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26 Sep, 25 tweets, 16 min read
On this chilly Fall morning, here’s my 47th #ScholarSunday thread of great public scholarly writing & work from the past week! Enjoy & share more, por favor! #twitterstorians
So, so much great work happening around issues of immigration, refugees, & deportation. Like this upcoming convo w/@adamsigoodman & @prof_erikalee for @UMN_IHRC:
& this from @UnlawfulEntries for @madebyhistory on state laws & policies before the evolution of federal control:
washingtonpost.com/outlook/2021/0…
& this from @KarenMusalo for @ConversationUS on asylum laws, the border, & racism:
theconversation.com/haitian-migran…
& this @Slate interview with @MonicaMnzMtz on the @Refusing2Forget project & the history of the Border Patrol:
slate.com/news-and-polit…
& this from @FictionsofHaiti for @Essence on Haitian migrants, the US, & historical exploitations:
essence.com/news/haiti-isn…
& this from @KatzonEarth for @PostOpinions & the two nations’ intertwined interests:
washingtonpost.com/outlook/2021/0…
& this @FabiolaCineas interview with @Carl_Lindskoog for @voxdotcom on exclusions of Haitian asylum seekers:
vox.com/22689472/haiti…
& this from @rdevro for @theintercept, featuring insights from @YaelSchacher, on Haitians as canaries in the coal mine of exclusionary brutalities:
theintercept.com/2021/09/21/bid…
& this @NPR conversation w/Alicia Schmidt Camacho on the border’s humanitarian crisis:
npr.org/2021/09/24/104…
& this from @FontanillaRyan for @BostonReview on the slave trade roots of immigration enforcement:
bostonreview.net/race/ryan-font…
Finally, I dedicated my new @SatEvePost Considering History column to the frustratingly, tellingly contradictory history of US refugee policies--& our chance to change that history now:
saturdayeveningpost.com/2021/09/consid…
Other great public scholarly work this week as well, of course. Fantastic new @Unsung__History ep, featuring @AshleyRoseYoung & @DeeLightfulCups on Chef Lena Richard:
unsunghistorypodcast.com/lena-richard/
For F. Scott Fitzgerald’s 125th birthday, a thoughtful convo b/t Andrew Martin & Benjamin Nugent for @lithub on what might follow the cult of Fitzgerald:
lithub.com/do-fictional-c…
RIP to the groundbreaking antebellum historian Charles Sellers, eulogized beautifully here for @nytimes by @risenc.
nytimes.com/2021/09/24/boo…
@UnlawfulEntries’ piece wasn’t the only vital @madebyhistory column this week. There was @ShiraLurie on the true danger of the 1/6 Lost Cause narrative:
washingtonpost.com/outlook/2021/0…
@FinisDunaway on indigenous advocacy & the struggle for environmental justice:
washingtonpost.com/outlook/2021/0…
& Eric Avila on Disneyland’s racist roots:
washingtonpost.com/outlook/2021/0…
Lots of goodness for @BlkPerspectives this week as well & as ever; here I’ll share three: @robgreeneII on MLK & 1619:
aaihs.org/martin-luther-…
@danroyles on @LilNasX & AIDS activism:
aaihs.org/lil-nas-x-the-…
& Gloria Ashaolu reviews @jarvisrgivens’ Fugitive Pedagogy:
aaihs.org/the-countercur…
Finally, I have to end with the bracing & vital Robert Kagan @PostOpinions piece so many have shared, & rightly so. The moment to fight, on all fronts, is now.
washingtonpost.com/opinions/2021/…
But finally finally, I want to end on a more upbeat & inspiring note, so here’s @Amy_Fallas for @contingent_mag on her unlikely friendship with the Newtown (CT) Town Historian:
contingentmagazine.org/2021/09/25/the…
PS. I’m sure I missed plenty as ever, so please share more public scholarly writing & work, including your own, here! Thanks and solidarity in the reading, the writing, & the fight!
PPS. Just saw this upcoming @ZinnEdProject convo with @katemasur!

