#and like obviously covid is still a very prevalent part of our lives and it’s stupid to think otherwise

[robertsbarbie]

the touring industry still hasn’t recovered from covid-19 and i don’t think people fully realize that

[wild-at-mind]

Also, in my sadness the other night I read a whole article written by a British trans activist, about how in these difficult, horrible times of gender critical mainstreamity, what we can do. It was about  the length of a thesis but I skimread the whole thing, but it just made me feel so much worse. I don’t really know how to describe why, but I think because it was written as if every person reading would have around them a loving, functional community of fellow trans people. Not online either, because the article was basically about how we should turn our focus outwards and work together with other marginilised groups to achieve liberation for all, including various types of activism that are done in person and locally. (Maybe that part read a little bit too much like ‘are you in despair about the nationwide dialogue about trans people in the UK and don’t know what to do about it? Just solve every societal problem in the world!’ to my sad and stressed brain, but that’s on me so not fair to put that on the essay.) The writer lived in a large city. I live in a very conservative place, still a city but  only on a technicality, pretty small, full of well off people, Tory. Imagine having a wonderful, thriving mutual aid network of your fellow trans people, friendships, help with DIY hormones (a recurring example used)- how do you even meet people who can get you DIY hormones? The difference between trans rights (a phrase the article writer wished wasn’t used as much in trans activism, and trans liberation, the phrase she preferred, does not seem so huge to me. I’d love that community though. Can I have it? Please? And what happens if you know lots of trans people but differ from them very much politically? Because what this person was talking about was dependant very much on matching politics. If you know trans people who are veterans and still working with the army to have better trans inclusion, how does that go with your anti-military policies? If you know a trans person whose love of Jeremy Corbyn during the last general election rapidly spiralled into antisemitism, how would that gel with Jewish members, and those who want to root out the prevalant antisemitism in leftist movements? (Both real examples of trans people I know from my LGBTQ+ group.) I think the only times I’ve ever really felt this kind of community the writer was speaking of was during trips to the next city over, a larger place, the place I originally started attending bi meetups <because I was too scared of being the cringy embarrassing bihet one to go to the LGBTQ+ meets in my own city>, the place I go to Pride, the place with the lovely non-profit vegan queer cafe that I would probably live at if they let me. I think the people I know kind of  have that there. Their community, trans and cis people, knows each other, loves each other, looks out for each other, does activism together. I’m not so far away distance wise, 25 mins on the train, but I might as well be in another world for how far away I feel. The most I can do is message someone on goddamn facebook. (This is all pre-covid, obviously it’s harder for everyone to stay connected with their community at the moment.) The weirdest thing is, it’s not like I’m even that close to anyone there individually, it’s just that I can feel the community forming around me whenever I visit. Then I leave and leave it all behind again. I remember thinking a few years ago that I would have to move there, kind of resignedly. But I didn’t really want to live there and before I started home working I needed to be near my job. It’s not practical, and for fucks sake, why should I have to move for this? The article made it  sound like anyone could rally their community anywhere! And if everyone leaves for the big places, who will make that community in the small places? I don’t even know what I’m saying. I just wish people would write sometimes from the perspective of community outsiders, as in people who dont have this bedrock. Being queer can be amazingly isolating, it is well know, and it’s so weird to see that this still isn’t being acknowledged. Community is so, so important. I wish more than ever to be accepted and loved by a community, especially as I’m on the brink of maybe losing one.

[fightmeyeats]

Rethinking “Inclusive Excellence”: A Critical University Studies Approach to COVID-19, the UC COLA movement, and Inequality in the University

If there’s one thing we know about power, it’s that it is most effective when it is obscured; we do not question what we cannot see, what we take for natural. This is something which the UC system depends on, positioning itself as a space of accessible education and “inclusive excellence” while refusing to engage with the way that the very infrastructure maintaining the UC is inherently antithetical to these goals. Wildcat strikers and organizers for the COLA4ALL movement currently sweeping through the UC system have done much to excavate these oppressive systems and contradictions foundational to the UC through the fight for a COLA (Cost of Living Adjustment) and the simultaneous refusal to disconnect this specific goal from the need to address the broader violence of the institution.

For those unfamiliar, the movement initially started at UC Santa Cruz. UCSC graduate students, like nearly all UC graduate students, are rent burdened. During the Fall 2019 quarter, graduate student instructors began a wildcat grade strike, calling attention to the contradiction between the university’s dependence on graduate student labor to function and the university’s refusal to provide graduate students with a reasonable standard of living through a refusal to submit grades. The movement quickly spread, and now spans all 10 UC campuses (many of which are on a full or partial strike). COLA4ALL’s overall vision, taken from the inter-campus website StrikeUniversity.org, centers free and accessible public education for everyone (without student debt), critical thinking and skills that are not bound to the imperatives of the market, replacing competitive models with communities of care and shared struggle, brilliance that refuses hierarchical models of “experts,” and the decolonization, democratization, queering, and abolishing of the university.

The UC has responded to COLA organizers with violence which is deeply revealing of the anti-black, carceral power foundational to the entire system. Militarized police presence has been prevalent at COLA picket lines, walk outs, and other organizing events. During a COLA rally on February 20, 2020 at UC Irvine campus police officer Trish Harding tackled and arrested a Black alumna who was not even involved with COLA and simply on campus trying to pick up her transcripts (please sign the UCI Black Student Union’s petition demanding accountability). UC-wide, many students have been harassed, assaulted, and arrested for daring to tell administration that they cannot survive under “business as usual”.

Recently a student in one of my classes asked the professor about their stance on UC graduate students organizing for a COLA; the professor said that it was up to us as their students, asking if we would be willing to have our grades withheld. Framing the issue as one of undergraduate willingness to go without grades fundamentally misrepresents what is going on. None of us want our grades withheld. Many of us cannot afford to have our grades withheld. But the consequences of having our grades withheld only exist within the context of institutional intransigence, not graduate students going on a wildcat strike.

It is imperative that graduate students be paid fairly and the university reevaluates the oppressive model it is currently operating under.

One of the things that stands out to me in the way that COLA4ALL is discussed is the emphasis put on the fact that the strike is illegal because UAW 2865, the graduate student union, has not voted to strike. As those of us who have critically engaged with criminality and the construction of “illegal”, part of the discourse surrounding illegality is an undermining of the value and contributions of those who are positioned as “illegal.” This is something which is, of course, multiply impactful to those who are already criminalized, as we can see clearly in police response to Black alumni existence on campus. The law is so often unjust and frequently sides with those who hold power and money. Why is it illegal for workers to organize outside of a singular union? Why is it legal for the UC system to put union busting measures into their contracts? Why do we talk about the wildcat strikes in terms of legality instead of engaging critically with the University as an institution?

The extraction of wealth from students is central to the current operation of the UC. This is evident in the high cost of tuition and the rate of student debt, and further heightened through the multitude of ways in which the UC system profits off of its students; while we can think about this in the insane cost of parking, the use of work-study to maintain a labor force of minimum wage workers, the denial of sick pay to undergraduate student workers, the tokenization and marketing of students, and the obviously inflated prices at on-campus stores like The Hill or Zot-n-Go, no where is it more apparent than in housing. Focusing on graduate students, since COLA4ALL is currently focused on improving pay and labor conditions for graduate students, not only are the majority of students extremely rent burdened, but many are living in “subsidized” campus housing, paying large portions of their paychecks back to the very institution already underpaying them and exploiting their labor. It very much feels like company scrip.

