#Discrimination History USA

[lifestyle-hub]

A Crime to be 'Ugly'?: A Look at one of America's Most Cruel Laws

Image Credit: Polina Tankilevitch

Being 'ugly' was indeed a punishable offense in some cities in America for much of the 19th and early 20th centuries. Imagine walking down the street, minding your business, when a police officer stops you because your appearance doesn't fit societal norms. It sounds absurd, but this bizarre chapter in history reveals a disturbing truth about how society once treated the most vulnerable.

The Origins of the 'Ugly Laws'

The so-called 'Ugly Laws' were first introduced in San Francisco in 1867 and quickly spread to cities like Chicago, Denver, and New Orleans. Officially titled the “Unsightly Beggar Ordinance,” these laws targeted people with disabilities, disfigurements, or other physical differences. The justification? Such individuals were considered “unsightly” and therefore not fit for public view.

These laws were rooted in a complex web of social fears and prejudices. During the late 19th century, America was experiencing rapid urbanization and immigration. The influx of people, coupled with the harsh realities of industrial life, brought poverty and illness into public spaces in a way that was difficult to ignore. Instead of addressing the root causes of poverty and disability, cities chose to hide the symptoms by criminalizing the visibility of those who didn’t meet arbitrary standards of physical appearance.

A Law Enforced With Brutality

The enforcement of the Ugly Laws was often brutal. In Chicago, for example, the ordinance stated: “Any person who is diseased, maimed, mutilated or in any way deformed so as to be an unsightly or disgusting object, or an improper person to be allowed in or on the streets, highways, thoroughfares, or public places in this city, shall not therein or thereon expose himself or herself to public view.”

Violators were fined or even jailed. But beyond the legal penalties, the real punishment was the stigma and shame imposed on those who were already marginalized. These laws reinforced the idea that certain bodies were less worthy, less human, and less deserving of public life. They institutionalized the belief that beauty equated to value, a notion that still echoes in today's society.

The Real Victims: Who Were They?

The victims of these laws were primarily people with disabilities, but they also included the poor, the elderly, and anyone who did not conform to narrow standards of physical beauty. A person with a visible disability or someone simply aging naturally could be fined, arrested, or shunned. It was a cruel reminder that public space was reserved for those who fit a specific mold, often white, wealthy, and able-bodied.

These laws also disproportionately affected immigrants, who were often viewed with suspicion. In cities where the laws were enforced, the very people who had come to America seeking better lives were often those targeted and harassed under the guise of public decency.

The Slow Path to Repeal

The Ugly Laws did not disappear overnight. It wasn’t until the mid-20th century, as attitudes towards disability and public health began to shift, that these laws started to be questioned. In Chicago, the ordinance remained on the books until 1974, a shocking testament to how deeply ingrained these prejudices were.

The repeal of the Ugly Laws coincided with the rise of the disability rights movement, which fought for the recognition of people with disabilities as full citizens deserving of dignity, respect, and access to public spaces. Activists like Judith Heumann and groups like the American Coalition of Citizens with Disabilities played a crucial role in shifting public perception and advocating for legal changes that would eventually lead to the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) of 1990.

A Legacy of Exclusion

Although the Ugly Laws are gone, their legacy lingers in the ongoing stigmatization of people with disabilities and differences. Society still grapples with issues of accessibility, representation, and equality. Public spaces are often designed with the “ideal” body in mind, leaving those who don’t fit that mold to navigate a world that wasn’t built for them.

Moreover, the obsession with physical appearance continues to shape social interactions, media portrayals, and even professional opportunities. While we no longer have laws explicitly banning “unsightly” individuals from public spaces, the underlying bias that fueled the Ugly Laws remains in many forms.

Reflecting on the Past to Build a Better Future

The Ugly Laws serve as a stark reminder of the dangers of a society that values appearance over humanity. They reveal how easily prejudice can be codified into law and how those laws can shape public attitudes for generations. As we reflect on this dark chapter in American history, it’s crucial to remember that progress is not inevitable. The fight for a more inclusive, just society requires constant vigilance and a commitment to challenging the biases that still exist.

Signing out, kad

References

1.The Unsightly Beggar Ordinance: The Origins of Ugly Laws - JSTOR

2. Chicago's Ugly Law - Chicago History Museum

[frogeyedape]

Here I am in despair as I wait for the EEOC consultation that will determine whether my charge of employment discrimination is worth investigating, convinced my case is hopeless, and the investigator just...says no, your claim sounds valid, the shit your employer said about what the ADA covers is wrong, I'm gonna recommend that the EEOC investigate. Half hour conversation laying out a few extra details, confirming names and dates etc. Just. Stunning reversal. Goes to show despair is not the voice to listen to. Goddamn validating hearing that my requested disability accommodation is in fact covered, and since my employer would suffer no hardship in granting it, it's worth investigating. Astonishing. I maybe even have a good chance of getting a favorable outcome if it's as cut and dry of a situation as I thought it was when I first submitted the claim. As it seems to be, having talked to the investigator!

[caimitos]

saw a post about projecting your ethnicity onto a character and started missing vespa ilkay. so so bad

[miawashere]

increase of police brutality

i realized with the death of Jaahnavi Kandula, there has been an increase of police brutality for years. and after researching, police brutality has been increasing- especially with the spark of the BLM movement. In 2021 alone, 1,145 people were reported killed by officers, according to the Guardian. after the killings of George Floyd and Breonna Taylor, it asks the question on whether or not police are more racist to people of color. it’s so sad that because of one’s skin color, you’ll be discriminated by people you’ve never even met before who’s sole job is to protect you.

[kuramirocket]

Hi!

So, a bit of background before my question: I was recently asked on one of my other blogs about whether it's okay to celebrate/take inspiration from Dia de los Muertos if you're not Latino.

I'm Latina but not Mexican (I'm Brazilian), so I wanted to double-check that I didn't spread misinformation in saying that Dia de los Muertos is an open holiday.

