#protest your local congressman

[vintageseawitch]

to those who are either protest voting (as in, not voting at all) or voting third party: i understand protesting & speaking out against the president. yes, absolutely they need to held accountable. that said... are you also protesting members of the Senate & the House? for being as knowledgeable as you claim you seem to think the president & the vp are monarchs & make all decisions themselves. please know that it is Congress who decides to go to war or not, etc.

are you voting locally? are you making sure these same ghouls who don't give a shit about what's happening to Palestinians & wants Israel to succeed don't get into office? or are you saying that your vote doesn't matter & you just choose not to? why are you surprised then that these pieces of shit are voted in if you continue to allow older generations to choose your representation for you?

genocide is evil. it's something everyone should be against, absolutely. but if your only solution is to vote only during federal elections (jill stein is a putin puppet & tbh it's weird that the problem that is Russia isn't more of an issue still. she doesn't get involved except during presidential elections & idk why that isn't sus to you) & to cause discord & division during an election that really isn't normal, it doesn't really feel like it's for change. it feels like the kind of change that you want needs to happen yesterday & fuck everyone else in this country.

you want things to be better? start by caring about what happens locally. younger voters are notorious about not voting in local elections. i don't want to victim blame but voting actually works & if you decide to not let your voice be heard then that's your choice but don't be surprised when people become pissed at your whining when you didn't show.

is there any outrage aimed at Congressmen? it's hard to tell since Palestine & protestor's anti-biden stance are the loudest about it but it just tells me you don't actually know how this government works & you need to make your local politicians held responsible, too. change starts at the local level. if you're not there then your voice just won't be heard.

Project 2025 is real, too. if you claim people voting for Harris in order to protect themselves & their loved ones are "pro-genocide" for it then don't be surprised they don't take you seriously. frankly it's vile to claim that stance. there's so much nuance here. it's complicated. i understand your anger but in the end stein has no real chance to get into office & it will be between Harris & trump. you will be governed by one of them whether you like it or not. trump promised Netanyahu anything & Harris has shown she is willing to listen. what will you choose? ignoring it won't make it better for you or anyone who isn't white, xtian, straight, cis men. just think about it for a bit.

anyways NEVER STOP TALKING ABOUT PROJECT 2025/AGENDA 47. please check your voter registration status often. talk to any friends, family, acquaintances, etc who are even THINKING about voting for Harris/Walz. it doesn't matter what party you're normally affiliated with; every voice matters in this fight for our democracy. vote early of you can or take PTO/call out sick if you can, just MAKE SURE YOU VOTE. good luck & stay safe, esp everyone in red & red/swing states 💙

[drdemonprince]

ok, listening & learning here. i've been pretty invested in electoral politics my whole life—my dad's a state congressman now, much to everyone's misfortune. so i've definitely been the person who's said stuff like "well, you can do more radical stuff AND vote," but i think you're spot on—i haven't gotten involved in community organizing, but i have gone to democrat meetings. i guess i'm scared because it's unfamiliar territory. i don't really even know how to find the people doing meaningful action and reach out to them. there's a lot of broken websites and out of date fb pages, and i don't have a script for getting involved the way i do with politics. do you have any advice or encouragement? thank you in advance if you do answer, your writing has actively made my life better since i found it

Thanks for your question! This stuff is difficult to locate on purpose -- both because of state repression, and because when you are working outside of the existing legal and political system, there are risks to being out in the open about it.

Adjusting to more extra-political (as in, outside of democratic politics) activities is a gradual on-ramp. You will understand the landscape and see greater options the further you go, but it will take some time. A good place to start out is local mutual aid networks. Look up a local Food Not Bombs chapter, for instance. See if there is an anarchist library or leftist publisher near you and attend some events. Check out your local libraries and on-campus groups to see if there are any engaging in actions that you can contribute to. Interface with the local punk scene and see if there are any people there who are really about anarchist action.

Go to a communist reading group. Start one with your friends! Working outside of the mainstream political system means building the kind of world you want to live in and the communities you want rather than being plugged into a pre-existing structure like a cog in the machine.

Talk to your neighbors. Give money and food to homeless people and chat them up. Drop off supplies at protests and encampments. Ask people what they need. As you prove yourself and come to understand your local landscape, you will get invited into more actions or will form the friendships and political education needed to start ones of your own. Break the law for the sake of helping other people when you can. Find rules you can bend or ignore in all things. Avoid the Party for Socialism and Liberation and the Revolutionary Communist Party like the fucking plague. they are cults.

You will find your way. I get more and more radical every year, and figure out a ton of shit I didn't previously understand. It's been at least a decade in the making for me. So don't be too hard on yourself if at first you don't feel like you understand what you are doing or that you are not doing "enough." Electoral politics runs on a constant manufactured sense of urgency and exhaustion. But we are building a world that is better, more loving, slower, and more responsive to the rhythms of the earth and our bodies.

You will be where you need to be. <3

[andifeelfine]

Bit a of rant here.

The big news today is about the presidential race, but I'm here to tell you that you need to show up to every goddamn election in your district. Make the goddamn effort, I know in a lot of states its becoming harder, but I promise the people on the other side of what you care about will vote. They will vote, and organize their friends to votes, so organize and get your community to vote. Because its not just the presidency that matters to whatever issues you care about the most, its EVERY DOWNBALLOT person. Whoever wins gets to stay in the rat race of politics, they get the seat at the table. The big figures in politics start small somewhere.

Because whatever issue you care about, you need to make it politically safe to run on. And maybe the downballot seats might not have the more national issues listed in their page. But maybe ther'e s a local problem that you need to learn to care about.

Exhibit A: AIPAC outspent Jamaal Bowman (NYC congressman), but also just plain outvoted him. Yeah the districts were redrawn after the census, but overall there is now blood in the water for the other progressive NYC congress reps. Maybe you're critical of you're local politicians for not being vocal on Palestine, but no one is going to stake their seat on a losing issue. The pro-palestine movement could lose congressional support this election if they don't show up and vote

Exhibit B: NYC has a cop as a mayor after the movement for police reform. After months of protesting for police reform back in 2020, Mayor Adams raised police budgets and did his damned best to cut everything else.

I used these two as examples since they are my local politics if you care about progressive politics, you do have to show up and vote. Yes, even the special elections. NY as a state skews liberal, but in 2022 people sat out the election and a number of seats were flipped to republicans.

[anarchywoofwoof]

"I don't have to tell you things are bad. Everybody knows things are bad. It's a depression. Everybody's out of work or scared of losing their job. The dollar buys a nickel's worth; banks are going bust; shopkeepers keep a gun under the counter; punks are running wild in the street, and there's nobody anywhere who seems to know what to do, and there's no end to it.

We know the air is unfit to breathe and our food is unfit to eat. And we sit watching our TVs while some local newscaster tells us that today we had fifteen homicides and sixty-three violent crimes, as if that's the way it's supposed to be!

We all know things are bad -- worse than bad -- they're crazy.

It's like everything everywhere is going crazy, so we don't go out any more. We sit in the house, and slowly the world we're living in is getting smaller, and all we say is, "Please, at least leave us alone in our living rooms. Let me have my toaster and my TV and my steel-belted radials, and I won't say anything. Just leave us alone."

Well, I'm not going to leave you alone.

I want you to get mad!

