#African American Women and Wrongful Conviction | Explore Tumblr posts and blogs

tiakennedy-beecher · 4 years ago

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Art and Design Contexts and Research

1. Fine Art, Film and Cinema

Fine Art:

Elizabeth Catlett, Target, 1970

In 1915, Elizabeth Catlett (the granddaughter of freed enslaved people) was born in Washington, D.C. and unflinchingly depicted the violent reality of racial injustice throughout her career. Catlett’s decision to focus on her ethnic identity, and its association with slavery and class struggles, was bold and unconventional in the 1930s and 1940s when African Americans were expected “to assimilate themselves into a more Eurocentric ethic,”. She confronted the most disturbing injustices against African Americans, including lynchings and beatings, as she was confident that art could foster social change. She also portrayed civil rights leaders — Harriet Tubman, Sojourner Truth, the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr., Angela Davis and Malcolm X — as well as the courage and resilience of everyday African-Americans, particularly women. She “always wanted my (her) art to service my (Black) people — to reflect us, to relate to us, to stimulate us, to make us aware of our potential,”. She believed that “We have to create an art for liberation and for life.” Target and Black Unity (1968), a raised fist carved in mahogany, are two of the most iconic and lasting artworks in the continuing movement for civil rights.

The signifier is the cross hairs of a rifle sight framing the head of an African-American (Black) man mounted on a block of wood. It was created in response to the fatal shooting of two Black Panthers, Fred Hampton and Mark Clark, by Chicago police officers. The signified is to highlight the fact that research shows that young Black men are far more likely to be killed by police than other Americans. It also dates back to the Civil War era when rifle scopes entered into widespread use or to the present day where more up to date weapons are used as well as choke holds and physical restraints. I have discovered that artwork can have an ever lasting impact on the world as it can still be very much relevant years to come. The research has helped me discover the potential in possibly creating a symbol or action that can be used in/to identify a protest in identifying opportunities for progressing with the project. Film:

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Martha Rosler, Semiotics of the Kitchen, 1975

Martha Rosler’s video is a grainy six minutes that spits in the face of America’s gendered social hierarchy. In a kind of parody (or perhaps anightmarish version) of Julia Child’s cooking shows in the 1960s, Rosler stands in a kitchen, wearing an apron and walks through the alphabet, assigning letters to various objects found there (“A” for “apron,” “B” for “bowl,” “C” for “chopper”) as she holds these objects up to the camera with an eerie lack of expression and emotion. Her movements become increasingly contrived and violent as the video continues on. By the time she gets to “fork,” she’s stabbing at the table aggressively with the utensil. When she arrives at the letter “R,” for “rolling pin,” she thrusts the object at the camera. By the end of the alphabet, she’s brandishing other kitchen tools like weapons, stabbing the air. The video ends with the artist offering an exhausted shrug, an ambiguous gesture that feels less like a resignation of fate and more a way of asking, “What is wrong with us?”.

The signifier is a woman wearing an apron reciting the alphabet while demonstrating objects in the kitchen that correspond with the start of each letter. The signified is to highlight America’s gendered social hierarchy. It also demonstrates women’s frustration with society’s expectation of them being housewives therefore they feel that they are unable to dream big due to being trapped in a cage. I have discovered that artwork can have an ever lasting impact on the world as it can still be very much relevant years to come. The research has helped me discover the potential in possibly creating a symbol or action that can be used in/to identify a protest in identifying opportunities for progressing with the project.

Cinema:

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Ava DuVernay, When They See Us, 2019

When They See Us is based on a true story that gripped the United States of America, it chronicles the notorious case of five teenagers of colour, labeled the Central Park Five, who were convicted of a rape they did not commit. The four part limited series will focus on the five teenagers from Harlem (Antron McCray, Kevin Richardson, Yusef Salaam, Raymond Santana and Korey Wise). In the spring of 1989, when the teenagers were first questioned about the incident, the series will span 25 years, highlighting their exoneration in 2002 and the settlement reached with the city of New York in 2014. When They See Us was created by Ava DuVernay, who also co-wrote and directed the four parts. Jeff Skoll and Jonathan King from Participant Media, Oprah Winfrey from Harpo Films, Jane Rosenthal and Berry Welsh from Tribeca Productions executive produce the limited series alongside DuVernay through her banner, Forward Movement. In addition to DuVernay, Attica Locke, Robin Swicord, and Michael Starrburry also serve as writers on the limited series.

The signifier is five teenagers of colour from Harlem, New York sitting in a holding room after being illegally questioned/beaten by NYC police. The signified is to highlight the fact that research shows that Black men are 3.5 more times likely to be falsely accused of a sexual assault crime they did not commit than their white counterparts. It shows how their conviction effected their lives before and after they were exonerated. It also shows how they were all pinned against each other, from the very beginning, just for the sake of convicting someone due to the cases huge media coverage gaining it public attention.

I have discovered that cinema can have an ever lasting impact on an individual as I, myself, and I’m sure many others can relate will remember scenes from this movies years to come and forever carry that anger and heartache for the victims (Antron, Kevin, Yusef, Raymond and Korey). The research has helped me discover the potential in possibly using real life stories of activism (preferably issues that physically or mentally affect us such as domestic abuse, racial injustice or mental health) to create a greater impact and deeper personal connection in result making an everlasting impact on the individual viewing in identifying opportunities for progressing with the project.

2. Graphic Communications, Advertising and Semiotics

Graphic Communications:

Hank Willis Thomas, All Power to All People, 2017

Hank Willis Thomas’s “All Power to All People” is an eight-foot-tall Afro pick with a Black Power fist raised to the sky as its handle. It is a response to America’s long history of erecting monuments to racist white men. It was first installed in Philadelphia’s Thomas Paine Plaza, not far from a statue of Frank Rizzo, the city’s former mayor and police commissioner. Starting in 1967, Rizzo presided over a police department that was known across the country for its unhinged racial violence, and when he was elected mayor in 1972, he only helped perpetuate and cover up this violence. The Philadelphia Inquirer cited a grim statistic that “police shot civilians at a rate of one per week between 1970 and 1978,” roughly the period in which Rizzo was running the city. Thomas’s statue was a remarkable rejoinder. Though it was only on view in the plaza for about two months, it has since become a kind of roving monument to equality. Versions of the sculpture have been shown at places ranging from Burning Man to the Washington, D.C., headquarters of the Human Rights Campaign. Meanwhile, after protests over police brutality against Black Americans erupted across the country this summer, Rizzo’s statue was vandalized and, finally, taken down.

The signifier is an eight-foot-tall Afro pick with a Black Power fist raised to the sky as its handle and a peace sign featuring in the middle. The Black Panthers used the slogan "All Power to the People" to protest centuries of racial injustice against Black people in America. The Black Power fist is associated to the Black Power movement that began in 1960. It was a social movement motivated by a desire for safety and self-sufficiency that was not available inside redlined African American neighbourhoods. The signified is to highlight America’s long history of erecting monuments to racist white men. It also shows that white racist men are glorified and rewarded for their racism with a monument. This further adds fuel to the fire as it further adds to the on going disrespect and injustice of Black people.

I have discovered that historical objects (usually frowned upon or used to shame others) relating to ethic groups can be used to celebrate and moralise. The research has helped me discover the potential in using items that cultures were originally shamed for and then culturally appropriated by other races as a way to reclaim them as their own in identifying opportunities for progressing with the project.

Guerrilla Girls, Do Women Have To Be Naked To Get Into the Met. Museum?, 1989

Guerrilla Girls are an anonymous group of feminist. They are female artists devoted to fighting sexism and racism within the art world. In 1985, the group formed in New York City with the mission of bringing gender and racial inequality into focus within the greater arts community. The group employs culture jamming in the form of posters, books, billboards, and public appearances to expose discrimination and corruption. Members wear gorilla masks and use pseudonyms that refer to deceased female artists to remain anonymous. Their identities are concealed because issues matter more than individual identities, "Mainly, we wanted the focus to be on the issues, not on our personalities or our own work."

The signifier is a nude portrait of a women (in black and white) laying on a purple silk sheet while holding it and wearing a gorilla mask. The purple silk sheet appears as a sex toy on first inspect, on second inspect it appears as a feather duster due to the dark shadows and shape on the sheet creating the effect of bristles but once you take a closer inspection it is clear that the sheet has been made to look this way to truck the mind. Both these items, the sex toy and feather duster, are meant to degrade women and place a stigma around these objects. They are made to shame/put women (down) purely based on the decision they make. The signified is to highlight the fact that less than 5% of the artists in the Modern Art Sections are women but 85% of the nude portraits are female.

I have discovered that objects can be used to deceive the viewer into believing something completely different to what is presented in front of them (intentionally) in other words this would be seen as an illusion of some sort. The research has helped me discover the potential in intentionally deceiving viewers in identifying opportunities for progressing with the project.

Advertising:

Act Up (campaign poster), Silence = Death, 1987

In the early years of the AIDS epidemic, the US government and mainstream media infamously ignored the crisis. By the time President Reagan finally uttered the word “AIDS” in 1985, 12,000 Americans had already died. That same year, six men in New York City (Avram Finkelstein, Brian Howard, Oliver Johnston, Charles Kreloff, Chris Lione and Jorge Socarrás) began meeting to privately share their experiences of AIDS-related loss in the absence of public discourse. They were inspired to create something tangible that could spread awareness, they swiftly settled on a poster. They decided that it should have have little (if any) text. Frankielien belied that “Sentences barely do (work). You need sound bites, catchphrases, crafted in plain language. The poster is exactly that, a sound bite, and vernacular to the core. The poster perfectly suits the American ear. It has a power. If you’ve ever stopped in front of one or turned your head for a second look, that power was at work.” The result of their collaboration was a hot pink triangle (an inverted version of the symbol Nazis used to label gay men) emblazoned on a black background above the slogan “Silence = Death”. It debuted in 1987. The six friends hired wheat-pasters to cover the East Village, West Village, Times Square, Chelsea and the Upper West Side (neighbourhoods chosen to reach both queer audiences and the media) overnight, and the city woke up to what became the most enduring icon of H.I.V./AIDS-related activism. Later that year, on April 15, members of the newly formed activist group AIDS Coalition to Unleash Power (Act Up) stormed the city’s General Post Office carrying copies of the sign, solidifying its ongoing centrality to their cause.

The signifier is a black and white poster reading “SILENCE = DEATH” with a hot pink triangle in the centre of the page. The pink triangle draws the viewer in creating a central focus is to highlight the fact that the AIDS epidemic/crisis was infamously ignored by the US government and mainstream media resulting in 12,000 Americans dying before the issue was publicly addressed by the current President (Ronald Reagan) using the word “AIDS” to create a clear and direct message.

I have discovered that using little to any words and a play on historical icons previously used to dehumanise others can create a powerful effect on the viewer causing them to have another look and really focus on the subject matter. The research has helped me discover the potential in reclaiming objects that are used to oppress others and use short snappy catchphrases to grab the attention of others in identifying opportunities for progressing with the project.

Semiotics:

Dread Scott, A Man Was Lynched by Police Yesterday, 2015

From 1920 until 1938, the N.A.A.C.P. would mark lynchings by flying a stark black and white flag reading “A Man Was Lynched Yesterday” from its New York headquarters on Fifth Avenue. The was done to confront the residents of a northern city with the horrifying regularity of these murders. In 1938, the N.A.A.C.P. ceased flying the flag after the organisation’s landlord threatened eviction. In 2015, Dread Scott felt that the banner was just as grimly necessary in the present day United States of America as it had been nearly a century earlier. He produced his own version of the flag, updating the text to read “A Man Was Lynched by Police Yesterday” in response to the fatal shooting of Walter Scott by a South Carolina police officer. “During the Jim Crow era, Black people were terrorized by lynching…It was a threat that hung over all Black people who knew that for any reason or no reason whatsoever you could be killed and the killers would never be brought to justice,” said Scott. “Now the police are playing the same role of terror that lynch mobs did at the turn of the century.”. The piece became a source of national controversy when it remained on view above the street after a deadly sniper attack on police officers in Dallas, Texas, sparking a wave of threats to the of Jack Shainman Gallery from people who felt that the work encouraged violence against police. The gallery removed the flag and displayed it indoors following pressure from the building owner.

The signifier is a black and white flag reading “A MAN WAS LYNCHED BY POLICE YESTERDAY” hanging from a flag pole. The way in which the piece has been displayed shows a stark resemblance to the topic of discussion on the banner/flag. This is due to the fact that there is a clear link to the action/movement of what would happen to the victim when these acts of hate crime would be carried out. Furthermore, the use of black and white colours symbolise the two races affected not only that but it creates a stark contrast therefore grabbing the attention of others. The signified is to highlight the fact that “A Man Was Lynched by Police Yesterday” (something that has been and still is a common occurrence in America). It also highlights the horrific acts of hate crime and racism that is directed at/towards Black people on a regular basis throughout the world (but more commonly with the USA). These acts of hate crime have been around for centuries however they have changed in the way they are carried out and by whom they are carried out by. Despite this, one thing has remained the same…no punishment is never given.

I have discovered that subtle visual links to the subject matter create a powerful impact. The research has helped me discover the potential in simplistic art pieces in identifying opportunities for progressing with the project.

3. Fashion Design, Photography and Promotion

Fashion Design:

Public School, Make America New York, 2017

Public School creative directors’, Dao-Yi Chow and Maxwell Osborne, athleisure-focused show featured sweatshirts with the phrase, "We Need Leaders" on the back. Many of the models wore red baseball caps that parodied Donald Trump's campaign slogan, "Make America Great Again" insisting instead that we "Make America New York”. During the finale, the song "This Land Is Your Land" played in the background.

The signifier is a red baseball reading "Make America New York." in white font that has been unpicked creating a distressed look. This imitates the (destructive) style of presidency Donald Trump took on. The signified is to highlight the fact that Donald Trump did not follow the formal style of presidency previous President in America usually follow. It also shows how Donald Trump was unable to lead the country due to the lack of his leadership skills and only ever appeasing to his base in result leaving many Americans unheard.

I have discovered that subtle visual links to well known controversial political figures creates a powerful impact. The research has helped me discover the potential in parody art pieces in identifying opportunities for progressing with the project.

Photography:

Suzie Blake, Blood Mountain, 2019

Suzie Blake created a sculptural installation featuring a 3-meter high mound of red clothing and apparel. In the 3000 kilogram pile are T-shirts displayed slogans like “Girl Power” and “The Future Is Female” which peak out from the crimson clothing. It is displayed like a giant pile of landfill. The clothing is all in the hue of that liquid which runs through our veins and tarnishes our hands when we remain silent on serious issues. Blake created the work in the form of a mountain as it is considered the archetype of ascent and power ( the bridge between heaven and earth). Her goal was to reimagine this archetype in the form of greed and waste. “Blood Mountain” asks, what is the environmental cost of bloated man-made structures? And what is the role of feminism within such structures? Also, whose empowerment does the current iteration of the feminist movement serve? And since when did we think it was acceptable for brands to piggyback on our movement?

The signifier is a sculptural installation featuring a 3-meter high mound of red clothing and apparel. The signified is to highlight the fact that the fast fashion industry is the second biggest polluter after oil. It also brings attention to the fat that most garment workers are women, or sometimes girls (around 85%) who get paid on average $3 a day. It also raises a set of questions in the viewer’s head such as “What is the environmental cost of man-made structures?”, “What is the role of feminism within such structures?”, “Also, whose empowerment does the current iteration of the feminist movement serve?” and “And since when did we think it was acceptable for brands to piggyback on our movement?”.