The person in question is an atheist looking for inspiration on how to deal with the loss of loved ones in a healthy manner since "they're in heaven" isn't a belief they hold anymore and my mention of Dia de los Muertos on a post about dealing with loss intrigued them. (Here's the link to the convo if you'd like more context)

So, it will depend on each individual Mexican whether non Mexicans should celebrate Day of the Dead.

I personally, do not like it because this is a belief that has its roots since Aztec times. It has a lot of Pre-Hispanic indigenous traditions, many of which were used to honor the old Pre-Hispanic Gods; sacred traditions, that are still demonized and called 'satanic' and a 'cult' by followers of the Abrahamic religions. Each tradition, every colorful display on Day of the Dead has its significance and importance and history. Indigenous Mexican religions are closed for a reason.

Furthermore Day of the Dead has sometimes been used as a symbol within politics in Chicano history to fight against injustices, discrimination and racism against the Mexican American community. It was used for empowering the Mexican American community and as a form of resistance against oppression and racism within the U.S.

There are Mexicans who I know that want to, but are unable to celebrate such an important cultural holiday because of ongoing colonization and demonization - particularly due to Christianity which labels this holiday as of the 'devil.' I think it's very unfair that people not part of the culture, who may not understand the significance and importance of this holiday or knows its history and roots, get to celebrate this day when actual Mexicans may not be able to partake in their own culture. Furthermore, it has always annoyed me how Day of the Dead is called a Latin American holiday when it has always had its origins in what would become Mexico.

Even today, there are Mexicans such as artists who fight to stop Day of the Dead from becoming commercialized and something 'trendy.' Our culture, traditions and history is not a costume that can be nit picked. For example, Day of the Dead may also be used as a way to remember our murdered indigenous women and the deaths of undocumented migrants. So, while Day of the Dead is an important cultural holiday it also has it importance as a form of political resistance for the Mexican community.

So, no, I don't think just anyone should celebrate this holiday, but again this is my opinion as a indigenous Mexican, myself. Again, other Mexicans may feel differently.

I think if a person wants to remember and honor their ancestors and lost loved ones they should do research and look to their own culture and history.

Thank you for asking me and checking with me!

Also, you may want to go through my Day of the Dead tag to see other Mexicans talk about its importance and of cultural appropriation regarding it!

[gryficowa]

Americans: You must hate Russians! Do you know how many crimes they have committed over the years?!

Ancestors of Ukrainians who raped Polish women, committed massacres and collaborated with the Nazis:

Yes, this is why judging people by their ethnicity because people have done something wrong in the past is fucked up on many levels

Refers here to Volhynia and the crime that took place in Poland by Ukrainian nationalists

The crimes of the ancestors or even the rulers in the country (Putin stinks) shouldn't be an argument here, because what the fuck can they do about it? They don't have the option to time travel to change history, so what the fuck do you require?

This argument of the crimes of Ukrainians was used by many Poles after Russia attacked Ukraine, and many Poles hate Ukrainians for this fucking reason, so according to this logic, Poles were right, so WTF

So when Russia attacked Ukraine, it was karma for crimes against Poles? I'm seriously asking you Americans

Should this matter to you on this topic? If you think that talking about the fact that Russians, compared to Israelis, don't behave like fucking propaganda bots at every step is for you "Propaganda of the good Russian", then according to this logic you are not spreading the "Propaganda of the good Ukrainian"?

Don't you see how your logic fucking fails when you use the crimes of your ancestors or a bad person to spread hatred towards Russians? Seriously, Ukrainians haven't been saints in the past, but that doesn't fucking mean what Putin is doing is right, he attacked civilians, bombs houses and does a lot of shit, let's stop using ancestral crimes to justify and ignore evil, Russians are not bad people, yes they are rotten who support Russian propaganda, but there are many who hate what Putin says and many of them are persecuted for being LGBT+

Because it sounds like the arguments of Zionists that people were against Jews in the past (You know, crimes…), but now all anti-Zionists are anti-Semites (And there are situations when a Zionist attacks a Jew for being "Not Jewish enough", "Without self-respect" etc…)

I'm just going to write about it whether you anti-Russians like it or not, because I don't fucking want to dehumanize people for their origins like you do

[wachi-delectrico]

Spent all of yesterday studying on the problem of Nationality and the creation of a National Identity and ngl I haven't stopped thinking and trying to figure out how yankee's modern idea of nationality came to be, specifically thinking of white American people who say they're of a nationality based on "ancestry" with no personal cultural ties to it

[panicinthestudio]

The Three Major Waves of Korean Immigration Explained, May 8, 2023

Korean culture has long been a part of the fabric of American culture. But what was that journey like? The three most significant waves all happened in relation to geopolitical tensions and trends in both America and Korea. Dolly Li dives deeper. Stream Free Chol Soo Lee now on YouTube or the PBS App.

 PBS Origins

[soundwatch]

Rustin

Awards buzz first thrust George C. Wolfe’s biopic about U.S. civil rights activist Bayard Rustin, the openly homosexual (largely use this word and "gay" as the then common "labels") African American architect of the landmark 1963 March On Washington, onto my radar. What’s not to like, right? and onto my (Netflix) watchlist it went.

Plopping up after another biopic, the beautifully mounted but ultimately hollow Maestro, Rustin might have benefitted from a favorable comparison – both films examine the lives of queer men who in one way or another strived for social change in postwar America – not that Maestro even mentions Leonard Bernstein’s philanthropy and support of progressive causes like the Black Panthers, even if Tom Wolfe coined the term “radical chic” to question the sincerity of celebrity political activism, after attending a Bernstein benefit for the Panthers .

