It’s Day 10 of Black History Month and We Whites Are All Going to STFU and Listen.

I’ve been noodling around with an idea for a post about the infamous 16th Street Baptist Church bombing in Birmingham, Alabama in 1963 (and all the other Klan bombings of homes and churches in that city that garnered it the name “Bombingham”), in light of the recent spate of bomb threats against Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs). No bombs have been found on these campuses (yet). But the history of 1960s Birmingham can teach us something important, and highly relevant today. Because we know what happens after bomb threats: bombs happen.

But then I got this email today from author, political leader and civil rights lawyer Steve Phillips, the founder of Democracy In Color:

Democracy in Color is a political media organization focused on political strategy and analysis at the intersection of race and politics.

We create and elevate content that influences public opinion and steers political behavior towards a more progressive and inclusive country. Using research and data-driven analysis, our multimedia content lifts up the voices and issues of the multiracial, progressive New American Majority and includes a podcast, articles, reports, and social campaigns.

I recommend signing up for their email newsletter, which is always informative and provides links to additional great content. Today’s newsletter is no exception, as you can see for yourself below. I’ve posted it in its entirety not just because it’s exceptional content – though it is that – but because Steve Phillips wrote that post I wanted to write, only far, far much better than I ever could:

[Read more…]

It’s Day 9 of Black History Month and We Whites Are All Going to STFU and Listen.

Today we are going to STFU and listen to black voices speaking to us from 1969. Not just any black voices, either: these are some of the most groundbreaking, hit-making, genre-breaking, unfathomably influential musical artists of the time – and for some, perhaps, of all time

Last evening, a film popped up in our streaming suggestions: Summer of Soul (…Or, When the Revolution Could Not Be Televised). The blurb said the documentary was about the 1969 Harlem Cultural Festival, a multi-weekend concert series that took place in the summer of ’69 in what is now Marcus Garvey Park in Harlem. Directed by Ahmir Khalib (“Questlove/?uestlove”) Thompson, perhaps best known as the drummer and co-frontman for the band The Roots, his debut film was put together from reels of raw footage that sat in a basement, virtually untouched, for fifty years.

Summer of Soul premiered at the 2021 Sundance Film Festival, where it took both the Grand Jury Prize and the Audience Award for a documentary.

Playing the trailer (which you can view below), I first heard then saw Nina Simone (*squeee4EVAH*) sing-saying to an enormous sea of black bodies and faces,

“Are you ready, black people? Are you really ready? Are you ready to listen to all the beautiful black voices, the beautiful black feelings, the beautiful black waves, moving in beautiful air? Are you ready black people? Are you ready?”

The Harlem crowd erupts in response to her callouts with spine-tingling, goose-bumping enthusiasm. Meanwhile, written words are interspersed, appearing in bright, colorful lettering against a black background:

In 1969
the same summer as Woodstock

Another festival took place

It was filmed but never seen

Until now

And with that, we were only 21 seconds into a 2-minute trailer.

The concert lineup promised nothing less than a pantheon of Black musical gods: Nina Simone, 19-year old Stevie Wonder, Sly & the Family Stone, Gladys Knight & the Pips, Mahalia Jackson, B.B. King, The Fifth Dimension and more.

Ms. Simone had me at “Are you ready?” We paid $5.99 for the rental.*

[Read more…]

It’s Day 8 of Black History Month and We Whites Are All Going to STFU and Listen.

Any rational observer (which excludes conservatives, by definition) would conclude that the so-called “War on Drugs” is misleadingly named. Not the “war” part of the construct; that part’s accurate. From the extra-constitutional surveillance, “stop-&-frisk” policing, coercive consent searches and no-knock warrants to the military equipment provided to local law enforcement by the Department of Defense (including tanks… tanks!), the tactics and weapons deployed against U.S. citizens in the drug war are indistinguishable from those deployed by the U.S. on foreign battlefields in actual wars.

Likewise, our rational (non-conservative) observer would be dead-on accurate were he/she/they to rename the entire endeavor the “War on Black (and brown, and other, but mostly Black) People Who Use Drugs.”

That this is so cannot be disputed (in reality). For the facts of the matter, see the ACLU report A Tale of Two Countries: Racially Targeted Arrests in the Era of Marijuana Reform. In it, you will learn such facts as these:

Analysis conducted by the ACLU shows that due to racial profiling and bias in marijuana enforcement, Black people are 3.6 times more likely than white people to be arrested for marijuana possession, despite similar usage rates. This disparity has not improved over the last decade, and in fact, disparities have actually worsened in most states.

