before anybody called it that,” the recording artiste, who grew up in a fishing village in Nigeria where drumming accompanied every celebration, recalled in an interview.

But while his contribution to music is well known, his commitment to social activism is rarely talked about. “He really deserves to be remembered more for his role as a political activist in the US civil rights movement – before it was even a movement,” Robert Atkinson, who collaborated with Olatunji on his autobiography The Beat of My Drum, was quoted by the BBC in a report. Indeed, Olatunji’s social activism work started right from his days at Morehouse, where he debunked common myths about Africa.

“They [classmates] had no concept of Africa,” he recalled. “They asked all kinds of questions: ‘Do lions really roam the streets? Do people sleep in trees?’ They even asked me if Africans had tails! They thought Africa was like the Tarzan movies. Ignorance is bliss, but it is a dangerous bliss. “Africa had given so much to world culture, but they didn’t know it.”

Thus, Olatunji started educating his colleagues about Africa, including its cultural traditions and music. He then went ahead to play African music at university social gatherings while organizing and performing at concerts featuring African and African-American students. These activities were during the height of Jim Crow, and soon, Olatunji was organizing students to challenge the status quo in the south.

Even before Rosa Parks would spark the Montgomery bus boycott, Olatunji was already staging protests on public buses with some of his fellow students.

As president of the Morehouse student body in the 1950s, he was able to meet scores of civil rights leaders, including Martin Luther King Jr and Malcolm X. As a matter of fact, when King delivered his historic I Have a Dream speech in August 1963 during the March on Washington, Olatunji was among the over 200,000 people at the event. The percussionist, social activist and educator performed many times for the NAACP and King’s Southern Christian Leadership Conference.

And at many civil rights rallies, Malcolm X would request him to drum. The man, who is to date described as “the father of African drumming in the U.S.”, was also on the civil rights jazz album We Insist! with playwright Oscar Brown Jr and Max Roach. Back home in Africa, Olatunji was also a part of the anti-colonial resistance movements that had risen across the continent, attending the All African People’s Conference organized by Nkrumah.

The conference, attended by delegates from African countries, prominent African Americans and liberation movements, held discussions on how to achieve continental freedom. Nkrumah had argued that Ghana’s independence would be meaningless if other African states are still colonized by the European powers, and Olatunji couldn’t agree more.

As stated in a report, his involvement in the civil rights movement in the U.S. was largely inspired by the several forms of resistance to colonialism that was occurring in Africa. “He saw himself as a pan-Africanist who always reached out to unify Africans and African Americans,” his wife, Iyafin Ammiebelle Olatunji, told BBC in an interview.

Olatunji in his last years continued to perform while teaching others about African culture and drumming. Before he passed away in 2003 aged 76, he had become known for recordings such as “Celebrate Freedom, Justice and Peace”, “Healing Rhythms, Songs and Chants”, as well as the 1998 Grammy-nominated release, on Chesky Records of “Love Drum Talk”.

[levyfiles]

Only 9 years of Anger but it’s been 30+ years of trauma.

I’m a Canadian multiracial woman who grew up in a community that was not as diverse as it is now. Since I was a little girl, I’ve encountered several instances of baffling behaviour toward me that only in hindsight did I come to understand it was because of my colour. The jokes about watermelon, dumb edgy nonblack kids who think I’ll think they’re cool if they drop the n-word around me. Some fool who everyone thought was funny in high school lead a rendition of Hero by Enrique Iglesias and replaced the word hero for “negro” as he played guitar at a Christian school camp retreat to zero consequence. I was nicknamed Aunt Jemima by older boys because I wouldn’t date them. All this stuff was background noise because my number one awareness of being a Canadian was that despite all this, I would never be treated as bad as an indigenous person would be treated in this country. So I laughed off the jokes, ignored the jabs, ignored the n-word, played the “cool black person” who let things slide because that was how you survived. I made it to my 20’s being passive and moderate, and at some juncture I realised my friend circle was occupied by people who used my colour and my race as a punchline. It was like something snapped in me after college; I stopped being passive, I wanted to learn how to be myself and be proud of my heritage instead of acting like I was some ambassador for every white person in authority who wanted me to nod and say “no no I’m okay with your opinion, so please hire me.”

In 2011, I broadened my friend group to people who had had similar experiences but hadn’t backed down, people who had a community to back them up so they didn’t cower at the idea of facing their own trauma. That’s when I started to make friends online who came from different and diverse perspectives. Starting that year I began reading first-hand accounts of police brutality cases and their large numbers. I heard about black sex workers in the states being harassed and disappearing when they complained. I heard about the way young black men are taught to keep their hands visible because even a parking ticket could get you killed. I was angry and heartbroken but I noticed that despite the fact that I was furious and cross-posting everything I learned on twitter and every other blog space I occupied, barely anyone who wasn’t black wanted to interact with it. It was like I was touting some kind of religion, asking people to believe that people in and out of this country had a disease called racism. 

The few people who used their public platform to talk about it were dismissed as crazy. After Trayvon Martin, my heart just stayed broken, and then the "mysterious suicide" of Sandra Bland and the mug shot they took with her body propped up in the police station when she had already been murdered fully wrecked me because so few people cared. There was always some excuse as to why these people deserved to be murdered; as if suddenly people got amnesia about the ideal of the justice system and due process. As if people should really be all right with a young teen being shot in the street was all right because there was no one else there to see it happen or why.  Soon followed a rash of different cases, and almost everyone close to me who wasn't black had some opinion about it whether that's telling us not to get too angry, to protest the way MLK jr said we should when his very own words talked about anger and pain and the way it spills out of people who only want to exist. He said unrest doesn’t develop out of thin air and that it’s the language of the unheard. I watched Colin Kaepernick get publicly ridiculed and watched white creators whisper a little about it if they weren’t against it. There was a shyness in the energy about the content I read or watched and I had somehow accepted that that would always be the case with people working with platforms online. I watched Tumblr delete a whole tag about BLM because people decided it was starting arguments. I watched white content creators make jokes about Tamir Rice, about Kaepernick until they stopped getting laughs.

It's now been 9 years later and even though 2011 was the first I had ever sat and listened to the truth about these cases and I had been furious and hurt since then, it was not the beginning of the problem and my making noise about it and trying to make people understand at the time fell on a lot of ears that didn’t want to listen. People who were experiencing the pain first-hand were screaming louder and louder until Hollywood got a nice chokehold on it and posted a print of Chris Pine with tears in his eyes and called that the face of the civil rights movement.

So now I find that I’m experiencing a strong sense of deja vu watching people younger than me, or my white peers finally get it. I see posts about it everywhere, white creators and white celebrities posting support and empathy. It feels like a sharp awakening of the world and the chance that there’s hope for all the people who have been yelling and screaming for justice long before I ever became aware of the score. 

It also feels terrifying. 

Because sometimes white creators don’t take stock of their audience. They see them often as a monolith of people who support and engage with their content, so they’ll post a handy instagram quote, or an edit with links to donate; they’ll post their own call to action. Now the activism is something it never was before, it’s “Cool”. BLM is trending; it’s a quick view count and an absolutely easy and performative way to say “Sorry” for all the times in the past these white creators said the n-word, all the times in the past they dismissed diversity because it was inconvenient to them, and all the times they ignored the casual racism in their own content and the transformative content of their audience. So their white kid audience, who are happy to follow them blindly to the next trend, don’t fully understand the impact of what’s happening now. They’re making their edits, they’re changing their twitter handles to ACAB and BLM, they’re performing just fine. It should be a good thing, right?

Then why are there white kids out on the street saying they’re protesting. Saying they are here to make change but they’re caught with baseball bats breaking windows, instigating confrontations and running away for black people to deal with it. Why are they out there living their favourite purge fantasy so they can go home satisfied and safe while people are being tear-gassed and trampled by police? Why do they go home and make their mood boards and their t-shirts and their etsy sales for cool “protest looks”. The tired tiktoks that are just recreated audio of black creators being spooned off so a white face can be the one saying the very thing black creators are brave enough to put on social media at the risk of getting hurt!

Don’t get me wrong. This is all necessary in the growing pains of a worldwide movement. It’s the #stopkony2012 of 2020 because even back then when the performance was on, no one was actually doing the reading. Internationally the whole internet went ham on a cause that had already been dealt with by its own victims.

What I’m basically saying here is that fighting for human rights isn’t a game; this isn’t a cool new thing you can jump in on because the chaos keeps you hidden. Take this seriously; bring this energy to the polls, and KEEP this energy for the future even when the trending page isn’t interested in giving you money for your cause, even when your friends get bored and decide that they want to move on to the next cool thing to perform activism for. Be real. Continue to practice empathy for those whose stories you ignored up until now. Non-Black content creators, your new awareness of something happening is not an absolution of your willful ignorance in the past. Do your reading; educate yourself. Because while you may be just discovering the outrage and the hurt of witnessing a black person being murdered and the pulling teeth aggravation that comes with zero justice, people have been dealing with this far longer than you or I.

[persimmonparty]

I posted 671 times in 2021

31 posts created (5%)

640 posts reblogged (95%)

For every post I created, I reblogged 20.6 posts.

I added 10 tags in 2021

#im thirsty for good content - 1 posts

#rosa parks - 1 posts

#remember when hip hop was an instrument of subversion rather than the bland waterwd down anthems of suburban white people - 1 posts

#pepperidge farm remembers - 1 posts

#by the way mlk was a socialist - 1 posts

#stop marvel-washing famous activists - 1 posts

#how is destruction of property violence but outright theft of water totally chill - 1 posts

#books i should read - 1 posts

#martin luther king jr - 1 posts

#albert einstein - 1 posts

Longest Tag: 133 characters

#how come in every non garbage country they just tell you what you owe but i have to bust out the abacus and durable cardigan for mine

My Top Posts in 2021

#5

I want Karen Eiffel to dom me

title.

2 notes • Posted 2021-01-04 07:16:05 GMT

#4

Whenever I stumble upon CNN I'm always amused at their hand-wringing over the most recent thing orange man did, as if we haven't seen this guy doing his best cartoon villain impression for years lmao

"But he did something iLLeGaL"

Yes, Liz LeWASP we know, just chill and cover something else for once, this discourse has already occurred on Twitter

2 notes • Posted 2021-01-03 22:12:47 GMT

#3

Ackchuallyyyyy it's not called a 'concentration camp' unless it's from the concentration region of France, otherwise it's just called a migrant children funtime facility.

5 notes • Posted 2021-02-28 01:28:37 GMT

#2

Quote from an Amazon reviewer named Chis. Emphasis mine. 

“The first part of the book contains criticisms of the fetishization of non-violent protest advanced by activists like Bill McKibben and the folks in Extinction Rebellion (XR)--along with the Maria J Stephan and Erica Chenoweth book on non-violence which is revered by XR founders. The author points to the acceptance of the unavoidable need for some form of violence--if only against property and governmental institutions-- by social movements in recent history. The British suffragettes of the early twentieth century engaged in extensive property destruction, even arson. Successful revolutions in Egypt and Iran (against the Shah) featured destructive attacks on government buildings and seizure of military installations. Bill McKibben reveres Gandhi as an apostle of non-violence but the Mahatma apparently limited his injunctions against non-violence to resistance against British imperialism and personally strove unsuccessfully but very earnestly to procure a combat role in the British army during the Boer War and World War I. The African National Congress conducted a war of sabotage in an attempt to to undermine South African apartheid. Civil rights activists in the US southern states--including Martin Luther King--carried firearms for self-protection. As a model for property destruction, he seems to hold in high regard the actions of Jessica Reznicek and Ruby Montoya, the Catholic Worker activists arrested in the US during 2019 for acts of sabotage against the Dakota Access pipeline. He also holds in high regard the Ende Galande civil disobedience movement in eastern Germany. The author describes his personal involvement in an Ende Galande action against coal powered electrical plants in eastern Germany which were owned at the time by Vatenfall, a Swedish government owned corporation. Vattenfall also owned a nearby mine devoted to extraction of the particularly dirty brown coal which powered the electrical plants. The activities of the author and his comrades culminated in them destroying two fences that blocked their way into the power plants and entering the grounds of the plant where they had little idea about what to do next. The destruction of the fencing was vehemently denounced as a dastardly criminal act by local politicians and media (eastern Germany has given significant support to the far right, climate denying, pro-coal AfD party). In Sweden, the Green Party leader declared that were his party to enter government, the Vatenfall brown coal operation would be shut down. The Greens soon entered a coalition government with the Social Democrats; however the Vatenfall brown coal operation was not shut down but sold to a consortium of Czech investors. These investors soon shelved plans to expand the mining operation at the former Vatenfall site, a small victory for Ende Galande. The author argues that violence against property should receive serious consideration in light of the grave urgency of climate change. Politicians are hopeless: mouthing pretty words about environmental protection but dominated in policy making by fossil fuel industries. Legal, respectable tactics have their place but the author believes that the climate movement needs a radical flank advocating and performing militant tactics that will scare the crap out of our world’s elites, who will then make concessions to movement moderates in order to take the steam out of the radicals. He believes that violence against property emitting destructive fossil fuel emissions will acquire more popular support as the damage caused by climate change becomes more apparent.”