I have discovered that pairing well known objects (that are associated with a topic) and subtle objects that imply the effect the topic has on humans creates a powerful and clear message while opening viewers’ eyes to situations that were overshadowed. The research has helped me discover the potential in direct but subtle art pieces in identifying opportunities for progressing with the project. Promotion:

Vivienne Westwood, Homo Loquax A/W 19 LFW, 2019

Vivienne Westwood is renowned for seamlessly amalgamating fashion and activism, having used her platform over the years to protest a whole range of issues, from fracking to austerity. Westwood had models wear clothes with slogans berating politicians while protests about the environmental impact of London Fashion Week took place. She sent models down the catwalk wearing aprons and tabards with anti-consumerist and climate change slogans.The show happened at the same time as environmental action group Extinction Rebellion organised protests at several of London Fashion Week venue's to highlight the throwaway nature of the fashion industry. Models also held microphones and spoke to the audience in a theatrical display, urging one another to buy less and pontificating on the consequences of consumerism. A model paused on the runway to say that Brexit was a crime, while another took a jibe at American foreign policy. The clothes themselves were as avant-garde as one would expect of a Vivienne Westwood collection.

The signifier is a collection of clothes featuring slogans berating politicians. The collection also featured a set of playing cards that illustrate a plan to save the world from climate change. The signified is to promote the dangers of climate change, Brexit and capitalism. It also shows that fashion is all about styling: buy less, choose well, make it last.

I have discovered that using a global stage to speak out on issues that affect the world as a whole can deliver a strong and direct message. The research has helped me discover the potential in using fashion as a political message/statement in identifying opportunities for progressing with the project.

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dog-day-morning · 4 years ago

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WHEN DOGS CRY

Ezekiel 3:1-4

3 Moreover he said unto me, Son of man, eat that thou findest; eat this roll, and go speak unto the house of Israel.

2 So I opened my mouth, and he caused me to eat that roll.

3 And he said unto me, Son of man, cause thy belly to eat, and fill thy bowels with this roll that I give thee. Then did I eat it; and it was in my mouth as honey for sweetness.

4 And he said unto me, Son of man, go, get thee unto the house of Israel, and speak with my words unto them.

The children of God thirst for the word of God, but there's a drought in the land for the Devil comes to steal that word from you. Behold, the days come, saith the Lord God, that I will send a famine in the land, not a famine of bread, nor a thirst for water, but of hearing the words of the Lord: And they shall wander from sea to sea, and from the north even to the east, they shall run to and fro to seek the word of the Lord, and shall not find it. We are a rebellious house who have walked in the ways of sin forgetting the will of God. The Father was the same today as He was yesterday. Our temperament, and faith can change with the current of the wind or something we may perceive as being better than the Father’s love which is what Satan wants you to believe. When Yeshua fasted for 40 days and nights Lucifer came to Him while He was weakened thinking He could get the Son of God to forsake everything for his deception.

Luke 4:6-8

6 And the devil said unto him, All this power will I give thee, and the glory of them: for that is delivered unto me; and to whomsoever I will I give it.

7 If thou therefore wilt worship me, all shall be thine.

8 And Jesus answered and said unto him, Get thee behind me, Satan: for it is written, Thou shalt worship the Lord thy God, and him only shalt thou serve.

How can you give me something you never owned? Derek Chauvin is appealing his court conviction without a lawyer, and no money. This is Satan’s downcast people, the wicked kingdom of Babylon that's falling apart in front of the whole world. Satan has no kingdom, we’re taking back everything they've taken from us including our dead, and slaughtered children. The drought will end with a Jubilee celebration of God's people who have been without, and the curses shall fall upon those who have persecuted us from the beginning. If you thirst your souls will be quenched by the waters of God, His Spirit that will enable the downtrodden to overcome and overwhelm ourselves including our enemies, the inner me; YOU!!! Satan will not go down without a fight, he's unrighteous, salty, and afraid of the judgment that's coming to this earth that will consume our open enemy without us having to lift a finger.

The dead in hell shall be given back to the Lord of host that is the army of Israel who will fight the enemies of Israel as we have been a homeborn slave to all of the Earth. We have bowed down as a broken people to all men with no one to care for our plight save our Lord. To see people defend the institution of WS is a cancer to your spiritual process that needs to be fixed before the Day of Judgment comes to claim those who are puffed up before the Lord. The missing white woman syndrome is a frustrating reality we witness throughout the year. People should be concerned about their missing loved ones, but you must realize who are the one’s going missing at an alarming rate. Becky, and Mai Ling do not have more precedent over Tanisha, or Quantasia yet they are the ones the public is asked to search for more than a Black child or woman. Asian nail salons that partake in sex trafficking on the sly use Black women as well as Asians against their will to facilitate their male, and female patrons. There are no Happy Endings for these women and children. God loved Israel when we were without fault, and could do no wrong before Him while the rest of the world compounds, and exacerbates our issues. If he didn't love us He wouldn't reprove or chastise us. In order to reign with Christ you will suffer with Christ. We suffered at the hands of our Egyptian Brothers including Esau while Esau revised the world’s history to favor him which is an abominable sin. We were children who sucked milk from our mother’s teets. Now the Lord has been feeding us meat to strengthen our spirit for what lays ahead .

Ezekiel 16:4-13

4 And as for thy nativity, in the day thou wast born thy navel was not cut, neither wast thou washed in water to supple thee; thou wast not salted at all, nor swaddled at all.

5 None eye pitied thee, to do any of these unto thee, to have compassion upon thee; but thou wast cast out in the open field, to the lothing of thy person, in the day that thou wast born.

6 And when I passed by thee, and saw thee polluted in thine own blood, I said unto thee when thou wast in thy blood, Live; yea, I said unto thee when thou wast in thy blood, Live.

7 I have caused thee to multiply as the bud of the field, and thou hast increased and waxen great, and thou art come to excellent ornaments: thy breasts are fashioned, and thine hair is grown, whereas thou wast naked and bare.

8 Now when I passed by thee, and looked upon thee, behold, thy time was the time of love; and I spread my skirt over thee, and covered thy nakedness: yea, I sware unto thee, and entered into a covenant with thee, saith the Lord God, and thou becamest mine.

9 Then washed I thee with water; yea, I throughly washed away thy blood from thee, and I anointed thee with oil.

10 I clothed thee also with broidered work, and shod thee with badgers' skin, and I girded thee about with fine linen, and I covered thee with silk.

11 I decked thee also with ornaments, and I put bracelets upon thy hands, and a chain on thy neck.

12 And I put a jewel on thy forehead, and earrings in thine ears, and a beautiful crown upon thine head.

13 Thus wast thou decked with gold and silver; and thy raiment was of fine linen, and silk, and broidered work; thou didst eat fine flour, and honey, and oil: and thou wast exceeding beautiful, and thou didst prosper into a kingdom.

He said thou wast exceeding beautiful. For every woman who looks at the European standard of po, broke, and boney as a standard of beauty don't. Love your thick lips which they pay thousands of dollars a year to get, and maintain. Breathe through your flaring nostrils that the Father gave unto you in order to run, and never grow weary. Love your wide curvaceous hips, big thighs, and thick, lovely hind they pay a Dr. in Atlanta tens of thousands of dollars every so many years to look like Shantell from the hood who was blessed in the womb with a body they get augmented in order to try and look like hers, and by all means if you're deeply melinated with dark skin do not bleach your blessing. Melanin Is responsible for our higher intelligence, those hips, and that beautiful derriere, your brother's athletic prowess, the ability to endure the hell we've endured for these hellish 500yrs. You don't have to be darkly melinated to succeed in the world of athletics or academia. Florence Joyner Griffith set a record in the 1988 Olympics that still stands today. Katherine Johnson helped pave the way for the first American astronaut to successfully orbit the Earth. Melanin is called the God particle for a reason, it can't be duplicated or created in a lab. Thanks to cloning they can produce this element close to its essential form, but not to God’s precise design. Men have been trying to manipulate God's works through science without considering that He is Spirit. I can do all things through Christ which strengtheneth me. They're trying to circumvent the Father’s work carnally, that's' the crux of the problem. I said all of this to say this. They have used us like lab rats from the Tuskegee Experiment, back to days of slavery when they experimented, and operated on Black women without using anesthesia, to this day with this COVID-19, catastrophic, doomsday annihilation that got out of control, and became a global pandemic that was only supposed to affect the African Diaspora. The Chinese are first cousins to Esau. They are descendants of Japheth along with the Canaanites including the other tribes of the Earth whom Israel has blessed. I may be beating a dead horse so shoot me. This is what's coming down the pipes after God has had enough of the blood shedding of His people.

Revelation 6:10-11

10 And they cried with a loud voice, saying, How long, O Lord, holy and true, dost thou not judge and avenge our blood on them that dwell on the earth?

11 And white robes were given unto every one of them; and it was said unto them, that they should rest yet for a little season, until their fellowservants also and their brethren, that should be killed as they were, should be fulfilled.

Those of us who have been slain, and suffered on this Earth who had a relationship with Christ will receive a robe of white. People are still going to hell like the police, neo Nazis, klansmen, KKKARENS, KKKENS, your 10yr old nephew Man Man. All of those who hate, and persecute Israel and our kinsman. After God has seen enough of this world's abuse of His children, that's when you'll see the miracles, signs, and wonders that will scare the junk out of everyone's pants, skid marks and all. There will not be a zombie apocalypse. What will happen is a Nightmare on Everywhere Street. This is the war they asked for.

Zechariah 14:12-14

12 And this shall be the plague wherewith the Lord will smite all the people that have fought against Jerusalem; Their flesh shall consume away while they stand upon their feet, and their eyes shall consume away in their holes, and their tongue shall consume away in their mouth.

13 And it shall come to pass in that day, that a great tumult from the Lord shall be among them; and they shall lay hold every one on the hand of his neighbour, and his hand shall rise up against the hand of his neighbour.

14 And Judah also shall fight at Jerusalem; and the wealth of all the heathen round about shall be gathered together, gold, and silver, and apparel, in great abundance.

The Mark of the Beast. We will spoil them by taking everything they've stolen from us globally. The colonization of Alkebulan is almost over and you have to believe these truths. The West, and the Far East have colonized the continent, whoring it out for its resources giving nothing back in return except paper, ink, and dust. I don't ascribe to the faith or religious doctrine of the Sabeans (Muslims) that came from the Bible of the Hebrews. The Israelites took nothing from the Quran, it didn't exist. My skepticism makes me suspicious of the biblical scholars who claim that Yeshua went to the Far East (Asia) while on Earth to study which is a misnomer in itself, He's all knowing. He may have journeyed there, but He said I come for my people Israel, and told His Apostles to minister to them only before His final ascension. I'm not trustworthy of those who are inclined to lie about everything including the world's history that is Black history. The Bible has hundreds of books that were purposely left out of the original 66 books that revealed more truths about God's people that are in the libraries of the Vatican. They will be revealed before or after Vatican city is decimated by the Father. The truths we seek will not come from a book exclusively interpreted by men, people lie. It will come from the Lord’s Spirit. Satan's time is up, and he's trying the saints who suffer not because of his torment, but for the testimony of Christ. We have been chosen by God to lead those who have deceived the world through clever deception and manipulation. Our souls are consumed with many insecurities that were intentionally placed in our spirit by men who understood how feared we were in the Old Testament because of the anointing. They have oppressed, and suppressed our powerful anointing before the Earth with a tactical methodology that if it wasn't for the Lord it would've consumed us before man. The word of God does not separate us from the love of God, it embraces, and keeps us safe with the blood covering of His Son.

Hebrews 4:12

12 For the word of God is quick, and powerful, and sharper than any twoedged sword, piercing even to the dividing asunder of soul and spirit, and of the joints and marrow, and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart.

Those who rebuked the word of God will have to answer to the Lord on the Day of Judgment. People in the last days are walking away from God's will like stubborn goats. Satan will lead you away from God blindly before those who'd rather believe in a lie to foster confusion, and a selfish mentality that's unhealthy for your soul. Israel. You are blessed by the Father to overcome, forgive, show a selflessness that others do not, giving of your sustenance to bless another, sacrificing for a greater cause that's greater than oneself. I tell you things that are written in the Bible you refuse to discern or cannot determine that are coming upon us. They are meant for this day, this hour, at this time. God will lead us out of the darkness into His marvelous light. Do not don't forget that this is Tribulation. Be prepared for calamities to hit us back, to back, to back, harder, and worse than the previous as a warning He's coming for His faithful. No man can judge himself worthy of the Kingdome. Pray for one another with a fervency. This will be the day of reckoning for the unrighteous who have sought innocent blood, and the provision God set aside for His children. This battle shall be fought by the Father’s host army that is not Christian?!! I worship in the Christian faith, but I desire to know the truth. I, and many of you are in search of the Lord's truths that we’ll find in the appointed season which is coming, but this battle is the Lord’s

Ezekiel 37:7-10

7 So I prophesied as I was commanded: and as I prophesied, there was a noise, and behold a shaking, and the bones came together, bone to his bone.

8 And when I beheld, lo, the sinews and the flesh came up upon them, and the skin covered them above: but there was no breath in them.

9 Then said he unto me, Prophesy unto the wind, prophesy, son of man, and say to the wind, Thus saith the Lord God; Come from the four winds, O breath, and breathe upon these slain, that they may live.

10 So I prophesied as he commanded me, and the breath came into them, and they lived, and stood up upon their feet, an exceeding great army.

It amazes me that people still don't believe after what we've witnessed the last 40 or so years. Maybe it’s somewhat my fault. The Father works in mysterious ways. Man's flesh will melt inside of his loins, he will tremble in fear, and faint after witnessing hell on Earth; God's wrath. I’ll see you when I can breathe. Good evening, Elohim. 9/26/2021

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philosophicalconservatism · 5 years ago

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Responses on Slavery And Racism In America.

https://40ouncesandamule.tumblr.com

Chattel slavery was slavery that Black americans were born into. We could not buy ourselves out of slavery...Debt slavery and people enslaved as prisoners of war were never subject to Partus sequitur ventrem... Conservatives love non sequiturs like saying that slavery was “practiced all over the world and throughout history” to justify the inhuman cruelty of Black chattel slavery or “some Black landowners owned slaves themselves” ignoring that Black people bought their families out of slavery

https://philosophicalconservatism.com

i would recommend that you embark on a study of slavery in very early colonial America (the Virginia Colony) . The Africans that were first brought over were subject to local laws of indentured servitude. They could buy back back their freedom and this was precisely how many of them became free men early on. The most well known was a man by the name of Anthony Johnson. Johnson was a landowner, a slave owner, and he was in fact ironically the first man of any color to argue in court that a servant that he held was "indentured for life"; or was his perpetual property. In other words, the slave could never under any circumstances become free. This would obviously be unnecessary in a situation in which one had merely purchased a family member that he wanted to liberate. It was only in the late 17th century that the first Virginia laws establishing "Partus sequitur ventrem" were formulated. Soon more explicitly racial laws concerning slavery followed. This was the process that I described in my first post as the "racializing" of the institution.

