#that is not THE reason i refer to it as the census bureau | Explore Tumblr posts and blogs

masterofd1saster · 1 year ago

Text

CJ current events 12oct23

Another "defining deviancy down"

A framed copy of a March 1993 editorial written by Daniel Henninger hangs in the Midtown Manhattan conference room where the Journal opinion staff meets. My colleagues and I refer to the piece with reverence. We frequently use its headline—“No Guardrails”—as a shorthand for the devolution of societal norms, a process that seems to be accelerating. “No Guardrails” is striking for several reasons. It’s three decades old, which makes it something of a time capsule. But as reports from bygone eras go, it is shockingly fresh and familiar.*** The erosion of norms goes far beyond politics as anyone who has ever been online knows. Social media is filled with videos of breakdowns, beat-downs and freak-outs. Only in a society without guardrails does it feel right to film a crime in progress or a person in distress for public titillation. Urban life is degenerating because the traditional authorities have removed essential guardrails. Police and prosecutors have stopped doing their jobs. Large chains like CVS, Walgreens and Target are pulling out of American cities because shoplifting has been effectively decriminalized. New York City has surrendered its streets to bullies, pot-heads and the untreated mentally ill. Now Gotham’s health commissioner advises residents to carry Narcan, or naloxone, the medicine that reverses opioid overdoses. New Yorkers who would rather not live in a society without guardrails are nevertheless expected to provide first aid to its victims.*** In 2012, after the Sandy Hook school massacre, Mr. Henninger revisited “No Guardrails.” He wrote that it wasn’t “a plea for retrieving a mythical past” but an argument that “we would be better off if our intellectual, political and cultural elites rediscovered—and publicly revered—the protective virtues of self-control and self-restraint.” Maybe that seemed possible in 2012.*** https://www.wsj.com/articles/an-oped-foretold-todays-breakdown-of-norms-30-years-ago-dress-code-gov-shutdown-f2ee0cad

***

from the left perspective

Recently, two high-profile supporters of “justice reform” were murdered.

At 4 a.m. on Monday, Ryan Carson, a 32-year-old social justice and climate change activist, was walking with his girlfriend in Crown Heights, Brooklyn, when he was stabbed to death by a stranger. Only a few hours earlier in Philadelphia, activist and journalist Josh Kruger was shot and killed in his home. ***

Of course, these people did not deserve harm because of their support for soft-on-crime policies. But I’ve long argued that many people who hold “luxury beliefs”—ideas and opinions that confer status on the upper class, while often inflicting costs on the lower classes—are oblivious to the consequences of their views. Support for defunding the police is a classic example.

Luxury beliefs can stem from malice, good intentions, or outright naivete.

But the individuals who hold those beliefs, the people who wield the most influence in policy and culture, are often sheltered when their preferences are implemented.

Some online commenters have said that my luxury beliefs thesis is undermined by these tragic events, because the victims were affluent and influential—and they still suffered the consequences of their beliefs.

But the fact remains that poor people are far more likely to be victims of violent crime. For every upper-middle-class person killed, 20 poor people you never hear about are assaulted and murdered. You just never hear about them. They don’t get identified by name in the media. Their stories don’t get told.

According to the U.S. Census Bureau, the poorest Americans are seven times more likely to be victims of robbery, seven times more likely to be victims of aggravated assault, and twenty times more likely to be victims of sexual assault than Americans who earn more than $75,000. One 2004 study found that people in areas where over 20 percent of inhabitants live in poverty are more than 100 times more likely to be murdered than people in areas where less than 10 percent of residents live in poverty.

Expressing a luxury belief is a manifestation of cultural capital, a signal of one’s fortunate economic circumstances. And we are living with the consequences of the elite’s luxury beliefs when it comes to public safety and criminal justice. Indeed, the massive spike in violent crime across the U.S. is a reminder of the power of elite opinion.

A study from 2014 found that strong support for a policy among the middle class has virtually no effect on whether that policy will be adopted. In contrast, strong support among Americans in the top income decile—those who earn at least $173,000 a year—doubles the probability that a policy will be adopted.

Who was most likely to champion the fashionable “defund the police” cause in 2020 and 2021?

A nationwide survey from YouGov found that Americans in the highest income category were by far the most supportive of defunding the police.***

In response to elite opinion in 2020, New York, Los Angeles, Chicago, Seattle, Austin, and many other major cities in the U.S. reduced police spending.

Most people didn’t want to defund the police, but the most affluent sector of society did. And so it was implemented.***

French sociologist Pierre Bourdieu argued that “distance from necessity” signals high social class. Similarly, in his book Class: A Guide Through the American Status System, Paul Fussell points out that the presence of physical danger is a marker of low social class. ***

The vast majority of educated people have never been in a real fight or experienced serious physical injury. On occasion, I’ve wondered if this is why many of them believe words are “violence.” ***

I had a professor in college who liked to say that common sense is like air: the higher you go, the thinner it gets. Sadly, it will probably take more high-profile deaths and attacks for people to wake up. When a bunch of peasants are killed, the luxury belief class shrugs. But when the nobility and petty nobility are targeted, the narrative shifts. It’s only when those in positions of influence and privilege feel the consequences of their beliefs and policies that real change is seriously considered. https://www.thefp.com/p/two-murdersand-the-cost-of-luxury

***

NYC stabbing victim - deserved protection

Amiri King @AmiriKing The man that was stabbed to death at a Brooklyn bus stop in front of his girlfriend, Ryan Carson, was a radical left wing activist and self described member of Antifa. His girlfriend is pictured here with an ‘ACAB’ shirt and a social media post condemning police and praising BLM. Andy Ngô @MrAndyNgo A photo has emerged of NYC leftist activist and self-described Antifa member Ryan Carson and his girlfriend Claudia V. Morales at an event shortly before his murder. On Oct. 2, Carson was tragically stabbed to death in Brooklyn by a black male suspect wearing a hoodie (he has not been arrested). Carson was stabbed in the heart; Morales was uninjured.

Carson had the right to life no matter his political beliefs. The other point is that your

***

1st Amend protects some awful people

LGBTQ+ groups on Tuesday hailed the 60-day jail sentence a court in Switzerland gave to a writer and commentator for deriding a journalist as a “fat lesbian” and other critical remarks. The Lausanne court sentenced French-Swiss polemicist Alain Bonnet, who goes by Alain Soral, for the crimes of defamation, discrimination and incitement to hatred on Monday. He was ordered to pay legal fees and fines totaling thousands of Swiss francs in addition to the time behind bars. *** Sorel is known, among other things, for his collaboration with the antisemitic comedian Dieudonne, and they cofounded the Anti-Zionist Party, which is currently inactive. In 2019, he was sentenced by a French court to one year in prison for Holocaust denial, which is a crime in France*** https://www.ynetnews.com/article/hky6m3ygt

***

NYC again

A maniac attacked three people with a glass bottle in a violent and unprovoked rampage that began at a Manhattan Whole Foods Market on Thursday evening, according to police. The string of attacks started outside of the Whole Foods on Sixth Avenue across from Bryant Park when the 33-year-old suspect bashed a 23-year-old man with a bottle around 6:40 p.m., police said. The assailant then went inside the store to the second floor, where he attacked a 49-year-old woman, the NYPD said. He then fled outside and into the subway station at 47th Street and 6th Avenue where he struck a 55-year-old woman on a train. The suspect, identified by sources as Michael Howell, was nabbed by police on 46th Street and later charged with assault.*** https://nypost.com/2023/10/05/man-attacks-three-people-with-glass-bottle-in-rampage-that-began-at-midtown-whole-foods/

***

Who wants to step over human waste?

A prominent downtown Denver gay bar called one of the nation’s best LGBTQ+ bars last year by Tasting Table is closing immediately, citing “ever-expanding encampments.” The Triangle Bar, 2036 N. Broadway, announced in an email they were closing after they took a survey that found over 60% of their customers were visiting less frequently because of homeless encampments. The survey of over 500 people found 75% of customers visited less in 2023 than in 2022. Jacob Factor reports. A prominent downtown Denver gay bar called one of the nation’s best LGBTQ+ bars last year by Tasting Table is closing immediately, citing “ever-expanding encampments.” The Triangle Bar, 2036 N. Broadway, announced in an email they were closing after they took a survey that found over 60% of their customers were visiting less frequently because of homeless encampments. The survey of over 500 people found 75% of customers visited less in 2023 than in 2022. Jacob Factor reports. https://www.denverpost.com/2023/10/05/denver-triangle-bar-closes-homelessness

***

Couldn't happen to a nicer bunch of pervs

Aylo, the parent company of Pornhub, has been hit with its tenth sex trafficking lawsuit since 2020, with 62 alleged victims filing in federal court Tuesday. The online pornography giant, formerly known as MindGeek, is now being sued by 257 people, alleging sex trafficking, human trafficking, and racketeering. The lawsuit, which is the tenth such suit according to Traffickinghub founder Laila Mickelwait, was brought by victims of the now-defunct pornographic website GirlsDoPorn, which had a strategic partnership with Aylo to promote its videos on flagship website Pornhub. "For over a decade, GirlsDoPorn used force, fraud, and coercion to get hundreds of high school and college-aged women to film pornographic videos that GirlsDoPorn sold on the Internet," the lawsuit states. "The illegal publication of the sex trafficking videos upended victims’ lives. Within 48 hours of being uploaded to the Internet, the videos went viral amongst every person in the victims’ network, causing them to become pariahs in their own communities. Victims were ridiculed and ostracized by friends, classmates, teachers, professors, principals, clergy members, and family."*** https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/news/pornhub-hit-tenth-sex-trafficking-lawsuit

***

federal case?

he FBI has reportedly interviewed a number of individuals who alleged they were abused by members of a Christian group that counts Supreme Court Justice Amy Coney Barrett as a member. Barrett's affiliation with People of Praise, a conservative religious group that elevates the role of men, drew scrutiny ahead of her appointment to the highest court in the nation. One former member told Newsweek in 2020 that women are expected to be "absolutely obedient" to their husbands and the men in the group and those who aren't are "shamed, shunned, humiliated." At least five individuals have been contacted by the FBI, a spokesperson for a group called PoP Survivors confirmed to Newsweek on Tuesday. The development was first reported by The Guardian. An FBI spokesperson declined to confirm whether or not it was investigating. "As a matter of longstanding policy, the FBI neither confirms nor denies the existence of investigations," they told Newsweek.*** https://www.newsweek.com/amy-coney-barrett-christian-group-probed-fbi-1831689

Stop them before they bake more cookies.

***

Want to guess why he shot all those innocent people? DoJ won't tell you.

Frank James, 62, of Milwaukee, Wisconsin, was sentenced today by U.S. District Judge William F. Kuntz II to 10 concurrent life sentences in prison, plus 10 years to run consecutively for shooting 10 people during an attack on the New York City subway in Sunset Park, Brooklyn, on April 12, 2022. James previously pleaded guilty to all 11 counts of a superseding indictment, which included 10 counts of committing a terrorist attack or other violence against a mass transportation vehicle – one count for each gunshot victim – and one count of discharging a firearm in furtherance of his violent attack.*** During rush hour on the morning of April 12, 2022, James used a Glock 17 pistol he legally purchased to conduct a mass shooting on an N subway train in Brooklyn. James planned his act of terror for years – purchasing smoke bombs, disguises, firearms, and ammunition. He scouted the location for his attack and completed multiple practice runs. As part of his attack, James, disguised in an orange reflective jacket and yellow hard hat to look like a Metropolitan Transportation Authority (MTA) employee, set off a smoke-bomb in a subway car before opening fire on his captive victims. Panicked passengers ran to the far end of the subway car, allowing James to shoot at his victims more easily. When the defendant started shooting, the train was between stations and then temporarily stalled, leaving victims trapped. In total, 10 victims were struck by 16 bullets fired by the defendant. Dozens more suffered from smoke inhalation and other mental and physical injuries due to the defendant’s attack. James then fled the scene of the attack, changing his clothing frequently to evade detection while law enforcement engaged in a 36-hour manhunt to find him and bring him to justice. At some point after the shooting, James purchased a burner phone which he used to follow the coverage of his attack while hiding from law enforcement. For example, James watched 31 videos of news reports about his subway shooting. He also watched a James Bond chase scene from the movie “No Time to Die” 10 times after the attack. Finally, James turned himself in by calling the NYPD crime stoppers hotline on April 13, 2022, the day after the mass shooting.*** https://www.justice.gov/opa/pr/frank-james-sentenced-life-prison-subway-mass-shooting

Rolling Stone tells you his motive. Includes pics.

Racist. Anti-Semitic. Unhinged. The suspect in Tuesday’s shooting on the New York City subway is a prolific user of social media, regularly uploading lengthy, often racist diatribes to both YouTube and Facebook in which he addresses a range of topics from the state of race relations in the United States to the policies of New York City Mayor Eric Adams, according to videos reviewed by Rolling Stone.*** James often rails against numerous racial and ethnic groups, including whites, Blacks, Jews, and Latinos. He also compares people of color to “a bunch of turds in a toilet,” waiting to be “flushed” down the drain by society, and implies that a race war between whites and Blacks is imminent. In one video, he calls Sept. 11, 2001 “the most beautiful day in the history of this country.” “White people and Black people should not have any contact with each other,” he says in a March 23 video titled “born in an insane asylum.” “Their anger is building up. Nothing can happen here differently than what happened over in Europe with the Jews. I want you to believe that that’s possible.” *** https://www.rollingstone.com/culture/culture-news/frank-james-new-york-brooklyn-subway-shooting-social-media-posts-1336740/

***

Cold case

A long-awaited review of the JonBenet Ramsey murder investigation by the Colorado Cold Case Review Team, with the cooperation of the Boulder Police Department, is set to take place before the year’s end. The decision to submit the case to outside review coincided with the reassignment of a detective who had long held primary responsibility for its investigation.*** last November, Boulder police announced they would begin consulting with the Colorado Cold Case Review Team — a collection of one analyst, one forensic investigative genetic genealogy analyst, two DNA scientists, one latent prints forensic scientist and a supervisor, according to the Colorado Bureau of Investigations website. The police also said they would continue to work with the FBI, the Boulder County District Attorney’s Office, the Colorado Department of Public Safety, the Colorado Bureau of Investigation and several private DNA laboratories across the nation.*** John Andrew Ramsey, the 47-year-old stepbrother of JonBenet Ramsey, who was out of the state at the time of JonBenet’s death,*** added that with BPD’s recent efforts, he believes they have the “best shot” at solving the puzzle now, due to the availability of forensic genealogy testing — which enables law enforcement to create a DNA profile from evidence that can then be compared to public databases in order to identify matches.*** JonBenet was reported missing in a phone call by her mother, Patsy Ramsey, early on the morning of Dec. 26, 1996, when she said she found a ransom note demanding $118,000 for the child’s safe return on a staircase inside their home in the 700 block of 15th Street in Boulder. JonBenet’s body was recovered from the family’s basement several hours later. The Boulder County Coroner determined she had suffered a fractured skull, been asphyxiated with a garotte and was sexually assaulted. The Daily Camera learned in 2013 that a grand jury had voted in October 1999 to indict both her parents, John and Patsy Ramsey, on charges of child abuse resulting in death and accessory to the crime of first-degree murder — an indictment not announced at that time. No charges were ever actually filed in the case, however, based on then-District Attorney Alex Hunter’s decision that there was insufficient evidence to support a conviction.*** https://www.dailycamera.com/2023/10/07/jonbenet-ramsey-murder-probe-soon-to-get-fresh-eyes/

***

Really?