5 notes • Posted 2021-04-13 06:00:25 GMT

#1

6 notes • Posted 2021-02-17 17:28:34 GMT

Get your Tumblr 2021 Year in Review →

[nicolearp]

For the ask thing, all the ones you haven't already done or all the ones you want to answer

Oh wow, thank you so much! I’m so intrigued by the anon(s) I wanna know who you are ahaha

2: 3 movies you have rewatched many times

The first three that come to mind are legally blonde, liar liar, love actually

3: 3 songs that mean something to you

Fight Song by Rachel Platten, The One by Kodaline, Rise Up by Andra Day

4: 3 topics you’d love to learn more about

Mindfulness, meditation, and manifestation

5: 3 colours to paint your room

Well the walls in my room are currently beige, and tbh I’d stick with that but other options are white and blue

6: 3 characters that inspire you

Eleanor Shellstrop from The Good Place, Samantha Jones from Sex and the City, and idk, maybe Rosa Diaz from B99 for the bi representation? (Just realised that people say all 3 of those choices are bi loool my brand)

7: 3 fruits that you love the most

Pears, watermelon (ideally when on holiday), strawberries

8: 3 tv shows that you never get bored of

So hard to pick 3! Scrubs, sex and the city and wynonna Earp (I’ve only watched those last 2 all the way through once but they’ve become instant favourites of mine so I’m sure I’ll never get bored of them)

10: 3 things you like eating with coffee

Cake, donut, muffin

11: 3 books that you would recommend everyone to read

Everything I know about love by Dolly Alderton, why I’m no longer talking to white peoples about race by Reni Eddo-Lodge, and...hmm idk! Definitely those two, not sure about a third. I feel like I should name a classic but I haven’t read that many, I’m just gonna go with To Kill A Mockingbird

12: 3 apps you use the most

WhatsApp, Twitter and Tumblr (Facebook’s maybe joint 3rd)

13: 3 classes you used to hate in middle school

Geography, English, Drama (I love performing but I was super shy and reserved in school so I struggled there)

14: 3 professions that you would like to try

Presenter, publicist/PR, writer/columnist...not that I’d ever actually get to try them!

15: 3 quotes that have a special place in your life

This is tough, lots of possible answers!

“Give me the serenity to accept the things I can’t change, the courage to change the things I can, and the wisdom to know the difference”

“Our greatest glory is not in never falling, but in rising every time we fall”

“It doesn’t get better, but you get better”

16: 3 drinks you consume the most

Water, Diet Coke, iced coffee. (Jesus Christ I really do live up to the bisexual/LGBT+ brand)

17: 3 TV couples you adore the most

Wayhaught from Wynonna Earp, Jake & Amy from B99, and hmm idk, maybe Carrie and Big (but they’re problematic) or Monica and Chandler (but that’s high-key basic)

19: 3 animals you’d love to take care of in your house

Kitten, fish, terrapin

20: 3 adjectives that you’d use to describe yourself

I’m just instantly thinking of self-deprecating horrible things...putting them to one side id say I’m brave, caring and conscientious

21: 3 things you are the most passionate about:

Bi representation/ending bi erasure, anti-racism, pro-LGBT+ stuff, essentially equality in the many forms that takes

22: 3 movies/books/tv shows that made you cry

Finding Neverland (the movie and the musical), The Impossible, some episodes of Scrubs

23: 3 songs you listen to while cleaning

Lovely Day by Bill Withers, Good as Hell by Lizzo, anything from Dear Evan Hansen

24: 3 places that make you feel peaceful

My bedroom, my living room, a beach

25: 3 people you’d never get tired of

This is a little personal so I’m gonna leave this out, there’s only really one person ahaha

26: 3 countries you’d love to visit

Maldives, Italy, Canada

27: 3 things you wish you did more often

Meditate, journal, just generally taking time out for my mental health

29: 3 characteristics of the person you aspire to be

Good at accepting the things they can’t control, more extraverted/better in social situations, confident

30: 3 moments you could never forget

Everything I can think of is very personal so again I’m gonna leave this question out 😊 not something I want to publish for all to see ahaha

31: 3 types of flowers you love the most

I don’t know much about flowers but I like roses, tulips, and pussy willows (lol)

33: 3 scented candles you love the most

I love scented candles but I’m pretty new to the game! I had a frangipani one which I love, I also have some Christmas candles atm which smell so good, and also a vanilla one

34: 3 people in history that inspire you the most

This ones really hard, so many options! Marsha P Johnson and Rosa Parks come to mind. For a third, maybe MLK Jr?

35: 3 vegetables that you like the taste of

Sweetcorn, peas, carrots

36: 3 ways of travelling that you enjoy the most

Walk, car, train

Thank you so much for the questions! Sorry if my answers were terrible, I tried!

[grace-yribarren-rels390-blog]

I found this quote in an article discussing Martin Luther King Jr. Day and the top ten quotes we use to remember him by. This quote was the main quote of the article: “Faith is taking the first step even when you don’t see the whole staircase.” I wanted to use this quote to analyze it using the knowledge we learned in class and discuss Martin Luther King Jr. Day as a whole.

Growing up in school I always knew what Martin Luther King Jr. Day was and who it was for. Every year we would watch the same video in middle school. It was a cartoon drawn video that told brief story of Martin Luther King Jr.’s life in a way children could understand. Then, after middle school although you knew who Martin Luther King Jr. was and what his message was you never really learned in school anymore than you had already knew. 

When I reached this course, I found it so interesting because I never really envisioned learning about Martin Luther King Jr.’s life in a religion and politics course. Yet, when we got down to learning more about King’s life you really understand his relationship with the course description. As discussed in this class, King was influenced by major social, political and religious factors. The first thing and most important thing to know about King is that he was a minister. Now, although I knew and learned that he was very religious growing up I had never known he was a minister until this class. This is something very influential and perhaps the most influential thing in King’s life. To understand King’s philosophy you must understand he was a Christian. King believed that there were three evils in the world: the evil of racism, the evil of poverty, and the evil of war that all need to be opposed. King also believed in the concept of “the beloved community” which is a “society based on justice, equal opportunity, and love of one's fellow human beings” despite one’s religious background. The concept of “the beloved community” and being welcoming to everyone can be seen as being reflective of King’s religious beliefs. 

After taking that information used in class and analyzing the quote pictured above, I can definitely see the influence of religion on King’s life. In the quote, using the word “faith” to describe putting your beliefs out there can either be seeing as making a religious reference or just a reference for any belief you have in general. 

King’s message about society and treating everyone as equal is a message that can still be used in today’s society. Although King is known as a figure for standing up to racism, he is much more than that. His message spans to being much greater than just accepting of all races, but rather being accepting of everyone and everyone’s beliefs. Especially, in such a hard time we are in right now racism can be seen in public locations such as the super market. We can all keep King’s message in mind to create a society in which everyone feels equal and welcome. 

Words: 524

Work Cited:

Weigle, Lauren. “Martin Luther King Jr. Day 2020: Top 10 Quotes to Remember MLK”. Heavy. https://heavy.com/news/2020/01/martin-luther-king-jr-day-2020-quotes-mlk-love-on-courage-equality-freedom-leadership/. Accessed 24 April 2020. 

[sweetswesf]

87. Week 3, Pt. 1

Running off the inspiration of MLK Jr. Day, I attended my community’s hearing meeting with a property developer. It was a discussion of what to do with the vacant McDonalds building and parking lot. Space is scarce in San Francisco, so it’s only right to do something with a vacant lot and building when so many people experiencing homelessness are in my neighborhood and construction on the site won’t start for another 2-3 years. I also wanted to see who would show up representing Haight-Ashbury/Cole Valley/Golden Gate Park neighborhoods of San Francisco. Of course, I was one of the 2 Black people, representing a community that used to be mainly Black but has since become more gentrified after people bought out the Black folks. I didn’t have anything to say (I was late because I forgot it was happening), but it was cool to see. So many people so passionate about their communities, most supporting their sides with absolutely no logic and only emotion. It made me think back to when I announced the Black ENG group at the Black ERG’s monthly meeting. I had prepared what I wanted to say and was passionate, that my voice trembled, my mouth became dry, and my breathing got shorter, as I tried to calm myself down mid-speech. 

 Of course you had your white men there too, in their power stances, thinking that their opinions were more valued or sounder than the women’s. The other Black person there was really old too. Didn’t say anything. A few murmurings from him as he grunted to hearing things he didn’t agree with. I was ready to be the Black voice in the room, but it was kinda already covered. I didn’t have the data or a strong enough argument to come in and say, “What about the Black folks?!” They wanted a center that would support San Francisco’s TAY and elder population. One that would have free exercise classes and recreational/community building activities like gardening and such. That was the first time I had heard of the term “TAY”. It stands for transition-aged youth: the 18 year olds getting out of foster care and, pretty often, onto the street experiencing homelessness. This checked my “Black” box, as most of the Black folks still existing in San Francisco who are not here for tech, are in public housing, on welfare, segregated on the far ends of the city, in foster care, or experiencing homeless on the street.

Many doubted their two Dos and 3 Don’ts for the space would actually work out since it has been sitting vacant for 2 years, and they had these same conversations when it went vacant. That was around the time when I moved to the neighborhood. When I moved in, my roommates were telling me about how divided people were in the meeting. It got me excited to attend to be a part of the conversation…and to see a good old white hippie fight. I say that with all-due respect. These are people who have been activists since the 60s. I’ve also never been to a community gathering like this for my all-white neighborhood. I have lived in two all-Black, one all-Italian, and two all-White. I was curious to see if it was just as divided and impassioned as ones in the Black neighborhoods I have lived in and attended. And sure enough, it was. You have one person who goes on a passionate tangent for too long. You have one who is a bit cranky and says a lot of “actually”s and “as a matter of fact”s and can quote the building codes by number. You have one who insists everyone else is wrong because his opinions should be valued higher because he’s a bit cleaner, younger, wealthier, and respects the sound level in his tonality a little bit more than everyone else.

It made me think of the kind of speaker I am and encouraged me to share my side, regardless of how it may come out/be perceived. If my intent is right, that’s all that matters. We’ll see what happens with the space, and me…

I did not complete any tickets this week, as I planned.  It was chock-full of meetings.  My mentor has been on the team the longest, and we have had 2 other people, including me, join in the last 2 weeks.  All of the team’s questions get directed to him so I have to share.  I also get to work at 10.  Start working at 11, lunch is at 12, and with a meeting in the afternoon, it leaves me with like 2 or 3 hours to work.  At those times, I’m always hoping they sync up with my mentor’s because I’m still novice AF with all of this.  He’s also preparing and submitting necessary docs for his performance review for a promotion he hopes to get this year.  It gets me a bit nervous about my internship project.  Especially considering my mentor will be gone for 3 weeks next month, and I have no faith in any of the other engineers on my team being as available/qualified to help me as he.  What happens if he doesn’t get the promotion he wants?  How will his drive to help and work/demeanor be?  