Thanks to Netflix’s algorithms and playback mode, the final strains of music from “Candide” accompanying Maestro’s end credits briskly segued into Branford Marsalis’ jazzy Rustin score. The film begins with onscreen text informing us that discrimination based upon race was declared unconstitional by the U.S. Supreme Court in 1953. This is followed by wordless horrific images of the humiliation African Americans (here primarily young women) had to endure from whites (largely male with the occasional hateful looking woman) when exercising their constitutional right to attend school. After the film’s title appears briefly, we hear offscreen “things have to change and they need to change now.” It’s 1960 and we witness various civil rights activists, including Martin Luther King (Aml Ameen) and Bayard Rustin (Colman Domingo), planning a non-violent demonstration at the Democratic Convention that summer. Threats of Gandhi-inspired civil disobedience in the 1940s successfully pressured the Roosevelt Administration into ending discrimination in the military and defense industries, so why not use this method again? Yet not all African American leaders are down: NAACP (National Association for the Advancement of Colored People) head Roy Wilkins (Chris Rock in an unusual serious role) thinks the movement should tread even more lightly to achieve its goals. Longtime Democratic New York City Congressman Adam Clayton Powell, Jr. (Jeffrey Wright), on the other hand, seems primarily angry about a movement he doesn’t control and worried about how a protest might affect his standing within the party. Clayton Powell leans on King to drop the idea and Rustin, too, while he’s at it, otherwise there will be rumors about just how tight King and his charismatic and effective advisor really are. The protest is called off; King reluctantly dumps his friend.

(The Obamas’ company Higher Ground executive produced the film; did Barack Obama think about his former pastor, Reverend Jeremiah Wright, with whom he severed ties during his first campaign after Wright spouted antisemitic statements and conspiracy theories? While, unlike the smear campaign against Rustin, Obama’s rupture with Wright was understandable, it might have caused considerable soul searching. Wright later somewhat toned down his rhetoric.)

Rustin finds himself in the political wilderness, living in New York, taking a unfulfilling job with a lefty nuclear disarmament NGO – an all-white joint with, as it turns out, a homophobic boss who claims he just wants to keep Rustin on the straight and narrow. Rustin enjoys the company of a younger white man - smart, sweet, devoted (at times to a fault) Tom Kahn (Gus Halper) and has a support system of accepting friends.

Soon, it’s 1963, and President Kennedy holds a televised speech promising further civil rights legislation. This is received with skepticism (civil rights were apparently not Kennedy’s top priority) which turns into outrage when that evening, images of particularly brutal police retaliation against demonstrators, including hosing down children, appear on TV. “Things have to change,” and this time, Rustin is determined to make that happen. He reaches out to labor activist (head of the Brotherhood of Sleeping Car Porters) A. Philip Randolph (Glynn Thurman) and floats the idea of a massive non-violent march, for “jobs and freedom,” on Washington. Randolph is game. Rustin and King reconcile. And so, with Randolph nominally the chief organizer and Rustin running the show in the background, they set out to recruit the other “Big Six” civil rights organizations (in addition to the Brotherhood the NAACP, SNCC - Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee, CORE - Congress On Racial Equality, King’s Southern Christian Leadership Conference and the National Urban League) while Rustin sets up a tight logistics operation.

Rustin doesn’t always successfully avoid sentimental biopic clichés, but the film crackles with comic energy when it shows how the dedicated team, under Rustin, both drill sergeant and seducer, manages the nuts and bolts of organizing the march. How many narrative films walk audiences through political grunt work? - from first brainstorming sessions, fundraising for busses to bring demonstrators from around the country to and from Washington to securing food supplies (peanut butter and jelly trumps cheese sandwiches) and Rustin’s contrasting security meetings with the African American brotherhood within NYPD (open to non-violent, de-escalation tactics) and the all-white D.C. police force delegation (latently racist, overstepping boundaries, possibly in cahoots with the F.B.I.). One especially satisfying moment: Rustin, again under pressure and somewhat out of commission, gazes appreciatively at his team as they have become so self-motivated and professional that the well-oiled machine can practically run without him.

Before the big day rolls around, the NAACP still is hesitant unless compromises are made. One: no White House, the protest stays at the Mall (one of the funniest exchanges during the prep sequence shows Rustin asking how many people are needed to surround the White House – a volunteer thinks this is a joke set up before he conveys she better get right on this). And two: the event is shortened from two days to one – considering the messy logistics of tent accommodation and longer leaves of absence from work, maybe Wilkins was being sensible here?

Just when the NAACP is finally on board, Clayton Powell throws a another spanner into the works: again he blackmails the group with Rustin’s long severed Communist Party ties and a 10-year-old rap sheet for lewd conduct with two (adult) men. Wright plays Clayton Powell as a full-fledged villain, jealous of King’s power base in the South and defending tooth and nail his own in New York and D.C. His torpedoing of the 1960 protest is of public record, but didn’t find any mention of his backstabbing in 1963. On the contrary, while Clayton Powell’s long career ended amidst corruption scandals and he was always considered rather self-serving, he is credited for moving civil rights legislation forward and serving his Harlem constituency. This is one instance of the film playing somewhat fast and loose with facts – or fudging them into confusion.

Fortunately, this time, Clayton Powell’s blackmail attempt is thwarted and everyone rallies around Rustin as the guiding force of the march. The big day, August 28, 1963, comes. At first, local police estimates a crowd of 75 before the masses flood the Mall. Martin Luther King holds his legendary “I Have A Dream” speech before 250,000-300,000 people. It was the largest peaceful protest to date. Afterwards, the White House invites reps of the “Big 10” organizations (somewhat confusingly, the film earlier stated that the “Big Six” had mushroomed due to the participation of more unions, but historical records generally speak about the “Big Six”). Rustin contentedly stays in the background, helping to clean up the Mall.

After a final montage which somewhat awkwardly blends archive and staged footage, the standard biopic wrap-up titles add that comprehensive civil rights legislation was passed and signed into law in 1964 (by Kennedy’s successor Lyndon Johnson, a Texas Dixiecrat – conservative Southern Democrat – who nevertheless became more committed to civil rights than his slain predecessor was). That same year, King was awarded a Nobel Peace Prize. Rustin continued his advocacy work and in 1977 met his longtime companion with whom he remained together until Rustin’s death in 1987. In 2013, 50 years after the march, President Obama post-humously awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom to Rustin.

