Spent some time with my LGBTQ++ identifying, mixed-race former high schooler. Last night.
It seems even Gen-Z is chomping under the bit of the boomer\millenial self-righteous alliance. Quotes (as best as I can remember)
"Liberals who dismiss Black Conservatives are dismissing the lived experience of Black Conservatives. They are being self-righteous believing they know what is best for Black People"
"We," their LGBTQ++\mixed-race friend group, "don't like Trump but we don't know what we will get with Biden]Harris. They have done terrible things in the past and they don't talk about it. We expect them to do the same if elected."
"Boomers and boomer politicians are the worst. It is presentation and hypocrisy. We have gone from TV and movies to YouTube. We know that even when we present an "authentic self" there is still an authentic self that is not seen. [...]
these people don't come close to authenticity. We know they are lying"
"College is a waste of time. Almost no one is planning on going to college. It is four years away from the world"
"Liberals keep trying to tell us what the world is like. We know what it is like for us. "
"Most people think the world is like their world. The world has changed. We have to navigate the changes They don't know it has changed or how it is different."
Based in California, my child is part of a friend group where "mixed-race" is often a combination of Puerto Rican\Japanese\Syrian parents with an Iranian stepdad and blonde white stepmom. The permutations are endless.
They are a self-educating clan. One of them is hosting a Black Film night, where everyone watches the same film and then one member hosts a discussion session.
Having been exposed to anti-racism -- like I was exposed to Patriotism -- they have rejected some, if not most, of it, to find their own truth. Because the truth is always \a synthesis of a lived experience.
Actually, if you had read the excellent thread by @wrong_speak, you would realize that the context -- that slavery was once a constant and almost universal feature of societies (at almost every stage along the technology spectrum), then you would understand the context.
That slavery was constant does not make slavery moral, or excuse those who condoned it. It does, however, demonstrate the openmindedness and moral courage of those who opposed it.
As Hannah Arendt & Barbara Fields (below) argue, racism is neither "natural" and nor an evolutionary development (since the likelihood of tribal neighbors being significantly different from members of a neighboring tribe was a bit unlikely early on.)
A number of people have commented and liked this study. To be clear, there are a number of alternate explanations:
a) Testing in these countries is limited, so the number of infections is less than it is in other places that test more regularly.
b) Age of population. If my memory serves, Africa has one of the youngest continents. Since COVID is a disease of old age, the low number of deaths might be attributed to the age of the population.
That the main outlier between Ivn and non-Ivn countries is South Africa, which may have a much older population.
Back in the days of vinyl, when you wanted to pay tribute to someone you made a mixtape. Inspired by @naninizhoni's perceptiveness, a couple of my favorite "white" singers.
Back in the day, they had the Columbia House music club. My aunt used it to send her nephews music. She decided I would like folk and sent me Buffy Sainte Marie.
Buffy later abandoned the purely folk format for a more rock-driven approach. Used my summer job money for this album.
Sometimes I think the sum total of my twitter life can be boiled down to one or two on mots and sitting between @Theo_TJ_Jordan and whomever he is arguing with enacting the comedy routine whereby by agree with both sides, I only enrage the other participants... A thread...
The problem is I understand Theo Jordan's rage. If we all agree there is a problem, then the best way to go about fixing it is to have an honest discussion. Here is the problem which Michael Harriot wishes to bring into the spotlight.
Unfortunately, the data which Mr. Harriot relies on seems somewhat dubious.
Overlooking the simple fact that lockdowns have been very, very good for the rich -- and hence Tomas Pueyo has more skin in the game than John Edmunds (who will not become a billionaire whether the virus continues or not) we come to the meat of what he is saying.
Controlled burns have been a staple of forestry management since primitive times.
For the past 20 years, California has attempted to enforce a zero burn policy, banning controlled burns.
The result is, in the last 20 years we have seen record numbers in both acres lost as well as the number and intensity of fires per dry season.
One of the biggest trends I have noticed over the years is the lack of love present in people. Not familial love, not romantic love, but the sense of commonality you would get when interacting with people in the day to day world.
Perhaps it is because I worked for most of my life in menial\blue collar jobs that what I see missing is the sense that I used to have that I was making the world a little better by doing things that made someone's life a little better.
When I worked as a janitor I was always pleased that someone would walk into a sparkling lavatory and be happy that things were stocked or emptied and ready for them. I delighted knowing that someone would appreciate a clean bathroom, and I was being paid.