Month: November 2020

Here's my post from 26 November 2020, Thanksgiving Day, on Facebook:

Here's how I explained and introduced David Strickland's Spirt of Hip Hop and Nahko and Medicine for the People's Take Your Power Back:

Today is Thanksgiving Day 2020.  Thanksgiving is a holiday many Native Americans often maintain highly ambivalent perspectives on, and experiences of, to say the least.  For many Native Americans Thanksgiving is a reminder of the beginning of a genocidal conquest of their nations, not only decimating their numbers but also devastating their ways of life, and exercising a huge blow as well to Native American cultures.  Thanksgiving is known by some Native Americans, and supporters, as ‘National Day of Mourning’, while others even refer to it as ‘Settlers and Colonizers Day’.   But Native Americans have persisted, and their cultures have persisted, with successive new generations of Native Americans continuing to develop, transform, expand, and enrich these cultures–while remaining persistently socially and politicaly conscious and engaged.  Tonight we will listen to music exemplifying these tendencies.  

This strikes me as most important to remember and to recognize, respect, appreciate, and support.  I think White Americans of European ethnic inheritance/descent should be able to acknowledge the United States was founded on genocide and slavery, and we should be able to acknowledge as well that the damage caused by both slavery and genocide has continued onward throughout the entire history of this nation. Certainly many Americans have accomplished many great things, and the nation itself has as well, but it has not, nor have we all, by any means, always been great, and in fact far from it.  That should not be hard to acknowledge.  At the same time, taking the time and investing the effort to learn about, to better understand, and to develop the knowledge necessary to genuinely respect, appreciate, support, and demonstrate solidarity with people from other historical and cultural experiences, along other lines of social identity, and especially where these have long operated as principal axes of oppression, should not be hard–it should be something we are eager and excited to embrace, even as we approach the task, and the challenge, with continuous humility and critical self-reflexivity.   I think this great poem by Langston Hughes's well sums up what I think about this matter–this is a poem that has moved me ever since I first encountered it as a still young boy:

Let America Be America Again

Let America be America again.
Let it be the dream it used to be.
Let it be the pioneer on the plain
Seeking a home where he himself is free.

(America never was America to me.)

Let America be the dream the dreamers dreamed—
Let it be that great strong land of love
Where never kings connive nor tyrants scheme
That any man be crushed by one above.

(It never was America to me.)

O, let my land be a land where Liberty
Is crowned with no false patriotic wreath,
But opportunity is real, and life is free,
Equality is in the air we breathe.

(There's never been equality for me,
Nor freedom in this “homeland of the free.”)

Say, who are you that mumbles in the dark?
And who are you that draws your veil across the stars?

I am the poor white, fooled and pushed apart,
I am the Negro bearing slavery's scars.
I am the red man driven from the land,
I am the immigrant clutching the hope I seek—
And finding only the same old stupid plan
Of dog eat dog, of mighty crush the weak.

I am the young man, full of strength and hope,
Tangled in that ancient endless chain
Of profit, power, gain, of grab the land!
Of grab the gold! Of grab the ways of satisfying need!
Of work the men! Of take the pay!
Of owning everything for one's own greed!

I am the farmer, bondsman to the soil.
I am the worker sold to the machine.
I am the Negro, servant to you all.
I am the people, humble, hungry, mean—
Hungry yet today despite the dream.
Beaten yet today—O, Pioneers!
I am the man who never got ahead,
The poorest worker bartered through the years.

Yet I'm the one who dreamt our basic dream
In the Old World while still a serf of kings,
Who dreamt a dream so strong, so brave, so true,
That even yet its mighty daring sings
In every brick and stone, in every furrow turned
That's made America the land it has become.
O, I'm the man who sailed those early seas
In search of what I meant to be my home—
For I'm the one who left dark Ireland's shore,
And Poland's plain, and England's grassy lea,
And torn from Black Africa's strand I came
To build a “homeland of the free.”

The free?

Who said the free? Not me?
Surely not me? The millions on relief today?
The millions shot down when we strike?
The millions who have nothing for our pay?
For all the dreams we've dreamed
And all the songs we've sung
And all the hopes we've held
And all the flags we've hung,
The millions who have nothing for our pay—
Except the dream that's almost dead today.