The titles don’t mention King’s increasingly vocal opposition to the Vietnam War and stronger demands for economic equality. And while King became somewhat more radical in the months before his asassination, Rustin was criticized for allegedly “selling out.” This meant cosying up to the Democratic party und big unions like the AFL-CIO, eschewing Black Power politics and later affirmative action (Rustin thought any form of “identity politics” was counterproductive as it could alienate necessary white allies) and adopting an anti-communist/anti-Soviet stance through his conditional support of the war (rollback of communism - yes, punitive military action against Vietnamese civilians - no). Contrary to his anti-communism, Rustin remained a lifelong socialist through his advocacy of social justice by wealth redistribution. And he was a gay rights activist until the end.

This aspect of Rustin’s life is brought to life through Colman Domingo’s compelling performance. He portrays Rustin as a self-confident, sexually attractive man who defies the homophobia of his era without ever becoming a victim. Rustin’s two key relationships, on the other hand, are not fleshed out. Tom stands by his man with little complaint when Rustin’s flirtations with other men become intense (Rustin admonishes Tom not to act like “Mrs. Rustin”). Tom is a more doormat-like version of Scott Smith (played by James Franco), the similarly long-suffering boyfriend of gay activist and later politician Harvey Milk in Gus Van Sant’s Milk – the screenplays for both films were written or co-written by Dustin Lance Black. As indicated in the film, when Rustin tells Tom he can’t allow himself to fall in love, but Tom will always be his family, the real-life Rustin and Tom Kahn remained friends and even co-authored an article about evolving protest into party politics. Rustin’s second significant relationship in the film was with the fictional Elias Taylor (Johnny Ramey), a NAACP lieutenant and married clergyman, groomed to take over his father-in-law’s congregation. After Elias helps to shoot down Rustin’s suggested march (the soon-to-be KKK murder victim Medger Evans is the only NAACP member who gets and supports it), he approaches Rustin in the men’s room. Elias flirts rather unabashedly; the two convene to a gay bar for drinks and begin an illicit affair. Elias is a mealy-mouthed cipher whose primary attraction for Rustin might be the challenge of converting him to the “cause.” The affair goes on long enough to piss off Tom but is cut short when Elias’ wife Claudia calls Rustin late at night to order him to call it off. The affair foregrounds Rustin’s free-spirited (in his mind) or promiscuous (other people’s judgement) lifestyle and serves the plot as it is Elias who suggests that Rustin reconcile with King for the sake of the movement.

Rustin was not the most accomplished film of 2023 (one wonders how a more seasoned filmmaker like Ava DuVernay would have filmed the story; theater director George C. Wolfe has one other film, Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom under his belt). But it was arguably one of the most thought-provoking. Its images of political activism as a group effort and compelling, complex portrayal of an openly gay African American man in the 1960s whisk audiences back to pre-internet times when protest was organized with considerable effort but arguably had more impact than today’s online-driven activism. Nostalgic, cinematic comfort food or inspiration to counter myriad current injustices? In any case, if Bayard Rustin hadn’t actually existed, he would’ve needed to be invented.

********************************

Recommended: Brother Outsider: the Life of Bayard Rustin (2003), documentary by Nancy Kates and Bennett Singer. Here we see Rustin also speak at the Mall in August 1963, which for some reason the fiction film omits.

Update 1: Colman Domingo was nominated for the Best Actor - Drama Golden Globe (Cillian Murphy took home the award for his portrayal of J. Robert Oppenheimer in Christopher Nolan's eponymous biopic), BAFTA and Oscar. He is the first Afro-Latin actor and, along with Jodie Foster (Best Supporting Actress nominee for Nyad), the first out LBGTQIA* person to be nominated for playing an out LBGTQIA* role.

Update 2: American documentary filmmaker James Blue, a pioneer of participatory filmmaking with grassroots communities, directed this film about the March on Washington:

[arowitharrows]

These are some links to recourses on different topics, mostly things I want to be able to find again so I'm collecting them here. Please be aware that many of these articles include discussions of queerphobia, racism or abuse. I can't put warnings on every link, so proceed with caution. This is not meant to be a complete or final list, I will most likely be editing it as time goes by.

Aspec terminology / Flags

Queerplatonic coining post on dreamwidth (x)

Sunset aroace flag original post (x)

A History Of Words Used To Describe People That Are Not Asexual (x)

Discussions of aphobia

Note: I am still waiting for the day when aphobia can be discussed without aromanticism being treated as a subcategory of asexuality.

Stonewall report on asexual discrimination, UK 2023 (x)

Scientific America article on medical stigma against asexuality, USA 2023 (x)

Article about the religious right attacking sexless marriage, USA (x)

Podcast about the religious right attacking platonic marriages and general analysis about why the religious right hate asexuality (and aromanticism), USA part 1 part 2 part 3 part 4

Amatonormativity

Website of Elizabeth Brake, the coiner of the term Amatonormativity (x)

Amatonormativity in the law: an introduction, USA 2022 (x)

Opinion: I grew up in a culture that embraced physical touch. Then I came to America, Ethiopia 2023(x)

'I Dont Want To be a Playa No More': An Exploration of the Denigrating effects of 'Player' as a Stereotype Against African American Polyamorous Men (x)

Romance is not the only type of Black love that matters by Sherronda J. Brown, USA 2018 (x)

Relationship Anarchy

Relationship Anarchy, Occupy intimacy!, Spain 2020 (x) also available in Spanish and catalan

The short instructional manifesto for relationship anarchy (x)

Tumblr post with multiple links about relationship anarchy (x)

Marriage and being Single

Ted talk: how romance and capitalism could destroy our future, 2014 (x)

The escalating costs of being single in America, USA 2021 (x)

Unmarried equality, many articles about discrimination against single people. USA focused (x)

No Shelter for Singles: The Perceived Legitimacy of Marital Status Discrimination, USA 2011 (x)

Loveless Aro

I Am Not Voldemort: An Essay on Love and Amatonormativity (x)

Aroworlds loveless Aro friendly fiction collection (x)

Loveless Aro experiences and explanations (post0 aurea article post 1 post 2 post 3 post 4 post 5 post 6)

[redfoxwritesstuff]

Why Is Misdemeanor Of the Heart's Reader...