“3.6 times more likely” is a national average. On a state level, the Black/white racial disparities can get much worse: in Montana it’s 9.6 times more likely, Illinois 7.5, and in no state is it equal or less than even. Hell, it’s 1.5 times in Colorado, where weed has been legalized since 2012. At the county level, the disparities can get much, much worse. And this is before racialized sentencing disparities factor in.

Even so, a marijuana arrest is much more than an arrest. The ACLU report also addresses what it calls the “collateral damage” that often comes along with it, including:

Denial of public benefits based on use, arrests, or convictions for marijuana

Drug tests for benefit eligibility

Separation of families in the child welfare system

Loss of driver’s licenses

Deportation

Loss of federal financial aid

Bans on participation in the marijuana industry for those with drug arrests

Felony disenfranchisement [i.e. loss of voting rights]

Taken together, the “collateral damage” accrues to the individual, families and entire communities. And we’re not talking about violent traffickers and cartel kingpins here:

Nine out of 10 of marijuana arrests are for possession. While arrests for possession have decreased nationally since 2010, the rate of decline has stagnated and, in recent years, has even reversed upward despite popular reform movements.

For the whys, the hows and the history of the matter, see the The Last Prisoner Project’s extraordinarily comprehensive and beautifully written report Criminal Injustice: Cannabis & The Rise Of The Carceral State. It tracks the intertwined threads of politics, ideology and the perverse incentives that perpetuate the racist injustices of the weed war, and is worth a read for the highlighted quotations alone.

There are many who agree that the “War on Drugs” has been an abysmal failure by virtually every measure. (To hear the ACLU tell it, a majority of Americans agree.) The cost in blood and money lost in waging it is likely incalculable at this point, to say nothing of all that “collateral damage.”

But I disagree. By certain measures, the “War on Black (and brown, and other, but mostly Black) People Who Use Drugs” has been a spectacular success. It’s not exactly a secret that there are powerful factions in the country who are going to great lengths to disenfranchise Black voters. Take a look again at the ACLU’s list of “collateral damage,” and you’ll notice that for those same powerful factions, many of the harms listed are quite openly and enthusiastically touted as features, not bugs.

I’d say this war is working out very well indeed – for conservatives.

__________

It so happens that today, there’s something you can do about this, at least at the federal level. I received an email from RootsAction as I was writing this:

Here’s candidate Joe Biden: “I think we should decriminalize marijuana, period. And I think everyone – anyone who has a record – should be let out of jail, their records expunged, be completely zeroed out.”

We couldn’t have said it any better. In fact, it was our public pressure that compelled him to say it.

Here’s what President Joe Biden has done: ______________. Nothing! He has not pardoned a single cannabis conviction.

Join a big coalition petition by signing your name here! Let’s make this happen.

Text of Petition:

While running for President, you committed to the American people that you would expunge marijuana convictions.

Yet more than one year into office, you have not taken a single action to provide relief to those still held back by a criminal conviction.

Millions of Americans have been subjected to a marijuana-related arrest and criminal conviction. Branding these individuals as lifelong criminals serves no legitimate society purpose and results in a litany of lost opportunities including the potential loss of employment, housing, voting rights, professional licensing, and student aid.

Further delay is completely unwarranted. The time for action is now.

In November of 2019, you said “I think we should decriminalize marijuana, period. And I think everyone – anyone who has a record – should be let out of jail, their records expunged, be completely zeroed out.”

This action would be a meaningful step in moving our nation beyond the harms of the senseless and cruel policy of marijuana criminalization and prohibition. Furthermore, this would set a tremendous precedent for state and local leaders to follow in your footsteps and facilitate the expungement of millions of cannabis records that were assigned under state and local criminal codes.

Please, honor your promise and take action to pardon marijuana offenses now.

ADD YOUR NAME.

After signing the petition, please use the tools on the next webpage to share it with your friends.

________

Please sign and share if you are able and inclined.

__________
Day 1 of Black History Month 2022 (Lori Teresa Yearwood) is here.
Day 2 of Black History Month 2022 (Mallence Bart-Williams) is here.
Day 3 of Black History Month 2022 (Emmett Till) is here.
Day 4 of Black History Month 2022 (A Tale of Two Citizens) is here.
Day 5 of Black History Month 2022 (Trayvon Martin) is here.
Day 6 of Black History Month 2022 (Franchesca Ramsey) is here.
Day 7 of Black History Month 2022 (National Black HIV/AIDS Awareness Day and the Black Aids Institute) is here.

It’s Day 7 of Black History Month and We Whites Are All Going to STFU and Listen.

Today is National Black HIV/AIDS Awareness Day.