O, let America be America again—
The land that never has been yet—
And yet must be—the land where every man is free.
The land that's mine—the poor man's, Indian's, Negro's, ME—
Who made America,
Whose sweat and blood, whose faith and pain,
Whose hand at the foundry, whose plow in the rain,
Must bring back our mighty dream again.

Sure, call me any ugly name you choose—
The steel of freedom does not stain.
From those who live like leeches on the people's lives,
We must take back our land again,
America!

O, yes,
I say it plain,
America never was America to me,
And yet I swear this oath—
America will be!

Out of the rack and ruin of our gangster death,
The rape and rot of graft, and stealth, and lies,
We, the people, must redeem
The land, the mines, the plants, the rivers.
The mountains and the endless plain—
All, all the stretch of these great green states—
And make America again!

America has never, yet, lived up to, never, yet, realized its highest (even its supposedly foundational) ideals, but that does not mean Americans have not continually worked, struggled, and fought to try to bring American closer to doing what it has never, yet, done–and we can and should keep on doing the same.

Here's the playlist for Insurgence #802, 26 November 2020:

Insurgence, 11/26/20

1.

A Certain Ratio–“Family”

A Certain Ratio–“What’s Wrong”

A Certain Ratio–“Taxi Guy”

2.

David Strickland–“Questions (Featuring Bubblz, Charlie Fettah, & Jon C):

David Strickland–“Rise or Fall (Featuring Aspects, Nataanii Means, & Northwest Kid)”

David Strickland–“Helpless (Featuring Chippewa Travelers & Violent Ground)”

David Strickland–“Spirit of Hip Hop (Featuring Artson, Ernie Paniccioli & Northern Eagle Singers)”

David Strickland–“Turtle Island (Featuring Supaman, Artson, Spade, JRDN, & Whitney Don)”

David Strickland–“Time’s Runnin’ Away (Featuring King Reign, Que Rock, & Saukrates)”

David Strickland–“Isn’t He Sumpthin (Featuring Def Squad)”

David Strickland–“Window (Featuring Drezus & Hakeen Roze)”

David Strickland–“Enemies (Featuring Snotty Nose Rez Kids & Sten Joddi)”

David Strickland–“Feathers (featuring Que Rock and Chippewa Travelers)”

David Strickland–“Armed & Dangerous (Featuring EPMD & SouFy)”

David Strickland–“Truth (Featuring Leonard Sumner, Maestro, Que Rock, & SouFy)”

David Strickland–“Thunderbirds (Featuring City Natives & Joey Stylez)”

David Strickland–“Cuanto Tu Cuenta (What’s Your Price) (Featuring Carabella301)”

David Strickland–“Whoa (Featuring Chase Manhattan, Drezus, Frankie Payne, Joey Stylez, & Que Rock)”

David Strickland–“Rez Life (Featuring Drezus, Hellnback, Joey Stylez, Que Rock, & Violent Ground”

3.

Nahko and Medicine for the People–“4th Door (With Joseph)”

Nahko and Medicine for the People–“Lifeguard”

Nahko and Medicine for the People–“Slow Down”

Nahko and Medicine for the People–“Healing Song (Interlude)”

Nahko and Medicine for the People–“Is What It Is (Coyote Burial)”

Nahko and Medicine for the People–“Give It All”

Nahko and Medicine for the People–“Garden”

Nahko and Medicine for the People–“Defend the Sacred (Ilocano Welcome Chant)”

Nahko and Medicine for the People–“Dear Brother (With Xiuhtezcatl)”

4.

Shame–“Dust on Trial”

Shame–“Alphabet”

Shame–“One Rizla”

slowthai–“nhs”

slowthai–“Inglorious (Featuring Skepta)”

slowthai–“Nothing Great About Britain”

I will play the rest of Nahko and Medicine for the People's Take Your Power Back this coming Thursday 3 December 2020.

***

I shared one other article this week, earlier today,

UK supermarkets unite after Sainsbury's advert prompts racist backlash: Aldi, Asda, Co-op, Iceland, Lidl, Marks & Spencer, Sainsbury’s, Tesco and Waitrose run ads back-to-back on Channel 4

As Cleo Skopaleti writes, in today's Guardian, reporting on this story:

A group of leading UK supermarkets have joined together to take a stand against a racist online backlash that followed Sainsbury’s Christmas advertisement featuring a black family.