The Cato Institute is a libertarian think tank in DC. It advocates for, among other things, free market capitalism. Cato hates the Jones Act with a passion. The Jones Act prohibits anything other than U.S. built, flagged, and crewed ships from carrying anything between U.S. ports. It's economic protectionism for American shipyards, ship owners, and sailors. It raises costs for consumers, and it's basically killed American shipbuilding. Cato publicizes the negative effects of the Jones Act.

Of course, the small people and large corporations that make a ton of money off the Jones Act don't like the publicity. Neither do the bureaucrats of the U.S. Maritime Administration. The greed heads and the bureaucrats had meetings about what to do about Cato. Hm, did the meetings result in any recommendations?

https://www.cato.org/blog/charge-all-past-present-members-cato-mercatus-institutes-treason

As the shepherds say, "What The Flock?" Really? Charge people with treason?

Let's review Article III of the Constitution -

Section. 3. Treason against the United States, shall consist only in levying War against them, or in adhering to their Enemies, giving them Aid and Comfort. No Person shall be convicted of Treason unless on the Testimony of two Witnesses to the same overt Act, or on Confession in open Court.

What part of "maybe we shouldn't puke money at a tiny, but extremely wealthy minority with extraordinary political connections" sounds like levying war?

***

Indiana, Pennsylvania

Moments after Pennsylvania State Police troopers on horseback arrived at the Chevy Chase Community Center in Indiana County expecting to engage in crowd control after midnight on Sunday, dozens of gunshots rang out. More than 150 people began streaming out of the White Township building. “They exited that building in any way possible,” state police Lt. Col. Geoge Bivens said Sunday afternoon, “… people dove through windows, people ran through doors, ran through porch railings trying to get away from that scene. There was chaos and there were people who ran through the neighborhood.” Some troopers helped the wounded while others went inside to search for more victims and secure the scene, Bivens said. One person was killed and at least eight others were injured in the shooting, state police said.*** https://triblive.com/local/regional/6-shot-1-dead-in-indiana-county-mass-shooting-at-community-center/

NY Post said police found multiple firearms at the scene.

***

Anybody notice another crime in NYC?

The NYPD on Sunday released photos of four cowardly thugs wanted in the Friday hate-crime beating in Chelsea that left a 72-year-old man with a broken jaw. The attack occurred around 10:15 p.m. at West 17th Street and Ninth Avenue in Manhattan when the suspects converged on the victim shouting anti-LGBTQ slurs, according to police. The four then started to punch and kick the elderly man in the head before running off — leaving him with a broken jaw and cuts to his face and hands.*** https://nypost.com/2023/10/08/hunt-on-for-four-thugs-in-nyc-hate-crime-attack-on-elderly-man/

***

Who knew advocacy could be so hot?

A licensed social worker who worked with youth as a counselor is accused by Columbus police of engaging in sexual conduct with a 13-year-old client. Payton Shires, 24, of Mount Sterling, Madison County, has been charged with unlawful sexual conduct with a minor. She was arrested Friday and appeared Saturday morning in Franklin County Municipal Court, where Judge Mike McAllister set a $500,000 bond. Columbus police said Shires had previously been employed by the National Youth Advocate Program (NYAP), which has offices on South High Street in the Brewery District. The NYAP helps provide counseling and social work for families that are involved in the foster care system or need advocacy in other ways. According to court records, a woman called police on Sept. 27 after finding text messages on her 13-year-old son's cellphone between him and Shires. The woman believed "something inappropriate was happening between her son and Ms. Shires after seeing messages asking if he had deleted the videos and asking if his mom had seen the videos or messages."*** police found a video on the phone of the teen and Shires engaging in sexual conduct. Detectives spoke with the teen, who reportedly admitted to having sex with Shires on multiple occasions in September 2023 at various locations in Columbus. On Thursday, police did a controlled, recorded, three-way phone call between the teen's mother and Shires. During that call, according to court records, Shires admitted to the teen's mom that she had engaged in sexual conduct with him.*** https://www.dispatch.com/story/news/crime/2023/10/06/central-ohio-youth-counselor-accused-having-sex-teenage-client-payton-shires-columbus-ohio-nyap/71087936007/

***

Rule #1: Never faux pas on a slow news day

WASHINGTON (AP) — President Joe Biden has been interviewed as part of an independent investigation into his handling of classified documents, the White House said late Monday. It’s a possible sign that the investigation is nearing its end. Special counsel Robert Hur is examining the improper retention of classified documents by Biden from his time as a U.S. senator and as vice president that were found at his Delaware home, as well as at a private office that he used in between his service in the Obama administration and becoming president.*** It’s not clear when Hur’s team approached Biden’s lawyers about an interview or how long they’d been negotiating. Asked on Aug. 25 if he planned to sit for an interview with the special counsel, Biden replied, “There’s no such request and no such interest.” The interview could signal that the special counsel investigation is nearing its conclusion.*** https://apnews.com/article/biden-special-counsel-classified-documents-025f25d04a5c0e45d758fbaaa2f231b8

***

thurs

***

Espionage is a capital crime

A U.S. Navy service member pleaded guilty today to federal felony offenses and admitted he transmitted sensitive U.S. military information to an intelligence officer from the People’s Republic of China (PRC) in exchange for bribery payments. Petty Officer Wenheng Zhao, 26, aka Thomas Zhao, of Monterey Park, California, pleaded guilty to conspiring with the intelligence officer and receiving a bribe. Zhao, who worked at Naval Base Ventura County in Port Hueneme and held a U.S. security clearance, admitted he engaged in a corrupt scheme to collect and transmit sensitive U.S. military information to the intelligence officer in violation of his official duties.*** Between August 2021 and at least May 2023, Zhao admitted receiving at least $14,866 in at least 14 separate bribes from the intelligence officer. In exchange for the illicit payments, Zhao surreptitiously collected and transmitted to the intelligence officer sensitive, non-public information regarding U.S. Navy operational security, military trainings and exercises and critical infrastructure. Zhao admitted he entered restricted military and naval installations to collect and record this information. Zhao specifically admitted to transmitting plans for a large-scale maritime training exercise in the Pacific theatre, operational orders, and electrical diagrams and blueprints for a Ground/Air Task Oriented Radar system located in Okinawa, Japan. Zhao further admitted to using sophisticated encrypted communication methods to transmit the information, destroying evidence and concealing his relationship with the intelligence officer. Zhao’s conduct violated his official duties to protect such information and the oath he swore to protect the United States.*** Sentencing is scheduled for Jan. 8, 2024. As a result of today’s guilty plea, Zhao faces a statutory maximum penalty of 20 years in prison – five years for the conspiracy count and 15 years for the bribery charge. Zhao has been in custody since his arrest on Aug. 3.*** https://www.justice.gov/opa/pr/us-navy-service-member-pleads-guilty-transmitting-sensitive-us-military-information-chinese

***

Daniel Penny case

https://www.foxnews.com/us/mother-child-hid-behind-stroller-deadly-subway-chokehold-court-papers includes a copy of Daniel Penny's motion to dismiss the homicide charges against him.

Testifying at the grand jury, medical examiner Cynthia "Harris made clear that Mr. Penny did not apply “consistent pressure that obstructed the vessels"" in Neely's neck.

Bear in mind, the facts in the linked motion are only the defense's view of the evidence.

***

0 notes

phantomtutor · 2 years ago

Text

Week 2 DiscussionDiscussion Topic Due February 24 at 11:59 PMSupporting Lectures: Refer the following lecture: The Role of Social Relevance Current Health Status of the Poor The discussion assignment provides a forum for discussing relevant topics for this week based on the course competencies covered. For this assignment, make sure you post your initial response to the Discussion Area by the due date assigned. To support your work, use your course and text readings and also use outside sources. As in all assignments, cite your sources in your work and provide references for the citations in APA format. Start reviewing and responding to the postings of your classmates as early in the week as possible. Respond to at least two of your classmates. Participate in the discussion by asking a question, providing a statement of clarification, providing a point of view with a rationale, challenging an aspect of the discussion, or indicating a relationship between two or more lines of reasoning in the discussion. Complete your participation for this assignment by the end of the week. The poor are more likely to suffer from health problems and to die at a younger age as compared to the rich. Studies have shown that the poor have higher levels of health risks and significantly limited access to healthcare. Their health is tied to their livelihood. A portion of the high healthcare costs is related to lack of access to healthcare, and a large portion is related to lack of insurance. Although improvement has been made in health outcomes, ethnic and racial minorities in the United States continue to experience disproportionate rates of morbidity and mortality due to poor health outcomes. Tasks: Read the report from U.S. Census Bureau Poverty: 2014 and 2015 (American Community Survey Briefs). Based on your assigned reading, answer the following questions for discussion: Explain at least five steps for applying information about the causes of health disparities associated with poverty to develop health promotion interventions. How can a reduction in poverty rates resolve disparities in health and health care? ORDER THIS PAPER NOW. 100% CUSTOM PAPER CategoriesBiology homework help Leave a Reply Cancel replyYour email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *Comment * Name * Email * Website Save my name, email, and website in this browser for the next time I comment. Post navigation Previous PostPrevious The purpose of the discussion questions (DQs) is to allow you as the Learner toNext PostNext Illicit and pharmaceutical drug cases have overwhelmed the criminal justice syst

0 notes

juancharris · 2 years ago

Text

Pros and Cons of Living in Atlanta, GA

Atlanta, GA, is a thriving metropolis with a lot to offer. However, even the best cities have their downsides. This blog post will explore the pros and cons of living in Atlanta, GA, to help you decide if this is the place for you. No matter your choice, you’re sure to have a good time!

Facts About Living in Atlanta, GA

Atlanta, GA, is the capital of Georgia and has an estimated population of 466,147* Atlanta is the largest city within the Atlanta metropolitan area and the Atlanta-Sandy Springs-Roswell metro area.

Atlanta, GA, is the 9th-largest city in the United States and is also serving the world.

Atlanta, GA, is approximately 450,000 years. According to the U.S. Census Bureau, it is the largest city in the U.S. state of Georgia.

Atlanta, GA’s weather is primarily humid subtropical, with mild winters and warm summers.

Atlanta, GA, is known as the “City in a Forest” for its dense tree canopy coverage.

Atlanta, GA, has three major professional sports teams: The Atlanta Braves in Major League Baseball, the Atlanta Hawks in National Basketball Association, and Atlanta United F.C. in Major League Soccer.

Atlanta, GA, hosted the 1996 Summer Olympics, which was considered the turning point in the worldwide acceptance of Atlanta as a major global city.

Atlanta, GA, is located in the center of a large area, also referred to as the “Interstate 285 Perimeter” or “I-285 Perimeter”.

Pros and Cons of Living In Atlanta, GA

Pros of living in Atlanta

There are many reasons why someone would want to live in Atlanta.

First, the climate is generally delightful. Summers are warm with relatively little rain.

Winters are typically mild, with cool nights and calm days.

Atlanta is the capital of the Southern United States. It’s a modern city with all of the amenities you would expect to find. In addition, there are many cultural opportunities, including theatre, opera, symphony, ballet, art, and history museums.

The Atlanta school system is one of the best in the United States. There are good public schools as well as private schools. The Atlanta University Center, comprising Morehouse, Spelman, and Clark Atlanta Colleges, offers an excellent education with excellent graduation rates.

Since many technology companies are in Atlanta, it has become a technology hub.

What are the cons of living in Atlanta, GA

The primary cons of living in Atlanta are:

The cost of living is very high compared to the rest of the U.S. (the average cost of living index is 77.3)

The state has a very high violent crime rate (7 660 violent crimes occur annually.)

Traffic in Atlanta is horrendous, and it’s considered one of America’s worst.

The traffic can be so bad that it causes people to consider relocating (or shopping for a new residence).

The average commute is a little over an hour and is two times longer than it was in the 70s.

Things to consider when deciding to live in Atlanta

Climate – The climate in Atlanta is humid subtropical, which means it is warm, but not too hot, in the summer. Atlanta averages 56 inches of rain annually, which is excellent if you like to vacation at the beach! The winters are mild, with an average of 36 inches of snow.

Jobs – The Atlanta area has tons of jobs. Over 50 Fortune 500 companies are headquartered in Atlanta (source: Fortune). There are also several colleges in Atlanta, including the Georgia Institute of Technology, Emory University, and Spelman College. These schools bring a lot of jobs to Atlanta.

People – Atlanta’s larger cities, such as Atlanta, Georgia, Stone Mountain, Tucker, and Decatur, have lots of people. More than 5.8 million people call perfect Atlanta home, according to the 2010 census.

Culture – Atlanta has tons of culture. The Atlanta Symphony Orchestra, the Atlanta Opera, and the Atlanta Ballet perform in Atlanta. There are also several excellent music venues, such as Atlantic Station and Buckhead Theater. Atlanta has many restaurants in famous districts such as Buckhead and Midtown if you need cultural cuisine.

FAQs about living in Atlanta, GA

What are the best neighborhoods to live in Atlanta, GA?

From personal experience, my favorite areas to live in Atlanta include the Buckhead, Downtown, Midtown, and Virginia Highland neighborhoods. The Buckhead neighborhood is especially appealing if you don’t like driving or shopping.

District Attorney, Buckhead, offers residents everything they could need in their area. The Buckhead YMCA, firehouses, grocery stores, restaurants, and retail shops are all within walking distance. In addition, the Buckhead Civic Association and The Buckhead Business Association ensure that these neighborhoods remain clean and safe. Midtown and South Dekalb Avenue have many hotel options, restaurants, retail shops, banks, government buildings, and government offices.

What are the schools like in Atlanta, GA?

Atlanta is a very diverse city, with many people from the outskirts and rural areas coming to live and work here. The public schools in Atlanta are very well regarded and provide equal educational opportunities for all students. The high schools are generally divided into five levels based on difficulty. Middle or junior high schools feed into the high schools (although some middle schools offer specific advanced programs). The schools have different grading systems, but students generally get a good education. The public school system in Atlanta also allows students to attend magnet schools, which provide specialized education for students interested in specific career fields.

What are the job opportunities like in Atlanta, GA?

Atlanta is a fast-growing city with a growing population base of nearly 4 million residents. As a result, jobs are abundant, particularly within Atlanta’s high-tech industries, such as microelectronics, telecommunications, and computing. In addition, careers with the city’s major institutions, such as Georgia Institute of Technology, Emory University, and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, also increase productivity throughout the city.

What is the cost of living expenses like in Atlanta, GA?

