In my latest for the New York Times, I wrote about the death of Eric Garner, a recent experience I had being searched by Customs and Border Protection in Arizona, and why we are right to be scared by interactions with police. nytimes.com/2019/08/20/opi…
In press coverage on Pantaleo, many journos have mentioned Erica Garner. But few of us this cycle have banged the drum that the only person in prison over the whole debacle is Ramsey Orta, who filmed Garner’s killing. theverge.com/2019/3/13/1825…
In 2014, @MaeRyan and I made a short film about Eric Garner. It’s a time capsule of what was happening at the time, when Black Lives Matter was exploding with energy. Haunting to look back on the site where Eric died & wonder what happened. theguardian.com/world/video/20…
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For people who think I am close-minded and unbending: I have done a 180° on assisted suicide, and I changed my mind by reading and thinking with disabled scholars and activists
I actually do think people should be able to end their lives if they wish, with compassion and as little pain and stigma as possible. (My biological mother took her life in a gruesome, violent way.) And I think almost everything should be decriminalized. Unfortunately…
the PUSH for assisted suicide is not rooted in reducing stigma or compassion, nor is it rooted in getting folks what they need to address the root causes of their suicidal desire (housing, poverty, proper mental and physical healthcare)…
This is *still*’ interesting. When Oprah was the host of the Oprah Winfrey Show and endorsed Obama, the candidate did not pay for the show—Oprah (Harpo Productions) did. When Oprah endorsed Harris, the candidate paid for the show. An important power shift in media.
Of course Oprah, a billionaire, could have paid her staff as her quite legal contribution to the cause. Instead she let, perhaps, Black women earning minimum wage who wanted to see Harris elected and gave their meagre earnings to the campaign pay for it instead.
What’s most interesting to me as a media scholar: @JonnyDiamond added a line to my @lithub column about the Winfrey endorsement that it was “basically a recreation of the Oprah Winfrey Show”—and now Oprah is literally admitting that! lithub.com/in-american-em…
If you accept the truth that under Obama/Biden/Harris, more people
— were deported
— died of Covid
— were killed in genocide and wars w US weapons & $
then there is no need to panic about Trump/Miller/RFK. Hold onto your folks, your values & your work. Stay the course. Calm!
Panic, in general, helps no one. It keeps you from breathing right, it keeps you from seeing clearly. Lots of folx have been working hard to get vaccines (Covid/flu/mpox) out as Biden dismantled Covid vax infrastructure. Work & learn w us, we’ve been at it for yrs now
An asset we may have: millions who passively accepted Obama deportations, Biden vax delivery destruction & Biden/Harris genocide might now be angry abt Trump doing these things. WELCOME THEM GRACIOUSLY WITH OPEN ARMS! ALL HANDS ON DECK!
1/4 I filed for tenure today, as has been planned for years. It has been too much pressure being investigated while also filing for tenure (a huge moment in any scholar's life in the best of circumstances), so imagonnatakeaminute to sit with what I have accomplished. I WROTE
Class time: Let's use the Overton Window to discuss how pagers-as-booby-traps is really bad for humanity, and how journalists are already failing at this basic test of ethics and morality.
The Overton Window was developed to address what topics can be debated, or not, in news media. (It is named for political scientist Joseph Overton, who was not an egomaniac; his colleague Joseph Lehman named it for him after his death.)
For instance, in my lifetime and career, gay rights have gone from being too taboo to write about in almost any mainstream media; now, being explicitly anti-gay isn't much allowed in mainstream media (though, notably, being explicitly anti-transgender IS still on the window).
BOOM! I am back in the saddle for the fall as a regular @lithub columnist with an exclusive essay on "False Profits: Why I Am Not Teaching in the Classroom This Fall" lithub.com/false-profits-…
(It’s not often I get to quote my divas @pocojump, Blanche Devereux and Zora Neale Hurston all in one piece)
I wrap up the essay mediating on 2 quotes from MLK's final speech: "Somewhere I read of the freedom of assembly. Somewhere I read of the freedom of speech. Somewhere I read of the freedom of press. Somewhere I read that the greatness of America is the right to protest for right."