Aldi, Asda, Co-op, Iceland, Lidl, Marks & Spencer, Sainsbury’s, Tesco and Waitrose ran their adverts back-to-back during two primetime slots on Channel 4 on Friday evening, with the hashtag #StandAgainstRacism. Normally, competitors actively avoid airing their ads close together.

A Channel 4 announcement introduced the ad break, saying: “Channel 4 stands up against racism. After the reaction to this year’s Sainsbury’s Christmas commercial, retailers have put their usual festive rivalries aside across two adbreaks tonight to stand side-by-side with us too.”

And as I wrote, in sharing this article:

It is a continuously ongoing struggle to confront and fight back against racism in its great many forms, and it does require uniting in taking a clear public stand. I am glad grocery store chains and Channel 4 recognized the need to do this.

Just the other day Sharing Hope Walk to Prevent Suicide shared the following on Facebook:

Often enough various organizations and individuals particularly involved with mental health causes share messages much like this, and I appreciate it.  As I commented, yesterday, on Facebook,

Seeing this on my feed today struck me. I expect a great many are striving to send this message or something similar to themselves, and to reinforce it, by themselves, alone, these days, in isolated conditions. It is difficult. I have to work on much the same, myself, every day. For me, having something that preoccupies my attention and that seems huge and important helps–as does pushing off, bracketing off, what (all of what) I recognize I can't handle, at least at the present time.

I will add here I remain seriously concerned about this issue because so many students I worked with regularly so often struggled with major mental health issues before COVID-19, and from all I observed in the second half of the semester last spring, as well as from all I have gathered since, the pandemic has greatly increased the serious stress and strain many people–students, staff, faculty, and others in myriad other areas of work and community life–are feeling, in terms of their own mental health, while the pandemic has also simultaneously increased the extent of a vast number of people's isolation, or relative isolation, or feeling or perception of (increased) isolation, which only compounds the challenges involved in maintaining mental health.   For me, having the two books I am working on writing to focus my time and energy has helped greatly, especially as I have been accomplishing what I set out to do with these two projects, showing myself I am capable of more than I feared I might be, while also finding this work most interesting, including the continuous reading, research, screening, and listening I am doing as part of this work.  Being able to walk extensively outdoors has helped greatly too, and I have enjoyed making new meals together with Andy on a regular basis as well as not trying to do all too many disparate things all at once.  So I have been almost surprisingly healthy, mentally and physically overall, even though I do miss people, a lot, including opportunities to travel to and gather together with many people I do not already know, at events corresponding to shared passionate interests.

Two other ways I help myself avoid ‘the tricks the mind can play' include breaking down tasks and activities I need to do into smaller, and steadily smaller, pieces, or steps, while also giving myself permission to recognize when I am feeling overwhelmed, or on the verge of feeling overwhelmed, to pull back when that happens from whatever is overwhelming me–which could well include major ‘news' stories, and myriad fears and worries generated by these.  Social media can be especially problematic in this regard as it tends to amplify and reiterate the same, to an excessive degree, and it is important for me to create a deliberate distance between myself and social media, limiting when and how often I spend on such sites.

*

Here I will add yes, as I mentioned in a recent blog post, I am concerned about the damage the current presidential administration is doing in trying to deny or cancel the results of the recent election and thwart the effectiveness of the necessary transition.  For all the many serious problems the representative democratic system in the US suffers from, and long has suffered from, what is happening now threatens to create the precedent for further and even more dangerous and damaging coups, with extreme authoritarian to totalitarian regimes seizing power and directly attacking all who they deem their ‘enemies'–doing the opposite of what President-Elect Biden calls for, and that is treating people with whom we disagree politically as ‘opponents', not ‘enemies'.  I do think all those who fear this future need be prepared to stand up in support of the results of the election, regardless of whether we fully agree with or even voted for Biden, to make a mass show of force, if and when necessary, that we won't simply quietly acquiesce to Trump and his team ‘stealing' the election from us.

