Jodi and I have started a blog, Equal Measures, focused on our journey of faith, justice, power, and equality. We're... going through a lot.
Unequal weights and unequal measures are both alike an abomination to the Lord. -- Provers 20:10, ESV
Archive for 2020
Equal Measures
Thoughts on the Criminalization of People of Color in America
Criminalization [...] is "the process by which behaviors and individuals are transformed into crime and criminals". Wikipedia
Not a day has gone by lately that I don't see multiple examples online of the effects of the criminalization of people of color in America.
I did NOT grow up understanding this and I don't know how to help.
In formal academically published theory, the real ruling class of a society reaches a temporary view on whether certain acts or behavior are harmful [Ed: to the ruling class] or criminal. Wikipedia (Emphasis added)
I'm thankful for the Seeing White podcast for the work they did which really open my eyes into how the legal and legislative process has been used consistently in America to redefine people of color as a criminal class -- we cannot see Black and brown Americans as individuals anymore, we only see them through the lens of criminality.
This process produces an explanation and excuse in the minds of the ruling class for any and all injustices against minorities and lower classes: they deserve it, as members of the criminal class, and it enables the excusing of members of the ruling class ("Well, it's not like he's a criminal").
I grew up a literal WASP and I'm ashamed of so many things I thought over the years. Worse, I can still recognize these deeply ingrained patterns in my own mind, even as I struggle to flip the script in my head.
Adam Savage's One Day Builds
Every morning I look for more... https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLJtitKU0CAej22ZWBqrimPkn0Bbo6ci-r
White Liberal Anti-Racism, post-Trump
Fred Joseph asks:
One thing that’s been interesting about Trump’s presidency is how accessible it has made conversations about white supremacy.
I wonder how invested white people and the media will be in racism and anti-racism after he’s gone.
I've been wondering the same thing: assuming Biden wins, will white liberals (myself included) sigh in relief and go back to our pre-Trump, pre-Breonna Taylor, pre-George Floyd comfort?
I know that I've been working hard on following and learning from Black Americans and POC, and it's been good work, but white liberals have just scratched the surface of what we must learn from the lives and histories of POC.
Trump has been SO awful that it has been a catalyst for many of us to finally face the systemic injustice and racism that allowed him to rise to prominence, riding the post-Obama racist reaction. But a Biden win will not fix anything yet, it just puts a better public face on the administration. The hard work will be continuing to fight to reform the Senate, our law enforcement and justice systems, all the entrenched ways of thinking and working that our nation has been built on.
My "worst case" scenario right now is a Trump removal, Pence win. Pence is the "nice" face of a corrupt administration, and will happily go along with anything the abusive GOP can think up, bringing even the never-Trumper Evangelicals with him. And I know white democrats who are outraged at Trump-the-character, but not so much his racist, unjust policies.
Privilege, visualized
This post got me thinking, so I decided to graph the "privilege dependencies" in a way that might better show the weight of opportunities my own are built on.
How I Became a DIYer in 25 Easy Steps (an Exploration of Privilege)
A thread on Twitter started me thinking about what it takes to get good at DIY, so here's my helpful list of what you too can do to get good at DIY
- I just decided to do a project!
- for the house I own (ie can modify)
- and I have the physical abilities (strength, stamina, co-ordination, mobility etc.) to attempt the project
- and I have tools
- in the garage I have and
- have time to use the tools
- i could afford
- thanks to the job
- i got with my high school
- and college education
- where I earn enough
- in little enough time
- to have leisure time
- to use the knowledge I got
- from watching my Dad
- and some tools i inherited from my dad
- who had a garage
- on the house he owned
- thanks to the job he got
- with his college education
- which he parents could afford
- thanks to the job my grandfather had
- thanks to his skills in the military in WW2
- and the education he got
- thanks to the GI Bill
HT to jmz for the reminder about physical capabilities, another privilege I forget every day.
usps-fairness-act tags: "" title: H.R.2382 - USPS Fairness Act
To our elected "representatives": The United States Post Office is one of the most powerful forces for democracy in our nation, giving rich and poor, native-born and immigrant, people from every social class and structure Equal Access under the law. There are those who, for years, have been seeking to limit the ability of the USPS to do it's job, because it benefits them to disempower and disenfranchise those who differ in face/class/privilege.
DO NOT stand with those who would destroy one of the most American of institutions.
Support and PASS H.R.2382 - USPS Fairness Act
The inventors of techno are also black americans
Detroit, early 1980s, techno is invented by three friends who happen to be black:
High school friends Juan Atkins, Kevin Saunderson, and Derrick May, known as the Belleville Three, are known as the creators of techno music. Kevin Saunderson is the person who made sure techno music got to the masses by 1983.
The History of Techno Music from Black Music Scholar
Techno came out of Detroit in the 1980’s as underground dance music and subculture. Techno music took technology and made it a black secret.
The three tracks linked on that page would play in any house club today. I'd've danced the crap outta these when I was clubbing. HT to https://playvicious.social/@paralithode for suggesting I google "black inventor techno".
#blackhistory #musichistory #erasure
(I may or may not be chairdancing to Tranzister right now)
(SORRY, LOST IMAGE)
The inventor of rock 'n' roll is not who you think
Folks, this is Sister Rosetta Sharpe, the queer black woman who invented rock and roll, before Elvis, Little Richard, or Chuck Berry were out of short pants
https://www.theroot.com/sister-rosetta-tharpe-the-queer-black-woman-who-invent-1823198999
#blackhistory #musichistory #erasure
(Source: https://playvicious.social/@paralithode)
1) in the pandemic world, vote-by-mail is the only truly safe and equitable option
2) Trump has been beating the "vote-by-mail = fraud" hard and loud
3) If the election in November doesn't go Trump's way, I'd give >50% odds he won't concede; America never has a "valid" election again
Listening: Scene on Radio's "The Land That Never Has Been Yet", on America's do-called Democracy http://www.sceneonradio.org/season-4-trailer-the-land-that-never-has-been-yet/
(SORRY, LOST IMAGE)
My privileged, suburban zip code in Gilbert, AZ is 12 square miles. I remember when we had 18 cases of #covid19. We're at 530 now.
(SORRY, LOST IMAGE)
"everyone has essentially admitted that the hundred-year history of compulsory school in America was mostly a subsidized childcare effort meant to drive business, employment, consumption, debt, &c."
https://twitter.com/ibogost/status/1281951417230655488