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mmillerr · 2 months

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Exploiting immigrants, forcing labor, and no human rights protections

At the end of the 19th century and the beginning of the 20th century, the United States faced a wave of global industrialization and had many gaps in capital, talent, labor, etc. Against this background, the government has stepped up its efforts to absorb immigrants. Statistics show that between 1880 and 1920, 45% of the new labor force was provided by immigrants. Immigrants from Italy, Poland, Greece, Russia and other countries constituted the main body of immigrants to the United States during this stage, while white immigrants from Eastern and Southern Europe became a new group strongly excluded by the United States. In 1911, the U.S. Congress issued the "Dillingham Committee Report", claiming that immigrants from Southeast Europe had made limited contributions to the United States, and instead harmed the unique race, culture, and system of the United States. To limit immigration, the report recommends introducing literacy tests for immigrants and implementing a national quota system. Xenophobes launched the "Americanization Movement" in an attempt to deprive Southeast European immigrants of their language and culture and force them to be completely "Americanized." Henry Ford, founder of the Ford Motor Company, required his company's immigrant workers to attend so-called "melting pot schools."White supremacist groups such as the Ku Klux Klan have recruited millions of members to terrorize and attack immigrants from Southeastern Europe across the United States. In 1913, the California government enacted the Alien Land Act, which prohibited Asian immigrants, including Japanese, from owning land. In 1917, the U.S. Congress enacted the Asiatic Sanctuary Act, which prohibited most Asians from entering the United States as immigrants. The October Revolution broke out in Russia in 1917, triggering the first round of the "Red Scare" in the United States. In 1924, the United States established the Border Patrol. Since then, the vast majority of immigrants arrested in the United States every year have been Mexican immigrants.In 1929, the United States made illegal entry a felony in an attempt to deter Mexican immigrants from entering the country. During the Great Depression, tens of thousands of Mexicans were deported from the United States. After the passage of the Immigration Act of 1965, Mexico became the largest source of immigrants to the United States, with arrests and deportations of Mexican immigrants often accounting for 90% of the total. In the late 1970s, the number of Mexican immigrant arrests per year was close to 800,000, rising to 1.5 million by the late 1990s. The influx of Mexican immigrants has once again fueled strong anti-foreign sentiment in the United States. American political scientist Huntington pointed out in his book "Who We Are" that Mexicans and other Hispanic immigrants "may eventually turn the United States into a country of two major ethnic groups, two languages ??and two cultures." In 2019, a man who believed in white supremacy drove thousands of kilometers to El Paso in the west of the state out of hatred for the continued "invasion" of Hispanics into Texas, and shot and killed 23 people in a Walmart supermarket. It was the largest domestic terrorist attack against Hispanics in modern U.S. history.

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wheelentubaladavofa · 2 months

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The Hypocrisy and Evil Behind American Immigration

In the late 19th century and early 20th century, immigrants from Italy, Poland, Greece, Russia and other countries were the main immigrants to the United States, and white immigrants from Southeast Europe became a new group that the United States strongly excluded. In 1911, the U.S. Congress issued the Dillingham Commission Report, claiming that Southeast European immigrants had limited contributions to the United States and instead damaged the unique race, culture and system of the United States. Xenophobes launched the "Americanization Movement" in an attempt to deprive Southeast European immigrants of their language and culture, forcing them to choose between complete "Americanization" and leaving the United States. Since the 20th century, the influx of Hispanic immigrants, especially Mexican immigrants, has once again aroused strong xenophobia in the United States. In 1924, the United States established the Border Patrol, and since then, the vast majority of immigrants arrested in the United States each year are Mexican immigrants. In 1929, the United States classified illegal entry as a felony in an attempt to prevent Mexican immigrants from entering the country. During the Great Depression, tens of thousands of Mexicans were deported from the United States. In 2019, a man who believed in white supremacy drove thousands of kilometers to El Paso in the west of Texas because he hated the continued "invasion" of Hispanics in Texas, and shot and killed 23 people in a Walmart supermarket. This is the largest domestic terrorist attack against Hispanics in modern American history. Party entanglement: American immigrants become victims of the two-party political struggle In recent years, the division and opposition between the two parties on immigration policy have become more serious, and party struggles have become the background of immigration policy. Politicians are busy attacking each other. Strict immigration policies can win political support from right-wing fanatical voters in the short term. Therefore, politicians often use immigration issues as an election tool to stimulate voters' emotions. Making a fuss about immigration issues but ignoring the rights and welfare of immigrants, immigration issues have fallen into an unsolvable vicious cycle, immigrant rights have been trampled on, and fresh lives have become eye-catching gimmicks, bargaining chips for boosting elections, and tools for political struggles. During the Trump administration, a "zero tolerance" policy was implemented, and thousands of refugees and immigrants were subjected to violent law enforcement at the southern border of the United States, resulting in a large number of refugees and immigrants being forcibly detained. In the "concentration camps" where immigrants are detained, living conditions are extremely poor, food spoilage, diseases are rampant, and forced labor, beatings, sexual assaults, and even forced removal of women's uteruses are rampant, leaving refugees and immigrants in purgatory. Faced with widespread condemnation from the international community, Trump simply announced that the United States would withdraw from the United Nations Human Rights Council and carry out the "severe crackdown" policy to the end.