Like so many ills in our society, HIV/AIDS disproportionately affects marginalized people – the very people with the fewest resources and limited access to quality treatment and care.

The Black Aids Institute is an activist organization dedicated to nothing short of ending the HIV/AIDS epidemic in the Black community. How? By “engaging and mobilizing Black institutions and individuals to confront HIV.”

BAI was founded by a Black, gay man living with HIV, a Black, gay doctor, and a Black, lesbian doctor. They established BAI in 1999 to mobilize and educate Black Americans about HIV/AIDS treatment and care.

They envisioned an organization that directly challenged the systems of oppression that marginalize Black health and that also developed culturally specific programming to address the unique needs of Black people. With a foundation in advocacy and policy work, BAI works towards improving the health and wellness of Black people through research, community efforts, and clinical work.

BAI expressly defines its work as “Blackcentric”:

Recognizing that health justice is a racial and social justice issue, BAI is deeply committed to exposing the systems and roots of oppression that marginalize Black people and exacerbate our health burden. We are revolutionizing the HIV response by centering Black experiences and perspectives to ensure that Black people can live their fullest, healthiest lives with dignity, care, and respect.

Listen to Raniyah Copeland, BAI’s President and CEO, explain in the video below the key pillars of their work, and for a detailed look at BAI’s strategy and vision, read the We The People publication here (pdf).

Finally, if you are able and inclined to contribute financially to BAI’s ambitious and visionary initiative, you can donate here.

♥

It’s Day 6 of Black History Month and We Whites Are All Going to STFU and Listen. UPDATED.

Today we’re going to listen to Franchesca Ramsey ‘splain to a white dudebro why Black history is so important and deserves our attention and respect. This vid (for MTV) is short (3:21), and targeted perfectly for that a$$hole on your social media who whines about why there’s no white history month. Perhaps you can post it to their timeline before you block them?

via MTV Impact (youtube channel):

If you believe that @$$hole in your timeline is serious about learning and becoming a more-informed person, there are obviously much more in-depth resources that they should be seeking out themselves. And not, under any circumstances, asking a random Black person they do not know to do that work for them. You as a white person, however, can and should direct them to Black voices and Black media content to answer their (genuine?) questions and broaden their understanding of structural racism, white privilege and white supremacy.

IT IS THE LEAST WE CAN DO TO LESSEN THE BURDEN ON BLACK PEOPLE BY DOING MORE OF THIS WORK FOR OTHER WHITES.

This is a big part of why I am posting this series.

Here’s one good resource: the host of this very video, Franchesca Ramsey, has an excellent Twitter feed to follow for those who want to STFU and listen: @chescaleigh. And almost any online resource will direct you or link you to many, many more.

UPDATE:

Franchesca Ramsey’s Decoded series for MTV seems intentionally produced as 101-level, “non-threatening” infotainment targeted to MTV’s audience. Not that she doesn’t tackle very serious subjects in it: I’m speaking in terms of tone rather than content. Naturally, she received death threats and had to ratchet up her personal security at live events for engaging in anti-Black racist discourse even in the context of this light-handed and light-hearted approach. And she also received angry pushback from other activists whose criticism was that Decoded was too light-handed and light-hearted, as if there were no point in engaging MTV’s young audience with this work at a basic level.

Well, Franchesca is no basic bitch, people. She has social media platforms through which she discusses and engages with anti-Black racism at other levels that are anything but basic. That is why I recommended following her on Twitter @chescaleigh.

I have since stumbled across one such video post on Facebook she made in 2020. I urge those looking to take a deeper dive into their own anti-Black racism work to watch it. I apologize: I’m having trouble embedding the video here, so the best I can do is link to her FB post so you can view it there. Please do! Even if you find the information and concepts she discusses familiar to you already, think of it as a booster shot.

It’s Day 5 of Black History Month and We Whites Are All Going to STFU and Listen.

Trayvon Benjamin Martin
February 5, 1995 – February 26, 2012 (aged 17)
(image: dedicated to the public by Trayvon Martin’s family)

Today would mark the 27th birthday of Trayvon Martin.

[Read more…]

It’s Day 4 of Black History Month and We Whites Are All Going to STFU and Listen.

I had something else lined up for you beautiful people today, but instead decided to post quotes from two stories in my news feed this morning. Note: there is nothing particularly special about these two stories. The contrasts they illustrate are common as dirt.

Let’s call it…A Tale of Two Citizens.

First, meet P. Moses.