Housing in Atlanta, GA, is often the most expensive item on an Atlanta, GA budget, and the city’s cost of living is still less than half that of New York City. A reasonable Atlanta, GA, rent is $950 a month plus utilities for a single person. However, if you work in downtown Atlanta or Midtown, expect to spend upwards of $1,200 or more on rent. Groceries in Atlanta, GA, can cost between $100 to $300 a month, depending on whether you shop at Atlanta’s big-box supermarket chains. A utility allowance for Atlanta, GA, is around $100 to $125 a month. Meals in Atlanta, GA, can be as cheap as $15 for dinner and $12 for breakfast, and a cocktail can cost $10 to $20.

What is the weather condition in Atlanta, GA?

Atlanta, Georgia, is famous for its humid subtropical climate. Average daily high temperatures in June range from around 70°F to around 91°F, with temperatures slightly higher at night. Average daily high temperatures in July are everywhere from 72°F to around 90°F, with higher nighttime temperatures. Slightly lower daytime temperatures occur in August.

A slight chance of showers and thunderstorms is possible on most days throughout the year, but the heaviest rainfall usually occurs in July and August.

So, are you ready to make a move? If so, On Your Mark Movers is always ready to help you move your belongings safely. Call us at 833-627-5668, or you may visit our website here.

Source: https://onyourmarkmovers.net/pros-and-cons-of-living-in-atlanta-ga/

from On Your Mark Movers https://onyourmarkmoversusa.wordpress.com/2022/10/24/pros-and-cons-of-living-in-atlanta-ga-2/

3 notes · View notes

justamusicpodcast · 4 years ago

Link

Episode 6 out today!

We’re talking about Blues music

Transcript under the cut

Sup, I’m Laura Cousineau and welcome to Just A Music Podcast, where I, Laura Cousineau, tell you about some music history, how it relates to the world around us, and hopefully, introduce you to some new tunes. This show is theoretically for everyone but I will swear and when it comes down to it and sometimes we may need to talk about some sensitive topics so ur weeuns might wanna sit this one out.

And boi unless you’ve had that talk with ur kids about systemic racism you might wanna let them sit this one out because we’re gonna be touching on a bunch of terrible racist shit this week Because we’re gonna be talking about the Blues and various different type of blues musics. I’m actually really excited to talk about it too because blues, as you guys will find out in the future is kinda the basis for a lot of other, what one might consider more modern, genres of American popular musics. So this one’s gonna be important for ur earholes and ur brainholes. Just like last time I will be airing a sensitive content warning for some graphic descriptions of violence and I will put the time stamps in the description for y’all for when that starts and ends.

First though, I wanna issue an apology for being away so long, I tend to work on this podcast in my free time, and currently I’ve had none of that what so ever. It just so happened that October worked out this year that it was thanksgiving and my birthday and then a bunch of big projects due then Halloween and now I’m working on my fucking thesis proposal, I’m actually recording this episode at 1:35 am on a Saturday night/Sunday morning, so needless to say all this in combination with trying to deal with my depression hasn’t been a cake walk but we’re making it work. I will likely run up against a similar time issue during the first couple weeks of December because that’s when all my final papers are due. After that thought I should have smooth sailing for about a month. I wanted to make sure I had an episode out this week because as I think… well everyone… is aware the American election took place this week and understandably people were stressed as shit about that. So I think we could all use a little music right now.

Ok so Like all fuckin things we need to know where blues came from. Now blues is actually a lot older than a lot of people are gonna be expecting, like really damn old. Like pretty much everything in academia (and I mean EVERYTHING, at least in the humanities), the dates are contested, but it seems that the blues, or at least what began as the blues, started in and around the 1860s. For those who didn’t listen to last week’s episode on slave songs, spirituals, and gospel, or just those who don’t know their American history too too well, the 1860s marks a very important time for black people, many of which at that time had been enslaved, because in 1865 the thirteenth amendment was amended into the American constitution. For those who aren’t aware, the thirteenth amendment as stated by the national archives of the United States of America reads as such: "Neither slavery nor involuntary servitude, except as a punishment for crime whereof the party shall have been duly convicted, shall exist within the United States, or any place subject to their jurisdiction."

Now this of course was fantastic news of course! And for some people, this might be where you think oppression in the Americas ends for Black people but you would be incredibly wrong! Because this is the period where we see the start of a phenomenon referred to as sharecropping. Sharecropping or crop sharing as it’s known otherwise is considered part of what we historians sometimes refer to as the Jim Crow economy of the American South after the civil war. But what is Jim crow economy, what did it come from, why is it bad, why is sharecropping bad, how does any of this relate to the blues? Well lucky for u lil turnips imma tell ya.

Jim Crow culture is something that I imagine most North Americans will have even the most basic knowledge of but for those that don’t the name Jim Crow as applied to economy, laws, and any other part of American culture during these time periods refers to sets of crazy fucking racist laws written and unwritten that kept black people subjugated under the whims of the government as well as their fellow white countrymen. The term Jim crow itself is reference to a song often featured in the supremely racist minstrel shows of the mid to late 1800s and early 1900s referred to as “Jump Jim Crow” in which a white man in black-face sings in a parody centric dialect about the life of a charicaturishly uneducated back-woodsy Black man named, you fuckin guessed it, Jim Crow. The significance of the Crow being that it was a pejorative term for black individuals which can actually dated back to the early mid 1700s. Now I wanna preface the excerpt of it with the fact that I’m uncomfortable listening to this, I understand if others are too. The thing is that acknowledging these uncomfortable things and knowing about them is necessary in order to understand the type of historical impact that they had. “So laura, you must obviously support statues being raised to commemorate things like slavery and secessionism!” Absolutely not. Where statues and monuments exist to praise the efforts of individuals, the listening to and learning about songs in a teaching context like this very podcast are meant to educate. Statues commemorating culture surrounding one of the worst atrocities to have taken place on American soil should never have been erected in the first place let alone celebrated. One is meant to celebrate while the other is to educate because one is a historical primary source that lets us think critically about the history, the other is a tertiary celebration. The purpose of listening to a clip like this is then to educate and understand a piece of actually history, not to replicate and enjoy. The version of the song that I have is sung without the charicaturish accent but uses the original words but with all that in mind here’s a bit of Jump Jim Crow:

In terms of laws I’m sure just about everyone knows separate drinking fountains and schools but this really permeated pretty much every sphere of life for Black peoples especially those in the south. I say especially those in the south but not exclusively those in the south because racial segregation, although not as supported by law but more socially, also existed in the Northern States as well as in Canada. Anecdotally, my mother grew up in a suburb of Cleveland Ohio, she remembers going into Cleveland when she was a kid when Cleveland was still a very racially segregated city, Black peoples lived in, shopped in, and attended schools in certain areas of the city and white people in other’s. My grandmother who was also raised in the area even remembers Black people having separate lunch counters if any at all in some of the larger department stores in the area.

It might also be handy when I mention the south to actually talk about what the south and particularly the deep south is for y’all outside of America. So when we talk about the south we are talking about a geographically bounded area just not the area that one might think of by looking at a map because where you might be thinking like ah just take the country and cut it in half, and the bottom half is the south that wouldn’t be correct. So, from the United States Census Bureau itself the south we’re talking about is Alabama, Arkansas, Delaware, Florida, Georgia, Kentucky, Louisiana, Maryland, Mississippi, North and South Carolina, Oklahoma, Tennessee, Texas, Virginia, and West Virginia. Now some who live in the surrounding areas such as Kansas might also consider themselves as being from the “south” somewhat culturally but those states previously listed as the official ones. When we talk about the DEEP SOUTH however, that range closes a little more, and that would mainly just include Georgia, Alabama, South Carolina, Mississippi, Louisiana, and sometimes Texas and Florida due to their involvement as part of the confederate states of America, meaning states that were on the south side of the civil war.

Also briefly just so we’re clear, again this is for those people who didn’t receive the best education on Slavery and the Civil War in general but to be clear, the civil war was fought over primarily states rights to use and perpetuate slavery. The common narrative you hear a lot in protests by those on the right, who would like to uphold the institutions set out by their forefathers in the creation of the abominable act, is that the civil war was primarily fought over states rights. What they then so often forget to elaborate is that those rights were perceived as the right to govern themselves independently so that they may still be able to employ slave labour in the operation of their economies and also to expand further westward to continue and be able to use slavery out in those areas as well.

The reason that we hear about these Jim Crow laws particularly in the South is because where the Northern states and Canada did have (and still continues to have) some violent racist issues, the Jim Crow south was specifically really bad. And I mean fucking abominable. Though Black people were free from being directly owned, society at large and all it’s trappings found new ways to oppress them. This started with Black Codes which were individual state law codes that dictated where Black peoples could move, for how long they could stay, restricted their rights to vote (or made it extremely difficult to vote via poll taxes, literacy tests, etc), as well as where they could work, and in some cases even if their children could be taken away from them on the basis labour needs. So I really can’t drive home the point enough of how much life sucked for Black peoples under Jim Crow laws and economy in the southern states, to call it any less than abominable would seem to understate it in a major way. In the 1880s Jim Crow laws hadn’t started to be rolled into large southern cities yet so many Black peoples were inclined to move into them because life was actually slightly easier for a short while. White people being offended and upset at this, because “how dare a black person just try to live their lives in my good white pure Christian neighborhood,” then fully supported Jim crow laws being rolled out to remove them from areas where white people would normally interact with them. This included but was not limited to, barring them from public parks entirely, having entirely different theaters at one point and then segregated theaters after a while with separate entrances based on your race, restaurants, bus and train stations, water fountains, restrooms, most building entrances in general, elevators, amusement park ticket windows, public schools, phone booths, hospitals, asylums, jails, elderly care homes and even fucking cemeteries. Of course being treated as diseased subhuman parasites is never enough for the racism machine that is the public conscious at this time so there was also a lot of violence both systematic and grassroots that accompanied this era.

And here’s where I’m going to have to issue a sensitive content warning because I’m about to describe some truly heinous shit in a whole second. So by violence, I mean very public and very culturally accepted violence, similar to what we’re seeing more and more of in the states again. As many will know now in the light of the many many many police shootings of unarmed, unthreatening black people in the states, the police traditionally haven’t been on the side of black citizens. This is due to a number of reasons, for one, on the most basic of levels the police serve to protect the interests of those in power, in our case that means the property and lives of middle to upper class (mostly) white Americans. The natural extension of this is that many police forces in the states, especially in Southern states started out as slave catching forces bringing back runaway enslaved people to their owners. So as time progressed and Black peoples became a “free” population this still meant protecting mainly middle to upper class white people from the “threat” of black people. This was enforced in a number of ways, such as arresting black individuals found breaking these rules, framing black people for crimes committed by others and arresting them for population suppression, and turning a blind eye to the grassroots violence perpetrated by non-black citizens, which very often were white citizens. An example of just straight up police brutality can be found in the case of Isaac Woodard JR. who was viciously beaten by police only hours after being honorably discharged from the fucking military on February 12 1946. The bus driver driving Woodard and some of his fellow soldiers called the police after Woodard asked the bus driver if there might be time for him to use the restroom as they approached a rest stop. When the police arrived, the bus driver accused Woodard of drinking in the back of the bus and he was hauled off, dragged into an alley and beaten with nighsticks. That night he was thrown in the town jail, by morning he had been beaten so severely he was left permanently blind in both eyes.

And that grassroots violence is just as nasty, really fucking nasty. The violence could be perpetrated for things as small as being in the wrong place at the wrong time, entering a white neighbourhood, “talking back to” the wrong person. Since black men have always been are still to some degree subject to the stereotype that they are all sex incensed monsters, being left alone in a room with a white woman could be enough to incite violence against them. In the Mississippi delta during the season where share cropping debts were settled up, there was a sharp uptick in violence against and killings of black people. If you were white, because let’s be real here some white people definitely were on the side of their oppressed countrymen, you could be hung on the basis of being an N-word lover, which could range from being found to being in a romantic/sexual relationship with a person of colour, to just being fucking friends with them. The violence was often varied too, where kidnapping and hanging someone either with or without brutalizing them first (also known as a lynching) is the form most commonly associated with Jim Crow era violence less extreme but still horrible harassment could perpetuate in any form. Mississippi had the highest amount of lynchings from 1882-1968 with 581. You might think that is a low number but first, similarily to when we were talking about slavery in the last episode, 1 lynching is too fucking many, and secondly these are only the ones that were officially recorded. Since lynchings didn’t always happen in broad daylight and since law enforcement really didn’t care about Black individuals, there were almost certainly more that happened that just never were recorded. Georgia was second with 531, and Texas was third with 493. 79% of lynching happened in the South. So as I said before though, lynching was not the only form though, beatings were also entirely all too common forms of violence perpetrated against blackf people to make them scared and thus more compliant. A good example of this is the case of Emmet Till a 14 year old boy who made the mistake of playfully flirting with a white woman, who was beaten nearly to death, had one of his eyes gouged out, was then shot in the head, and tied to some cotton mill equipment before his body was thrown in a river. This wasn’t even that long ago, the beating happened on the 28th of August 1955.

THE next parts are also gonna be not great but there wont be anymore descriptions of graphic violence, so I’m calling an end to the sensitive content warning. So the then how does sharecropping play into all this and what does it have to do with the blues (we’re getting there babes I promise.) So as I explained previously, sharecropping was a part of the Jim Crow economic era. It was part of the era of reconstruction meaning the period of rebuilding after the civil war. How it worked was that let’s say for a second, come with me into the theater of the mind for a second, take a seat, close your eyes, take a deep breath, Ok so lets imagine for a second you’re a farmer in the south, the civil war has kinda left you in a spot, if you’re black, you’re starting off without an awful lot, you don’t have any generational wealth you don’t have property likely aside from maybe a relatively small plot of land (but this was uncommon,) you probably didn’t have much if any equipment because that would have been way too expensive, and the land you may have had may have been of shitty quality. So what could you do to earn yourself a living?! Well you would go to a landowner, and ask him rather kindly if you might be able to work the land they lived on in exchange for some of the profits of the crops that you would produce. The landowner would provide you with the tools, seed, housing, land, store credits at local shops in order to subsist offa for food and other supplies and sometimes a mule in order to help you work the land seeing as motorized machinery was still few and far between in the united states at this point. The issue of this system is that how much you receive for you labour, the cut that you actually get from selling crops, that you grew with ur own backbreaking labour, is more or less decided by your landowner. And as I mentioned last episode, those who’ve ever had to rely on the benevolence of a boss for any period of time knows that this shit ain’t gonna cut it. So often you would end up underpaid, underfed, and in a debt hole that lasted as long as you did. If it sounds like legal slavery that’s kinda because it was. You would basically remain in indentured servitude to the landowner for as long as you were a part of this system. Like don’t get me wrong there were people who managed to not be a part of it but it was an incredibly largescale problem.