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More from @AmericanStudier

Ben Railton Profile picture
11 Jul
As my hometown of #Charlottesville completes a weekend of overdue statue removals w/UVa’s Clark statue this morning, wanted to make this week’s #ScholarSunday thread a bit different: pieces & voices to help contextualize this moment! #twitterstorians
Gotta preface the thread by shouting out the amazing young scholar & activist (and fellow Charlottesville High School alum) most responsible for getting us to this moment, @ZyahnaB (& all those @TakeEmDownCVL):

zyahnabryant.com
First, a handful of the many scholars who’ve been doing the work for years. @HilaryGreen77 has created an excellent database of statue & monument histories & removals:

hgreen.people.ua.edu/csa-monument-m…
Read 30 tweets
Ben Railton Profile picture
10 Jul
Wrapping up the blog series on work in American lit with a special weekend post examining five pop culture characters who reflect the range of work in 21st century America!

americanstudier.blogspot.com/2021/07/july-1…
From @john_sayles' Nick Rinaldi & @AoDespair's Janette Desautel to @blackishabc's Dre & @ConstanceWu's Destiny/Dorothy, these characters take us across a great deal of the late 90s, early 2000s, & up to the gig economy of the 2020s.
But I have to single out Zulema from the 2010 documentary The Harvest (La Cosecha), a heartbreaking & crucial voice & story that all Americans should watch, now more than ever.

Read 5 tweets
Ben Railton Profile picture
10 Jul
So the boys were called racial slurs by a fellow camper (who was asked to leave). Gonna make this a starting point for my next @SatEvePost column, so just a couple things here. (NB. They had an amazing time as ever & are stoked for next year when Aidan'll be a proto-counselor!)
First, it happened 'cause they were awesome allies! Jackassclown was insulting a Chinese American camper w/whom they were playing tennis, & Kyle said, "Hey we're Asian too!" It's been so great to see the boys embrace their identities more & more, & this is a moving case in point.
Second, I was talking w/Aidan about it last night, & specifically about it being the first time they've been directly targeted by such bigotry. I asked if he was feeling badly about it, then or since, & he said, "No, I just thought, 'Well, that guy's a racist!'"
Read 5 tweets
Ben Railton Profile picture
8 Jul
“Every Rose Has its Thorn” is really a primer in terrible similes. “Though it’s been a while now/I can still feel so much pain/Like a knife that cuts you, the wounds heals/But the scar remains.” Dude, I think your scar is infected.
Also, I for one do not want to rule the world. Sounds exhausting.
Listen to classic rock radio long enough, and you come at last to the worst verse in history: “Billy Mack is a detective down in Texas/You know he always knows exactly what the facts is/He ain’t gonna let those two escape justice/He makes his living off the people’s taxes.”
Read 4 tweets
Ben Railton Profile picture
3 Jun
I wanted to say a couple things about a historical figure who used to be on my Memory Day Calendar (for his June 1 birthday), why I removed him, & the difference between history & commemoration: Supreme Court Justice John Marshall Harlan. #twitterstorians
For a long time, I knew Harlan only for his inspiring (mostly—hold that thought) dissent in Plessy v. Ferguson (1896), & specifically for his striking & influential argument there that the Constitution is “color-blind.”

chnm.gmu.edu/courses/nclc37…
Along with Homer Plessy & his lawyer, the thoroughly awesome Albion Tourgée, I thus put Harlan into the category of “inspiring historical figures we can learn from amidst a horrific, exclusionary, white supremacist historical event.”

google.com/books/edition/…
Read 19 tweets
Ben Railton Profile picture
1 Jun
As we start #PrideMonth, I wanted to quote from a paragraph from my 60s chapter in Of Thee I Sing, highlighting critical patriotic LGBTQ rights activism that predated Stonewall: "One of the earliest & most overtly critical patriotic 1960s LGBT rights protests took place outside+
Philadelphia’s Independence Hall on July 4th, 1965. Organized by a courageous group of activists called the Gay Pioneers, this first of what would become known as the Annual Reminder Marches was very purposefully held in that historically significant location+
+on that nationally symbolic occasion; as one of its participants, Reverend Robert Wood, put it, “We were picketing for freedom and equal rights, and the Liberty Bell was a great symbol.”+
Read 5 tweets

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