I don't want you to protest. I don't want you to riot. I don't want you to write to your Congressman, because I wouldn't know what to tell you to write. I don't know what to do about the depression and the inflation and the Russians and the crime in the street.

All I know is that first, you've got to get mad.

You've gotta say, "I'm a human being, goddammit! My life has value!"

So, I want you to get up now. I want all of you to get up out of your chairs. I want you to get up right now and go to the window, open it, and stick your head out and yell,

"I'm as mad as hell, and I'm not going to take this anymore!!"

Howard Beale, Network, 1976

[bebe-benzenheimer]

Film Meme - (3/10) Films-Network (directed by Sidney Lumet)

“I don't have to tell you things are bad. Everybody knows things are bad. It's a depression. Everybody's out of work or scared of losing their job. The dollar buys a nickel's worth, banks are going bust, shopkeepers keep a gun under the counter. Punks are running wild in the street and there's nobody anywhere who seems to know what to do, and there's no end to it. We know the air is unfit to breathe and our food is unfit to eat, and we sit watching our TVs while some local newscaster tells us that today we had fifteen homicides and sixty-three violent crimes, as if that's the way it's supposed to be. We know things are bad - worse than bad. They're crazy. It's like everything everywhere is going crazy, so we don't go out anymore. We sit in the house, and slowly the world we are living in is getting smaller, and all we say is, 'Please, at least leave us alone in our living rooms. Let me have my toaster and my TV and my steel-belted radials and I won't say anything. Just leave us alone.' Well, I'm not gonna leave you alone. I want you to get mad! I don't want you to protest. I don't want you to riot - I don't want you to write to your congressman because I wouldn't know what to tell you to write. I don't know what to do about the depression and the inflation and the Russians and the crime in the street. All I know is that first you've got to get mad. You've got to say, 'I'm a HUMAN BEING, God damn it! My life has VALUE!' So I want you to get up now. I want all of you to get up out of your chairs. I want you to get up right now and go to the window. Open it, and stick your head out, and yell, 'I'M AS MAD AS HELL, AND I'M NOT GOING TO TAKE THIS ANYMORE!' I want you to get up right now, sit up, go to your windows, open them and stick your head out and yell - 'I'm as mad as hell and I'm not going to take this anymore!' Things have got to change. But first, you've gotta get mad!… You've got to say, 'I'm as mad as hell, and I'm not going to take this anymore!' Then we'll figure out what to do about the depression and the inflation and the oil crisis. But first get up out of your chairs, open the window, stick your head out, and yell, and say it: "I'M AS MAD AS HELL, AND I'M NOT GOING TO TAKE THIS ANYMORE!"”

[freetheshit-outofyou]

Network (1976) Every single word said in this scene is more relevant today than it was in 1976. "I don't have to tell you things are bad. Everybody knows things are bad. It's a depression. Everybody's out of work or scared of losing their job. The dollar buys a nickel's worth; banks are going bust; shopkeepers keep a gun under the counter; punks are running wild in the street, and there's nobody anywhere who seems to know what to do, and there's no end to it.

We know the air is unfit to breathe and our food is unfit to eat. And we sit watching our TVs while some local newscaster tells us that today we had fifteen homicides and sixty-three violent crimes, as if that's the way it's supposed to be!

We all know things are bad -- worse than bad -- they're crazy.

It's like everything everywhere is going crazy, so we don't go out any more. We sit in the house, and slowly the world we're living in is getting smaller, and all we say is, "Please, at least leave us alone in our living rooms. Let me have my toaster and my TV and my steel-belted radials, and I won't say anything. Just leave us alone."

Well, I'm not going to leave you alone.

I want you to get mad!

I don't want you to protest. I don't want you to riot. I don't want you to write to your Congressman, because I wouldn't know what to tell you to write. I don't know what to do about the depression and the inflation and the Russians and the crime in the street.

All I know is that first, you've got to get mad.

You've gotta say, "I'm a human being, goddammit! My life has value!"

So, I want you to get up now. I want all of you to get up out of your chairs. I want you to get up right now and go to the window, open it, and stick your head out and yell,

"I'm as mad as hell,

and I'm not going to take this anymore!!"

[soon-palestine]

this is in 2016.

Jewish activists have been kicked out of an Illinois synagogue for supporting Palestinian rights.

On Sunday, a conference on how to combat the growing boycott, divestment and sanctions movement was held at Temple Beth-El, in Northbrook, a suburb of Chicago.

During a panel discussion, Michael Deheeger, a 32-year-old member of Jewish Voice for Peace-Chicago, interrupted the speakers, expressing his support for Palestinian rights.

The mostly older audience responded with a staggering degree of hostility. Deheeger compared the audience to racist whites in the Jim Crow South.

“It was a throwback to pictures I’ve seen of white protesters in the South trying to uphold segregation,” he told The Electronic Intifada.

Three other activists had disrupted the conference before Deheeger – video of their action is below. “If there had been one person after me, I don’t know what would have happened,” he said.

“Unhinged”

In the video at the top of this post, Deheeger, who is filming, can be heard repeatedly declaring, “I am Jewish, I support Palestinian human rights.”

As Deheeger is carted out by police, camera in hand, one enraged person after another jumps out of their seat to taunt and curse at him.

“You support killing Jews!” says one man. “Get the fuck out of here!” says another.

Near the end, a woman shouts, “Hitler! Hitler!”

“They were so unhinged,” Deheeger said. “One guy even came up and punched me in the arm.”

The rage is striking given that Deheeger’s statement was hardly controversial. He was simply stating that Palestinians are people worthy of human rights.

“I’m not even sure if they see us as people any more when we stand up and do this stuff,” he added, referring to the hatred for anti-Zionist Jews espoused by Zionists who remain deeply invested in Israel’s colonial project. “They see us as race traitors.”

“It really just highlighted the amount of racism and violence that’s intertwined with the issue of Israel and Palestine in the Jewish community. And it’s passed down to kids,” said Deheeger, recalling his own support for Zionism when he was still in high school.

JVP-Chicago disrupted the event, said Deheeger, to show that “all these organizations claiming to represent American Jews and conflating anti-Zionism and criticism of Israel with anti-Semitism – they don’t speak for us.”

Wrong side of history

Chaired by the Republican congressman Bob Dold and Democratic state lawmaker Scott Drury, the panel at the conference included representatives from nearly every major Jewish communal organization across the political spectrum.

Dold is a chief sponsor of the Combating BDS Act of 2016, a piece of federal legislation that would authorize local and state governments to punish authorities that take measures against Israel or firms that abet its abuses of Palestinian rights.

A similar bill, which passed in Illinois last year, has been proposed in several state legislatures across the country.

Before being kicked out, Deheeger filmed this video of part of the panel discussion.

Assaf Grumberg, a former communications officer in the Israeli military now working for the Israel-funded pressure group StandWithUs, can be heard advising Jewish students to “build relationships with other groups on campus besides what you feel comfortable with.”

“If you have a friend who’s African American, who’s a member of Black Lives Matter and you’re genuinely interested in their movement then you need to go to your friend and have a conversation” about Israel, Grumberg says.

Grumberg echoes concerns raised by Zionist organizations in recent years about Palestine solidarity activists forging ties with other progressive organizations, particularly Black Lives Matter and immigrant rights groups.

Among the topics addressed in the panel were the growing efforts to push universities to divest from Israel or firms profiting from Israeli apartheid.