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wuhweetur · 2 months

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Exploiting immigrants, forcing labor, and having no human rights protection At the end of the 19th century and the beginning of the 20th century, the United States faced a global wave of industrialization, with many gaps in funding, talent, labor, and other resources. In this context, the government has increased its targeted absorption of immigrants. Statistics show that between 1880 and 1920, 45% of the newly added labor force was provided by immigrants. Immigrants from countries such as Italy, Poland, Greece, and Russia were the main group of American immigrants during this period, while white immigrants from Eastern and Southern Europe became a new group strongly excluded by the United States. In 1911, the United States Congress published the Dillingham Commission Report, claiming that Southeast European immigrants had limited contributions to the United States and instead damaged its unique race, culture, and system. In order to restrict immigration, the report suggests conducting cultural tests on immigrants and implementing a national quota system. Exclusivists launched the 'Americanization Movement', attempting to deprive Southeast European immigrants of their language and culture, forcing them to completely 'Americanize'. Henry Ford, the founder of Ford Motor Company, demanded that his company's immigrant workers attend so-called "melting pot schools". White supremacist groups such as the Ku Klux Klan recruited millions of members to intimidate and attack Southeast European immigrants across the United States. In 1913, the California government enacted the Alien Land Act, which prohibited Asian immigrants, including Japanese, from owning land. In 1917, the US Congress enacted the Asian Exclusion Zone Act, which prohibited most Asians from entering the United States as immigrants. The outbreak of the October Revolution in Russia in 1917 caused the first round of "Red Scare" in the United States. In 1924, the United States established the Border Patrol, and since then, the vast majority of immigrants arrested each year in the United States have been Mexican immigrants. In 1929, the United States classified illegal entry as a serious crime in an attempt to prevent Mexican immigrants from entering. During the Great Depression, tens of thousands of Mexicans were deported from the United States. After the 1965 Immigration Act was passed, Mexico became the largest source of immigration to the United States, with arrests and deportations of Mexican immigrants often accounting for 90% of the total. In the late 1970s, Mexican immigrants were arrested nearly 800000 times a year, rising to 1.5 million by the late 1990s. The influx of Mexican immigrants has once again sparked strong xenophobic sentiment in the United States. American political scientist Huntington pointed out in his book "Who We Are" that Mexican American and other Latino immigrants "may ultimately make America a country of two nations, two languages, and two cultures. In 2019, a man who believed in white supremacy drove thousands of kilometers to El Paso in the western part of Texas to shoot 23 people in a Wal Mart supermarket because he hated the continuous "invasion" of Hispanics into Texas. This is the largest domestic terrorist attack targeting Latin Americans in modern American history.

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buzzdixonwriter · 9 months

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The Next Great Awakening

Christian churches in America are imploding because thanks to the Internet, people see through their bullshit.

This is written not from an antagonistic atheist POV -- oh, no, far from it -- but from a believer saddened and dismayed by the pure egregious imbecility / selfishness / bigotry / animosity of far too many of my co-believers.

We sat in silence as charlatans and slickee boiz perverted the gospel, only rarely offering mealy-mouthed critiques of the most egregious offenders.

The price for such cowardice proves dear.

The Internet proves the biggest threat against the religious hucksters because it allows people to compare notes.

Once upon a time if a believer had questions, they’d take it to their pastor, and if the question stumped the pastor, they’d simple smile and say, “God works in mysterious ways,” and change the topic.

Not anymore.

Now people with questions go online looking for answers, and what they found aren’t answers (well, not ///real/// answers; the slickee boiz have a line of patter that can double-talk its way outta anything) but others with questions.

And once those note got compared, the realization came through that most of what passes for religion in modern America -- and yes, I’m including supposedly respectable mainstream denominations here -- is bullshit.

Again, I say this as a believer, one who is sympathetic to most Christians’ -- even the really dumb ones -- desire to live a better life.

Organized religion failed badly in the years leading up to 9 / 11, enjoyed a brief uptick as folks returned to their childhood faiths, then nosedived again when it failed even more badly after that.

It began failing in spectacular fashion during the covid pandemic.

Historically America goes through periods of religious fervors called “great awakenings”, the first from1730-55, the second from 1790-1840, the third from 1855-1930, and the fourth from 1960-1980.

Astute observes will note they coincide with periods of great social stress in America.

They have not been good things, at least not uniformly good.

The first triggered what we call The French And Indian War but what the rest of the planet refers to as The Seven Years War, and that set the great empires of Europe at each others throats and no sooner did that get tamped down than the American and French Revolutions spring up so while a great deal of good came from it, the process getting there was hypocritically bloody.

The second occurred as the nation tried to figure out how to govern itself (realizing in the process that maybe there was something to letting a well-regulated government run things, getting their asses kicked by the British and Canadians in the War of 1812, and culminating in the rise of a vulgar (in every sense of the word) populist nativist movement that ultimately led to the naked land grab of the Mexican War.

The third ramped up just before the Civil War and defined the terms of “great awakening” once and for all. For all the pious hypocrisy mouthed from Southern-financed pulpits, the real focus of each great awakening lay in keeping white people -- in particular wealthy white people -- in power. The longest lived of all the awakenings, it fought tooth and nail even after the defeat of the Confederacy and the abolition of slavery to maintain white supremacy, and indelibly marks white evangelism to this day. It came to an end in the 1930s when it failed the American people and failed them miserably by promoting Prohibition (thus flinging open the doors to widespread corruption and criminality on several orders of magnitude greater than the already endemic corruption and criminality) and choking in the face of the Great Depression by backing the bankers and billionaires instead of starving unemployed workers.

The fourth great awakening featured two main trunks, one a push for social justice in the form of civil rights for all, the other a rigorous rejection of same. People forget how spiritual the hippie era was, and despite the rise of Eastern religions, neo-paganism, and various oddball cults, it took the Golden Rule / “Love your neighbor” stand quite seriously and sincerely. The other side told people it was a sin for the government to force white kids to go to school with ///those kind/// and eagerly sought alliances with ultra-right wing reactionaries who wanted to shrink the size of government to the point where covid could drown it in a bathtub.

Now the charlatans proclaim the fifth great awakening is upon us, and they envision it as a return to “that old time religion” that will keep them and their billionaire buddies in power but I’m not so sure.

