#read a book about the flint water crisis today

[quixoticanarchy]

you think the auto industry or the oil industry or any industry is pretty evil and then you learn a bit more from a new angle and it's literally always worse than you thought. wouldn't it be nice if just once one of these industries was not actually this incredibly vile and responsible for inconceivable amounts of suffering? but they always are

[oberlincollegelibraries]

Weekend Edition: Non-Fiction

The great thing about non-fiction books is that we have lots of them in our libraries on almost any topic you can imagine. You can find one that interests you in the Main, Conservatory, Art or Science library. Here are a few recently published ones you might want to consider for your bingo box prompt, Non- Fiction.

God Rock, Inc. : the business of niche music / Andrew Mall “Popular music in the twenty-first century is increasingly divided into niche markets. How do fans, musicians, and music industry executives define their markets' boundaries? What happens when musicians cross those boundaries? What can Christian music teach us about commercial popular music? In God Rock, Inc., Andrew Mall considers the aesthetic, commercial, ethical, and social boundaries of Christian popular music, from the late 1960s, when it emerged, through the 2010s. Drawing on ethnographic research, historical archives, interviews with music industry executives, and critical analyses of recordings, concerts, and music festival performances, Mall explores the tensions that have shaped this evolving market and frames broader questions about commerce, ethics, resistance, and crossover in music that defines itself as outside the mainstream”

Frederick Douglass : prophet of freedom / David W. Blight. “The definitive, dramatic biography of the most important African-American of the nineteenth century: Frederick Douglass, the escaped slave who became the greatest orator of his day and one of the leading abolitionists and writers of the era. As a young man Frederick Douglass (1818-1895) escaped from slavery in Baltimore, Maryland. He was fortunate to have been taught to read by his slave owner mistress, and he would go on to become one of the major literary figures of his time. He wrote three versions of his autobiography over the course of his lifetime and published his own newspaper.” (publisher).

Video/art: the first fifty years / Barbara London “The curator who founded MoMA's video program recounts the artists and events that defined the medium's first 50 years. Since the introduction of portable consumer electronics nearly a half century ago, artists throughout the world have adapted their latest technologies to art-making. In this book, curator Barbara London traces the history of video art as it transformed into the broader field of media art - from analog to digital, small TV monitors to wall-scale projections, and clunky hardware to user-friendly software. In doing so, she reveals how video evolved from fringe status to be seen as one of the foremost art forms of today.”

Grassroots rising : a call to action on climate, farming, food, and a green new deal / Ronnie Cummins “A book that should be in the hands of every activist working on food and farming, climate change, and the Green New Deal."--Vandana Shiva A practical, shovel-ready plan for anyone wondering what they can do to help address the global climate crisis Grassroots Rising is a passionate call to action for the global body politic, providing practical solutions for how to survive--and thrive--in catastrophic times.”

Hot pants and spandex suits : gender representation in American superhero comic books / Esther De Dauw  "Hot Pants and Spandex Suits looks at representations of gender and its intersection with sexuality and race through the figure of the superhero. It places superheroes in their socio-historical context, particularly those published by the 'Big Two' publishers in the industry: Marvel and DC. The superheroes are: Superman, Captain America, Iron Man, Wonder Woman, Supergirl, Wiccan, Hulkling, Batwoman, Luke Cage, Falcon, Storm and Ms Marvel. Focusing on superheroes' first appearance in World War II up to their current iterations, author Esther De Dauw looks at how superheroes have changed and adapted to either match or challenge prevailing ideas about gender, including views on masculinity and femininity in the US military, attitudes towards American national identity, how gender intersects with sexuality for gay superheroes and how the lack of representation of minority communities impacts the superhero of color. What do superheroes say about and to us? Considering how gender, race and sexuality are often inextricably enmeshed in representation politics, this book offers an analysis that examines how all these different identities intersect and how that intersection itself produces ideas about gender. What is it that superheroes teach us about what it means to be a man or a woman when we're white or gay or Black? Following this analysis, it offers strategies and solutions to the question of representation within both the comic book industry and comic book scholarship. This book will be of interest to anyone interested in superheroes, including comic book scholars, gender studies' scholars, Critical Race scholars and scholars in the field of American Studies"-- Provided by publisher