Now I was not minimizing the evils of American slavery by pointing to its practice across the world, and across time; that was actually an observation made by the original questioner to whom I was responding. I simply conceded that it was true, and then went on to explain what made American slavery more sinister than at least the more common forms of slavery (such as debt slavery). The insertion of a racist ideology into the institution served to justify a level of dehumanization that was quite dreadful. You seem not to notice where you're opponent agrees with you. That is not a good way to pursue your objectives.

https://40ouncesandamule.tumblr.com

"Black power is a demand for political change. Right now, those in power have the power to control where Black people live. Right now, those in power have the power to murder Black people. Right now, those in power have the power to rape Black women. Right now, those in power have the power to keep capital away from Black businesses and Black homeowners. Right now, those in power have the power to freeze black entrepreneurs out of supply chains."

https://philosophicalconservatism.com

You know, the most damning evidence (besides our own eyes) against this notion that the state of the nation has not changed in an immense and profound way within the area of race since the 1960's, and that Black Americans today are not free to aspire and pursue their dreams, is the rejection of those very claims by certain individuals who are both Black and non-conservative. On the link below is one high profile Hollywood example.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kOiQgleiRtU (1:05)

I have known some personally. Now don't just gloss over them and their convictions; EXPLAIN THEM TO US. What is wrong with them? Are they simply crazy? Are they aware of the reality around them? No one under slavery was uncertain about whether they were actually enslaved, and no one under Jim Crow was undecided about whether they were being subjected to racially segregated accommodations.

https://40ouncesandamule.tumblr.com

Racism gets its power from capitalism. Thus, if you’re anti-racist, whether you know it or not, you must be anti-capitalist.

https://philosophicalconservatism.com

Statism/big government has been the godmother of racial oppression, period. That is the historical reality whether one likes it or not. The Jim Crow laws were in fact a set of laws; they were an act of the state. The state refused to trust the free market to handle its own business. It was your ally the state which marginalized Blacks Americans through segregation years after it ruled in the Dred Scott case, against precedent, that Blacks did not have any of the rights of citizens under the Constitution. Earlier It was again your friend the state which codified the racializing of slavery. Capitalism (or more accurately Free Enterprise) leaves men free to handle their own affairs through voluntary contracts.

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lastsonlost · 5 years ago

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Every man – particularly men of color – should be afraid. Very afraid.

After a jury returned two guilty verdicts against former movie mogul Harvey Weinstein, Manhattan District Attorney Cyrus Vance Jr., incredulously had this to say about allegations of rape and sexual assault:

“It’s rape even if there is no physical evidence.”

The district attorney went on to state that the verdicts against Weinstein “pulled the justice system into the 21st Century. It’s a new day. Their verdict turned the page on our justice system on men like Harvey Weinstein.”

There’s little question of the importance of the #MeToo Movement. Still, even some women in the movement might be troubled that Vance believes their father, brother, husband, son, nephew, or another male relative should automatically be viewed as guilty because of an accusation.

And, for African Americans, such view while not new, is even more troubling.

In 2019, editors at the American Bar Association’s website noted a gaping shorting when it comes to the legal concepts of “presumption of innocence,” which is not expressly enumerated in the U.S Constitution, but instead comes from the Bill of Rights.

The general theory is that every defendant charged with a crime is presumed innocent until proven guilty beyond a reasonable doubt.

“However, by the preconceived notion, a man of color accused of rape, by a white woman, is presumed guilty beyond a reasonable doubt,” the editors wrote.

“In the case of a white man accused of raping an African American woman, the presumption of guilt shifts from the white defendant to the African American female victim. Here, there is a presumption that a woman is unchaste because the color of her skin is black.

“Alternatively, the standard applied to the white defendant is the presumption that he is innocent until the African American victim is proven pure, innocent, and deserving of the law beyond a white person’s reasonable doubt.”

The American Bar Association editors pointed out historical cases of Black men and boys like The Groveland Four and Emmet Till, who were falsely accused, lynched, and, or, wrongly convicted of rape or sexual assault. Till was wrongly accused merely of whistling at a white woman and violently murdered by white supremacists.

Bar Association editors Chelsea Hale and Meghan Matt further noted the 2016 case of two African American students from Sacred Heart University, was falsely accused of raping a white student.

The student, Nikki Yovino, claimed she was raped in a bathroom during a party held off-campus. Investigators said they believed the woman’s initial story who said she had witnesses to back up her charges.

However, another student came forward to show sexually explicit text messages between Yovino and the accused.

Because of that, Yovino recanted and said she was worried that the consensual encounter with the two students would harm her relationship with another student she admired.

One of the falsely accused students lost his football scholarship while both were forced to withdraw from school.

“Even though a criminal trial was never held, the two young black males were given the excessive sentence of guilt before a thorough investigation was ever conducted,” Hale and Matt wrote. ”Even with Yovino’s lenient penalty for falsely reporting a crime, these two young men’s lives have been forever altered because the color of their skin was different from that of their wrongful accuser.”

After Vance’s comments, social media users skewered the district attorney.

“Well, I hope someone comes forward and accuses him sometime soon,” wrote user @onthefly_99.

“How anyone could say taking us back to witch hunts and lynch mobs equals pulling us into the 21st Century is beyond me. It’s exactly what people said during the Satanic Panic, which started by the junk science of repressed/recovered memory syndrome,” wrote Twitter user @Tiffany44541244.

“This DA is rogue and dangerous. He should be seeking justice and the truth not calling for witch hunts and unfairness,” wrote another Twitter user @Taurus510W.

When contacted, a spokesperson for Vance told NNPA Newswire that “the district attorney stands by his comments.”

So.. Dose anyone remember “Cornerstore Caroline” who falsely accused a 9-year old Child of sexual assault? According to this DA this little boy is guilty.

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blackkudos · 5 years ago

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Diane Nash

Diane Judith Nash (born May 15, 1938) is an American civil rights activist, and a leader and strategist of the student wing of the Civil Rights Movement.

Nash's campaigns were among the most successful of the era. Her efforts included the first successful civil rights campaign to integrate lunch counters (Nashville); the Freedom Riders, who desegregated interstate travel; co-founding the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC); and co-initiating the Alabama Voting Rights Project and working on the Selma Voting Rights Movement. This helped gain Congressional passage of the Voting Rights Act of 1965, which authorized the federal government to oversee and enforce state practices to ensure that African Americans and other minorities were not prevented from registering and voting.

Early life

Nash was born in 1938 and raised in Chicago by her father Leon Nash and her mother Dorothy Bolton Nash in a middle-class Catholic area. Her father was a veteran of World War II. Her mother worked as a keypunch operator during the war, leaving Nash in the care of her grandmother, Carrie Bolton, until age 7. Bolton was a cultured woman, known for her refinement and manners.

After the war, Nash's parents' marriage ended. Dorothy married again to John Baker, a waiter on the railroad dining cars owned by the Pullman Company. Baker was a member of the Brotherhood of Sleeping Car Porters, one of the most powerful black unions in the nation. As Dorothy no longer worked outside the house, Diane saw less of her grandmother Carrie Bolton, but she continued as an important influence in Nash's life. Bolton was committed to making sure her granddaughter understood her worth and value, and didn't discuss race often, believing that racial prejudice was something that was taught to younger generations by their elders. Her grandmother's words and actions instilled Diane with confidence and a strong sense of self-worth, while also creating a bit of a sheltered environment that left her vulnerable to the severity of racism in the outside world as she grew older.

Education

Nash attended Catholic schools,. She also was the runner-up in a regional beauty pageant leading to the competition for Miss Illinois.

After finishing Hyde Park High School in Chicago, Diane Nash went to Washington, D.C., to attend Howard University, a historically black college (HBCU). After a year, she transferred to Fisk University in Nashville, Tennessee, where she majored in English. Nash acknowledged that she looked forward to personal growth during her time in college and wanted to explore the challenging issues of the time. In Nashville, she was first exposed to the full force of Jim Crow laws and customs and their effect on the lives of Blacks. Nash recounted her experience at the Tennessee State Fair when she had to use the "Colored Women" restroom, signifying the first time she had ever seen and been impacted by segregation signage. Outraged by the realities of segregation, Nash began to show signs of leadership and soon became a full-time activist.

Nash's family members were surprised when she joined the Civil Rights Movement. Her grandmother was quoted as saying, "Diane, you've gotten in with the wrong bunch;" she did not know that Diane was the chairwoman of organizing the nonviolent protests at her university. Her family was not familiar with the idea of working for civil rights, and it took her family time to fully recognize her position as a key player in the Civil Rights Movement. Eventually, her mother fundraised for the Freedom Riders. Nash said in a PBS Tavis Smiley interview, "My mother ended up going to fundraisers in Chicago that were raising money to send to the students in the South and actually, over years, she went to an elevated train bus station one day at 6:00 a.m. to hand out leaflets protesting the war." Her mother was influenced by Nash's sense of empowerment.

Nashville Student Movement

At Fisk, Nash searched for a way to challenge segregation. Nash began attending nonviolent civil disobedience workshops led by James Lawson. While in India, James Lawson had studied Mahatma Gandhi's techniques of nonviolent direct action and passive resistance used in his political movement. By the end of her first semester at Fisk, Nash had become one of Lawson's most devoted disciples. Although originally a reluctant participant in nonviolence, Nash emerged as a leader due to her well-spoken, composed manner when speaking to the authorities and to the press. In 1960 at age 22, she became the leader of the Nashville sit-ins, which lasted from February to May. Lawson's workshops included simulations in order to prepare the students to handle verbal and physical harassment that they would ultimately face during the sit-ins. In preparation, the students would venture out to segregated stores and restaurants, doing nothing more than speaking with the manager when they were refused service. Lawson graded their interactions in each simulation and sit-in, reminding them to have love and compassion for their harassers. This movement was unique for the time in that it was led by and composed primarily of college students and young people. The Nashville sit-ins spread to 69 cities across the United States.

Though protests would continue in Nashville and across the South, Diane Nash and three other students were first successfully served at the Post House Restaurant on March 17, 1960. Students continued the sit-ins at segregated lunch counters for months, accepting arrest in line with nonviolent principles. Nash, with John Lewis, led the protesters in a policy of refusing to pay bail. In February 1961, Nash served jail time in solidarity with the "Rock Hill Nine" — nine students imprisoned after a lunch counter sit-in. They were all sentenced to pay a $50 fine for sitting at a whites-only lunch counter. Chosen as spokesperson, Nash said to the judge, "We feel that if we pay these fines we would be contributing to and supporting the injustice and immoral practices that have been performed in the arrest and conviction of the defendants."

When Nash asked Nashville's mayor, Ben West, on the steps of City Hall, "Do you feel it is wrong to discriminate against a person solely on the basis of their race or color?", the mayor admitted that he did. Three weeks later, the lunch counters of Nashville were serving blacks. Reflecting on this event, Nash said, "I have a lot of respect for the way he responded. He didn't have to respond the way he did. He said that he felt it was wrong for citizens of Nashville to be discriminated against at the lunch counters solely on the basis of the color of their skin. That was the turning point. That day was very important."

While participating in the Nashville sit-in, Diane Nash first met fellow protester James Bevel, whom she would later marry. They had two children together, a son and a daughter. The couple divorced after seven years of marriage and Nash never remarried.

In August 1961, Diane Nash participated in a picket line to protest a local supermarket's refusal to hire blacks. When local white youths started egging the picket line and punching various people, police intervened. They arrested 15 people, only five of whom were the white attackers. All but one of the blacks who were jailed accepted the $5 bail and were freed. But Nash stayed. The 21-year-old activist had insisted on her arrest with the other blacks, and once in jail, refused bail.

SNCC and SCLC

In spring 1960, nearly two hundred students involved with the nationwide sit-in movement arrived in Raleigh, North Carolina, for an organizing conference. There, the SCLC (Southern Christian Leadership Conference), at Ella Baker's request, sponsored the students' meeting on April 15. Martin Luther King envisioned a simple SCLC student league, but Baker herself advised the youth to remain autonomous and follow their own principles. Accordingly, in April 1960 Nash was one of the leading founders of the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC - pronounced "snick"), independent of any adult organizations, and quit school to lead its direct action wing. In the coming years, organizations such as CORE and SCLC would try to recruit SNCC as their own student wing, with SNCC always resisting the invitations. The Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee would go on to be involved with some of the most important campaigns of the civil rights era, adding a fresh and active youth voice to the movement.

In early 1961, Nash and ten fellow students were put under arrest in Rock Hill, South Carolina, for protesting segregation. Once jailed, they would not accept the chance for bail. These dramatic events began to bring light to the fight for racial justice that was beginning to emerge. It also highlighted the idea of "jail, no bail", which was utilized by many other civil rights activists as the fight for rights progressed.

Originally fearful of jail, Nash was arrested dozens of times for her activities. She spent 30 days in a South Carolina jail after protesting segregation in Rock Hill, in February 1961. In 1962, although she was four months pregnant with her daughter Sherri, she faced a two-year prison sentence in Mississippi for contributing to the delinquency of minors whom she had encouraged to become Freedom Riders and ride on the buses. Despite her pregnancy, she was ready to serve her time with the possibility of her daughter's being born in jail. Nash took the weight of this possibility seriously, spending two days praying and meditating before coming to a decision and penning an open letter. "I believe that if I go to jail now, it may help hasten that day when my child and all children will be free — not only on the day of their birth but for all their lives." She was sentenced to 10 days in jail in Jackson, Mississippi, "where she spent her time there washing her only set of clothing in the sink during the day and listening to cockroaches skitter overhead at night".

Nash would go on to serve many roles for the SCLC from 1961 through 1965 while it was under Martin Luther King Jr. Though years later, Nash is clear about how she saw herself in relation to King, stating "I never considered Dr. King my leader. I always considered myself at his side and I considered him at my side. I was going to do what the spirit told me to do. So If I had a leader, that was my leader." She later cut ties with the SCLC, questioning their leadership structure, including their male- and clergy-dominated ranks. She would also split from SNCC in 1965 when their directives changed under Stokley Carmichael's leadership, taking particular issue with the organization's departure from the founding pillar of nonviolence.

Freedom Riders

"We will not stop. There is only one outcome," stated Diane Nash, referring to the 1961 CORE Freedom Riders. Designed to challenge state segregation of interstate buses and facilities, the project was suspended by CORE after a bus was firebombed and several riders were severely injured in attacks by a mob in Birmingham, Alabama. Nash called on Fisk University and other college students to fill buses to keep the Freedom Rides going. They traveled to the South to challenge the states. The Nashville students, encouraged by Nash, promptly decided to finish the trip that had been suspended at Birmingham. New Orleans Congress of Racial Equality, the Nashville students, and Nash were committed, ready, and willing. "It was clear to me that if we allowed the Freedom Ride to stop at that point, just after so much violence had been inflicted, the message would have been sent that all you have to do to stop a nonviolent campaign is inflict massive violence," says Nash. Nash took over responsibility for the Freedom Rides and worked to recruit Riders, act as media spokesperson, and garner the support of the government and other Movement leaders. Coordinating from Nashville, she led the Freedom Riders from Birmingham, Alabama to Jackson, Mississippi, where CORE Field Secretary Tom Gaither coordinated a massive program on the ground.

After the severe attacks, CORE's Executive Director James Farmer Jr. a veteran of CORE's original 1947 Freedom Rides, was hesitant to continue them. Nash talked with the students of the Nashville Student Movement and argued that, "We can't let them stop us with violence. If we do, the movement is dead." Nash remained adamant that they not send a message to the public that civil rights efforts could be stopped with violence. As the violence escalated and bus drivers began to refuse service to the Riders due to the dangers, Attorney General Robert Kennedy became involved and worked to keep the Rides going. Kennedy called the Alabama governor and the Greyhound bus company to implore them to allow the Rides to continue. Kennedy insisted that his special assistant John Seigenthaler travel to Alabama to get directly involved in the matter. Seigenthaler informed the reluctant Alabama governor that it was the government's duty to protect these citizens during the Freedom Rides. Nash spoke with Seigenthaler on the phone, and Seigenthaler warned her that the Freedom Rides could result in death and violence for participants. She responded, "We know someone will be killed, but we cannot let violence overcome nonviolence." Nash explained to Seigenthaler that she and other students had already signed their wills. John Lewis, who had just returned from the Freedom Ride, agreed to continue it, as did other students. A contingent of activists from New Orleans CORE also participated. They continued the action to a successful conclusion six months later.

