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opencommunion · 4 months

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"When a book titled Terrorism: A Very Short Introduction, written by the British professor and historian Charles Townshend, was found by police near the pro-Palestine student encampment at Columbia University, it was held up by New York Police Department (NYPD) Deputy Commissioner Kaz Daughtry as evidence of some kind of foreign, radicalising influence on student activism. Apparently, for Daughtry, reading a book on terrorism is evidence of radicalisation. Knowing about terrorism makes you at risk of committing terrorism. Finding a book near a student encampment confirms that pro-Palestine solidarity is linked to terrorism.

What Daughtry was arguably trying to do was darken Palestine activism on college campuses across the United States with the association of terrorism. But doing so did not require much ideological work. After all, Daughtry had the media establishment on his side, an industry that had been furiously working well before October 7 to ensure that Palestinian resistance was entrenched in the public imaginary as a 'conflict' between so-called moderates and extremists and to set Palestinian violence as 'terrorism' in opposition to Israeli violence as 'self-defence.' ... Aside from all the eye-rolling, Daughtry’s book-staging act generated at least one very important reflection: we need to add a demand that is currently missing from the movement’s demands to universities to disclose and divest from financial ties to Israel. It is the demand that universities across the West dismantle the academic disciplines and systems of knowledge that produce, transmit, and sustain the very conditions that make genocide possible in the first place.

It is worth stating that terrorism is much more than actual political violence. For those paying attention, terrorism is a system for representing violence. It demarcates what counts and does not count as legitimate violence. In this knowledge system, the death-dealing of militaries, intelligence agencies, and private security forces acting at the behest of state actors is legitimate. And the violence of non-state actors resisting sovereign power, imperial projects, and state violence, is not. ... Attempting to discredit the pro-Palestine student movement, what Daughtry’s ludicrous book act also reminds us is that terror talk racialises. Terrorism has long been used to describe violence that is pathological in nature instead of political. It is the violence of 'psyches gone awry' and 'psychological disturbance.' Reframing political violence as pathological violence, terror talk implies that those who commit what is called terrorism do so out of some innate and ingrained penchant for irrational violence. In so doing, terror talk creates a racial category: the category of people who have not progressed into the age of the rule of law – and indeed cannot – due to reasons that emerge at the intersection of biology and culture.

As a Black man in a position of power, Daughtry should be ashamed of trafficking racial discourses that expose racialised populations, like his own, to state violence. For, indeed, with the irrational and uncivilised as its object, terror talk creates an edge to a rules-based order. That is, it establishes the limits of the universal application of the rights enshrined in international humanitarian law — the right to sovereignty, the right to security, and the right to life. In other words, terror talk suspends the juridical order for those deemed outside of the political and the rule of law — the so-called terrorists, future terrorists (children), terrorist sympathisers (the population), and terrorist reproducers (mothers). Suspending the guarantee of international political protection, terror talk makes killable life. We see this in Gaza. Terror talk has made it legitimate to bomb, maim, dice to pieces, snipe, displace, detain, and torture Palestinian life. Terror talk exposes Palestinian life to death and premature death.

The Western university is a key producer and disseminator of terror knowledge and therefore is entangled in the ongoing genocide of the Palestinian people in ways that move beyond its financial investments in Israeli companies. Terror knowledge has been given the veneer of scientific and academic respectability under the umbrella term of 'terrorism studies.' With 90 percent of its research taking place after the 9/11 attacks, terrorism studies mushroomed into an area study since the war on terror. ... Offering embedded expertise to powerful institutions such as the police, military, intelligence agencies, arms manufacturing, and media industries, the overlooked role of the Western university in the 'military-industrial-academic complex' is that it creates and sustains the very conditions that enable genocide to happen. ... We thus call on the student movement to add another plank to their demands: the dismantling of terrorism discourses."

#palestine #turtle island #zionism #orientalism #imperialism #library

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girlactionfigure · 20 days

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THURSDAY HERO: Victor Bodson

Victor Bodson was a Luxembourger politician who created an escape route for German Jews fleeing Hitler and saved over 100 lives, at great risk to his own.

Born in 1902 in one of the smallest countries in Europe, Victor was equally comfortable on the athletic field and in the halls of power. An avid swimmer, boxer and motorcycle racer in his youth, Victor became a successful lawyer and political activist. He became a member of his small country’s Board of Deputies in 1934, and the next year was elected to a council seat in Luxembourg City.

Victor lived on the Sauer River, which forms the border between Luxembourg and Germany. As Hitler and the Nazis rose to power in the 1930’s, it became increasingly difficult for Jews to leave Germany. Desperate Jews began crossing the treacherous Sauer River, hoping to find safety in the small kingdom. Fortunately for them, Victor Bodson was waiting on the other side to ferry them to safety. An expert driver and mechanic, Victor equipped his vehicle with a specially-designed apparatus to completely hide the passengers. When the Jewish refugees exited the river, they followed secret directions to Victor’s house, where he provided them with dry clothing and other basic needs. Then he ferried them to safe houses that he’d arranged and prepared beforehand.

Victor continued his heroic lifesaving efforts for seven years, from 1933 to 1940. He did this despite knowing that if the Nazis found out, he could be executed without trial. He took many risks during those seven years, never knowing whom he could trust when looking for people to hide Jews, never knowing if the Nazis were on his trail, and traveling through treacherous forests during bitter winter months. The exact numbers are unknown, and Victor did not talk about his brave actions, but historians estimate that he saved approximately 100 people – not to mention all those peoples’ descendants.

In May 1940, Germany invaded Luxembourg and Victor was unable to continue helping Jewish refugees. Most of the Luxembourg government fled in a motorcade, but Victor stayed behind to provide help amid the chaos. Later, using knowledge of backroads gained during his time as a motorcyclist, he escaped to France, then Portugal, and finally to Montreal, Canada where he became part of the Luxembourg government in exile. For the remainder of the war, Victor continued to help Jews and other refugees by providing them with entry visas to Canada and the United States. In 1942 the Gestapo put him on their most wanted list, but they were unable to do anything to him because he was so far away.

After the war, Victor returned to his homeland and served as a high level government commissioner, first in the justice department and later as the transportation minister. In 1971, Victor was deeply touched to be recognized as Righteous Among the Nations by Israeli Holocaust Memorial Yad Vashem. He wrote a beautiful letter of gratitude for the honor, humbly downplaying his own actions and saying that he was simply fulfilling his human duty to help others.

Victor Bodson died in 1984. He remains a source of pride to his countrymen who named the beautiful Victor Bodson Bridge after him.

For saving one hundred lives over seven years, we honor Victor Bodson as this week’s Thursday Hero.

#Thursday Hero

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mariacallous · 6 days

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You’ve studied Russian information warfare pretty extensively. A few weeks ago the Justice Department indicted two employees of the Russian state media outlet RT for their role in surreptitiously funding a right-wing US media outfit as part of a foreign-influence-peddling scheme, which saw them pull the wool over a bunch of right-wing media personalities. Do you think this type of thing is the tip of the iceberg when it comes to Russian information warfare?

Of course. It’s the tip of the iceberg, and I want to refer back to 2016. It was much bigger in 2016 than we recognized at the time. The things that the Obama administration was concerned with—like the actual penetration of state voting systems and stuff—that was really just nothing compared to all of the internet stuff they had going. And we basically caught zilcho of that before the election itself. And I think the federal government is more aware of it this time, but also the Russians are doing different things this time, no doubt.

I’m afraid what I think is that there are probably an awful lot of people who are doing this—including people who are much more important in the media than those guys—and that there’s just no way we’re going to catch very many of them before November. That’s my gut feeling.

While we’re on Russia, I do want to talk about Ukraine, especially since you’re there right now. I think one of the most unfortunate aspects of [the media’s coverage of] foreign wars—the Ukraine war and also the Israel-Hamas war—is just the way they inevitably fade into the background of the American news cycle, especially if no American boots are on the ground. I’m curious if this dynamic frustrates you as a historian.