He threw attitude one day at me.  I felt I was asking a lot of questions, but I knew it was also because he felt swamped.  He is usually the sweetest and most patient, and I didn’t think I’d see him sour so early in my internship, but I did.  After work, I called “maintenance check”, which is a communication tool I learned from one of my beloved pastors.  When she came out to visit me in San Francisco, over dinner, I asked so many questions about her marriage.  She, a Black man, has a healthy marriage with a Black woman.  My parents split, and my grandparents are too old for their advice to be relevant for me.  It was simple a different time before social media.  I am much more comfortable asking her than any of the other Black married couples in my family.  She told me all about staying open and honest.  When I asked her about how she and her husband, the warm, tall, and smily guy handling logistics and serving as usher to her small congregation, resolve arguments, she told me she calls “maintenance check” in a safe place after she notices a frown or a not so warm comment.  Whoever it gets called on has to come out about what is bothering them.  Often times, they find it was simply miscommunication.   They resolve it, and continue having a healthy relationship/communication flow.  I thought to myself, “Why don’t we all know about this!?  I’m going to use this now on friends and colleagues!”  I did on my mentor, and it wasn’t me asking too many questions, it was just his overall feeling of overwhelm.  He wanted to do his own work, have a solid on-boarding for me, answer all his teammates questions, and prepare his performance review in the way he wanted it to be submitted, and just feeling the pressure of it all.  I am getting older, because I didn’t throw that attitude back and he hasn’t shown that attitude since.  When I threw attitude when I felt under pressure this week for not being able to meet my goals and for stressing off the whole BS on MLK Jr. Day I talked about in a previous post, he checked me, “Is everything okay?  Do I need to beat [our teammate] up?  I have small muscles, but I can try.”  This type of acknowledgement and advocacy is why I am so glad I picked him.  The type of communication and understanding we have I know is partly because we’re Black, partly because we’re Christian, and partly because we aren’t messy and give each other space and understanding and listen to each other.  

Another thing that’s new about engineering: manager means almost nothing for day to day work.  He’s mainly there to make sure we have work to do by representing us and advocating for us in front of other managers, engineers, and other company leaders, advocate for us in promotions, and make sure we are heard and our needs met in our 1:1s.  I have GOT to get up and get to work on time.  I need to get up at 5:30 AM, so I can work out, commute, shower, and be at work in my chair by 8:30 AM.  My friends from Japan came down to eat dinner at my office.  I met one at a Duolingo meetup (which I am so grateful for going to, I wasn’t going to at first) and the others at that person’s birthday.  They are legit so fun to hang out with.  When I wanted Ozoni soup, a Japanese soup of chicken, vegetables, and mochi, which is almost impossible to buy because it is typically made at home at only on New Year’s Day, they figured out where to get the ingredients, hosted me at their place, invited some Brazilian friends, and cooked it for us.  

That’s the type of friendship I like.  I felt so warm.  My maternal grandmother was Japanese, and she raised her family with a lot of those cultural influences, and my mom raised our family similarly.  I identify as Black and Japanese, but have never had Japanese friends, partially because Japanese people are so rare to come across, and partially because they never acknowledged this part of me.  My Japanese friends now give me that warm friendship I have been searching for and able to reciprocate.  As I was touring them through the office, I was reminded of how privileged I was to be working at a place as a software engineer, that has almost become my second home since it’s been where I have spent most of my waking hours and built most of my friendships while in San Francisco.  They are all returning to Japan soon, as they were here to learn English and their class is wrapping up, and this saddens me as I know it will be hard to get us all together in one city to hang out regularly as we did.  

I think about this often, but I have had a lot of friend groups like this: we’re all in a certain place at one time, and it is awesome, but it’s over quickly, only to never form again in the same way.  Sure some of us may meet up with one another here and there, but to all be in the same place at the same time, hanging out together regularly over a long period of time, say months or years, is hard to have happen more than once.  It’s kind of sad.  Moving around so many cities too has me missing a LOT of places and people, which sounds privileged af, but it’s true.  That’s life though, I guess...

Like, I miss bar hopping around New York with my colleagues (bald Ramon with his pervy ways, Habib with his beautiful dark skin, big smile, and innocence, Afrim with his soft laugh, Albanian accent, and love for Dunkin’ Donuts, Julie with her big-sis demeanor, Jessica with her New York Dominican girl sass, Chris with his big-bro demeanor and nerdiness, Bob with his inappropriate jokes and Dutch swagger, Rob with his Brooklyn cool, Nitisha and Sangeetha with their humble intellect), hoping from subway station to station, feeling the energy of Showtime performers, Jewish grandmothers at the Farmer’s market, the diaspora of my people (Blacks, Dominicans, Puerto Ricans, Ghanians, all the different African and Caribbean people), the white boys in Finance, the white girls toting yoga mats or heading to their kickboxing or spin classes, the fashion institute rejects of SoHo.  

I miss the big pretty brick houses and sweet hospitality from the people of Nashville.  I miss satiating hunger with olive bread or gelato or baked chicken from the panificios, gelaterias and grocery stores of Milan and sipping all Italy has to offer by the lead of my Italian big-sis Andrea.  I miss the cold of lunch time and warmth of family-owned restaurant poutine, hanger steak, and freshly baked bread in Buffalo, NY, treated by the man who has had a profound impact on my life in my 20s. 

[knightofbalance-13]

http://invested-in-your-future.tumblr.com/post/165331225385/white-fang-is-not-blm-but-rwby-sure-as-hell

Yes, it is. You just don’t want to admit it.

First of all let me begin by establishing the key arguments for why I am saying that.

White Fang is not like BLM.

There’s no Equivalent of BLM in Remnant.

Activist organization is a necessity.

False Equivalence Between the two is problematic narrative direction

Those three key points basically explain my thoughts on this matter and  highlight a HUGE flaw within Remnant’s worldbuilding as well as  problematic approach RT is taking by assuming a “moderate” stance that  violence of any kind invalidates the cause instantly.

So let’s dive in into each of those points after the cut.

And as we will soon see: She’ll prove herself to be quite racist and problematic herself.

And that’s the thing: The White Fang ARE like Black Lives Matter. BLM has been causing damage through out the country such as hijack a pride parade (http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/toronto/pride-parade-toronto-1.3662823) and a prominent leader attacked a police officer (https://www.cbsnews.com/news/baton-rouge-officer-sues-prominent-black-lives-matter-activist-deray-mckesson/). Hell, if I brought in a certain friend of mine I could get even more dirt because he hates BLM a lot more than I do. And he’s black so what’s your excuse there?

White Fang is NOTHING like #BLM

Let’s be frank, White Fang is basically ISIS in its presentation. Its shown as being a terrorist group that preys upon those who suffer  from oppression and prejudice and converts them into their warriors for  some imaginary world-wide racial war their leader perpetuates. Its an  organization that is not interested in actual peace. An organization  that THRIVES upon there being conflict.An organization that threat’s  it’s own members like shit and at least one of it’s higher ups(Adam) is a highly abusive psychopath, which yet again draws  (unintentional?)parallels to ISIS treatment of women and civilians.

The thing is - BLM is nothing like that. Its an organization that is very much a continuation of MLK Civil Rights  movement. Its an organization that is willing to put themselves in harms way for what they believe in  and longs for a solution but does not sit there playing moderates and  ignoring the need for action.

Let’s be frank -  Remnant NEEDS something like that. An activist organization that stands  up for the oppressed.  Since there’s nothing like that White Fang is  basically using that vacancy for hteir advantage.

...No, no it is not.

ISIS is not motivated by oppression or prejudice: In fact, ISIS THEMSELVES spread oppression and prejudice and are self aware of that. Why? because they take the tenets of Muslim belief way too far. In this sense, ISIS is more like the Crusaders from the old days of the Catholic church being motivated by a severe misinterptation of a religious ideal. To say they are the same in their presentation is misrepresenting the facts at hand. There’s only two reasons why you would say this: A. You think Muslim is a racial term which I highly doubt or B. You’re drawing false equivalency. 

And...No, BLM is NOT like the Civil Righst Movement. Their methods are far too violent and far too forceful to be that. Proof, here: (https://www.washingtonpost.com/posteverything/wp/2015/08/24/i-was-a-civil-rights-activist-in-the-1960s-but-its-hard-for-me-to-get-behind-black-lives-matter/?utm_term=.f9e030d0da39 / http://www.wnd.com/2015/10/civil-rights-leader-black-lives-matter-angry-godless-hateful/ / http://www.latimes.com/local/lanow/la-me-black-church-activism-20160801-snap-story.html) Numerous people who do embody the ideals of Martin Luther King Jr. outright disavow Black Lives Matter because they don’t embody those ideals. 

Yeah...Just like the White Fang was in it’s conception, back when Ghira was leading them. Yeah, your ISIS parallel falls apart more here because ISIS has ALWAYS been violent but civil rights movements? THey have slowly degraded from the proud Civil Rights Movement to the far less effective Black Panthers to the outright contradictory and useless Black Lives Matter now. It’s a story about not becoming the evil you fight and being self aware of your problems...Huh, I guess that’s why you want the White Fag to be absolute good: You want your self blindness to celebrated.

The Vacant Throne of Social Activism

Remnant is a violent and dangerous world. Paranoia runs high and communications are limited between the four kingdoms. Faunus, those who are “different from thenorm” make easy scapegoats to externalize that paranoia. And  the said paranoia is an easy scapegoat for externalizing your own  bigotry. Some people might be prejudiced out of paranoia. Others on  other hand will hide their prejudice and bigotry BEHIND excuses of  paranoia. Either way it is minorities that suffer.

Let’s be  frank - its a world where it has been just around hundred(or less) years since a big World War kind of scenario which also happened to involve  genocidal intentions and nation-wide racism against the faunus. Faunus  are the people who had to FIGHT for their right to be recognized as  EQUALS.

There has only been a century of “peace” after that.  World does not fix itself just via that. As show most often said(yet  somehow not shown), humans might have “recognized” faunus as equals, but most of it is just on paper and not in reality. Prejudice, racism,  bigotry, etc, are still everyday occurences. Hell if to continue  drawing parallels to our world - there has been approx a century between the start of MLK movement and the end of US Civil War. Our world  did not magically fix itself via a war “being won”. Hell even now,  another 60 years latter, its still filled with racism and bigotry. Why  would Remnant a world with giant terrifying monsters and society less  advanced be any different in shorter period of time?

So yeah, Remnant has it��€™s oppressed. Faunus even now are treated like slaves in  Atlas and Mistral is still trying to force them out of Anima continent  into Menagerie. Even Vale, the self-proclaimed “center of the world” has problems like ethnically-fueled bullying. The issue is still there.

And when there are oppressed, situation arises where there’s a position to  be filled to stand up against oppressors. The oppressed will obviously  flock towards those who stand up, starting a chain reaction of oppressed minorities standing and resisting their oppressors. Oppression is like a barrel of dynamite…and the choice to stand up against it is the fuse  that changes everything.

It just so happens that that  position is filled by WF, who currently are more interested in  consolidating power and fueling conflict rather fighting for actual  rights.

What Prejudices? What racism? What examples?

See, you can’t claim that everywhere is racist when you only have...what, one example? And yes it is one because I don’t see any racism in Mistral yet so you’re making that up and Atlas is very much an isolated incident which isn’t even TOTAL racist to begin with Neon Katt being a student. And Cardin? Cardin was looked down upon and treated as a villainous idiot for thinking that way.

