Thursday 8/2
A lot is happening. Remember what is important in resisting.
1. Black Lives Matter
This is such a difficult subject for me to bring up as I am a white female that has lived my entire life with white privilege, and yet I feel like we need to talk about it here. I’ve lived in my bubble most of my life thinking that our society had come far since the civil rights movement, because of what I read in history books, or because of what I watched on t.v. and how things were portrayed, and I’m waking up to the fact that we need to do better for people of color.
I was in a meeting this last spring with parents who are sending their preschoolers off to kindergarten in the fall and everyone was talking about whether or not they would send their child on the bus. One of the mothers who happened to be a black woman had said that she would not be sending her daughter on the bus. I had said that I would send mine, because I rode the bus as a kid and it was a pleasant enough experience for me. Later that evening that conversation stuck with me. Of course she doesn’t feel comfortable sending her daughter on the bus. Her daughter may not have the same experience as mine would based on the color of their skin. How sad that in 2018 we still have these issues. A couple days later when we were at school dropping off kids I pulled that mother aside and let her know that conversation had stuck with me, that I recognized how her daughter and my daughter would have completely different experiences on the bus, that I recognized why she wanted to keep her daughter safe, and that I was sorry this still happens this day in age.
There is a lot of ugliness in our country that is being brought into light, and for those of us that want the best for everyone and this country, now is the time to start understanding the changes that need to be made. Minnesota has real problems with racial profiling and police shootings of people of color. A study that was published in The Lancet showed that repeated shootings of unarmed black people weighs heavily on their mental health.
“The report found that killings of unarmed black people by police officers damages the mental health of black Americans living in the state where the shooting occurred. Researchers reached that conclusion by analyzing data from the U.S. Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System collected between 2013 and 2015, from which they determined that these shootings increase the number of poor mental health days black Americans experience. White Americans who were analyzed for the study reportedly showed that “mental health impacts were not observed.”
If we are taking on a President who is racist and has a racist base, then we need to look at where we live and make things better around us.
“The defenders of segregation learned to speak their truths in code. Their demands for “local control” defended racial hierarchies that previous generations of policy and practice had baked into institutions, neighborhoods, and schools. Their language of “color-blindness” sought to neutralize historical accounting or reparation. Some, such as Ronald Reagan and George H. W. Bush advisor Lee Atwater, claimed that in trading overtly racist language for “forced busing, states rights, and all that stuff,” they were establishing a new, non-racial basis for their coalition—though Atwater’s deployment of the worst scare tactics of white supremacy in his 1988 “Willie Horton” ads showed that one did not need to use racial epithets to communicate openly racist messages. But for most aspiring political or civic figures, a degree of deniability seemed to become essential.”
What can we do to make things better? Let’s start by listening to black people.
“Robin DiAngelo, a sociologist and the author of White Fragility: Why It’s So Hard for White People to Talk About Racism, says these videos make it much more difficult for white people to deny that profiling has occurred. “These incidents have always happened, but white people do not always believe it because it doesn’t happen to us,” DiAngelo told me. “The only real difference we have now is that we are able to record it in a way that makes it undeniable.””
“If the recent spate of incidents has sparked a conversation about why black people are met with so much suspicion in public, it’s important to ask why callers want police to respond to situations where they aren’t really needed.”
“That failure to acknowledge the depths and breadth of racism also makes it harder to acknowledge the ways that nonwhite groups are exposed to harm by actions like calling the police. In the short term, the problem highlighted by Living While Black can be solved by white people calling the police less. But addressing the underlying issues will require much more than that.”
2. Trumpcare
Yesterday Trumpcare was rolled out and it is garbage, taking us back to pre-ACA days.
““What’s insidious here is the administration is doing it knowing that confidence in the act is key to its success,” said Adam Grogg, senior counsel at Democracy Forward and the lead litigator on the case. The fewer Americans who enroll in the program the more volatile the market, he said.”
“Insurance companies are hiking rates in the individual market, citing decisions being made in Washington. And premiums are set to surge in 2019. Proposed hikes have been announced for 27 states, with 25 containing increases over and above the previous year.”