White Coded?

Yep, I said it. Come, take a seat and get cozy in the Fox Den while Mamma Kit answers some questions.

CW: Discussions of race and racism in a historical context and me being a wordy ass bitch

I've seen some discourse around Human!Alastor readers and writers and have gotten some of these questions myself over the last few months.

Firstly- I am white. I'm so fucking white that I use SPF 100 sunscreen. I grew up in Alaska. The history I learned growing up wasn't African American history; it was Alaska Native history. I didn’t learn about how we fucked over African American people in America’s early history. Instead, I learned how we fucked over the villages of the land I was raised on.

Why does this matter? The current accepted fanon for Alastor's human life is that he was a Black or mixed-race radio host who died in 1933 and reached his mid to late 30s or 40s. We know he had a successful career and was also a serial killer. He favored jazz, and rye is his drink of choice. He exists somewhere on the ace spectrum.

Time for a little math. Let's go with the middle ground—he was 40 in 1933. That means he would have been born around 1893. Let’s assume his mother was 25 when he was born. She would have been born in 1868. Using the same age for her mother, Alastor's grandmother would have been born in 1843. Remember this—it’ll matter in a minute.

For MisD and all of my human Alastor writing, as well as the works of many other human Alastor writers, we approach Alastor's life through a historical lens. I, like many others, enjoy exploring a time period rich with change—dynamic and vibrant with energy, money, and hope.

What does this mean? This means Alastor would have faced significant amounts of racism. Being Black, mixed-race, or how well he could pass as white would all drastically impact his life. It affected what opportunities he had, the education he received, and how laws were applied to him.

Ready for a history lesson? The Emancipation Proclamation was issued by President Abraham Lincoln on January 1, 1863. It declared all enslaved people in rebellious areas of the United States to be free. Alastor's grandmother—based on the ages we used earlier—would have been a 20-year-old woman at that time.

Alastor would have been raised by a first-generation free woman. He likely wouldn’t have had access to public education, instead being taught in group homeschool-like sessions by those who had learned to read and write.

If he was mixed-race, he would have faced significant discrimination from all of society.

The Civil Rights Movement in the USA didn’t begin until the mid-1950s—a full twenty years after his death.

The reality is that we don’t know a lot about the Black experience during the early to mid-1900s. Much of this history wasn’t recorded by (white) historians. Instead, it was passed down through stories from parents to children, and so on. Only now are we starting to uncover and listen to the histories, stories, and experiences of Black Americans during this time period.

Remember how I mentioned at the start that I’m white as fuck? I don’t have grandparents I can go to and ask about the Black experience when they were children. First—my grandparents are all dead, and second—they were somehow whiter than I am. Their perspective wouldn’t help me because it isn’t my family’s story to tell.

What I can do is look at what we do know, listen to the voices of Black Americans who are finally being allowed to share their stories, and reflect that in my version of human Alastor. I can spend the time to research and learn. For instance, Alastor would have been ahead of his time—the first Black radio host was in 1929, a man named Jack L. Cooper from Chicago. He hosted the first Black-produced weekly variety show and showcased Black entertainers.

I can listen to stories of how mixed-race men were afforded the privilege of their lighter skin as long as they were useful to their white employers, only to be scapegoated the second anything went wrong. I do my best to reflect these stories in Human!Alastor's experiences and behaviors.

Why A White Coded Reader? I cannot even begin to hope to understand the Black American experience as it is now, let alone how it was in 1922, when MisD is set, or in the late 1910s, when my other Human Al fics take place. What I can understand on a deeper level is the white woman's experience, the experience of poverty, the experiences of abused women, and what it’s like to view the Black experience from the outside looking in.

And so that is what I try to highlight with my Human!Alastor fics. Yes, when I’m writing a Human!Alastor fic that deals with racial, class, and social politics as one of the themes to be explored (such as MisD), the reader is coded as white. It is through a white reader that I can have conversations with Alastor about why he feels he has to be perfect, why he straightens his hair, and so on. I cannot do proper justice to these feelings on a deeper level from a Black perspective because I can’t even begin to hope to understand it.

I cannot truly understand what Alastor’s Blackness would mean to him or how he would feel about being mixed. However, I can learn and understand how it impacted his life from the outside looking in. This is what I strive to do—to shed light on what Alastor’s accomplishments would have meant and how much his mistakes would have cost him.

I would love to see more Black writers in the fanfic space, especially within the Human!Alastor space. I would also love to see fewer readers written as blank slates. The Black experience in America and other white-dominated cultures is still not spotlighted often enough, both in present-day and historical settings.

These are stories that need to be told—perspectives that need to be explored, seen, and heard. However, they are not my stories to tell. Personally, until I am far better educated on the matter, I feel it would take away from these stories and be disrespectful to the lives of the very real people who lived them if I were to write from a perspective I cannot hope to understand.

I will continue to strive to write readers as racially neutral as often as the plot allows. However, I also ask that readers respect that, when the plot deals with racial, social, and class divides in a historical setting, if the reader is coming from a place of privilege, their skin tone is often the reason for such privilege.

Of course, I encourage readers to suspend disbelief and insert themselves into the fic regardless of their personal skin tone. I write from a historical setting, but as readers, you can imagine a set of historical laws or circumstances that allow for the same dynamics without requiring a white reader.