Under the social distancing/remote learning model being deployed in response to COVID-19 many of these already untenable circumstances are only being heightened. Housing insecurity, a major problem for many undergraduate and graduate students alike, is significantly increased through the rise in un-and-under-employment resulting from shelter-in-place closures; meanwhile, the UC system is encouraging students to leave campus while doing nothing to assist those who live in off-campus housing who are now not only rent burdened and frequently living in highly crowded living quarters during a pandemic, but given no option to break their lease without penalty and are still required to somehow continue paying rent despite changes in their ability to work.

Similarly, while some campus employees are now able to telecommute to work the administration obviously has no intention of allowing those working in food services, maintenance, custodial services, etc to “conference in”, leaving them at continued risk while prioritizing the safety of those in higher wage positions. Additionally, graduate students and professors without access to the technology needed to teach from their homes are being encouraged to continue to come to campus and teach from classroom spaces. What this means is that those with the resources (stable housing, internet access, a computer with a webcam and mic) can work safely from home, while the most marginalized (those most in need of a COLA) will have to risk exposure.

Furthermore, many telecommuting workers are being told they must sign a contract which includes the provision that employees are “responsible for establishing and maintaining a safe, ergonomically sound, and secure work environment. The employee will establish a functional workspace, including appropriate computer and communications equipment within their telecommuting worksite.” Forcing workers to sign this contract creates a situation where the UC is not obligated to ensure students/workers have access to either the tools they need to work remotely or paid leave, and further establishes that the UC is not responsible for work-related damage to the health and personal equipment of workers. It also makes it possible for the UC to fire those who are not able to independently establish and maintain said work environment.

The level of exploitation and discriminatory violence on this campus and in the UC system is unethical and untenable. The fact that a billion dollar institution would rather negatively impact graduate and undergraduate students, would rather pay for a militarized police presence at the picket line, would rather heighten the risk to their most marginalized students and employees, would rather arrest a Black alumna than pay graduate student workers a living wage speaks for itself. This is not about whether undergraduate students can afford to go without grades, it is about refusing a system where the interests of graduate student workers and the interests of undergraduate students are falsely constructed as oppositional.

The stakes are too high not to speak candidly. I hope you will consider openly standing in solidarity with COLA4ALL. 

[loveisallthatmatterstome]

Clarity, Acceptance and Understanding

This Covid situation has really allowed me to really delve into my thoughts and mind more than ever. Honestly, even though this situation is unfortunate, it happened at the perfect time of my life. I’ve begun to believe in that so much. That everything happens at the right time. Never before in my life have I ever felt so aware of my emotions and feelings. 2020 has lowkey been an incredible year for me. Even if I was only able to live my dream in NYC for a relatively short period, everyday has felt like a dream. I feel alive. I feel things deeply. I noticed my surroundings. I continued my quest to make more sense of this world. There’s been a lot on my mind. But there has been one topic that has been really prevalent as of late. I guess I could start by saying that as I continue to move forward. Understanding myself and others more. Making mistakes. Learning what it means to use those mistakes to nurture growth. The more and more my past becomes clear. I see my past with more clarity than ever. There’s this saying that you truly cannot see things for what they really are while in the midst of them. Only after things have concluded can you look and understand things. Obviously it is also a fact of reality that there is no 100% certainty in answers. My perspective could be really wrong. But, what we could do as humans is to see reality for what it is and try to shape our perspectives of it as true to ourselves of possible. I want to try and see the good in everything,everybody and every situation. What I’m essentially trying to get at is that I’ve reflected on moments of my past and found clarity. I truly believe that everything in my past has led me to where I needed to go. Anyways, I keep going off on a tangent. The topic I really wanted to talk about is the first girl I ever really loved. She’s been on my mind so much lately. I’ve accepted and let those thoughts come to me. I’m not going to run away from what I’m feeling. I feel deeply in myself that I’ve reached the point of understanding and acceptance that I wanted myself to get to.

Even though things have long came to a conclusion. Even though our paths and connection have diverged. I’ve been thinking about her often. It’s insane to me that even months later, she still gives me a platform to learn more about myself. I know she never really did anything extraordinary for me. And that most of the realizations came from within myself. But there’s meaning to be found in every relationship and experience. Sometimes, you have to delve deeply into yourself to find those lessons. I feel like I’m becoming a bit repetitive, but I’ve grown to understand the experiences that I had. I always just wanted to be as understanding of her as I could, even if she never opened up. I made a lot of mistakes. May have said the wrong things at the wrong time. She made mistakes as well. But they were necessary. Mistakes are an inevitability of complex human connections. I’ve been thinking about some of the mistakes that I made. Thinking about the pressure that I had brought upon her. I realized that she was always probably afraid. Of things going wrong. Being cautious with her heart. That if she ever opened herself up, she would’ve never met the expectations that she felt that I had set on her.There was this standard of the idea of what my dream girl was at the time. My whole ‘dream girl’  idea caused a rift for someone who was already struggling to figure out who they were. I bet she always questioned, how someone could love someone that didn’t understand themselves. How could someone understand someone who didn’t even understand themselves. She never asked for me to give my unconditional love. Nor do I think she ever felt that she deserved that.

When she addressed my initial confession after we had met, she said that I was notorious for falling in love with everybody but that she loved that I love love. In an increasingly cynical and nihilistic world, I’ve chosen to risk my heart a countless number of times. She was someone who had knowledge of my whole entire experience with romance. She knew of every girl that I ever found interest in. She even encouraged me on. She knew that for the longest time I would find excitement in someone only for it to fade quickly. I think that was always on her mind. My past experiences when it came to romance. I think she was always expecting me to lose interest eventually, and for me to move onto someone else to crush on. But, when I made the decision to have faith in her, she couldn’t have fathomed it. She didn’t know how to react. I think she always had a fear that she was just another quick phase in my love life. That I would quickly move on.

After reflecting on my love life, my experiences with different people. I understand myself a bit more. Yes, I was notorious for falling in love with everyone, but that flaw has grown into something that I hold dear to who I am. That I want to see the good in others. That I want to show people what is lovable in them, even if they cant see it for themselves. Admittedly, earlier on in my life I lived in idealizations. But I now know that finding something to adore in people’s true selves is something that I strive for. As my standards for what I wanted in a relationship developed, I realized deep down all that I ever wanted was someone who understood me deeply, saw good in me, had faith in me and chose to build something meaningful with me. I thought that she understood me and had faith in me. She came into my life when I didn’t yet know who I was. I struggled so much in my past. I was once a very broken and flawed person. So much has changed in amazing ways but someone who understands where I come from has become important to me. People who meet me now can appreciate the person who I’ve grown into, but its harder for people to empathize deeply with the obstacles that I’ve had to overcome. She knew who I used to be, and I wanted to share my journey with her. I wanted to be there to help her get through her own obstacles. But that decision was up to her. Never before has my life been so full of deep love and happiness, I just wish she was here with me for this. She’s not and that’s okay.

I know that my decisions during this past fall surprised a lot of people who were aware of the situation. I know that not many people could fathom my decisions in the process. I continued to choose faith, even in moments of doubts and hurt. As I decided to continue pour more affection, she began to have more fears. She never felt like I knew her. How could I love her if I didn’t know her. She was right. I didn’t know her anymore. People can change a lot. She made the decision to close herself off. But, I realized even in these situations you can still love someone. I know I loved her. I realized that it was because I had so much faith in her journey because she meant a lot to mine. I hoped for a point where I understood her deeply. Inevitably this caused more internal conflict for her.