Stamped : racism, antiracism, and you / written by Jason Reynolds ; adapted from Stamped from the beginning by and with an introduction from Ibram X. Kendi "The construct of race has always been used to gain and keep power, to create dynamics that separate and silence. Racist ideas are woven into the fabric of this country, and the first step to building an antiracist America is acknowledging America's racist past and present. This book takes you on that journey, showing how racist ideas started and were spread, and how they can be discredited"--Dust jacket flap "A history of racist and antiracist ideas in America, from their roots in Europe until today, adapted from the National Book Award winner Stamped from the Beginning"-- Provided by publisher

The undocumented Americans / Karla Cornejo Villavicencio. "Traveling across the country, journalist Karla Cornejo Villavicencio risked arrest at every turn to report the extraordinary stories of her fellow undocumented Americans. Her subjects have every reason to be wary around reporters, but Cornejo Villavicencio has unmatched access to their stories. Her work culminates in a stunning, essential read for our times. Born in Ecuador and brought to the United States when she was five years old, Cornejo Villavicencio has lived the American Dream. Raised on her father's deliveryman income, she later became one of the first undocumented students admitted into Harvard. She is now a doctoral candidate at Yale University and has written for The New York Times. She weaves her own story among those of the eleven million undocumented who have been thrust into the national conversation today as never before. Looking well beyond the flashpoints of the border or the activism of the DREAMERS, Cornejo Villavicencio explores the lives of the undocumented as rarely seen in our daily headlines. In New York, we meet the undocumented workers who were recruited in the federally funded Ground Zero cleanup after 9/11. In Miami we enter the hidden botanicas, which offer witchcraft and homeopathy to those whose status blocks them from any other healthcare options. In Flint, Michigan, we witness how many live in fear as the government issues raids at grocery stores and demands identification before offering life-saving clean water. In her book, Undocumented America, Cornejo Villavicencio powerfully reveals the hidden corners of our nation of immigrants. She brings to light remarkable stories of hope and resilience, and through them we come to understand what it truly means to be American"-- Provided by publisher

[newstfionline]

What a Kenyan Slum Can Teach America About Politics

By Kennedy Odede, NY Times, Nov. 15, 2018

Mr. Odede is a co-founder and the chief executive of Shining Hope for Communities.

Many Americans who voted in last week’s midterm elections were hungry for change. They pinned their hopes on politicians who they felt embodied the values and diversity of the nation as a whole, and who could lift up their communities.

The result will be a Congress significantly more representative of America today. But merely putting people in office will not produce the seismic change needed to sufficiently improve local communities and the lives of the most disenfranchised people. The stunningly diverse 116th Congress, which starts in January, was made possible by grass-roots community organizing around the country. But those same communities can’t stop there. Real change must come from the ground up.

We saw this in Flint, Mich., where political leaders failed to maintain safe water infrastructure for poor and black residents. As a result, children and families drank water contaminated with lead, poisoning a generation. Elected officials at the state and federal levels did nothing.

Instead, local activists, doctors and families exposed the contamination and forced the authorities to take action. Volunteers spread awareness about the risks of drinking tap water. Bottled water drives gave the community strength to withstand the crisis. Flint is not out of danger, but it is on a better path today precisely because its residents took on the challenge themselves.

I’ve seen this same dynamic in my hometown, Kibera, one of the largest slums in Kenya.

As in Flint, clean water is not easily accessible to Kibera residents; without formal piping into the slum much of our water is easily contaminated with disease. To make things worse, enterprising locals tap into the nearest pipes and re-sell contaminated water as “safe,” at exorbitant prices.

With each election cycle, my community placed faith in politicians who promised to provide clean water, as well as to tackle systemic poverty, endemic corruption and myriad other problems that plague our society. But time and again they struggled to deliver.

Tired of waiting for those solutions, my mother took matters into her own hands. She organized a group of women who gathered each week to pool their money to help start a business, care for a sick child or buy school supplies. They were mostly illiterate; since I could read and write, they asked me, a 9-year-old, to keep the books.

One day, many years later, a woman in the community proposed expanding on the group’s model, making it more of an official, organized operation, with an agenda we could present to the public and politicians. I saw an opportunity to combine the efforts of Kibera’s many community groups--churches and mosques, groups of young people and old, community centers, and assemblies of craftspeople. We created a unified urban movement.