When Nash was bringing a batch of students to Birmingham to continue the Ride, she telephoned Birmingham activist Fred Shuttlesworth to inform him. He responded to her sternly: "Young lady, do you know that the Freedom Riders were almost killed here?" Nash assured him that she did and that that would not stop her from continuing the ride. After gathering the final list of Riders, she placed a phone call to Shuttlesworth. They knew their phone line had been tapped by local police, so they worked out a set of coded messages related to, of all things, poultry. For instance, "roosters" were substituted for male Freedom Riders, "hens" for female Riders and so on. When Nash called Shuttlesworth again on Wednesday morning to tell him "The chickens are boxed," he knew that the Freedom Riders were on their way.

On May 20, 1961, the Riders left Birmingham for Montgomery with the promise of protection from the federal government, including police escorts and planes flying overhead. After about 40 miles, all signs of protection disappeared, and the Riders were subjected to a violent, angry mob armed with makeshift weapons such as pipes and bricks. Both white and black Riders were injured by the mob, including special assistant John Seigenthaler who exited his car to help one of the female Riders who was being beaten. When all the other Riders had left the bus terminal, five of the female Riders phoned Shuttlesworth, who relayed their whereabouts to Nash. Others called Nash directly, to inform her of the chaotic situation that had occurred. Fearing that all the riders were subject to arrest, Nash advised them to stay out of sight from the police, but this was compromised by Wilbur and Hermann, who had called the police after fleeing from the terminal area.

On May 21, 1961, Martin Luther King Jr. arrived at the First Baptist Church in Montgomery, Alabama. King had caused tension between himself and the Freedom Riders, Nash included, due to his refusal to participate in the Rides. Diane Nash was present at the First Baptist Church that night and is credited with playing a key role in getting King to come and speak in support of the Freedom Riders. More than 1,500 citizens were trapped inside the church overnight as violence raged outside. Martial law had to be declared by Alabama Governor John Patterson to finally bring an end to the mob. Gov. Patterson had been highly criticized by many within the movement for his unwillingness to support and protect the Riders. This was the first time he and the state of Alabama had moved to protect the movement. King preached to the crowd inside the church while teargas seeped in from outside, telling them that they would "remain calm" and "continue to stand up for what we know is right."

In 1963 President John F. Kennedy appointed Nash to a national committee to promote civil rights legislation. Eventually his proposed bill was passed as the Civil Rights Act of 1964.

Alabama Project and the Selma Voting Rights Movement

Shocked by the 1963 church bombing in Birmingham that killed four young girls, Nash and James Bevel committed to raising a nonviolent army in Alabama. Their goal was the vote for every black adult in Alabama, a radical proposition at the time. Alabama and other southern states had effectively excluded blacks from the political system since disenfranchising them at the turn of the century. After funerals for the girls in Birmingham, Nash confronted SCLC leadership with their proposal. She was rebuffed, but continued to advocate this "revolutionary" nonviolent blueprint.

Together with SCLC, Nash and Bevel eventually implemented the Selma to Montgomery marches, a series of protests for voting rights in Alabama in early 1965. They were initiated and organized by James Bevel, who was running SCLC's Selma Voting Rights Movement. Marchers crossed the Pettus Bridge on their way to the state capital of Montgomery, but after they left the city limits, they were attacked by county police and Alabama state troopers armed with clubs and tear gas, determined to break up the peaceful march. John Lewis, who had knelt to pray, had his skull fractured. The images were broadcast over national television, shocking the nation. Soon after this, President Lyndon Johnson publicly announced that it was "wrong--deadly wrong--to deny any of your fellow Americans the right to vote in this country." The initiative culminated in passage by Congress of the 1965 Voting Rights Act, which authorized the federal government to oversee and enforce the constitutional right to vote, with mechanisms to assess state compliance and require changes to enable registration and voting.

In 1965, SCLC gave its highest award, the Rosa Parks Award, to Diane Nash and James Bevel for their leadership in initiating and organizing the Alabama Project and the Selma Voting Rights Movement.

Later recognition

During the civil rights era and shortly after, many of the male leaders received most of the recognition for its successes. As the civil rights era has been studied by historians, Nash's contributions have been more fully recognized.

In 1995 historian David Halberstam described Nash as "…bright, focused, utterly fearless, with an unerring instinct for the correct tactical move at each increment of the crisis; as a leader, her instincts had been flawless, and she was the kind of person who pushed those around her to be at their best, or be gone from the movement."

Nash is featured in the award-winning documentary film series Eyes on the Prize (1987) and the 2000 series A Force More Powerful about the history of nonviolent conflict. She is also featured in the PBS American Experience documentary on the Freedom Riders, based on the history of the same name. Nash is also credited with her work in David Halberstam's book about the Nashville Student Movement, The Children, as well as Diane Nash: The Fire of the Civil Rights Movement.

In addition, she has received the Distinguished American Award from the John F. Kennedy Library and Foundation (2003), the LBJ Award for Leadership in Civil Rights from the Lyndon Baines Johnson Library and Museum (2004),

Nash has continued to believe in the power of nonviolent action to solve conflicts. In an interview with Theresa Anderson she said,

Violence needs to be addressed. I think the Civil Rights Movement has demonstrated how to resolve human conflicts. I think it's crazy when two countries have problems with each other and one says 'Let's bomb them, kill them, go fight.' If we have a problem with another country I would like to see consideration instead of an automatic tendency to go to war. Let's hear their side, consider our side, and look at what is logical and reasonable. Let's look at what serves the best interests of the people and see if we can negotiate solutions, more sane solutions.

Later life

After the Civil Rights Movement, Nash moved back to Chicago where she worked in the fields of education and real estate, continuing as an advocate and championing causes such as fair housing and anti-war efforts. She still lives in Chicago, only a few miles away from her son Douglass Bevel, with whom she remains very close.

In 2013, Nash expressed her support for Barack Obama, while also sharing her reluctance for his continuing involvement in the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. While encouraged by the positive implications associated with electing the first Black President of the United States, Nash still believes that the true changes in American society will come from its citizens, not government officials.

Although she attended the Selma 50th anniversary celebrations in March 2015, Nash was noticeably absent from the re-staging of the 1965 Selma march. When asked about her refusal to participate in the historic event, Nash cited the attendance of former president George W. Bush. Nash, who has dedicated her life to pursuits of peace and nonviolence, declared that Bush "stands for just the opposite: For violence and war and stolen elections, and his administration…had people tortured."

Decades after she played a critical role in the Civil Rights Movement, Diane Nash remains committed to the principles of nonviolence that have guided her throughout her life. Although she was a key architect in many of the Movement's most successful efforts, she remains humble upon reflection. "It took many thousands of people to make the changes that we made, people whose names we'll never know. They'll never get credit for the sacrifices they've made, but I remember them."

In popular culture

Nash is portrayed by Tessa Thompson in the 2014 film Selma.

Nash is also portrayed in The Boondocks episode "Freedom Ride or Die".

#05/15

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thesustainableswap · 5 years ago

Text

BLM Master Post / Resources

No blog post this week. I felt like this was much more important. Here is a master post of everything I’ve found regarding the BLM movement, from petitions, to where you should donate, to reading, to accounts, to business... hopefully most of what you’re looking for can be found below. If I’ve missed anything vital please let me know and I will add it.

Petitions:

Justice for George Floyd (White House) | Justice for George Floyd (change.org) | Justice for George Floyd (change.org) | Justice for George Floyd (color of Change)

RAISE THE DEGREE - Remove bail for Derek Chauvin, murderer of George Floyd (White House) | Arrest The Other Three (White House) | Raise The Degree (change.org) | The Minneapolis Police Officers to be charged for murder (change.org)

#JusticeforBre (MoveOn.org) | #JusticeforBre (color of Change)

Justice For Ahmaud Arbery (change.org) | Justice for Ahmaud Arbery- Pass Georgia Hate Crime Bill (change.org) | Disbarment of George E. Barnhill (change.org)

Trayvon Martin Law (change.org)

Hands Up Act (change.org)

Justice for Belly Mujinga (change.org)

Justice for Tony McDade (change.org)

Justice for Alejandro Vargas Martinez (change.org)

Justice for Regis Korchinski-Paquet (change.org)

Wrongful Conviction: Julius Jones is innocent (change.org)

Wrongful Conviction: Kyjuanzi Harris (change.org)

Willie Simmons has served 38 years for a $9 robbery (change.org)

Defund The Police Minneapolis (Every Action / Reclaim The Block) | Mandatory Life Sentence for Police Brutality (change.org) | National Action Against Police Brutality (change.org) | Against Police Brutality in France (change.org)

Demand Racial Data on Coronavirus (BLM) | Coronavirus: Demand More from the Government (BLM)

Get Schools to Speak Up (change.org)

Stand with BLM (organizefor.org)

Organisations to Donate to

George Floyd Memorial Fund

Minnesota Freedom Fund

Black Visions Collective

Reclaim the Block

Campaign Zero

Black Lives Matter

UKBLM

National Bailout Fund

Black Earth Farms

Communities United Against Police Brutality

Unicorn Riot

Louisville Community Bail Fund

Rebuilding the Community (We Love Lake Street)

United Families and Friends Campaign

COVID-19: Supporting BAME Communities

House of GG

Trans Justice Funding Project

The Okra Project

Youth Breakout

SNaPCo

Black AIDS Insitute

Trans Cultural District

LGBTQ+ Freedom Fund

For If You Have Little Money to Spare:

Check out these YouTube videos and play them while you go about your day (or actively watch! Up to you.) The ad revenue will be donated to organisations supporting black lives - but make sure you turn off your adblocker first.

By Zoe Amira

By Francesca Grace

By Cindy Marshall

By Danni and Emmyn

Instagram Accounts (source)

Nova Reid

Layla Saad

Rachel Cargle

Check Your Privilege

Rachel Ricketts

The Great Unlearn

Reni Eddo Lodge

Ibram X. Kendi

Galdem

The Irin Journal

Women Who

For Working Ladies

Thyself

Black Girl Fest

UK isn’t Innocent

Readbyrachelaa

Mikaela Loach

Podcasts

About Race with Remi Eddo-Lodge

Conversations with Nova Reid

iWeigh with Jameela Jamil

The YIKES podcast

Have You Heard George’s Podcast?

The World Wide Tribe

Zero Hour Talks

1619 by the New York Times

TV / Film (source)

13th

When They See Us

Selma

The Black Power Mixtape 1967 - 1975

I Am Not Your Negro

The Black Panthers: Vanguard of the Revolution

If Beale Street Could Talk

The Hate U Give

American Son

Trial by Media

Books: (Source)

How To Be Anti Racist by Ibram X. Kendi

Me and White Supremacy by Robin Diangelo and Layla Saad

Why I’m No Longer Talking To White People About Race by Remi Eddo-Lodge

So You Want To Talk About Race by Ijeoma Oluo

The Fire Next Time by James Baldwin

Minor Feelings by Cathy Park Hong

America’s Original Sin By Jim Wallis and Bryan Stevenson

The New Jim Crow by Michelle Alexander

Blindspot by Mahzarin R. Banaji & Anthony G. Greenwald

Good Talk by Mira Jacob

Between The World and Me by Ta-Nehisi Coates

How Does It Feel To Be A Problem by Moustafa Bayoumi

The Fire This Time by Jesmyn Ward

White Fragility by Robin Diangelo

I’m Still Here by Austin Channing Brown

When They Call You A Terrorist by Patrisse Khan-Cullors, Asha Bandele, et al.

An African American and Latin History of The United States by Paul Ortiz

Citizen by Claudia Rankine

An Indigenous Peoples’ History of The United States by Roxanne Dunbar-Ortiz

Mindful of Race by Ruth King

Just Mercy by Bryan Stevenson

Tears We Cannot Stop by Michael Eric Dyson

Stamped From The Beginning by Ibram X. Kendi

Have Black Lives Ever Mattered? By Mumia Abu-Jamal

The Coloraturas of Law by Richard Rothstein

The Warmth of Other Suns by Isabel Wilkerson

Why Are All The Black Kids Sitting Together in the Cafeteria? By Beverly Daniel Tatum

Stamped by Jason Reynolds & Ibram X. Kendi

This Book Is Anti Racist by Tiffany Jewell and Aurelia Durand

Brit(ish) by Afua Hirsch

Children’s Books: (Source)

Malcolm Little by Ilyasah Shabazz

Let It Shine: Stories of Black Women Freedom Fighters by Andrea Davis Pinkney

Something Happened in Our Town: A Child’s Story About Racial Injustice by Marianne Celano, Marietta Collins and Ann Hazzard

My Hair Is A Garden by Cozbi A. Cabrera

Separate Is Never Equal by Duncan Tonatiuh

Young Water Protectors by Aslan Tudor

My Family Divided by Diana Guerrero

We Are Grateful by Traci Sorell

I Am Not A Number by Jenny Kay Dupuis and Kathy Kacer

Schomburg: The Man Who Built A Library by Carole Boston Weatherford

Lailah’s Lunchbox: A Ramadan Story by Reem Faruqi

The Day You Begin by Jacqueline Woodson

The Whispering Town by Jennifer Elvgren

When Harriet Tubman Led Her People To Freedom by Carole Boston Weatherford

When I Was Eight by Christy Jordan-Fenton & Margaret Pokiak-Fenton

Happy In Our Skin by Fran Manushkin

Chocolate Milk, Por Favor by Maria Dismondy

Voice of Freedom: Fannie Lou Hamer by Carole Boston Weatherford

When We Were Alone by David A. Robertson & Julie Flett

Shining Star The Anna May Wong Story by Paula Yoo & Lin Wang

Little Leaders: Bold Women In Black History by Vashti Harrison

Maddi’s Fridge by Lois Brandt

Hair Love by Matthew A. Cherry

Sulwe by Vashti Harrison

A Is For Activist by Innosanto Nagara

Intersection Allies by Chelsea Johnson, LaToya Council & Carolyn Choi

What Is Race? Who Are Racists? Why Does Skin Colour Matter? And Other Big Questions by Clair Heuchan & Nikesh Shukla

Black Owned Businesses: (source)

Wales Bonner

Casely-Hayford

Daughter of a Bohemian

 Daily Paper

Aaks: Basket Bags

Martine Rose

Nubian Skin

Sincerely Nude

Liha Beauty

Beauty Stack

Bouclème: Afro and Curly Hair Products

Afrocenchix: Hair Products

The Afro Hair and Skin Company: shampoo bars, hair masks, face masks

Prick: Cacti and Plantcare

La Basketry: homeware

Bonita Ivie: stationery & design

Reset travel: travel cards and workshops

Bespoke Binny: homeware

New Beacon Books: Specialists in African and Caribbean Literature

Original Flava by Craig & Shaun McAnuff

Zoe’s Ghana Kitchen by Zoe Adjonyoh

Hibiscus by Lopè Ariyo

Ethiopia by Yohanis Gebreyesus

Belly Full by Riaz Phillips

Chika’s Snacks

Berry and Brie Grazing Boxes

Yard Confectionery Chocolate

Cabby’s Rum

Cham Cham Hot Pepper Sauce

Stay strong, and get learning (or unlearning)!