Oh, a couple points there. One is, I’m going to point out slightly mean-spiritedly that the stories about war fatigue in Ukraine began in March 2022. As a historian, I am a little bit upset at journalists. I don’t mean the good ones. I don’t mean the guys I just saw who just came back from the front. [I mean] the people who are sitting in DC or New York or wherever, who immediately ginned up this notion of war fatigue and kept asking everybody from the beginning, “When are you going to get tired of this war?” We turned war fatigue into a topos almost instantaneously. And I found that really irresponsible because you’re affecting the discourse. But also, I feel like there was a kind of inbuilt laziness into it. If war fatigue sets in right away, then you have an excuse never to go to the country, and you have an excuse never to figure out what’s going on, and you have an excuse never to figure out why it’s important.

So I was really upset by that, and also because there’s just something so odd about Americans being tired of this war. We can get bored of it or whatever, but how can we be tired? We’re not doing a damn thing. We’re doing nothing. I mean, there’s some great individual Americans who are volunteering and giving supplies and stuff, but as a country, we’re not doing a damn thing. I mean, a tiny percentage of our defense budget—which would be going to other stuff anyway—insead goes to Ukraine.

And by the way, Ukrainians understand that Americans have other things to think about. I was not very far from the front three days ago talking to soldiers, and their basic attitude about the election and us was, like, “Yeah, you got your own things to think about. We understand. It’s not your war.” But as a historian, the thing which troubles me is pace, because with time, all kinds of resources wear down. And the most painful is the Ukrainian human resource. That’s probably a terribly euphemistic word, but people die and people get wounded and people get traumatized. Your own side runs out of stuff.

We were played by the Russians, psychologically, about the way wars are fought. And that stretched out the war. That’s the thing which bothers me most. You win wars with pace and you win wars with surprise. You don’t win wars by allowing the other side to dictate what the rules are and stretching everything out, which is basically what’s happened. And with that has come a certain amount of American distraction and changing the subject and impatience. I think journalists have made a mistake by making it into a kind of consumer thing where they’re sort of instructing the public that it’s okay to be bored or fatigued. And then I think the Biden administration made a mistake by not doing things at pace and allowing every decision to take weeks and months and so on.

What do you think another Trump presidency would mean for the war and for America’s commitment to Ukraine?

I think Trump switches sides and puts American power on the Russian side, effectively. I think Trump cuts off. He’s a bad dealmaker—that’s the problem. I mean, he’s a good entertainer. He’s very talented; he’s very charismatic. In his way, he’s very intelligent, but he’s not a good dealmaker. And a) ending wars is not a deal the way that buying a building is a deal, and b) even if it were, he’s consistently made bad deals his whole career and lost out and gone bankrupt.

So you can’t really trust him with something like this, even if his intentions were good—and I don’t think his intentions are good. Going back to the strongman thing, I think he believes that it’s right and good that the strong defeat and dominate the weak. And I think in his instinctual view of the world, Putin is pretty much the paradigmatic strongman—the one that he admires the most. And because he thinks Putin is strong, Putin will win. The sad irony of all this is that we are so much stronger than Russia. And in my view, the only way Russia can really win is if we flip or if we do nothing. So, because Trump himself is so psychologically weak and wants to look up to another strongman, I think he’s going to flip. But even if I’m wrong about that, I think he’s incompetent to deal with a situation like this. Because he wants the quick affirmation of a deal. And if the other side knows you’re in a hurry, then you’ve already lost from the beginning.

Timothy Snyder Explains How Americans Might Adapt to Fascism Under Trump

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julaibib · 7 days

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I feel so heartbroken, and distressed. What can I do to feel better?

Sadness or is distressed needed in life; it is something that was felt by the best of those who came before us. Ya’qūb (ʿalayhi al-Salām) felt sad when he lost his son Yūsuf. Fāṭima (raḍiy Allāhu ʿanhā) felt sad when she lost her father the Prophet Muḥammad (sallAllāhu ʿalayhi wasallam), to the extent that she did not recover until she departed from this world. When the Prophet (sallAllāhu ʿalayhi wasallam) lost his uncle Abū Tālib and his wife Khadījah (raḍiy Allāhu ʿanhā), he, too, felt extremely sad. In fact, historians named this year ‘The Year of Sadness.’

There are three types of sadness. Al-huzn is sadness referring to what has occurred in the past, al-gham is a current state of sadness and al-hamm is the sadness of what may occur in the future.

A common trick of the shaytān is to isolate oneself when feeling sadness. Isolation is not the cure. The Prophet (sallAllāhu ʿalayhi wasallam) tells us that a believer who mixes with the people will be harmed whether you like it or not. Therefore, our mindset should encourage us on how to proactively overcome the state of sadness rather than allowing it to consume us.

Allāh says,

“And he called out within the darkness, ‘There is no deity except You; exalted are You. Indeed, I have been of the wrongdoers.’”

This is the du’ā of Yūnus (ʿalayhi al-Salām) by which he invoked Allāh (jalla wa ʿālā) whilst in the depths of the ocean within the belly of the whale. Allāh (jalla wa ʿālā) tells us immediately after this verse, that He rescued Yūnus (ʿalayhi al-Salām) from al-Gham. This is one of the three states of sadness mentioned above. Therefore, du’ās such as the above are ideal for a person feeling a current state of sadness.

“So We responded to him and saved him from the distress. And thus do We save the believers.”

Preparing for the reality of trial and strife is of utmost importance in Islam. The ideal strategy is that when times are good, we are fortifying our walls by remembering Allah, making duaa, being thankful for what we have, and detaching ourselves from the dunya (worldly life).

If we have worked on purifying our hearts during ease, then when hardship hits, it will extract from the good and pure in our spiritual cups. We would have practiced gratefulness so we will know how to be grateful during loss.

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metamatar · 1 year

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(btw NYT's anti china hysteria is getting journalists in india arrested)

In August 2023, The New York Times published a story “A Global Web of Chinese Propaganda Leads to a U.S. Tech Mogul”. The story investigated whether Chinese funding was being funnelled to advocacy and media organisations across the world to defend the internal authoritarianism of the Chinese state. One of the countries included was India, with a fleeting reference to an Indian digital news organisation NewsClick, which the report said “sprinkled its coverage with Chinese government talking points”.

The report did not suggest that the organisation had committed any crime – let alone sedition or terrorism against the Indian state. But on October 3, the police in Delhi swooped down on the homes of 46 people connected to NewsClick – journalists, staffers, contributors, including academics, historians, satirists – seizing their phones and laptops, subjecting them to hours of questioning, largely about their coverage of protests by farmers and by Muslim women. NewsClick’s founder and editor-in-chief Prabir Purakayastha and the head of the human resources department Amit Chakraborty were arrested under the draconian anti-terror law, the Unlawful Activities Prevention Act.

When asked about the police action, anonymous government officials invoked the New York Times article. Indian TV channels – nearly all of which are propaganda channels for the Modi regime – used the NYT story to frame the issue as a question of whether “press freedom” should be respected at the cost of “national sovereignty”.

[...] The NYT story has become a pretext to escalate an ongoing campaign to persecute and imprison some of India’s most courageous journalists, academics and activists on baseless charges of abetting “Maoist terrorism”. [...] NYT’s failure to separate specific issues of financial impropriety, propaganda, and political opinion from each other, I feared, would endanger the courageous work of journalists associated with NewsClick: for example, investigations into the financial scandals involving Gautam Adani, the tycoon who is known to be a close associate of the Indian Prime Minister. [...] The story had mentioned several media platforms (a YouTube channel in the US for instance) without identifying these by name, but had chosen to name NewsClick. It had cherry-picked an inoffensive and rather lame line from a NewsClick video and presented this as evidence of pro-China propaganda: “China’s history continues to inspire the working classes.” I pointed out that this is a simple statement of opinion, and cannot be construed as Chinese government propaganda.

Left-wing softness on China or Russia might harm Uyghurs or Ukrainians, and the political health of the Left itself, but this was hardly a problem for the Modi regime.