By organizing through these groups, we are able to tackle bigger problems, starting with water. We created a network of aboveground pipes that reduced the spread of disease, cut the cost of a jerrycan of potable water (about five gallons) by 60 percent and prevented local cartels from siphoning off water to sell to private vendors.

The community took on new problems. For example, most Kiberans lacked official ID cards, meaning they could not take advantage of employment or government services. We simply did not exist in the eyes of our government. Many people did not even know how to register, or even have the resources to do so. We organized an effort to get thousands of people their first ID cards, ever.

Recently this community movement held its own, unofficial elections. Community leaders organized themselves, and elected representatives to, for the first time, form a unified community congress to lead their own agenda. These community leaders seek to influence government to bring resources to communities like mine, to create accountability mechanisms and to address systemic challenges like land rights and inequality.

Flint and Kibera are reminders that the power of politics is the people. The process of community organizing will bring forth the leaders who can truly represent their communities and advocate change, whether or not those leaders hold political office.

Many of the most impactful leaders never wanted to be politicians. The Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., Rosa Parks, Muhammad Ali and, in Kenya, heroes like the environmental activist Wangari Maathai--their legacies speak to the truth that political office is not everything.

We should look first to our neighborhoods, towns, schools, churches, mosques and temples to identify the leaders who represent our needs and values. Empower them, and the politicians will follow suit.

[politicsprose]

2017 Holiday Newsletter

Welcome to the 2017 Politics and Prose Holiday Newsletter. As always, we’re proud to present a selection of some of the year’s most impressive books. Happy holidays to all!

The Obama Years

There is no shortage of Obama Administration alums writing books. The question is: Which are actually worth reading? One is Thanks, Obama (Ecco) by David Litt, who became a presidential speechwriter at the ripe old age of twenty-four and now is somehow old enough to pen a memoir. He details his White House experience with humor, self-deprecation, and a healthy reverence for his boss and the causes the Obama Administration championed. Readers will especially enjoy his tales of being the go-to-guy for Obama’s funniest lines and most memorable comedic performances. The book offers a nice peek at life inside the White House and the ups and downs of crafting a message for a president – even one who reads, thinks, reflects, and tells the truth. - Lissa M.

As the official White House photographer, Pete Souza spent countless hours during eight years with President Barack Obama. He captured the famous Situation Room meeting in which Obama, surrounded by senior national security aides, monitored the raid that resulted in the death of Osama bin Laden. And he caught the president in many lighter times as well, whether with children, friends, or family members. In all, Souza took nearly two million photos. Obama: An Intimate Portrait (Little, Brown,) reproduces 300 of the most representative ones, documenting consequential moments of decision and official action alongside numerous less scripted occasions. The result is an historic photographic record of a landmark presidency and an intimate portrait of a man who occupied America’s most powerful office. - Brad G.

...And After

In this detailed history of the libertarian movement, Nancy MacLean fully justifies the lurid image of her title. Democracy in Chains (Viking) chronicles a century or more of efforts by the radical right not simply to influence “who rules” but to overturn “the rules” of American government and save the wealthy minority from the “exploitative majority.” MacLean, a Duke professor of history and public policy, starts this “utterly chilling story of the intellectual origins of the single most powerful and least understood threat to democracy today” in 1956 in Charlottesville, Virginia. At that point James McGill Buchanan, the Nobel economist at the center of her account, was establishing the Thomas Jefferson Center for Studies in Political Economy at the University of Virginia. One of a number of ostensibly academic institutes and think-tanks, most funded by libertarian billionaires, the Center discouraged any open discussion of ideas and concentrated exclusively on turning “libertarian creed into a national counterrevolution.” MacLean tracks several campaigns that, while falling short of the ultimate goal, have nonetheless eroded trust in government institutions and have changed the way politics is done. Resisting the Brown decision, for instance, the state of Virginia pressed hard for the privatization of schools; one county closed its public schools for several years rather than comply with the order to integrate. But by reframing an issue of race as an issue of freedom of choice, the right opened a wider discussion of the government’s role in schools, and MacLean shows how libertarians have employed this “stealth” strategy with increasing success through the later twentieth century and into the twenty-first. Her closely-argued and passionate study loops back to John C. Calhoun and the Gilded Age for the seeds of Buchanan’s public choice theory, then shows, with the Flint water crisis, climate change denial, Scott Walker’s anti-union measures, increasing privatization of prisons, the anti-Obamacare movement, and much more, how effectively they’ve been sown. - Laurie G.