Can I do better? Absolutely—we all can. We’re always growing, improving, and learning. I was blessed to be raised in one of the most diverse places in the country (over 45 languages were spoken fluently at my high school). However, since leaving, I’ve struggled with the realities of having that bubble burst—not that Alaska was without racism.

I always welcome respectful discussions about the themes in MisD and all of my fics, as well as the reasons things may be portrayed the way they are. I prefer to write dark content, and with that comes the opportunity to educate and shine a light on topics many people avoid discussing. I simply ask for respect in return for the respect I give.

Much love, Kit

[miawashere]

why are labor unions important?

for those of you who might not know, labor unions are organizations of people who come together to fight for equal opportunities and a fair workplace. during the industrial revolution when workers were forced to work in horrible conditions, the workers grouped together and created massive unions to fight for better working conditions, retirement pay, no more child labor, fair wages, and more. labor unions are still around to this day to make sure the modern workplace stays as fair and non-discriminatory as possible. however, this isn’t always the case, but it’s good for unions to still be in place to try and make working less miserable. labor unions can be found worldwide and have big impacts on workers and their rights!

[wajjs]

to sum up SOME of the things happening in Argentina:

There's a nation wide manhunt for Loan, a toddler that disappeared in Corrientes (province that has borders with Paraguay, Brasil and Uruguay, three neighboring countries). Foul play has been suspected from day one. The family is believed to be involved by some people. The most popular on going theory is that he was sold to an international pedophile ring dedicated to buying kids from Latin American countries and selling them to people in power in the USA and aligned countries.

The court case connected to Tehuel, a trans young man that disappeared while going to a job opportunity he was offered by a local semi-political figure he was supposed to be able to trust, has been reopened. It is heavily theorized that this political figure, plus his partner and an accomplice, tortured and killed Tehuel for being trans. (There is a strong online theory that they fed him to the pigs after to get rid of his remains. Another popular theory is that they sold him to a human trafficking ring.)

The ex first lady, Fabiola Yañez, and ex president, Alberto Fernández, are in an ongoing legal battle after she was more or less forced to come forward and press charges against him for physical and psychological abuse. A lot of it was perpetrated while he was in office during the pandemic. He kept her locked up, isolated, and publicly blamed her for the things that went wrong during his presidential mandate. Unfortunately the media is having a field day with the pictures of Fabiola beaten up, basically showing off her bruised face and body while zooming in on the injuries. Fabiola had to come out and ask them to please stop showing those pictures as they are effectively re traumatizing her and her son.

Current president, Javier Milei, has effectively altered the employment contract law, taking away things that were meant to protect workers from corporate/employer greed and abuse. He has also effectively closed down the statal, official, ways to get in contact with authorities in case of gender based discrimination and abuse.

Current ruling political party (far right) is pushing forward a denial of facts and attempt at retelling our history by more or less saying that the last military dictatorship wasn't that bad, trying to pardon their sentences (even though the ones in charge of kidnapping, torturing, and disappearing people are living well while serving their sentences). A delegation met with one of the most heinous figure heads of the last dictatorship. A person from said delegation alleged it's old history and that people born during the 90s don't know and don't care about it.

[kuramirocket]

The air was polluted for three miles in any direction from the Asarco smelter plant, which was near the U.S.–Mexican border in El Paso, Texas.

After a 1970s CDC study showed that the mostly Mexican-American population of this Texas town had dangerously high blood lead levels, its buildings were demolished and its residents were booted.

The American Smelting and Refining Company owned a smelter in El Paso that, starting in 1910, refined hundreds of thousands of tons of lead and copper harvested from its mines in Mexico. It did so with the help of “an army of Mexican contract workers" according to a University of Houston associate professor of history.

Mexican workers who labored in Asarco mines began migrating north, lured by that new operation on the U.S. side of the border. Many settled on company land below the foothills of Mt. Cristo Rey. In the early years of the 20th century, Smeltertown lay outside El Paso city limits, a few miles from the city’s downtown.

By this time, Smeltertown had evolved from a small border town into an industrial hub for ASARCO. In 1900, Smeltertown had a population of 2,721. By 1920, the number grew to 3,119. Of this number, 95% were Mexican.

Smeltertown was designed by ASARCO to revolve all aspects of life around smelting. By creating a monopoly over labor in the town, the company could max their potential output for profit. To do this, managers needed an untainted focus on smelting at all hours of the day. Therefore, ASARCO strategically planned Smeltertown to invite and keep laborers.

The most enticing method in which ASARCO attracted foreign labor was company provided housing. Small tenement style apartments were constructed for all migrant employees. Located a short walk from the factory, it ensured that smelting was always on the minds of their workers. Homes lacked electricity, indoor plumbing, or furnished floors. These conditions were intentional. Not only did a lack of appliances keep costs cheap for ASARCO, it also kept laborers out of the comfort of their homes and therefore smelting more frequently.

A home in Smeltertown, April 27, 1957, University of Texas at El Paso Library Special Collections Department, Cassola Studio Photographs, PH 041

Racial Hierarchy

Smtertown was divided into an upper section, El Alto, where the Anglo managers lived, and a lower section, El Bajo, where the Mexican workers lived.

Migrants were easily exploited by Anglos in positions of power. St. John describes, “The borderlands labor market was segmented by race… working-class ethnic Mexicans who labored as cowboys, miners, and smelter workers earned lower wages and were denied better-paying jobs in favor of Anglo-Americans and European immigrants."

Poverty in Smeltertown could be extreme. Residents built and invested in their homes, but the company owned the land. As in other single-industry towns, Smeltertown’s residents fashioned their own way of life in the world the company made, one marked by inequality, racial segregation, and corporate paternalism.

This discrimination was most noticeable in the physical makeup of Smeltertown itself. Company owners and managers lived atop the hill in the gated Smelter Terrace, coined the "hidden oasis." These Anglos enjoyed paved driveways, green lawns, and swimming pools. A woman who grew up in Smeltertown notes, “I never went to Smelter Terrace, and I assume my mother did not either. There was no interaction between the workers and management children, I am now ashamed to say.”