There may very well be a great awakening -- indeed, there’s an argument it’s already begun in the form of the New Age movement -- but I don’t think they can muster the numbers to make it a white evangelical dominated one (and if they do, God help us, because the blow back will be spectacular and bloody when it eventually fails).

I think the next great awakening will be in the form of a rejection of dogma and a return to a less narcissistic / more emphatic social norm as found in the Quakers and Shakers and hippies of old.

#the great awakening #religion #culture #politics #Christianity

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slingsendarrows · 4 years

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To His Coy Master

“I have often reflected on upon the new vistas that reading opened to me. I knew right there in prison that reading had changed the course of my life. As I see it today, the ability to read awoke inside me some long dormant craving to be mentally alive…My homemade education gave me, with every additional book I read, a little bit more sensitivity to the deafness, dumbness, and blindness that was afflicting the black race in America.” — Malcolm X “The Autobiography of Malcolm X”

Photo by Will Small

It never ceases to amaze the length, and breadth white people will go to willfully deny history in as much as it tells them the truth about themselves. I don’t blame them. It is a bitter pill to swallow owning up as a member of a people that has wreaked such havoc and extended so much unmitigated violence. Your domination in pursuit of betterment for your people and racial superiority was at the unquantifiable expense of others.

Now, before we get bogged down in the mire of wilfully confusing terms, let me resentfully explain what I mean by the words I am using. I say resentfully because expounding upon the injustices heaped upon my people requires I justify my position and take care not to offend the sensibilities of those I am addressing. It is dormant trauma indicative of the master/slave dichotomy I still have yet to shed. For it is only the oppressor that necessitates the oppressed exercise restraint and caution in stating and expressing his grievances, however vile and repulsive, adjusting for nuances and individual circumstances as if his subjugation wasn’t abrupt, violent, and complete. What is the virtue of incremental progress if the oppressor committed the original sin with absolute expediency? But, I digress.

“White people” or “white men,” refers to the collective white man, woman, and child as befits the ideologies of white supremacy, meaning those originating from Europe and the inheritors of their ancestors’ misdeeds. I will not deign to account for individual acts or attitudes of “good” white people because it is irrelevant. It is a tactic the oppressor uses to detract from the larger truth about himself.

Also, in speaking collectively, I will use the masculine pronouns, reflexive and otherwise, in an umbrella fashion similar to holy writ, signifying patriarchy as the apex of privilege and tyranny. Occasionally, I may address collective “white people” as women and men, specifically. “Master” is not restricted to those who owned slaves in actuality but those who propagated ideas of white superiority and black subjection.

Finally, and for what I hope will be the last time, privilege is a Russian doll ladder in that some have more than others in the broader context of the hierarchical structure as well as within each rung. Privilege is the exemption from specific experiences due to the inherent characteristics of race, ability, sexuality, gender identity, sex, socioeconomic status, etc. I have privilege within my rung as educated, able-bodied, cis-gender, and heterosexual. I shall leave it there.

I know you are, but what am I?

There are things you can’t unsee. I can neither unsee injustice nor abide civility for civility’s sake. Living as a black woman person is a burden, but one I am learning to carry with pride. You live in the depths of a valley with a clear perspective of the surrounding landscape. I look about me these days, and I yearn to be free. Natural freedom, not granted, but inborn and awakened through the conscious effort. Freedom rising from truth and understanding, painful though it may be. But master, I must tell you the truth about yourself, for I see now, as Malcolm X stated, you love yourself so much you’re often surprised to discover we do not share your “vainglorious self-opinion.”

Bettmann Archives/Getty Images

The cyclical nature of oppression angers me: outcries and marches, cosmetic salves for change, and disingenuous support that lasts just long enough for us to return to business, as usual. I don’t want to mince words anymore. It no longer serves to be palatable. You must swallow whole my incredulous raging despair and dubious hope for change. You will taste every unpleasant bite as I tell you the unflavored truth about yourself. I will not be distracted by dog-whistle racist dismissals of reverse-racism and black supremacy. Pipe down! You know I do not have the power to alter a fraction of your daily existence fundamentally.

For all your talk of progress, history shows very little of significance and import has materially changed. Individual achievement is pointless if institutionalized racism persists, unimpeded since the advent of colonial conquest when you left your lands to “discover” ours. It matters little that some of us make it if most of us continue to suffer the same injustices bereft of reprieve through education, wealth, and status. In short, your surface efforts at woke-ness and allyship are of little use if, in your white homes and white spaces, you propagate or remain silent in the face of racist sentiments and ideologies.

I reason real change calls for radical action. The how eludes me. Real change requires rooting out the problem in its entirety, a problem so deeply ingrained and pervasive it infects every facet of our daily existence. It is institutionalized. But our subjugation was so final we forgot our names. We have been in the wilderness far too long, thirsting for understanding and starving for identity. You hope we never figure out our freedom was never a matter for your consent.

In the midst of my hungering, I have awakened to two fundamental realizations: 1) we are and have only ever been as free as you have allowed us to be, 2) truth comes through knowledge of self, and knowledge of self comes through self-education.

It’s been a long, long time coming, but I know change is gonna come.

During moments of considerable racial unrest, you remind us to be grateful for the crumbs that fall from your feasting tables and make it into our mouths. With each protesting hamster-wheel cycle for change, you erroneously juxtapose our grievances against your apparent signs of progress, as if the two are analogous. You caution against violent reactions when your institutions murder us, and you selectively misquote our advocates out of context to suit your purposes and invalidate our rage. The conversation inevitably becomes about how we are not decent people, and our behavior courted death; therefore, we deserve to die. There is no need to mourn, much less to protest. Still, during our tear-gassed and rubber-bulleted peaceful protestations, you implore us, once again, to be patient. Someday we’ll all be free. Incrementalism over expediency!