It’s important to note that this wasn’t just a black phenomenon either, white tenants of sharecroppers existed and in incredibly large numbers as well. By 1900, 36 percent of all white farmers in Mississippi were either tenant farmers or sharecroppers (by comparison, 85 percent of all black farmers in 1900 did not own the land they farmed). This all sucks for various reasons but like partially because there was this whole other plan proposed that after the war, all the land that had been seized from slave owners would have been divvied up to the newly freed slave populations. It was colloquially known as the 40 acres and a mule plan but yeah unfortunately never happened cause fuckin president Andrew Johnson was like ”WELL AKSHULLY SWEATY I THINK THE LAND SHOULD GO BACK TO SLAVE OWNERS BECAUSE UHHHHHH” AND THEN IT DID AND THEN WE ENDED UP WITH SHARE CROPPING. But anyway that’s sharecropping. And of course I could go onto describe how all of this still affects black people in the united states and how the effects of systematic racism are still being felt generations later but… we’re gonna save that for a different episode. FOR NOW THOUGH, WHY IS THIS ALL IMPORTANT, WHY DID I TAKE ROUGHLY 3000 WORDS TO TELL YOU GUYS ABOUT THE HORRORS OF RECONSTRUCTION ERA SOUTH!? Well because we’re talking about the blues, and what does it mean when you have the blues, it means that you’re sad as hell, given all that I’ve just described to you is it no wonder that the blues emerged as the soundtrack to the lives these people lived?

So then what is blues? Well as I mentioned last time, blues sort of develops out of the field holler/spiritual tradition. A fair amount of field hollers, a type of work song that enslaved peoples would sing in fields while they were doing their work, were about regular ass things for regular ass peoples; this dude stole my girl, im gonna find me a girl to love, life sucks and im gonna sing about it, life doesn’t suck so much but I’m still gonna sing about it. Blues then tended to explore more themes related to the sadder points of those stories but in similar ways and styles. So where did blues come from specifically, what makes it a different genre than a field holler or a spiritual, and that’s a great question so let’s get in it.

Let’s say for a second you went through a real shitty period in your life, you significant other named steve dumped you, your pet armadillo, also named steve, died, ur mom (also coincidentally named steve) has taken away your showering privileges, you’ve forgotten how to speak ur native language and to top it all off you just burnt your gotdamn mac and cheese. You spiral into a deep situational depression that lasts quite a little while. During this time you listen to one album on repeat just over and over again, you know it all inside out and backwards and diagonal, you know every instrumental part by heart, you’ve got the lyrics tattooed on your ass, the whole 9 yards. And then you start working your way out of it, slowly but steadily the days start getting brighter, you move out of your abusive mother’s house, you find a new partner or get comfortable being single, you appropriately morn the loss of ur pet armadillo, hell you even learn to make a better mac and cheese, things aren’t all fixed, and life isn’t breezes and cakes but it is ever so slightly easier than it was before, at least you have ur freedom right? BUT NOW, everytime you listen to one of those songs from that album it mentally brings you back to the way things used to be and it’s not great. Well that’s kinda what happened with blues music but, ya know, infinitely worse. Essentially, black people wanted a new sound to accompany this new life and so they fuckin made it and it’s great.

The similarities of blues to field hollers and spirituals are relatively easy enough to hear if you know where to look which isn’t really surprising given that blues is the evolution of it. For example the basic structure stayed pretty similar, simple rhyming schemes, simple harmonies, melismatic vocal structures in places, and many times the lyrics were often very similar to those forms before them. But it goes even further than that! Most of the early blues melodies were directly derived from their spiritual predecessors. So for some comparison here’s some songs, first one is gonna be a field holler, next one is gonna be a spiritual, and then the last one is gonna be a blues song mmk? And here we go:

AND ACTUALLY YOU KNOW WHAT WAIT, JUST CAUSE IM FUCKIN, OOO BABE, OK, SO WHEN I WAS RESARCHING THIS FUCKING EPISODE I WAS TRYING TO FIND GOOD AUDIO CLIPS TO USE, AND LEMME TELL YA MAN YOU WOULDN’T THINK SPIRITUALS WOULD FUCKIN EXIST OUTSIDE THE LIBRARY OF FUCKING CONGRESS CAUSE APPARENTLY THEY HAVE A GODDAMN STRANGLEHOLD ON ALL BLACK SPIRITUALS EVER RECORDED BY THE LOMAX’S. The thing is is that fuckin copyright at least in the states is supposed to run out 75 years after the death of the recorder or fucking owner of the rights, which it certainly has been for Alan Fucking Lomax BUT NOOOOOOO, I HAVE TO NEARLY PURCHASE A GODDAMN CD IN ORDER TO GET YOU GUYS A FUCKING ACCURATE REPRESENTATION OF MUSIC THAT CAME OUT LIKE 100 YEARS AGO. To be clear I refuse to buy anything for this podcast other than my recording equipment, but man researching this podcast is big joab hours, god just keeps fuckin testing me. Just slap my ass and call me a pickle, ok, rage is over, time for songs:

These freed populations wanted a new music, a music that fit their current situation better, that didn’t rely on the imagery of the past in order to get across the situation they were in. And so that’s what blues did, it was a new sound for a new era and even more importantly it was a sound entirely their own. Whereas field hollers and various other types of music sung by enslaved peoples were by definition their invention, many of them still borrowed heavily from the dominant cultures of their oppressors, and so in creating blues what they had was something they could 100% call their own. Even if they didn’t own the land they worked/lived on, and had few rights to the crops they sewed and reaped, they did have blues, and that’s something beautiful.

But when does it become a thing, like when does blues start becoming a thing? And that’s a hard part. Like any cultural phenomenon it’s hard to fuckin say, there’s some accounts that say 1865 like the fuckin second the civil war ended, then there’s some that attribute it to the 1920s. Most of the sources I’ve looked at put it around 1890-1910. It originates unsurprisingly in and around the Mississippi Delta Region and East Texas where you have a lot of farmland and thus a lot of poor folks just trying to scratch out a living for themselves. AND SO THE BLUES BECOMES A THING AND IT’S COOL AS HELL AND IT DEVELOPS IN SO MANY DIFFERENT WAYS! And I’m sorry that I’m not gonna get enough time to do every subgenre of blues, but we’re gonna look at 3 of the big regions or subgenres of blues.

So blues first of all have all those things that I mentioned before simple rhyming schemes, like ABAB or ABCC, simple harmonies, Call and response is definitely a thing that still happens in this specific style, but then they also have blues notes, for those who missed the last episode, blues notes are notes within a standard scale that are “bent” (or at least that’s how they were initially described.) These notes are lowered by a semitone making the overall colour of the sound a bit darker and more… emotional, sad? Like we ascribe emotions to the way things sound and that might be western centric, I’m actually gonna have to look into it later, but for western listeners we’re gonna read the emotion in these tones as sad. So the notes specifically are lowered the 3rd 5th and 7th degrees of a regular scale. I’m going to play you guys an example of blues scale in just a second but the guy playing the example is using the pentatonic version of the scale meaning only 5 notes of it.

In terms of instruments the most standard you’re going to find in any blues band is at it’s most basic one guitar and a person singing. You could even make an argument that just singing could be blues if you’re using a blues scale but usually there will at least a guitar and one dude singing. The rest of the intstruments are gonna depend on the region you’re playing from. So remember the moaning thing I mentioned last time? The moaning style vocals? Not pioneered by but made popular by a man that went by Blind Lemon Jefferson? This one:

Well he falls under the Mississippi/Texas type of blues which we’re gonna call texasippi. It differs from other types of blues in the united states for a couple reasons but one of them is that moaning style of vocals, in other parts of the country the style where the blues vocals function similarly to other styles of singing, clean and clear, no moaning. Another cool thing that texasippi blues also does is they incorporate a lot of metal into the way they play their guitars. Not like the heavy screamy kind that’s come to be MY fave, but like actual metal objects! How they incorporate this is through the strings of the guitar specifically causing a little extra twangy buzzing when the strings resonate but also a sort of pleasing screech when they’re shifted up and down the strings like this:

but what did they use to make this sound? Well just about anything small enough and metal you could thread between the strings or held against them while playing, this coulda been bottle caps, pocket knives, silverware. Remember, we’re still talking about a type of music that was very much being played by people without very much or no money, so you’re using what you can to make it. Nowadays you can purchase wee cylanders made of glass or metal that go over ur fingers that you press up against the strings to create the desired effect. In addition to this, something that’s pretty regional to the blues in this area is the harmonica. I’m assuming most of you know about the harmonica and have heard it but for those who don’t, the harmonica is a squanky reed instrument that you play with your mouth. I would tell you the physics of how it works but fuck if I ever studied physics. Basically when you blow in it, it vibrates the reed and makes a note depending on the holes you blow into, and when you suck air in it, it makes other sounds! They can be very very large or very very small thus changing how low or high the sound is respectively. They were invented somewhere in the early 1800s in Germany we think and they sound something like this:

How were harmonicas introduced into blues music? Well turns out, much like some of the other instruments we’ll see in a hot minute, harmonicas were often carried by soldiers during the American civil war, even President Abraham Lincoln himself was reported to have carried a harmonica with him in his coat pocket and would play it as he “found it comforting.” Thing about the harmonica was that it was relatively easy to make and it was extremely cheap to buy in comparison to other instruments at the time, even better was that you really didn’t need lessons to figure out how to make it sound good. So during the reconstruction period, as industrialization rapidized in America, and harmonicas became more available, and previous soldiers reminisced about the songs they heard played in their camps during the civil war, more and more people started picking up the harmonica. And so poor southern americans were able to incorporate the instrument into this new music they were developing like this:

Also I would big time recommend just watching the video for that song, dudes just sittin there legit just suckin on his harmonica at some point, that’s what I fucking call dedication bud. The cool part about blues from the texasippi way is then during the great migration, the phenomenon that I mentioned last episode, where black southerners just start heading northwards, is that the blues travels with them too. Just briefly on the great migration, remember all the shitty stuff I discussed earlier, the lack of work, sharecropping, lynching and what have you? That’s why the great migration takes place. Basically black people all around the south are going jesus fucking christ shit sucks let’s get out of here and find somewhere better to be, and so they do, and about 6 MILLION Black Americans head north to where it’s… better. I mean there’s definitely still racism and all sorts of jim crow era laws and practices up north but it is still some degree better than the south. So this great migration is how texasippi blues music then comes to be transplanted into Chicago, and turns into Chicago blues.

“BUT LAURA” YOU SAY, UR HANDS CLENCHED INTO FISTS AT UR SIDES, “IF TEXASIPPI BLUES IS THE SAME AS THE ONES IN CHICAGO THEN HOW’RE THEY DIFFERENT!?” YOU CRY WITH TEARS FORMING AT THE SIDES OF YOUR EYES. And you’re right b, they are the same so why are they different? Well ya gotta remember that time does funny stuff to music similarly as it does with language and just abut anything else, things change over time, AND, things get invented over time. And time as we’re moving into now is like 30s and 40s era. So in the case of Chicago blues we get the additives of the piano, which has been around for some time but people are now just being able to put into their blues music due to becoming more financially stable, BUT WE ALSO GET THE COOL NEW INVENTION OF THE ELECTRIC GUITAR. Now there is some speculation over the invention of most things throughout history, for example, y’all might be familiar of Thomas Edison not actually inventing the lightbulb and being a bit of a dick about things, so when I talk about inventors of things, unless otherwise stated, please take it with some amount of a grain of salt. So Paul H Tutmarc may have been the first person to invent the first electric guitar when he managed, by some feat of science, which I will not explain because science is for wizards and freeks and while I am both of those I am not at all qualified or able to explain it, but essentially he managed to electrify a Hawaiian guitar! He supposedly invented this sometime in the 1930s. Here’s an example of what that sounds like:

Very Spongebobby… spongeboblike…spongebobesque… so EITHERWAY the electric guitar, as well as the electric bass is invented and so those are then infused into Chicago blues. In some cases you will also get the addition of drums and saxophone, but it is the electrified elements as well as the piano that really characterize the biggest difference between Chicago blues and texasippi blues. Overall, it sounds like this:

Something you also probably heard in there was just the level of intensity, the volume or what I’m gonna call the perceived volume, is louder. Whereas the songs of the texasippi blues is a little softer, quieter, very much just dude and his guitar volume, Chicago blues is gonna sound a little louder and a little more intense at most times. This is due to blues clubs becoming a big thing during this time period. And why shouldn’t they? In diaspora communities, that is communities consisting of people from a similar ethnic or national background, you often get patterns of similar settlement. So in our case, when Black Americans started moving northward, they would often settle in similar communities or move into similar communities based off of their ethnicity. Afterall you wanna be able to live in places where people understand your experience. There’s also the element of racism of course, homeowners associations making it hard for Black folk to move into white neighbourhoods and of course school segregation which didn’t end until the 1954. So while in some cases there was def an element of wanting to feel safe in a community of people who understand you, there’s also a big ol element of racism as there pretty much always is when we talk about anything. Seriously ur gonna be surprised at how far reaching and fucking just convoluted and stupid racism is, especially when we get into like Europeans being racist against other Europeans. So since we have all these people moving up north they need to be entertained, we all need entertainment after-all, but lo and behold! They can’t go to white clubs in a lot of cases because fucking racism (unless you are a performer in which case sometimes you can go to white clubs but only to perform, I’m gonna get more into that when we have our jazz episode.) So we start having blues clubs and because they’re a club and there’s drinking and talking and what not, often these songs tend to be a little louder or more rowdy to compensate.

On the other end of the country we also have my favorite flavour of blues which is the New Orleans blues. I’m definitely 100 percent biased when I say this but why does everything in New Orleans just sound better? If I had to guess it’s the multiculturalism and thus people bringing in tonnes of different ideas, but it’s hard to quantify awesome so we’re just gonna leave it there. BUT YEAH so we have texasippi blues that travels down the river (cause things rarely travel up a river) and hits New Orleans. But again, if we’re talking about the same style of blues then what makes it different? A lot hunny, a lot. So as we talked about in our last episode there’s a lot of different cultural elements at play in Louisianna culminating in some cool ass musical styles and changes. It’s also absolutely something we’re gonna talk about when we go back and do the Jazz episode cause lord knows New Orleans jazz is just as fuckin hot and dangerous (like serious lemme just go fuckin hangout with you guys down there, that’s all I want, musical tour of louisianna) I will say though that the line between jazz and blues does tend to get a little blurry though when we’re talking about New Orleans Blues so just hold onto ur femurs there yall and strap in.