Bemoaning the “emotional strain” BDS campaigns have exacted on pro-Israel students, one panelist concludes that the best way to break campus divestment coalitions between Palestinians and other non-white student groups is to equate anti-Zionism with anti-Semitism.

The panelist was a student at Northwestern University, where the student government voted in favor of an Israel divestment resolution last year.

“The debate in our student government became not about Israel, it became about race privilege,” the speaker says.

“Senators in our student government will say, ‘we’re not anti-Jewish’ … but they’ll be convinced that they shouldn’t be Zionist because Zionism is a form of colonialism,” the speaker states. But “if it’s a new form of anti-Semitism then I think many student governments will not be so swayed by the tactics of BDS.”

As the audience applauds, the panelists are interrupted by Jews who strongly disagree.

Towards the end of the video, three young JVP-Chicago activists pop up from their seats to declare their support for Palestinian rights and BDS. Before they can get a word in, the crowd starts booing. A few seconds later a police officer shows up to escort the protesters out.

“As young Jewish progressives we support the boycott, divestment and sanctions movement in bringing about human rights and equality for Palestinians,” said 22-year-old JVP-Chicago activist Eli Massey in a statement following the protest.

“We are here to say that organizations like the Jewish United Fund and StandWithUs do not speak for all Jews, and on this issue are on the wrong side of history,” Massey added.

[mostlysignssomeportents]

This day in history

Tomorrow (December 5), I'm at Flyleaf Books in Chapel Hill, NC, with my new solarpunk novel The Lost Cause, which 350.org's Bill McKibben called "The first great YIMBY novel: perceptive, scientifically sound, and extraordinarily hopeful."

#15yrsago Berlin hacker con will use RFID badges to simulate life in a totalitarian panopticon https://events.ccc.de/congress/2008/wiki/OpenBeacon_with_OpenAMD/

#15yrsago RIP, Forrest J Ackerman https://www.latimes.com/local/obituaries/la-me-ackerman6-2008dec06-story.html

#15yrsago Googling Security: book that opens your eyes to how much you disclose to Google https://memex.craphound.com/2008/12/05/googling-security-book-that-opens-your-eyes-to-how-much-you-disclose-to-google/

#10yrsago 75% of American silent feature films lost https://variety.com/2013/film/news/library-of-congress-only-14-of-u-s-silent-films-survive-1200915020/

#10yrsago NSA collecting unimaginable quantities of mobile phone location data for guilt-by-association data-mining https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/national-security/nsa-tracking-cellphone-locations-worldwide-snowden-documents-show/2013/12/04/5492873a-5cf2-11e3-bc56-c6ca94801fac_story.html

#10yrsago Democratic lawmakers share a squalorous house in DC https://edition.cnn.com/2013/12/04/politics/real-alpha-house/index.html

#10yrsago Rob Ford police document: allegations of heroin use and more https://torontolife.com/category/city/toronto-politics/2013/12/04/new-bombshells-from-police-documents-suggest-rob-ford-may-have-tried-heroin-been-blackmailed/

#10yrsago NYPD shoot at unarmed man, hit bystanders, charge man for making them shoot https://www.nytimes.com/2013/12/05/nyregion/unarmed-man-is-charged-with-wounding-bystanders-shot-by-police-near-times-square.html?smid=pl-share

#10yrsago Orange UK plumbs the depths of insulting, stupid marketing, finds a new low https://memex.craphound.com/2013/12/05/orange-uk-plumbs-the-depths-of-insulting-stupid-marketing-finds-a-new-low/

#5yrsago What it’s like to be a woman reporter on a cryptocurrency cruise where nearly all the other women are sex-workers https://web.archive.org/web/20181205144647/https://breakermag.com/trapped-at-sea-with-cryptos-nouveau-riche/

#5yrsago See you in court: amid protests, shameless Wisconsin GOP neuters the incoming governor in an all-night, lame-duck session https://www.csmonitor.com/USA/Politics/2018/1205/Wisconsin-GOP-pass-slew-of-measures-during-lameduck-session

#5yrsago British Member of Parliament publishes 250 pages of damning internal Facebook documents that had been sealed by a US court https://www.parliament.uk/globalassets/documents/commons-committees/culture-media-and-sport/Note-by-Chair-and-selected-documents-ordered-from-Six4Three.pdf

#5yrsago The longest-serving Congressman in US history proposes a four fixes for American democracy https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/2018/12/john-dingell-how-restore-faith-government/577222/

#5yrsago RIP, George HW Bush: a mass-murderer and war-criminal https://theintercept.com/2018/12/05/george-h-w-bush-1924-2018-american-war-criminal/

#5yrsago Trump cybersecurity advisor Rudy Giuliani has no idea how the internet works https://nymag.com/intelligencer/2018/12/rudy-giuliani-doesnt-seem-to-know-how-the-internet-works.html

#5yrsago Not just breaches: Never, ever use Quora https://waxy.org/2018/12/why-you-should-never-ever-use-quora/

#5yrsago Obamacare study: 25% decline in home delinquencies among newly insured poor people https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2018-12-04/how-access-to-obamacare-cuts-late-housing-payments

#5yrsago Poland rejects the EU’s copyright censorship plans, calls it #ACTA2 https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2018/11/poland-saved-europe-acta-can-they-save-us-acta2

#1yrago Monopoly's event-horizon: The true capitalist singularity https://pluralistic.net/2022/12/05/eldritch-physics/#wouldnt-start-from-here Banning surveillance ads and banning drm as good politics

It's EFF's Power Up Your Donation Week: this week, donations to the Electronic Frontier Foundation are matched 1:1, meaning your money goes twice as far. I've worked with EFF for 22 years now and I have always been - and remain - a major donor, because I've seen firsthand how effective, responsible and brilliant this organization is. Please join me in helping EFF continue its work!

[stephenjaymorrisblog]

Mid-Terms Voting Hype

Don’t Vote, Boo!

Stephen Jay Morris

10/30/22

Scientific Morality©

People like me, who are of the ultra Left, do not vote. Well, I say: Its there! Its free of charge! Why not?

It used to be that electoral politics was a dull affair; something that adults did. I remember how the nightly news was a bore fest. Back in the stone age, there were Liberals in the Republican party. Really? No shit! There were also Conservatives in the Democratic party. George Putnam, the Los Angeles news broadcaster who was as conservative as they come, was a registered Democrat. War hero and California congressman, Pete McCloskey, was a liberal Republican. He was the only Republican who was opposed to the Vietnam war.

In most other countries, there is typically only one political party. That’s what’s known as a “monopoly.” Here in the greatest country in God’s multiverse—America—we are have a duopoly! Yeah! The two-party system. That was never mandated in the U.S. Constitution, mind you. So, which of the two is the evil party? Some say it’s the communist Democratic Party. Others say the fascist Republican party. And there you have it: the distance into which American politics has degenerated.

For well over a year now, we’ve heard so much hype about the upcoming, mid-term elections. In years past, the only election that mattered to most was the presidential. Like I’ve said many times before: the American people don’t vote in state or local elections; why should they vote in the mid-terms?

I am not going to lecture you on the importance of voting. Consequences are consequences. Now, however, the two parties are sensationalizing these mid-terms. Those on the Right are telling you that we will become a communist nation should the Democrats get your vote, and the so-called Left are saying that if you do not vote, fascism will come to the land of the free! I think the Democrats are laying it on thick this time around. So, I will say this: you can’t stop totalitarianism by voting! So, let me tell you a story.

