This is a week late.
That I was no longer posting a piece of media daily was a factor, because that could have reminded me, but I think that it was a busy work week and I as fretting over getting the dog into the vet, which has become harder due to staffing shortages, which is why my work is so busy and also relates to not knowing when I can get my blood draw...
Well, the world is still rough, and I am not ready to go back to regular blogging.
I am still very glad that I did this.
February 22nd
Ida B. Wells
She has been my hero since high school. That was first for her anti-lynching crusade, using her writing to fight injustice. As I learned more about her, from caring for orphaned siblings, fighting discrimination on street cars, creating resources and always energetically doing good... still my hero.
Paired with "Hurricane" by Grace Jones, to give some idea of her energy. "Strange Fruit" would have fit, but unfortunately it fits for a lot of things.
February 23rd
When They See Us (2019)
Sometimes the past isn't even that far past. I remember this, and their exoneration, and I have read a book by Linda Fairstein where she uses "articulate" to describe three different Black people, a small but telling sign of her unacknowledged conforming to structural racism. Of course she continues to doubt the exoneration; she is not set up for any kind of deeper analysis.
(The book was Sexual Violence, about the building up of the "Special Victims Unit", in television terms. It used to be recommended, but I think that is less likely to happen now.)
I don't want to focus on her, but the other thing that is not past is the damage caused. We all need to be make an effort to understand it.
Paired with "Love & Hate" by Michael Kiwanuka, as featured on the soundtrack.
February 24th
Spies of Mississippi (2014)
I watched this Dawn Porter documentary when it was new (I will read the book someday), and I had to keep rewinding and watching one segment over to transcribe it, because it was so appalling.
"The Jackson Police Department operates with the best demonstration deterrent of any city in the country. In addition to Thompson's Tank, armor-plated and equipped with nine machine gun positions, the arsenal includes cage trucks for transporting masses of arrested violators, searchlight trucks, each of which can light three city blocks in case of night riots, police dog teams, trained to trail, search a building, or disperse a mob or crowd, mounted police for controlling parades or pedestrian traffic, and compounds and detention facilities to hold and house 10000 prisoners.
Along with these ironclad police facilities are new ironclad state laws, outlawing picketing, economic boycotting and demonstrating. Other laws to control the printing and distribution of certain types of information, and laws to dampen complaints to federal authorities."
Remember, this is to fight people working on voter registration. For citizens.
The associated book is from 2010, and making films takes a long time, so in theory this was not influenced by Ferguson, and could not have been influenced by unmarked vans in Portland, and yet, the problems remain similar.
Paired with "Misissippi Goddam" by Nina Simone.
February 25th
Tulsa Burning: The 1921 Race Massacre (2021)
The difference between a lynching and a race riot is primarily one of scale. The same economic factors, the same lies, the same failures of law enforcement... they are all there. The problems remain similar.
"Strange Fruit" by Billie Holiday
February 26th
Andrea Davis Pinkney and Brian Pinkney
Not everything is anger and sadness. Looking up The Snowy Day before I shared it, I learned about A Poem for Peter, and started reading multiple works by Andrea Davis Pinkney, most of which were written with her illustrator husband. They create works about Black history, and art, and love for brown babies
In fact, I had already read something of Andrea's, when I was exploring Sean Qualls, whom I found through reading disability-themed children's books.
I had also read something from Brian's father, Caldecott medalist Jerry Pinkney (because I was reading all the Caldecott winners), and Jerry's wife and Brian's mother is an author, so I think I will explore works by them next year.
I love connection, and I love when it comes along with other things that I try and do.
Paired with "Harlem Congo" by Chick Webb, one of the tracks mentioned in Ella Fitzgerald: The Tale of a Vocal Virtuoso.
February 27th
Reparations Toolkit
What immediately struck me about this is how much it sounded like repentance, and that makes perfect sense. We can do things to improve, but unless we transform, and root out the white supremacy, it's not going to work. That is the change that is needed.
https://m4bl.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/05/Reparations-Now-Toolkit-FINAL.pdf
Paired with "Up Above My Head" by Sister Rosetta Tharpe
February 28th
"Grief Over Time" - interview with Sybrina Fulton by Derecka Purnell for The Cut
Aside from the personal emotions that I still have over Trayvon Martin's death, and a normal empathy for grief, what strikes me here is this perspective of people working for similar goals, if not exactly the same, and the room for conflict between them. It may even be competition, and sabotage, if there is concern that different techniques could harm the goal. We still do that, and I am convinced it doesn't help.
She looks to a future that I hope will be better.
https://www.thecut.com/article/sybrina-fulton-trayvon-martin-interview.html
Paired with "Hourglass" by Mary J. Blige
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