#india

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leviathan-supersystem · 6 months

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You seem knowledgeable on the USSR, can you do a debunking of this post, or link me a source which debunks it?

https://www.tumblr.com/sanson-ki-mala-pe/746822120828502016/soviet-antisemitism-a-hundred-years-of-recycling

i don;t have time to address every claim made here, but it jumps out to me immediately that the source they're referencing, "More than a Century of Antisemitism: How Successive Occupants of the Kremlin Have Used Antisemitism to Spread Disinformation and Propaganda" is quite literally published by the US Department of State, and that this document in turn uses as one of it's major sources the Romanian defector Ion Mihai Pacepa, a controversial figure who's various claims have been frequently called into doubt even by those sympathetic to his cause.

for example, in this book review by the national catholic register [link], the author of the review, who is plainly sympathetic to Pacepa's anti-communist goals, nonetheless casts doubt on many of the claims he makes:

In the article “Moscow’s Assault on the Vatican,” published in 2007, Pacepa claimed he convinced legendary Vatican diplomat Msgr. Agostino Casaroli — later cardinal and secretary of state under Pope John Paul II — to let three Romanian agents, posing as priests, peruse the papal archives. Under scrutiny, Pacepa’s story began to unravel, with doubts expressed by historians and Vatican experts. Then the reason Pacepa claimed to have credibility with the Vatican collapsed: He said he had engineered a “spy trade” in 1959, exchanging jailed Romanian Archbishop Augustin Pacha for two spies caught in West Germany. But Archbishop Ioan Robu of Bucharest showed photos of the bishop’s 1954 crypt, explaining the heroic man was already dead when Pacepa claimed to have liberated him.

[...]

Vatican diplomats Cardinals Giovanni Cheli and Luigi Poggi were involved in negotiations with Romania and the Soviet bloc. Cardinal Cheli called Pacepa’s allegations “untruthful scenarios,” while Cardinal Poggi declared them “the product of a troubled mind and soul.” Archbishop Robu, who was consecrated by Cardinal Casaroli, emphatically calls the Pacepa account false: “We would know, it would be in our memories, if Romanian spies gained access to the Vatican Archives. It didn’t happen.”

[...]

In Disinformation, Pacepa credits KGB operations with everything from plotting the assassination of U.S. President John F. Kennedy to provoking the rise of Islamic extremism. In each scenario, he portrays himself as a witness to history — when his true rank and job description would never explain access to these events or decisions.

another similarly anti-communist catholic source is the catholic review, the official publication of the archdioces of baltimore. [link] they write:

Mr. Rychlak, the author of two books on Pope Pius and World War II, said he thinks Mr. Pacepa’s account needs to be verified in the Soviet archives. “Pacepa’s timing is questionable. Why hasn’t this story been revealed until now? I hope the United States government will declassify any information it has on this important matter, to spare the time a Freedom of Information Act request takes,” said Mr. Rychlak. John Cornwell, the British author of a 1999 book, “Hitler’s Pope: The Secret History of Pius XII,” told CNS he has never heard the claims described by Mr. Pacepa and considers them “most unlikely.” “As a supporter of NATO and the Western Alliance, it’s not inconceivable the pope could have been targeted (by the KGB). But I haven’t seen any credible documents indicating anyone doctored material,” said Mr. Cornwell, whose book was criticized by church officials for its negative portrayal of Pope Pius. Former colleagues of Mr. Pacepa, 79, expressed doubts about his story. “Between 1960 and 1962, when he pretends he ran Vatican spies, he was in Bucharest, assigned as a deputy in the techno-scientific section of Securitate (the Romanian secret police), where he stayed until he defected in 1978,” said a former high-ranking Securitate officer who would not allow his name to be used. “In the chain of command he would not have had direct communication with the KGB generals. If he did, that would make him a Soviet agent, not a Romanian one,” the source added. “In 1959, Pacepa was in Germany under diplomatic cover. He was a captain in Cologne with a degree in chemistry and belonged to the techno-scientific section. Again, the KGB generals wouldn’t have taken him into consideration,” said the source, who believes Mr. Pacepa is trying to build a “mysterious aura” for himself in his later years. “Why did he wait 29 years (since his defection) to reveal this? If it’s true, it would have made so much sense to put it on the table in 1981, after the Soviet-Bulgarian plot to assassinate Pope John Paul II,” the source said. A former Romanian diplomat of the communist era, who has advised the U.S. government, expressed “deep doubts” about the account. ��Pacepa is not a serious source,” said the former diplomat. “His book ‘Red Horizons’ (1988) is about one-third fiction. He takes some real facts, and then invents. “I’m afraid he is just trying to bring attention to his persona. He invokes the Vatican because the Romanian Securitate has been exhausted and is a marginal issue,” he added. “Pacepa does not document. Given the gravity of the affirmations he makes, in order to be credible, he must unveil the source, himself, or otherwise it is fiction,” said the retired diplomat.

given Ion Mihai Pacepa's overall track record, i would certainly like to see some other source verifying the various claims that the "More Than A Century Of Antisemitism" cites from him, most especially the claim that the USSR distributed copies of the Protocols in arabic in the middle east, a claim I cannot find any other source for.

Edit: also i should note that one of the major thrusts of the "More Than A Century Of Antisemitism" document is to smear all criticism of Azov in Ukraine as somehow antisemitic, which is just ludicrous. regardless of how you feel about the war in Ukraine, there are legitimate criticisms to be made of Azov Battalion and the role they have played there.

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decolonize-the-everything · 9 months

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So there's been a lot of stuff going on in my family lately, stuff I don't want to talk about publicly. But one of the knock on effects is that I've spent some time with my mother's brother, who has been a successful organizer of unions in DC for the last 30 years, and he's cultivated some really useful sources on capitol hill to share insights on politics, and he likes talking with his jaded, 28-year-old historian nephew.

So one of the thing he brought up was that among the many reasons DC ignores what young voters tend to want is that as far as DC is concerned, young people vote inconsistently, and therefore are not worth pandering to - they don't come out consistently enough to punish those who vote against their interests, and they don't come out in favor of those who vote for their interests, ergo, why bother?

We began talking about Israel/Palestine and his response was similarly grim. I brought up my ongoing theory that as the world regresses back into essentially 19th century world affairs, and Israel is essentially what the British Empire would have called an American Vassal State, his response was "Kind of, but they aren't acting entirely in our interests" - not a secret, right? Everyone paying attention knows that Biden wanted a multilateral middle eastern partnership with Israel, Saudi Arabia, Egypt, Jordan, and Lebanon, right before all of this happened, and Israel's...disproportionate response has very much ruined that.

What he brought up that WAS interesting is that while many young people have fallen off supporting Biden because of his support of Israel, a lot of more "likely" voters are more supportive of him because of it, and the current math on capitol hill is that they're trying to court "likely" voters. The other, even grimmer math he told me about is that this conflict is going to escalate to a point that Israel is going to continue to bleed off support until the US government has no choice BUT to pull support from Israel - though Netenyahu is not doing himself any favors by openly disparaging the US state department and US interests, something that makes the US State department at least somewhat more interested in looking at alternative partners to the point that they probably would be willing to force Israel to replace Netenyahu and his party eventually, with or without public demand.

The problem is that those things take time, and that Netenyahu's successor would probably be a more "liberal' alternative to Netenyahu's more openly fascist current reality, and "securing an alternative middle eastern strategy" is more important to the US government than stopping what their current option is doing. According to my uncle who has spent the last 30 years working with DC power brokers, basically all of them assume they have between 2-4 months before the election to force netenyahu to actually stop doing anything (or replace him with someone who will stop when asked nicely) if they're really worried about the loss of support it's going to cause them.

It's a lot more interesting, but what he pointed out was that the only way ceasefire happens sooner is if, frankly, demonstrations get an order of magnitude bigger, and begin demonstrating it actually impacts people's chances. I am submitting this post here because I am primarily a writeblr and for whatever reason my "openly political" posts (despite all my stories being deeply political in deeply political genres) struggle to get as much traction, and this seems worth spreading.