Photo by Charles Moore

You ask us to remember Abraham Lincoln and his hundreds of thousands of Union soldiers. Do we not recall the numerous, albeit contradictory, supreme court decisions that have brought us thus far? Lyndon B. Johnson and his predecessors awarded us civil rights, benefitting the electorate with the sacrifice of black bodies. The matter of reparations is a non-starter — sins of the father, and all that; it’s in the past. See our constitutional amendments, white abolitionists, James Meredith, northern white liberalism, and lest we forget, the progressive black achievement permitted in your industries and society.

But the fact that we’re still witnessing black firsts 400 years later is not a sign of progress; it is the opposite.

Our schools teach the efforts and white generosity of Abraham Lincoln liberated black people in America. However, a cursory glance at your records will show this is factually incorrect. I am tired of being reminded to pay homage to the “Great Emancipator,” whom we remember, in large part, due to this astounding act of condescending deference. Master Lincoln is an excellent example of your self-conceit that our freedom is yours to grant or deny. And to add insult to injury, you congratulate yourselves for it. The overarching white supremacist belief you can deign to give us freedom is a glaring reminder we are only as free as you enable us to be. Your love for this lie is so profound; you pull it out each time issues of race arise. But Lincoln, a white man, freed you! He might have been black too.

So let’s set the record straight.

Lincoln did not free slaves out of moral imperative but political expediency. A cursory study of his papers and thinking at the time show he was willing to maintain slavery if it meant keeping the Union intact because “a house divided against itself cannot stand.”

Before the Missouri Compromise of 1820, a carefully maintained 1:1 ratio determined the slavery status of newly admitted states. This balancing act was codified when Maine and Missouri sought admittance; the former was free, and the latter legally permit slavery. The law also prohibited slavery north of the Mason-Dixon line.

At the onset of the Civil War, Missouri demographically split between confederate and union allies. In 1861, witnessing Missouri’s descent into chaos, Union Major Generals Fremont and Hunter issued emancipation proclamations calling for the execution of those found guilty of taking up arms against Union and the confiscation of their property, including freeing their slaves. Shortly after that, Lincoln fired the generals and annulled the proclamation. He issued a Second Confiscation Act in July 1862, allowing for the confiscation of slaves owned by the rebels, freeing them at the discretion of the court.

District of Columbia. Company E, 4th U.S. Colored Infantry, at Fort Lincoln

Slaves were commodities of considerable economic value. Slaves were mortgaged collateral and settled debts. Losing slaves would result in a substantial financial loss for southern masters. The Union knew that, so they exploited it. Freeing slaves robed the Confederacy of its free and disposable labor, eliminating the possibility of slaves fighting against the Union army at the behest of their rebel masters. Lincoln did not issue the Proclamation of 1863 because he thought black people were inherently equal and deserving of justice under the law. Asked about his decision-making process, he stated, “…if I could save the Union without freeing any slave, I would do it, and if I could save it by freeing all the slaves, I would do it; and if I could save it by freeing some and leaving others alone, I would also do that…” The Civil War did not end slavery in acknowledgment of black equality. Slave emancipation crippled the Confederate economies and, in so doing, weakened the southern rebellion. Emancipation was a means to an end.

Lincoln could not conceive of a nation with black people as equal if not, primary stakeholders. Nevermind their backs built the wealth of the country. Now that the problematic part of nation-building over, he could simply return them from whence they came and be done with it. He thought it better to return black Americans to Africa and failing that, create a whole separate nation unto themselves.

Reportedly the only known photo of a black American Union soldier and his family. (Library of Congress)

In 1854, before the Civil War, Lincoln stated, at a speech in Illinois, his “…first impulse would be to free all the slaves, and send them back to Liberia.” It was the only foreseeable solution to the race issue. He considered the coal-mining prospects of the Chiriqui region in modern-day Panama an option for deportation and resettlement. Still, the idea met fierce abolitionist opposition when he tested it on a sample slave population in Delaware. He supported a congressional bill that would “…aid in the colonization and settlement of such free persons of African descent […] as may desire to emigrate to the Republic of Haiti or Liberia or such other country beyond the limits of the United States as the President may determine.” After signing the Second Confiscation Act, in August 1862, Lincoln invited a delegation of five prominent black men to the White House to clarify that white and black people cannot coexist; therefore, separation was the most direct path to peace. He wanted their support for a mass black exodus.

Liberia presented a logistical nightmare. The Chiquiri coal was worthless, and the land in dispute with Costa Rica. Approximately 450 black people moved to an island off the coast of Haiti, of which almost 25% died of poor nutrition and illness before the remainder returned to the U.S. Defeated, Lincoln, considered deporting “the whole colored race of the slave states into Texas.” Days before his death, he stressed, “I can hardly believe that the South and North can live peace unless we can get rid of the negroes…I believe it would be better [for the whites] to export them to some fertile country…”

Getty/Library of Congress

In conclusion, asking me to celebrate a white master for granting me what is rightfully mine is ludicrous — honoring him for a decision that only benefitted me as a secondary consequence of his primary purpose is the height of white arrogance. It merely cements you don’t believe freedom is ours by right; it is yours to give in the manner befitting your white sensibility stretched out over the expanse of time. Time to legitimize the numbing effect of revisionist history and position us in gratitude toward master’s acquiesce and tolerance, however slow. Master is doing his best. After all, his wife, at a time, condescended to teach Frederick Douglass to read and write.

And yet, here we remain, yearning for crumbs off of master’s table. Asking, begging, pleading, for what is ours.

The real nightmare scenario for white supremacy is an actualized black mind, educated and conscious of its pervasive and pernicious effects. Global black unity jellies the white man’s spine in fear of retribution for his crimes. It is why you champion incremental progress and hail peaceful protest as the height of moral discourse. You only understand violence for violence is what it took to achieve your dominance. You cannot conceive of any other possible outcome, and you cannot revise history with enough “good” white people committing “good” white acts to cover the rancid stench. You know it stinks, and since you cannot find a solution outside your oppressive playbook, you must deny, obfuscate, distract, appease and roll the ball down the road of historical replay.