Developing feelings is always a risk on your emotions. Although I’ve grown to learn that the risk is always worth it, she wasn’t at the right space and time. She was never in the right place to give the love that I always told her I strove for. I’ve come to understand that. She would always tell me that I deserve someone incredible. At that time, if she never felt like she could live up to that, her internal conflicts would only grow. So she did what was easier for her. She went MIA. Hoping for a slow fade. Hoping for the maintenance of a friendship. But it so happened that the opposite happened for me. I pushed forward. There was no going back. After each moment of doubt I kept my faith. I feel like that’s something that not a lot of people my age can really comprehend, sometimes I can’t myself. This disparity between our choices of action only caused more internal conflict for her. She could’ve never loved me back the same way because she was at the part of her journey where she still didn’t know who she was. While for me, I was at the point of my journey where I finally understood myself. The pace of our journeys were on different wavelengths. She was at a point where there was no way she could’ve pushed forward. Even if she felt undeserving, I realized that she always deserved love, even if she didn’t yet know she was. Even if we find ourselves to be unlovable, everybody deserves wholehearted love. It can help us become who we can be. She deserved the love that I chose to give, even if she didn’t ask for it.

I guess one thing that does sting a little is that even though I tried my best, my decision to let go only confirmed her fears. That things could go wrong. I bet that whole conversation of me deciding to let go shocked her even she had expectations of it as an eventuality. But it needed to happen. A mistake I made was not being there for her. The emotions were strong at the time of letting go. She was already fighting her own fight. From her perspective, I can see how it could be seen as me giving up on our friendship. I could understand how I caused more struggle for her. That fall had the best moments of my life at that point. But I know she was still trying to figure so much out, she didn’t need to explicitly say it for me to know that.

I do believe that she wanted to love me too at some point. I believe in that. She just couldn’t. Even if I pushed forward, she couldn’t. There was no way I could’ve forced it upon her. I’ve come to understand that it only could’ve come from her. We were on different life stages. When I let go, she grew detached. I was at the right time of my life to see the good in the situation. But she was at a point where it was much harder for her. Then there was a period in January, before our final exchange. I feel like the both of us were hurting just a little because our friendship was no longer the same. We moved past a point of no return. When I told her that I felt hurt, it hurt her. I believe that’s why her response was so harsh. She was already hurting. I think me living out my dreams in NYC allowed me to not be greatly affected emotionally by it for the long term. I found appreciation instantly. But I feel like for her, it was harder. The situation put me in moments of doubt and hurt. But i wouldn’t change a thing. It grounded me and made my perspective on love so much stronger. I now know that love is more than a feeling, it’s a choice and an act of faith. I have strong trust in myself now because I hold no hurt or resentment in my heart. I realized that I really loved her. I still do. I know that I don’t know her anymore. But I have deep hope and belief that she can become the amazing person that the universe wants her to be. Even if I wont ever see it personally. I’ve long accepted that things were not meant to be. But that doesn’t mean I will lose my faith in her journey. Having faith in her means so much to me. 

I’ve reached clarity with the situation. I know that people always say that love should be 50/50. But I realized that I have something special in that I can give someone my 100% and still be able to fully give to myself. That in the midst of loss I can still see the good and find love. I hope she reaches this point too. Where she finds love in everything, especially herself. I don’t blame her, and I don’t blame myself. All we could do as humans is have faith in our journeys. No longer are there doubts, only acceptance. 

I hope one day that I meet her again. That I see her thriving and living her best life. I’ll be happy for her, even if it’s just for a single minute. I had a dream that I was walking along a city street far into the future. I locked eyes with someone. I realized that it was her. We just smiled at each other, and both continued walking. Maybe that’s how it will go. I wish her nothing but love and happiness.

I love you Ashley, I never stopped loving you. I hope you’re well.

[toblkflys]

A Little Brain Scrub

I have a family member that believes there is no pandemic. How is that? I guess there is a whole movement that believes this. So, people are dying how? In 7 months 2 million people have died worldwide. In the same time period, there have been 10 million people in the US that tested COVID positive. What do we call this?  Of course, many people are using the TV/movie/book version like The Hot Zone, as a point of reference, “now that is what a pandemic looks like,” they say. They think if it were a real pandemic people would be “dropping like flys.” If it truly got to that point we would really be screwed worldwide. That would be worse than a pandemic, it would be an extinction event. The definition of a pandemic is “(of a disease) prevalent over a whole country or the world.” That is all it means. What about this is a pandemic is incorrect? People are getting the sickness/disease here, people are getting the same sickness/disease across the country and people are getting the sickness/disease in other countries. That fits the definition. I find nowhere in the definition, no matter which dictionary I look in, does it say “people must drop like flys.” Obviously, this group of people knows something even the scholars don’t. Speaking of, this group of people is quite a bit bigger than one would have guessed. That is disappointing. We have that many people in the country who prefer not to think for themselves. That is truly frightening. Of course, I am referring to my friends the Trumpsters.  And I was amazed or maybe I was horrified, I’m not sure which, the day after the election. I live in a nice retirement community with over 55 adults and most are quite a bit over 55. I drove down my street and several of the houses were flying their flag, nice, right? Not. They were flying them half-mast! Are you fucking kidding me? Just because Trump lost? Now that is a slap in the face to democracy and patriotism. These people think they are patriots, who tout the flag and talk about their rights and pro-America. These same people are basically shitting on the flag. They might as well burn it. Flying the flag at half-mast is not to be taken lightly. Only the president can order the flag to be flown at half-mast (and guess what Trumpsters, Trump lost and he is NOT your president).  “Those individuals and agencies that usurp authority and display the flag at half-staff on inappropriate occasions are quickly eroding the honor and reverence accorded this solemn act,” says the American Legion and I fully agree! I mean Wells Fargo is doing this as well! WTF?  What about flying the flag at half-mast is patriotic? Are they going to do it all four years? I get so angry every time I pass the neighbor’s house because I see it. It is an affront every time. I even printed out 20 flyers with the American Legion saying above on it. I wanted, and still want, to throw them all over their fence into their backyard. I wanted to tape the flyers to the windshields of their vehicles. I want to strike back or strike out.  Speaking of, have you ever noticed what vehicles Trumpsters drive? Trucks, SUVs, muscle cars and American-made sedans. It is horrible to stereotype says you, and you are right. But it is true. What vehicles are parked at rallies? What vehicles do you see all decked out with American flags, the bigger the better? Trucks, the higher the better, big tires, lots of modification, maybe they rock climb with their truck or they pull their toy hauler with their Polaris, going out to the dunes to drink beer and drive their UTVs around. Maybe they will take their guns so they can target practice because drinking beer, driving UTVs, and shooting guns all go together, especially the beer. Just sayin. I have another relative who, unfortunately, married a Trumpster (actually I have two, eye roll). They have a little boy. Dad is in the military and mom, my relative, used to be normal but now follows her husband. The little boy is obsessed with war movies and they encourage it. They bought him military gear, a helmet, a tactical vest, an ammo belt and of course a replica M4. They sent a picture of him all geared up, holding the machine gun at the ready with a scowl on his face. They think it’s cute.  What about dressing your child up like a killer is cute? But god help them, they need their guns, especially their fully automatic M16s because they hunt deer with them. Yeah. Are the deer shooting back or something? Are they that afraid of the deer that they need a fully automatic weapon? Or maybe it is the scary sounds in the wild while they are hunting. And these people teach their kids how to hold a gun and how to shoot as soon as they can. I remember my brother being taught and I was jealous I wasn’t because I was a girl. And this is patriotic. Dressing my 8-year-old like a sniper is patriotic. He will likely grow up hating Democrats and he will not really know why. He will join a survivalist group, hate queers and liberals, and believe that men are superior to women. He will shoot guns, practice being a sniper, learn hand-to-hand combat, all to be a patriot. Because that is the American way. War not peace. Force not negotiation. Show strength not compromise. Shoot first, not ask questions. That is patriotic.  Trumpsters have no idea where they were/are headed. Welcome to Jonestown, line up for your kool-aid, never mind the people in pain and dying. An incredible phenomenon. Trumpsters don’t see what is so very obvious to the rest of us. They are so sure that the sky is green because Trump said so. We look up and nope, still blue. But don’t infringe on the Trumpsters' rights to call the sky green!  It is so interesting to me because I have always been fascinated with Nazi Germany and what happened there. I have wondered what it was about Hitler that people followed with no question. I mean how can people do that? How can they not see what was happening? How could they let it happen? And now I know. I still don’t understand it but I have had the opportunity to witness how a leader mesmerizes a huge section of a country to believe anything he says no matter how irrational. How the leader can literally say and do anything and get away with it.  And they follow blindly. They listen to his propaganda. Definition,“information, especially of a biased or misleading nature, used to promote or publicize a particular political cause or point of view.” See, Hitler did this with the Jews. He villainized the Jews. It could have been anyone but he chose the Jews, lucky them. They became the enemy that everything wrong could be blamed on. There’s a shortage? It’s the Jews, they take the bread out of your child’s mouth.  And then he offers a solution. Only I can solve your Jew problem. Trump did the same thing with immigrants at first and eventually with Democrats. Now the Democrats are the downfall of the country. They are evil, horrible, liberal people. They hate god, they hate family, they hate America and want to destroy it and make America a socialist country. This is all Trump propaganda. And people listen. And they believe. Despite no proof, they don’t ask for proof. They don’t ask for examples or evidence that it is true. Like Democrats are evil and horrible. Okay. What Democrats do you, Mr. Trumpster, know who fit this bill? If they are evil and horrible they must be doing evil and horrible things, what things are they? Ask a Trumpster. Then, once the people are properly brainwashed, he proceeds to cut the country off, starts to close our borders. Hitler closed Germany’s borders, it’s called isolation. Kind of like North Korea, ever heard of it? North Korea is a good modern example of a country that has closed its borders. Not only would we keep the immigrants out, but Trump would also have kept Americans in. I believe that leaving the country would be defecting and would not be looked upon kindly in Trump’s America. Once he had all of that buttoned up and our country was “self-sufficient” he would start introducing his own police force to keep the peace. He was already headed that way. They would be deployed slowly in more and more places, eventually, there would be no local police, it would be federal and more specifically, Trump’s force. Say hello to the neo SS.  And people, through all of this the Trumpsters are clapping and holding up the American flag, which would eventually be modified to include something Trump. Their rights would be secure! They finally had a voice in Trump and he is getting things done! It’s about time that we had a real police force that came in and made everything safe and secure! It’s okay that they are everywhere with their M4s and you have to show your passport when asked. Better be safe than sorry! Since concentration camps have worked before there is no point messing with success. Put the immigrants/minorities in several which would have been built. And any outspoken Dems. In fact, herd all of the Dems up and put them in certain cities or certain parts of the city. We need to protect our white American children from the undesirables. White supremacy would reign once again. Yes, Trump would have saved this country (from democracy). The funny thing is that Trump didn’t even hide that he was a fascist or that he was promoting fascism. Dictatorial leader, severe economic and social regimentation and forcible suppression of opposition. Boom. There you go.  So, let them fly our flag at half-mast in protest. Biden and the Dems took away the Trumpsters rights to have a fascist America. They never even got to chant Hail Trump! Or maybe they did and I don’t know about it.  They have the right to disgrace the American flag. They have a right to spread a deadly disease. They have the right to purchase and use a fully automatic weapon. They have a right to vote for a dictator. They have the right to a fascist America. And I guess a serial killer has a right to kill. The rapist a right to rape. Because it’s about me, not you. And I have the right to do what I want to do because I’m free white and American. Isn’t it beautiful? Read the full article