This all sounds very similar to what I've been thinking as well, it's almost a direct parallel of things we've seen before.

#asked #answered #boosting

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ms-gallows · 4 months

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"Lillback, a favorite of right-wing pundit Glenn Beck, is not a prominent historian. But Lillback is one of the original signatories of the Manhattan Declaration, a 2009 document calling for civil disobedience if the United States fails to adopt the views of right-wing Christians on abortion and same-sex marriage.

The slide quotes an article by Lillback that argues that there would be no freedom, no republic, and no constitution without religion. The speaker notes accompanying the slide emphasize that "the separation of Church and State did not mean the separation of God and government," and all the founders were "steeped in the Judeo-Christian tradition."

"Amanda Tyler, the executive director of the Baptist Joint Committee for Religious Liberty and an expert in Christian nationalism, reviewed the entire presentation at Popular Information's request. Tyler said that the "focus on the mythological founding of the country as a Christian nation, this use of cherry-picked history… is very much a marker of Christian nationalism." According to Tyler, the aim of the presentation is "to solidify this ideology that equates being American to being Christian." Tyler noted that the presentation does not address why, if religion was so essential to the structure of the government, the Constitution does not mention God at all." ---- They are trying to GROOM children into adopting Christian Nationalism. The end goal of this is simple: to make children believe in Christian Nationalism so that they than can create a generation of people who don't believe in separation of church and state or democracy. Even if we elect Biden or whatever Democrat for years, if we don't do everything we possibly can to stamp out Christian Nationalism, we will always have threats to democracy. The teachers who have taken classes on introducing this to children should be named, shamed, and barred from education.

DEFEAT PROJECT 2025

#christian nationalism #project 2025 #vote 2024 #vote blue #vote biden #defeat project 2025 #fuck trump #please reblog #likes don't help the algorithm

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todaysdocument · 7 months

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Draft letter to Dr. Richard Mudd from Jimmy Carter

Collection JC-COUNSL: Records of the White House Office of Counsel to the PresidentSeries: Robert J. Lipshutz's FilesFile Unit: Mudd, Dr. Samuel (deceased) 5/78-9/79

February 22, 1979 [Draft] Dr. Richard Mudd 1001 Hoyt Avenue Saginaw, Michigan 48607 Dear Dr. Mudd: I have for some time been aware of your efforts to clear the name of your grandfather, Dr. Samuel Alexander Mudd, the physician who set the broken leg of Lincoln assassin John Wilkes Boot [spelling error], and who was subsequently convicted as an assassination conspirator. Your tireless efforts for more than half a century to unearth and publicize the facts in the case and the questionable circumstances surrounding Dr. Mudd's conviction are commendable. Such persistence and faith are a tribute to the strength of familial love and dedication and are a credit to the great principles upon which our Nation was founded. That Dr. Mudd's conviction is questionable was clearly demonstrated by President Andrew Johnson who, on February 8, 1869, issued a full and unconditional pardon of Dr. Mudd. As President Johnson stated in issuing the pardon; "the circumstances of the surgical aid to the escaping assassin and the imputed concealment of his flight are deserving of a lenient construction, as within the obligations of professional duty, and, thus, inadequate evidence of a guilty sympathy with the crime or criminal." Furthermore, President Johnson concluded: "in other respects the evidence...leaves room for uncertainty as to the true measure and nature of the complicity." I have reviewed your petition and the petitions on behalf of your grandfather submitted to me by various members of Congress, several state legislatures, historians and private citizens asking that I, President, vacate the conviction of Dr. Samuel Mudd. I have requested and reviewed investigations by both the Department of Justice and the Office of the White House Legal Counsel to determine the authority of Dr. Richard Mudd February 22, 1979 Page Two the President of the United States to act in a case in which a civilian was convicted by a military commission of a crime against the Commander-in-Chief. After reviewing all issues and legal precedents relating to this case, I must conclude, regrettably, that it is not within the power of the President to make such a declaration. However, the case of Dr. Samuel Mudd is unique. In no other instance has so much been written, have so many voices been raised and have so many individuals endeavored to establish the innocence of Dr. Mudd and to seek his exoneration. In light of the evidence which has been amassed in the 113 years since his conviction, the injustice to Dr. Mudd and his family is clear. The phrase "your name is mud" has too long been used unjustly as an expression of contempt and scorn. The name of Mudd should be able to be borne proudly by all those who are descended from him. It is because of your unceasing efforts to clear your grandfather, and to restore to his name the dignity it deserves and that should be enjoyed by you and all the Mudd descendants, that I am writing to you to express my personal belief in the innocence of Dr. Samuel Alexander Mudd. For the sake of setting history straight, the name of Mudd should be cleared, once and for all, of any negative connotation or implied lack of honor. Sincerely, Jimmy Carter

#archivesgov #February 22 #1979 #1970s #samuel mudd

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lordzannis · 24 days

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Rudolph "Butch" T. Ware III is an American historian and the Green Party's vice presidential nominee for the 2024 United States presidential election. Here are key points about him:

Academic Background:

Associate professor in the Department of History at the University of California, Santa Barbara

Previously taught at the University of Michigan and Northwestern University

Received his Ph.D. in history from the University of Pennsylvania in 2004

Research Focus:

Specializes in West African history, African-American history, and Islamic intellectual history

His work focuses on Islamic thought, anti-slavery movements in West Africa and the African Diaspora, and the intersection of race, religion, and revolutionary thought

Political Involvement:

Selected as Jill Stein's running mate for the Green Party's 2024 presidential campaign

Nomination announced on August 16, 2024, during an online livestreamed event

Personal Background:

Practicing Muslim

His selection alongside Stein (who is Jewish) has been noted for creating a diverse ticket

Academic Work:

Author of "The Walking Qur'an: Islamic Education, Embodied Knowledge, and History in West Africa," which has received positive reviews for its analysis of Islamic traditions in Africa

Political Stance:

Emphasizes addressing systemic injustice and building a sustainable, just, and peaceful world

Critical of the two-party political system in the United States

Criticism:

Some critics argue that his background is primarily academic, with limited direct involvement in social movements or political activism outside of academia

The selection of Ware as the Green Party's vice presidential nominee is seen as an attempt to create a historically diverse ticket, bringing together different religious and cultural backgrounds in opposition to current U.S. policies on issues like war, climate change, and economic inequality.

Citations: [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Butch_Ware [2] https://www.wsws.org/en/articles/2024/08/26/tgug-a26.html [3] https://www.amazon.com/Walking-Quran-Education-Knowledge-Civilization/dp/1469614316 [4] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jill_Stein [5] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9ziwTDDcaVI [6] https://www.history.ucsb.edu/faculty/bware/ [7] https://www.jillstein2024ballotaccess.com [8] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jill_Stein_2024_presidential_campaign

Ranked Choice Voting (RCV) is an electoral system that allows voters to rank candidates in order of preference. Here's a comprehensive overview:

How Ranked Choice Voting Works

Voters rank candidates in order of preference (1st choice, 2nd choice, 3rd choice, etc.).

If a candidate receives over 50% of first-choice votes, they win outright.

If no candidate gets a majority, the candidate with the fewest votes is eliminated.

Votes for the eliminated candidate are redistributed to voters' next choices.

This process repeats until a candidate has a majority.

Advantages of RCV

Determines strongest overall support: Reveals the candidate with the most support across the entire electorate, not just a passionate base.

Encourages civil campaigning: Reduces negative campaigning as candidates aim for second-choice votes.

Reduces wasted votes: Voters can support their preferred candidate without fear of "wasting" their vote.

Eliminates need for runoffs: Saves time and money by avoiding separate runoff elections.

Current Implementation

Statewide: Alaska and Maine use RCV for various elections.

Cities: 53 cities and counties in the U.S. use RCV, including New York City, San Francisco, and Minneapolis.

Military/Overseas: Several states use RCV for military and overseas voters in federal runoff elections.

Criticisms and Responses

Complexity: While slightly more complex than single-choice voting, data shows voters adapt quickly and turnout isn't negatively affected.