As Hillary Clinton’s longtime former speechwriter, I was worried about whether she could write a book with authenticity and self-reflection less than a year after her shocking defeat in the presidential election. But writing What Happened (@simonbooks), she explains, became her therapy. The book forced her to reckon with her own mistakes as well as the external forces that contributed to one of the most bizarre and disastrous presidential campaigns in American history. It is her sixth book and in it she speaks with candor and a wry humor that the public rarely sees. Especially poignant is her masterful connecting of dots on the allegations of Russian intrusion into our electoral process. This is not self-serving; she clearly and persuasively alerts Americans to the very real dangers presented when hostile countries and political foes weaponize social media and technology to manipulate opinions and attitudes, and attempt to erode our democracy. The book is interesting, very funny, and covers really important stuff. Read it. - Lissa M.

Susan Bordo makes no pretense of journalistic objectivity in this excellent political book. Instead, The Destruction of Hillary Clinton (@melvillehouse) makes the case that external forces were part of what undid Hillary Clinton’s 2016 presidential campaign. Bordo, a respected feminist academic and author of a previous biography of Anne Boleyn, blogged almost daily during the presidential race and turned her real time observations into this book. Most in her crosshairs are Bernie Sanders, James Comey, and the press. For those looking for a smart defense of Hillary in 2016, this is it. - Lissa M.

Just about anyone would find Shattered (@crownpublishing)—Washington Post reporters Jonathan Allen and Amie Parnes’s fast-moving and detailed account of the trials and travails that beset the 2016 Clinton campaign—an interesting and compelling read. I’d be remiss if I didn’t single out two particular groups of people who would be especially intrigued: campaign wonks on either side of the political aisle, and fans of Greek and Shakespearean tragedies. For liberals weary of re-experiencing any election-related trauma, have faith: Allen and Parnes, who previously authored the positive portrayal of Hillary Clinton in the biography HRC, depict both Clinton and her campaign staff sympathetically, trying as best they can to navigate the minefield that was the 2016 election. Even if you experienced last year as an avid news consumer and continue to be flabbergasted (and/or horrified) by the outcome, Shattered will help shed some light on what may have seemed unexplainable. A must-read read for news junkies everywhere. - Isaac S.

Before writing Devil’s Bargain ( @thepenguinpress) author Joshua Green labeled Steve Bannon “the most dangerous political operative in America.” Now, in his authoritative, readable new book, Green explains just how a bombastic right-wing political extremist bent on “disrupting” the status quo became the most influential strategist behind the campaign and presidency of Donald Trump. Green looks at Bannon’s roots, political and cultural sensibilities, previous ventures (successful and not), and of course… follows the money. Bannon’s rise and his access to financiers who share his extreme views is a cautionary tale, and essential reading one year into the Trump presidency. - Lissa M.

[pahein]

answering some q’s from @gabzies and @onilinkplus as a result of that 11 q answer + make your own. i won’t re-tag folks, just answering the new sets of questions

gabzies questions

tell me about your last adventure

today was weird. i had meant to go to a job fair but wording was confusing and even though it seemed like it was free and ppl could just walk in, u still had to register in advance. bullshit!! i woulda if i’d known!!! 

instead me and @cryptocache went up to northwest portland over by 23rd and did some thrift shopping at one of my favorite shops in portland, William Temple Thrift. 

i got art supplies and a hamster ball so sage can be out and have some degree of freedom without.... completely annoying me/eating my pencils and keyboards while i work

how do you define freedom in your life?

the ability to do what i want and choose the ways in which i support myself and contribute to society. 

what is a song that you will never get sick of?

bitter and sick by one two. if you know of songs that feel like this PLEASE LET ME KNOW i haven’t been able to find things like it and i want to so much. i love the haunting aspects, with the simple guitar line, and the crescendo, and just..... 

this song speaks to my soul in a way that words can’t touch

what band would you love to see in concert?

caravan palace. i learned of them a month after they’d come to portland. i’m so mad

a game you are addicted to or was in the past?

