“It’s not a win if this time next year we have Juneteenth off; politicians are saying “Black Lives Matter;” Lift Every Voice plays at NFL games, and Mississippi has a new flag, but...
we have no new tools, laws or investment for ending voter suppression & educational, economic, and criminal injustice." – Sherrilyn Ifill July 7, 2020 FOMO on WHITEWASHING FOMO on CONFLICT
The “Grandmother of Juneteenth” Miss Opal Lee Walking 1,400 Miles From Ft. Worth, Texas to DC in 2016
Today, 94-year-old Miss Opal Lee has lived to see Juneteenth recognized as a national holiday. While it’s been five years since she Lee began walking to raise awareness of “Freedom Day” – beginning with a 1,400 mile long trek from Fort Worth, Texas to D.C. – it’s been her lifelong mission. But the overdue consecration of Juneteenth comes at a time when Republican Governors and State Legislatures across the country are making it criminal to TEACH why Juneteenth -- not to mention the Civil Rights Movement and Black Lives – MATTER.
This week’s FOMO listens in as Opal Lee shares her story with Undistracted; deconstructs the misdirection that is the war against ‘Critical Race Theory’; and expands its understanding of how race & disability intersect.
I first heard Brittany Packnett Cunningham as part of the founding trio of Pod Save The People; last year she launched her own pod, Undistracted. Her conversation here with Opal Lee is different from the rest of the press Miss Lee has done in service of her project. It is like a family reunion — patient, intimate, and always respectful.
CRT: WTF?
The attacks on critical race theory are clearly an attempt to discredit the literature millions of people sought out last year to understand how George Floyd wound up dead on a street corner. The goal is to leave the next dead black person inexplicable by history. – Jelani Cobb
So. When I was university press publishing I had the pleasure of meeting Derrick Bell who – apart from once representing Anita Hill – was a force at Harvard Law School and is credited with coining the phrase, “critical race theory.” Here’s Professor Bell on C-Span discussing his brilliant – and accessible – analysis of racism in America, Voices at the Bottom of the Well – published thirty years ago next year. What then, is Critical Race Theory? Simply, a racial lens to look at systemic inequality, initially applied to the law. K-12 students barely get ANY instruction about our history of slavery, much less CRT. In the opening segment of his Wednesday show, Mehdi Hasan made a compelling case (and terse, at six minutes) on why this avenue of attack has exploded across media and legislatively: Check it out.
This meme variant serves to remind us that just as the Tea Party chose ‘Shari Law’ as its embodiment of moral panic over Islam a decade ago, that Critical Race Theory is another example of a ginned up effort to silence long overdue accountability. As Jelani Cobb makes it plain, it’s a clearly coordinated effort began since the murder of George Floyd to reverse any gains we’ve seen over Black Lives Matter.
Not content with censoring discussion of racism in five states, (17 more states are pending) this Thursday Media Matters for America reported that Fox News – which referenced Critical Race Theory over 1,300 times in the past three-and-a-half months -- presented nearly a dozen critics of (cough) CRT as “concerned parents or educators” when in fact, they were GOP Strategists. What a novel grift – deflating resumes to fit the frame. Here’s the expose.
This thread by NBC’s Ben Collins is an anatomy of a false narrative moving from a single parent in small town Maine who took umbrage at his child’s curriculum and filed 53 FOIA’s for school board communications only to discover that the board had investing a whopping $1,200 in diversity training, which might be helpful for America’s Whitest™ State. From there, the story goes, parent Shawn McBreairty was contacted by “No Left Turn on Education” – whose focus is to end the non-existent scourge of CRT – ultimately ushering him into the warm embrace of Tucker Carlson. My question: Who’s funding No Left Turn?
Voter Suppression & Disability
Ibram X. Kendi’s new podcast, Be Anti-Racist, debuted in June. The third episode of the pod is a conversation with disability rights warrior, Rebecca Cokley on the intersection of ableism and racism in America. While I consider myself fluent on these issues, Ms. Coakley gave me so many new insights into the obstacles this community contends, especially how the current raft of voter suppression laws will disproportionately affect the disabled population. [This IMHO, would make for a compelling class action for Marc Elias to pursue, no?] Following the pod, I came across this essay by Andrew Pulrang in Forbes -- a primer on Ableism. I recommend it highly. To get hyperlocal for a second — tying disability to electoral politics — watch this Andrew Yang clip from the last Mayoral Debate, and tell me that he hasn’t disqualified himself.
We CAN Talk About Hard Things
Perhaps you’re sensing a pattern?
That most of this country – today’s Republicans, especially – would rather deny our history -- and our present -- than engage in difficult conversations. I don’t think that this is an essential condition. Unless you’re a crisis counselor or a trade negotiator, you have little practice. Seven years ago, radio broadcaster Anna Sale sought to change that with her aptly named podcast, Death, Sex & Money; I remain a loyal listener. Sale just came out with a timely book which I have been devouring: “Let’s Talk About Hard Things.” In addition to Death, Sex & Money, Family and Identity round out its five chapters. Sale interviewed several hundred folks for the project, and it certainly feels that she listened intently. In the run-up to Father’s Day, I had some unresolved issues, and honestly, the book gave me tools to send the letter I’ve been writing in my mind for years. You can certainly read it, but Sale has that ASMR-adjacent Public Radio voice, so I recommend the audiobook.
“What is Juneteenth to an incarcerated Black person?”– Amber-Rose Howard, Executive Director of CURB
How shall we commemorate the spirit of Juneteenth? Try these:
•WAKE is a newly-published hybrid graphic novel/memoir by Rebecca Hall, a granddaughter of slaves, chronicling the little-explored history of women-led slave revolts. These illustrations by Hugo Martinez reminded me of Frans Masereel.
•Look out for the short, Takeover. Radical Health’s Ivelyse Andino first schooled me on the documentary’s subjects, The Young Lords, and how they were the original “Occupy.” In the seventies this youth movement took over the South Bronx’s Lincoln Hospital, demanding humane healthcare, ultimately resulting in a Patient’s Bill of Rights. Takeover just screened at the Tribeca Film Festival last week, and can now be streamed until June 23rd. Don’t miss it!
•James Baldwin was not only eloquent, but uncompromising. This nineteen-minute interview segment, The Negro and the American Promise, conducted by Boston public television producer Henry Morgenthau III, is scalding.
•I first came across Ashley C. Ford as a co-host of the fantastic Lovecraft Country companion podcast. This month her memoir, Somebody’s Daughter, was published; I ordered it ASAP. Ford appeared on Alison Stewart’s All of It earlier this week and I instantly vibed that the memoir was going to be in the same general galaxy as Jeannette Wall’s The Glass Castle – that is, on surviving a fraught childhood.
•Released Friday, Angelique Kidjo’s thirteen-track CD Mother Nature includes Dignity, a demand to end police brutality, and Free & Equal, which lambasts civic rhetoric not grounded in action. It’s already on my heavy rotation; Governors DeSantis and Abbott will not approve!