Pamela “P.” Moses
Black Lives Matter Memphis founder and
former Memphis mayoral candidate during her campaign (2021).
(image: via prlog.org / uncredited)

via The Guardian (bold emphasis mine, except for headline):

The Black woman sentenced to six years in prison over a voting error

Pamela Moses was sentenced to six years in prison for trying to register despite a felony conviction but officials admitted making a series of mistakes

…

On Monday, Moses, who is Black, was sentenced to six years and one day in prison… Amy Weirich, the local prosecutor, has trumpeted both the conviction and the sentence in press releases.

…

[I]t is rare to see a prosecutor bring criminal charges against someone for election crimes, and … there has been growing awareness of racial disparities in punishments for election-related crimes. Black people such as Crystal Mason and Hervis Rogers have faced years in prison for making mistakes about their voting eligibility. White voters have received much lighter sentences for election-related crimes.

…

Behind the scenes, Tennessee officials conceded that they had made a series of mistakes concerning Moses’ voting eligibility.

,,,

Moses is currently in custody and an appeal is expected. But the case highlights the byzantine maze that people with felony convictions have to go through to figure out if they can vote. And it shows the harsh consequences prosecutors can bring if people with felony convictions make a mistake.

__________

Next, meet Officer Nicholas Gifford.

Officer Nicholas Gifford (top)
with his attorney, Phil Vogelsang, during interview with Internal Affairs investigator at Jacksonville, FL Sheriff’s office.
(image: Jacksonville Sherriff’s Office/public domain)

via First Coast News (bold emphasis mine, except for headline):

‘I’m drunk’ | Jacksonville SWAT officer who worked intoxicated will keep his job after city board reverses sheriff decision

The Jacksonville SWAT Officer, whose blood alcohol level was four times the legal limit, admitted working ‘impaired’ on multiple occasions.

A SWAT officer with the Jacksonville Sheriff’s Office who admitted drinking a fifth of vodka just hours before driving his police car to a gun range for firearms training will keep his job, despite the Jacksonville Sheriff’s Office’s decision to fire him.

…

Officer Nicholas Gifford was terminated by JSO in October after he showed up to the city’s gun range with a blood alcohol level four times the legal limit. But two months later, the city’s Civil Service Board ordered JSO to reinstate him, saying the firing was “manifestly unjust.”

…

Gifford’s intoxicated condition was initially discovered Oct. 13 by fellow officers who saw him “swerving back and forth” while driving his city-issued car to the JSO Firing Range, some 30 miles from his home. Gifford admitted to his inebriated state when the officers confiscated his gun belt.

“I’m drunk,” he told them, according to an Internal Affairs report.

A series of breathalyzer tests taken more than three hours later confirmed it. Gifford blew a .316 — four times the state’s legal limit of .08, and a patent violation of JSO’s policy threshold of .00.

…

He acknowledged having a serious drinking problem and reporting for work impaired previously, “probably five, 10 times.”

I’ma go out on a limb here and bet five, 10 million internet dollars that those numbers are undercounts by a factor of probably five, 10 times.

The eight-year officer was suspended immediately, and fired Nov. 5.

But on Dec. 16, he appealed his firing to the city’s Civil Service Board – a volunteer body tasked with reviewing discipline decisions challenged by city employees, and whose members are appointed by the mayor, JEA and the school board.

After hearing from both sides, the board concluded the decision to fire Gifford was “manifestly unjust” — a legal term defined as “shocking to the conscience.”

The Board voted to reinstate Gifford following 90-day suspension (retroactive to his dismissal date), with the condition that he undergo three random breathalyzer tests per work cycle for a year.

Manifestly unjust, indeed.

Under credit where credit is due, “the Jacksonville Sheriff’s Office will be appealing the Civil Service Board’s decision.”

One theory: nearly everyone at the Jacksonville Sheriff’s Office has long thought that Officer Nicholas Gifford is an a$$hole.

It’s Day 1 of Black History Month and We Whites Are All Going to STFU and Listen.

At least here at Death to Squirrels, we are. Because (1) listening to (and boosting) Black voices is important, and (2) no one learns anything while they’re busy talking. Or blogging. Whatever. You know what I mean.

Today, I share with you a powerful piece from the January+February 2022 Issue of Mother Jones by Lori Teresa Yearwood, titled “I Escaped the Trauma of Homelessness—Only to Face Your White Savior Complex.” [CONTENT NOTE: sexual assault and other egregious violations of autonomy; police, pastors and others behaving cruelly; homelessness: mental health (mis)diagnoses and stigma; trauma.]

Lori Teresa Yearwood
(image: Niki Chan Wylie via Mother Jones)

I hope that you will read it, and if it makes you uncomfortable, that you will sit with that discomfort, and learn everything you can from it.

Death to Squirrels

by Iris Vander Pluym

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