at any given moment, pokemon is a valid answer to this. whether or not i’m currently playing through a game

if you could be fluent in another language, which would it be and why?

japanese! i wanna learn so i can visit and reconnect with my family over there.

if you became president, what is one law you want to change or add?

i mean, so many. but i’d probably work on Flint Water Crisis/DAPL-getting-rid-of first

favorite warm beverage?

hot chocolate. good stuff

favorite topic to learn about?

all. i like all. it’s usually more a matter of how the info is presented. even the driest stuff is fun given the right angle.

what do you love about yourself?

i work very very hard to be.... an aware, compassionate individual. i always have. 

i’m proud of myself for never giving up on the big picture, even as it is increasingly overwhelming. 

i’m proud of myself for recognizing and confronting the Guilt i have from privilege, and doing so in a way that-- i hope-- doesn’t add to the anxieties and burdens already heaped upon those with different attributes than i. 

i’m proud of myself for trying to approach every topic with honesty and fairness and understanding. 

i’m proud of myself for using my strengths in ways that give other people strength. even though i could stand to get better at this, haah. 

what is your top two love languages (gift giving,quality time,words of affirmation,acts of service,and physical touch)?

gifts and quality time. i can barely act in my own self interest. physical touch is EXTREMELY important to me but it’s hard with the way society makes me feel weird about it. i’m a touchy feely person at heart though. and i’m big on words but that’s just because i am an endless stream of blabber. while they’re important, what’s more meaningful to me is quality time. gifts are kinda an extension of that-- “hey, i spent the time thinking about you to get you something you would enjoy”. 

i think of gifting a lot like i think of prayer-- a lot of the power is within your own heart, and the time that you spend on it is mostly affirming your resolve to go about it in the way you want. 

onilinkplus questions

What’s your favorite season?

spring.

Favorite color?

already got this one, heh

What’s your favorite place/city/state to visit?

mount hood wilderness area

What’s your dream job?

a 9-5 somewhere with good coworkers for a social justice cause that allows me to support myself and my family and i get to make things for it

How frequently do you read novels?

not very often anymore, but they tend to get done in one or two sittings when i do read them.

What was the worst day in your life? Why was it so bad? (Use as a venting space, feel free to skip)

idk. i’ve had a couple Bad Days but nothing super terrible yet. aka, nothing worse than a multi-day migraine which happens maybe 2-3 times a year so

What was the best day of your life? What made it so great?

sorry friendo i don’t have a good answer to this one. i don’t usually think about Days being good, i think about parts of days or activities being good. whereas a crappy day is just crappy.

Who do you look up to the most?

used to be my mom unilaterally, but... now it’s friends, for the most part, for one aspect or another. 

What would your ideal date be?

lasertag. coincidentally, ideal birthday party

What would you like to change or improve about yourself?

hey it’d be cool to see if medicating for adhd will help me with some of my Big Issues

Favorite media? Can be a book, a movie, a video game, a song, any form of media.

hhahaaaaah no i don’t have one that’s impossible to answer too much good stuff. 

instead, i’ve played mariokart 8 recently and that was good

[lizverklan-blog]

Detroit (by way of Calliope Stephanides)

I finally got around to reading Jeffery Eugenides’ second novel, Middlesex. Having previously read The Virgin Suicides and The Marriage Plot (both great btw), I was eager to read Middlesex, which at the time of its release (2002) won the Pulitzer (in 2003).

Narrated by the protagonist, Calliope Stephanides, the novel traces the story of the Stephanides family from Greece pre-World War II, to booming 1920s Detroit to its post-race-riots demise. At the time of its release, everyone was thrilled at the portrayal of Calliope, whose discovery that they possess 5-alpha reductase deficiency, brought the term ‘intersex’ into public lexicon. Eugenides’ representation of an intersex character is contentious however; some are critical of his linking incest with intersex, for instance. But that’s actually not what I’m thinking about after completing the book.

Set in Detroit, Eugenides traces the rise and fall of the Motor City, incorporating the kind of historical elements only natives inherit. Calliope’s grandmother becomes humorously involved with the Nation of Islam (founded in Detroit in 1930), their grandfather applies to work at Ford Motors (referred to by locals as “the Rouge”), only to be denied by Ford’s eugenicist home inspectors, and Calliope’s father guards the family diner during the city’s race riots. Detroit occupies a central role in the story, and I admit I learned a lot about Detroit from reading the book; I often found myself wondering how much time Eugenides spent researching the novel.