So New orleans blues is different from other types of blues again by incorporating horns and piano into the music, most notably this will be the trumpet cause trumpets after the civil war just kinda leached out into the general public and since people got used to them in that capacity they became sorta naturally engrained into the soundscape of the music of the area. “but laura doesn’t Chicago also have horns?!” and ur right man they absolutely do, but there’s even more. So where texasippi blues relies on a rather standard rhythms in most cases, the New Orleans Blues scene takes from some of that different heritage and combines Caribbean inspired or based rhythms. We can find a good example of the inspiration for those rhythms in another genre of music that was popular at the same time, Calypso. Calypso is a genre of music which we will look more in depth in the future but just really generally for now it is popular in the Caribbean as well as certain parts, South America (particularly Venezuela), Mexico, and of course New Orleans during this time. It is usually up-beat and relies a lot on emphasizing the offbeat, and these are all things that we hear being incorporated into New Orleans blues during the time. So when we hear blues from New Orleans, one of the things we can usually use to tell the difference is merely just the upbeat tempo of things and slightly more rhythmically complex manner in which it existed. In fact Blues in New Orleans was so fuckin different it actually started what we know of as R&B or rhythm and blues which sounds like this:

Just a quick detour, I fuckin love like, blues and jazz names. The Man I played just there was Roy Brown but man the names really take off on occasion my personal favorite being Guitar Slim Jr., but we also got Fats domino (sometimes just known as fats, or the fat man), we god fuckin Professor Longhair, we got a dude who just goes by the name sugar boy, like… guys…. What happened to nicknames like that, I wanna walk around and when people see me comin at a distance they just point and go oh lord here comes swamp papa, like, that’s livin man, I dunno what to tell you but that’s absolutely livin.

Anyhow, what ur gonna notice, or maybe you didn’t notice but I’m gonna tell you and you can go back and notice is that blues, (along with jazz but we’re gonna get to that) as it goes on and evolves starts sounding a lot like early rock and roll music, and that doesn’t happen by coincidence. Also you’re probably noticing that blues at least as far as it goes for the Chicago variety and the New Orleans variety we talked about, sound a hell of a lot like Jazz and again we’ll get more into the specifics later. The thing is when we talk about invention, whether it be music, or physical things, or even sometimes schools of thought and ideas is that things get borrowed and changed and moulded into something else by other people. Hell the phenomenon of something being invented in multiple different places at the same time is so common enough that it even has a name, it’s called multiple discovery. Generally people in North America prefer a more black and white “this thing was developed at this time and this place by this person because definitive reason definitive reason definitive reason.” Because we have this weird sense of individuality and crediting individuals with discovery as opposed to a group or the society itself as maybe it should more rightly be. This means that in our endless want to categorize and systematize and ize all these things, particularly things like music, it gets sorta difficult to discern what is what and why and how. Of course we’ve already seen this with spirituals and gospel, and now we’ve seen it with blues/jazz/and early rock.

I just wanted to bring it up sooner than later because, especially as we move into more modern north American Genres, and honestly genres from various other places throughout the world. I wanted to bring this up now before we go any further in this podcast because as we get into more modern genres and hell maybe even with this episode I imagine I might get some rather angry mail from elitests who will smash their foreheads on the keyboard in absolute blind fuckin dismay and rage accusing me of putting the wrong genre lables on the wrong songs. The thing is though, like most art, or definitions in life, things are salient. Just because music fits one genre doesn’t mean it only fits within that genre, in the case of the Rhythm and Blues song by Roy brown that I played earlier, while it is definitely Rhythm and Blues there’s also gonna be other people who strongly consider that Rock and Roll. And that’s alright! Music doesn’t have to rigidly fit into one genre, we give things genre titles or group things into genres to help more easily understand their histories and identify other things that sound like it! All music is going to have variation, and in the case of rhythm and blues, a style of blues that very much informs early rock, you’re going to have cross roads like that. So instead of getting defensive, maybe take some time to think about how cool it is that music exists on an ever evolving spectrum.

So with that, that’s all for just a music podcast this week, I hope you’ve heard something new, and I hope you’ve heard something that you like. If you haven’t there’s always next time where we’re actually gonna do something a little different. Next time we’re gonna look at the Minstrel show which I’m subtitling right now, “why we don’t wear black face.” In the meantime, though if one of y’all would like to suggest a topic I would love nothing more than to answer your musical questions or talk about topics that interest you guys in music. Feel free to drop me a line at [email protected]

List of Music: Jump Jim Crow - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AjIXWRG09Qk

Belton Sutherland's field holler (1978) - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1CPJwt14d5E&list=PLAyuUbD3Cdhxx__cTlFDrkxxKiYllrYwJ&index=2

Wash Dennis & Charlie Sims - Lead Me To The Rock - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zmPqmLovNms&list=PLAyuUbD3Cdhxx__cTlFDrkxxKiYllrYwJ&index=4

Leroy Carr & Scrapper Blackwell - How Long Has That Evening Train Been Gone - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JEw0ek2BhJE

Blind Lemon Jefferson – Black Snake Moan - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h3yd-c91ww8

Mississippi Fred McDowell - You gotta move - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mtlVSedpIRU&feature=emb_logo

Red River Valley -Traditional - Harmonica solo by Kyong H. Lee - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xKM4bn4kS-0

Sonny Boy Williamson - Keep it to Yourself - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GtRxJDb3vlw

Paul Tutmarc performs - My Tane - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RUOms5y6cmI

Buddy Guy - First Time I Met The Blues - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R1jruvTBleY

Roy Brown - Mighty Mighty Man - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rhp8jMykAVg

Technical Clip I used: PianoPig (on youtube) - Minor Pentatonic vs Blues Scale https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uwz0b-At1ys

#music #music podcast #podcast #just a music podcast #music history

13 notes · View notes

wodezhenxin · 4 years ago

Text

Andrea Bomo on A Fatherless Child

When my dad left- a shift happened not only in my life but also in my mind: I had to create a new paradigm where being strong was the only choice I had. The only way to survive. I was fortunate enough to still have my mother at this critical time. But this void my dad left, this painful and timeless trauma, remained unchanged. I was fatherless and broken, no matter what I would do to hide or forget it. “Daddy’s issues” ruined a big part of my life, but I was too busy being strong to notice. What started as a defense mechanism became my personality. A few years later, the young woman I have become is changed, for better and for worse. My strength, resilience and courage became my greatest allies. My vulnerability, insecurities, fear of abandonment became my demons. My story is perhaps painful, but far from being isolated.

Many teenage girls and young women around the world suffer from emotional trauma due to father loss whether it’s caused by death, abandonment, divorce, imprisonment, addiction, emotional or physical absence. Whatever the circumstances causing the absence of the father are, the impact is critical as the father-daughter relationship strongly influences key factors of personal development among young women such as: relationships, self-esteem, aspirations, confidence and self-love. Over the years, they become vulnerable young women who find it harder to build healthy personal and professional lives as they are building their lives, relationships, aspirations, and self-representation on the basis of this trauma, especially when it occurs during adolescence. They suffer from trust issues, low self-esteem and fear of abandonment which create the unhealthy need to be accepted and loved at all costs. Most of the time, these symptoms usually go unnoticed and unacknowledged as these young women do not necessarily understand the root issue causing their behavior, and build a façade around themselves. From dysfunctional behaviors, unhealthy relationships to chronic depression, the fatherless daughter syndrome can take several forms over the years and even be forgotten for some time, without actually disappearing. Rather, it gives rise to a vicious cycle of self-destruction mechanisms, self-doubt, and unhealthy or abusive relationships in their lives. Because we feel unloved and unworthy, we search for love and validation in all the wrong places, which make us vulnerable and exposed to both physical and emotional abuse. The social and economic environment as well as the family structure are factors that influence or reinforce the impact of fatherlessness in the lives of girls and young women. Having a support system is crucial in this context as girls often feel vulnerable and struggle to open up about what they experience, yet millions of children around the world go through the same thing. A survey of the U.S. Census Bureau estimated at 24.7 million the number of children who live without the physical presence of their biological father in the United States. While in Canada, over 80% of single-parent families are led by women (www.imfcanada.org / Statistics Canada). Fatherlessness is the greatest social problem in North America according to 72.2% of the U.S. population (National Center for Fathering). Other studies show that 71% of teenage pregnancies comes from fatherless homes and 92% of girls who come from fatherless home are more likely to divorce. These statistics demonstrate that children thrive with the active and meaningful participation of both parents, and fathers play an important role in child and teen development. Understanding the impact of fatherlessness in young women’s lives specifically, the emotional trauma caused by father loss and the consequences on society is key if we want to build a healthier society.

The father-daughter relationship has a strong impact on the mental construct of teenage girls. If this relationship is broken for various reasons whatsoever, the young woman suffers and it has an impact on almost every aspect of her life.

Since childhood, fathers have a critical impact on their daughters’ lives as they are both their first guides to the outside world and their first reflections of themselves, symbol of recognition of their own value. A healthy and uninterrupted relationship between a father and a daughter greatly helps to create a positive self-image and therefore will have a positive influence on her aspirations and relationships. When this relationship is suddenly broken for some reason, the daughter’s cycle of identity development is also interrupted. Adolescence and preadolescence are critical times where young women build themselves: their body change, they make a transition from girls to young women, and in this transition, the father’s role is important. The emotional trauma caused by father loss not only weakens the girl, but creates a void she will somehow try to fill by all means possible.

Consequently, she becomes exposed to all forms of danger and abuse. Fatherless young women often become self-destructive, violent, vulnerable, sexually promiscuous, prone to abuse, unstable and develop a conflictual relationship with their femininity and sexuality. They find it difficult to trust and live in constant fear of abandonment which sometimes lead them to make unhealthy choices for themselves in order to please others and feel accepted. In their professional and social lives, the absence of a paternal figure, that of a guide and protector, manifests itself through a lack of self-worth and consequently create more difficulties for them to be stable and become autonomous. Or conversely, they become obsessed with their professional achievements that give them the illusion to fill that void.

Romantic relationships is undoubtedly the area in which the impact of father loss is felt the most in young women’s life. Growing up, a father figure is similar to that of the “Prince Charming”, a sort of masculine ideal in a girl’s mind. It’s her first male reference, one that embodies the values necessary for her to build her identity: guidance, protection, authority, discipline, kindness, confidence and absolute love. When they become adults, women’s choices of partners are highly influenced by this ideal (and illusory) image of the father figure and the relationship they had or would have loved to have with him, thus causing unhealthy and often abusive relationships. Many of these women will particularly struggle during separation and break-ups as they make an emotional projection of their dads on their partner, while others experience more difficulties to trust, express their feelings and commit. It is common that fatherless young women unconsciously repeat the same relationships patterns that manifest through a constant fear of abandonment, insecurities, difficulties to open up, a conflictual relationship to male authority and defense mechanisms. They usually create a shell around themselves that seems strong on the outside, but deep inside, they remain extremely vulnerable.

But relationships could also be where healing happens. I believe I’m a proof of that. After several chaotic relationships, being with the right partner finally helped me understand my trauma — a trauma I didn’t even know existed and patterns I never paid attention to. I became more aware, and it was the beginning of my healing journey. Being in a healthy relationship where you feel safe, you can trust and open up without the fear of being vulnerable can really be therapeutic. On the other hand, a lot of (broken) men take advantage of vulnerable young women with the Fatherless Daughter Syndrome: because they can see their wounds, they will use it against them. And that’s when relationships become abusive.

In this growing social issue, I believe everyone has a role to play. Mothers play a fundamental role in building a positive identity and self-esteem in young women and girls, but most of the time, they lack the tools to understand their daughter’s critical needs triggered by their father’s absence. And since they are not aware of it, they are not be able to fix it. In certain cases, the presence of a stepfather or a strong male figure can be positive in the lives of fatherless young women, without necessarily filling the void nor healing her wounds, it can provide the guidance, trust and safety they need. But the real work is within as it takes a real introspection and emotional support to undo self-destruction patterns caused by years of emotional suffering and denial. A trauma remains like an open wound as long as it is not addressed.

8 notes · View notes

rootfauna · 5 years ago

Text

Loss of the chance of life

A while ago I found out my grandmother was one of the many native american women who were forcibly sterilized. I wrote this article.

In 1972 Janet Clifton, an Osage woman, walked into the IHS in Clairemore, Oklahoma. For years she had been having severe pelvic cramps and they had become too much to bear. She was put in a gown and lead to a room in which sat the dreaded stirruped chair many women have despised since it’s invention. The anxiety is understandable even in modern times when women’s healthcare is arguably the most advanced it’s ever been. It’s frightening, then, to imagine approaching that chair in the 60’s and 70’s, when modern women’s healthcare was in it’s infancy, and for a Native American woman, it could be absolutely terrifying.

When Janet signed in to the clinic, she’d been asked the usual questions, one of which was ‘are you married’, which she was, and was asked if she had any children, which she did. Three to be exact. She was only twenty-five and all her children were born just under three years, so it is no surprise that when she was asked if she was religious she replied that she was Catholic. Christianity and native Americans have a strange relationship. The religion was used to justify atrocities done to us too numerous not only for this paper, but for anyone to ever list. Arguably it’s greatest crime was to mold itself into a cardboard beacon, offering native Americans sanctuary from it’s own ugliness. For centuries Native American men made the decision to convert for the rest of the family. The rules of life changed for them, but it’s unclear if they realized the changes it meant for their wives. Their roles in many nations were reduced, as was their agency over their bodies. Contraceptives in their earliest days were known throughout the world, including the Americas, yet now they were forbidden. As ridiculous and ineffective as they could be, they at least offered the illusion of body autonomy, mostly for women.

When Janet went to the IHS the Women’s Health Movement (WHM) had only recently begun, along with second wave feminism. It spoke loftily and justly about abortion rights and about changing the traditional maternity ward practices into more family oriented ones, with the fathers allowed in the delivery room. There was a resurgence of midwifery. However, these improvements did not scratch the blood soaked surface of Native American health care. As Janet lay in the chair, three white doctors entered the room. The Indian Clinic did not have any native doctors, so doctors were driven in from nearby Tulsa Oklahoma, thus continuing the tradition of white doctors working with an exclusively non-white clientele. “I felt like I was being experimented on,” she would later say. She would be in good company. A Google search of “experiments on native women” will instantly bring up several articles about the forced sterilization of Native American women, and many give examples of experimental procedures that were performed in front of many doctors under the guise of research. Janet, who only wanted treatment for what we now know as polycystic ovary syndrome, never knew she would join their ranks. “One of the doctors told me that they were going to burn the cysts off. The procedure was never really explained to me and it was probably a combination of me being a woman and being Native American. They thought I was too dumb to understand anyway.” Had she known more on the subject she might have thought he was referring to a ovarian wedge resection, a common treatment at the time. It involves opening the patient up in an operating theater and exposing the ovaries. The cysts are then carefully removed with a cauterization tool not only keep the cyst from bursting, but to ensure the ovary heals properly. Instead of doing this, Janet and her doctors remained in the exam room where he gave her a local anesthetic, inserted a cauterizing into her vaginally, and performed what was most likely a tubal litigation. This is the most common form of female sterilization and only severs the fallopian tubes. My grandmother’s painful ovaries would remain untouched and untreated.

“I remember smelling something burning,” recalled Janet, “I looked down and saw smoke.”She was sent home directly after the procedure, unaware of what had actually happened to her and uninformed of the possible side effects. There was pain, of course, and in a candid moment she also confessed that she was never able to feel sexual pleasure with her husband again. Worst of all, because there had been no attempt to treat the cysts, and the pain that started the entire ordeal returned within weeks.