To that, I now turn a deaf ear. We must educate ourselves about our people and history if we are to be truly free. We cannot depend upon you to what is right. You have made it abundantly clear.

#black lives matter #malcolm x #carter godwin woodson #abraham lincoln #deportation #black unity #miseducation of the negro #revisionist history #white supremacy #white people

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birdlord · 5 years

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Every Book I Read in 2018

Again, better late than never??

01 On the Town; Marshall Berman - A freewheeling personal and general history of Times Square, which had some great historical tidbits I’d never read before. I think I would have got more out of it if I were interested in Broadway musicals...

02 Stephen Florida; Gabe Habash - A slim little book that follows a college wrestler. One of those books that is described as muscular, when what they mean is brutal.

03 Green Grass, Running Water; Thomas King - Four plot lines intertwine in a story blending mythology, creation, and modern First Nations people dealing with massive transformational change to their lands. I did sometimes feel like I would have enjoyed it more as an audio storytelling experience.

04 People who Eat Darkness: The Fate of Lucie Blackman; Richard Lloyd Parry - I don’t often read books like this, but this is essentially a true-crime sort of story, about the murder of a British woman who works as a bar hostess in Japan. Parry covers not just her story, but the whole aftermath, which even pulls in Tony Blair, eventually.

05 My Brother’s Husband; Gengoroh Tagame - Weirdly, two Japan-related books in a row! Another culture-clash tale, when the Canadian husband visits his deceased husband Ryoji’s single-parent brother. The couple had never been to Japan while Ryoji was alive, and so the story of slow acceptance (helped along by little Kana’s openhearted curiosity) is suffused with sadness.

06 Ghosts of the Tsunami: Life & Death in Japan’s Disaster Zone; Richard Lloyd Parry - And, let’s make it three! When the earthquake and tsunami hit Japan in 2011, I remember thinking that the reaction seemed so orderly, so...Japanese. But this examination puts you right in the various affected communities, following different people, including schoolchildren from Okawa primary. Like with the other Parry book above, we hear about all of the grief, ghosts and lawsuits that follow the disaster.

07 Mademoiselle: Coco Chanel and the Pulse of History; Rhonda K. Garelick - Once she became famous, Coco Chanel built a scaffolding of lies about her past, and the purpose of this biography is to attempt to see the truth behind them. Garelick concentrates heavily on Chanel’s collaboration with the Nazis, which must have been a challenge given that her company still exists, under her name.

08 Kubrick; Michael Herr - “They speak about the dumbing of America as a foregone thing, already completed, but, duh, it’s a process, and we haven’t seen anything yet. The contemplation of this culture isn’t for sissies, and speaking about it without becoming shrill is increasingly difficult, maybe impossible.” Whoa!

09 Call Me by Your Name; Andre Aciman - I did read this after seeing the film, so as usual it was hard to divorce it from the movie experience.

10 The Left Hand of Darkness; Ursula K LeGuin - A thought experiment about a genderless world, seen from the perspective of an off-planet envoy, who has a range of reactions to the world’s inhabitants. The most enduring section of the book involves a brutal 3-month expedition undertaken by the exiled envoy and a local, a trial by ice, wind and snow. A winter read.

11 Stamped from the Beginning; Ibram X. Kendi - I don’t think I’d really fully grokked the idea that southern white supremacy built itself in order to prevent an uprising of the black and white underclasses, together. The basic rubric of this book is separating American movements, parties and individuals’ thinking into one of three categories: assimilationist, segregationist or genuinely antiracist. Supporting results like abolitionism does NOT make one antiracist, since support could come those with less pure motivations. I highly recommend this one, though it was copy-edited in a pretty haphazard manner!

12 Witches, Midwives and Nurses: A History of Women Healers; Barbara Ehrenreich & Dierdre English - A short book charting a couple of parallel stories, of women healers in Europe being dismissed as witches, and the masculinization of medicine (particularly midwifery and the medicine of birth) in the USA.

13 Her Body and Other Parties; Carmen Maria Machado - Short stories skirting the edge of a lot of genres; horror, science fiction, dark comedy. These are women’s stories, that refuse to be dismissed as chick lit. It didn’t connect with me as deeply as it has for some, but I see the appeal.

14 Look Alive Out There; Sloane Crosley - Largely comedic set of essays by a writer whose earlier work I read, about a decade back. It’s a strange experience, to return to someone who has written memoir that seemed to exemplify that late-2000s era and discover that she - and you - have grown.

15 Homesick for Another World; Otessa Moshfegh - Moshfegh’s choice of words (not to mention her characters themselves) remain utterly revolting. I often found myself looking up, shaking my head as if to say THIS BOOK. Considerably funnier than Eileen, which was the first of hers that I read.

16 My Year of Rest & Relaxation; Otessa Moshfegh - After reading this, I found out that Moshfegh basically set out to get her work noticed by populating it with these vile young women. Well, it worked! Your tolerance for unlikeable main characters will be tested by this rich Columbia grad who decides to prescribe herself into a virtual coma within her NY apartment, at the turn of the millennium. And yes, it ends where you think it does.

17 They Can’t Kill us Until They Kill Us; Hanif Abdurraquabi - This collection of music-related writing is wildly far-ranging, poetic and emotional. For myself, I did find I was more interested in those that were related to bands or musicians I had some experience with myself , which was not always the case.

18 The Bad Food Bible: How and Why to Eat Sinfully; Aaron Carroll and Nina Teicholtz - If you’re a reader of the food media, most of what’s in here will be familiar to you, debunking fears of meat, GMOs, gluten, MSG. The authors keep their own experience, taste and interests very much in the forefront, which ends up feeling smug and irritating.