[shirlleycoyle]

What Is Burning Man Without Burning Man?

This story appears in the forthcoming issue of VICE magazine, The Indulgences Issue. Subscribe here.

For the second summer in a row, Jonathan, a tech worker who lives in the California Bay Area, will soon head into the Nevada desert for an event that isn’t happening. He’s not alone. “I think definitely a lot of people will come this year,” he mused in June.

Jonathan, who works in privacy and security and asked that his last name be withheld so he could speak freely about his personal life, is one of several thousand people expected to flock to Nevada’s Black Rock Desert this year during the nine days leading up to and including Labor Day. That’s when Burning Man would traditionally happen, drawing close to 80,000 attendees for the mammoth event’s signature blend of art, music, celebrities, self-expression, highly alkaline playa dust, and fashionable goggle-based looks. But for the second year in a row, because of the coronavirus pandemic, Burning Man has been canceled—though Burning Man Project, the 501(c)(3) organization that governs the event, is planning a virtual one, which they also did last year.

Thousands of people, however, are expected to come to the Black Rock Desert anyway, for what’s now being loosely referred to as “renegade burn,” an unstructured event that carries the potential to be either a creative revival of Burning Man’s earlier and more DIY days or, for inexperienced campers, a potential disaster.

Since its first year, in 1986, Burning Man has evolved from an anarchic subcultural party on a San Francisco beach to a mega event awash in the money and excesses of the tech industry, whose denizens make up some of its most devoted and notorious fans. In 2019, Burning Man Project famously banned one ultra-deluxe so-called “turnkey” or “plug-and-play” camp, calling it part of a “cultural course correction” needed to bring the event closer to its roots. The camp, Humano the Tribe, was reportedly charging up to $100,000 per spot, according to SFist, and faced accusations that its fancy portable toilets leaked sewage onto the ecologically delicate playa, and that its participants were profoundly douchey overall. All of which raises the question: Are a couple of years in the metaphorical wilderness precisely what Burning Man needs?

A woman laughs after a desert thundershower in 1995. Photo by MediaNews Group/Tri-Valley Times via Getty Images

According to the Bureau of Land Management (BLM), which oversees federal public lands in the United States, including the Black Rock Desert where Burning Man takes place, around 3,000 people came out last year during the time Burning Man would have typically happened, and several people familiar with the event said they expected to see more this year. A “renegade burn” subreddit has just over 1,000 members and a private Facebook group has 800. Discussions about it regularly crop up in the main Burning Man Facebook group, which has nearly 120,000 members, with people arguing passionately both for and against it in threads that span hundreds of comments.

Several of the key elements that make Burning Man happen will obviously be missing. In a normal year, Burning Man Project’s Department of Public Works (DPW), a team composed of hundreds of people, spends about 100 days preparing in the desert beforehand, creating roads, street signs, and larger structures, like the titular Man who burns on the last night of the event, as well as the pavilion around him.

“DPW is only one part of the helpful infrastructure,” Logan Mirto told VICE. He’s DPW’s personnel manager and is part of a council that runs the department. “When it comes to thinking about a gathering out there, the bigger things are the infrastructure from other departments, the medical teams, and the Rangers; all that plays a huge role in mitigating the environment.” (Rangers are volunteers who function somewhere between camp counselors and lifeguards during the event and assist the paid staff.)

For Jonathan, who has attended Burning Man around a dozen times, the so-called renegade burn represents a chance for a different kind of experience: less structured, more intimate, and more self-reliant. “It’s more effort to go when it’s not built up for you, when you have to provide everything for yourself,” he said. “And that attracts a different crowd.”

“We call Burning Man the ‘Nevada Regional.’”

Besides being smaller, the event will obviously be more dispersed across the playa, less a city than a collection of atomized camps. The BLM has also prohibited some of the signature aspects of Burning Man, like art structures and installations, as well as, per a letter one renegade burner received, bonfires, fireworks, airplanes taking off or landing, or companies that service portable toilets. In other words, campers can bring out a Porta Potty, but it can’t be serviced or drained by professionals for the duration of its stay on the playa. And the people who come to Burning Man by private jet during normal times will have to drive in like ordinary plebes.