Cost: Initial implementation costs can be offset by eliminating runoff elections.

Delayed results: While final tallies may take longer, this ensures accurate and comprehensive results.

Conclusion

Ranked Choice Voting is gaining traction as a method to improve representation and reduce political polarization. While it requires some adjustment, its benefits in determining majority support and encouraging civil campaigning make it an increasingly popular electoral reform.

Citations: [1] https://www.lwvme.org/RCVhelp [2] https://time.com/5718941/ranked-choice-voting/ [3] https://www.rankedvote.co/guides/understanding-ranked-choice-voting/pros-and-cons-of-rcv [4] https://www.csg.org/2023/03/21/ranked-choice-voting-what-where-why-why-not/ [5] https://www.acvote.org/voting/rcv [6] https://vote.arlingtonva.gov/Elections/Ranked-Choice-Voting [7] https://www.pbs.org/wnet/preserving-democracy/2023/12/18/ranked-choice-voting-coming-to-more-statewide-ballots-in-2024/ [8] https://www.rcvresources.org/where-is-rcv-used

#Butch Ware #jill stein #TogetherForJill #UnitedForGreen #JillSteinForAll #GrassrootsForJill #free palestine #palestine #free gaza

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reasonsforhope · 2 years

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"How much safer has construction really gotten? Let’s take a look.

Construction used to be incredibly dangerous

By the end of the 19th century, what’s sometimes called the second industrial revolution had made US industry incredibly productive. But it had also made working conditions more dangerous...

One source estimates 25,000 total US workplace fatalities in 1908 (Aldrich 1997). Another 1913 estimate gave 23,000 deaths against 38 million workers. Per capita, this is about 61 deaths per 100,000 workers, roughly 17 times the rate of workplace fatalities we have today...

In a world of dangerous work, construction was one of the most dangerous industries of all. By the 1930s and early 1940s the occupational death rate for all US workers had fallen to around 36-37 per 100,000 workers. At the same time [in the 1930s and early 1940s], the death rate in construction was around 150-200 deaths per 100,000 workers, roughly five times as high... By comparison, the death rate of US troops in Afghanistan in 2010 was about 500 per 100,000 troops. By the mid-20th century, the only industry sector more dangerous than construction was mining, which had a death rate roughly 50% higher than construction.

We see something similar if we look at injuries. In 1958 the rate of disabling injuries in construction was 3 times as high as the manufacturing rate, and almost 5 times as high as the overall worker rate.

Increasing safety

Over the course of the 20th century, construction steadily got safer.

Between 1940 and 2023, the occupational death rate in construction declined from 150-200 per 100,000 workers to 13-15 per 100,000 workers, or more than 90%. Source: US Statistical Abstract, FRED

For ironworkers, the death rate went from around 250-300 per 100,000 workers in the late 1940s to 27 per 100,000 today.

Tracking trends in construction injuries is harder, due to data consistency issues. A death is a death, but what sort of injury counts as “severe,” or “disabling,” or is even worth reporting is likely to change over time. [3] But we seem to see a similar trend there. Looking at BLS Occupational Injuries and Illnesses data, between the 1970s and 2020s the injury rate per 100 workers declined from 15 to 2.5.

Source of safety improvements

Improvements in US construction safety were due to a multitude of factors, and part of a much broader trend of improving workplace safety that took place over the 20th century.

The most significant early step was the passage of workers compensation laws, which compensated workers in the event of an injury, increasing the costs to employers if workers were injured (Aldrich 1997). Prior to workers comp laws, a worker or his family would have to sue his employer for damages and prove negligence in the event of an injury or death. Wisconsin passed the first state workers comp law in 1911, and by 1921 most states had workers compensation programs.

The subsequent rising costs of worker injuries and deaths caused employers to focus more on workplace safety. According to Mark Aldrich, historian and former OSHA economist, “Companies began to guard machines and power sources while machinery makers developed safer designs. Managers began to look for hidden dangers at work, and to require that workers wear hard hats and safety glasses.” Associations and trade journals for safety engineering, such as the American Society of Safety Professionals, began to appear...

In 1934, the Department of Labor established a Division of Labor Standards, which would later become the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA), to “promote worker safety and health.” The 1935 National Labor Relations Act (NLRA), which legalized collective bargaining, allowed trade unions to advocate for worker safety.

Following WWII, the scale of government intervention in addressing social problems, including worker safety, dramatically increased.

In addition to OSHA and environmental protection laws, this era also saw the creation of the Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC), the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA), and the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH).

OSHA in particular dramatically changed the landscape of workplace safety, and is sometimes viewed as “the culmination of 60 or more years of effort towards a safe and hazard-free workplace.”"

-via Construction Physics (Substack newsletter by Brian Potter), 3/9/23

#construction #osha #workplace #workplace safety #workers rights #labor rights #occupational health #nlra #collective bargaining #united states #us history #labor unions #industrial revolution #this is why unions and regulations are so fucking important by the way #if you have not studied late 1800s and early 1900s labor history in the US #you really can't grasp how incredibly dangerous things used to be #and how much proof we have that corporations suck #government regulations

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battleangel · 3 months

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Do We Even Give A Damn?

US Supreme Court issued two key rulings within the past week: •Houselessnesss is now illegal •US Presidents have been granted immunity.

Houselessness Per Google: “Last week, the Supreme Court issued its opinion in Grants Pass v. Johnson, which makes it easier for communities nationwide to fine, ticket or arrest people living unsheltered, even when there is no adequate shelter available.”

They have criminalized being houseless even when there are no other options available.

Immunity •Granted US Presidents immunity — as long as the President states that s/he was acting in an official capacity regardless of crime(s) committed, they will be granted immunity.

Due to a literal average 3 second attention span — 3 seconds! — and instant collective amnesia — within a day, dead Boeing whisteblowers & Super Bowl Chiefs Parade shooting were instantaneously forgotten by the public who had already moved on literally by the very next day.

Theres always another show to stream, social media feed to scroll, youtube video to watch, Discord server to respond to.

They are completely emboldened now and are gearing up for an end game.

You do know who they is — right?

From Chicago Sun Times: “As disturbing as this agenda is, the most alarming and repellent policy proposal contained within Project 2025 is the restructuring of the federal government, eliminating the kind of public servants who stopped Trump from completely disassembling the Department of Veterans Affairs, overcame his resistance to expelling Russian spies, deterred him from shooting racial justice protesters, derailed his plan to deploy the military against migrants and kick undocumented children out of schools and deflected his suggestion to drop nuclear bombs into the eyes of hurricanes.

The Heritage Foundation, which produced Project 2025, grew out of the mid-1970s movement to protect racially segregated schools. The first battle it waged was against a school district’s adoption of multicultural textbooks — “n- - - - er books,” as some opponents called them.’'

Why is Orbán their model? Because he showed them how to use elections to undermine democracy and ensure perpetual power for his team,” historian Nancy McClean said. “How? Orbán purged the civil service and refilled it with obedient loyalists. He got the Constitution altered. He completely dominates. And this is what Heritage wants to see happen in the United States.”

Hitler did it too — look up Night of The Long Knives.

Knives Out.

I want you to know He's not coming back Look into my eyes I'm not coming back

So knives out Catch the mouse Don't look down Shove it in your mouth

If you'd been a dog They would've drowned you at birth Look into my eyes It's the only way you'll know I'm telling the truth

So knives out Cook him up Squash his head Put him in the pot

I want you to know He's not coming back He's bloated and frozen Still there's no point in letting it go to waste

So knives out Catch the mouse Squash his head Put him in the pot

Thom Yorke: “It’s partly the idea of the businessman walking out on his wife and kids and never coming back. It’s also the thousand yard stare when you look at someone close to you and you know they’re gonna die. It’s like a shadow over them, or the way they look straight through you. The shine goes out of their eyes.”

Its like a shadow over them.

The shine goes out of their eyes.

Project 2025. Modern Power Project.

The Democrats naturally have their own Project 2025 — Modern Power Project.

You dont actually think the two parties are different. Do you?