Which leads me to my next point: You say that it isn’t logical for Remnant to get rid of Racism and bigotry. While that is true to an extent:, you treat the situation of both our world and Remnant as if they still hold the values of 1950′s when in actuality: Bigotry and racism is heavily looked down upon in our society and it is the same for Remnant. You give off this message of the situation being like Fanaus can’t get jobs and are frowned upon in society when in fact, they are not as a whole. In a few select areas, yes but that’s total consistent with our world as well. So stop misrepresenting the facts.

And you talk about how fear and paranoia are rampant in Remnant...butr you treat the actions of groups like Black lives Matter, who cause violence against people for race (http://www.cleveland19.com/story/32814897/men-chant-black-lives-matter-before-viciously-attacking-white-victims) (http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2015/nov/16/black-lives-matter-protesters-berate-white-student/) as a good thing. You talk about how bigots will try to use that fear as a reason to be racist...which is what they do with Black Lives Matter in real life. Yeah, you’re whole post is starting to crumble.

White Fang is a mistake, but Social Activism is a Necessity

Let’s be frank. “Peaceful” activism might sound nice on paper but it is a  naive idealistic pipe dream. Being peaceful works only as long as the  other side does not decide to bring combat vests, guns or cops against  you….or drive a car into you. Now there are EXTREMES which should most likely not be reached, but Remnant or our world, you can’t fight for what you believe without FIGHTING. There’s a reason why word activism starts with “act”.

Moderacy(synonymous with indifference)  is not gonna tip the scales towards equality. Its a cool pipedream  to “be in the middle”, but the thing is - the middle between two points  is usually closer to the one side that is far more extreme than the  other. If you meet racist in the middle, you have already strayed far  far right from the norm. The idea of “moderate middle” presents the  toxic ideology that wanting things like equal rights, equal  representation, etc is somehow “extreme” or “out of the norm.  MLK is  often quoted having said that White Moderate is pretty much one of the  biggest enemies and it is true - to be “in the middle” in most of cases  means to NOT stop the oppressor AND to not help the oppressed.

To attain equality you need to be able to actually push back. To take  action instead of being indifferent. The thing is - for that you can be  easily labeled as an extremist. But as, once again, MLK put it - the  question is what KIND of extremist are you gonna be?

Its easy to  take the path of White Fang and use the existing problems as path to  power. And sure that is what we see with the White Fang in Remnant.  Whoever is leading the WF is seeing a power vacuum and susceptible  people that can be radicalized into serving the leader’s needs.

But  the thing is - one should be able to chose the other way and actually participate in activism FOR the actual minorities. You don’t need to be “ISIS-type of extremist”, you can be BLM type of activist.

The problems don’t disappear just by removing the White Fang from the  equation. It just returns the situation to status quo. You still need  SOMETHING willing to stand up and tip the scales back to balance and  equality.

While its weird that there’s no opposite  organization to White fang, you could write that off to “creative  liberties” and stuff - writers could have needed WF to be the only  ones to set up WF’s power.

So it should be easy right? Just have  Blake amass power and create her own organization that stands up for  actual rights of the faunus and is willing to do anything to protect  them. Sure Faunus are not about skin color and it is about species, but the comparison still works ideologically.

Its easy but that’s where the show starts walking a REALLY slippery slope of false equivalence and bad writing.

“Naïve pipe dream”...

With those three words, you have lost any right to debate this topic: IT HAPPENED IN REAL LIFE. NUMEROUS TIMES. That’s how black people got equal rights and that’s how women got equal rights. It can’t be a pipe dream if IT HAPPENED. You are seriously blinding yourself to reality if you try to argue THAT.

Uh...Yes you can: Civil Rights Movement did it. See your entire point is invalidated by the existence of the Civil Rights Movement...which you used as an example earlier!

... “the question is what KIND of extremist are you gonna be?” 

... You bitch. That is NOT the full quote! 

The full quote reads as follows: “So the question is not whether we will be extremist but what kind of extremist will we be. Will we be extremists for hate or will we be extremists for love?”

Yeah, don’t you dare try using him to justify your bullshit. You choose your extreme of hate a long time ago: Don’t try painting yourself as good anymore. And DON’T GO DISRESPECTING A GREAT MAN.

ISIS IS NOT AN ACTIVIST MOVEMENT! I lost my temper with you a while ago, don’t push me. You’re only saying that to make BLM look good. ISIS is not, never has nor will it ever be an activist movement. BLM is and you just wanna paint them as a good guy when in fact, they are the negative extreme. Being a BLM activist is being a terrible activist and actually harming your cause because it gives your opponent’s a reason to exist. At that point, you are creating your own villain.

No oone is saying “get rid of the White Fang”: The show is actively against that idea. It’s just saying “Get the genocidal manic and racist murderers out of the organization to get it back on the right track”: Are you so egotistical that you believe yourself right in every action you take. That you can cross whatever extreme you want and it’s fine, that people who call you out are automatically wrong? God damn it!

There is an opposite organization: The White Fang of the past, the White Fang that Blake originally joined, the one her family built up, the one that Adam stole and corrupted. You act like the White Fag has always been this way which just shows you either don’t watch the show or you’re blyinga nd misrepresenting the information at hand.

... You’re an idiot: The White Fang can still be salvaged and redeemed. Just like the SDC can be redeemed from it’s horrible past. Just...stop talking

Oh go right ahead: Give me more ammo.

Problematic False Equivalence and Bad Writing

The problem with worldbuilding in world of remnant and narrative themes in  RWBY overall is that writers seem to instantly equate ALL kinds of  activism to extremism.

Blake creating BLM equivalent is  logical step for her. Its logical step towards challenging Adam and  challenging the new WF leader who took the position from her dad.

The problem is that to RWBY writers BLM and ISIS seems sort of the same kind of maybe????

With the release of Blake character Short, it seems writers thing the viewer should see Ilia punching the bigot school friends in the teeth as some  sort of warning sign or bad thing. There’s a preachy  underline to the  conflict in Blake’s story that you can only achieve something by being completely peaceful.

Its the same kind of idea perversion as those claiming that MLK would  somehow find BLM abhorrent - the idea that MLK preached purely peaceful  activism and condemned all violence. Let’s be frank - that’s not what  MLK’s Civil Rights movement was and MLK was not some holy moderate god.  He understood the importance of standing up and taking action. Civil War was not won by simply waving a white flag and meeting others in the  middle. Civil War took resistance. MLK condemned needless violence sure  and wanted a peaceful solution, but he understood that it won’t come  from just talking. The problems and inequality and bigotry was something that was needed to be SHOWN to the world. MLK understood that. He understood that you can’t just sit and wait, you  need to SHOW it. A lot of Civil Rights Movement revolved around standing up against white privilege and trying to turn the population’s  attention towards the issues racial minorities face. And the world HATED that back then. Civil Rights movement was viewed as “needlessly  polarizing” and “extremist” by your average white people. But now MLK is lauded as a hero by children of the very same people and it is very  clear that the said movement WORKED, even if it did not finish it’s job.  Activism is NEEDED for change to occur. It is still needed. If you are pushed into a corner you need to push back, you need to punch  back.

So why should Remnant be different? Why can’t Faunus make their voice be heard loud and clear and stand up for themselves?

Hell, even in terms of Remnant history the preachy message makes no sense - The faunus Civil war was not fought by Faunus sitting down and talking it all over and over again. It was a war. Part of great war. Where not just faunus but whole kingdoms stood up against certain ideas and to protect certain values.

Why making your voice heard is suddenly wrong now? The issues are the same, they are just more in background. The racism is still there, just more  systematic and less open.The bigotry is still there. It might not be a  â€œwar”, but as Blake’s very same character short shows, the faunus still  keep dying in counts of dozens everyday.

There’s nothing  wrong with opposing WF with violent force, yet it is somehow wrong to  push back against systematic oppression and acts of bigotry?

Its somehow RIGHT to throw dozens of WF members off the moving train(and  into a tunnel cave in full of grimm, but somehow it is WRONG for Ilia to punch bunch of insensitive racist pricks who are laughing at DOZENS OF  PEOPLE DYING?

Activism is not same as extremism. BLM is not same as ISIS. Standing up for equality in is not the same as acts of terror. Taking a stand against white supremacy is not the same as driving a car into a crowd of protesters. Punching a racist in the teeth for being a racist is not the same as staging an invasion into a whole peaceful country.

... NO! The writing does NOT equate all activism as extremism: The White Fang of the past PROVES THAT! The show is just saying that anyone can become like what they fight, that the path to hell is paved with good intentions, that you should beware staring into the abyss lest the abyss stares back! The only reason you say that is either because you are so blind to reality that you cannot comprehend what is actually going on or YOU ARE LYING in order to force people to see your side as the absolutely right.

THE CURRENT WHITE FANG IS THE BLM EQUVILANET! Stop treating a homophobic, racist, violent, self defeating movement  as some pinnacle of humanity and stop ignoring the existence of the previous White Fang and the Civil Righst Movement to suit your narrative. 

No, the only person here who thinks that BLM and ISIS are the same is the person who tried comparing a racial radicalist movement to ISIS IE you. 

HE WOULD! He was a man of God! A man of peace! A man of love and acceptance! BLM literally lacks all of that! They instigate violence, they show nothing but hate and when people tried fighting for their own races, they threw a bitch fit! Seriously, you only think that because you are so blind and arrogant and egotistical that you cannot see the destruction around you.

‘Punch back” huh? I didn’t know a MAN OF GOD, a follower of JESUS CHRIST, IE The guy who literally said “Turn the other cheek” would advocate VIOLENCE! For Christ's csake, he was a PACIFIST. THEY DON’T FIGHT BACK! Great, now that’s TWO PEOPLE I respect that you’ve insulted: Wanna try for three with Monty Oum or Fredrich Nieztche?

THEY DID! Previous White Fang! Show’s lore contradicts you!

Gee, maybe people don’t like it when you start murdering everyone who disagrees with you...Including other Fanaus! yeah, Vale, that place that the White Fang unleashed Grimm on, had FANAUS living there. It’s a problem because PEOPLE ARE DEAD.

It WAS wrong to oppose the previous White Fang with violence because they were peaceful...and the people who did were wrong and the show treats them that way. PREVIOUS White Fang , not CURRENT White Fang because since they want to kill, they get killed. Law of the universe.

Considering those White Fang members where trying to destroy Vale, killing millions of innocents...HUMAN AND FANAUS: yes.

And Illa was wrong: because now they can always talk about how that awful, disgusting Fanaus assaulted them. They now have a REASON to be bigots. All because of Illa. They weren’t right in laughing but Illa was wrong in attacking.

No, BLM is not like ISIS...only that BLM uses racism as an excuse and have roots in something good whereas ISIS uses religion and was never good.

No...But it is the same as advocating the genocide of an entire race and killing innocent people that you are supposedly fighting for. Yeah, Adam contradicts your arguments.

Its an issue that really makes RWBY worldbuilding and intentions take a huge nosedive.

Its so easy to fix and its so easy to give thematic empowerment to minorities and it is needed for thematic coherence, but it seems writers are too busy with their “both sides” bullshit it seems. Its especially problematic in the world we live in.

Nope, it doesn’t d any of that. The real world supports RWBY and it’s message with the likes of the Civil Rights Movement being peaceful and being the only one that succeeded. 

But why are you saying that? Easy:

P. S: Its weird because its the complete opposite of what RVB did in latest  season with making evil enemy grunts be alt-right tangerine-supporter  assholes before the main characters murder the fuck outta them. Is there any coherence in company values at Rooster Teeth or not?

See, you are so obsessed with being justified that you confuse “internet trolls” with “conservatives.” 

You hate moderates because they expose your thoughst for what they are: Sick, twisted, backwards and wrong. You are basically General Kimball if she refused General Doyle’s lesson: You refuse to see the other side as human and see your own flaws. You want to be right because you are egotistical and insane.