Pain seems to be woven into the fabric of every Native American woman’s life and this has not gone unnoticed artists, native and non-native alike. When native women are not posing nude on a biker’s bicep, we are huddled into blankets, riding our horses, our backs bent and heads hung low. Sometimes we stand on hills, gazing at nothing with blank faces and sometimes we kneel by our tipis and look at the ground. Though the past few decades have brought forward more animated depictions of Native American women, my grandmother’s house was filled with the old fashioned kind. As a child, I thought they were pretty, if boring. I never perceived any greater meaning than a woman simply looking down. Maybe she was watching a bug. As a child I was also blissfully unaware of the majority of the atrocities faced by our people and what I did know, I largely new in name only. It wasn’t until I grew older that I’d look at these paintings and think ‘huh, she actually looks kinda sad’. Now I look at these paintings and think ‘she looks utterly defeated’. Knowing what really happened to us makes me notice details I never had before, like how so many of them have textbook thousand yard stares while portraits of chiefs and warriors in the same stye still seem to have fire in their eyes. The men are also more likely to be depicted upright, whether standing or on horseback, still tall in some way or another. The woman have deflated. We slump over our horse’s necks, we kneel, we sit. It seems as though these women have accepted that pain is just something they must endure silently and with dignity, whatever the source. My grandmother is not like these women, so when the pain that had sent her to the doctor in the first place returned, so did she.

The doctors made little effort with pretense this time - she would have a hysterectomy and that was that. At this point there was no reason to try and treat her as Janet could no longer have children, and in the end her hysterectomy would succeed in ridding her of her pain. Why then does it seem to hold so much more significance? European invaders managed to erase many aspects of various indigenous cultures, but some roots run too deep to be completely torn out and in so many of our cultures it was the female ability bring forth life that created the world. The association with women and new life was so strong that even in some nations it was observed that women sewed the seeds for the new crops and tended to them, but it was the men who reaped them. Their reasoning was that women brought life, and men took it. Some Lakota Sioux would not acknowledge a girl’s transition to womanhood until she has had a child. This doesn’t mean that a woman’s only value was her ability to have children and in many nations women held high political power, were religious leaders, and even warriors. Still, it is virtually impossible to completely separate a woman’s potential reproductive capabilities and how she was viewed in societies that place more value on the concept of new life, birth, or rebirth. So many Native American nations fell into this category, and on some level or another, a woman’s womb was sacred. In 1972, at age 25, my grandmother’s was ripped from her body.

From an outsiders perspective, it seems as though these sterilized women have become those broken women from the paintings. In doing research for this paper, I found very little. The ambiguity is unsettling. Is the near total absence of initial medical documentation a result of apathy towards Native American health, or an intentional coverup? Did the women affected not speak out about this at the time because of the taboo around reproductive systems? Was it shame, or a feeling that no one would listen anyway? I have to wonder, too, how many woman are like my grandmother who only now realizes what was done to her. Whitehorse also did not realize what happened to her until later. “I was trying to have more babies, but was having trouble getting pregnant, so I went to the IHS clinic. That’s when they told me about what they did to me,” She said. She had been sterilized during a previous surgery.“I was in so much pain when I went in for the appendectomy; they gave me a bunch of papers to sign. They never explained anything to me; I had no idea I was giving them permission to sterilize me.” she said. It wasn’t only abdominal pain that allowed doctors to trick women into sterilization. One of the more famous cases of sterilization involved two girls, both under fifteen years old, who were sterilized during surgery to remove their tonsils. It’s been estimated that between 1960 and 1970, for every seven native babies born, one woman was sterilized, culminating in roughly 25% of the potentially fertile female population. Even this was not enough of an attack on the Native American woman. Native American boarding schools, run by the BIA (Bureau of Indian Affairs) where still common in that era. A 1971 census stated that approximately 35,000 Native American children lived in boarding schools rather than at home. In these schools, children were stripped of their language, their culture, their religion, their names, and often, their sanity. Abuse was rampant and the chances of escape were bleak. While non-native children were begging for bell bottoms and watching t.v, two native boys fled, only to freeze to death in their attempt to return home. Suicide rates amongst teenage boarders could reach as high as one hundred times the national average. The rest of the nation, if it noticed, soon turned away and continued to focus on disco. Native mothers could do little to stop the abuse of their children, but a growing number were being offered a choice. If they agreed to be sterilized, their existing children might be allowed to stay with them. It can’t be said if it was in defeat or defiance that a mother made her choice, whichever it was. It would a lie to say that no woman was defeated, and sat slumped over a bottle of whiskey rather than a horse.

However, when my grandmother was wheeled into the recovery bay, she discovered that she was not the only woman who refused stoop down and be silent, though she did not yet know what bond she shared with these women. They were a small group, all in various stages of recovery. They smiled and chatted if and when they could, and because the nurses were about as helpful as a match under water, they tended to each other. The women adjusted each others hospital beds by hand, fetched each other glasses of water and just as importantly, they kept each other in good spirits. Decades later, Janet will still smile and laugh when she remembers a woman that was truly fed up with the barely edible hospital food. “You guys want some pizza?” The woman had asked, and then she got up and climbed out the window. A while later she returned the same way, pizza in hand. They might have been neglected and in pain, but in that moment they were normal women diving into a pizza and giddy with their own mischief. It seems like such a small gesture, valuable in that it’s a light hearted tidbit from an otherwise tragic story, but it is so much more than that. Expand the perspective and you’ll find it’s really the story of how a Native American woman was had her reproductive organs seared into oblivion against her will by white doctors, was neglected by nurses in a recovery room filled with strangers, and this woman still had the strength and spark to climb out a window and return with pizza to share with her sisters. Our solidarity is our fortitude. Native women have an incredible ability to come together and to accomplish incredible things. One of they key elements that allows us to do this is our ability to communicate with each other, and despite what modern white hippies may think, we can’t do that with telepathy and talking animals. I would not have been able to tell my grandmother’s story without calling her and having several lengthy phone calls. This chapter of our history is in danger of being forgotten. It’s imperative we learn as much as we can, but that is not enough. It’s through communication that bond over our people’s losses and triumphs and encourage others to learn along with us. If I am to end this essay with one request, it is that when you read this chapter of our history, please read it out loud.

—- This essay is dedicate to Janet Stork, I cannot give enough thanks to my grandmother for letting me interview her. Rather than mourn her loss, she seemed happy throughout every conversation, as if she was glad that someone wanted to hear what she had to say. This is such a sensitive topic, one that would make many young students here cringe and shy away from, but my grandmother made every conversation a comfortable one. No question was off limits, there was no withholding of details. I feel so lucky to have a grandmother like her, and I’m amazed that it’s through her strength I exist today.

48 notes · View notes

toonpunk-game · 4 years ago

Text

Fluff Updates: Part 2

Next up: a bunch of stuff about Saskatoon, the default setting’s central location; and the country surrounding it, the United Canadian and American States.

Saskatoon

Let’s make this clear: while the UCAS still acknowledges Ottowa as its capitol, Saskatoon is nothing less than the very center of the world today. There is no other city that unites so many different pillars of finance, industry, science, and politics; and for the last 200 years, it has been to the world as New York was to the 1900s. In Saskatoon, you can find the Morbux Company’s interplanetary center of operations; the United Planetary Council; the world’s largest Inkman asylum; the Babblebones Museum of History and Science; the only publicly-available space elevator; and a thriving, storied, culture.

Like many great cities, Saskatoon rose to prominence because of its location. For reasons which are not yet fully understood, the Saskatoon general area has the highest elemental ink concentration in the entire world—roughly 1 part per 120, which skirts the safe limit for human beings. This not only makes it extremely livable for inkmen of all kinds; but also makes the production and operation of ink-assisted technology significantly easier than any other place—today, a full 40% of publicly-distributed augments are manufactured within the Saskatoon city limits, by over 15 different companies; and many other corporations rely on the natural ink levels to create engines, batteries, computers, and much more.

Due to strict zoning laws enacted during the I-day reconstruction, the Saskatoon municipal area has kept a comparatively low population density—with only 15 million residents, it is one of the few major metropolitan areas that has not reached 5000-persons-per-kilometer. Even with that said, it remains a popular travel destination, and accommodates nearly 3 million tourists a day.

Despite its global importance, Saskatoon is very much a city with two sides; and it is hounded by a shockingly high crime rate and a historically dark reputation. The high ink level means that, during I-day and Bloody March, numerous highly destructive ink-beings manifested there: dragons, archdemons, killer clowns, and more. In many ways, it was the epicenter of the bloodshed; and by the time it was over, much of the city and surrounding areas had been completely leveled.

During the arduous decade-long reconstruction effort, most of the survivors were confined to refugee camps. There, many dispossessed Saskatoonians adopted drug use, and violent crime—habits which were not necessarily relinquished upon their return to ordered society. While those original perpetrators are by now long deceased, they did successfully lay the groundwork of several criminal spheres, which persist even today: illegal augmentation, opioids, arms dealing, and mafia protection rackets are disappointingly common within the city, despite over a century of prosperity.

According to the UCAS census bureau’s 2302 report, between 5% and 7% of Saskatoon residents have been arrested during their life—the highest arrest rate in the country. However, many of these arrests are made by private security companies, and do not result in a later conviction: of the nearly 1 million arrests made annually, only 120 thousand of these are carried out by the Saskatoon PD—while the majority of PMC arrests are made for unsubstantiated claims of assault, vandalism, or trespassing. This statistic is often used as a case against the legal power of PMCs, by critics who maintain that they are knowingly abusing their power as a form of intimidation. However, those who support their power of arrest often dismiss the Saskatoon arrest rate as a statistical outlier with no broadly applicable significance.

UCAS

The most powerful nation on the North American continent is the United Canadian/American States—more commonly shortened to UCAS. Formed after the oust of Chairman Moirus III, and the collapse of the USA, the UCAS is commonly described as the only true megacapitalist country on the planet Earth—something which has made it a favorite of the Morbux Corporation, and frequently pushed it into opposition with more heavily regulated nations around the world. With over 5 billion residents, the UCAS accounts for almost 20% of the global population; and it was the second nation to be interglobally recognized as a Superduperpower, shortly after the DPRC.

Of the UCAS’ approximately 20 million kilometer area, only 8 million is incorporated metropolitan zones—meaning that despite its large population, the UCAS actually has one of the highest percentages of rural territory in the Western world. Most of this is given over to factory farming of corn, potatoes, and crickets, all of which are staples of modern-day convenience food; and which, taken together, make up almost 15% of Canadian exports. The majority of industrialized territory accommodates numerous different manufacturing industries, the most profitable of which is consumer augmentation—thanks in large part to the unparalleled manufacturing capability of the Saskatoon general area.

According to the 2302 Population Census, there are roughly 4.4 billion UCAS citizens, and 1.6 billion of these live on or beneath the poverty line; despite this, UCAS citizens hold an estimated 48% of the planet Earth’s GDP—due mostly to the large number of mega-gloms headquartered there: a reported 2003 trillionaires live in the UCAS, while several thousand more are certified billionaires. Fully 60% of Canadian citizens, across all wealth bands, are inkmen of some description; the third-highest amount in the world, behind North Ireland and New Songhai.

FORMATION OF THE UCAS

Nutocracy

Prior to the Canadian/American unification, both countries observed independent systems of governance—the former as a federal monarchy, and the latter as an informal plutocracy. During the second half of the 20th century, and the earliest parts of the 21st, America was the dominant superpower on the planet Earth; but during the 2020s its fortune began to steadily decline. Underneath the Thomas Thunder administration, sweeping budget cuts and comically far-reaching corruption scandals left many American federal agencies derelict in their duties; so a number of government services—most prominently roadwork, education, emergency rescue, disaster relief, and environmental protection—were co-opted by private organizations. Many of these were initially started as PR moves by larger companies but grew into separate organizations over time. For example, the famous pornography website BootyBank.com began planting forests for use as carbon sinks—a movement which later coalesced into the thriving BotanyBank charity.

Over the next few years, growing disillusionment with the ailing political corpus lead to the rise of the “Neo-populist” movement: an offshoot of free-market libertarianism catalyzed by the New Rockefellers’ respective cults of personality. The mainstream media of the time labeled the NP movement a “threat to the American way of life” and derisively referred to them as the “cult of the billionaire”; but a dogged and understated media campaign successfully won them the hearts and minds of numerous people across Cob Country, the Rust Belt, and the Western Seaboard.

The growth of the Neopop movement was concerning to many people. The cornerstone of their rhetoric was the Smithian idea of incentivizing the rich to aid the poor, which they argued could be accomplished by selectively dissolving and privatizing government services: that is to say that in the absence of government, it would become the best interest of American corporations to fill the vacuum with a private service. Many critics on the political left argued that this would pave the way for a corrupt plutocratic government; and in one particularly memorable press address, Republican Senator Mathieu Willaby referred to the Neopops as “a series of fascists nesting in the hollowed-out corpse of the Republican party”; but this alarmism generally failed to resonate with the American public in the face of the Neopops’ calm and understated campaigning.

Instead of the fiery political rhetoric of the mainstream, Neopop candidates—usually running on the Republican platform and funded by the New Rockefellers—would perform a series of public services in an underprivileged area, and use this in its entirety as their campaign rally. Despite some initial trepidation, the house Republicans elected to toe the Neopop line for the sake of maintaining a unified conservative majority on capitol hill. During the 2026 mid-term elections, Neopop party members secured bipartisan nominations and successfully won seats in 187 congressional districts—becoming the de facto largest voting bloc in congress, despite not actually being recognized as a political party in itself.

The Neopop Dream

In 2032, the Neopop party won their biggest success when President Walter Sturm was elected to his second term of office on his “corporate castles” platform: a sweeping series of deregulations which promised to remove power from the government while empowering American business owners to make more significant contributions to the legislative process. Despite enormous pushback from the political left, the American congress ratified several laws and a constitutional amendment.

The most important of these was the 28th Amendment to the Constitution of the United States, which signed into law the ability of civilian groups or people to unilaterally appoint a congressional representative in exchange for an annual payment to the federal reserve. This more or less allowed the extremely wealthy to buy voting power, and was heralded by American Neopop conservatives as a revolution of democracy: proponents argued that this was a way for the movers and shakers of American society to directly raise the quality of life and economy without being bogged down by obstinance and inefficiency in the legislative body.

Also of great significance was House Bill 6274, which instituted a federal-level plan to gradually defund state-operated police departments over the following 10 years while replacing them with for-profit [b]Rights Protection Agencies[/b]. These RPAs would function identically to municipal police departments, with the major difference being that they would only take a small portion of their funding from the city: the majority of their funding would come from individual citizens, who would be allowed to opt into preferential treatment in exchange for larger monthly payments. During the months leading up to its ratification, critics of HB6274 attempted to frame it as the gateway to systemic oppression by the wealthy; but these were successfully deflected by the Neopops’ insistence that it was merely the difference between “total protection by the police” and “deluxe total protection”.