This story is factual and true. In 1970 Chile—a South American country—there was a democratically-elected president. He was a Marxist and a proud Socialist. His name was Salvador Allende, the 28th president of Chile. His approval ratings were high among the peasants. The rich hated his guts. This was the first time in history that Socialism was voted in peacefully, without a shot fired.

Well, the U.S. State Department was shitting bricks! President Nixon wanted bloodshed! The CIA had a plan. At the time, the CIA was more anti-Communist than the John Birch Society. All they did was fight communists! They would install Islamic dictators solely to stop communist insurrectionists. And what did we get for that effort? Can you say 9-11?

Speaking of 9-11, let’s return to the crux of my story. The CIA infiltrated the Chilean military. Guess what happened on September 11, 1973? President Salvador Allende was assassinated by Chilean troops. The conservative press claimed he committed suicide, but he’d been riddled with bullets and died instantly. General Augusto Pinochet became the new dictator. He implemented a campaign against peasant Socialists by imprisonment or death. This U.S.-backed dictatorship lasted until 1981.

So, what’s the moral of my story? Voting is essential, but it is not enough. Activism and non-violent protests help, too. If the Republicans have a slew of candidates who win control of Congress or the Senate, it won’t mean the end of American freedom. It will be the beginning of a new, anti-Authoritarian Left revolution! Help is waiting, like the fire department is waiting for a fire.

So, my friends, go vote! And my enemies—why bother? You should just stay home and clean your guns for the next Civil War.

[z0mborb]

"We know the air is unfit to breathe and our food is unfit to eat. We sit watching our TVs while some local newscaster tells us that today, we had 15 homicides and 63 violent crimes, as if that's the way its supposed to be! We know things are bad - worse than bad! They're crazy! It's like everything everywhere is going crazy, so we don't go out anymore; we sit in the house, and slowly the world we're living in is getting smaller and all we can say is "please, at least leave us alone in our living rooms! Let me have my toaster, and my TV, and my steel belted radials, and I won't say anything! Just leave us alone!" Well, I'm not gonna leave you alone! I WANT YOU TO GET MAD! I don't want you to protest, I don't want you to riot, I don't want you to write to your congressman because I wouldn't know what to tell you to write. I don't know what to do about the depression and the inflation and the Russians and the crime in the street. All I know is that first, you've got to get mad! You've got to say I'm a HUMAN BEING, GOD DAMN IT! MY LIFE HAS VALUE!"

[newstfionline]

Tuesday, May 21, 2024

The Israel-Hamas war is testing whether campuses are sacrosanct places for speech and protest (AP) “Where there is much desire to learn, there of necessity will be much arguing, much writing, many opinions; for opinion in good men is but knowledge in the making,” wrote poet John Milton, an alumnus of Cambridge University, in his 1644 treatise against censorship in publishing. “Give me the liberty to know, to utter, and to argue freely according to conscience, above all liberties.” That lofty principle has clashed with the stark reality of the Israel-Hamas war. Administrators on some campuses have called in local police to break up pro-Palestinian protesters demanding that their schools divest from Israel in demonstrations that Israel’s allies say are antisemitic and make campuses unsafe. From Columbia University in New York to the University of California, Los Angeles, thousands of students and faculty have been arrested in the past month. Historically, universities are supposed to govern—and police—themselves in exchange for their status as “something of a secular sacred ground,” said John Thelin, University of Kentucky College of Education professor emeritus and a historian of higher education. Calling in the police, as administrators did at Columbia, Dartmouth, UCLA and other schools, represents the “breakdown of both rights and responsibilities within the campus as a chartered academic institution and community,” he said.

‘We’ll See You at Your House’: Fear and Menace Are Transforming Politics (NYT) One Friday last month, Jamie Raskin, a Democratic congressman from Maryland, spent a chunk of his day in court securing a protective order. It was not his first. Mr. Raskin, who played a leading role in Donald J. Trump’s second impeachment hearing, said he received about 50 menacing calls, emails and letters every month that are turned over to the Capitol Police. His latest court visit was prompted by a man who showed up at his house and screamed in his face about the Covid-19 vaccine, Mr. Trump’s impeachment and gender-related surgeries. Mr. Raskin was far from the only government official staring down the uglier side of public service in America in recent weeks. Since late March, bomb threats closed libraries in Durham, N.C.; Reading, Mass.; and Lancaster, Pa., and suspended operations at a courthouse in Franklin County, Pa. In Bakersfield, Calif., an activist protesting the war in Gaza was arrested after telling City Council members: “We’ll see you at your house. We’ll murder you.”

Second Russian invasion of Kharkiv caught Ukraine unprepared (Washington Post) Russia’s new offensive across Ukraine’s northeastern border had been expected for months—yet it still surprised the Ukrainian soldiers stationed there to defend against it. After using drones to monitor how Moscow was steadily building up forces, on May 10, the morning of the attack, Ukraine’s 125th Territorial Defense Brigade lost all its video feeds due to Russian electronic jamming. Its Starlink devices failed. “We were left at a certain point completely blind,” said a drone unit commander in the brigade. Within days, the Russians had captured—for the second time—some 50 square miles of territory along the border, capitalizing on a moment of particular vulnerability for Ukraine’s military. Begrudgingly, Ukrainian troops admit that their enemy has gotten smarter and adapted.

Europe Wants to Build a Stronger Defense Industry, but Can’t Decide How (NYT) France and Germany’s recent agreement to develop a new multibillion-dollar battlefield tank together was hailed by the German defense minister, Boris Pistorius, as a “breakthrough” achievement. For seven years, political infighting, industrial rivalry and neglect had pooled like molasses around the project to build a next-generation tank, known as the Main Combat Ground System. Russia’s invasion of Ukraine jolted Europe out of complacency about military spending. After defense budgets were cut in the decades that followed the Soviet Union’s collapse, the war has reignited Europe’s efforts to build up its own military production capacity and near-empty arsenals. But the challenges that face Europe are about more than just money. Daunting political and logistical hurdles stand in the way of a more coordinated and efficient military machine. “Europe has 27 military industrial complexes, not just one,” said Max Bergmann, a program director at the Center for Strategic and International Studies in Washington. Each NATO member has its own defense establishment, culture, priorities and favored companies, and each government retains final say on what to buy.

UK to spend $12.7 billion on compensation in infected-blood scandal (Reuters) Britain will spend more than 10 billion pounds ($12.70 billion) compensating thousands of people who were treated with blood contaminated with HIV or hepatitis C in the 1970s and 1980s, the Sunday Times reported. The infected blood scandal is widely seen as one of the worst treatment disasters in the history of the state-funded National Health Service. An estimated 30,000 people were given contaminated blood, with about 3,000 of those believed to have died. Many more lives have been affected by disease and some of those infected have never been traced. Victims and their families are still calling for justice, compensation and answers over how it was allowed to happen despite warnings over the risks.

French security forces work to regain control of airport highway in violence-scorched New Caledonia (AP) Using armored vehicles and backhoes to shove aside charred barricades, French security forces worked Sunday to retake control of the highway to the international airport in violence-scorched New Caledonia, shuttered because of deadly unrest wracking the French Pacific archipelago where indigenous people have long sought independence from France. An eventual reopening of the Nouméa-La Tontouta airport to commercial flights could allow stranded tourists to escape the island where armed clashes, arson, looting and other mayhem have prompted France to impose a state of emergency.