#blacklivesmatter #black lives matter #blm #black lives fucking matter #black lives have always mattered #black lives have value #black lives are human lives #black lives are important #blm resources #blm masterpost #blacklivesmatter resources #black lives matter masterpost #unlearn #solidarity

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theparanormalperiodical · 6 years ago

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7 Reasons The Nun (2018) Is The Best Feminist Horror Film Ever.

As we steadily approach Halloween, we often tend to stumble across a mess of films that make up the horror genre.

Amongst most of the trash churned up by production companies is a tangle of tropes designed to make you turn your back on films with sense, and instead eat your own body weight in popcorn.

And it was the changing of the leaves that reminded me of a film that unfortunately got caught up in these horrors of the horror film industry:

Last year, The Nun was released as a sequel to the iconic Conjuring series, tracing a demonic tale that runs through the films. And lord, she was panned.

Horror film junkies didn’t show up to screenings, and if they did, they didn’t rate it highly.

Sure, it got mixed reviews.

Sure, it was haunted by its endless use of jumpscares.

And sure, it wasn’t the best clergyman in the congregation.

(Even though it somehow ended up as the film which made the most money out of the series…)

But something about it just clicked with me.

I liked how it was a small offshoot of my favourite set of flicks. And I loved how it weaved together the intricate stories that created the hula-hoop of horror plots.

But there was still something I just couldn’t quite work out!

It felt fresh, it felt different…

And it was only the other day that I worked it out, that the pieces clicked together, that I finally could finally yell ‘Eureka!’ at my dad over dinner.

I came to the realisation that The Nun is the feminist film we all need this October.

In fact, it jumpscared its way into the #MeToo movement, and fundamentally represented a takedown of the traditional portrayals of women in the genre of horror.

No, I take that back – every goddamn genre.

That’s why I’m here to stand in defense of The Nun.

That’s why I’m here to contribute to the #MeToo movement, and take down the patriarchy one trope at a time.

Today’s post is going to take you through a rundown of women in the horror genre, how women have figured in the paranormal theories inspiring these films, and how The Nun is the feminist icon we should all stan this Halloween.

So, grab a crucifix, burn some popcorn in the microwave, and chuck on a white-purple-n-green sash.

Let’s get spooky.

How did horror films portray women before The Nun?

As made evident by recent allegations, convictions, and cases – or just, like, watching a film – you can see that most of the film industry has been stuck in the wrong century.

And it’s not difficult to decipher that horror films have featured prominent tropes that support this.

Their distressed and weak women are the fundamental building blocks to misogyny.

It’s even been traced to specific horror film genres, styles, and characters!

Take slasher films:

From The Texas Chainsaw Massacre to fellow horror icon Carrie, these films have been traced back to the good ol’ American Dream. The middle-class aspirations reflected across society and into the films that furthered the negative – but mainly weak – images of women.

And these images became some of the most striking tropes in horror films.

The first of these tropes is the Final Girl.

She’s pure, and she’s untouched.

She doesn’t smoke, doesn’t drink, and most definitely doesn’t die.

The female virgin is the first character to see that things aren’t quite right, and she’s the only one to see us through the plot and finally kill that monster.

(And yes, that vague plot works for basically every horror film ever…)

The Final Girl gets her name by taking on male characteristics, ditching her femininity and finally taking on the monster!

With her new-found masculinity, she can survive, and live up to her name.

But it’s only when she conquers the monster by turning her back on femininity that she embodies the next trope on our list:

The Female Monster.

One of the main factors reinforcing misogyny is the sexualisation of the female body.

And in case you hadn’t noticed, the oversexualisation of women is central to most horror films.

From awkward sex scenes, to the troubling portrayals of high school girls, women’s bodies have undergone their maximum objectification in the horror industry.

But what I want to talk about here is the female monster.

Her body is not used for a picture-perfect DVD-cover shot, and it’s not put in slow-mo for a cringey running shot. Instead, horror films consider the female monster’s body as abject.

By bringing together the physical processes associated with women – which include menstruation and giving birth – the monster is constructed.

Just think of the obsession with the ‘hysterical woman’! The horror film industry has spent most of its years evoking the image of the ‘triggered woman.’

Thus, the female monster is based on physical disgust as well as the masochism she seeks – this is what drives a wedge between male and female villains:

Male monsters commit sadistic acts in the aim of self-mutilation. Female monsters on the other hand commit such acts to avenge the abuse carried by those around them.

Take I Spit On Your Grave or Carrie.

Both iconic horror flicks, both iconic examples of the female monster:

Carrie avenges her high school class and spends most of the plot covered in pigs’ blood, echoing her original menstrual difficulties; and Jennifer is sported on the film posters as wearing little clothing and smeared in a sexy array of mud from which she seeks revenge on her rapists.

Evidently this fulfils the role of the ‘male gaze’ which never falls short of most genres, unfortunately.

But within this, we have to consider the key role of menstruation.

Think back to the opening scene of Carrie.

No, not the weird soapy boob bit, the bit where she starts bleeding from the vagina.

(Which BTW isnt how periods work in the shower.)

It is actually believed that the female monster can be traced to the bleeding vagina thing.

Basically, when a girl hits puberty, she immediately becomes a monstrous being, and follows another step to becoming the ‘female monster’.

Following on from this obsession with disgusting things and women, we come to the perverted mix of sex and violence that has contaminated the genre.

Take The Chase scene:

Think of the ripped clothes, the dim-yet-sultry lighting, and the dewy skin; it’s a live pop performance away from a Victoria’s Secret Runway!

Female victims are believed to be captured in this confused state of a sexualised body image and violence-infused distressed 5 times longer than their male-colleagues.

And once again we return to the Final Girl, and her survival of The Chase.

The final major trope we need to consider is that of the possessed young girl.

Affirming its role as a major horror theme, the innocent young girl is often laden with creepy vibes as the dangerous and demonic spirits take control of the events of the film through her.

And it’s possibly because an all-powerful demon strikes such a contrast with the innocent young girl.

Consider one of the most famous horror films to grace the industry - The Exorcist.

The all-swearing, sexually-harassing, self-mutilating, all-knowing possessed Reagan challenges every component of being a ‘young girl’.

And this is the mirror image of the role of women within paranormal theories.

What’s the role of women in paranormal theories?

Theories regarding the paranormal obviously are entrenched in past beliefs regarding the societal roles of the sexes.

The supernatural was their science, and their religion their law!

But I’m not here to list all the supernatural theories that specify the differences between the genders.

I’m going to focus on one key piece of theory that echoes out into the horror movie industry:

And it’s how women and young girls in particular were deemed more likely to be possessed by spirits.

To skip out the confusing bits, this is what you have to know: as women and young girls are considered weaker, they are more ‘open’ to allowing in spirits and demons, and thus being possessed.

Obviously, this has made its way into pop culture.

But beyond the creepy possessed girl is the gender roles entrenched within the theory of possession.

If we compare European and African sentiments regarding possessed women, we can see that each specific country upholds a specific focus on women.

For example, several African countries focused upon how possessed women were more likely to leverage their condition in order to gain luxury items.

Some belief systems even classified that certain spirits could possess only women!

Clearly, women’s relationship with the paranormal has been painful to say the least.

And this is what makes The Nun the feminist icon that it is; it breaks down both the horror film-specific misogyny, and the misogyny inherent in paranormal theories.

Here’s how.

Why we should stan The Nun. Like, right now.

Upon The Nun’s release, it was branded a basic-bitch horror film.

It had endless jump-scares, a silly monster, and a forced plot used to duct-tape the films together. But underneath that surface we see a feminist icon disguised as a basic-bitch horror film.

*I am about to discuss key plot points from The Nun - this is your spoiler alert!*��

The film starts with the Vatican responding to claims of strange activity in an abbey (that just so happens to house the demonic Nun, Valak). A group of priests and other clergymen dictate the situation, and seemingly control the narrative.

And it’s this masculine and priest-based control that sticks to traditional films.

So, when the dream-team sent to investigate Valak is finalised, the move against the traditional tide surges.

We see the emergence of a new dynamic between the main characters – Frenchie, Sister Irene, and the Priest.

And it’s all down to the young soon-to-be-nun, Irene, who join forces with the priest to seek out the activity, and complete god’s mission on earth. Clearly – as she is a virgin and embodies the purity we expect from the trope – she is the Final Girl.

But she doesn’t swan around being cute and dorky. She doesn’t even end the film with a succinct rescue!

She expresses her own agency by placing power in her faith, and in her desire to be a Nun, which is the thing that fulfils her identity as the Final Girl.

Indeed, it is her visions that lead them to victory over the demon, Valak.

Her own faith which celebrates her virginity is what saves them!

She also demonstrates her own agency by going against the church’s teaching on dinosaurs, and when they embark on the journey to the abbey and deal with the problems there, she isn’t just a sidekick.

Irene stands together with the priest, and brings her own set of knowledge to the table. Sure, the priest embodies his own set of wisdom from his previous experience of exorcisms and his position in the church.

But it’s the collaboration between the two - rather than a well-timed rescue - that really emphasises her power.

To complete this, upon meeting Frenchie – who immediately smells of a love interest the second we see the curly mop of hair and hear that accent – he makes a pass at Irene. He is quickly shot down, and from there we see no forced love story set to entice the female audience.

Sister Irene is a new wave of ideas and spirituality that manifest even more promisingly in her visions. She represents feminism - this is key to my next point.

Now, I’m gonna be honest – I get confused here.

A key premise of the film is that Irene has visions. And one of these is when her and a group of nuns are praying to seal Valak in the abbey, and keep the demon at bay.

I’m not sure if all of the nuns we see throughout the film that were at the Abbey were real or just a part of these visions.

But we do know that at least one of these nuns existed - Victoria.

She was the nun that committed suicide at the beginning of the film.

It is later confirmed in the film that Victoria committed suicide to prevent Valak from possessing her body and escaping out of the Abbey. And alongside this, we see the constant battle and bravery of the nuns in keeping Valak at bay!

Just before Victoria commits suicide, another nun takes on the challenge of facing Valak, and attempts to seal the demon using the relic that we later find out is the blood of Christ.

Consistently we see nuns be badass.

We see meek and mild women, drenched in Final Girl tropes throwing off the shackles of patriarchy and reclaiming not just their right to their sexuality and womanhood, but also to defending their faith and what they believe in!

What defines them is no longer their bodies, it’s their beliefs.

This is made dually effective by the comparison between their consistent efforts to keep Valak at bay and the initial efforts of the crusaders. The nuns mirror the efforts of actual knights, and use their agency and power of being nuns to do so.

We then come to the Nun - Valak - herself.

The monster titling the film ties together the tropes of the female monster and the possessed girl, evoking the role of women in horror films for the last 100 years.

Nuns often fulfill a mothering image.

So – just like the innocent young girls that figures so prominently in films such as The Exorcist or The Exorcism of Emily Rose - the mocking of such an image by a demon incites the traditional approach we see in traditional horror films.

This is accentuated by her appearance.

Not far off the female monster, Valak is hag-like, stretching the perverted image of a woman by mocking a nun.

And Valak’s demise – which is brought about by the most badass scene ever – involves Irene spitting the blood of Christ in it’s face.

It is a true act of guts, grossness, and power.

It once again evokes the obsession with blood and the female monster splattered across previous horror films.

It truly brings together the main image I have concluded is core to this film:

The new, badass anti-patriarchy nuns who defy all Final Girl tropes and represent feminism defeat Valak who symbolises the past, misogynistic horror film tropes.

(Okay, fine, I doubt James Wan and the rest of the people working on this film had this message in mind.)

This is solidified by the final 2 scenes that end the flick:

We think that Valak is defeated and sealed away in the hellish crevice from whence it came.

But it is not.

Instead, it has possessed Frenchie, and this is who the Warrens find and exorcise. Footage of this then draws us back to the first film.

See, what matters here is that a man is possessed.

From the dozens of films I have sat through, I can think of few that actually involve men being possessed.

And that’s why I fucking love this movie:

The film ends by overturning misogyny, and it’s this ground-breaking male possession that kickstarts the whole Conjuring series!

They may not have defeated Valak, but they defeated the misogyny inherent in horror films.

***

This film will go down in the reviews section as a trope-filled-jumpscare-ridden-basic-bible-bitch- film.

But it’ll go down in history as a feminist icon.

(Well, to me, anyway.)

Now it’s time to hear what you think:

Do you think The Nun is the feminist icon we all need?

And are there any other feminist horror films that we gotta know about?

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dragonshapedskittles · 5 years ago

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I think it’s funny how people I know and complete strangers who are both white and racist think they can tell me their racist bullshit spews just because I am also white. Yes, I am. But the big issue is that we have a HUGE difference in opinion about the treatment of people of color. An incident happened to me earlier today where I got into a heated conversation with a very racist, ignorant middle aged man who lives nearby.

He tried to tell me how inferior African Americans are to us and they’re all either taking drugs, stealing, or popping babies out and they’re a disgrace to American culture. So I said, “Our culture? Let me give you a brief history lesson. You mean the one that has been defined by many cultures coming together and creating something special later on in life? Our country was discovered by a man who believed he found his destination but when that proved to be untrue, he slaughtered millions upon millions of the native population just because he could. And then when that wasn’t enough, once enough of them were dead due to either being killed by a person or disease, he decided to set up shop here permanently. He kicked people out of their land, forced religious beliefs on them, and began what is present day America, which was again, created off the backs of another race pulled from their native country unbeknownst to them to become slaves where they would have no rights or privileges and treated as the scum of the earth until the civil rights movement of the 1960s. Ever since George Washington’s day and the writing of the constitution, white people thought they were the cream of the crop and deserved to be at the top of everything just because of our skin color. White culture has grown into this nasty habit of belittling, degrading, and slandering any African American who tries/tried to disagree or show any kind of unhappiness with their situation. African Americans are consistently racially profiled by police, wrongfully convicted, discriminated against, and killed just because of the color of their skin. They show up more on the news for bad things than for the good a lot of them are doing. White culture should be ashamed. We villainize African Americans when that couldn’t be further from what they are. They fight for our country’s freedom, they are doctors, teachers, firemen/women, policemen/women, shit I could go on and on. I am proud to be a white ally for the better treatment of this beautiful race. There’s nothing wrong with being black and it’s people like you who make a mockery out of the progression we’re trying to make. Every voice deserves to be heard. No exceptions. Love knows no color and if that makes me a bleeding heart liberal because I want what’s best for everyone than so be it.”

Needless to say, the conversation ended after that. I will not sit and listen to anyone who thinks they can tell me anything racist just because they think “I’ll understand because I’m white.”

#big mood #conversation #racial #black lives matter #frustrated #theshowmustbepaused

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reading-writing-revolution · 6 years ago

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Will America still exist after next week? Only if the Senate votes to convict Donald Trump.

#HeatherCoxRichardson helps makes sense of the current political fog. January 18, 2020 (Saturday)

"Today the impeachment managers for the House of Representatives released their trial memorandum for Trump’s impeachment, getting underway Tuesday. Written in simple language, it begins, “President Donald J. Trump used his official powers to pressure a foreign government to interfere in a United States election for his personal political gain, and then attempted to cover up his scheme by obstructing Congress’s investigation into his misconduct.”

The managers explain: “The Constitution provides a remedy when the President commits such serious abuses of his office: impeachment and removal,” and points out that “the Senate must use that remedy now to safeguard the 2020 U.S. election, protect our constitutional form of government, and eliminate the threat that the President poses to America’s national security.” It lays out where we now stand: “The House adopted two Articles of Impeachment against President Trump: the first for abuse of power, and the second for obstruction of Congress. The evidence overwhelmingly establishes that he is guilty of both. The only remaining question is whether the members of the Senate will accept and carry out the responsibility placed on them by the Framers of our Constitution and their constitutional Oaths.”