These concerns were, of course, almost [i]immediately[/i] vindicated by the Cordon of Alabama three months after HB6274’s ratification. Sadly, by that point the damage was done; and over the next 4 years the cordons of Michigan, Missouri, and Arizona solidified America’s new paradigm as a land of haves-and-have-nots. Most of these cordons targeted minority groups in rural and subrural areas—which provoked further outrage from the citizenry. Since the 2020s, it had been the fashion among affluent African and Latino Americans to seek Canadian residence; and in 2036, this trend spiraled into the first American Refugee Crisis. By 2040, nearly 46 million Black or Hispanic Americans were refugees, with 27 million receiving asylum in Canada or Germany. By I-day, 52 million people had been displaced by the effects of HB6274 and the worst was yet to come.

The Second Immigration Crisis

When I-day finally came, it was enough to break the USA right in half. An estimated 3.1 billion people abruptly materialized, and America was worse-equipped to handle them than most: despite having vast swathes of inhabitable land, most of it was on the relatively arid great plains. The humid areas best suited to accommodate the inkish population were congregated around the gulf of Mexico, the Mississippi river, and the great lakes—all of which had been ravaged by a combination of 6274’s aftereffects and seasonal flooding. The country was, simply put, not ready for that number of people: the government briefly deployed the national guard, and then the army, to try and quell the chaos—but the sheer number of people meant that establishing conventional refugee camps was impossible. Throughout March and April it became clear that there was no protocol or organization in place which could even remotely address the ongoing issues.

On March 24, 2042, President Timothy Malthus issued the executive order for the military to indiscriminately employ lethal force against inkish refugees and burn any life-bearing paper. Violence erupted up and down the Mississippi, and bonfires dotted the country. Progress came at a glacial rate: it was nothing less than an act of genocide, but it was being committed against a people that could seldom ever die. America seemed poised on the edge of a long and brutal war with no clear end, of a sort that had not since been seen since the Mexican drug war of prior decades. Inkmen were executed on sight without trial or trepidation, treated as no more than pests.

Then, an unexpected source promised some measure of salvation. On March 29, the Canadian government declared its borders unconditionally open to American inkmen and life-bearing paper. This was not in itself particularly surprising, and was a continuation of the country’s refugee-friendly politics: during the first American immigration crisis, Canada had installed numerous far-reaching refugee housing measures to accommodate some 3.5 million American refugees; and when I-day came, their extant temp-housing corpus was prepared for 4 million people. This was not nearly vast enough to accommodate the influx of American inkmen; but it did not have to be.

During experimentation conducted on several survivors of the Saskatoon blitz, the Canadian government had accurately ascertained the physiological needs of inkish beings. Knowing that they technically required nothing but ink and space, both of which Canada had in abundance, the house of commons made a calculated gamble and opened the border. Meanwhile, PM Katie Sheffield declared a public order emergency with a very simple provision: inkish persons would be allowed to deposit their homepages at public refugee camps, where they would be held by the government; but past that, they would be required to wait in the wilderness until such a time as the government could organize them into formal labor groups. While unpleasant, these conditions were favorable to being shot on sight; and most able-bodied American inkmen fled to Canada.

Canada in the Ascendency

Over the next 16 months, the Canadian government successfully organized 12,400 migrant building projects across the uninhabited sectors of Manitoba, Saskatchewan, and Nunavut. These projects relied on local resources and highly specialized construction which leveraged the inkmen’s limited physical needs: their homes did not need bathrooms or kitchens, which meant space could be devoted entirely to living and utility. At the time, this was heralded as an unrivaled display of bureaucratic aptitude; but in 2032 declassified government documents revealed this to be the work of a clandestine “crisis council” formed from some of Western Animation’s finest minds. This council, which had been kept secret to avoid public concern, included such disparate luminaries as Croesus Catsby, Princess Ember, Quincey Quark, and Vernon Vernacular.

The ultimate goal of admitting the inkish refugee population was to eventually dissolve their temporary settlements and integrate them into broader Canadian society. The government, under advisement by the crisis council, was not merely counting on inkish persons to equal the economic power of meatish refugees, but to exceed it: in an internal memo to PM Sheffield, Catsby outlined his expectation that [i]“the inkish population will be an unprecedented economic force: we can be trained out of our reliance on sleep and food, and can survive all but the most dangerous climes. We will produce and consume more in this service economy than any living creature. A naturalized inkish populace will be worth ten times its weight in gold.”[/i]

This turned out to be something of an understatement. Over the next 20 years, Canada became the world’s greatest economic superpower—eclipsing America after 3 years, Germany after 6 years, and China after 9 years. Opening the job market to inkmen allowed numerous highly-specialized highly-trained people to enter the workforce almost instantly, while the ballooning population and expanding cityscapes meant supply could barely keep up with demand. Secondly, the country’s high ambient ink reserves allowed local manufacturers to mass produce precious materials at an unmatched rate with virtually no carbon footprint or additional infrastructure necessary.

The American Experiment’s Ignominious Ending

In the South, things were boiling over. It is possible that, had the second crisis not occurred, America would have enjoyed relative success for some time; but in 2045, the post I-day tension reached its promised conclusion. On February 2, the Inkish States of America launched a coordinated bombing attack on the cities of Atlanta, Chicago, and New York—at long last bringing the United States into its long-anticipated Second Civil War. The ISA, based out of the depopulated rural regions, launched a violent guerilla campaign against urban America. This campaign was aided by millions of meatmen sympathetic to the Inkish cause, especially on the western seaboard. On February 4th, President Benjamin Huxley declared a state of martial law; but a combination of numerous factors meant that the military deployment was largely ineffective. By November of that year, casualties had risen to over 800 US Soldiers and 1200 ISA fighters—while the New Rockefellers had uniformly rebased to Canada.

In January 2046, several key players in the American military industrial complex—including Kingston Aeronautics and the now-defunct Mammoth Motors, both of which had expatriated to Canada—announced a shift in allegiance to the ISA. Historical records show that these decisions were jointly meditated upon, and featured input from many of the New Rockefellers. With the country’s de facto financiers officially pulling out, the American government quickly fell to ruin. On October 16 2046, the Rockefeller-backed ISA laid siege to Washington DC; and on October 31, President Huxley signed the USA’s unconditional surrender before General A. Z. Blowhard.

On November 3rd, ISA members and hopeful statesmen met for a new constitutional convention. Under the official rules of the convention, each of the 50 united states would be assigned a pair of representatives to vote on their behalf. Any humans over the age of 35 and any inkmen over the mental age of 35 would be allowed to submit a bid for a representative position; and over the next 3 days all convention attendees would be allowed to vote on their choice for representative. In theory this would put everyone on an even keel; but in practice people congregated around recognized leaders in politics and industry. Among the elected representatives were several New Rockefellers—namely Bradley Crichton of Megalodon Shipping; Sharlto Butts of Athena Engineering; Susan Surma of Numerik Technology; and Waldo Hammerstein of the Bjurgenstadt holdings firm.

The constitutional convention was dominated by fiery egalitarian rhetoric, with a particular focus on three things: establishing the rights of sapient inkpersons as fully protected citizens; re-instating police forces as government-funded entities; and the reorganization of the American armed forces. Amid the ongoing debates, a new political movement arose: unionism, which advocated for the ISA’s voluntary integration with the Canadian government. Arguing that Canada’s natural ink reserves and ink-friendly policies were ideal for both Meatman-dominated industry and inkish settlers seeking new livelihoods, the unionists (backed by the Rockefellers and many members of the ISA leadership) gained significant traction among the representatives. On November 30th, the constitutional convention voted 61/39 to enter into talks with the Canadian Parliament.

On December 29, 2046, the Canadian parliament and the new constitutional convention jointly ratified a ten-year plan to gradually integrate the two nations into a unified federation. Under the ten-year plan, the Canadian/American border would be effectively dissolved.

In the years since, conspiracy theorists have long argued over whether the unionist party, or perhaps even the entire ISA, was actually a Canadian proxy; but there is no truly compelling evidence to support this theory. It is today commonly accepted as fact that the Rockefeller’s involvement with the ISA was a political gambit designed to ensure their protected status after the collapse of the incumbent government—a collapse which their actions in the previous decades had admittedly helped cause.

#more of the same

1 note · View note

lozkayepirate · 5 years ago

Text

At the point when I was growing up, shoes were universal, unbranded, revolting and modest.

Children adored them since they were so natural to go around in, and guardians cherished them since they spared mileage on your "genuine" shoes.

In any case, throughout the years, the humble tennis shoe has transformed into the creator athletic shoe, and all the while, brought forth an entirely different classification of what financial experts call "extravagance products."

No organization has profited more from this design pattern than Nike, which supposedly controls one-fifth of the worldwide athletic wear showcase. Nike's most well known brand is Air Jordan, named for the similarly celebrated Michael Jordan, who drove the Chicago Bulls to six NBA titles during the 1990s and is commonly credited with being the best player ever to play the game.

In February, Nike started discharging a progression of "retro" Air Jordans, to praise the twentieth commemoration of prior models. The "Powder Blue" Air Jordan 10 hit retail locations in late February; first day deals allegedly bested $35 million around the world.

STORY FROM U.S. Registration BUREAU

Each individual in America matters. The 2020 Census needs to tally them all

Air Jordans are made in China and allegedly cost Nike more than $16 a couple. The Air Jordan 10s are recorded on Amazon for $250 to $550 a couple, contingent upon the style and shading. On the off chance that that strikes you as a fairly hellacious markup, welcome to the universe of "extravagance" merchandise, where the selling cost is resolved not by the expense of the products, however by the status that purchasers think they present.

STORY FROM U.S. Statistics BUREAU

In what capacity can populace information sway nearby streets?

Clinicians reveal to us that there are two fundamental reasons why we purchase extravagance products, in any event, when a considerable lot of us truly can't bear the cost of them. The first is designated "flagging" — utilizing extravagance products to "flaunt" and impart an unmistakable sign that you match your friends, or to others in your locale. Additionally, we frequently buy extravagance products to "mark" critical achievements in our lives.

The subsequent explanation is activated by snapshots of low confidence. As an ongoing article on extravagance products in Time Magazine put it, "when you're encountering low confidence, you're bound to feel a more grounded want to get high-status merchandise ..."

Thus, no doubt regardless of whether you are groping path about yourself or route down, you are probably going to get yourself a couple of Air Jordans that you most likely don't require and perhaps can't manage.

Past the grandiose costs, there are a couple other shrouded costs joined to purchasing MJ's most recent shoes. For a certain something, spending on extravagance merchandise doesn't stream back through the economy the manner in which it used to. Nike's stock, for instance, has significantly increased as of late. Be that as it may, since the wealthiest Americans currently possess 90+ percent of every regular stock, they bring home almost the entirety of the increases when stock costs flood.

youtube

Then again, individuals in the white collar class and regular workers need to depend on the development of steady employments for their budgetary prosperity. Shockingly, purchasing overrated shoes from Nike doesn't result in employments either. Nike imports the entirety of its shoes, and, thusly, utilizes significantly less American specialists per dollar of deals than most huge organizations.

In this way, from our vantage point, purchasing extravagance merchandise will in general make others rich and over-rewards CEOs — Nike's Mark Price has earned $61 million in simply the most recent three years. Purchasing extravagance merchandise typically undermines American employments, since nearly anything you purchase rather most likely involves much increasingly home-developed work.

In elite athletics, competitors regularly re-up their agreements with the group that gave them their beginning for less cash than they could get somewhere else. It's referred to in the games business as the "old neighborhood markdown." If Michael Jordan and Nike need to keep selling us Air Jordans at shocking costs, at that point maybe they should take somewhat less in benefits and contract American laborers to make the shoes that they sell in America.

It could be their method for giving the host group an old neighborhood break.

Terry O'Keefe is a long-term visitor supporter of the Citizen-Times and is a "recuperated" lawmaker.

1 note · View note

uncommonfauna · 5 years ago

Text

3 notes · View notes

televisedbirdwatching · 5 years ago

Text

Getting a Handle on Portland Skateparks with GIS

BACKGROUND:

For the past few months, I’ve been taking courses in Geographic Information Systems (GIS) at Portland Community College. GIS work involves a lot of computer screen time, so I was thankful to have easy access to the Holly Farm skatepark on my way home. Class ended at 9pm, so if I hurried to the park I would have a half hour to skate before the sun fully set behind the hills. These short skate sessions were an important part of my day: after work and class I was thankful for some physical activity and unstructured time.

Holly Farm Skatepark in SW Portland. Photo Skaters for Portland Skateparks.

I believe skateparks are a crucial recreational resource. Of course, I’m not an impartial judge. For me, close access to the Holly Farm park was something to look forward to after class. But for many others, it’s worth considering that skateparks represent something far more important.

In urban planning language, the term “third places” is used to describe the places in our lives that are not work nor home. Sociologist Ray Oldenburg coined the term in a 1989 book called “The Great Good Place.” He wrote that the neighborhood grocery store, the corner bar, and the coffee shop are the places where ‘weak’ social connections are made, introducing people to community members who would otherwise be strangers (A brief note that ‘weak’ refers to ‘casual’ more than ‘insignificant’). He called third places the “heart of a community’s social vitality,” and foundational to grassroots democracy. Without them, people live isolated lives and take on narrow perspectives.

Much of the dialog on third places focuses on places that are appropriate to the lives of adults. There’s no reason to suspect third places might be any less important to youth. In fact, youth are traditionally excluded from the most common third places (too young to enjoy caffeine, not old enough for bars) leaving them fewer total available third places. In addition, youth contending with urban sprawl may have difficulty accessing third places, even if they exist. Even in 1989, Oldenburg saw that third places were on the decline; in recent years, virtual spaces have filled these voids. This puts youth in a particularly vulnerable position: there were less third places to begin with, there are less now than before, and accessing the few that are left can be challenging.

I’m concerned about youth-appropriate third places in general, and I admit skateparks are only one such place. However, I believe that skateparks offer particular and unique benefits for youth. Skateboarding offers an experience in unstructured play, different from organized sports. Skaters are free to find their own lines in a skatepark, linking features and tricks in a way not enforced (but informed) by the design of the park itself. Skateboarding also teaches youth how to fall and get back up, and fosters obsessive persistence in the pursuit of self-structured goals: many tricks require hundreds of tries for one “make.” Skateboarding is an individual sport at its core, but skateparks are environments where supportive communities can be actualized. Friends give advice and assistance, and skaters learn how to learn from their peers. Not only is there personal satisfaction to be gained from landing a trick, there is also the enthusiasm and encouragement coming from your peers at the park.

A photo from Skate Like A Girl’s yearly competition, Wheels of Fortune. Photo Thrasher Magazine.

Skateboarding can also create support in communities that might face steeper slopes. Skate Like a Girl is a national nonprofit that pushes for a more inclusive skate community and shares the joy of skating with (primarily) womxn-identifying youth. From their website: "Women and girls who learn how to skateboard learn more than just how to balance; girls who skateboard learn to push their own personal boundaries, test their capabilities and in the process, teach and encourage others. It is our firm belief that these attributes reap rewards outside of the skatepark and our immediate community. Girls and women who believe in themselves are more likely to raise their hand in the classroom, advocate for themselves in the workplace and attract the company of those who respect them.”