Heather O’Hanlon, a spokesperson for the Bureau of Land Management’s Winnemucca District, where the Black Rock Desert is located, said people are welcome to camp this year too. “There are no plans to close the playa and people are welcome to come camping using their own resources.”

But many in the broader Burning Man community are expecting heavy enforcement of the rules by both the BLM and local law enforcement in the area around the playa.

The 2015 Midburn festival in the Negev Desert near the Israeli kibbutz of Sde Boker in 2015, the Israeli version of Burning Man. Photo by Menahem Kahana/AFP via Getty Images

“You can bet your dusty ass that LEO [law enforcement officers] will be issuing tickets for every ticky-tack violation they see that even arguably violates the BLM guidelines or local laws,” one person wrote in a large Burning Man Facebook group, explaining why they didn’t plan to attend this year’s renegade burn. “Every camp where they count more than 50 people, every drip of oil from your car, every ‘structure’ they find that isn’t being slept in or used for cooking or shade is going to get ticketed. I suspect drug dogs will be more prevalent than in previous years (remember Marijuana is still illegal on federal land even though it’s legal in Nevada!) and we may well see a return to the unlawful traffic stops and searches on the way in and out like we saw back in 2018.”

“Worst case scenario, it’s a memorable clusterfuck,” Jonathan said with a laugh. He’s traveling out in an RV, after riding his motorcycle last year—and spending part of his last day with a flat tire, waiting for a tow to the closest mechanic. (“It wasn’t a big deal,” he said, since he had the wherewithal and the know-how to quickly build himself a shade structure while waiting.) Both years, he and the friends he’s camped with have made an effort not to stop on tribal land or in small towns, to avoid exposing people in more isolated or underserved communities to COVID-19.

Janet Davis, the chairwoman of the Pyramid Lake Paiute tribe, one of several Native communities in the area near Black Rock, told NPR the event’s cancellation was “a sigh of relief” for the tribe. Slightly more diplomatically, Burning Man Project wrote on their blog: “We are counting on the individuals enjoying the desert to do so in a way that takes into consideration the big picture and our return in 2022.” In a statement to VICE, they wrote, in part, “We here at Burning Man Project share this enthusiasm for visiting the playa in a year without Black Rock City, and we encourage our community to recreate responsibly. Planning ahead, playing it safe, being prepared, respecting local communities, and leaving no trace are central to making sure we all do it right.” (Their full statement is below.)

Clovis Buford has been to Burning Man about nine times; he’s also a regional contact for Austin, Texas, to Burning Man, meaning he acts, as he puts it, “as a conduit.” “I try to make sure I communicate Burning Man stuff out to the wider community here and relay any of our community concerns to BMOrg in the other direction.” (“BMOrg,” short for Burning Man Organization, is a colloquial name some people use for Burning Man Project.)

“If you’re out in the open desert, you’re responsible for your own experience,” Buford said. “Let’s hope everyone makes wise choices.” With the absence of roads and people potentially driving very fast across the playa, he said, “Personally I would want my tent lit up like I was calling the goddamn mothership.”

The chance to see a smaller, less built-up version of Burning Man also appealed to Meredith Fortner, who lives in Texas and has attended Burning Man twice, in 2009 and 2017. “I saw it as a chance to time travel, to see what it was like in the early days,” Fortner said. Almost as quickly, though, she decided not to go. “And then I read the fine print, that there wouldn’t be ice or any possibility of a medevac, and said, ‘Fuck that noise.’”

“People better be veterans if they’re planning to go without that safety net,” Fortner’s husband, Cooper Crouse, added. “The thing that’s trying to kill you is the heat, the altitude. There’s no humidity. You’re constantly fighting dehydration, sleep deprivation, and heat exhaustion, so any additional intoxicants add to that physical stress load. Everyone focuses on the substances without acknowledging how brutal that environment is.” (Unprepared newcomers taking on environments they’re not ready for has been something of a theme of the pandemic. Some wilderness search and rescue teams have been strained to their breaking point searching for missing hikers and campers across the U.S.)

The 2018 festival as seen from above. Photo by DigitalGlobe via Getty Images

For Fortner and Crouse, though, Burning Man has never really been the main event. Fortner is a longtime volunteer at Flipside, the oldest so-called “regional burn,” which takes place outside Austin over Memorial Day weekend; Crouse is a Flipside board member. (Like Burning Man, Flipside was also canceled this year.) Regionals are held all over the world, from Texas to Spain, throughout the year, and for some people they’ve become as important—if not more so—than Burning Man itself.

“We call Burning Man the ‘Nevada Regional,’” Fortner said, chuckling. The intimate, community-driven nature of regionals brings something very different. “You don’t get as many spectators at the regionals,” she added. “You need so many volunteers to run events, everyone has to pitch in—or should. For a 3,500 person event, we have medical, mental health services, site ops, perimeter, Rangers, fire team—and more. We try and instill in the community a culture of volunteerism. You can’t just go, like it’s a thing you can spectate, like someone who bought a ticket and that’s all.”

Clovis Buford has also attended Flipside about 20 times, and said he’s optimistic that both events will be “amazing” come 2022. “The art will be fantastic. You know, the Roaring 20s coming out of the flu of 1918 was quite the scene.” (Buford, Crouse, and Fortner all wanted to make it clear that they were speaking only for themselves, not as representatives of Flipside or Burning Man.)

Buford, who is 65, said that the cancellation of Flipside was hard. “It’s like a family reunion for me at this point.” He quarantined by himself for much of the past year, which wasn’t easy. “At this point I feel like we all had a year stolen and we probably oughta make up for it,” he said. “It’s certainly made me reflect on the very temporary nature of us being here.”

When Burning Man does reconvene, it’ll be in a radically changed world. Logan Mirto, DPW’s personnel manager, has spent his unexpected time off sharpening his other skills, like working on Burning Man’s podcast as a producer, and planning how to make the coming year even better for his crew. But he has also spent a good deal of time thinking about grief, loss, and how next year’s Burning Man will reflect those forces, which have borne down on nearly everyone in the world in one way or another.

“None of us who have gone through this are the same people we were,” Mirto said. “Burning Man is always a reflection of what people bring to it. There’s a place for grief in Black Rock City. There’s a place for exploration and release. It’s a city and it’s evolved to meet the needs of its community. The community is robust. It’s thousands of people. I’m not concerned they’ll bring all that energy to it. The people who have chosen to make Burning Man a part of their lives, they recognize what Black Rock City will provide, and I hope it will provide them the catharsis or release or closure they need to feel like life is resuming.”

In a statement, Burning Man Project told VICE:

Many Burners consider the Black Rock Desert their home away from home, so it’s only natural that some will decide to head out there this summer. We here at Burning Man Project share this enthusiasm for visiting the playa in a year without Black Rock City, and we encourage our community to recreate responsibly. Planning ahead, playing it safe, being prepared, respecting local communities, and leaving no trace are central to making sure we all do it right.

Through observations from our staff, it is our understanding that the July 4 weekend, normally a time when some Burners visit the Black Rock Desert separate from the Burning Man event, was a safe and responsible time of recreation.

Burners adapt to all sorts of situations, and this summer provides another opportunity for the beginning of a new era. We have all the confidence in the world that our community and culture will continue to be great stewards of our desert home.

Follow Anna Merlan on Twitter.

What Is Burning Man Without Burning Man? syndicated from https://triviaqaweb.wordpress.com/feed/

[dailykhaleej]

Coronavirus: NYC Muslims struggle to hold traditional burials | USA News

With our bodies piling up at hospitals and morgues, and funeral houses turning households away due to a scarcity of capability, New York Metropolis has been stretched to its limits by the COVID-19 pandemic.