You didnt actually waste your time watching the debate. Did you?

Why is Netanyahu addressing Congress on July 11th after murdering 50k Palestinians since October 7th when 1,700 Israeli civilians have been killed since October 7th?

Dont those numbers seem uneven to you?

Thats not a war or a two-sided conflict — its a genocide that the US is funding to the tune of $4 billion a year in aid to Israel and supplying the weapons & bombs for via Boeing, Raytheon, Northrup Grumman & local mid-western weapons manufacturers.

Netanyahu gets the bully pulpit & gets to address Congress.

What does a murdered 6 year old Palestinian child, Hind Rajab, get?

International investigation into her murder confirms she was killed in “deliberate” Israeli fire.

Still, the US refuses to condemn Israel, refuses to stop funding the genocide and arming the IDF in their merciless butchering of my Palestinian brothers and sisters.

Whats going on?

62 House Democrats voted no last week to recognize the current civilian death toll in Palestine.

Why do you think that is?

As we move into the 4th of July “celebration” of a genocidal white supremacist police state based off of brutalism, slavery, militarism, racism, patrimony, patriarchy, misogyny, transphobia, homophobia, the ethnic cleansing of indigenous peoples, the powers that be want you to forget about the genocide in Palestine that YOU are funding with YOUR taxpayer dollars if you work a W-2 job or if you made more than $400 last year via freelancing or entrepreneurship.

That is the vast majority of adult Americans DIRECTLY funding the genocide in Palestine that is literally being livestreamed in real time on our phones on social media.

Enjoy your fucking fireworks.

Democrats Project 2025: “There’s also the awkwardness that surrounds any trend that serves to increase the identification between a private nonprofit and a sitting government — something that may be a boon to a particular think tank that wants to look influential, but can be uncomfortable for those who think about the policy ecosystem writ large.”

“My concern with ‘left’ or ‘right’ talent banks is that they would fuel the idea/narrative that the state is being captured,” said Enrique Mendizabal, whose On Think Tanks (https://onthinktanks.org/) studies think tanks themselves."

Were being set up.

And they know people are too distracted scrolling, streaming, gaming, messaging — theyre too numb — theyre too disaffected — non existent attention spans — instant collective amnesia — to give a fucking damn.

The knives are out.

As Michael Jackson pointed out so emotionally in Earth Song — he literally screamed it — do we give a damn?

The answer collectively is a resounding — About what?

Its not “No”.

Its bored indifference. Casual apathy. Unfeeling ignorance.

Its a yawn, an eye roll, a hand wave.

Its not even bothering to look up from scrolling social media.

Hashtags, trending topics, for you page.

Endless rabbit holes on youtube.

IG stories.

Discord servers.

Whatsapp group chats.

Twitch streams.

The age of giving a damn is over.

Time for AI, time for robotics, time for 80% of jobs to be replaced by AI, robotics, technology & automation.

Time for NeuraLink neural implants that will send an electronic signal to my neural synapses the millisecond a social media post receives a like.

Time for Google Glass — Version 2.0 — to play ads on our corneas and behind our eyelids.

Time for augmented and virtual reality to take the place of ever attending anything live ever again — sports game, concert and anything else — why attend anything live when I can just put on my VR & AR headset?

Why live my life when I have my virtual life on Metaverse?

I never have to live my offline life ever again.

I can permanently stay in the Metaverse.

Snowcrashed.

Ready Player One.

.Hack come to life.

The fictional video game depicted in Angel Sanctuary in the 90s — what the manga & anime was named after — has now come to fruition.

Aol Instant Messenger.

Youve got mail!

Yahoooooooooo.

Goooooooooooooogle results.

Dial up internet.

AOL 1.0.

AOL message boards.

Geocities. Angelfire.

Netscape Navigator.

Does anyone remember the very recent past?

Non-smart cell phones.

No unlimited data.

No 5G, no 4G, no 3G.

No text messages.

No apps.

No social media.

Do you remember the time?

No streaming apps.

Music videos on TV. MTV. That's what Music Television was.

Music videos debuting on TV not Youtube.

Youtube didnt exist before 2005.

Does anyone remember the time?

When songs were three to four minutes long not two minutes?

When cell phones werent surgically permanently attached to our hands?

When we werent on our cell phones 8 to 12+ hours a day every day?

When social media wasnt ubiquitious?

Do you remember the time?

Project 2025 is a 1000 page policy paper.

Per Google: “This 1000-page synopsis focuses on how the next Republican administration should spend their first 180 days in office on uprooting bureaucracy that they consider to be favoring the liberal political agenda. The director of the project, Paul Dans described the project by its pressing goal of “flooding the zone with conservatives.”

If successful, Project 2025 would facilitate the firing of approximately 50,000 federal workers. This mass exodus of a major workforce is merely a means to an end for the right-leaning Heritage Foundation and the other conservative corporations co-authoring the Project. They see the firing of career government officials as the most direct route to creating a federal bureaucracy filled with political loyalists.”

I dont have time to read 1000 words, much less a 1000 pages.

Does anyone remember a time before music videos?

Why do you think you havent heard as much about the Democrats version of Project 2025?

Its called the Modern Power Project.

Have you figured out yet that Democrats & Republicans are both controlled by the dark entities that inhabit the center of the planet of the earth?

They are the ones that install Reptilians as figureheads — Biden, Trump, Netanyahu, Blinken, etc.

Look at the eyes.

They are Reptilians.

All US Presidents descend from the same UK royal bloodline.

Look up the genetic testing that has been done.

They are Reptilians.

The dark entities that inhabit the center of the earth placed a power grid on earth multiple millennia ago designed to keep humanitys consciousness at a lower level indefinitely so that they would be able to enslave & control us.

The Reptilians are their enforcers.

Dark empaths and malignant narcissists are their foot soldiers.

The dark entities that inhabit the center of the earth do not want humanity on a mass level raising their consciousness, experiencing their ego deaths, opening their third eyes, experiencing a kundalini awakening, self-actualizing and self-ascending.

If humanity on a mass level does the above and mass ascends, the planet — earth — will also ascend from our current 3D to 10D multidimensional living.

If you are a starseed, indigo child or angelic empath like me, and like Youneekk, your mission is to do everything you can in your own way for humanity to experience a mass consciousness raising.

Youre not human.

Its a temporary manifestation.

You are only temporarily manifested as a human.

Remember who you are.

You are an eternal energetic limitless being that originated in the dreamscape.

Thats all the afterlife is — your imagination.

We all intrinsically know from the time that we are children that we can dream and imagine anything.

Thats all the afterlife — dreamscape — is.

Its a multidimensional dimension that we all have existed in prior to our very, very temporary manifestations as humans for eternity.

Just like the “Big Bang” (Kemetic Explosion), we have existed eternally just like the universe and everything in it.

The creation explosion exploded out in a multifractal explosion of light eternally into the past and present in one eternal moment of creation that created everything — humans, unicorns, angels, dragons, gods, mermaids, whales, dolphins, wizards, magick, spells, fairies, sirens, mages, potions, incantations, poetry, art, music, creative expression, crystal balls…

Please Save My Earth, a 90s anime & manga, is actually real.

That is why people sent letters to the editor of the publication that the manga was originally serialized in stating that the manga brought back their memories — that they were actually aliens from a distant planet in a past life like the main characters that were sent to Earth in their current life to save the planet from ecological destruction.

Please Save My Earth is just describing starseeds & indigo children as that is our mission and the “past life on a distant planet” represented in the anime and manga is simply remembering that prior to you physically incarnating as a human being when your human parents conceived you, you were a limitless energetic eternal being in the dreamscape — you were highly empathic, sensitive, third eye open, self actualized and self ascended — then the process of incarnating as a physical human being in a 3D realm when your parents conceived you severed you from your true self.