Many on the left often debate what explains Trump's continuing popularity.  I think it is worth reminding ourselves that authoritarian populists are and have been often highly popular, and that includes notorious fascists.  These figures and movements offer people a great deal to identify with–and, especially, against.  Certainly in the case of Trump racism and xenophobia are undoubtedly major explanations for his popularity–and this continued and increased popularity should make clear how widespread and deeply rooted both continue to be in this country.  Anyone who has been paying close and careful attention to the precise constituent features of systemic, structural, and institutional racism in this country would not be surprised.  And the same with the country's long-standing tendencies toward isolationism, as well as fear and antipathy directed against one after another group of immigrants, especially immigrant people of color, in these United States (which, in fact, are not all that ‘united', at this present historical moment–many tensions and divisions have always riven the US, but these are at an exceedingly heightened point at present).  Also, Trump's support undoubtedly comes from those who regard abortion as the singularly overriding issue that always determines who they will vote for-and against, those spooked by the protests this late spring and summer against systemic racism within the police and calls for ‘defunding the police' (which actually mean shifting funds from overfunding the police to much better funding those social services that are and long have been underfunded and which are much better positioned to deal effectively with all too many of the social problems police address these days, as first and even often enough the only responders, including by addressing the root causes of these social problems in genuinely proactive and preventative ways), and those for whom voting is a matter of what some prominent commentators theorize as ‘tribal' loyalty, or ‘tribalism' (where you always vote for ‘your party', just like you always support ‘your team', no matter whom your candidate is).  And, yes, other reasons exist too–including among the minority who have greatly benefited, materially themselves, from the corrupt and plutocratic Trump presidency.  But, perhaps the most striking additional reason has to do with those who identify with Trump as someone who is continuously performing ‘aggrievedness'–i.e., he is always the victim, so he proclaims, of all kinds of other people, groups, and so on who are always treating him very unfairly, and who ‘have it in for him' and don't at all respect him.  This does not speak highly of where our country is at, at present, with so many people needing, this desperately, for an ‘avatar of aggrievedness' (and such a pathetic one at that) to stand in for their own sense of being deeply aggrieved, of being everywhere treated unfairly, of everywhere being victimized, and of always being undermined by others, reputedly those with ‘established' power or part of some nefarious ‘establishment' who always ‘have it in' for them and view as well as treat them as unworthy and undeserving of any respect.  Yes, many of these people are far better off than those who are truly suffering the worst, and many are directly complicit with as well as responsible for the worst impacts of racism and xenophobia in America today, but how and why these people can feel and do feel so extremely aggrieved, as well as what can be done about that, long-term, remain huge issues that will determine a great deal about the social and political future of this nation (I, for one, am not willing to predict it will continue, long-term, as the same, single nation).  But this rationale (however largely unconscious among many experiencing it as their primary motive here) is certainly striking, as Trump, like those who do feel continually persecuted by virtually everyone else around, is someone who is in turn constantly projecting; in fact, if you have ever wanted to know what he and his administration are actually up to, and actually doing, all you need do is focus in on what he accuses others–i.e., his ‘enemies'–of being up to, and of doing.  Case in point–this recent election–as Trump and his core team of supporters, and sycophants, are the ones obviously attempting ‘to steal the election'.

*

While I'm writing here and now though, I will also mention one thing that does help me through difficult mental health periods is having something to which to look forward.   Certainly, I am looking forward to each successive chapter and section of the two books I am currently writing–and eventually to getting both published.   But I am also looking forward, at some yet to be determined future time, to teaching three new classes, which I have been contemplating, and beginning to work toward, in conjunction with the writing, research, reading, thinking, screening, and listening I have been doing during my current scholarly leave.  These three classes are as follows: 1. Contemporary Black British Experience;  2.  Critical Studies in Crime, Justice, and the Law; and 3. Critical Studies in Mental Health.  I think all thee will be exciting and fascinating to teach, and I am confident students will agree and find these classes likewise stimulating, provocative, and rewarding.

The following are some recent links to articles I shared on Facebook, over the past week.  I share much less of these now because I don't want to add to the numbingly incessant repetition of the same takes on the same stories that social media sites like Facebook produce to the point that they drive many people away or leave people feeling like they would like to leave (need to leave) and never return.  Selective sharing, and especially if it seems particularly important to me and likely to prove useful to others, are key factors effecting what and how often I on FB share links to stories published elsewhere, for me, at least at this point in time.

***

First, from The Guardian, Thursday 19 November 2020:

Cut to anti-bullying funding in England for LGBTQ+ young people ‘callous'

“Ending government funding for projects tackling bullying of LGBTQ+ students in England’s schools will ‘further marginalise' those young people, ministers have been warned.