Well, Too bad. RT is a moderate place and company and they’ve always done this. What you want is to be locked into an echo chamber and have everything you want agree with you but since RT doesn't pander to you: You refuse to see your reflection and you don’t want any reality to show you.

My only response: Go somewhere else and take your bullshit with you.

[primeetime]

Why Don’t I Write More

It’s been too long since my last post. A lot has changed in my life, but at my core, I’m still the same. I want to be a great writer so I read. Some days I read a lot. Some days I read a little. But every day I read. If I can find one good quote, one good metaphor, one good simile or just one way to improve my writing, whatever I was reading was worth my time. Eventually I’ll write more, but for right now I focus on reading. 

So what I’m I reading right now. Well, next to me on my bed I have 3 books. I have Ta-Nehisi Coates powerful new book “The Water Dancer,” Leo Tolstoy’s epic masterpiece “War and Peace,” and I have Frederick Douglass’ 3rd autobiography, “The Life and Times of Frederick Dougalss.”

It’ll be a long time before I really commit to writing because I feel like so much of writing is based on reading other writers and slowly but surely coming up with your own style.

There are so many writers that I want to read and break down and analyze that I just know that right now writing is on the back burner. I want to read Zora Neale Hurston and W.E.B. DuBois. I want to read Colson Whitehead and Imani Perry. I want to read Langston Hughe’s short stories and August Wilson’s plays. I’ve already read the vast majority of James Baldwin’s non-fiction but I want to read his novels. And that’s only talking about the Black writers. 

From the 200 pages I’ve read of “War and Peace” I want to read, at the very least, Anna Karenina and Crime Punishment. I also want to read Oscar Wilde and some other British authors. Lastly, I definitely want to read the great American writers, so as you can see I have no shortage of authors to read. But in the meantime Ill write here and there. I might make a couple more posts in the next coming days because there are a couple burning issues that I want to write about. 

I don’t know if I’ll ever get around to it (heck, I don’t even know if anyone reads this lol), but the two topics I want to write about are the different forms that love can take (as Americans our understanding of love is so limited but I read this paragraph from the NYTimes Modern Love section and it inspired me to write something...“I flunked Chem II, which was especially humiliating for the daughter of a renowned scientist. “I’m not worried about your grade,” my teacher said, smiling. “I know that someday I’m going to have your books on my shelf.” I was stunned by his gift of faith. I felt as if I were flunking life, but he had seen my writing in the school paper. Twenty years later, I sent him a copy of my first published book. “I used your book in my retirement talk,” he wrote back. “Then I went home and put it on my shelf.””) and patriotism. 

I’ll leave you with a quote from James Baldwin and a powerful video that every American should watch. The quote is from “No Name in the Street” and it’s probably the most despairing line I’ve ever read from James, 

“I don’t think that any black person can speak of Malcolm and Martin without wishing that they were here. It is not possible for me to speak of them without a sense of loss and grief and rage; and with the sense, furthermore, of having been forced to undergo an unforgivable indignity, both personal and vast. Our children need them, which is, indeed, the reason that they are not here: and now we, the blacks, must make certain that our children never forget them. For the American republic has always done everything in its power to destroy our children’s heroes, with the clear (and sometimes clearly stated) intention of destroying our children’s hope. This endeavor has doomed the American nation: mark my words.”

The video I leave you with is of MLK’s funeral. I decided to watch it after reading Baldwin’s description of both the service. This post is getting longer than I expected, but I also want to add in James Baldwin’s description of the funeral service.

The church was packed, of course, incredibly so. Far in the front, I saw Harry Belafonte sitting next to Coretta King. I had interviewed Coretta years ago, when I was doing a profile on her husband. We had got on very well; she had a nice, free laugh. Ralph David Abernathy sat in the pulpit. I remembered him from years ago, sitting in his shirtsleeves in the house in Montgomery, big, black, and cheerful, pouring some cool soft drink, and, later, getting me settled in a nearby hotel. In the pew directly before me sat Marlon Brando, Sammy Davis, Eartha Kitt—covered in black, looking like a lost ten-year-old girl—and Sidney Poitier, in the same pew, or nearby. Marlon saw me and nodded. 

The atmosphere was black, with a tension indescribable—as though something, perhaps the heavens, perhaps the earth, might crack. Everyone sat very still. The actual service sort of washed over me, in waves. It wasn’t that it seemed unreal; it was the most real church service I’ve ever sat through in my life, or ever hope to sit through; but I have a childhood hangover thing about not weeping in public, and I was concentrating on holding myself together. I did not want to weep for Martin; tears seemed futile. But I may also have been afraid, and I could not have been the only one, that if I began to weep, I would not be able to stop. There was more than enough to weep for, if one was to weep—so many of us, cut down, so soon. Medgar, Malcolm, Martin: and their widows, and their children. 

Reverend Ralph David Abernathy asked a certain sister to sing a song which Martin had loved—“once more,” said Ralph David, “for Martin and for me,” and he sat down. The long, dark sister, whose name I do not remember, rose, very beautiful in her robes, and in her covered grief, and began to sing. It was a song I knew: “My Heavenly Father Watches Over Me.” The song rang out as it might have over dark fields, long ago; she was singing of a covenant a people had made, long ago, with life, and with that larger life which ends in revelation and which moves in love.

She stood there, and she sang it. How she bore it, I do not know; I think I have never seen a face quite like that face that afternoon. She was singing it for Martin, and for us. 

And surely, He Remembers me. My heavenly Father watches over me. 

At last, we were standing, and filing out, to walk behind Martin, home. I found myself between Marlon and Sammy. I had not been aware of the people when I had been pressing past them to get to the church. But, now, as we came out, and I looked up the road, I saw them. They were all along the road, on either side, they were on all the roofs, on either side. Every inch of ground, as far as the eye could see, was black with black people, and they stood in silence. It was the silence that undid me. I started to cry, and I stumbled, and Sammy grabbed my arm. We started to walk.

Baldwin, James. No Name in the Street (Vintage International) (pp. 156-157). Knopf Doubleday Publishing Group. Kindle Edition.

https://www.c-span.org/video/?443156-1/martin-luther-king-jr-funeral-coverage-1968

For me, the most moving part was the march. All the despairing Black faces that lined the street from Ebenezer Baptist Church to Morehouse College was just haunting. The assassination of Dr. King is probably the most devastating event in the history of Black America. Yes Dr. King was just a man, but for many African-Americans he had come to be the physical manifestation of hope. When he died, for African-Americans, hope died and we’ve been trying to recover ever since. 

[junker-town]

4 problematic things about FSU’s bizarre, deleted MLK graphic

Reducing a man to a meme has effects. FSU’s social media department is yet another reminder of how problematic that can be.

On Martin Luther King Jr. Day, every political, corporate, and sports team Twitter account seems duty-bound to send at least one message quoting or thanking the civil rights icon. College football is very much part of this national mandate.

Most MLK Day tweets by sports teams and coaches are performative but harmless. Then there is this, sent out by Florida State’s recruiting department on Monday:

That graphic, which was deleted after less than an hour of going up, came from FSU’s official recruiting Twitter account shortly before 1 p.m. ET:

#DoSomething is FSU’s hashtag under coach Willie Taggart. It got the Noles widely mocked during Taggart’s first season, when FSU went 5-7 and missed a bowl for the first time in 37 years. Martin Luther King Jr., to be fair, was absolutely a guy who #DidSomething.

This is a problem, though, for a few reasons.

1. They Photoshopped MLK’s hand to make a Tomahawk Chop.

The original picture comes from the March on Washington in 1963, where King gave his famous “I have a Dream” speech in front of the National Mall.

While King’s arm is up in the original photo, it’s pretty clear someone not only added the glove onto his hand, but also photoshopped the hand to point forward so he’s doing the Tomahawk Chop.

Photo by Grant Halverson/Getty Images

You can see and hear the Chop dozens of times throughout an FSU game — or a Braves baseball game, or Chiefs football game. It’s best described as “a rhythmic extension and contraction of the forearm, with the palm open, to mimic the action of chopping.” FSU fans Chop while chanting along with the War Chant, performed by the Marching Chiefs band.

FSU has worked in concert with the Seminole Tribe of Florida to clear its references to indigenous culture. But I will just leave a portion of a Dr. King quote about America’s treatment of indigenous people right here.

“Our nation was born in genocide when it embraced the doctrine that the original American, the Indian, was an inferior race. Even before there were large numbers of Negroes on our shores, the scar of racial hatred had already disfigured colonial society. From the sixteenth century forward, blood flowed in battles of racial supremacy. We are perhaps the only nation which tried as a matter of national policy to wipe out its indigenous population. Moreover, we elevated that tragic experience into a noble crusade. Indeed, even today we have not permitted ourselves to reject or to feel remorse for this shameful episode. Our literature, our films, our drama, our folklore all exalt it.”

It’s safe to assume that King wouldn’t have been a fan of co-opting indigenous culture to support a sports team.

2. The glove on his hand is Nike.

FSU’s account is not the only one to put King’s likeness next to a Nike brand mark. Carolina put the Jordan Brand logo on its MLK graphic:

And Alabama had King looking right over a swoosh:

Some accounts have Nike logos on every graphic.

But Nike has run afoul of child labor standards in the past and still draws criticism for how it treats workers. King’s anti-capitalist statements suggest he’d be against being linked to the company:

I imagine you already know that I am much more socialistic in my economic theory than capitalistic. And yet I am not so opposed to capitalism that I have failed to see its relative merits. It started out with a noble and high motive, viz, to block the trade monopolies of nobles, but like most human system it fail victim to the very thing it was revolting against. So today capitalism has outlived its usefulness.

3. There are plenty of ways to do the MLK meme thing (if you must) without doing that.

And other people in different parts of FSU’s athletic department showed how to do it with the same picture Alabama used.

Honoring the life and legacy of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., whose dreams of peace, equality and freedom made our nation stronger. #MLKDay pic.twitter.com/wW5f4gZEid

— FSU Hoops (@FSUHoops) January 21, 2019

The head coach tweeted this:

If you can't fly, then run, if you cant run, then walk, if you cant walk, then crawl, but whatever you do, you have to keep moving forward -Martin Luther King, Jr.#MartinLutherKingJrDay⁠ ⁠ pic.twitter.com/49yDIXjdO4

— Willie Taggart (@CoachTaggart) January 21, 2019

4. It shouldn’t be lost that FSU has a trailblazing black coach who is actively dealing with racist bullshit.

It is doubly disappointing that a program that has Willie Taggart — the first black head football coach in FSU history — as its most public employee would fumble this.

In late November, following his disappointing first season, someone Photoshopped Taggart’s face onto a picture of multiple people being lynched and posted it to Facebook. The person who made the graphic got fired from his job, and a state attorney opened an investigation into the incident. FSU’s president swiftly came to Taggart’s defense.

This recent history takes the act of cheapening King’s legacy with branded memes to another level of disappointment.

The ideals that King stood for didn’t end with his death, and the hatred he fought still burns. To be tone-deaf enough to send this graphic out like FSU did, amid the context of what the program is already dealing with, is certainly #doing ... something.

But it’s not a good thing.

[tsvitok]

Some oddly beautiful songs (and I spent way too long on this post).

I was going through my music library and am always humoured how I’ve kept around my old shitty teenage music.

I mean I shouldn’t be, because there is some true gems in there. And whenever I go through that I remember how there is some really affective, beautiful music from some really unexpected bands.

Blink 182 is maybe the most obvious one, because maybe the two most affective songs I can think of are both Blink 182 songs from their initial run as a band.

“Stockholm Syndrome” is, oddly beautiful and emotional. It’s so out of place in their catalogue even for the album it was in (Blink 182 - ironically their last original run album). It is as if Nirvana did a happy song about love and faith in humanity.

This emotionally brutal song about emotional stockholm syndrome where you’re trapped in this paranoid depression still sticks with me. There is something about the distorted, messy vocals counterpointed by a frenetic set of instrumentals where the pacing shifts frequently.