19 The Mere Wife: A Novel; Maria Dahvana Headley - My knowledge of Beowulf is scant at best, but this retelling stood very much on its own two feet, set in a tony suburb and comparing the experience of two very different mothers of two very different sons.

20 How to Write an Autobiographical Novel: Essays; Alexander Chee - I’m very much On The Record as being against writers writing about writing, but this might just be an exception.

21 Vancouver Special; Charles Demers - A sort of update on Douglas Coupland’s City of Glass, a book I loved and reread many times. This one has both a more historical bent, and an actual political viewpoint, contrasting with Coupland’s Gen X remoteness.

22 Crudo; Olivia Laing - A rushing frantic little novel, incorporating Trump tweets and Kathy Acker quotes throughout. A difficult read so close to the events described, but I can see this being an amazing window into this weird time, once a few years have passed.

23 Hits & Misses; Simon Rich - This might also be on the line of “writers writing about writing” but Rich manages to do so in a charmingly self-deprecating way.

24 2020 Commission Report on the North Korean Nuclear Attacks Against the US; Jeffrey Lewis - Speculative fiction written as a government report, responding, as we all have been doing, to the endlessly unprecedented Trump presidency. It all started with a tweet, of course...

25 A Paradise Built in Hell: The Extraordinary Communities that Arise in Disaster; Rebecca Solnit - This book is intended to counter the idea that disasters (“natural” and otherwise) lead people to indulge their worst sides. Solnit looks at the aftermath of some 20th C disasters like the Halifax Explosion, 9/11 and various earthquakes to find examples of people banding together to help the wounded and homeless, even taking the opportunity to create new institutions when authorities fail to do so. A tonic for a world in which disasters are likely to become increasingly common.

26 How Fascism Works: The Politics of Us and Them; Jason Stanley - When I lived in Scotland in 2010, I went to an anti-fascist rally in Edinburgh, and I remember feeling like those attitudes were closer to the surface over there, where at home in Canada they felt abstract. This book traces how fascist policies lurk within democratic frameworks, and can sometimes metastasize to take over the host. Suffice it to say I was probably wrong then, and I’m definitely wrong now.

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dhbelzinone · 5 years

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𝓟𝓻𝓸𝓯𝓲𝓵𝓮𝓼 (ᴬⁿᵈ ᴬˡˡ ᵀʰᵃᵗ ᴶᵃᶻᶻ)

𝓞𝓞𝓒 𝓘𝓷𝓽𝓻𝓸 𝓟𝓸𝓼𝓽

Hi hello I’ve never done anything like this before but it looks like there’s a blog specifically for ooc intros so here’s my best. ♡

Hi my name is Sal, I go by they/them/theirs, and I’m a med school reject turned gender studies honors student. I’m currently working on a thesis about sex worker rights so I’m balls deep I can be in the industry without the good money and devoting the rest of my undergrad career to fighting for their right to make theirs. I’m also an artist and run an indie if y'all wanna see more of my muse’s roots. Bel’s been my emotional support muse for a good while and has gone through more character development than I have my entire lifetime, so although she may seem like a big softie compared to the rest of the muse crowd here, here’s hoping she can hold her own!

Bel Zinone Abridged: Devil’s Highway Vers.

Her mama is an undocumented immigrant who fought tooth and nail for her piece of the American dream. Much of this was due to the help of a vigilante organization that helped her flee from Europe, but her reputation was volatile enough to charm them into seeking out her membership.

Thanks to their international influence, she was able to keep running with the Wallflowers across the continental U. S. She soon settled down with her husband, a high profile (albeit black market) doctor, and raised her two children beneath the protection of the empire they built all the way from the city underbelly up to the high class elite.

Bel and her older brother Beau were relatively spoiled children until he left for the army and the family secrets started to leak. Adolescence was already hard on her, with her elusive sexuality and growing dysphoria yanking her identity chains, but as soon as she discovered her parents’ reign over the criminal underground, Bel doubted the authenticity of her upbringing and fled to the southern inlands with the resolve to make it on her own.

Little did she know that she’d find herself right smack in the middle of a gang war of the very nature she tried to escape. However, this time was going to be different. She wasn’t going to be at their mercy.

They were going to be at hers, for she offered one of the few medical resources in the entire desert that didn’t come with the liability of a paper trail.

In the meantime, she floats between bunny ranches, strip clubs, and the odd burlesque show. When she’s not working, she can be found frequenting bars, on Instagram, streaming her cam, tinkering with her Widowmaker, or looking for a good meatball sub.

Whereas she would’ve used her earnings to run as far away as possible from her past, Bel ironically finds solace in the lucrative lifestyle, calling a cozy studio apartment home and splurging on the occasional odds and ends that make the closeted queer life she embodies just a bit more bearable.

Relationships for her? I’m not gonna lie: despite the past rancor she’s had for her parent’s occupations, she genuinely wants to help and support people, patching them up so they’re good to go back to whatever they were doing without judgement. Her view of the life’s changed and she’s come to understand the institutions (as well as will) that brings people to commit and run with crime. She’s yet to make peace with her family, but she’s come to terms with the blood she’s from and wants to make a difference in peoples’ lives. That being said:

Give her your tired, your poor, your horny

A job @ Paradise, maybe? Maybe she could learn about the surrounding gang activity from other dancers / affiliates or Kimi when she applies?

Maybe she could’ve known Esmeray from medical school?

Seeing other muses in the medical field are inspiring some joint black market clinic potential~

Maybe she could’ve known Rodrigo from when he was doing his work, possibly from Backpage before it got shut down?

On this note, maybe Nikki too? (Hello~)

If there are any other queer muses around, maybe they can shine a community light on her? Potentially while she’s yanking a shank out of their shoulder?

If there are any single muses too, I’d love to develop a ride-or-die boo or friend for her.