While reading this however, I often found myself squaring Eugenides portrait of Detroit with my own. Detroit is so often invoked as the symbol of a forgotten, dying America. At the height of its growth (the 1920s), Detroit was the fourth largest city in the nation, after New York City, Chicago, and Philadelphia, and was slated to surpass both Philadelphia and Chicago, given its steady growth. Of course, that possibility never materialized, and the promise of the U.S. automotive industry dissipated with the move towards off-shoring. Additionally, the Twelfth Street race riots in 1967 (which resulted in 43 deaths and 467 injuries) certainly accelerated the city’s white flight, which only mirrored a national phenomenon happening across U.S. cities at the time.

Stories emerge every so often detailing just how impoverished and run-down the city actually is: there is this story about a three-bedroom home in Detroit selling for an iPhone, and then of course there is this slideshow, showcasing the eerie emptiness that characterizes a once booming metropolis. And still there is this story, showcasing “the part of Detroit that most people are not aware of,” that is, the rich residents that pay for private security.

All this is to say that Detroit has certainly come to symbolize something of a failed promise in today’s world. The failure of U.S. industry? The violence of anti-Black racism? The inevitably of capitalism’s demise?

Oddly enough, while Detroit so often symbolizes urban wreckage, there is a simultaneous, and growing move towards its salvation, or re-birth. And by “re-birth” I mean re-development. There was this three-part series in National Geographic (of all places?!), claiming that, “Detroit is cool again.” To its credit, the piece profiles and interviews a lot of long-term residents, many of whom are Black (Detroit is over 80% African-American). The comments also seem to be from a lot of residents, or former residents, with mostly positive reviews. There’s also commentary from newer residents that really got my attention:

“The young coming to Detroit, some with money, some to make it, are seeding and fertilizing too. These millennials, many from hip, pricey places, sound almost giddy to me.

A waiter from Portland, Oregon, blesses Detroit’s challenges as ‘part of its charm.’ A newcomer from Brooklyn who converted an empty hair salon into a busy market tells me: ‘In Detroit, you can contribute, and your ideas are met with enthusiasm. It’s thrilling. If someone else had my life, I’d be jealous. I moved here with $500, and six-months later I was the owner of a successful business.’ Another refugee from Brooklyn traded a 70-hour workweek and a tiny room for part-time work and a cozy, if shabby, three-bedroom house. ‘Detroit offers space and time,’ she says. ‘Here there’s maybe a chance for young people to build a middle-class.’

One morning getting coffee, I learn the woman at my side is visiting from Austin. Emboldened by all that youthful excitement, I say, ‘You know, Detroit is the new Austin.’ She replies, ‘That’s good, because Austin is full up. Just like Portland. And San Francisco before that.’”

Reading this passage I immediately felt apprehensive, I think, mostly because of the other cities referenced as comparable to Detroit. San Francisco is gearing up to surpass Manhattan as the most expensive city to live in in the U.S. right now, and as the tragic Ghost Ship fire made clear, is experiencing a very real, very violent housing crisis. Both Portland and Austin have experienced a marked increase in housing costs, housing shortages, and displacement of African-American and Latino residents. Which is all to say: for whom does Detroit offer “a chance to build a middle-class”?

 ***

 A lot of talk has been happening over the last year about the forgotten rural poor. The rustbelt. The inhabitants of de-industrialized cities, like Detroit. And of course, the water crisis in Flint, Michigan is not far from Detroit; the city’s inhabitants continue to fight for clean drinking water, as the city has yet to actually fix the problem.

 Some argue that the Left has forgotten the rural poor, or at least the rural Left, and that this has facilitated the growth of the ultra-Right throughout the Midwest. Hailing from the Midwest myself (in another, smaller de-industrialized city), I can certainly attest to the economic deflation happening across many once thriving cities, let alone the stark contrast between these very cities and the ever-expanding, tech-fueled metropoles on the coasts. I’m not sure that this problem is anything entirely “new,” although how it unfolds, or (hopefully) how we respond to it will be.