The other is much more obvious to anyone from the 90s, “Adam’s Song” is still poignant even though we don’t use landline phones any more.

They’ve actually got a much more polished and mature sound and content in their second run as a band, so I won’t actually mention any of the songs from their more recent stuff.

Linkin Park is another one, “My December” was a good song that depressed me in my youth but I’ve grown a bit more profound in my old age. Their more recent post-nu-metal albums are fairly good, particularly A Thousand Suns which is thematically linked by Nuclear Weapons. 

Part of the quality of that album is their more experimental feel - they sampled things like speeches by Martin Luther King Jr, the famous quote from the Trinity Nuclear Test by J. Robert Oppenheimer and Mario Savio (The Operation of the Machine, gets turned into an angry anti-establishment nu-metalloid pseudo-rap called “Wretches and Kings”)

But the song made from a sample of MLK’s Vietnam speech “Wisdom, Justice And Love” is by far my favourite, particularly as it is used as a frame for going into a song called “Iridescent” which is appropriately about maintaining hope in grave situations.

It is extremely unfortunate Linkin Park has an obsession with those horrible Transformer movies.

Probably the last one, Red Hot Chili Peppers, well known for a sort of hedonistic pop rock where they sing a lot about drugs, sex and various related issues. They actually do a lot of songs about how fucked up drugs make you and the inability to resist going back to them.

“Venice Queen” is one of those songs, a sort of soft ballad about a rehab worker in California. There isn’t much to say about it other than, it’s a strangely sad song for RHCP.

One of the reasons I actually like RHCP despite them being somewhat more mainstream sound than what I usually like (I’m not against mainstream, but I really like the more melancholy sounds you don’t get on the radio), is that they’re super sex positive - which I’m an advocate for (despite being ace) - and amazingly feminist despite their choice of topics. Probably the best example for this is their song “Cabron” which has a sort of Spanish ballad feel to it (unsurprisingly given the name) and is literally a guy spruiking about how great he is, then saying “you know, if you’re interested.”. Then there is “Breaking the Girl” which is a melancholic description of remorse about forcing the woman he loves into a gendered role because of how he was raised.

“Hard to Concentrate” however is my favourite and really speaks for itself. It is a love song. Honestly though, the less you focus on the songs they became famous for, the more you realise they’ve got a fairly deep catalogue. A lot of their content would get them called ‘social justice warriors’ around these parts. Like, “The Power of Equality” (about how things are far from equal in America) or “Give it Away” (about spreading the wealth and being charitable).

In that vein, one last song I find extremely oddly beautiful (there are hundreds I could share but look how fucking long this already is), is by an unexpected Industrial Metal band called Shai Hulud - known for their misanthropic and dark lyrics which read like fucking poetry.

It is only beautiful if you learn the lyrics, but “Be Winged” is beautifully hopeful despite also accepting the pessimism that plagues you.

Links (of questionable quality) to every song I mentioned.

Blink 182 “Stockholm Syndrome” Blink 182 “Adam’s Song” Linkin Park “My December” Linkin Park “Wretches and Kings” Linkin Park “Wisdom, Justice, And Love” Linkin Park “Iridescent” Red Hot Chili Peppers “Venice Queen” Red Hot Chili Peppers “Cabron” Red Hot Chili Peppers “Breaking the Girl” Red Hot Chili Peppers “Hard to Concentrate” Red Hot Chili Peppers “The Power of Equality” Red Hot Chili Peppers “Give It Away” Shai Hulud “Be Winged”

[firstumcschenectady]

"Only Love Can Do That" based on Psalm 130 and Mark 3:20-35

Yet, with this enormous range of worship is and can be, I maintain my hope that it is useful in expanding kinship, in nurturing love, and in expanding the kindom of God. Hopefully, also meets our deeply felt need to connect with the Divine. As the Psalm says,ngdom cannot stand. And if a house is divided against itself, that house will not be able to stand,” were rephrased by Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King into, “Darkness cannot drive out darkness, only light can do that. Hate cannot drive out hate, only love can do that."

In the Gospel, Jesus is experiencing attack. He was a healer, and a successful one. This disconcerted some people. Isn't that the way things go sometimes? Someone is doing their thing, their uniquely gifted by God to take care of each other thing, and somehow or another people get upset about it. Maybe Jesus was undermining the revenue streams for other healers. Maybe he was getting a little too famous a little too fast. Maybe the way he went about it decreased dependence on the official religious mechanisms. Maybe he was supposed to be “nobody” and it upset things far too much for him to turn out to be “somebody.”

But somehow or another, this attack on Jesus feels... normal. He was doing a good thing that helped people and others took offense. Welcome to life itself, right?

In this case, the ones who went on the offensive against Jesus didn't have much to work with. After all, how offensive is it really to heal people and not ask for payment? So they SAID that the reason he had the power to heal was because he was evil. Or, in their language, he was given the power over demons by the head demon.

Now, Jesus tends to be pretty patient with people who are struggling, or downtrodden, or under attack. But, according to the gospels he usually wasn't above defending himself with quick wit. Mark says that Jesus replied, “How can Satan cast out Satan? If a kingdom is divided against itself, that kingdom cannot stand. And if a house is divided against itself, that house will not be able to stand.” AKA, if evil were being used to drive out evil, it would work against the power of evil.

Or, again, in the way that speaks far better to me, “Returning hate for hate multiplies hate, adding deeper darkness to a night already devoid of stars. Darkness cannot drive out darkness; only light can do that. Hate cannot drive out hate; only love can do that. Hate multiplies hate, violence multiplies violence, and toughness multiplies toughness in a descending spiral of destruction.”1

While I was pondering all of this, in the midst our Wednesday night study “Caring for Inactive Members” Rev. Bob Long shared his understanding of the difference between anger and hate. (Note that is what I remembered him saying, so please assume any faults are mine, not his.) Anger is a sign of caring, a sign that something one values is being violated, and that the person experiencing anger cares enough to want to change what's wrong and maintain the relationship. On the other hand, hate is a desire to no longer be in relationship with the other, and does not involve caring.

PLEASE NOTE: While I really appreciate this, and all ways of humanizing the experience of having emotions, and any reminder that anger can be fruitful in bringing justice and resolutions, I am also sorely aware that anger can also be used as an excuse for harm, punishment, and abuse. ANGER is a part of life, one that can useful as a way of noticing what we value and guiding us towards actions that fit out values. Anger is not, however, excuse for violence in words or actions. There is a fundamental difference between being angry and taking anger out on others. The former is normal and good. The latter is not.

In this moment in time, we live in the midst of deep and deepening divisions. We're told that some of the divisions in society are intentionally created by outside nations, seeking to lessen the power of the United States in the world. Others are flames intentionally fanned for the sake of political power. Still others have been used to break apart the mainline denominations, so that our voice in calling for justice and the building of the kindom would be lessened.

And NOW we've added to all of this various ways of responding to a global pandemic, questions about masking, vaccinating, social distancing, opening and closing of various businesses, and schools, and places of worship.

There are deep and deepening divisions. Many of them move people to anger. Anger fits, positions on issues of life and death are deeply held. I fear, however, that some are moving people from anger to hate.

Further, I fear that with each and every deepening division, we get better at division and less skilled at connection. I fear we're getting better at hate, when we're called to get better at love. To quote MLK again, “Psychologists and psychiatrists are telling us today that the more we hate, the more we develop guilt feelings and we begin to subconsciously repress or consciously suppress certain emotions, and they all stack up in our subconscious selves and make for tragic, neurotic responses.”2

I also fear we're letting the energy of division come home to roost. The way the outside world works in soundbites, and us vs. them, and gossip, and triangulation, and fear mongering and a refusal to engage in direct communication... all these pieces of division are getting NORMALIZED. So are attacks, like the ones against Jesus that started this whole story in the Gospel.

So, let's take a few moments to remember again what being a part of the Jesus-movement, kindom building, God-centered, beloved community is all about. It is far easier to focus on what we're meant to be when we remember what that is.

In the end of the Gospel passage, Jesus says “Whoever does the will of God is my brother and sister and mother.”

He expands his family. He refuses the boundaries that tell him who he is to love, protect, and care for, and he simply embraces more people in that role. He expands the kindom, his own kindom, to include those working with him in expanding God's love in the world.

To expand kinship is to expand who is “us” ...eventually until there is no “them.” To expand kinship is to have enough trust and respect for other kin to discuss disagreement, disappointments, hurts, and fears directly. To expand kinship is to listen, even to long-winded, indirect stories that may or may not eventually come around to the topic at hand (but … I mean... maybe not DURING a meeting?? ) To expand kinship is to disagree and not let that disrupt relationship. I hope that you've seen this in your life, family members who like each other immensely and have enough space in that liking and loving for real differences.

It is my hope that some of what we do in worship is expand kinship. Worship is seeking to connect to the Divine together. Over the past 1 ¼ years, the “together” has taken on new meaning, and has proven to us that there are a lot of different ways to be together. Worship itself is quitea wide range of things. Silence, and word, and music – sometimes a particular worship has only of those forms! Prayer, scripture, and reflection – again, sometimes one is dominant over others. The forms of prayers vary. The types of music vary. The length of service varies!!! The structure and form of the service, and even of the reflections can also vary greatly. I'm reminded that there are a significant number of people in our midst for whom the more profound form of worship is service, and others for whom the Divine is most reachable in nature.

Yet, with this enormous range of worship is and can be, I maintain my hope that it is useful in expanding kinship, in nuruting love, and in expanding the kindom of God. Hopefully, also meets our deeply felt need to connect with the Divine. As the Psalm says,

I wait for the Lord, my soul waits, and in [God's] word I hope; my soul waits for the Lord more than those who watch for the morning, more than those who watch for the morning. (Psalm130:5-6)

Worship make space for that connection. It is time set apart to connect. May worship bring us closer to love, to God, and to each other. May worship even help us gain the strength and courage to keep on connecting with each other across differences. Or to put it another way, maybe worship can function a way to prevent anger from becoming hate. Or maybe it is even more powerful than that. Maybe worship is able to nurture love in us, and love is the thing most powerfully able to drive out hate. May it be so. Amen

1Martin Luther King, Jr. Strength to Love (Minneapolis: Fortress Press, 2010 – originally 1963), 47

2 Martin Luther King “Loving Your Enemies” sermon Nov. 17,1957, Dexter Avenue Baptist Church. Found at https://kinginstitute.stanford.edu/king-papers/documents/loving-your-enemies-sermon-delivered-dexter-avenue-baptist-church (He'd edited by the time it was published in Strength to Love.)

June 6, 2021

[radthursdays]

#RadThursdays Roundup 01/18/2018

Young Activists for Black Lives Coalition carry a hand-painted "Reimagining the Dream" banner through the streets of Oakland during the Fourth Annual March to Reclaim King's Radical Legacy. Source.

Reclaiming MLK's Radical Legacy

To honor Dr. King’s legacy is to support the Florida prison strike: "On Monday, January 15, the holiday in honor of Dr. Martin Luther King’s birthday, Florida’s incarcerated population will be participating in a large scale strike. In order to call attention to the practice of systemic slavery that allows for the exploitation and inhumane treatment of prisoners, participants in this act of civil disobedience will institute a work stoppage. Organizers of the peaceful protest have dubbed the effort “Operation PUSH” and have penned a manifesto outlining the changes they are demanding."

Martin Luther King Jr. Spent the Last Year of His Life Detested by the Liberal Establishment: "In 1966, 63 percent of Americans held a negative view of the civil rights leader, while just 32 percent held a positive one. This was a marked reversal from five years earlier, when 41 percent of Americans gave King a positive rating and 37 percent a negative one. King’s slide in popularity coincided with his activism taking a turn from what Americans largely know him for — his campaign for civil rights in the American South — to a much more radical one aimed at the war in Vietnam and poverty."