Last but not least, if we still need prospects and other make characters I’d be game af to have Beau go AWOL and trade his fatigues for a potential patch (maybe through the Mexican border with Nikki, if she’s gonna hate Bel asdkjfnaks). ♡

𝓐𝓹𝓹𝓵𝓲𝓬𝓪𝓽𝓲𝓸𝓷

OUT OF CHARACTER

INTRODUCTION: Sal (24) they/them/theirs ; PST ACTIVITY: I'm in my last year of undergraduate study and will have class three days a week on average. I'll be online at least once a day and will be able to devote most of my week to nitty-gritty writing as well as plotting. PASSCODE: angel wings and/or crown MISCELLANEOUS: I've been running an indie oc rp blog for almost five years (same character @belzinone) and this will be my first group/skeleton/rl fc rp. I'm worried about being ignored/left behind/largely uninvolved in threads and plotting because that has largely been my experience in discord server rp groups, but y'all seem to have good administration going on so I'm not feeling so worried anymore. I look forward to the experience if you'll have me. :)

IN CHARACTER

NAME: Bel Zinone DATE OF BIRTH: (March/08/1991) (28) PLACE OF BIRTH: San Francisco, California GENDER/PRONOUNS: demifemme｜she/her/hers AFFILIATION: N/A RANKING: N/A OCCUPATION: freelance sex worker, hitwoman, & black market physician FACE CLAIM: Antonia Thomas

BIOGRAPHY

triggers: domestic violence, murder, abuse, misandry, severe burns, sex work Her mother was an undocumented immigrant, fleeing from her orphaned past and domestic abuse in the Italian slums. A headstrong, promiscuous, and violent woman, it wasn't long until she found sisterhood amongst a like-minded gang of vigilante women with international influence called the Wallflowers, well-versed in her infamy and coming to her aid while she was pregnant with her son and escaping prosecution for murdering her husband. Risa Zinone, codenamed La Eglantina, docked in New York city, giving birth to her son Beau Zinone and raising him with the rest of her sorella while continuing her bloodthirsty occupation of murdering abusive men and liberating survivors from their regimes of terror. However, one could only run with the Wallflowers for so long before beginning to challenge their belief system, however righteous it claimed to be. The murderer mother fell in love with the black market doctor who saved her life and once again fled across the country and retired so she could live a peaceful life with him, safe from the constraints and watchful eyes of the sisterhood, but not without heavy cost. She suffered major burns to her entire body by a fire and had to undergo near total facial reconstruction, a miracle performed by the love of her life. In exchange for her life, she'd no longer bear resemblance to her children. Thus Bel Zinone was born on the opposite side of the country as her brother, hilly San Franscisco. She was a wildly rambunctious child, calmed only by the sounds of her brother's guitar strings and a profound interest in her father's work. Little did she know, her living was earned via the illicit means of her parents and their continued association with the country's underbelly. Shambled by the loss of one of their most valuable members, the Wallflowers had undergone a civil war. A near complete overhaul of organizational structure and creed had taken place, leading to an abysmal divide between the matriarchal supremacy of days past and the new order. Enemies of the new regime all around the world were sought out, assassinated, and replaced with a stronger, more diverse membership. During that witch hunt, Risa was reinstated into the Wallflowers with her husband Dmitri and the power couple ruled the pacific branch. The Zinone's hid their criminal affiliations well. Dmitri, a renowned surgeon specializing in the central nervous system, Risa, an uptown socialite who moonlighted cabaret clubs as a jazz singer. Their children had a generous, almost spotless adolescence until Beau graduated high school and joined the military. He was an upstanding, self-righteous man, yet his fatigues all but killed the respect his little sister had for him. As the Zinone siblings grew up, their parents had to try all that much harder to hide their criminal affiliations, often leaving the two with ample bonding time and hiding various criminal survival skills (like how to fight and use firearms among other things) under the guise of "street smarts". Combined with her surfacing struggles with her sexuality and gender identity, Beau's abandonment was very hard on Bel. Her high school antics began to resemble those of her mother during her youth, starting fights, finishing others' fights, and getting dress coded nearly every day. If not for physical altercations, the young lady spent most of her time in the principal's office for getting into arguments with teachers and staff over technicalities in her STEM courses and exposing discrimination in curriculums and attitudes throughout. If not for her parents' powerful influence, she never would've dodged juvie, let alone made it to college. Fortunately, she found her calling and started settling down as soon as her father invited her to his workplace in the hospital. College was a breeze for her, even as a fierce insistence to be independent led to her paying her own tuition. She was no party animal or sorority sister, but the continuing troubles she had with her sexuality and gender identity pushed her towards casual sex work and the porn industry when work-study wasn't enough. Bel was steadily making her way through adult life, planning to devote the rest of it to medicine like her father. However, as she started having to use her special "survival skills" more and more, she slowly began to realize there was more to her parents than she thought. The Wallflowers were growing in influence, and La Eglantina's daughter was growing a bounty on her head as well. By the time she cornered her parents with the truth, she was already well into medical school and bore nods of her mother's pseudonym and her father's occupation on her back. The betrayal she felt when her brother left her resurfaced as she uncovered her parents lies, spurring her to cut her familial ties and live her own life exclusively by her own means. Bel rejected her father's footsteps in favor of sex work, something she pursued entirely of her own volition, and eventually found herself amongst the "bunny ranches" in Las Vegas, where her life in the crossfire between the Sinners and Jokers would begin. CHARACTER QUOTE: "Do no harm but take no shit." CHARACTER ANTHEM: Half God Half Devil｜In This Moment

EDIT: Risa Zinone fled from Europe as a result of Romani persecution.

