“Now let us begin. Now let us rededicate ourselves to the long and bitter, but beautiful, struggle for a new world.
This is the calling of the [children] of God, and our [fellows] wait eagerly for our response. Shall we say the odds are too great?” #MLKDay2022 1/4
“Shall we tell them the struggle is too hard? Will our message be that the forces of American life militate against their arrival as full [humans], and we send our deepest regrets?” 2/4
“Or will there be another message -- of longing, of hope, of solidarity with their yearnings, of commitment to their cause, whatever the cost?” 3/4
“The choice is ours, and though we might prefer it otherwise, we must choose in this crucial moment of human history.” —Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., April 4, 1967
I suspect MLK Jr. would say about Trump what he said about Barry Goldwater running for POTUS in 1964.
“On social and economic issues, [he] represented an unrealistic conservatism that was totally out of touch with the realities.” #MLKDay2022 quote thread. 1/4
“The issue of poverty compelled the attention of all citizens of our country. [He] had neither the concern nor the comprehension necessary to grapple with this problem of poverty in the fashion that the historical moment dictated.” 2/4
“[He] represents a philosophy that is morally indefensible and socially suicidal. [He] articulates a philosophy which gives aid and comfort to the racist. His candidacy and philosophy would serve as an umbrella under which extremists of all stripes would stand.” 3/4
Each year I'm grateful. This year, despite all the adversity around us, I stand especially grateful. Accepted awards + started projects alongside people I admire. Essayed to grave moments and enduring histories. Finished #HowtoRaiseanAntiracist. Here are 21 highlights from 2021.
1) Jan. 11. After attack on the U.S. Capitol, Republicans and Democrats commonly proclaimed “this is not who we are,” which was a bald-faced denial. I wrote about the normality of this denial. “When have Americans commonly admitted who we are?” theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/…
The passing of bell hooks hurts, deeply. At the same time, as a human being I feel so grateful she gave humanity so many gifts. AIN’T I A WOMAN: BLACK WOMEN AND FEMINISM is one of her many classics. And ALL ABOUT LOVE changed me. Thank you, bell hooks. Rest in our love. 1/4
“LOVE REDEEMS,” bell hooks writes. “Despite all the lovelessness that surrounds us, nothing has been able to block our longing for love, the intensity of our yearning. The understanding that love redeems appears to be a resilient aspect of the heart’s knowledge. . . 2/4
“The healing power of redemptive love lures us and calls us towards the possibility of healing. We cannot account for the presence of the heart’s knowledge. . . 3/4 publicbooks.org/the-book-that-…
What’s striking is that in the piece, the writer claims that "the germ" of Du Bois's Black Reconstruction "was a dispute Du Bois had with the editors of Encyclopedia Britannica in 1929.”
The writer does not include a critical piece of information. 1/5
According to Du Bois’s biographer, David Levering Lewis, the “immediate goad” for Du Bois’s book on reconstruction had been The Tragic Era: The Revolution After Lincoln, a 1929 runaway bestseller written by a political operative and editor named Claude G. Bowers. 2/5
“That the Southern [White] people literally were put to the torture is vaguely understood,” the preface declared, “but even historians have shrunk from the unhappy tasks of showing us the torture chambers.” What put them to the torture? To Bowers, multiracial democracy. 3/5
To the Patriot Front, “America is truly unique in this pan-European identity which forms the roots of our nationhood.” It organizes on the idea that (White) America is under attack (echoing the backlash against CRT and anti-racism as anti-American, anti-White and racist). 1/4
"In order to survive as a culture, a heritage, and a way of being, our nation must learn that its collective interests are fighting against its collective threats of replacement and enslavement," the Patriot Front states in its manifesto. 2/4 burlingtonfreepress.com/story/news/loc…
“America stands at the crossroads of an era. An uncertain future lies in the hands of a new generation which has been given a simple choice between sovereignty and subjugation,” the Patriot Front's manifesto says. A multiracial democracy? Not a choice. 3/4 splcenter.org/fighting-hate/…
GOP Rep. Alicia Lekas, who says teachers are “indoctrinating students,” is sponsoring a “teacher loyalty” bill that will make New Hampshire teachers *indoctrinate* students in only positive accounts of US history (when not including worldwide context). 1/4 concordmonitor.com/House-Republic…
New Hampshire teachers will be ordered to indoctrinate students that the United States—with its free White, dispossessed Indigenous, and enslaved Black populations in 1776—was not founded on any racism. 2/4
New Hampshire Republicans effectively want educators to instruct students that the U.S., with all its racialized slavery then, was “not racist”—and the U.S., with all its racial inequities now, is “not racist.” 3/4