The disaster has touched hundreds of grieving households, just about all of which have been pressured to navigate chaos after their cherished one’s dying from the lethal respiratory virus.

Extra:

The funeral course of might be much more sophisticated for Muslim New Yorkers, who make up about three p.c of the inhabitants throughout the town’s 5 boroughs, as a result of a sequence of spiritual practices guides the burials.

“It’s overwhelming – just the amount of illness, the amount of deaths,” mentioned Imam Khalid Latif, govt director of the Islamic Heart at New York College (NYU), concerning the basic feeling within the metropolis.

He mentioned that early on, it turned clear that “funerals and things happening at end of life were likely really difficult for a lot of people” within the Muslim neighborhood.

“A lot of people [were] reaching out saying, ‘We just can’t connect to anybody, and the places we are connecting to, they’re telling us it’s going to be days before anything can actually happen’.”

Rising prices

Latif mentioned households have additionally raised considerations about the price of burials.

An Islamic funeral service in New York Metropolis would sometimes value round $2,000, together with a plot of land for burial, Latif mentioned, however lately, some members of the Muslim neighborhood mentioned they have been being charged round $10,000.

“In Islam, the funeral rites are considered a communal obligation,” he advised DailyKhaleej. “Here, we have a responsibility to ensure that people who can’t afford it are still able to have it done.”

Packages of bread sit on a desk with a crate of apples for passersby to take, outdoors the closed Masjid at-Taqwa mosque within the Brooklyn borough of New York after the mosque closed due to COVID-19. [Kathy Willens/AP Photo] 

Latif helped arrange a web based fundraiser that collected almost $195,000 this month to help Muslim Funeral Companies of New York, a Brooklyn-based group also called the Janazah Venture.

The cash will probably be disbursed to funeral houses to bolster their providers – together with the acquisition of autos and refrigerated vans to transport and retailer our bodies when hospitals are over-capacity, and private protecting tools for staff.

Latif mentioned monetary pressure shouldn’t be a cause individuals don’t get an opportunity to correctly keep in mind their family members, so needy households will even immediately obtain a few of the cash to cowl funeral prices.

“To me, that’s a really unfortunate reason as to why someone who is already in a lot of emotional strife will have added anxiety that doesn’t allow for them to grieve,” he mentioned.

Shifting practices

Monetary considerations are particularly prevalent amongst individuals employed in public-facing industries – similar to taxi or Uber drivers, restaurant workers, or development staff – who’ve taken successful in the course of the pandemic.

Muslim New Yorkers make up a excessive proportion of these staff within the metropolis, mentioned Ahmed Mohamed, litigation director on the Council on American-Islamic Relations New York chapter (CAIR-NY).

“Especially for immigrant communities, telework, work from home, is not a possibility. Having to be confined to your home means you don’t have a job and you don’t have a paycheque,” Mohamed mentioned.

He mentioned many traditional Muslim practices have been upended in the course of the COVID-19 disaster: households can’t be with a sick loved-one as a result of the sickness is so contagious and most hospitals have strict visitation guidelines in place, and public gatherings have been restricted, too. The challenges additionally come as Muslims worldwide put together for the beginning of the holy month of Ramadan.

A Muslim well being employee prays outdoors a particular coronavirus consumption space at Maimonides Medical Heart on April 06, 2020 within the Borough Park neighbourhood of the Brooklyn borough of New York Metropolis [Spencer Platt/Getty Images/AFP] 

In New York state, funeral houses and cemeteries have been designated as important providers, however the authorities urged them to keep away from in-person gatherings. “If in-person services must be held, the gathering should be limited to only immediate family, with as few persons physically present as possible,” the state mentioned in a letter to funeral administrators on April 10.

Consequently, the Muslim neighborhood – like different spiritual teams throughout america – has had to adapt to meet public well being suggestions designed to cut back the potential unfold of the coronavirus.

Mosques have shuttered their doorways, and Friday afternoon prayers – in addition to different practices, similar to halaqa (communal spiritual gatherings) and khotba (the sermon earlier than Friday prayer) – are going down on-line as an alternative. Some households are live-streaming funerals, as nicely.

“Obviously, it’s not what the Muslim community would do during a normal basis, where we come together to better relieve some pain and ease people’s sorrows during those times,” Mohamed advised DailyKhaleej.

Unfounded rumours

Regardless of these stop-gap measures, uncertainty round burials stays a supply of concern.

A hearsay that Muslims have been being buried in mass graves not too long ago ripped by means of the neighborhood, mentioned Raja Abdulhaq, govt director of Majlis Ash-Shura Islamic Management Council of New York, an umbrella group for over 90 mosques and organisations.

“We had imams calling us where their community members are calling them crying, worrying about their loved ones being buried in mass graves without seeing them. This was really scary for the whole community,” Abdulhaq mentioned.

The group reached out to metropolis officers and investigated the declare, and located the hearsay to be unfaithful, he advised DailyKhaleej.

On this video, our Govt Director Raja Abdulhaq, clarifies and refutes the rumors surrounding the burial of Muslims in mass graves on Randalls Island. https://t.co/jsEAWMwnoe

— Majlis Ash-Shura of New York (@ShuraNewYork) April 9, 2020

“What’s happening is that hospitals are creating temporary morgues remotely, away from the hospitals, so they can continue to have enough capacity for the new bodies that are coming in,” he mentioned. “But this is very specific only to unclaimed bodies.”

In a information convention on April 9, New York Metropolis Mayor Invoice de Blasio mentioned every physique “will be treated individually and specifically” and burial plans will probably be coordinated with the households of the deceased.

“We clearly have painful but real contingency plans to deal with anything that might come up ahead, but with a very clear standard: dignity for the families. Every family is treated individually,” he mentioned.

One other hearsay that Muslim our bodies have been being cremated – a apply that’s forbidden in Islam – was additionally false, Abdulhaq mentioned. “So far we have no cases and we have no reason to believe that this is happening.”

“Whereas the precise variety of Muslims who’ve died from COVID-19 is unavailable, Abdulhaq mentioned the town’s Bengali neighborhood was hit significantly onerous.

‘Unprecedented time’

In Islam, the physique of a deceased individual is washed and shrouded, a prayer is carried out, after which the physique is buried immediately into the bottom with none embalming, defined Latif, the NYU imam.

However he mentioned that in distinctive circumstances, similar to throughout in the present day’s COVID-19 pandemic, when a few of these spiritual practices can’t happen for no matter cause, alternate options are attainable.

“An individual will essentially tap their hands on clean dirt or earth, and positions their hands then on different parts of the deceased’s body as a purification process in lieu of the washing,” Latif mentioned, by the use of instance. That course of is called tayammum.

Latif acknowledged that many neighborhood members are nonetheless battling what to do when a cherished one passes away, or when individuals get sick with COVID-19.

“It’s really hard for people right now who are losing loved ones because there’s so much happening that prevents them from being there with them.”

He inspired individuals to attain out to each other to stave off isolation – particularly in New York Metropolis, a spot that he mentioned might be significantly lonely. “It’s an unprecedented time,” Latif mentioned. “And where government has failed and has not done its part, we just need to step up and do what we can and come together.”

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[greenhorn-teacher]

White People and Our History

My mother was born on July 4th.

Because of this, the 4th has always been a day of celebration for our family. We wake up absurdly early and go to watch a parade, pick up fried chicken for lunch (Dad tries to make it himself every few years and he never really gets it right, so it’s usually drive-through), watch 1776 over the afternoon, and then go to a fireworks show. This is how Mom likes to celebrate her birthday, and so that’s how we’ve celebrated for my entire life. Even during years where political and social issues make it very difficult to be proud of the U.S. and our society, we still had good times every 4th of July.