The news that programmes that have benefited from £4m in funding since 2014 to counter LGBTQ+ bullying will not be continued overshadowed Department for Education efforts to mark anti-bullying week.”

As I wrote on Facebook, “This says a lot about the current UK government that these cuts are announced during Anti-Bullying Week.”

I will just add this is gravely concerning because from all I have read and heard, bullying of LGBTQ+ students in English schools has long been a terrible problem and continues to remain so, with the effects often devastating, especially for those targeted, often enough lasting all their lives if not leading them prematurely, tragically to decide to end their own lives.  In the same day's Guardian another article discussed whether a modified version of the Pogues' “Fairytale of New York” should be substituted for the original on Radio 1, Radio 2, and Radio 6, with all commentators ultimately agreeing this should be the case because of the offense the words ‘faggot' and ‘slut' in the original version of the song would today cause.  Yes, that makes a certain amount of sense, especially given that the song will be played, as is customary, as a holiday song during family time and because this is, at least reputedly, often one song families in the holiday season choose to sing along together.   But the idea that a wide British consensus now exists that these offensive words should not be used on the radio yet bullying of lgbtq+ students in English schools is just fine or in no need of any substantial effort to oppose strikes me as a sad commentary on the limits of how far lgbtq+ people are genuinely ‘accepted' as equally worthwhile, as maintaining equal human worth and dignity as straight people, in British (and especially English) society.  As I have discussed on many prior occasions, when and where I grew up, as a boy, homophobia in the schools was so virulent I could not possibly have then and there imagined I might be gay–it was entirely unintelligible how anyone could identify with what was over and over and over again marked out as the most abject possible identity anyone could ever possibly  maintain.  I did reject being involved, or directly complicit, myself, in hurling any of this homophobic abuse, as I found it cruel and pathetic to do so, against such a clearly thoroughly beleaguered and marginalized group of people and because, so I then assumed, no one in my schools, K to 12, knew anyone who was actually gay–so this seemed totally senseless to go on and on about.  That's how bad it can get; it can drive people from even beginning to recognize who and what they might actually be, and when as well as if they do come to recognize this about themselves they in turn are led to feel like it is the most horrible possible thing that could ever happen to them, and that they must suffer, the rest of their lives, from torturous shame and persistent humiliation.

***

Second, also from The Guardian Thursday 19 November 2020

Criminal justice system is ‘on its knees', says top English lawyer

“Crown court cases are being delayed until 2023, the innocent penalised more than the guilty, and the under-funded, criminal justice system brought ‘on its knees', according to the chair of the Criminal Bar Association in England and Wales.

James Mulholland QC told the Guardian that while Covid had intensified the crisis, deep cuts to the Ministry of Justice since 2010 had left it dangerously under-resourced.

The result was that ‘very vulnerable people who have to go through the system are being let down', he said. ‘You can’t have a completely under-funded system from beginning to end'.”

As I wrote on Facebook, “Everything I have been reading warned this system was in crisis before COVID-19 due to draconian budget cuts since the Coalition government’s austerity program began in 2010, with terrible miscarriages of justice everyday routine. I can well imagine it has become even much worse now.”

***

Third, a happier story, from The Scotsman Friday 13 November 2020

How Scotland ended 22 years of pain with monumental win in Serbia

As a football fan, and as someone who maintains a considerable love for Scotland, and Scottish culture, I am happy about this and for Scottish fans of their national men's football team.

***

Fourth, an ultimately amusing story, from The Guardian Sunday 15 November 2020

Amazon ridiculed on Twitter for error reunifying Ireland

“It was an unlikely statement from one of the world’s biggest companies, but for a brief period on Saturday afternoon it appeared that Amazon had pledged its backing to a united Ireland.

The tech company has now apologised after telling a resident of Northern Ireland that he could not watch its rugby union coverage because he didn’t live in the UK.

Chris Jones, from Ballyclare in County Antrim, had spent an afternoon struggling to watch England’s game against Georgia, which was being aired on Amazon Prime Video.

Out of desperation he turned to Amazon’s customer support account on Twitter for help, only to be told he was blocked for geographical reasons. ‘We apologize but upon reviewing your location you’re in Northern Ireland. Rugby Autumn Nations Cup coverage is exclusively available to Prime members based in the UK. We don’t have the rights to other territories', the Amazon account said.