In 111 pages, the document lays out, in detail, with quotations and notes, the timeline of the Ukraine Scandal, making a clear case that Trump has abused the power of the presidency and obstructed Congress.

Trump answered. His lawyers, Jay Sekulow and Pat Cipollone, slightly cleaned up the same hysterical defenses Trump has been making since the Ukraine Scandal first broke. In just 5 and a half pages, with no footnotes or evidence, Trump argues that the Democrats are attacking “the right of the American people to freely choose their President.” He claims impeachment “is a brazen and unlawful attempt to overturn the results of the 2016 election and interfere with the 2020 election.” He calls the articles of impeachment “constitutionally invalid on their face,” “an affront to the Constitution of the United States, our democratic institutions, and the American people.” The president, he says, “did absolutely nothing wrong.”

So there it is. On the one hand, we have a reasoned argument, based in fact, that can be challenged as we try to get to a shared agreement on what happened. On the other hand, we have our president telling us to accept what he says as true, despite the fact that he has provided no factual evidence and, indeed, much of what he has said is demonstrably false.

In the 1600s, European settlers to North America came from a land dominated by kings and aristocrats. Those men ruled because society was organized around the idea that God had made them to rule, and that the little people, who survived as best they could, had no choice but to be loyal to them. But changes in technology, religion, and the world economy were challenging the belief that society should be organized according to a traditional order, theoretically established by God.

Thinkers began to argue for the power of learning, scientific experiments, and argument to try to discover how the world worked. This “Enlightenment” led to new theories about government. In 1690, political philosopher John Locke argued that humans had an innate ability to learn based on their experience of the world, so all knowledge came from trying out new ideas and facts. As men learned, they would be better able to understand the natural laws that underpinned the real world. If a man’s understanding could change, though, that meant traditional patterns of society did not necessarily reflect natural law. One man was not necessarily better than another by virtue of his birth. Government, then, should not rest on birth or wealth or religion—all of which were arbitrary—but rather on the consent of the governed.

When Thomas Jefferson wrote the Declaration of Independence in 1776, he quoted Locke almost exactly. Rather than establishing a new monarchy or even an aristocracy, Jefferson and his colleagues began America’s founding document with a startling new proposition: “We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.” They added another proposition: “To secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed.”

The Founders’ vision was badly limited. They enslaved native peoples and African captives and their African American neighbors, and they never imagined women could be equal to men. But the idea that all men are created equal, and that governments derive their just powers from the consent of the governed, made the United States of America a shockingly radical step in human governance.

In 1787, the Founders created our Constitution, the body of laws on which our government rests. In it, they tried to bring the Declaration of Independence to life, basing their system on the idea that everyone is equal before the law. And, knowing from personal experience that politicians crave power, they tried to prevent the rise of an autocrat—especially an autocrat who was getting help from a foreign government—by separating power into three different branches. They believed that men (for, of course, they could not imagine women in Congress) would so jealously guard their own power that they would impeach a president who tried to become a king.

But once the government was up and running, what did it mean in practice to say that it depended upon the consent of the governed? It meant that leaders could not simply declare they were in charge. They had to appeal to voters with reasoned arguments, based in facts. For sure, politicians always spun the facts as best they could, but their opponents made their own arguments. It was up to voters to figure out which leader made the most sense

Under no circumstances could a leader tell the voters what he was doing in office was none of their business.

It was PRECISELY their business.

Until the rise of talk radio in 1987 and the establishment of the Fox News Channel in 1996, we honored the Enlightenment values on which our government was founded: politicians had to attract voters with fact-based arguments or be voted out of office. But talk radio and FNC pushed a fictional narrative that captivated viewers who felt dispossessed after 1954, as women and people of color began to approach having an equal voice in society. That narrative—of a heroic white man under siege by a government that wants to give his hard-earned money to black and brown people and grasping women—has led us back to where we started in 1776: a conflict between democracy and authoritarianism.

Today, the House managers laid out a fact-based argument that honors our heritage. In contrast, Trump’s statement rejects not only facts but also the need to make a fact-based argument. He rejects the need to be accountable to the American people. He rejects the idea that no one is above the law. He evidently does not believe in American democracy: the great American experiment that says human beings can govern themselves.

What will happen in the Senate trial is unclear. How much it will matter is also unclear. More information is dropping daily that links Trump, members of his administration, and congress people to the Ukraine Scandal. In addition, the Supreme Court will decide in the spring whether Trump’s financial information must go to the House. He is also clearly deteriorating mentally. This administration will continue to surprise us.

But in the most crucial way, what happens in the Senate is important. Do our Senators believe in American democracy or are they willing to rubber stamp an authoritarian? Make no mistake: this is not about partisanship. Reasonable people can—and should—disagree about important policy decisions in our country. That's how we learn new things and gain a better view of how the world really works.

But if we abandon our Enlightenment principles, we will, after almost 250 years, have abandoned the American experiment altogether."

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antoine-roquentin · 7 years ago

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ON DECEMBER 11, 1981 in El Salvador, a Salvadoran military unit created and trained by the U.S. Army began slaughtering everyone they could find in a remote village called El Mozote. Before murdering the women and girls, the soldiers raped them repeatedly, including some as young as 10 years old, and joked that their favorites were the 12-year-olds. One witness described a soldier tossing a 3-year-old child into the air and impaling him with his bayonet. The final death toll was over 800 people.

The next day, December 12, was the first day on the job for Elliott Abrams as assistant secretary of state for human rights and humanitarian affairs in the Reagan administration. Abrams snapped into action, helping to lead a cover-up of the massacre. News reports of what had happened, Abrams told the Senate, were “not credible,” and the whole thing was being “significantly misused” as propaganda by anti-government guerillas.

This past Friday, Secretary of State Mike Pompeo named Abrams as America’s special envoy for Venezuela. According to Pompeo, Abrams “will have responsibility for all things related to our efforts to restore democracy” in the oil-rich nation.

The choice of Abrams sends a clear message to Venezuela and the world: The Trump administration intends to brutalize Venezuela, while producing a stream of unctuous rhetoric about America’s love for democracy and human rights. Combining these two factors — the brutality and the unctuousness — is Abrams’s core competency.

Abrams previously served in a multitude of positions in the Ronald Reagan and George W. Bush administrations, often with titles declaring their focus on morality. First, he was assistant secretary of state for international organization affairs (in 1981); then the State Department “human rights” position mentioned above (1981-85); assistant secretary of state for inter-American affairs (1985-89); senior director for democracy, human rights, and international operations for the National Security Council (2001-05); and finally, Bush’s deputy national security adviser for global democracy strategy (2005-09).

In these positions, Abrams participated in many of the most ghastly acts of U.S. foreign policy from the past 40 years, all the while proclaiming how deeply he cared about the foreigners he and his friends were murdering. Looking back, it’s uncanny to see how Abrams has almost always been there when U.S. actions were at their most sordid.

ABRAMS, A GRADUATE of both Harvard College and Harvard Law School, joined the Reagan administration in 1981, at age 33. He soon received a promotion due to a stroke of luck: Reagan wanted to name Ernest Lefever as assistant secretary of state for human rights and humanitarian affairs, but Lefever’s nomination ran aground when two of his own brothers revealed that he believed African-Americans were “inferior, intellectually speaking.” A disappointed Reagan was forced to turn to Abrams as a second choice.

A key Reagan administration concern at the time was Central America — in particular, the four adjoining nations of Guatemala, El Salvador, Honduras, and Nicaragua. All had been dominated by tiny, cruel, white elites since their founding, with a century’s worth of help from U.S. interventions. In each country, the ruling families saw their society’s other inhabitants as human-shaped animals, who could be harnessed or killed as needed.

But shortly before Reagan took office, Anastasio Somoza, the dictator of Nicaragua and a U.S. ally, had been overthrown by a socialist revolution. The Reaganites rationally saw this as a threat to the governments of Nicaragua’s neighbors. Each country had large populations who similarly did not enjoy being worked to death on coffee plantations or watching their children die of easily treated diseases. Some would take up arms, and some would simply try to keep their heads down, but all, from the perspective of the cold warriors in the White House, were likely “communists” taking orders from Moscow. They needed to be taught a lesson.

The extermination of El Mozote was just a drop in the river of what happened in El Salvador during the 1980s. About 75,000 Salvadorans died during what’s called a “civil war,” although almost all the killing was done by the government and its associated death squads.

The numbers alone don’t tell the whole story. El Salvador is a small country, about the size of New Jersey. The equivalent number of deaths in the U.S. would be almost 5 million. Moreover, the Salvadoran regime continually engaged in acts of barbarism so heinous that there is no contemporary equivalent, except perhaps ISIS. In one instance, a Catholic priest reported that a peasant woman briefly left her three small children in the care of her mother and sister. When she returned, she found that all five had been decapitated by the Salvadoran National Guard. Their bodies were sitting around a table, with their hands placed on their heads in front of them, “as though each body was stroking its own head.” The hand of one, a toddler, apparently kept slipping off her small head, so it had been nailed onto it. At the center of the table was a large bowl full of blood.

Criticism of U.S. policy at the time was not confined to the left. During this period, Charles Maechling Jr., who had led State Department planning for counterinsurgencies during the 1960s, wrote in the Los Angeles Times that the U.S. was supporting “Mafia-like oligarchies” in El Salvador and elsewhere and was directly complicit in “the methods of Heinrich Himmler’s extermination squads.”

Abrams was one of the architects of the Reagan administration’s policy of full-throated support for the Salvadoran government. He had no qualms about any of it and no mercy for anyone who escaped the Salvadoran abattoir. In 1984, sounding exactly like Trump officials today, he explained that Salvadorans who were in the U.S. illegally should not receive any kind of special status. “Some groups argue that illegal aliens who are sent back to El Salvador meet persecution and often death,” he told the House of Representatives. “Obviously, we do not believe these claims or we would not deport these people.”

Even when out of office, 10 years after the El Mozote massacre, Abrams expressed doubt that anything untoward had occurred there. In 1993, when a United Nations truth commission found that 95 percent of the acts of violence that had taken place in El Salvador since 1980 had been committed by Abrams’s friends in the Salvadoran government, he called what he and his colleagues in the Reagan administration had done a “fabulous achievement.”

The situation in Guatemala during the 1980s was much the same, as were Abrams’s actions. After the U.S. engineered the overthrow of Guatemala’s democratically elected president in 1954, the country had descended into a nightmare of revolving military dictatorships. Between 1960 and 1996, in another “civil war,” 200,000 Guatemalans were killed — the equivalent of maybe 8 million people in America. A U.N. commission later found that the Guatemalan state was responsible for 93 percent of the human rights violations.

Efraín Ríos Montt, who served as Guatemala’s president in the early 1980s, was found guilty in 2013, by Guatemala’s own justice system, of committing genocide against the country’s indigenous Mayans. During Ríos Montt’s administration, Abrams called for the lifting of an embargo on U.S. arms shipments to Guatemala, claiming that Ríos Montt had “brought considerable progress.” The U.S. had to support the Guatemalan government, Abrams argued, because “if we take the attitude ‘don’t come to us until you’re perfect, we’re going to walk away from this problem until Guatemala has a perfect human rights record,’ then we’re going to be leaving in the lurch people there who are trying to make progress.” One example of the people making an honest effort, according to Abrams, was Ríos Montt. Thanks to Ríos Montt, “there has been a tremendous change, especially in the attitude of the government toward the Indian population.” (Ríos Montt’s conviction was later set aside by Guatemala’s highest civilian court, and he died before a new trial could finish.)

Abrams would become best known for his enthusiastic involvement with the Reagan administration’s push to overthrow Nicaragua’s revolutionary Sandinista government. He advocated for a full invasion of Nicaragua in 1983, immediately after the successful U.S. attack on the teeny island nation of Grenada. When Congress cut off funds to the Contras, an anti-Sandinista guerrilla force created by the U.S., Abrams successfully persuaded the Sultan of Brunei to cough up $10 million for the cause. Unfortunately, Abrams, acting under the code name “Kenilworth,” provided the Sultan with the wrong Swiss bank account number, so the money was wired instead to a random lucky recipient.

Abrams was questioned by Congress about his Contra-related activities and lied voluminously. He later pleaded guilty to two counts of withholding information. One was about the Sultan and his money, and another was about Abrams’s knowledge of a Contra resupply C-123 plane that had been shot down in 1986. In a nice historical rhyme with his new job in the Trump administration, Abrams had previously attempted to obtain two C-123s for the Contras from the military of Venezuela.

Abrams received a sentence of 100 hours of community service and perceived the whole affair as an injustice of cosmic proportions. He soon wrote a book in which he described his inner monologue about his prosecutors, which went: “You miserable, filthy bastards, you bloodsuckers!” He was later pardoned by President George H.W. Bush on the latter’s way out the door after he lost the 1992 election.

While it’s been forgotten now, before America invaded Panama to oust Manuel Noriega in 1989, he was a close ally of the U.S. — despite the fact the Reagan administration knew he was a large-scale drug trafficker.

In 1985, Hugo Spadafora, a popular figure in Panama and its one-time vice minister for health, believed he had obtained proof of Noriega’s involvement in cocaine smuggling. He was on a bus on his way to Panama City to release it publicly when he was seized by Noriega’s thugs.

According to the book “Overthrow” by former New York Times correspondent Stephen Kinzer, U.S. intelligence picked up Noriega giving his underlings the go-ahead to put Spadafora down like “a rabid dog.” They tortured Spadafora for a long night and then sawed off his head while he was still alive. When Spadafora’s body was found, his stomach was full of blood he’d swallowed.

This was so horrific that it got people’s attention. But Abrams leapt to Noriega’s defense, blocking the U.S. ambassador to Panama from increasing pressure on the Panamanian leader. When Spadafora’s brother persuaded North Carolina’s hyper-conservative GOP Sen. Jesse Helms to hold hearings on Panama, Abrams told Helms that Noriega was “being really helpful to us” and was “really not that big a problem. … The Panamanians have promised they are going to help us with the Contras. If you have the hearings, it’ll alienate them.”

Abrams also engaged in malfeasance for no discernible reason, perhaps just to stay in shape. In 1986 a Colombian journalist named Patricia Lara was invited to the U.S. to attend a dinner honoring writers who’d advanced “inter-American understanding and freedom of information.” When Lara arrived at New York’s Kennedy airport, she was taken into custody, then put on a plane back home. Soon afterward, Abrams went on “60 Minutes” to claim that Lara was a member of the “ruling committees” of M-19, a Colombian guerrilla movement. She also, according to Abrams, was ”an active liaison” between M-19 ”and the Cuban secret police.”

Given the frequent right-wing paramilitary violence against Colombian reporters, this painted a target on Lara’s back. There was no evidence then that Abrams’s assertions were true — Colombia’s own conservative government denied it — and none has appeared since.

Abrams’s never-ending, shameless deceptions wore downAmerican reporters. “They said that black was white,” Joanne Omang at the Washington Post later explained about Abrams and his White House colleague Robert McFarlane. “Although I had used all my professional resources I had misled my readers.” Omang was so exhausted by the experience that she quit her job trying to describe the real world to try to write fiction.