For Iran, a helicopter crash at a difficult time (NYT) The deaths of President Ebrahim Raisi and Iran’s foreign minister leave the country without two influential leaders at a particularly tumultuous moment of international tension and domestic discontent, although analysts and regional officials expect little change in the direction of Iran’s foreign policy. Mr. Raisi, 63, and Foreign Minister Hossein Amir Abdollahian were killed on Sunday in a helicopter crash resulting from a “technical failure,” Iranian state news media reported. The death of Mr. Raisi, a conservative who crushed dissent and had been viewed as a possible successor to Mr.  Khamenei, occurred weeks after Tehran came close to open conflict with Israel and the United States. And looming over everything is the question of Iran’s nuclear program. Iran has produced nuclear fuel enriched to a level just short of what would be needed to produce several bombs. The authorities in Iran also face domestic anger, with many residents calling for an end to clerical rule. Corruption and international sanctions have ravaged the economy. In the last two years, the country has seen a domestic uprising, the Iranian currency plunging to a record low, water shortages intensified by climate change and the deadliest terrorist attack since the 1979 founding of the Islamic Republic.

War crimes prosecutor seeks arrest of Israeli and Hamas leaders, including Netanyahu (AP) The chief prosecutor of the world’s top war crimes court said Monday he is seeking arrest warrants for leaders of Israel and Hamas, including Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, over actions taken during their seven-month war. While Netanyahu and his defense minister, Yoav Gallant, do not face imminent arrest, the announcement by the International Criminal Court’s chief prosecutor was a symbolic blow that deepened Israel’s isolation over the war in Gaza. Netanyahu and other Israeli leaders condemned the move as disgraceful and antisemitic. U.S. President Joe Biden also lambasted the prosecutor and supported Israel’s right to defend itself against Hamas. A panel of three judges will decide whether to issue the arrest warrants and allow a case to proceed. The judges typically take two months to make such decisions. Israel is not a member of the court, so even if the arrest warrants are issued, Netanyahu and Gallant do not face any immediate risk of prosecution.

Israel ‘is stuck inside Gaza’ as Palestinian suffering deepens (Washington Post) The war in Gaza rages on while Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu faces mounting pressure from abroad and within. White House national security adviser Jake Sullivan called on Netanyahu and other key Israeli officials in Jerusalem on Sunday, stressing the need for Netanyahu to agree to a “day after” plan for the Gaza Strip that he’s been long evading. As my colleagues reported, the Biden administration sees a strategic failure in Israel’s decision to invade the southernmost Gaza city of Rafah—a move long opposed by both Western governments and international humanitarian organizations—and fears Netanyahu’s current course “is not worth the cost in terms of human lives and destruction, cannot achieve its objective, and will ultimately undermine broader U.S. and Israeli goals in the Middle East.” Netanyahu has scoffed at calls for plotting peace while fighting the war, arguing that it distracts from fully defeating Hamas. Experts warn that may be an impossibility and Israel’s own security establishment is getting increasingly vocal in its frustrations with the prime minister’s prevarications. Israel Ziv, a retired major general who served as the head of the Israel Defense Forces Operations Division, said that earlier gains by the Israeli military have “evaporated” due to inadequate political planning for the postwar dispensation. “If you are working only militarily without any diplomatic solution, you’re inside this swamp,” he said. “Israel is stuck inside Gaza.” Meanwhile, the territory’s more than 2 million Palestinian residents are stuck in a humanitarian nightmare.

Gazans Flee Jabaliya as Israel’s Military Launches New Offensive (NYT) The northern town of Jabaliya had already come under fierce attacks from the Israeli military earlier in the war, killing many civilians and demolishing large parts of the suburb. So, as Israeli ground forces moved to other parts of the Gaza Strip and military strikes focused elsewhere, residents thought they had experienced their worst days. But last week, the Israeli military dropped leaflets again over Jabaliya, where tens of thousands of people are living, ordering them to leave as it prepared to launch a renewed offensive. “When the Israelis dropped the leaflets, people were terrified, especially given what they experienced previously,” said Iman Abu Jalhum, 23, who graduated from medical school two months before the war began and has been volunteering in hospitals treating the wounded. “We thought given that we have already been attacked that we were safe; the Israelis have already been here.” Soon after the leaflets dropped, so too did the bombs, she said. Ms. Abu Jalhum, her 16-year-old sister and her parents fled their home under bombardment. She only had time to throw a few items of clothing into a bag and put on her prayer shawl.

South Africa’s top court rules former President Zuma cannot stand in election over criminal record (AP) Former South African President Jacob Zuma was disqualified Monday from standing in a national election next week because of a previous criminal conviction, a decision by the country’s highest court that’s bound to raise political tensions ahead of a pivotal vote. The Constitutional Court said that a section of the constitution disqualifying people from standing for office if they’ve been sentenced to more than 12 months in prison without the option of a fine does apply to the 82-year-old Zuma. Zuma was sentenced to 15 months in prison in 2021 by the Constitutional Court for contempt for refusing to testify at a judicial inquiry into government corruption.

[habeascorpseus]

you know what? I think I'm fine with any ending. whether this tale turns out to be a tragedy or a triumphant hero's happy ending, every ending is valid. sure, it will hurt if tommy dies or something awful happens to him again. it will definitely send an off message to people with trauma that maybe their suffering isn't worth it. but sometimes people don't get happy endings no matter how much they suffer and struggle for it. it's something that I understand perfectly, being part of a generation that has suffered so much bullshit already and yet no matter how much we scream and protest, the people writing the story are determined to kill us all, in the end. sometimes the higher powers that control your life win. sometimes you're still stuck in a dystopian nightmare at the end of the day. sometimes you die and your family suffers for even knowing you. sometimes happy endings don't exist. it's pessimistic, a bit boring, hell, maybe it'll make you quit watching entirely. but it's a reflection on the likeliest outcomes of war and tragedy. sometimes you survive the flood but lose everything. sometimes you survive the nuke but die to radiation soon after. sometimes the odds are stacked so against you that tragedy was the only option in the first place.

but if tommy beats dream? that's also valid. it's honestly something that we kind of need right now, in the story of the past decade. we need the story of a kid who saw pain being caused to him and personally put a stop to it. it's wish fulfilment. its indulgent. it's every fantasy you've had this year of beating up your local congressman or traveling to london to personally punch boris johnson in the face. it's rising up against your oppressors and choking them until they fucking die or until they decide to change their ways. tommy's story, if he wins, will be one of perseverance and hope. of getting beat down and coming back again over and over in order to finally best god in hand to hand combat. it's unrealistic, it's unlikely, and it's going to be hard to continue the story afterwards. but above all else, it would be a breath of fresh air in the ongoing tragedy this year and last year have been.

to be honest, I don't know why I started writing this. was it to assure you? to assure me? hell if I fucking know! most of the time I just blank out and find these words scribbled out on my screen and I'm already clicking "post" before I can think about if it's a bad idea. but whatever the case, just know that whatever the outcome of today, it's okay to feel unhappy with the outcome. it's okay to enjoy the outcome. it's okay to criticize the writing and it's okay to praise it. whatever the case, if today is the end of tommy's story on the server, give him a round of applause. because at the beginning of his story, tommy was an upstart nobody who strived to be great. and in the end, both in his fictional universe and in real life, he made it. thousands of people care about his stories. thousands of people have laughed, cried, shouted, and sang along with his stories. thousands of people have written about, drawn, sang, and created for his stories. and if one of those stories ends today? so be it. I can't wait to see what else he's planned.