Race

Writing for Black Women: Ijeoma Oluo Is Still Speaking Truth to Power: "No matter what, when you’re made aware of a privilege that comes at the expense of others or that you may have been actively harming someone through actions and words, it’s very easy to feel really defensive. We want to think of ourselves as good people who don’t harm [others]. It’s this weird, aggressive output of being people who don’t want to hurt people. If you’re someone who doesn’t care, you won’t care about harm, so it’s weird that we because we care so much about people, we often end up doing more harm when we’re confronted with our wrongdoing."

White Folks: "It does not seem unlikely that the prevailing language for theorizing whiteness and white people has evolved to provide psychological benefits to a very particular constituency, within very particular contexts. Or that these psychological rewards are not always consistent with commitment to the kinds of actions that would truly threaten larger structures of power and privilege."

“Hard Crackers, Come Again No More”: "Reform is the byproduct of revolutionary struggle, and progress is linked to bringing to life the vision of a society without race, gender and class, without commodity production and the buying and selling of labor-power, a society where 'work' and 'play' give way to freely associated activity. This I believe: solidarity that puts off equality until some time in the future is no solidarity at all; there will never be a successful proletarian revolution in this country until masses of white workers not merely oppose 'racism' and 'support the black struggle' but demonstrate that they are willing to go through what the black workers have gone through. It is my faith that the capacity to do so exists among them; central to the project of Race Traitor and Hard Crackers is to bring that capacity to life."

A tweet by @DoubleStraps quotes a tweet by @CNN linking to an article with the title, "Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos and his wife, MacKenzie, are donating $33 million to send 1,000 Dreamers to college". The added commentary says, "To put it in perspective of percentage, this is the equivalent of a person making $50k donating $16." Source.

Technology

Don't Be Evil: Fred Turner on Utopias, Frontiers, and Brogrammers: An interview on techno-utopianism and the ideologies behind Silicon Valley. From the third issue of LOGIC magazine, Justice.

How to Do Things With Memes: Galaxy-braining the galaxy brain meme. "Is being 'extremely online' — that is, being invested in maintaining a fluency in online tropes — inherently toxic?"

Sexism

The poorly reported Aziz Ansari exposé was a missed opportunity: "When we haven’t yet agreed that female pleasure and clear enthusiasm are prerequisites for a sexual encounter, we lack the ability to peel back the layers of sexual experience, and we end up with two bad options: accept sexual inequity as just how sex is (or just how men are) or wedge truly bad sexual experiences into the category of sexual assault."

Not Your Bro: "Despite being a decently strong canoeist these days, I’m still afraid of being scorned for lilydipping. I’m scared of men who fly off the handle or look at me in a cold, distant, contemptuous way—like there’s something in me that threatens them. So, when a certain kind of man learns my name and leans on my bar, I want to like him. I want to give him the benefit of the doubt. I want to feel camaraderie. But the allure of his acceptance can be hollow; if he looks at me and sees a bro, it means he hasn’t really seen me at all."

An old Convair ad depicts three fighter jets flying low over a small town. The ad states, "Freedom Has a New Sound!" and goes on to read, "All over America these days the blast of supersonic flight is shattering the old familiar sounds of city and countryside. At U.S. Air Force bases strategically located near key cities our Airmen maintain their round the clock vigil, ready to take off on a moment's notice in jet aircraft like Convair's F-102A all-weather interceptor. Every flight has only one purpose—your person protection! The next time jets thunder overhead, remember that the pilots who fly them are not willful disturbers of your peace; they are patriotic young Americans affirming your New Sound of Freedom!" Source.

Issues

Feds planning massive Northern California immigration sweep to strike against sanctuary laws: “U.S. immigration officials have begun preparing for a major sweep in San Francisco and other Northern California cities in which federal officers would look to arrest more than 1,500 undocumented people while sending a message that immigration policy will be enforced in the sanctuary state, according to a source familiar with the operation.”

The Coping Economy: "Time and again we read that mindful companies aren’t perfect, but that they’re better for their employees and for the world than most. General Mills still sells 'junk food to kids and empty calories to adults,' David Gelles has written, but the people are friendly. Ford vehicles still burn fossil fuels, but the firm avoided being hated like the tobacco industry. Between 'invading people’s privacy at one turn' and 'snuffing out competitors at the next,' Google has hardly lived up to its own motto 'don’t be evil.' But its embrace of mindful culture, Gelles concludes, shows it hasn’t 'lost touch with its idealism.' Companies, too, need to tell themselves uplifting stories about the way of life they create. In mindfulness, they’ve found their new way of feeling."

Activism

Grounding the currents of Indigenous resistance: Those joining the centuries-old Indigenous resistance in the Americas should discard Eurocentric narratives, epistemic violence and salvation narratives. "The interrelationships between our ethics, cosmologies, lifeways and the waters, lands and life-forms that sustain us are as complex and critical to our survival as those between the rivers, lakes and wetlands within the watershed where we reside. In our current political landscape, however, we must also navigate dangerously confining constructs introduced by European colonizers that function as ideological canals, locks and dams."

Walking the Floor of the Great Minnesota Activist Factory: "We switched the model from being a service model—‘we’ll solve the problem for you’—to deep leadership development. We’re gonna partner with you, we’ll provide you with the tools, but you’ve got to be the leader fighting for the change […] A lot of things that call themselves ‘worker centers’ are social services. That’s not a criticism, it’s just a difference. The type of organization we are, we believe that systemic change won’t happen unless it comes from the community. From the people who are directly impacted."

A screenshot of Alex, the first muppet on Sesame Street with a parent in jail, sitting on the stairs of a brownstone building. He has short blue hair, orange skin, and a green nose. Source.

Direct Action Item

Given the possibility of ICE raids sweeping Northern California soon, please share the Northern California Immigration Raid Rapid Response hotline numbers below for immediate assistance, including aid through immigration lawyers:

Alameda County (Oakland): (510) 241-4011

San Francisco County: (415) 200-1548

San Mateo County: NOMIGRA (203) 666-4472

Marin County: (415) 991-4545

Santa Clara County (San Jose): (408) 290-1144

Monterey County: (831) 643-5225

Fresno & San Joaquin County: (559) 978-4797

Sacramento County: (916) 245-6773

Santa Cruz County: (831) 239-4289

Sonoma and Napa County: (707) 800-4544

If there’s something you’d like to see in next week’s #RT, please send us a message.

In solidarity!

What is direct action? Direct action means doing things yourself instead of petitioning authorities or relying on external institutions. It means taking matters into your own hands and not waiting to be empowered, because you are already powerful. A “direct action item” is a way to put your beliefs into practice every week.

[mrrolandtfranco]

Improve accessibility of your Story Map Journal by adding alternative text

Story Map Journal received several key enhancements related to accessibility in the December 2017 update. Most of these enhancements, like keyboard navigation and improved semantic structure, just work for all stories new and old. But the ability to add alternative text to media is a feature that requires action from the story map author. So read on to learn how to improve the accessibility of your Map Journal stories using this new feature.

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What is accessibility?

If something is accessible it means that people with disabilities can use it. Just like a public building can be made accessible by the installation of an entrance ramp, web content, such as a story map, can also be made accessible by the addition of some key pieces of infrastructure.

Most organizations have accessibility guidelines for web content, and many are required by law to adhere to certain accessibility requirements. For example, web content published by US federal government agencies is subject to Section 508 standards. The World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) also publishes guidelines for web accessibility known as the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG).

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What is alternative text?

Alternative text, or “alt text” as it is often called, provides a textual alternative to visual web content such as images, videos, and maps. Alt text serves several functions, but the one most pertinent to story map authors is that alt text is read by screen reader software in place of a media item allowing its content and function to be accessible to those with visual or cognitive disabilities.

The idea behind alt text is that software (web browsers and screen readers) cannot effectively discern the meaning of visual media for your readers. As an author, alt text lets you provide a description of the content and function of media items in your story map so this information can be successfully communicated to readers using assistive technologies.

More background information about alt text can be found in the links at the end of this post.

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How do I add alternative text to my story?

You can use the Map Journal builder to attach alt text to media in a story. This includes media in the main stage and narrative panel as well as media that appears in the main stage via a story action. You can add alt text to new stories as you create them, and you can go back and add alt text to stories you’ve already made.

In Map Journal builder, wherever you add media to a story, there is a place for you to add alternative text. For example, when you configure content to appear in the main stage of a section of a story you’ll see the Alternative Text box, as shown below (click an image to expand it). The box is expandable by dragging the lower right corner if you need more space.

When you insert media in the narrative panel you’ll see a similar alt text entry box…

When you add alt text to a story, it won’t be visible anywhere in the finished story so sighted readers won’t see the alt text. To get technical for a moment, the Map Journal app attaches the alt text you enter to the aria-label tag of the media container <div> element in the story map’s HTML code. Screen reader apps know how to find text attached to aria-label tags and speak it when the corresponding media has focus.

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How do I write good alternative text?

Now that you know how to add alt text to your story map, it’d be good to know how to write effective alt text. There are many articles about this on the web, and everyone has their own opinion about what makes for good alt text. It is worth reviewing some of the detailed resources provided at the end of this post to see specific examples of good and bad alt text, but in general there are a few simple guidelines you can follow:

Be concise. Alt text should be brief and free of filler words and phrases. Remember, alt text will be read aloud by screen reader software, so you don’t want to waste the time of readers using assistive technologies with wordy text. Don’t begin alt text with phrases like “This is an image of….” Assistive technologies announce what type of element has focus, so it’s not necessary to add this to the alt text. Also, alt text does not always have to be a complete sentence.

Don’t be repetitive. Don’t reuse a caption or descriptive information in the main narrative for alt text. Assistive technologies will read everything, so reusing text leads to unwanted repetition. Instead, think about how the narrative, caption, and alt text work together to provide a complete picture for both sighted and disabled readers. Media that already have a full description in the caption may only require very simple alt text (for example, “map” for a map or “flowers” for an image of flowers). Photo or map data credits should go in the caption (and not in the alt text) so that information is available to all readers.

Consider context. Alt text used for a particular media item depends on the topic of your story and the context in which the media appears. Remember to consider the media item’s content and function — which are both context-dependent — when writing alt text.

Include text that appears in an image. If an image contains text that is important to the story — such as a photo of a protester holding a sign — that text should be included in the alt text. Otherwise this important information will not be communicated to users of assistive technologies. If words in a photo are not directly related to the story they can be omitted from the alt text.

For maps, communicate the purpose of the map, not what’s in the map. Remember, alt text should be used to inform the reader about the content and function of media in your story. Resist the urge to give a list of layers or features in a map; instead, use alt text to communicate the map’s purpose and how the information in the map should be interpreted to support your story.

Alt text isn’t needed for decorative images. Decorative images, such as a fancy line graphic serving as a section break or a stock photo that doesn’t directly support your narrative, don’t need alt text. Simply leave the alt text blank for these images.

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OK, how about an example?

Recently, Esri’s Story Maps team published a story about Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.

This story has been updated to include alt text and we’ll use it to walk through a few examples. Each screenshot below (click an image to expand it) has a black outline around part of the story and a black box at the bottom of the screen. This is the user interface for VoiceOver, the native screen reader software on Macs. The outline indicates the active story element, and the text in the black box is what is read by the screen reader. This typically includes alt text and other informational text about the active element.

You saw the alt text entered for the image in the home section’s main stage in a previous section. The text in the black box in the screenshot below is what VoiceOver would read. Notice the landmark role of the content is also announced. We shared information about landmarks and how they work in Map Journal in a previous blog post.

And the image in the side panel of the home section…

Of course this story map contains several maps. Here’s an example of alt text for one of those.

In addition to the usual maps and photos, this story contains images of stylized text showing quotes from Dr. King’s speeches. Before the December 2017 update (that is, before alt text) these quotes were not accessible to visually impaired readers. Now the quotes are spoken to screen reader users because they have alt text.