Skateparks are a particular type of third place for youth where they can make ‘weak ties’ that become friendships, participate in free, unstructured play, and develop skills and personal attributes that will serve them throughout the course of their lives. In addition, skateboarding has a comparatively low financial barrier to entry than other sports and activities.

Since skateparks are so important, it might be surprising to know that Portland has only eight officially-recognized, public skateparks: one for every 81,000 Portlanders. What might be more surprising is that the city of Portland was (most likely) the first in the world to have a comprehensive Skatepark System Plan. Local nonprofit Skaters for Portland Skateparks began the process in 2001, and legislation was passed in 2005. The plan called for 19 total skateparks of varying size from “neighborhood spots” to a central “destination” skatepark. In the 14 years since, only eight of the 19 have been built.

Skaters for Portland Skateparks’ System Map. Built skateparks in green, planned skateparks in red.

In my GIS class, we were asked to pose a research question, and answer that question with spatial analyses. I wanted to look at the current distribution of skateparks in Portland, and develop a characterization of who does and does not have access to this critical recreational resource. Here are a set of maps that help tell that story.

MAPS:

Borrowing a term from the food justice world, I wanted to create a map of “Skatepark Deserts” in Portland. The first step was creating the dataset- I mapped point features for each skatepark, and included some additional information (if built or planned, if built, what year). Next, I added information from the census bureau showing census tracts in the Portland area. This map was created to show each tract’s distance from a public skatepark. Dark shades of blue are tracts that contain or are within 1 mile of skateparks. Green scrubland represents a 2-mile, semi-accessible radius. Orange areas are “Skatepark Deserts,” more than 2 miles from a recognized skatepark.

Skatepark Deserts in Portland, OR. Map created by me.

If you’re interested in the GIS methodology, here you go. If not, you can skip to the next section. The first category, the darkest blue areas, were created by selecting all tracts that contained one of the skatepark points. The other analyses were performed using the centroids of each tract. For example, the light blue areas are census tracts whose centroid is within a 1 mile buffer of the skatepark point. The green areas, a 2 mile buffer. The desert scrublands are polygons that have at least some area within the 2 mile buffer. The desert sands are polygons that are completely outside the 2 mile buffer.

The first map showed the geographic distribution of skateparks in Portland, but it doesn’t tell a very complete story. I wanted to look at some of the demographic data and develop a fuller picture of who has access to skateparks. I created two maps using the same census tract blocks, but this time displayed them on the basis of poverty rate and median family income. The first map shows the percentage of families living at or below the poverty line: darker colors represent more families experiencing poverty. Census tracts containing skateparks are highlighted. For the most part, skateparks are sited in locations where they serve areas with high poverty rates. The smallest tract poverty rate is Glenhaven park at 11%, but neighbors two tracts with higher poverty rates. Ed Benedict, Luuwit, and Gateway are sited in areas with high poverty rates, between 28 and 30%.

Poverty Rate of skatepark-containing census tracts in Portland. Map created by me.

I also created a map showing median family income in each of these tracts. Darker colors represent greater amounts of income. The average of the median family income of all tracts containing skateparks is roughly $62,000. Southwest Portland is an interesting anomaly: the Holly Farm and Gabriel parks are in areas with close to six-figure median incomes, yet also have 14 and 19% poverty rates.

Median family income of skatepark-containing census tracts in Portland. Map created by me.

More GIS methodology: if you’re interested in the categories I used to classify this data, let me know and I can go into more depth!

So far, Portland has done a good job of siting skateparks in locations where they serve low and middle income communities. However, the Skatepark Desert effect is unresolved. Many areas in far-east Portland and in the downtown area have high poverty rates yet don’t have easy access to a skatepark.

Transit connectivity is an important consideration given the plain fact that school-aged youth are not able to drive. Some families experiencing poverty may be entirely transit dependent. Others may have personal vehicles but not the time to drive children across town. Transit connectivity gives youth the freedom to travel on their own and access third spaces like skateparks freely. I created a transit connectivity score by counting the number of bus lines that intersect a 1-mile radius circle around each skatepark. Assuming one mile is a reasonable distance to travel on a skateboard, the score represents how many buses someone could possibly board. This is another area where Portland does well- there are no values less than 10, and Gateway Park boasts access to 26 bus lines, not including the MAX Light Rail system.

Transit Connectivity of skateparks in Portland. Map created by me.

Finally, although transit connectivity is important, walkability offers an even higher level of access for youth. For this map, I used the same 1-mile buffers but counted the number of schools that lie within each circle. I’ll give Portland a passing score on this metric. Although some skateparks have low scores (Pier Park: 2), there are often other schools just outside the 1-mile radius.

Skateparks and Schools in Portland. Map created by me.

Here again, the skateparks that exist in Portland score well in terms of transit connectivity and proximity to schools, ensuring that youth have easy access to these resources. However, consider the number of schools that are not within the 1-mile circles: the majority of school aged youth are still in a skatepark desert.

Considering these maps together, it’s fair to say that Portland has done a good job, when constructing skateparks, to ensure that they serve low and middle income youth, are transit connected, and close to schools. However, there’s more work to be done. As I mentioned earlier, the city’s 2005 plan called for the construction of 19 skateparks. Skatepark construction hit the ground rolling with five parks in three years: Pier Park (2005), Glenhaven and Holly Farm (2007), Gabriel and Ed Benedict Parks (2008). Skaters for Portland Skateparks write “With the economic downturn in full swing, Portland Parks & Recreation offers that funding is no longer available for additional public skatepark projects within the Skatepark System Plan. Investment and momentum slows for the build up of the remaining 14 prospective skateparks.” The next skatepark wouldn’t be built until 2015 (Alberta), followed closely by Luuwit (2017) and Gateway (2018).

Gateway is Portland’s newest skatepark. Photo Skaters for Portland Skateparks.

Hopefully, we can capitalize on this second swing of skatepark momentum to fill in some of the gaps in the Skatepark Deserts map. One of the most promising proposals for an additional Skatepark is the Steel Bridge skatepark. This skatepark would serve a critical population in the downtown area, developing an urban brownfield currently created by the traffic ramp exit for the west side of the Steel Bridge. Here are some artistic renderings of what the skatepark might look like.

Photos Skaters for Portland Skateparks/Bryce Kanights, Renderings via DAO architecture.

I’m also inspired by the skate community in Boulder, Colorado, where their “Green Block Project” is proving that not every skate spot has to be a large-scale, “destination” park. At Valmont Park in Boulder, there was a large, unused pavilion. Skaters built a partnership with the city and with the University of Colorado Environmental Design program to design a DIY-style skatepark in this space. To quote from this article: "The initial idea of the green block project was to use 'dross-scapes' and otherwise unused land to develop pocket parks and allow the community to be involved in the process," said Raul Pinto with Satellite Boardshop in Boulder. "From students at CU environmental design program to young kids taking part in the construction being supervised by older skate community members, it really was a community effort."

Photos Boulder Daily Camera.

The skatepark features parking blocks, picnic tables, ledges, and other street-style features that allow skaters to practice street-style skills without criminal trespass. All of the features were donated by community members and the park was built and maintained by volunteers, meaning the effective cost to the city was only the cost of granting permission. The Parks Planning manager for the city of Boulder was quoted as saying “This is a perfect example of listening and supporting the community to build a great space for all ages and abilities to participate in a sport that is very popular in our community and especially with teens.”

The Steel Bridge skatepark would serve a critical area of Portland, improving the geographic distribution of skateparks in Portland as well as serving low-income populations. In addition to Steel Bridge, we should also push for the construction of smaller, neighborhood-scale skate spots. For example, even if the Steel Bridge park is completed, there would still remain a sizable skatepark desert for communities living along the I-5 Corridor in North Portland. Perhaps two smaller, Green-Block style spots could be constructed in this area to improve access.

Lately I’ve been spending more time at Ed Benedict park, closer to the Southeast PCC campus. I’ve never seen the park not busy, and I know that for myself and the others who are there, it’s helping meet a need in our lives. Portland Parks and Rec’s 2020 vision goals state: “Portland’s parks, public places, natural areas and recreational opportunities give life and beauty to our city. These essential assets connect people to place, self and others. Portland’s residents will treasure and care for this legacy, building on the past to provide for future generations.” Skateparks are mentioned only once in the 2020 goals: “Develop plans that are flexible and responsive to changing demographics and emerging trends (e. g., skateboards, BMX bikes and dogs).”

Creating these maps was critical to getting a handle on the state of skateparks in Portland. It’s clear we’ve done some things well in the past, and should continue to insist on access for low-income communities, transit connectivity, and school proximity. However, it’s time to take skateparks seriously as the critical recreational resource they are, and resolve some of our skatepark deserts.

1 note · View note

oneshortdamnfuse · 6 years ago

Text

Rami Malek’s race continues to be a big source of controversy for him, because people want to try to fit him into a western-centric binary of white or black. Race is not that simple and for Rami, he has to reckon with a number of factors that shape his identity. Before people try to categorize him, it’s important for people to 1) listen to how he identifies himself and 2) think critically about how racial identity is constructed, not limited to skin color.

So, how does Rami identify himself? Rami is often referred to as a person of color in the media, but Rami also refers to himself as a person of color indirectly when asked if he thinks Elliot Alderson is a person of color. Person of color does not always mean black, but it absolutely does not mean white. So, simply put, Rami does not see himself as white. There are many fair reasons why he does not see himself as white.

An Egyptian-American man telling people he thinks of himself as non-white, should ideally be enough to respect his identity, but let’s talk about how race for people from the Middle East and North Africa are frequently labeled as white, even if they are often othered for their visible identity. People need to understand why that is, and why in actuality multiple groups of people do not fit neatly into a binary of white or black.

(long post underneath)

This article highlights some of the complexities in racially categorizing Middle Eastern and North African (MENA) people, focusing on Rami Malek in particular. They bring up an important point when it comes to categorizing MENA people in the context of U.S.-centric conceptualizations of race. I cannot say it better than it has already been said, but this is why MENA people have been categorized as white in census information:

In the US, as of 1944, people of Middle Eastern and North African (MENA) descent are officially recognized as racially white. Before 1944, during the immigration process, MENA people would claim whiteness as a result of anti-black citizenship laws that lasted until 1952. Despite being officially considered to be white, MENA people do not reap all the benefits of white privilege and are exposed to heightened surveillance and increases in hate crimes, especially post 9/11. As a result of consistent lobbying and advocacy, the Census Bureau is exploring the possibility of adding a MENA box in the 2020 census, which will allow for more accurate data and therefore ensure better and more particular services for the MENA community.

Discussing the racial complexities of MENA people is not the point of this post, nor do I think I have valuable insight into the complexity of identity within the MENA community. I am white. I grew up in the United States. I am including this, though, because it’s crucial that people understand why people from the Middle East and North Africa continue to be categorized as white, even though they can not access the same privileges as people of European descent in the U.S.

For full disclosure, I teach English to immigrants from the Middle East and North Africa (among many other regions.) In the United States, most MENA people are categorized as white in our census systems - even in our data platforms for school. A similar issue arises with our Latinx students. When asked what race to bubble-in for the purpose of exams and such, Latinx and MENA students often struggle to understand where they are supposed to fit in.

How do I tell a student with brown skin and non-western features how to categorize themselves racially after they have asked me what it means? Even if they are labelled in a system as white? Especially if they can see how they are different from their white peers, and especially if their white peers treat them differently because of the way they look? It’s not a conversation I like to have when it comes to rigid census-gathering tests.

A lot of bullying and discrimination towards MENA people targets things that can be removed (e.g. cultural markers.) For example, Rami’s discussed being bullied over the food his mother made him for lunch. He asked his mom to change the food his mother made for him to “fit in,” thus it’s a part of his identity that he can remove or change to fit the majority. However, there are other things, like his physical features, that identify him as not white.

Whiteness is largely a construct based on European descent, and the power that European peoples have exerted over non-Europeans through colonization, genocide, and other forms of violence. Some have argued that Rami can’t be a person of color because he is part Greek (~12%.) Here’s the issue with that: It’s hard to find any Mediterranean person who does not share genetics from parts of Southern Europe, North Africa, and West Asia.

My dad is genetically ~6% MENA, and I am an even smaller % MENA due to the fact that his ancestors come from Southern Italy. If your European ancestry comes from the Mediterranean, it’s more likely your genetics will circle the entire Mediterranean. That’s what’s been found among Egyptian people, who come from a place that has been a hub for cultural exchange and genetic admixture for centuries upon centuries dating back to the Pharaonic eras.

So does a small percent of European ancestry revoke Rami’s right to call himself a person of color? I would say that’s completely unfair. I do not experience any discrimination based on my race, despite the small percentage of MENA genes I have. Yet, Rami’s small percentage of Greek ancestry has not saved him from years of discrimination in his career. People have been prejudicial towards him for cultural markers, but also for his physical appearance.

Rami’s name is frequently pronounced incorrectly, and people make fun of his name as well. Rami has been stereotyped many times, especially typecast as terrorists more than once in shows that actively demonized MENA people. He is part of an ethnic minority in Egypt that has been subject to violence. People have told him to fix his appearance, especially his eyes, as he has many features that do not fit the western standards of beauty.

We cannot continually shove people of color who do not fit neatly into white or black, into either category. Understanding the difference between white and black is still important, but it does not help us understand MENA identities amongst others who may not be white or black. So, we need to give people the room to identify themselves in racial categories based on a solid understanding of their own experiences and their appearance.

(Not based on the appropriation of an identity that is not their own, mind you)

It has not been easy for people from the Middle East and North Africa who may exist along a spectrum of skin colors and other physical features, languages and cultures that are non-western, and religious experiences, to find out where they belong in this racial binary of white and black. Some may be white-passing (I’ve had red haired, blue-eyed, freckled Middle Eastern students!) and others could never pass as white. Then, some are simply ambiguous to most people.

We can’t easily judge someone’s race based on appearance alone, so we need to understand race beyond appearances - race as a social construct that can be received negatively or positively in society based on historical context and the privileges given or denied to a group of people based on the things that shape their racial identity, not limited to skin color. Then we can examine the layers of racial constructions and how complicated they can be.

Ironically, Rami Malek has played an Egyptian character twice and he has been criticized on occasion for it because people do not realize what Egyptian people can actually look like. People unhappy with him receiving recognition for his films, have labelled him as white even though it is very difficult for MENA people to be in the diverse roles Rami has just started to be able to take on. Why treat him as white when his experience and appearance greatly others him?

If Rami were living and acting primarily in Egypt, race may play out differently than it does in the United States. By calling him a person of color here, though, we recognize how whiteness has othered him and other people of Middle Eastern and North African origin/descent. We acknowledge that people from this region have gone through a long history of cultural and genetic exchange that does not neatly categorize them into our concept of white or black.

tl;dr -- Maybe don’t refer to Rami Malek as white to be antagonistic towards him and people who support him. It erases how he identifies himself and undermines the complexity of race in America.

#rami malek #text post #based on recent criticisms of his race

8 notes · View notes