[didanawisgi]

Martin Luther King Jr., Guns, and a Book Everyone Should Read

BY JEREMY S. | JAN 15, 2018

“Martin Luther King Jr. would have been 89 years old today, were he not assassinated in 1968. On the third Monday in January we observe MLK Jr. Day and celebrate his achievements in advancing civil rights for African Americans and others. While Dr. King was a big advocate of peaceful assembly and protest, he wasn’t, at least for most of his life, against the use of firearms for self-defense. In fact, he employed them . . .

If it wasn’t for African Americans in the South, primarily, taking up arms almost without exception during the post-Civil War reconstruction and well into the civil rights movement, this country wouldn’t be what it is today.

By force and threat of arms African Americans protected themselves, their families, their homes, and their rights and won the attention and respect of the powers that be. In a lawless, post-Civil War South they stayed alive while faced with, at best, an indifferent government and, at worst, state-sponsored violence against them.

We know the Supreme Court’s Dred Scott decision of 1857 refused to recognize black people as citizens. Heck, they were deemed just three-fifths a person. Not often mentioned in school: some of that was due to gun rights. Namely, not wanting to give gun rights to blacks. Because if they were to recognize blacks as citizens, it…

“…would give to persons of the negro race . . . the right to enter every other State whenever they pleased, . . . and it would give them the full liberty of speech . . . ; to hold public meetings upon political affairs, and to keep and carry arms wherever they went.”

Ahha! So the Second Amendment was considered an individual right, protecting a citizen’s natural, inalienable right to keep and carry arms wherever they go. Then as now, gun control is rooted in racism.

During reconstruction, African Americans were legally citizens but were not always treated as such. Practically every African American home had a shotgun — or shotguns — and they needed it, too. Forget police protection, as those same officials were often in white robes during their time off.

Fast forward to the American civil rights movement and we learn, but again not at school, that Martin Luther King Jr. applied for a concealed carry permit. He (an upstanding minister, mind you) was denied.

Then as in many cases even now, especially in blue states uniquely and ironically so concerned about “fairness,” permitting was subjective (“may issue” rather than “shall issue”). The wealthy and politically connected receive their rights, but the poor, the uneducated, the undesired masses, not so much.

Up until late in his life, MLK Jr. chose to be protected by the Deacons for Defense. Though his home was also apparently a bit of an arsenal.

African Americans won their rights and protected their lives with pervasive firearms ownership. But we don’t learn about this. We don’t know about this. It has been unfortunately whitewashed from our history classes and our discourse.

Hidden, apparently, as part of an agreement (or at least an understanding) reached upon the conclusion of the civil rights movement.

Sure, the government is going to protect you now and help you and give you all of the rights you want, but you have to give up your guns. Turn them in. Create a culture of deference to the government. Be peaceable and non-threatening and harmless. And arm-less, as it were (and vote Democrat). African Americans did turn them in, physically and culturally.

That, at least, is an argument made late in Negroes and the Gun: the Black Tradition of Arms. It’s a fantastic book, teaching primarily through anecdotes of particular African American figures throughout history just how important firearms were to them. I learned so-freaking-much from this novel, and couldn’t recommend it more. If you have any interest in gun rights, civil rights, and/or African American history, it’s an absolute must-read.

Some text I highlighted on my Kindle Paperwhite when I read it in 2014:

But Southern blacks had to navigate the first generation of American arms-control laws, explicitly racist statutes starting as early as Virginia’s 1680 law, barring clubs, guns, or swords to both slaves and free blacks.

“…he who would be free, himself must strike the blow.”

In 1846, white abolitionist congressman Joshua Giddings of Ohio gave a speech on the floor of the House of Representatives, advocating distribution of arms to fugitive slaves.

Civil-rights activist James Forman would comment in the 1960s that blacks in the movement were widely armed and that there was hardly a black home in the South without its shotgun or rifle.

A letter from a teacher at a freedmen’s school in Maryland demonstrates one set of concerns. The letter contains the standard complaints about racist attacks on the school and then describes one strand of the local response. “Both the Mayor and the sheriff have warned the colored people to go armed to school, (which they do) [and] the superintendent of schools came down and brought me a revolver.”

Low black turnout resulted in a Democratic victory in the majority black Republican congressional district.

Other political violence of the Reconstruction era centered on official Negro state militias operating under radical Republican administrations.

“The Winchester rifle deserves a place of honor in every Black home.” So said Ida B. Wells.

Fortune responded with an essay titled “The Stand and Be Shot or Shoot and Stand Policy”: “We have no disposition to fan the coals of race discord,” Thomas explained, “but when colored men are assailed they have a perfect right to stand their ground. If they run away like cowards they will be regarded as inferior and worthy to be shot; but if they stand their ground manfully, and do their own a share of the shooting they will be respected and by doing so they will lessen the propensity of white roughs to incite to riot.”

He used state funds to provide guns and ammunition to people who were under threat of attack.

“Medgar was nonviolent, but he had six guns in the kitchen and living room.”

“The weapons that you have are not to kill people with — killing is wrong. Your guns are to protect your families — to stop them from being killed. Let the Klan ride, but if they try to do wrong against you, stop them. If we’re ever going to win this fight we got to have a clean record. Stay here, my friends, you are needed most here, stay and protect your homes.”

In 2008 and 2010, the NAACP filed amicus briefs to the United States Supreme Court, supporting blanket gun bans in Washington, DC, and Chicago. Losing those arguments, one of the association’s lawyers wrote in a prominent journal that recrafting the constitutional right to arms to allow targeted gun prohibition in black enclaves should be a core plank of the modern civil-rights agenda.

Wilkins viewed the failure to pursue black criminals as overt state malevolence and evidence of an attitude that “there’s one more Negro killed — the more of ’em dead, the less to bother us. Don’t spend too much money running down the killer — he may kill another.”

But it puts things in perspective to note that swimming pool accidents account for more deaths of minors than all forms of death by firearm (accident, homicide, and suicide).

The correlation of very high murder rates with low gun ownership in African American communities simply does not bear out the notion that disarming the populace as a whole will disarm and prevent murder by potential murderers.

Centers for Disease Control (CDC) estimated 1,900,000 annual episodes where someone in the home retrieved a firearm in response to a suspected illegal entry. There were roughly half a million instances where the armed householder confronted and chased off the intruder.

A study of active burglars found that one of the greatest risks faced by residential burglars is being injured or killed by occupants of a targeted dwelling. Many reported that this was their greatest fear and a far greater worry than being caught by police.48 The data bear out the instinct. Home invaders in the United States are more at risk of being shot in the act than of going to prison.49 Because burglars do not know which homes have a gun, people who do not own guns enjoy free-rider benefits because of the deterrent effect of others owning guns. In a survey of convicted felons conducted for the National Institute of Justice, 34 percent of them reported being “scared off, shot at, wounded or captured by an armed victim.” Nearly 40 percent had refrained from attempting a crime because they worried the target was armed. Fifty-six percent said that they would not attack someone they knew was armed and 74 percent agreed that “one reason burglars avoid houses where people are at home is that they fear being shot.”