On the contrary, blue collar immigrants lived at the bottom of the hill in adobe shacks that lacked running water and electricity. These row style living quarters were designed for single men working the smelting factory. Thus, when families followed along across the border, they were forced to squeeze into these tiny spaces. Children often slept on the dirt floors in order to fit everyone comfortably.

According to Daniel Solis, a former resident, “Smeltertown essentially was an eyesore for El Paso” an embarrassment to city officials and the company.

Sewage and water systems were built by the residents.

Daily Pollution Ignored by the City

The residents of Smeltertown also experienced the discomforts of living with ASARCO’s emissions on a daily basis. Sulfur dioxide, a major by-product of smelting, creates foul odors and can cause breathing problems and irritation of the eyes, throat and lungs. Daniel Solis recalls:

"In July and August … our folks would bring us into the house, because the smoke, the pollution, the sulfur, would settle into our community for about 2 or 3 hours every day in the mid-day when there was no breeze to take it away. When we would breathe that, we could not be outside because we were constantly coughing. So nobody can tell me that there was no ill effect on the majority of the folks that lived in Smeltertown."

Mary Romero writes that Smeltertown families tried early on to get the city to respond to problems of pollution.

Residents had organized in the 1950’s in an unsuccessful attempt to get the city to pave Smeltertown streets and thus control the dust problem. Several parents had sought medical attention for children born with brain damage and other illnesses; not one case, however, had been diagnosed as lead poisoning. Past attempts to label health problems as pollution-related illnesses had been unsuccessful.

Given the arduous work and poor living conditions, everyday lives of workers consisted of making the most of their situation.

ASARCO's company reign did not stop at housing. They constructed all resources necessary to function in Smeltertown in order to keep Mexicans from finding work elsewhere. Examine the list below to see all facets of life ASARCO controlled for their laborers.

Company Owned Estbalishments

Hospital

Supermarket

General Store

Jail

Post Office

A Closer Look: Company Store

The company store stocked items adapted to the needs of an isolated industrial community. Citizens could buy groceries, clothing, and even ship mail from the facility. The Smelter Store functioned by extending credit to workers that would eventually deduct from their weekly paycheck. ASARCO kept prices relatively high in comparison to their laborers' respective salaries in order to keep workers hungry for the money necessary to pay. Angel Luján, a former smelter explains, “it was like I owe my soul to the company store." Most laborers lived on a paycheck to paycheck basis due to this loan structure designed by ASARCO. To live a standard lifestyle in Smeltertown, Mexicans had to "sign away their paycheck and their lives" to the company.

“A Silent Poison”

In March 1971, a team of Epidemic Intelligence Service officers from the CDC arrived to investigate lead exposure connected to the Asarco smelter.

The El Paso City–County health commissioner, had called the CDC after his department discovered that Asarco was discharging large quantities of lead and other metallic wastes into the air. Between 1969 and 1971, the smelter’s stacks had spewed more than 1,000 tons of lead, 560 tons of zinc, 12 tons of cadmium, and 1.2 tons of arsenic into the atmosphere. Soil studies showed the highest concentrations of lead and other metals in surface soil closest to the smelter—essentially, in Smeltertown. 

Smeltertown children on the way to school in a horse-drawn wagon, El Paso, ca. 1900, El Paso Historical Society

Although the CDC team found no cases of overt lead poisoning, 43 percent of people in all age groups and 62 percent of children 10 and under living within one mile of the smelter had blood lead levels of at least 40 micrograms per deciliter. That’s eight times the level at which the CDC recommends a full-fledged public health response today.

The CDC team quickly followed up with a second study in Smeltertown in 1972, examining the health consequences of lead exposure in children. The CDC team administered IQ tests and a finger-tapping test of physical reflexes to the Smeltertown kids with elevated blood levels; a control group of children with blood lead levels below 40 micrograms per deciliter was also tested. The study found that children with elevated blood lead levels tested as many as seven points lower on the IQ test than the control group; they also showed much slower reaction times on the physical reflexes test.

Initially, the families reacted to the disclosures of lead contamination with great concern and cooperated with the research teams and doctors who came to test and treat the children. Some children were taken out of the community to be tested—the 4 year-old sister of Daniel Solis was taken to Chicago, although, as Daniel recounts, “She had never been to the airport, much less on an airplane.” Most of the children were treated at local hospitals, using chelation therapy, a drug regimen designed to remove heavy metals from the blood. The treatment is painful, and can be prolonged.

Daniel recalls that his young siblings were terrified of the painful injections.

This is what scientists now know: Lead in the air or in dust, paint, or fumes can work its way into the human body. In children, lead can permanently damage the brain and nervous system. It can slow a child’s growth and development. It can cause learning, hearing, speech, and behavior problems. Studies—the Smeltertown study being among the first—have linked early-childhood lead exposure to reduced IQ, attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder, juvenile delinquency, and criminal behavior, according to the CDC.

The consequences of early-childhood lead exposure can be moderated by educational enrichment, something that may not be readily available in poor communities with fewer opportunities and resources.

The pediatrician who led the CDC team stated, “I’m convinced one of the reasons our society has allowed it to go on is because the effects disproportionately fall on poor and minority children. In Smeltertown, people were almost universally immigrants from Mexico.”

During the trial, Ken Nelson, Director of Environmental Sciences for ASARCO, testified that lead contamination in Smeltertown had been “overlooked” by the company ASARCO officials said it had “never occurred” to them to include Smeltertown in the company’s air pollution monitoring system.

Asarco fought hard against the notion that the elevated blood lead levels in Smeltertown had anything to do with the smelter, or that lead exposure was harming children’s development.

The company claimed that elevated blood lead levels were caused by lead paint and gasoline emissions. It commissioned its own parallel study of the health effects in children and found no evidence of IQ loss. But the findings by the health department and the CDC team contradicted the company’s. The closer to the smelter the sample, the higher the concentrations of lead in the air, dust, and soil; human blood levels mimicked that pattern. And the CDC's team findings on the children’s IQ and physical reflexes were irrefutable.