Especially if youre American, you were then raised in a western capitalist society with the number one military and economy in the world — a patrimony, patriarchy, fascistic police state based on systems of inequality oppression and police brutality, white supremacy, free labor from enslaved Africans with no restitution or reparations ever paid to descendants that built this country, genocide of the Native Americans, Trail of Tears, zionist devil, funding the genocide in Palestine & supplying the weapons through Boeing, Raytheon, Northrup Grumman to murder 50k innocent Palestinian civilians, transphobic, homophobic, ableist, might makes right, exploitative, low down and dirty, cutting corners, killing whistleblowers, everybody dog food.

Hyper competition, being treated as a machine, dehumanized, being treated as a robot, a cog in the capitalist machine, being programmed to keep your head down and work, play through injuries, work while sick, “pain is weakness leaving the body”, militaristic, hegemonic, xenophobic, millions of poverty related deaths but povertys never addressed, industrial complex pipelines that lead directly to prison and/or death — foster “care” system, cancer industry, medical industry, pharmaceutical industry, NFL, WWE, adult film industry, NASCAR, PBR, UFC, boxing, psychiatric industry, OTC industry, opioid industry, corporate America, retail, fast food, food service, K-12 indoctrination centers, colleges & universities, US military, Pop Warner, fraternities & sororities, weight loss & diet industries, plastic surgery industry, cosmetics industry, alcohol industry, snack industry, beverage industry, meat industry, self care industry, social media, gaming, streaming, reality TV, big tech, big banks, finserv, Wall Street, Fortune 500, Fortune 100, Fortune 25, Fortune 10, Hollywood, music industry, TV industry, publishing industry, theater & Broadway, dancing, stripping…

Remember who you are…

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whileiamdying · 7 months

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The Black Woman Artist Who Crafted a Life She Was Told She Couldn’t Have

The sculptor Augusta Savage at work in her studio in Harlem.

At the dawn of the Harlem Renaissance, Augusta Savage fought racism to earn acclaim as a sculptor, showing her work alongside de Kooning and Dalí. But the path she forged is also her legacy.

By Concepción de León Published March 30, 2021

In 1937, the sculptor Augusta Savage was commissioned to create a sculpture that would appear at the 1939 New York World’s Fair in Queens, N.Y. Savage was one of only four women, and the only Black artist, to receive a commission for the fair. In her studio in Harlem, she created “Lift Every Voice and Sing,” a 16-foot sculpture cast in plaster and inspired by the song of the same name — often called the Black national anthem — written by her friend, James Weldon Johnson, who had died in 1938.

The sculpture was renamed “The Harp” by World’s Fair organizers and exhibited alongside work by renowned artists from around the world, including Willem de Kooning and Salvador Dalí. Press reports detail how well the piece was received by visitors, and it’s been speculated that it was among the most photographed sculptures at the Fair.

But when the World’s Fair ended, Savage could not afford to cast “The Harp” in bronze, or even pay for the plaster version to be shipped or stored, so her monumental work, like many temporary works on display at the Fair, was destroyed.

The story of the commission and destruction of “The Harp” and its eventual fate is a microcosm of the challenges Savage faced — and the ones Black artists dealt with at the time and are still dealing with today. Savage was an important artist held back not by talent but by financial limitations and sociocultural barriers. Most of Savage’s work has been lost or destroyed but today, a century after she arrived in New York City at the height of the Harlem Renaissance, her work, and her plight, still resonate.

Augusta Savage at work on the sculpture that would become known as “The Harp.” Credit... via The New York Public Library

“Disagreeable complications”

Savage, born Augusta Christine Fells in Green Cove Springs, Fla., in 1892, was the seventh of 14 children. She started making animal sculptures from clay as a child, but her father strongly opposed her interest in art. Savage once said that he “almost whipped all the art out of me,” according to the Smithsonian American Art Museum.

Savage arrived in Harlem a century ago in 1921 in the early years of the Harlem Renaissance. She was nearly 30; had already been twice married, widowed and divorced; and had a teenage child, Irene, whom she left in the care of her parents in Florida. She applied and was accepted to the Cooper Union art school, and completed the four-year program in three years. She took the surname Savage from her second husband, whom she divorced. In 1923, she married Robert L. Poston, her third and final husband. Poston died a year later.

The year she married Poston, Savage was one of 100 women awarded a scholarship to attend the Fontainebleau School of Fine Arts in Paris. But when the admissions committee realized that it had selected a Black woman, Savage’s scholarship was rescinded.

In a letter explaining the decision, the chairman of Fontainebleau’s sculpture department, Ernest Peixotto, expressed concern that “disagreeable complications” would arise between Savage and the students “from the Southern states.”

Savage did not accept the rejection quietly. “She used the Black press to make the limits that she was facing known to the larger national and international public,” Bridget R. Cooks, an art historian and associate professor at University of California, Irvine, said. “She had a real determination and sense of her own talent and a refusal to be denied.”

In the years after the Fontainebleau episode, Savage was commissioned to create busts for prominent African-American figures such as the sociologist and scholar W.E.B. Du Bois and the Jamaican activist Marcus Garvey. She also created “Gamin,” a painted plaster bust portrait based on her nephew that became one of her most well-known pieces, praised for its expressiveness. (It was later cast in bronze.)

“Gamin” earned her a Julius Rosenwald fellowship in 1929 to travel to Paris, which had become a refuge for Black artists, including the painter Palmer Hayden and the sculptor Nancy Elizabeth Prophet. Savage studied at the Académie de la Grand Chaumière and had works displayed at the Grand Palais and other prominent venues.

When she returned to Harlem in 1932, she opened the Savage Studio of Arts and Crafts, where she taught prominent artists such as Jacob Lawrence, Gwendolyn Knight, Norman Lewis and Kenneth B. Clark. Clark later turned to social psychology and developed, with his wife Mamie, experiments using dolls to show how segregation affected Black children’s self-perception.

The community-driven education that Savage championed is part of the African-American tradition, Dr. Cooks said, because Black people have historically been excluded from formal academic spaces. “But for her to open her own school is something entirely different,” Dr. Cooks added. “That is becoming a business person. That’s taking on a leadership role for which she doesn’t have any models in terms of Black people in the art world and Black women in particular. ”

In 1934, Savage became the first African-American member of the National Association of Women Painters and Sculptors (now the National Association of Women Artists). In 1937, she worked with the W.P.A. Federal Art Project to establish the Harlem Community Art Center and became its first director. Eleanor Roosevelt, who attended its inauguration, was so impressed with the center that she used it as a model for other arts centers across the country.

Gwendolyn Bennett, Sara West, Louise Jefferson, Augusta Savage and Eleanor Roosevelt in 1937. Credit... The New York Public Library/Schomburg Center

“She created a pathway for careers for Black artists,” Tammi Lawson, the curator of the art and artifacts division of the Schomburg Center, which has the largest holding of Savage’s work, said. “She taught them, she gave them the tools, and she got them work.”

Sandra Jackson-Dumont, the director and chief executive officer of the Lucas Museum of Narrative Art in Los Angeles, agrees. “She, for me, represents someone who believed that she wasn’t compromising her studio practice or who she was by teaching and bringing people along,” said Ms. Jackson-Dumont, adding that Savage understood “how to use the system’s resources to catalyze folks.”

Yet the later years of Savage’s artistic career were marked by adversity. After taking a hiatus to work on her sculpture for the World’s Fair, Savage returned to the Harlem Community Art Center to find that her job had been filled. She briefly tried to establish the Salon of Contemporary Negro Art in Harlem in 1939, but the gallery lasted only three months.

“Joe Gould’s Teeth,” a 2016 book by the historian Jill Lepore, revealed archival evidence that Gould, an eccentric writer, had harassed Savage by calling her incessantly, insulting her, following her to parties and telling people she had agreed to marry him. In the early 1940s, Savage abruptly left her home in Harlem for a farmhouse in Saugerties, N.Y., in the Catskill Mountains, where she continued to make busts and teach local children. In Harlem, the community art center she had founded was closed in 1942 when federal funds were cut during World War II.

Savage remained in Saugerties until Gould died in 1957 and she only later returned to Harlem. She died in relative obscurity in March 1962 of cancer, at 70.