In the period before Florida adopted its “shall issue” concealed-carry laws, the Orlando Police Department conducted a widely advertised program of firearms training for women. The program was started in response to reports that women in the city were buying guns at an increased rate after an uptick in sexual assaults. The program aimed to help women gun owners become safe and proficient. Over the next year, rape declined by 88 percent. Burglary fell by 25 percent. Nationally these rates were increasing and no other city with a population over 100,000 experienced similar decreases during the period.55 Rape increased by 7 percent nationally and by 5 percent elsewhere in Florida.

As you can see, Negroes and the Gun progresses more or less chronologically, spending the last portion of the book discussing modern-day gun control. It’s an invaluable source of ammunition (if you’ll pardon the expression) against the fallacies of the pro-gun-control platform. It sheds light on a little-known (if not purposefully obfuscated), critical factor in the history of African Americans: firearms.

On this Martin Luther King Jr. Day, I highly recommend you — yes, you — read Negroes and the Gun: the Black Tradition of Arms.

And I’ll wrap this up with a quote in a Huffington Post article given by Maj Toure of Black Guns Matter: 

https://cdn0.thetruthaboutguns.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/01/huffpo-maj-toure.jpg”

[thephilosopherspupil]

Serious advice for those who are overwhelmed and upset by recent news (Texas, Ukraine, etc):

1. Log off. Stop doomscrolling. Reading the news will not make things better. Past a certain point, you are not getting more informed. Go outside for a walk to clear your head, eat a nice snack, whatever works for you.

2. Research actual concrete ways you can help. What are reputable groups (ETA: Please, please, PLEASE do your research on this) you can donate to? Especially if things are happening far away, giving money is more directly effective than symbolic support - feeling shitty about the world is a normal human response but won’t actually improve things, and you do not have a positive duty to feel as bad as possible. What political action can you take - calling your MP, signing petitions, going to protests? You don’t have to do all of these, but picking something which actually has a connection to the levers of power (i.e. “I am going to call my MP and tell them to support opening the borders to refugees”; “I am going to call my local congressman and tell them that their anti-trans bill is wrong and they are losing votes”; “I am going to make it costly and embarrassing for politicians to be public bigots”) matters. It’s easy to get caught up in the trap of “oh god the world is giant and horrible and cruel and I can do nothing about it” - but there are some things you can do.

3. Effective political activism isn’t an individual thing. Look for existing organizations and see what work you can do within them, even if it’s something small. You won’t be able to do this for all — or even most — of the issues you come across, but picking one thing and being like, “OK, I am regularly contributing to the lessening of injustice in the world in this one way” is a way that you can make a difference. You do not need to be a hero or a martyr to positively contribute to a better world. 

Obligatory disclaimer: I am just a random person on the internet, these are things that have helped me feel less despair and political anomie, ymmv. 

[ucflibrary]

The national celebration of African American History was started by Carter G. Woodson, a Harvard-trained historian and the founder of the Association for the Study of Negro Life and History, and first celebrated as a weeklong event in February of 1926. After a half century of overwhelming popularity, the event was expanded to a full month in 1976 by President Gerald Ford.

Here at UCF Libraries we believe that knowledge empowers everyone in our community and that recognizing past inequities is the only way to prevent their continuation. This is why our February Featured Bookshelf suggestions range from celebrating outstanding African Americans to works illuminating the effects of systemic racism in our country. We are proud to present our top staff suggested books in honor of Black History Month 2021.

Click on the link below to see the full list, descriptions, and catalog links for the Black History Month titles suggested by UCF Library employees. These books plus many, many more are also on display on the main floor of the John C. Hitt Library near the Research & Information Desk.

 A Black Women’s History of the United States by Daina Ramey Berry and Kali Nicole Gross In centering Black women's stories, two award-winning historians seek both to empower African American women and to show their allies that Black women's unique ability to make their own communities while combatting centuries of oppression is an essential component in our continued resistance to systemic racism and sexism. Berry and Gross prioritize many voices: enslaved women, freedwomen, religious leaders, artists, queer women, activists, and women who lived outside the law. The result is a starting point for exploring Black women's history and a testament to the beauty, richness, rhythm, tragedy, heartbreak, rage, and enduring love that abounds in the spirit of Black women in communities throughout the nation. Suggested by Sandy Avila, Research & Information Services

 A Bound Woman is a Dangerous Thing: the incarceration of African American women from Harriet Tubman to Sandra Bland by DaMaris B. Hill For black American women, the experience of being bound has taken many forms: from the bondage of slavery to the Reconstruction-era criminalization of women; from the brutal constraints of Jim Crow to our own era's prison industrial complex, where between 1980 and 2014, the number of incarcerated women increased by 700%. For those women who lived and died resisting the dehumanization of confinement--physical, social, intellectual--the threat of being bound was real, constant, and lethal. From Harriet Tubman to Assata Shakur, Ida B. Wells to Sandra Bland and Black Lives Matter, black women freedom fighters have braved violence, scorn, despair, and isolation in order to lodge their protests. DaMaris Hill honors their experiences with at times harrowing, at times hopeful responses to her heroes, illustrated with black-and-white photographs throughout. Suggested by Megan Haught, Student Learning & Engagement/Research & Information Services

 Be Free or Die: the amazing story of Robert Smalls' escape from slavery to Union hero by Cate Lineberry Cate Lineberry's compelling narrative illuminates Robert Smalls’ amazing journey from slave to Union hero and ultimately United States Congressman. This captivating tale of a valuable figure in American history gives fascinating insight into the country's first efforts to help newly freed slaves while also illustrating the many struggles and achievements of African Americans during the Civil War. Suggested by Dawn Tripp, Research & Information Services

 Before You Suffocate Your Own Fool Self by Danielle Evans Fearless, funny, and ultimately tender, Evans's stories offer a bold new perspective on the experience of being young and African-American or mixed-race in modern-day America. Suggested by Sara Duff, Acquisitions & Collections

 Black Fatigue: how racism erodes the mind, body, and spirit by Mary-Frances Winters This is the first book to define and explore Black fatigue, the intergenerational impact of systemic racism on the physical and psychological health of Black people--and explain why and how society needs to collectively do more to combat its pernicious effects. Suggested by Glen Samuels, Circulation

 Deacon King Kong by James McBride From James McBride comes a wise and witty novel about what happens to the witnesses of a shooting. In September 1969, a fumbling, cranky old church deacon known as Sportcoat shuffles into the courtyard of the Cause Houses housing project in south Brooklyn, pulls a .45 from his pocket, and in front of everybody shoots the project's drug dealer at point-blank range. McBride brings to vivid life the people affected by the shooting: the victim, the African-American and Latinx residents who witnessed it, the white neighbors, the local cops assigned to investigate, the members of the Five Ends Baptist Church where Sportcoat was deacon, the neighborhood's Italian mobsters, and Sportcoat himself. As the story deepens, it becomes clear that the lives of the characters--caught in the tumultuous swirl of 1960s New York--overlap in unexpected ways. When the truth does emerge, McBride shows us that not all secrets are meant to be hidden, that the best way to grow is to face change without fear, and that the seeds of love lie in hope and compassion. Suggested by Sara Duff, Acquisitions & Collections

 Different Strokes: Serena, Venus, and the unfinished Black tennis revolution by Cecil Harris Harris chronicles the rise of the Williams sisters, as well as other champions of color, closely examining how African Americans are collectively faring in tennis, on the court and off. Despite the success of the Williams sisters and the election of former pro player Katrina Adams as the U.S. Tennis Association’s first black president, top black players still receive racist messages via social media and sometimes in public. The reality is that while significant progress has been made in the sport, much work remains before anything resembling equality is achieved. Suggested by Megan Haught, Student Learning & Engagement/Research & Information Services