Post-conviction Abrams was seen as damaged goods who couldn’t return to government. This underestimated him. Adm. William J. Crowe Jr., the one-time chair of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, tangled fiercely with Abrams in 1989 over the proper U.S. policy toward Noriega once it become clear he was more trouble than he was worth. Crowe strongly opposed a bright idea that Abrams had come up with: that the U.S. should establish a government-in-exile on Panamanian soil, which would require thousands of U.S. troops to guard. This was deeply boneheaded, Crowe said, but it didn’t matter. Crowe presciently issued a warning about Abrams: “This snake’s hard to kill.”

To the surprise of Washington’s more naive insiders, Abrams was back in business soon after George W. Bush entered the White House. It might have been difficult to get Senate approval for someone who had deceived Congress, so Bush put him in a slot at the National Security Council — where no legislative branch approval was needed. Just like 20 years before, Abrams was handed a portfolio involving “democracy” and “human rights.”

By the beginning of 2002, Venezuela’s president, Hugo Chavez, had become deeply irritating to the Bush White House, which was filled with veterans of the battles of the 1980s. That April, all of a sudden, out of nowhere, Chavez was pushed out of power in a coup. Whether and how the U.S. was involved is not yet known, and probably won’t be for decades until the relevant documents are declassified. But based on the previous 100 years, it would be surprising indeed if America didn’t play any behind-the-scenes role. For what it’s worth, the London Observer reported at the time that “the crucial figure around the coup was Abrams” and he “gave a nod” to the plotters. In any case, Chavez had enough popular support that he was able to regroup and return to office within days.

Abrams apparently did play a key role in squelching a peace proposal from Iran in 2003, just after the U.S. invasion of Iraq. The plan arrived by fax, and should have gone to Abrams, and then to Condoleezza Rice, at the time Bush’s national security adviser. Instead it somehow never made it to Rice’s desk. When later asked about this, Abrams’s spokesperson replied that he “had no memory of any such fax.” (Abrams, like so many people who thrive at the highest level of politics, has a terrible memory for anything political. In 1984, he told Ted Koppel that he couldn’t recall for sure whether the U.S. had investigated reports of massacres in El Salvador. In 1986, when asked by the Senate Intelligence Committee if he’d discussed fundraising for the contras with anyone on the NSC’s staff, he likewise couldn’t remember.)

Abrams was also at the center of another attempt to thwart the outcome of a democratic election, in 2006. Bush had pushed for legislative elections in the West Bank and Gaza in order to give Fatah, the highly corrupt Palestinian organization headed by Yasser Arafat’s successor, Mahmoud Abbas, some badly needed legitimacy. To everyone’s surprise, Fatah’s rival Hamas won, giving it the right to form a government.

This unpleasant outburst of democracy was not acceptable to the Bush administration, in particular Rice and Abrams. They hatched a plan to form a Fatah militia to take over the Gaza Strip, and crush Hamas in its home territory. As reported by Vanity Fair, this involved a great deal of torture and executions. But Hamas stole a march on Fatah with their own ultra-violence. David Wurmser, a neoconservative who worked for Dick Cheney at the time, told Vanity Fair, “It looks to me that what happened wasn’t so much a coup by Hamas but an attempted coup by Fatah that was pre-empted before it could happen.” Yet ever since, these events have been turned upside down in the U.S. media, with Hamas being presented as the aggressors.

While the U.S. plan was not a total success, it also was not a total failure from the perspective of America and Israel. The Palestinian civil war split the West Bank and Gaza into two entities, with rival governments in both. For the past 13 years, there’s been little sign of the political unity necessary for Palestinians to get a decent life for themselves.

Abrams then left office with Bush’s exit. But now he’s back for a third rotation through the corridors of power – with the same kinds of schemes he’s executed the first two times.

Looking back at Abrams’s lifetime of lies and savagery, it’s hard to imagine what he could say to justify it. But he does have a defense for everything he’s done — and it’s a good one.

In 1995, Abrams appeared on “The Charlie Rose Show” with Allan Nairn, one of the most knowledgable American reporters about U.S. foreign policy. Nairn noted that George H.W. Bush had once discussed putting Saddam Hussein on trial for crimes against humanity. This was a good idea, said Nairn, but “if you’re serious, you have to be even-handed” — which would mean also prosecuting officials like Abrams.

Abrams chuckled at the ludicrousness of such a concept. That would require, he said, “putting all the American officials who won the Cold War in the dock.”

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logancreatesworlds · 7 years ago

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Just Good Business - J’onn J’onzz x black!lawyer!reader

Author’s Note: Hey everybody! So I’ve been wanting to do this one for a while now. Hope it’s good. Enjoy! Oh, @lovelynervouschaos I’m still working on your request. I’ll get it done soon!

Warnings: Racism, strong language, bit of sexism, some sensuality - the whole package.

Disclaimer: None of the images used belong to me.

“GET OUT OF THIS COUNTRY!”

“GO BACK TO WHERE YOU CAME FROM, NIGGER!”

“YOU ARE ANTI-WHITE!”

That was what your assailant yelled as Supergirl helped push him into a police car.

It wasn’t a surprise to you. Guys like him always preferred to attack women and children.

Coward, you thought with an eye roll.

“Are you alright?” Supergirl asked with a concerned look on her face.

You nodded, “Oh yeah. I’m good.”

Her brow furrowed, her blue eyes now turning confused.

“Really? You’re not scared at all?”

You smiled and shook your head, “He’s not the first racist I’ve encountered, Supergirl. I’m fairly certain he won’t be the last.”

“Well I’m sure guys like him can be cantankerous but...why you?”

You smiled, “I’m a lawyer. You heard about the Smith case?”

“The one in the news about the one that blew up Brown Studios?”

You nodded, “Guess who’s the head prosecutor?”

Supergirl’s eyes widened a bit, “Wow. You must be the real deal.”

“I’d like to think so,” you said with a smirk before pulling a card out of your blazer pocket and handing it to her, “But listen, I appreciate anybody who is concerned for my safety. If you find yourself in any legal trouble, give me a call. I’ll help you out pro bono.”

She nodded, “Thanks. Have a good day, and be safe.”

You waved as she shot off into the sky and flew away.

Now, you thought, clutching your brief case as you walked down the street, As for lunch, Barca di Venezia or Fruits de mer de l'Atlantique?

“And you say she’s a lawyer?” Alex asked.

“Yeah, she’s the head prosecutor for the Brown Studios case,” Supergirl answered as she and Alex walked into the D.E.O. with coffee and doughnuts.

“Who are you two talking about?” J’onn asked.

“This hot new prosecutor that Supergirl can’t shut up about,” Alex replied as she handed him a black coffee.

“She’s not hot,” Supergirl corrected, “She’s just really cool. Her name is (Y/N), (Y/N) (Y/L/N).”

“Wait,” J’onn said, “(Y/N) (Y/L/N)? The lawyer from the Brown Studios case?”

“How does everybody know about this case but me?” Alex huffed.

“The question is how you don’t know about the case,” J’onn responded, biting his French cruller, “Two girls and a dance instructor - all African-American, died in a random bombing a few weeks ago. You and Supergirl were...preoccupied at the time.”

“Whoa? Did they catch who did it?”

J’onn nodded, “Two bombers. One was a bomb expert, ex military. The other? A police officer - right here from National City. The first was prosecuted with little to no problem. But the police officer has yet to be officially convicted.”

“So she must be convicting the cop,” Alex figured out.

“That’s very courageous,” Supergirl commented, “But also very dangerous - for her. We should assign her a protection detail.”

“We can’t,” J’onn said, “The D.E.O must be focusing on external threats at all times. Besides, you have duties as well.”

“Okay but...she needs protection. You didn’t see the guy who had attacked her. And people like him will only grow bolder and bolder unless we protect people like her.”

“Well what do you propose we do? You are busy protecting National City as a whole, and Alex works here.”

Supergirl was silent for a moment and then a light bulb flashed on in her head.

J’onn immediately refused at the look she gave him.

“No,” he said, “No, no, no, no-”

“J’onn come on. You can hide in plain sight and plus you’re really tough. No one’s gonna mess with you, and certainly not her if you’re her bodyguard.”

“No. Absolutely not.”

“Come on J’onn,” she pleaded, “Pleeeeaaaaassse?”

J’onn sighed at the look Supergirl was giving him, and Alex smirked as she saw him ready to give in.

3...2...1...

“Fine,” J’onn said wryly, “But if she rejects my help-”

“Great,” Supergirl chirped before wrapping her arms around him and giving him a hug, “Thanks!”

When she was gone, Alex turned to J’onn.

“You know you’re a huge pushover right?”

“Alex, hush.”

“Aaaaand here is your steak,” your waitress said.

“Thanks Stacey,” you replied as she left you alone.

You peacefully dug into your meal, cutting into its thick contents and taking a bite.

“Delicious, isn’t it?”

You looked over to see a tall black man sitting at a table a few feet away from you, sipping a glass of red wine.

Pensively, you replied, “Yes, yes it is. Why?”

He shrugged. “Just making conversation.”

You scoffed and smirked, “No you aren’t.”

“Excuse me?”

“I said that you aren’t here to make conversation.”

“And how could you possibly know something like that?”

“That wine you’re drinking is Roberé. S’the cheapest one on the menu at this place. Your suit looks cheap as well so it’s obviously not Armani. Only rich assholes with bugs up their asses or bitches on the side come to this place. Wanna come over here and tell me who you really are?”

The man sighed, getting up and coming toward you.

“You certainly are perceptive,” he commented, taking a seat across from you.

“And you certainly are predictable,” you replied, not missing a beat and taking another bite of steak, “So...who are you?”

The man stilled, and then - almost like magic, started to change.

His navy blue suit became a blue bodysuit with a red ‘X’ on the front and his brown skin became emerald green as his head elongated into a soft cone shape.

“No way,” you gasped.

“I assume you’ve heard of me,” the Martian Manhunter replied, grabbing a bread stick and taking a bite.

“Yeah but...why are you here?”

Martian Manhunter smirked, “Let’s just say I’m here as a favor to a friend.”

“So Supergirl sent you.”

His smirk into a smile, “Yes.”

“What for? You here to spy on me for some secret superhero crap?”

“If you consider ‘secret superhero crap’ to be acting as your bodyguard until the Brown Studios case is over, then yes.”

You smirked, “So Supergirl sent you here to protect me?”

“To be completely honest - yes. Though I must admit, you do not seem like the kind of woman who needs protecting.”

“Does that surprise you?”

“Not exactly.”

A silent moment passed and you grew more and more confused at why the Martian was staring so hard.

“...What?”

“Forgive me for staring it’s just...” Martian Manhunter paused, “You did not seem that surprised that I’m...”

“Martian?”

He nodded.

“Well let me just give you the introduction that Supergirl didn’t give you,” you said as you leaned in, “I am the head prosecutor for the most successful legal firm in National City. I graduated from Harvard - top of my class, and I have an 89% conviction rate. I do not get scared, sir. It’s not in my DNA.”

“So...you never have any moments of vulnerability, tension or even...” he leaned forward, “Passion?”

“The law is my passion.”

“I believe that. However I have trouble believing that there is nothing more to this tough, hard-nosed prosecuting attorney that I see before me other than long sleepless nights and casework. There is more to you than you let on. That much I know. Am I right? You can tell me if I am wrong. There is no one here but us.”

You said nothing.

“It’s almost one o’clock,” he said, noting the large crystal clock on the wall, “You want a box or are we going to wait here all night?”

“I really don’t need protection,” you argued as you both walked walked down 7th street to your office.

The Martian was with you, back in his human form.

“Well too bad. You have it.”

“Why do you even care?”

“If my friend wants you protected, it is most likely for good reason. I thought I made that clear.”

“You are awfully persistent for someone from...out of town.”

Your new bodyguard smirked and you felt annoyed that you began to find it attractive, “It is a strength of mine.”

“This is my place,” you said, unlocking your door, “Sorry it’s not the Ritz but I’d like to think it’s pretty cozy.”

“No apologies necessary,” The Martian Manhunter said, shifting back into his true form, “It is quite nice actually.”

“Yeah well I try,” you replied sardonically as you locked the door and plopped your purse on the kitchen counter and kicked off your heels, “You hungry? I’ve got food.”

“What do you have, pizza?”

You rolled your eyes, “Please, I have leftover Chicken Parm’.”

“Do you have Oreos?”

“Right here,” you replied, grabbing the package of cookies and setting it down in front of the Martian as he sat at the counter in front of you, “Want some milk?”

“Please.”

You took out your Benny’s Skim Milk carton out of the top fridge and poured some of its contents in a large glass.

“Thank you,” the Martian said, taking it from you.

“No problem.”

As you put your Chicken Parmesan in the microwave for a couple of minutes and then took it out, the two of you got settled.

The Martian kept watch, staring at the big, wide view of the evening National City skyline while you looked over your casework.

Even though things were quiet between the two of you, you could not resist briefly staring at him.

It may have been odd, but he was kind of handsome to you. Sure he was green, but you didn’t mind that, and his muscular figure was tall, lithe and strapping.

Damn, even his legs were nice.

“You are staring again.”

You swiftly looked back up to see the Martian smirking at you over his shoulder.

You shook your head, “Sorry.”

Back to casework.

“Do not apologize. I actually find it quite flattering.”

“I’m sure you do.”

“You really do not like me do you?” He asked, coming over and sitting across from me.

“I didn’t say that.”

“You didn’t have to.”

“Oh please,” you huffed, glaring at him, “Don’t act innocent with me. You didn’t seem too gung-ho about being my new security detail.”

“And why do you think that is?”

“Because you’re an extraterrestrial snob?”

“No,” the Martian replied, “Because you are hiding things from me.”

“And what makes you think you are entitled to know all my secrets?”

“If someone kidnaps you and takes you somewhere, I need to know if that place is significant to you before planning a rescue. That’s my job, and I am very good at it. Now, how can I do my job if I don’t even know the details of the person I am supposed to be protecting?”

He had you there.

“Okay,” you sighed, setting your casework and pen aside, “What do you wanna know?”

“When did you become a lawyer?”

“A few years ago. I was a young upstart after I graduated and I got job offer at Johnson & Doc.”

“How many have you convicted?”

“At least a hundred. Any other questions?”

You always were a worker bee.

“Why did you become a lawyer, or a prosecutor for that matter? With your intelligence you could have had any job you wanted, so...why this one?”

You weren’t as quick to answer that one.

“Miss (Y/L/N), I will not ask you again.”

You said nothing.

The Martian huffed getting up from his seat, “Fine. Find your own protection.”

Before he could open the door, you answered.

“I do it for my brother.”

The Martian froze.

“Back when I was a kid...I was attacked on the way home from school. The guy he-...he tried to rape me. But before he could cut my jeans, my brother pulled him off me. He almost killed him. The guy called the police, said my brother attacked him and tried to rob him. He was almost arrested but...”

“But?” The Martian asked, walking up to you.

“But I...I showed them the bruises,” you said, breaking down and starting to cry.

“Long story short,” you said, wiping your tears, “My brother died a couple years ago in a car accident. And I swore to myself I would be strong - like him.”

“There are people out there who don’t have a brother to protect them, who don’t have anyone to protect them,” you continued, looking into the Martian’s eyes, “I’ll be damned if let them suffer. That is my calling - helping people who can’t help themselves. It’s just good business.”

The Martian digested the information, “Well in that case...it will be an honor to protect you, Miss (Y/N).”

You half-smiled when he handed you a tissue.

Over the next few days, you and the Martian Manhunter learned a lot more about each other.

His real name turned out to be J’onn J’onzz, and while he learned more about what you liked and disliked, you learned about his life.