It is worth noting that despite their groundbreaking nature, the study findings received little national attention at the time; A report by the New York Times in 1972 was the lone article that the newspaper wrote about Smeltertown.

As part of the settlement, the city and Asarco decided Smeltertown would be demolished, its residents forced to relocate. In October 1972, not two years after the lead studies began—eviction notices went out to all Smeltertown residents ordering them to clear out of their homes by January 1.

It should also be noted that the demolition of Smeltertown represented the least expensive solution for the city and ASARCO.

A statement by ASARCO’s physician that if Smeltertown had been allowed to remain, it would have required a greater commitments of funds and services than either the city or company was willing to provide.

The demolition of Smeltertown did not solve the problem of ASARCO’s emissions. Although the problem was first defined as a community health problem; it was later redefined as a problem specific to Smeltertown.

Restricting government action to Smeltertown fulfilled several objectives for various local interest groups. Business and industry were reassured that environmental policies would not threaten future growth. Pollution abatement would be placed second to economic stability, and therefore the chances of plant shutdowns or corporate flight were lessened … city and state officials were able to ignore contamination and possible health threats in other parts of Texas, New Mexico and Mexico.

Daniel Solis argues that the eradication of Smeltertown destroyed a significant part of Mexican-American history in El Paso. Like Romero, he points out that the solution chosen by the city and the company redirected attention away from the wider problems of contamination that was affecting children, workers and communities in the region.

The problems resulting from ASARCO’s emissions resurfaced continually over the years of ASARCO's operations in El Paso. Although the plant closed in 1999, the toxic contamination from ASARCO continued to be the focus of community struggles with the company, as community members pressed for information about the extent of contamination on both sides of the U.S.-Mexico border.

Everything that made up Smeltertown—every home and shop—would be bulldozed. Everything but the smelter itself, which would run for another 26 years.

Tight-Knit Comunidad

Mechanical department workers at Asarco, November 16, 1950

Outside of the work itself, laborers grew to establish unique cultural communities through their shared experiences. By mutually bonding over the challenges posed by the comany town, Esmeltianos banded together. Mexican migrants created their own binational "Mexican town" in Smeltertown.

Many Mexicans created their own Mexican establishments such as general stores, restaurants, and push cart vendors. Providing a wide labor market, El Paso inspired many Esmeltianos to extend their communities outside the company lines of Smeltertown. By 1930, various Mexican neighborhoods and establishments sprawled out in the El Bajo area, completely unaffiliated with ASARCO. One such example was the town YMCA, developed as a communal space for Mexican children to socialize and exercise. Efforts like these developed a deeper kinship in Smeltertown, away from the grave reality of smelting for a company. Instead, Mexicans claimed the borderlands as their own by branding cultural ties to the region.

Simple beautfication projects such as gardening gave citizens agency over the lives they lived in Smeltertown. Esmeltianos placed a large focus on simple tasks that emphasized aspects of life away from the company. Across the highway, many of the adobe shacks rented by the families were transformed with household money. They did not earn any home equity or even reimbursement for their efforts, just the pride in making a comfortable home for their families. In doing so, Smeltertown veered further and further away from the corporate grasp of ASARCO. Esmeltianos curated their community by naming streets and organizing sub barrios of El Bajo with Mexican influence. The combination of these efforts manifested into a town with a purpose far deeper than smelting.

What was originally intended to be a regimented camp strategized to produce maximum smelting output morphed into a binational community dense with culture. ASARCO may have owned Smeltertown, but it was its Mexican inhabitants that transformed the border town into a vibrant community.

Rubén Escandon has been collecting oral histories about the town for years from his own relatives and others as a member of the committee that protects Mt. Cristo Rey and the giant white cross Smeltertown residents erected at its peak.

“Everybody knew everybody,” says Escandon, who was born in 1965 in the satellite community of La Calavera, or Skull Canyon, near the Smelter Cemetery.

Gabe Flores, born and raised in Smeltertown in the 1940s and ’50s, remembers that the local señoras would pay him a few coins to walk hot lunches of caldo de res (beef stew), tacos, and fresh corn tortillas up the hill to the smelter men, who would be black with soot. When times were lean, Flores recalls, neighbors would borrow from each other: a little food, money, whatever was needed.

“It was all family,” he says. “Nobody was ashamed. Everybody was the same. Maybe they went through harder times and just realized they had to help each other. The fact that we would help each other, it bonded us together.”

Gloria Peña, an El Paso field nurse independently contracted to help with the lead testing in Smeltertown, recognized “the deep sense of loss” residents felt at the prospect of losing their community. “This is the beauty of our language because when you say ‘community’ it doesn’t have the same impact on us as if you say ‘comunidad.’ That is what Smeltertown had.”

A blood test being prepared for one of 500 children being tested for blood lead poisoning, March 30, 1973

Former resident, Cecilia Flores Marquez stated about her three children, “When they were young, no [they did not have health issues]. But they are having issues now.” Her youngest daughter became allergic to metal in her 30s, she says—something the doctors say could be related to the lead exposure.

There were no long-term studies of the former residents of Smeltertown to measure the health outcomes of their exposure to lead. Today former residents are left guessing whether this or that disability, defect, or illness could have been caused by lead. They have no way of knowing for sure.

Smeltertown after it closed down, January 5, 1973

Asarco would run its smelter for another quarter century after bulldozing Smeltertown. It was not until the decline of world copper prices in 1999 that the smelter halted production and the company mothballed the facility, keeping only a skeleton crew on board. Ten years later, the smelter sat silently on the bluff, atop a century’s worth of hardened black slag.

Asarco’s towering smokestacks finally came down in 2013. Today there is almost nothing left of the company or Smeltertown but the slag-coated hillside and the graves in the Smelter Cemetery.

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