My dad is also a huge history buff, and every year, while watching 1776 (which if you don’t know is a 1972 movie of a 1969 musical about the writing of the Declaration of Independence), the subject of our ancestry usually comes up. On my mother’s mother’s side, my brothers and I are descended from one of George Washington’s generals in the Revolutionary War. We’re also descended from at least one of the signers of the Declaration of Independence itself (maybe two - my granddad was never the kind of guy to make stuff up, but we haven’t found a solid link to one of the two signers that he says we’re descended from). Three big figures in American history and mythology are among our ancestors.

Thing is, two out of three owned slaves.

Both of the signers of the Declaration, both the one that we know is our ancestor and the one we’re not 100% sure on, owned slaves. PolitiFact put out an article in late 2019 about that, if you want me to back it up. Jury’s out on the general, but there’s a non-zero chance that we’re three for three on slaveowners. Further complicating my feelings about my ancestry is my dad’s side. On dad’s side, we’re descended from plantation owners. They owned a pretty sizable plantation up until the early 1900s, when there were too many inheritors to keep the property in one piece and my great-a-few-times grandfather sold his plot. My family, both sides, is tainted by slavery and racism.

Now I’ve known about this since late middle school/early high school, and I’ve more or less made my peace with this knowledge. This is NOT to say that I in any way approve of what they did. Slavery is, was, and always will be one of the most horrific institutions to exist on this earth. But I was able to recognize that having bad ancestors doesn’t make me bad by default, something that many other Southerners seem to have trouble with (in my opinion, one of the biggest reasons the South has so much trouble with admitting the Confederacy was a super bad thing is because that means their ancestors were bad and therefore the present generation must be bad as a result, which is obviously untrue. The present generation is awful all on its own merits, but THAT’S ANOTHER POST). For my high school career, this was something that I knew in the back of my mind but it was never really relevant to my life.

Fast forward to college. In freshman orientation, I met my current partner, though we didn’t start dating until just after Spring Break freshman year. My partner is Latinx, and we share a number of interests, including literary analysis, superheroes, and historical discussion. One day, sophomore year, we were talking about ancestry, specifically about how, as a result of European colonization, my partner has zero clue what the family tree looks like more than a couple generations back. This is in stark contrast to my own experience, because I can track my family tree back almost 250 years, and could go even further if I wanted to put some more effort into it. Precious few people of color in the U.S. can trace their ancestry back even a few generations as a result of European colonization, while many white families can go back generations. Ever since my partner and I had this conversation, it’s been a running joke in our relationship that if my ancestors could see me dating my Latinx partner they would die from scandalized shock. Since my partner particularly enjoys scandalizing racist old white men, this is a definite win.

This ultimately came to a head on the 4th of July, 2020. The Summer of Covid, when a global pandemic swept across the world and the U.S. fell apart at the seams. My family knew that we weren’t going to be able to safely attend any parades or fireworks, so instead we had an at-home party. My partner was invited, provided both our families self-quarantined for two weeks ahead of time and none of us at home tested positive. Both criteria were met, and so my partner came over for the day. It was all great fun, we still managed to get fried chicken because our favorite restaurant was able to open for a couple weeks in the middle of the summer, and we had steaks (my partner’s favorite food of all time) for dinner. That afternoon, while we were watching 1776, the family started to talk about our ancestry. We got on the subject while listening to the songs in the movie, and how some of the songs, like “But, Mr. Adams,” have lyrics that lean towards the raunchy, which we never noticed as kids. That then shifted the conversation to the song “Molasses to Rum,” which is one of the most uncomfortable songs for any white person to hear because it’s the Founding Fathers singing about why slavery is really a good thing (spoiler alert: IT’S NOT). No matter how uncomfortable it made us, though, we all agreed it was still something we should watch and be aware of, because as my late granddad pointed out, “It’s still history.” It happened, and pretending it didn’t is supremely damaging to our understanding of history and our society as a whole today.

The whole thing stuck in my head, though, because by that point I had been with my partner for 4 years and was getting ready to propose. I knew beyond a shadow of a doubt that I wanted to marry my amazing Latinx partner, and while we joke often about what the look on my ancestors’ faces would be the solemn truth is that a century ago, we would be lucky to only be disowned by our families over our relationship. Before June 12th, 1967 when the Supreme Court struck down the anti-miscegenation laws in Loving v. Virginia, our relationship would have gotten us arrested. Living in the South, maybe we’d have been killed by a mob. Any children we have would be a mix of white and Latinx, and would never be accepted by my family. Unless they were pale enough to pass as white, neither would they be accepted by society at large. My family of 250 years ago was racist. My family of a hundred years ago was made up of racists. And as much as I love my grandparents, a small, guilty part of me feels relieved that they passed away before I met my partner because I’d be willing to bet money they were racist, too, and this way I don’t have to find out if they were.

The point of my telling you this story is this. If you are white in the United States of America, and your family goes back more than three or four generations, then you come from racist roots. At the time of the Revolutionary War, both the North and South had significant slave populations. There were still some slaves in the North as of the Civil War, and while Lincoln’s Emancipation Proclamation declared the slaves of the Confederacy to be free, slaves in the North stayed slaves until the 13th Amendment. Even after slavery was officially ended, society deliberately built systems that kept former slaves and other people of color below white people. The Jim Crow laws in the South are the most strident examples, but the North wasn’t innocent in this. Segregation was a national phenomenon, but even after it ended in the 1960s people were still racist. Even through the 70s and 80s, up to the turn of the millennium and into the present day, racism exists. Some of it is easy to spot, people loudly shouting racist slurs at anyone they see as lesser. Some of it is less so, such as a family being 100% for equality until they have a black neighbor, or their kids start dating a person of color, and then suddenly they’re awkward about it. 

To any white people reading this, you have to understand, our ancestors were racist. Maybe they were the loud, easy to spot kind. Maybe they were the quieter kind, and only displayed this in smaller ways. That doesn’t change that they were. And this is something that we have to come to terms with. We cannot pretend otherwise, or tell ourselves that our ancestors couldn’t have been bad because some of them didn’t own slaves. Owning slaves is not a prerequisite for racism, and even people who never owned a single person could engage in racist behaviors. But bad ancestors do not make for bad descendants. We are not automatically bad because our roots are bad. We can be good people, and should be good people. If something you’re doing would upset your racist ancestors, you’re probably doing something right.

Because my family today is accepting in ways that my family of a century ago would never be, any child of my partner and I will grow up with a large, loving family, supported by four grandparents who will accept them regardless of the color of their skin. It might not seem like it, but I do believe our current generation is in a better place than previous ones were. That said, we are far from perfect, and there is work to be done still. Racism, obvious and otherwise, is still prevalent in the world, and since our ancestors are the ones that messed up the world, then we should do what we can to undo their work. Hopefully, someday soon the ghosts of the racist slaveowning Founding Fathers will look upon a country where we all live together in a truly equal and fair society, and they’ll be so scandalized by what they see they’ll die all over again.

TL;DR: We as white people need to come to terms with the fact that our ancestors were racist and work to undo what they did, because pretending that they weren’t racist is detrimental to our understanding of history and the state of society today.

[neptunecreek]

Tech Learning Collective: A Grassroots Technology School Case Study

Grassroots education is important for making sure advanced technical knowledge is accessible to communities who may otherwise be blocked or pushed out of the field. By sharing this invaluable knowledge and skills, local groups can address and dissolve these barriers to organizers hoping to step up their cybersecurity.