 His Truth Is Marching On: John Lewis and the power of hope by Jon Meacham John Lewis, who at age twenty-five marched in Selma and was beaten on the Edmund Pettus Bridge, is a visionary and a man of faith. Using intimate interviews with Lewis and his family and deep research into the history of the civil rights movement, Meacham writes of how the activist and leader was inspired by the Bible, his mother's unbreakable spirit, his sharecropper father's tireless ambition, and his teachers in nonviolence, Reverend James Lawson and Martin Luther King, Jr. A believer in hope above all else, Lewis learned from a young age that nonviolence was not only a tactic but a philosophy, a biblical imperative, and a transforming reality. Integral to Lewis's commitment to bettering the nation was his faith in humanity and in God, and an unshakable belief in the power of hope. Meacham calls Lewis as important to the founding of a modern and multiethnic twentieth- and twenty-first century America as Thomas Jefferson and James Madison and Samuel Adams were to the initial creation of the nation-state in the eighteenth century. Suggested by Richard Harrison, Research & Information Services

 Hitting a Straight Lick with a Crooked Stick by Zora Neale Hurston An outstanding collection of stories about love and migration, gender and class, racism and sexism that proudly reflect African American folk culture. Brought together for the first time in one volume, they include eight of Hurston’s “lost” Harlem stories, which were found in forgotten periodicals and archives. These stories challenge conceptions of Hurston as an author of rural fiction and include gems that flash with her biting, satiric humor, as well as more serious tales reflective of the cultural currents of Hurston’s world. Suggested by Sandy Avila, Research & Information Services

 Race, Sports, and Education: improving opportunities and outcomes for black male college athletes by John N. Singer Through his analysis of the system and his attention to student views and experiences, Singer crafts a valuable, nuanced account and points in the direction of reforms that would significantly improve the educational opportunities and experiences of these athletes. At a time when collegiate sports have attained unmistakable institutional value and generated unprecedented financial returns-all while largely failing the educational needs of its athletes-this book offers a clear, detailed vision of the current situation and suggestions for a more equitable way forward. Suggested by Megan Haught, Student Learning & Engagement/Research & Information Services

 Real Life by Brandon Taylor A novel of rare emotional power that excavates the social intricacies of a late-summer weekend -- and a lifetime of buried pain. Almost everything about Wallace, an introverted African-American transplant from Alabama, is at odds with the lakeside Midwestern university town where he is working toward a biochem degree. For reasons of self-preservation, Wallace has enforced a wary distance even within his own circle of friends -- some dating each other, some dating women, some feigning straightness. But a series of confrontations with colleagues, and an unexpected encounter with a young straight man, conspire to fracture his defenses, while revealing hidden currents of resentment and desire that threaten the equilibrium of their community. Suggested by Sara Duff, Acquisitions & Collections

 Sister Outsider: Essays and Speeches by Audre Lorde In this charged collection of fifteen essays and speeches, Lorde takes on sexism, racism, ageism, homophobia, and class, and propounds social difference as a vehicle for action and change. Her prose is incisive, unflinching, and lyrical, reflecting struggle but ultimately offering messages of hope. Suggested by Emily Horne, Rosen Library

 The Privileged Poor: how elite colleges are failing disadvantaged students by Abraham Jack College presidents and deans of admission have opened their doors--and their coffers--to support a more diverse student body. But is it enough just to let them in? Anthony Jack reveals that the struggles of less privileged students continue long after they've arrived on campus. In their first weeks they quickly learn that admission does not mean acceptance. In this bracing and necessary book, Jack documents how university policies and cultures can exacerbate preexisting inequalities, and reveals why these policies hit some students harder than others. Jack provides concrete advice to help schools reduce these hidden disadvantages--advice we cannot afford to ignore. Suggested by Peggy Nuhn, UCF Connect Libraries

 The Sun Does Shine: how I found life and freedom on death row by Anthony Ray Hinton, with Lara Love Hardin In 1985, Anthony Ray Hinton was arrested and charged with two counts of capital murder in Alabama. Stunned, confused, and only twenty-nine years old, Hinton knew that it was a case of mistaken identity and believed that the truth would prove his innocence and ultimately set him free. But with no money and a different system of justice for a poor black man in the South, Hinton was sentenced to death by electrocution. He spent his first three years on Death Row at Holman State Prison in agonizing silence, full of despair and anger toward all those who had sent an innocent man to his death. But as Hinton realized and accepted his fate, he resolved not only to survive, but find a way to live on Death Row. For the next twenty-seven years he was a beacon, transforming not only his own spirit, but those of his fellow inmates, fifty-four of whom were executed mere feet from his cell. With the help of civil rights attorney and author Bryan Stevenson, Hinton won his release in 2015. Suggested by Lily Dubach, UCF Connect Libraries

 This is Major: notes on Diana Ross, dark girls, and being dope by Shayla Lawson Shayla Lawson is major. You don't know who she is, yet, but that's okay. She is on a mission to move black girls like herself from best supporting actress to a starring roles in the major narrative. With a unique mix of personal stories, pop culture observations, and insights into politics and history, Lawson sheds light on the many ways black femininity has influenced mainstream culture. Timely, enlightening, and wickedly sharp, Lawson shows how major black women and girls really are. Suggested by Glen Samuels, Circulation

 We Want Our Bodies Back by Jessica Care Moore Over the past two decades, Jessica Care Moore has become a cultural force as a poet, performer, publisher, activist, and critic. Reflecting her transcendent electric voice, this searing poetry collection is filled with moving, original stanzas that speak to both Black women’s creative and intellectual power, and express the pain, sadness, and anger of those who suffer constant scrutiny because of their gender and race. Fierce and passionate, she argues that Black women spend their lives building a physical and emotional shelter to protect themselves from misogyny, criminalization, hatred, stereotypes, sexual assault, objectification, patriarchy, and death threats. Suggested by Sara Duff, Acquisitions & Collections

[tumblrisweird]

I don't have to tell you things are bad.

Everybody knows things are bad. It's a depression. Everybody's out of work or scared of losing their job. The dollar buys a nickel's worth; businesses are going bust; shopkeepers keep a gun under the counter; fascists are running wild in the street, and there's nobody anywhere who seems to know what to do, and there's no end to it!

We know the air is unfit to breathe and our food is unfit to eat. And we sit watching our TVs while some local newscaster tells us that today we had four mass shootings and sixty-three violent crimes, as if that's the way it's supposed to be!

We all know things are bad -- worse than bad -- they're crazy! It's like everything everywhere is going crazy!

So we don't go out any more. We sit in the house, and slowly the world we're living in is getting smaller, and all we say is, "Please, at least leave us alone in our living rooms. Let me have my toaster and my TV and my laptop computer, and I won't say anything. Just leave us alone."

Well, I'm not going to leave you alone.

I want you to get mad!        

I don't want you to protest. I don't want you to riot. I don't want you to write to your Congressman, because I wouldn't know what to tell you to write. I don't know what to do about the depression and the inflation and the Russians and the crime in the street.

All I know is that first, you've got to get mad.

You've gotta say, "I'm a human being, goddammit! My life has value!"