Seen on many lawns and in many windows: I saw a few in my mother’s senior community, which made me happy. * * * * Seen on a front-yard fence near the Ashland Dog Park: Seen in the approach to every town and city so far: tent encampments. Whole
Continue readingTag: abuse of police power
wmtc: what i’m reading: the skin we’re in by desmond cole
Alternative title: It Happens in Canada, Too. Desmond Cole’s book, The Skin We’re In: A Year of Black Resistance and Power may be a difficult book for white Canadians to read. That’s exactly why they should read it. Cole documents events most Canadians would call “US-style” racism — except they all take
Continue readingwmtc: george floyd + 1,000 others annually: justice is not possible, but accountability might help
Derek Chauvin, the police officer who murdered George Floyd, was found guilty on all charges. At long last, after millions protested around the country and the world, a police officer was held accountable for murder. Or as one of the memes says, we only had to burn down the country
Continue readingwmtc: which side are you on: the unprecedented strike by nba players is a watershed moment for justice
First of all, it’s not a boycott. It’s a strike. And a wildcat strike to boot. When the players on the Milwaukee Bucks chose not to play in the NBA playoffs — joined by their baseball counterparts, the Brewers, with other teams quickly following — they became part of a tradition
Continue readingwmtc: missing nyc: spontaneous political street art in bloom
This story in The New York Times made me miss New York City more than anything has in a very long time. All over the city, artists have created murals protest racism and police abuse. This critic surveys the murals, and compares them to the Neolithic cave art in the
Continue readingwmtc: 11 things on my mind about the anti-police-violence and anti-racism protests
1. Most violence is not being committed by protesters. What percentage of protesters are violent? Filter for police provocateurs, filter for white nationalists, filter for random thieves hiding under cover of mayhem. All of those exist at mass protests and have been proven to exist countless times. What percentage of
Continue readingwmtc: kareem abdul-jabbar: you start to wonder if it should be all black people who wear body cams, not the cops
One of the best things I’ve read about the protests rocking in the US and elsewhere is an op-ed by Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, in the Los Angeles Times. In case you don’t know him, Abdul-Jabbar is a basketball legend. His NBA stats are off the charts (Wikipedia). He’s also a writer and
Continue readingwmtc: police resisters: not the solution to systemic racism, but an extremely positive development
I was shocked when Detective Dmaine Freeland, an active duty officer on the NYPD force, publicly condemned the Minneapolis officer who killed George Floyd and the other cops who witnessed the murder and did nothing to stop it. To say this is unusual is a massive understatement. It’s absolutely unheard
Continue readingwmtc: george floyd, christian cooper, and when will this end?
The murder of George Floyd by Minneapolis police officers may be the most shocking disturbing of any I’ve been aware of for a very long time, possibly since the murder of Amadou Diallo, way back in 1999. Police murders of unarmed, and often completely subdued, African Americans have lost all power
Continue readingwmtc: write for rights 2019 #write4rights
Today, December 10, is Human Rights Day. The date commemorates the adoption of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights on December 10, 1948, the first document of its kind. Every year on December 10, Amnesty International holds a global letter-writing event: Write For Rights (in Canada). Hundreds of thousands of
Continue readingwmtc: write for rights 2019 #write4rights
Today, December 10, is Human Rights Day. The date commemorates the adoption of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights on December 10, 1948, the first document of its kind. Every year on December 10, Amnesty International holds a global letter-writing event: Write For Rights (in Canada). Hundreds of thousands of
Continue readingwmtc: maya moore’s quest for justice
Long ago (in internet terms), in the early days of what we then called the Blogosphere, one of the primary functions of blogs was to share other posts and articles of interest that we came across online. Social media has taken over that function — and much less effectively. How
Continue readingwmtc: retro blog part 1: maya moore’s activism
Long ago (in internet terms), in the early days of what we then called the Blogosphere, one of the primary functions of blogs was to share other posts and articles of interest that we came across online. Social media has taken over that function — and much less effectively. How
Continue readingwmtc: why do we need to say black lives matter? a brief and partial history lesson
The African American experience in Los Angeles County, California: a brief and selected timeline of sorts.* From 1940-1960, thousands of African Americans migrated from Louisiana, Georgia, Texas, and other southern states to California, hoping to find decent jobs, affordable housing, and equality of opportunity. California was not quite as welcoming
Continue readingwmtc: what i’m reading: the new jim crow by michelle alexander
When I first heard the incarceration of African Americans in the United States referred to as a “new Jim Crow,” I thought it must be hyperbole. So did Michelle Alexander, a fact she discloses in the introduction to her book. As Alexander researched the concept, the more she learned, the
Continue readingwmtc: what i’m reading: your heart is a muscle the size of a fist, by sunil yapa
If only Your Heart Is a Muscle the Size of a Fist could be required reading. Everyone who has ever scoffed cynically at protesters. Everyone who has ever seen a mainstream news report showing a burning car, over and over and over, but not showing …
Continue readingwmtc: thank you, colin kaepernick!
Another awesome athlete protest that I have no time to write about. I can only thank Colin Kaepernick for his courage.Joy of Sox speaks for me: To Mookie Betts (And Others): The Right To Protest Has Nothing To Do With The Military.
Continue readingwmtc: what i’m reading: wild by cheryl strayed, zeitoun by dave eggers
I’ve just finished two truly excellent works of nonfiction: Wild and Zeitoun. Both books read like fiction, with clean, clear writing and page-turning suspense. Both document almost unbelievable, out-sized events, in one case likely unique, in the other – horribly – anything but. I highly recommend both books. I didn’t expect
Continue readingwmtc: solidarity forever
Poor neglected wmtc. In addition to having absolutely zero time and mental space to write, I have some kind of head-cold-thing. So instead of trying to string words together in an order that conveys meaning, I will use this blog as a Tumblr, something formerly known as a photo blog.
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