The response swiftly went viral, attracting tens of thousands of responses and political attention.”

I especially like this tweet: Click Here  With Brexit the way it is going, and the current UK government's position on (versus) devolution becoming increasingly clear, it may not be that long ahead before reunification becomes a realistic possibility for the entire 32 counties of Ireland.  But for right now of course Amazon should know Northern Ireland is part of the UK.

***

Fifth, from The Manchester Evening News Sunday 15 November 2020

The rise and fall of the Piccadilly Gardens ‘Berlin Wall'

“It was meant to herald a bright new dawn for the city centre and provided the backdrop to one of the defining images of the coronavirus crisis.

But next week demolition of the Piccadilly Gardens' wall, a building which has divided opinion in Manchester like no other over the last 20 years, is due to begin.

Designed by Tadao Ando following an international competition launched after the 1996 IRA bomb, the 130m long concrete wall and modernist pavilion was completed in time for the 2002 Commonwealth Games.

It remains the world-renowned Japanese architect's only UK building.

But, despite those credentials the ‘Berlin Wall' as it was dubbed, has long had it critics.

In 2014 a poll of thousands of Manchester Evening News readers found  three out of four people ‘hated' the gardens  , listing a string of gripes about the wall, crime levels and general dreariness.

Two years later more than 20,000 people signed an M.E.N. petition calling on the council to demolish the ‘hated' wall and restore the gardens to their ‘1950s splendour'.

In an editorial piece at the time the paper wrote: ‘For years Mancunians have despaired of the crime and concrete that still dominate the city’s main public space – despite the town hall repeatedly pledging to sort it out'.”

Having spent a great deal of time in Manchester I am well familiar with this wall, and although I recognize it has its supporters and defenders I think Manchester could do better, and a place called Piccadilly Gardens could do better in actually resembling something even vaguely like a gardens.  This is a central location, and a natural gathering area, but it has become ever more increasingly widely perceived as dangerous and unwelcome, although admittedly often that has as much if anything to do with demonizing homeless people and refusing to accept the collective responsibility to insure that all people are provided affordable, decent, livable housing and the social support necessary to be able to (learn how to) maintain and thrive in such accommodations.

November 19, 2019 was the last time I posted an entry on this blog. Now one year later I am returning to resume.

Why such a long absence? Toward the end of 2019 I became sick for a protracted period (eight straight weeks!) as well as extremely busy, and that lasted for quite a while into the new year. Then a new semester began and it fully engaged my attention, especially after COVID-19 hit, causing a great disruption and forced dramatic transformation of all I had been doing, and planning to do (as of course has been the case for just about everyone around, all over the world). The rest of the Spring 2020 semester, all on-line, without having planned ahead of time to do so, or early on anticipated doing so, or having any prior experience teaching this way, proved extraordinarily draining for me, and for my students (although these were good classes and I continued to enjoy working with and steadily learning more and better about all of these people). Once the semester ended, and I finished taking time to breathe, I began work on writing my two books, in earnest, and that has proceeded well, even while proving highly demanding and often all-absorbing. But I really do find this work most satisfying and fulfilling and this seems just the right time in my life to be concentrating on pursuing it.  Life has become considerably restricted for me, as I spend most of my time, day to day, week to week, and month to month, at home, in our house, other than taking many long walks around Eau Claire, which I absolutely love doing, especially from mid-March through mid-October, when the weather was largely consistently warm, and other than going to the grocery store and attending to miscellaneous health care appointments. I am doing well, despite the isolation, despite missing and worrying about a great many people, and despite worrying as well about many issues of immediately topical as well as urgent social and political concern, at a multiply dangerous, difficult, and yet nonetheless potentially promising and cautiously hopeful time for our nation–and for beyond our nation.

What I am going to do, in re-starting this blog, is work my way backwards, bit by bit, through Facebook posts I have made ever since November 19, 2019, re-posting here and adding retrospective reflective (including self-critical) comments.  As the title of this blog indicates, directly, don't expect to find miraculous wisdom here, but I do consider it a responsibility to continually strive to contribute to a broader public, as best I can, with whatever I have to offer, and if anyone out there finds anything I write about of interest and use I am glad of it.