We included the words “quote” and “end quote” at the beginning and end of each quotation to indicate to users of screen readers that these are the words of Dr. King, not of the author. This is an example of using the context to tailor alt text for a particular situation.

The MLK story also has several audio clips with excerpts of Dr. King’ speeches. The alt text for the audio clip (which is added as web content in the Map Journal builder) was written so that it informs the reader about the type of media.

Finally, here’s a short video of what it looks and sounds like navigating through the MLK story using a screen reader like VoiceOver.

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Summary

This post covered how to write good alt text and how to add it to your Map Journal stories. Now that you’re armed with this knowledge, we encourage you to use alt text in your next story and consider adding it to stories you’ve already created and shared publicly.

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For more information

Here are some additional resources on alternative text with more examples.

http://ift.tt/2goSai5

http://ift.tt/2BAC0ii

http://ift.tt/2B1yw7r

See also this post on the other accessibility features of Map Journal: New accessibility features in Story Map Journal

from ArcGIS Blog http://ift.tt/2BA9xcb

[zipgrowth]

Jay-Z, Kanye, and MLK—Using Lyrics and Literary Devices to Teach Students to Write

Cree was scribbling aimlessly with her head down in an intentional posture that made it impossible to make eye contact with me. It was the third quarter of the school year and I was standing at the front of her ninth grade English class. Literary non-fiction was the unit, which meant the students were learning about essays, articles, and speeches. On that particular day, the class was set to examine speeches from Abraham Lincoln and Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. I was brought-in to augment the reading material with music via my matching process, Contemporary Grammar Integration.

My session began with song lyrics from Jay-Z, Kanye West, and the The Notorious B.I.G. projected onto the board and accompanied by the audio excerpts.

My session began with song lyrics from Jay-Z, Kanye West, and the The Notorious B.I.G. projected onto the board and accompanied by the audio excerpts. Immediately, I noticed several of the students, including Cree, perk up, concentrate and engage the material. During the writing reflection and by the end of our class session, she had written an entire song!

The song excerpts that I chose were intended to help the students examine the impact of using contrast and juxtaposition. 

Next, we examined Dr. Martin Luther King’s speech entitled, "A Time to Break Silence." We cited from his opening line: “A time comes when silence is betrayal.”

Here, the qualities of silence and betrayal are equated via “is.” The act of betrayal is typically reserved for a deliberate action. The more powerful impact is felt when King notes that “silence,” characteristically a passive act, is an act of betrayal. This contrast sets the theme for the remainder of the speech. King goes on to use juxtapositions like these:

“‘Peace and civil rights don't mix,’ they say.”

“We still have a choice today: nonviolent coexistence or violent coannihilation.”

“We are now faced with the fact, my friends, that tomorrow is today.”

“Now let us rededicate ourselves to the long and bitter, but beautiful, struggle for a new world.”

“I am nevertheless greatly saddened, for such questions mean that the inquirers have not really known me, my commitment or my calling. Indeed, their questions suggest that they do not know the world in which they live.”

This last quote is particularly rich with contrast as King indicates that although he is a very popular public figure with a universally acknowledged cause, the people who question his stance on Vietnam don’t actually know him. He goes deeper to say that those same people “do not know the world in which they live,” which taken with the other contrasts and the theme of silence as betrayal indicates that they neither know themselves nor what they stand for.

The power of juxtaposition to drive at a clearer and deeper meaning through an author’s intentional contrasting of two ideas or concepts can also be seen in the song, "Oceans," by hip-hop artist Jay-Z.

The power of juxtaposition to drive at a clearer and deeper meaning through an author’s intentional contrasting of two ideas or concepts can also be seen in the song, "Oceans," by hip-hop artist Jay-Z. Within the song, Jay-Z pens:

“I’m anti Santa Maria/ Only Christopher we acknowledge is Wallace/ I don't even like Washingtons in my pocket/ Black card go hard when I'm shopping/ Boat docked in front of Hermes picking cotton.”

To illustrate how rich the lyrics are with classic literary devices such as juxtaposition and allusion, I’ll break this brief excerpt down in detail. First, the qualities of American origins and Jay-Z’s cultural/African-American origins are juxtaposed. For instance, the beginning of the excerpt directly references Jay-Z being in opposition to Christopher Columbus’ “discovery” of the new world. However the very next line states that the only Christopher who Jay-Z acknowledges is Christopher Wallace, which is the birth name of the Notorious B.I.G., a hip-hop legend and friend of Jay-Z.

Extending from American discovery origins, Jay-Z pursues George Washington with the next line. The reference to “Washingtons” represents President George Washington and the $1 bill. With astonishing congruence, Jay-Z’s next line invokes an allusion to the $100 bill, colloquially known as ‘The Benjamin’, after Benjamin Franklin, an abolitionist among the Founding Fathers! This reference to ‘The Benjamin’ entered urban slang via mega-hit song ‘It’s All About the Benjamins’ popularized by none other than The Notorious B.I.G. Furthering the juxtaposition and allusion, Jay-Z references the “Black Card” issued by American Express, which is coveted for its high credit limit and elite social status. Here the juxtaposition turns into a brilliant mockery of traditional ideals around ‘American’ and ‘elite’.

Finally, Jay-Z elevates his sub-culture above traditional mainstream American culture by invoking a scene of him shopping, provocatively expressed as “picking cotton”—selecting garments. His boat can be seen docked in front of the expensive designer clothing store, Hermes. This line is written as a pun to invoke the historical reference of slave ships docked at ports before many African human beings would be converted into slaves when they went on to a destiny in the plantation fields to pick cotton.

Does the richness of the song excerpt surprise you? We’ve been analyzing song lyrics for years and know it to be true that the lines of music are rich with allusion, literary device, and technique. These are very same literary concepts that we ask our students to learn in primary and secondary English classes.

After all, it’s our songwriters who are being the most daring with experimentation in expression.

What happens if . . . ?

After all, it’s our songwriters who are being the most daring with experimentation in expression. It is this intentionality that places them in concert with all artists in general, but it’s also this process of discovery that places them in league with scientists! One of the universal questions heard in science labs is, “What happens if I do this?” As readers and consumers of songs, we don’t get to hear the songs’ authors ask this question. But it is within their compositions that we bear witness to what happens when they try to answer it.

The literary concept behind the “What happens if . . .” question is understood most readily in the mechanics of diction. Popularly known as word choice, the true idea around diction is actually much more important. At Words Liive, we like to focus our programs on intentionality. We love to explore the “What happens if . . .” mindset that makes diction a stickier concept for a language learner. Can you intentionally arrange words to find a clearer, deeper expression?

Computer programmers understand this concept of intentionality very well. Marcus McGee, a software developer in Alexandria, VA says, “As a computer programmer, we use diction everyday to help in the [code writing] process. Sometimes a word is already used in a block of code that can't be reused to describe a similar, but different, part. So then we have to mix another descriptive word with that word to maintain clarity.”

Did you see that? Intentionally arranging words to elevate clarity! Here, the art and the science converge within the concept of diction.

I reject the status quo of having the majority of our students reading and writing below grade-level proficiency.

Rich, dense and engaging

Interestingly, many kids are being intentional within their own colloquialisms and slang. Routinely, students develop their own coded language with each other. Here again, intentionality matters. With such exercise in language dynamism, why should so many students perform below expectations in reading and writing proficiency? I reject the status quo of having the majority of our students reading and writing below grade-level proficiency.

From my observation, one reason for what I call chronic underperformance is that some texts can be, quite honestly, too slow and boring for most students. Consider our idea about density within a composition. For us, the more rich a text is with intentionality or diction, the more engaging that composition is. For instance, if a book has an average of one literary device or technique per 500 words, taking into account themes and complexity, it simply won’t engage a young reader as well as a text that has ten literary devices or techniques per 500 words. Put more pointedly, Jay-Z’s song which I sampled above has just 327 words, while Dr. King’s speech is 6,759 words! (Or musically speaking, 20 Jay-Z’s songs in length, which is like reading an entire extended deluxe album.)

Students born in the 21st century are text natives. They’re texting on their smartphones—more than they actually talk on them. They’re typing all the day over their social media platforms. And their grammar school curriculum is based more and more on learning code languages via STEM concentrations. Our 21st century kids are writing all the time! And as a corollary, I believe an education system intent on developing literacy skills must include all the ways in which kids are writing today. I encourage classrooms to infuse their reading curricula with music, and most especially with song lyrics. At Words Liive we make this process super easy and seamless.

We always encourage students to “use your words.”

Gil Perkins, doing business as Sage Salvo, is the artist, scholar, and social entrepreneur founder of Words Liive, LLC.

Jay-Z, Kanye, and MLK—Using Lyrics and Literary Devices to Teach Students to Write published first on http://ift.tt/2x05DG9

[praimfayas]

i'm hoping by your tags that you mean you're willing to hear out other opinions. by saying that violence isn't the answer in response to a nazi being punched, it's incredibly harmful. his public views are that black people should be "peacefully" wiped out, along with anyone who isn't white. he legitimately posed the question "do black people benefit the human race?". he definitely deserves to be punched. someone punching him is in no way equal to the evil views he holds. (1/?)

I’m gonna add all your messages at once so im not going to flood people who follow me. Hopefully i can go through all your points but i may miss some. 

this is just further proved by the fact that in response to him getting punched, the alt-right (aka nazis) have literally launched a crowd funding effort to put a bounty on the person who punched him. they have no qualms about literally killing people and committing genocide. not only that, but spencer is already afraid to go out and speak his views, so the punch did have an effect.(2/?)saying that you “can’t fight violence with violence” when it comes to things like this, is just perpetuating the idea that a man hating people for the color of their skin and actively advocating for their genocide, is equal to those same people hating him because he wants them dead. people have tried to reason with him. people have tried to reason with nazis. it does not work. their views don’t change. (¾)

lying back while these people actively harm, kill, and advocate for the genocide of entire groups of people isn’t the answer. no, punching them isn’t going to change their views either. but it does make them more afraid to commit the acts they plan on committing, and it shows that their views are not the common views and that they are unacceptable. i get not wanting violence. violence is a terrible thing. but in some cases, it’s about something much greater. (4/4)

I ofc am willing to hear other peoples opinions. I in no way agree with his views I want to make that clear. He is a disgusting person who has vile, vile opinions.But do i believe punching someone for their opinion is correct? No, it is assault. Did he deserve a punch/worse. Yes but that doesnt make it right. Do i think they should find the man who punched him? Yes he committed a crime. okay im going to stop doing this format now.

Punching someone in my opinion is only going to solidify their views. Recent events may have also solidified their views. (Im referencing the kidnapping in chicago, looting, riots and also trump becoming president) For as long as i have been alive (since 1998) It has never EVER been okay to be racist or homophobic or sexist at least in Scotland. 

The reason I believe the ALT right have come crawling out the cracks (like Britons first im referencing this group since i live in the uk theyve been around for years but theyve had a tv show ect like the KKK has) is because we are becoming an overly PC culture maybe thats a good thing maybe its not. But its pushing so far to the left (i think thats the terminology) that the ALT right are wanting to fight back and with the media coverage that is almost encouraging them. 

I will NEVER say what they are doing is right because its really not but in my opinion violence is never the answer. I can understand why people will call for violence because this group of people are really promoting something we’ve seen though out history with great success but now as a society in the western world we are much more accepting even though there is horrible people out there. I do not believe in our current society these hate groups have as much power as some off the groups ive seen growing on tumblr. Thats my personal opinion message me again if you want me to go further in detail.I am not saying lets lay back and take it. I’m saying show as people no matter our skin colour, our gender, our sexuality, so on and so forth. That we stand together and we will never allow them to repeat history. 

I’m going to round this off now because i feel like this is getting way to long now. But one quote i really like is “Darkness cannot drive out darkness; only light can do that. Hate cannot drive out hate; only love can do that.” -MLK jr