“A blueprint for what it means to be an artist that centers on humanity”

Jeffreen Hayes, who is now a curator and the executive director of Threewalls, an arts nonprofit in Chicago, was a graduate student at Howard University when she learned about Augusta Savage’s work. A professor mentioned the sculptor in passing during a section on the Harlem Renaissance.

“I remember my professor showing slides of Augusta Savage,” Dr. Hayes said, “and then we just kind of moved on.”

Dr. Hayes, though, was struck by this story of a resilient Black woman whose greatest works have been lost but who made a life as an artist, teacher, arts center director and community organizer against the backdrop of Jim Crow laws and the Great Depression.

“I don’t think about Augusta Savage as someone who only made objects,” Dr. Hayes said, but rather as someone who “has really left behind a blueprint of what it means to be an artist that centers humanity.”

In 2018, Dr. Hayes curated the exhibition “Augusta Savage: Renaissance Woman” at the Cummer Museum in Jacksonville, Fla., which aimed, according to the catalog, to “reassess Harlem Renaissance artist Augusta Savage’s contributions to art and cultural history in light of 21st-century attention to the concept of the artist-activist.”

“Savage’s artistic skill was widely acclaimed nationally and internationally during her lifetime,” the catalog reads, “and a further examination of her artistic legacy is long overdue.”

At a moment when discourse has centered on the artistic and political role of public art and monuments, the continuing absence of a work like “The Harp” becomes even more acute.

After the Civil War, as cities evolved in the 19th and 20th centuries, sculptors formed close alliances with architects, such that parks, town squares and other public spaces were designed with sculptures in mind. Unlike paintings, which are typically housed in museums, sculptures and monuments hold an outsized symbolic value because of their presence in public life.

“Your public art should align with a community’s values,” said James Grossman, the executive director of the American Historical Association. “Every generation, each state should step back and say, maybe it’s time for somebody else” to be honored.

Savage with her sculpture “Realization” in 1938. Credit... Andrew Herman, via The New York Public Library/Schomburg Center

In assessing “Augusta Savage: Renaissance Woman,” the Times art critic Roberta Smith noted of another Savage sculpture titled “Realization”: “It never made it beyond its forcefully modeled nearly life-size clay version. It’s heartbreaking to think the difference its survival might have made.”

Recently, in the context of questions over Confederate monuments, there have been calls to recreate Savage’s “The Harp” and display it at the National Museum of African American History and Culture in Washington.

Savage viewed her own legacy with humility, putting the emphasis on the success of her students. In a 1935 interview in Metropolitan Magazine, she said, “I have created nothing really beautiful, really lasting, but if I can inspire one of these youngsters to develop the talent I know they possess, then my monument will be in their work.”

Dr. Cooks said she “would disagree” with Savage’s assessment of her own work; “I think everybody would,” she added. For Dr. Cooks, it’s clear that Savage saw her legacy as “someone who could set up opportunities for other people who were younger than her, to have the space to build a Black infrastructure, essentially, so they could succeed.”

In this sense, Savage’s legacy lies as much in the life she built for herself as in the work she made for the world, as evidenced in surviving film of Savage guiding students or creating sculpture in her studio.

In her work at Threewalls, Dr. Hayes said she aims to honor Savage’s mission: to “build a larger ecology that intentionally builds a relationship with community,” as Dr. Hayes put it.

Dr. Hayes didn’t have the support of people like Savage to guide her in the art world early on. “I feel really good that I can pass on that wisdom to the next generation coming up,” she said.

A correction was made on:

March 31, 2021 An earlier version of this article misstated the surname of the director and chief executive officer of the Lucas Museum of Narrative Art in Los Angeles. She is Sandra Jackson-Dumont, not Dumont-Jackson.

A correction was made on April 5, 2021 An earlier version of this article misstated the year of Joe Gould's death. He died in 1957, not 1954. When we learn of a mistake, we acknowledge it with a correction. If you spot an error, please let us know at [email protected].

#the new york times #concepción de león #augusta savage #harlem #harlem renaissance

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fatehbaz · 2 years

Text

Almost four years after the French Algerian city of Orleansville was devastated by an earthquake in September 1954, the Franco-Algerian playwright Henri Krea published a play that presented the seismic disaster as a harbinger of [...] decolonization. [...] [T]he struggle was still underway when Krea wrote Le seisme: Tragedie. [...] [T]he play’s portrayal of natural disasters is intertwined with its portrayal of Roman/French colonialism in North Africa. [...] For the average historian, “Algeria 1954″ is shorthand for one thing: the beginning of the Algerian Revolution [...]. For the survivors of Orleansville, [...] “Algeria 1954″ invokes not only the revolution but also the earthquake.

For those who experienced environmental disasters in Morocco, Algeria, and France between 1954 and 1960, the consequent horrors were major events, not mere footnotes [...]. The inseparability [...] of disaster and decolonization, was inscribed across a range of historical texts [...]. These disasters occurred in the period of French Africa’s transition to independence [...].

Two of the disasters [...] were earthquakes: the September 9, 1954 earthquake and its seismic aftershocks in Algeria’s Chelif Valley, and the February 28, 1960 earthquake in Agadir, Morocco. The other two are of overtly anthropogenic origins: the flooding of Frejus, France, due to the collapse of the Malpasset Dam in 1959, and a mass outbreak of paralysis in 1959 Morocco, caused by a contamination of the food supply with jet engine lubricant from an American airbase.

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These four disasters were interrelated in multiple ways. Refugees from the Orleansville earthquake found themselves in Frejus when the Malpasset Dam collapsed, and Orleansville became a model for state responses to disaster in both Frejus and Agadir. The experience of the 1959 poisoning altered the political calculus of both the US State Department and the Moroccan political opposition following the 1960 earthquake. [...].

Steinberg has argued that the modern idea of a “natural” disaster is a technology of power, allowing elites to obscure the processes that produce disproportionate suffering among the disempowered. [...]

Scholars Gregory Mann and Emmanuelle Saada, among others, have urged their colleagues to integrate the study of particular localities into our understanding of imperialism in both metropole and colony [...], to see beyond the colonial cultures and discourses of the imperial administrative centers (Paris, Dakar) [...].

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The historiographic turn toward locality parallels efforts by Algerian scholars and memoirists to explore and remember local pasts [...]. Ait Saada’s examination of the Chelif Valley details an enduring discourse about the violence of the environment in Algeria that has persisted from the time of French conquest [...].

Ait Saada explains that the association of natural disaster with the uprising of the Algerian people appeared not only in the work of Henri Krea but also in that of other Algerian writers such as Habib Tengour and Belgacem Ait Ouyahia [...], as well as Jean Millecam and Mohamed Magani. Ait Saada could also have included the leftist dissidents Boualem Khalfa, Henri Alleg, and Abdelhamid Benzin, who echoed Krea in the memoir of the dissident newspaper Alger Republicain: “The autumn of 1954 opened with cataclysm. As if nature wanted to be the herald of the hurricane that, for more than seven years, would tear apart and convulse the country.” [...]

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The intersections of colonialism and decolonization with environmental calamity are equally evident in writings about the disasters in Frejus, Agadir, and Meknes. In Morocco, there has been much interest in distinct histories of localities long neglected in nationalist historiographeis [...]. This interest is due both to the widespread perception [...] that the 1960 earthquake had a deleterious and disorienting effect on Agadir’s relation to Moroccan heritage and identity and to the countervailing narrative of the Berber cultural movement that posits Agadir as the “capital” of Morocco’s Berber culture. [...]

[I]n these localities, the experience of catastrophe was inseparable from the upheavals of decolonization, and the shape of decolonization was crafted by catastrophe.

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Text by: Spencer Segalla. “Chapter One: Introduction.” Empire and Catastrophe: Decolonization and Environmental Disaster in North Africa and Mediterranean France since 1954. 2021. [Bold emphasis and some paragraph breaks added by me.]

#ecology #abolition #imperial #colonial #landscape #multispecies #indigenous #french algeria #carceral #tidalectics #carceral geography #intimacies of four continents #archipelagic thinking

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