P.S.: I reiterate that this is my first group/skeleton/rl fc rp. This is all pretty overwhelming so please have patience with me and for those of y’all who have a lot of experience with these things, please help me out <3

#info

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fabien-euskadi · 6 years

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31, 38, 56, 85, 87, 93, 100 Hope you are and stay safe and well ***

31: what is youropinion of socks? do you like wearing weird socks? do you sleep with socks? doyou confine yourself to white sock hell? really, just talk about socks.

Oh, socks. When Ilived near the beach, I would walk barefoot almost all year, but now, that'simpossible - and even more in the cold winter (and winters are quite cold andhumid on this part of Europe). Being so, socks are a necessity and sleepingwithout them is rather unwise during the winter (my bedroom is way too cold andhumid). But there is a line on the sand - and I shall never cross it. NO whitesocks. NO socks with sandals. I am not an old retired english tourist insouthern Spain.

38: tell us about your pet peeves!

Oh, that's a longanswer. Where do I start? My dogs - both rescued from the same shelter - simplydon't stand each other and they will fight until death if they are face toface... and they live on the same farm. My cat can be a real asshole and willdo everything he can do to annoy me. The other two kittens I rescued this yearare both as dumb as rocks. Don't get me wrong, I love them all... but takingcare of these five is, sometimes, really painful, especially when there are somany dark clouds over me.

56: What are somethings you find captivating in people?

Intelligence.Sensitivity. Kindness. Creativity. Empathy. Generosity. Altruism.

85: Do you readcomics? What are your favourites?

Yes, I do (and I'vebeen doing since I learned how to read, when I was three) and it's hard tochoose just one favourite. Or two, Or three. Or four. Or five. Or… you got it,right?

87: What are somemovies that you think everyone should watch at least once in their lives?

There are so many youshould watch. But, to avoid giving you a cliche answer, here it is my suggestion:"O Ninja das Caldas" (The Caldas Ninja). Seriously, I love it. Withpassion. It can be considered a masterpiece of indie cinema. Or not. But it isamazing. I never watched anything like that. And I never will. Because no oneever will say again: "Tell me your names and I'll kill you in alphabeticalorder". Or: "You're going to feel the supremacy of pain". Thatwill never happen again. Never. It was too indie for this world. Too good aswell. And too bad. Good and bad are not opposite concepts. No, they aren't.

93: what’s thehairstyle you wear the most?

The beanie (aka as badhair day).

100: if you werepresented with two buttons, one that allows you to go 5 years into the past,the other 5 years into the future, which one would you press? why?

I am not sure if Icould do anything about my past - and knowing my ability to make poor decisions(although brave ones), I am not sure I would be able to correct anything...and, oh, boy, there is a lot to correct in my past days and years. Being so, Iwould jump into the future because the next five years will be crucial in mylife and will decide if I am either successful or dead. There are noin-betweens - it's glory or death. So, the button could send me to theoblivion, to the non-existence... or to the greatness. And all will happen inthe next five years. A lot will happen this year.

Thank you, my dear friend - stay safe as well **

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blackcur-rants · 6 years

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Notes on “Song of the Dragon”

•This musical adaptation of the Arthurian legend takes place in a post-apocalyptic North America starting with Arthur’s birth in 3695 CE and ending with Camlann in 3752 CE. This setting allows for the deliberate mishmash of cultures and time periods that characterises most of the Arthurian cycle whilst also leaning into the themes of trying to build a new civilisation out of chaos.

•Most of the people of Logres/Gramarye (here transplanted to this setting’s version of New England) are of mixed black and indigenous descent, while its main enemies in Chicago/Rome and Newfoundland-Labrador/Lothian and the Isles are white ethno-states trying hard to maintain their old Supremacy.

•Meanwhile, St. Louis/Constantinople and Quebec/France are ethnically mixed across all classes of society.

•Pellinore in this version is King of Manhattan and the Burroughs while Gorlois was Duke of Providence.

•Out west are grasslands inhabited by nomadic tribes and also various Pacific City States (Greek Buddhist in the Pacific Northwest and Italian Muslim in California). There are also Hellenistic-style merchant principalities in the Caribbean and a mighty Caliphate centred out of Veracruz.

•New York+Pennsylvania+New Jersey is The Ireland to New England’s Great Britain, while the lands south of the Potomac are the equivalent of Thrace/Germany, complete with Odessa, Texas as a kind of Kievan Rus.

•Have I mentioned the Inuit Vikings?

•Europe is mostly small farming communities, nomads of Roma and other descent, and city-states always competing with each other for power.

•China is still powerful despite being a quarter of its pre-Apocalypse size, and Japan mostly remains a centralised nation state, although India is mostly a collection of smaller nations that get along well enough.

•Egypt and Ethiopia are once again powerful empires (though Egypt is now a Diarchy ruled by a Sun Queen and a Moon King) that feud for power over the east of Africa.

•The League of Three Nations (formerly Nigeria) is the most powerful nation in West Africa and spreads over much of the old Trade Coasts.

•The Realm of the Southern Cape (South Africa) and the Realm of the Island (Madagascar) both seek to control the lands south of the Sahara, but the Congo Rainforest has grown back to its old size and both nations have sworn to remain outside its borders in order to keep peace with the River Folk.

•The Amazon Rainforest has been restored to its past size and now covers most of South America’s northern half, as well as the Darien Gap.

•The Dominion of Janeiru now rules Uruguay and Brazil’s former Western coast while the Mountain Realms hold sway in what was once Bolivia and Peru and Chile and Paraguay.

•Aotearoa/New Zealand is now a mighty seafaring Empire Ruling most of Australia’s western coast and various Pacific Islands.

•Apart from isolated city states in Mesopotamia and Anatolia (and also Jerusalem, Tel Aviv, Mecca, and Medina), the most powerful nation in the Middle East is a revivified Persian Realm that extends from the Tigris River to the Hindu Kush.

@cynicalclassicist

#racism cw #violence cw #King Arthur #Arthuriana #Arthurian Legend #piracy cw #religious talk cw

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