Check out the thread from Andy Slavitt to get more information.
3. Family separation
“Vox’s immigration reporter Dara Lind hosted a discussion in Vox’s Facebook group The Weeds, a space to discuss policy and politics, to talk about the latest developments in the lawsuit (filed by the ACLU in the Southern District of California) governing family reunification, how the administration is tracking where parents and children are, what factors determine whether parents can reunite with their children, and more.”
“But many of the children released to their parents are exhibiting signs of anxiety, introversion, regression and other mental health issues, according to reports from lawyers, immigrant advocates and volunteers working with reunited families.”
“Decades of research have concluded that children traumatically separated from their parents have a high likelihood of developing emotional problems, cognitive delays and long-term trauma. More recent studies have found that separation can impair memory and normal production of cortisol, a hormone produced in response to stress.”
Looking for a way to help?
4. Cyber security effort rejected
“The Senate fight over election security comes as lawmakers are signaling that they are increasingly concerned that Russia will try to interfere in the 2018 election.”
“Senators voted 50-47 against adding an amendment from Sen. Patrick Leahy (D-Vt.) that would have provided the funding. Sixty votes were needed to include the proposal in the appropriations legislation under Senate rules.”
5. The Final Stretch
This is it. We are in the final stretch before the midterm elections. It cannot be overstated how important it is that Democrats get elected in November. Every person needs to commit to helping increase voter turnout. Multiple studies have shown that personal contact with voters is the key to encouraging them to participate. Taking time to connect with someone fact to face (or almost as good-on the phone) can be enough to cause many people who never voted in the past to see themselves anew, as the sorts of people who regularly go to the polls on Election Day. In turn, voting even once can become habit forming, reinforcing self-identification as “a voter” long after the initial conversation with a canvasser. What is more, voter contacts have strong spillover effects within households, boosting participation by others as much as 60 percent. Largely regardless of the message, personal contact with reluctant voters — even once, but especially repeatedly — can shape the electorate dramatically. https://www.washingtonpost.com/…/how-to-mobilize-reluctant…/…
What’s the takeaway? Now is the time to volunteer with a campaign to canvass. Push yourself out of your comfort zone these next three months. Share your enthusiasm for the DFL with others in Minnesota communities. You can rest easy at night knowing that you are doing your best to take back this country.
Check out these calendars for upcoming events near you.
Study after study shows that the most effective way to get people to vote is by having conversations with them in the four days before Election Day (Saturday, November 3rd–Tuesday, November 6th). Volunteer here to be part of the last big push. https://thelastweekend.org/?source=MN02
Join your neighbors to stand up against Trump and his terrible administration. #StandOnEveryCorner encourages all of us to get out in our communities and speak out about what’s happening in the U.S. right now. It’s simple and easy. Grab a sign and find a participating corner near you. Better yet, create your own corner and encourage others to join you. Learn more from this article here: http://www.southwestjournal.com/…/honk-if-you-stand-with-s…/
This tweet lists some of the participating spots. There are many in the Twin Cities. https://twitter.com/BenyonMelissa/status/1023331029719773184
6. Primaries are August 14th
Don’t forget to vote in the primaries by August 14th. Check out this website for more information on who’s running in Minnesota. https://politicalcharge.org/…/minnesota-8-14-primary-at-a-…/
* New Podcast Alert *
The Weekly List.
The Weekly List is a podcast hosted by Amy Siskind, author of The List. It will supplement the popular Weekly List on our website, www.theweeklylist.org. The podcast will give greater context to the "not normal" news items from the previous week, and will highlight a few stories that you may have missed.
Gaslit Nation
Andrea Chalupa and Sarah Kendzior go over hot topics. https://itunes.apple.com/…/2016-gaslit-year-p…/id1400926647…
Klobuchar-202-224-3244
Smith (202) 224-5641
House of Representative switchboard: (202) 224-3121
MN Legislators: https://www.leg.state.mn.us/leg/legislators
Resistbot: https://resistbot.io/
Governor Dayton- https://mn.gov/governor/contact-us/
No comments:
Post a Comment