It was a wonder how the Martian could live on after he lost his whole planet.

“There isn’t much justice in this world. Perhaps that is why it is so satisfying to occasionally make some.”

That was what he had said once.

Though it was unexpected, you were actually beginning to like him.

Two Years Later

“I don’t understand why you didn’t let me hit him,” J’onn huffed as you two arrived home to your apartment, his skin turning from brown to green like it had so many times.

“Because you have super strength - for one,” you said bluntly, hanging your coat up, “And you get jealous easily.”

“I do not get jealous-”

You glared at him.

He sighed, “Maybe a little bit.”

“Mhmm,” you sounded knowingly.

“Well in any case...I am sorry I got us kicked out.”

You rolled your eyes, pulling the big Martian to you, “I supposed I can forgive you. I mean it was funny to see you toss that asshole through a window.”

“He was getting handsy with you,” J’onn said in a mocking voice, “I don’t play that.”

You laughed as he kissed your lips.

“Come on,” you said pushing him on the couch.

“What are you up to?”

“None of your business,” you said playfully, “Just relax until I come out.”

J’onn waited a few minutes, resisting the urge to use his telekinesis to open the door to see what you were doing.

Soon, you returned - nude.

“Oh,” J’onn said, his crimson eyes darkening, “So that is what you were up to.”

You smirked, “Mhmmm. But I do need some...relief.”

“Then it will be my honor to relieve you,” J’onn returned, shifting off his clothes until he was as naked as you were.

“Right this way then,” you said, opening the door.

J’onn’s eyes widened pleasantly at what he saw.

“Honey, this is beautiful.”

“Well I did try,” you said, “It’s not much but I wanted to do something special for our anniversary. I paid the lady over at Lance’s flowers to pick all the petals and instead of candles I got lanterns. You sure you like it?”

“I love it,” J’onn answered, hovering until he landed softly in the tub, “Come join me.”

You softly pittered and pattered until you were in the tub as well.

J’onn’s eyes darkened again at the way your body sunk into the water.

“What?” You asked.

“You are so beautiful.”

“And you are handsome.”

J’onn smiled, “...Kiss me.”

You leaned forward and planted a deep smooch on the Martian’s lips.

But before you could pull away, J’onn pulled you back to him and made the kiss deeper.

He was into it.

“You are in a romantic mood today.”

“I am,” J’onn confirmed.

“I like it. It makes me hot.”

“Please (Y/N), I need you.”

“Tell me how you need me.”

“I need to be inside of you. I need...I need your heart.”

J’onn always was very seductive when he wanted to be.

You pulled him towards you, kissing him again.

Fuck it.

“Then show me what you’re made of,” you breathed as J’onn grabbed you by your hips.

The two of you spent that night together in each other’s arms, just like you both had wanted.

Just good business indeed, he thought.

Author’s Note: And that is all for this one folks! Hope y’all like this one. Enjoy!

@lovelynervouschaos @macfizzle @cynbx @efikarta @coconutxraikage @shemiahsmelanin @jozigrrl @fanfic-reblog-central @icycoldbeanieweanies @siriuslycollins @bethany-zor-el-danvers @avengerdragoness

#martian manhunter x reader #martian manhunter x black!reader #supergirl imagine #j'onn j'onzz x reader #j'onn j'onzz x black!reader #i did my best #romance fic

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fabby-book-blog · 6 years ago

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An American Marriage (2018)

Author: Tayari Jones

#SummerReading2019 - #9 (07/26/2019)

Winner of the 2019 Women's Prize for Fiction! (Which you can see my post about here).

Between making that post and now, I purchased Jones' novel!

"An American Marriage is a moving portrayal of the effects of wrongful conviction on a young African American couple" - Barack Obama

As Pres. Obama's little exert explains, Jones' novel is about an African American couple, Roy and Celestial. They've been married for a year and a half (possibly planning having children) when Roy is incarcerated for a crime he didn't commit. What follows are the consequences of the events of this one evening-- what it does to not only Roy and Celestial's marriage, but to themselves individually and their loved ones.

This is certainly a book that is needed for this day and age. While literature can serve as an escape, Jones' book (like many other works) serve to open the eyes of readers to make them aware of issues going on within our current society. While an engaging read (and totally deserving of the Women's Prize for Fiction) we also got a long way to go in fixing societal issues (race, class, the justice system, etc.).

#books #english major #fabby book blog #summer reading 2019 #bookblr #tayari jones #an american marriage #african american literature #women's prize for fiction #social justice #race relations

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realtalkingpoints · 7 years ago

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President Trump’s Oval office address transcribed (from CBS news website)

Read Trump's full remarks

Here are the president's full remarks from his Tuesday evening Oval Office address:

"My fellow Americans: Tonight, I am speaking to you because there is a growing humanitarian and security crisis at our southern border.Every day, Customs and Border Patrol agents encounter thousands of illegal immigrants trying to enter our country. We are out of space to hold them, and we have no way to promptly return them back home to their country.America proudly welcomes millions of lawful immigrants who enrich our society and contribute to our nation. But all Americans are hurt by uncontrolled, illegal migration. It strains public resources and drives down jobs and wages. Among those hardest hit are African Americans and Hispanic Americans."

"Our southern border is a pipeline for vast quantities of illegal drugs, including meth, heroin, cocaine, and fentanyl. Every week, 300 of our citizens are killed by heroin alone, 90 percent of which floods across from our southern border. More Americans will die from drugs this year than were killed in the entire Vietnam War. In the last two years, ICE officers made 266,000 arrests of aliens with criminal records, including those charged or convicted of 100,000 assaults, 30,000 sex crimes, and 4,000 violent killings. Over the years, thousands of Americans have been brutally killed by those who illegally entered our country, and thousands more lives will be lost if we don't act right now."

"This is a humanitarian crisis -- a crisis of the heart and a crisis of the soul. Last month, 20,000 migrant children were illegally brought into the United States -- a dramatic increase. These children are used as human pawns by vicious coyotes and ruthless gangs. One in three women are sexually assaulted on the dangerous trek up through Mexico. Women and children are the biggest victims, by far, of our broken system.This is the tragic reality of illegal immigration on our southern border. This is the cycle of human suffering that I am determined to end.My administration has presented Congress with a detailed proposal to secure the border and stop the criminal gangs, drug smugglers, and human traffickers. It's a tremendous problem. "

"Our proposal was developed by law enforcement professionals and border agents at the Department of Homeland Security. These are the resources they have requested to properly perform their mission and keep America safe. In fact, safer than ever before.The proposal from Homeland Security includes cutting-edge technology for detecting drugs, weapons, illegal contraband, and many other things. We have requested more agents, immigration judges, and bed space to process the sharp rise in unlawful migration fueled by our very strong economy. Our plan also contains an urgent request for humanitarian assistance and medical support.Furthermore, we have asked Congress to close border security loopholes so that illegal immigrant children can be safely and humanely returned back home.Finally, as part of an overall approach to border security, law enforcement professionals have requested $5.7 billion for a physical barrier."

"At the request of Democrats, it will be a steel barrier rather than a concrete wall. This barrier is absolutely critical to border security. It's also what our professionals at the border want and need. This is just common sense.The border wall would very quickly pay for itself. The cost of illegal drugs exceeds $500 billion a year -- vastly more than the $5.7 billion we have requested from Congress. The wall will also be paid for, indirectly, by the great new trade deal we have made with Mexico.Senator Chuck Schumer -- who you will be hearing from later tonight -- has repeatedly supported a physical barrier in the past, along with many other Democrats. They changed their mind only after I was elected president."

"Democrats in Congress have refused to acknowledge the crisis. And they have refused to provide our brave border agents with the tools they desperately need to protect our families and our nation.The federal government remains shut down for one reason and one reason only: because Democrats will not fund border security. My administration is doing everything in our power to help those impacted by the situation. But the only solution is for Democrats to pass a spending bill that defends our borders and re-opens the government."

"This situation could be solved in a 45-minute meeting. I have invited congressional leadership to the White House tomorrow to get this done. Hopefully, we can rise above partisan politics in order to support national security.Some have suggested a barrier is immoral. Then why do wealthy politicians build walls, fences, and gates around their homes? They don't build walls because they hate the people on the outside, but because they love the people on the inside. The only thing that is immoral is the politicians to do nothing and continue to allow more innocent people to be so horribly victimized."

"America's heart broke the day after Christmas when a young police officer in California was savagely murdered in cold blood by an illegal alien, who just came across the border. The life of an American hero was stolen by someone who had no right to be in our country.Day after day, precious lives are cut short by those who have violated our borders. In California, an Air Force veteran was raped, murdered, and beaten to death with a hammer by an illegal alien with a long criminal history. In Georgia, an illegal alien was recently charged with murder for killing, beheading, and dismembering his neighbor. In Maryland, MS-13 gang members who arrived in the United States as unaccompanied minors were arrested and charged last year after viciously stabbing and beating a 16-year-old girl.Over the last several years, I've met with dozens of families whose loved ones were stolen by illegal immigration. I've held the hands of the weeping mothers and embraced the grief-stricken fathers. So sad. So terrible. I will never forget the pain in their eyes, the tremble in their voices, and the sadness gripping their souls."

"How much more American blood must we shed before Congress does its job? To those who refuse to compromise in the name of border security, I would ask: Imagine if it was your child, your husband, or your wife whose life was so cruelly shattered and totally broken?To every member of Congress: Pass a bill that ends this crisis. To every citizen: Call Congress and tell them to finally, after all of these decades, secure our border.This is a choice between right and wrong, justice and injustice. This is about whether we fulfill our sacred duty to the American citizens we serve. When I took the Oath of Office, I swore to protect our country. And that is what I will always do, so help me God. Thank you and goodnight."

They also posted Schumer and Pelosi’s rebuttal, but its mostly just attacks on Trump. I didn’t see the live presentation of either (Trump or Pelosi/Schumer) but judging by the transcript, I’d say Trump owned them...

#news #politics #trump #conservative #republican #gop #maga

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tennesseeprelawland · 3 years ago

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A Continuation of Bill Cosby’s Legal Troubles: A Civil Suit in California

By Caroline Hood, University of Tennessee at Chattanooga Class of 2021

July 8, 2022

Bill Cosby, an entertainer, who left college early and got his start off in the Greenlight Café, amusing the guests as they ate and drank. He then moved on to television, staring in I SPY. He would win three Emmy awards for this role. He went on and starred in various shows about the Cosbys: The Bill Cosby Show the variety show The New Bill Cosby Show, and Fat Albert and the Cosby Kids. Many different children’s shows asked him to appear. He was loved by many and became a true father figure to America, advancing positive recognition for African Americans.

However, during the early 2000’s, women began to come forward and accuse him of sexually assaulting them and drugging them. The first woman came forward in 2005, Andrea Constand. She worked at Temple University. Charges were not filed because the district attorney did not think there was enough evidence, but Cosby did settle out of court with her as a civil case. Multiple women began to come forward after this, stating that Cosby had also raped and drugged them too. In 2015, a district attorney from Pennsylvania decided to charge Cosby on the Constand case with felony aggravated indecent assault. The court convicted him and sentenced him to 3-10 years. Cosby was in prison for three years while his lawyers worked on appeals. The Supreme Court of Pennsylvania finally overturned his sentence and released him from prison.[i]

The world’s reaction to his release can be seen by the comments of many celebrities. They expressed disbelief that this was occurring and talked about how no one can say cancel culture actually hurts anyone. One woman commented “I don’t want to hear anything about how cancel culture ruined men’s lives during the MeToo era reckoning for women and survivors. How we went too far. Today’s news that Cosby’s conviction is being overturned is proof we haven’t gone far enough. Our justice system MUST change.”[iii] Cancel culture is the phenomenon where the public calls someone for acting in the wrong and shun or boycott them for it. When it first appeared, some people disapproved of it, believing it to be a weapon that “canceled” people without a judge or jury. [iv]

However, not helping the public’s image of him after his release, Cosby still had a legal battle left to fight, a court case against Judy Huth, a 64 woman claims Cosby drugged and raped her when she was 16. The trial took place in June of 2022, and Cosby was found liable. He will have to pay 500,000 in damages. What is fascinating about the trial is that the only reason Huth could bring Cosby to court is that California has a law that allows cases where minors have been sexually assaulted to try them even years later. [v]In most other cases, the statute of limitations would have been up. A statute of limitations is how long someone can be charged for a crime. For example, if someone committed a robbery and was caught 25 years later, the statute would need to be for 25 years or they could not be tried. [vi]

Similarly, to the other accusations, Cosby has denied assaulting the woman. In fact, he invoked his fifth amendment in this trial.[viii] The fifth amendment means that one does not have to speak if it could cause them to be charged in a court.[ix] In fact, Cosby’s team is celebrating this trial as a success because Huth did not win any punitive damages.[x] These are damages to punish the accused and could easily have exceeded a million dollars.[xi] Huth may not even receive the funds because Cosby and his team plan to appeal. If she does receive the funds, it will be delayed. [xii]One detail that the Cosby team will most likely use in their appeal is that the time line changed. When the case was originally filed, Huth stated she was assaulted when she was 15. However, later, she claimed to be 16 when the act occurred. This change in timeline the Cosby team believes should have had a drastic impact on her believability and also on the evidence that was presented.

Many people have been asking if this case is a big step forward for sexual assault victims. Attorneys asked on this subject have said no. Attorney’s do not think that a lot of people will be able to be successful as Huth trying cases as old as hers because of the uniqueness of the statute that made it possible and Cosby’s notoriety.[xiii]

Celebs haven’t spoken out yet about this court case and how it will affect their feelings about Cosby. However, one would think that Cosby would have to do a lot to earn America’s acceptance, if it is even possible.

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[i] Bill Cosby | Biography, TV Shows, Movies, & Facts | Britannica, retrieved 3 July 2022.

[ii] The United States District Court for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania. Constand-Complaint PDF.PDF (courtlistener.com), retrieved 3 July 2022.

[iii]Bennett, Jessica. Celebrities react to Bill Cosby's conviction being overturned (pagesix.com), retrieved 2 July 2022.

[iv] Cancel culture Definition & Meaning - Merriam-Webster, retrieved 3 July 2022.

[v] McDonald, Natalie Hope. Bill Cosby Loses Sex-Battery Case, Will Pay $500,000 (vulture.com), retrieved 2 July 2022.

[vi] Majaski, Christinia. Statute of Limitations Definition (investopedia.com), retrieved 3 July 2022.

[vii] Superior Court of the State of California.Judy Huth Vs. Bill Cosby - [PDF Document] (vdocument.in), retrieved 3 July 2022.

[viii] McDonald, Natalie Hope. Bill Cosby Loses Sex-Battery Case, Will Pay $500,000 (vulture.com), retrieved 2 July 2022.

[ix] U.S. Constitution - Fifth Amendment | Resources | Constitution Annotated | Congress.gov | Library of Congress, retrieved 3 July 2022.

[x] Bill Cosby Not Sweating $500K Verdict in Civil Suit, 'That's All? Booyah!' (tmz.com), retrieved 3 July 2022.

[xi] Moncivais, Katy. Punitive Damages | Definition & Lawsuit Examples (consumersafety.org), retrieved 4 July 2022.

[xii] Bill Cosby Not Sweating $500K Verdict in Civil Suit, 'That's All? Booyah!' (tmz.com), retrieved 3 July 2022.

[xiii][xiii] Snodgrass, Erin. Bill Cosby verdict could 'embolden' other victims of decades-old crimes — but doesn't guarantee success, legal expert says (yahoo.com), retrieved 3 July 2022.

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