The Electronic Frontier Alliance (EFA) is a network of community-based groups across the U.S.  dedicated to advocacy and community education at the intersection of the EFA’s five guiding principles: privacy, free expression, access to knowledge, creativity, and security. Tech Learning Collective, a radical queer and femme operated group headquartered in New York City, sets itself apart as an apprenticeship-based technology school that integrates their workshops into a curriculum for radical organizers. Their classes range from fundamental computer literacy to hacking techniques and aim to serve students from historically marginalized groups.

We corresponded with the collective over email to discuss the history and strategy of the group's ambitious work, as well as how the group has continued to engage their community amid the COVID-19 health crisis. Here are excerpts from our conversation:

What inspired you all to start the Tech Learning Collective? How has the group changed over time?

In 2016, a group of anarchist and autonomist radicals met in Brooklyn, NY, to seek out methods of mutual self-education around technology. Many of us did not have backgrounds in computer technology. What we did have was a background in justice movement organizing at one point or another, whether at the WTO protests before the turn of the century, supporting whistleblowers such as Chelsea Manning, participating in Occupy Wall Street, or in various other campaigns.

This first version of Tech Learning Collective met regularly for about a year as a semi-private mutual-education project. It succeeded in sowing the seeds of what would later become several additional justice-oriented technology groups. None of the members were formally trained or have ever held computer science degrees. Many of the traditional techniques and environments offering technology education felt alienating to us.

So, after a (surprisingly short!) period of mutual self-education, we began offering free workshops and classes on computer technologies specifically for Left-leaning politically engaged individuals and groups. Our goal was to advocate for more effective use of these technologies in our movement organizing.

We quickly learned that courses needed to cater to people with skill levels ranging from self-identified “beginners” to very experienced technologists, and that our efforts needed to be self-sustaining. Partly, this was because many of our comrades had sworn off technical self-sufficiency as a legitimate avenue for liberation in a misguided but understandable reaction to the poisonous prevalence of machismo, knowledge grandstanding, and blatant sociopathy they saw exhibited by the overwhelming majority of “techies.” It was obvious that our trainers needed to exemplify a totally new culture to show them that cyber power, not just computer literacy, was a capability worth investing their time in for the sake of the movement.

Tech Learning Collective’s singular overarching goal is to provide its students with the knowledge and abilities to liberate their communities from corporate and government overseers, especially as it relates to owning and operating their own information and communications infrastructures, which we view as a necessary prerequisite for meaningful revolutionary actions. Using these skills, our students assist in the organization of activist work like abortion access and reproductive rights, anti-surveillance organizing, and other efforts that help build collective power beyond mere voter representation.

Who is your target audience?

Anyone who is serious about gaining the skills, knowledge, and power they need to materially improve the lives of their community, neighbors, and friends and who also shares our pro-social values is welcome at our workshops and events.

Importantly, this means that self-described “beginners” are just as welcome at our events as very experienced technologists, and we begin both our materials and our methodology at the actual beginning of computer foundations...

 We know what it's like to wade into the world of digital security as a novice because we've all done it at one point or another. We felt confounded or overwhelmed by the vast amount of information suddenly thrown at us. Worse, much of this information purported to be “for beginners”, making us feel even worse about our apparent inability to understand it. “Are we just stupid?”, we often asked ourselves.

You are not stupid. [...]  We insist that you can understand this stuff.

The TLC is incredibly active, with an impressive 15 events planned for June. How does your group share this workload and avoid burnout among collective members?

There are three primary techniques we use to do this. These will be familiar to anyone who has ever worked in an office or held a position in management. They are automation, separation of concerns, and partnerships. After all, just because we are anti-capitalist does not mean we ignore the obviously effective tools and techniques we have at our disposal for realizing our goals.

The first pillar, automation, is really what we are all about. It's what almost all of our classes teach in one form or another. In a Tech Learning Collective class, you will often hear the phrase, “If you ever do one thing on a computer twice, you've made a mistake the second time.” This is a reminder that computers were built for automation. That's what they're for. So, almost every component of Tech Learning Collective's day-to-day operations is automated. [...]  The only time a human needs to be involved is when another human wants to talk to us. Otherwise, the emails you're getting from us were written many months ago and are being generated by scripts and templates.

Without that we would need to at least double if not triple or quadruple the number of people who could devote many hours to managing the logistics of making sure events happen. But that's boring, tedious, repetitive work, and that's what computers are for.

Secondly, separation of concerns: this is both a management and a security technique. In InfoSec, we call this the compartmentalization principle. You might be familiar with it as “need to know,” and it states that only the people who need to be concerned with a certain thing should have to spend any brainpower on it in the first place, or indeed have any access to it at all. This means that when one of our teachers wants to host a workshop, they don't need to involve anyone else in the collective. They are autonomous, free to act however they wish within the limits of their role. This makes it possible for our collective members to dip in and out whenever they need to, thus avoiding burnout while increasing quality. If one of us has to step away for a while, the collective can still function smoothly.

Finally, partnerships allow us to do things we could not do on our own. This also helps distribute the overarching workload, like creating practice labs or writing educational materials for new workshops. We work extremely closely with a number of other groups [since] our core collective members straddle several other activist and educational collectives.

At the time of writing, we are in the middle of the COVID-19 health crisis. Many groups are struggling with shelter-in-place, but fortunately TLC seems to have adapted very well. What are some strategies you are employing to continue your work?

This is almost an unfair question, because the nature of what we do at Tech Learning Collective lends itself well to the current crises.

The biggest change that the COVID-19 pandemic has forced us to adapt to is the shuttering of our usual venues for in-person workshops. Fortunately, we were already ramping up our online and distance learning options even before the pandemic. So we simply put that into high gear. The easily automatable nature of handling logistics for online events also made it possible to do many more of them, which is one reason you're seeing so much more activity from us these days.

In certain ways, for many in our collective, this "new normal" is actually a rather dated 90's-era cyberpunk dystopia that we've been experiencing for many, many years. In that sense, we're happy that you don't have to enter this reality alone and defenseless. We kinda’ built Tech Learning Collective for exactly this scenario. We want to help you thrive here.

Finally, what does the future look like for TLC?

We're not sure! When we started TLC, we never thought it would end up becoming an online, international, radical political hacker school. In just the last two months since we've been forced to become a wholly virtual organization, we've held classes with students from Japan, Italy, New Zealand, the UK, Mexico, and beyond, as well as many parts of the United States of course. Many of them are now repeat participants working their way through our entire curriculum, which is the best compliment we could have asked for. We hope they'll stick around to join our growing alumni community after that. We're also (slowly) expanding our “staff” outside of New York City, which isn't something we thought would happen for many years, if at all.

But right now, we're primarily focused on moving the rest of our in-person curriculum online and creating new online workshops. Many of the workshops unveiled this month or planned for next month are new, like our workshops on writing shell scripts, exploiting Web applications, auditing firewalls and other network perimeter defenses, and an exciting "spellwork" workshop to learn about the "spirits" that live on in the magical place inside every computer called the Command Line. So in the near future, expect to see more workshops like these, as well as more of our self-paced “Foundations” learning modules that you can try out anytime for free right in your Web browser from our Web site.

After that? Well, some say another world is possible. We're hackers. Hacking is about showing people what's possible, especially if they insist it could never happen.

Our thanks to Tech Learning Collective for their continued efforts to bring an empowering technology education to marginalized peoples in New York City and, increasingly, around the world. You can find and support other Electronic Frontier Alliance affiliated groups near you by visiting eff.org/fight. 

If you are interested in holding workshops for your community, you can find freely available workshop materials at the EFF’s Security Education Companion and security guides from our Surveillance Self-Defence project. Of course, you can also connect to similar groups by joining the Electronic Frontier Alliance.

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