August Shares - Joy is a Good Thing!
Joy is a good thing!
Driving by a group of people holding signs for the former President recently, I noticed one of the signs being shoved out for passers-by to see said the following: “Joy won’t pay the bills.”
Many things strike me about the former President’s messaging and the ability of his supporters to continually justify racism, classicism, sexism and a number of other isms that marginalize other human beings, so I guess it is no surprise that the joy being exhibited by supporters of Vice President Harris and her campaign should be a source of frustration. It must be strange to see a campaign founded on unity where people are energized by joy when you support a candidate who thrives on division and hate.
Anyway, I came across the poem below from Mary Oliver in a couple of different feeds online, and my boss read it on our opening day of the new school year. It’s a great reminder as we head into what will undoubtedly be a tumultuous few months…
Don’t Hesitate - by Mary Oliver
If you suddenly and unexpectedly feel joy, don’t hesitate.
Give in to it.
There are plenty of lives and whole towns destroyed or about to be.
We are not wise, and not very often kind. And much can never be redeemed.
Still, life has some possibility left.
Perhaps this is its way of fighting back, that sometimes something happens better than all the riches or power in the world.
It could be anything, but very likely you notice it in the instant when love begins.
Anyway, that’s often the case.
Anyway, whatever it is, don’t be afraid of its plenty.
Joy is not made to be a crumb.
Readings that resonated this month
"Insulting Black Women": Kimberlé Crenshaw on the Racist, Sexist GOP Campaign Against Kamala Harris
In this interview with Kimberlé Crenshaw, she reminds us “that it’s important to remember how we got to the point where racist and sexist attacks are ubiquitous during this campaign season while the antiracist commitments that have emerged from decades of struggle are themselves subject to censure and erasure.”
Crenshaw also reminds us, “Harris will become the perfect avatar for all that aggrieves those who fear the browning of America more than they fear the collapse of democracy and the rise of fascism.”
Crenshaw’s interview is a perfect transition into the next article by Nikole Hannah-Jones from the New York Times Magazine.
The Willful Amnesia Behind Trump’s Attacks on Harris’s Identity
“Trump once again attempted to be the arbiter of racial categorization. When he questioned Harris’s racial identity under the belief that it might somehow persuade a room full of Black journalists, and therefore Black America writ large, that she is not like us, he showed that he respects neither the history of this country nor the Black voters he claims he is courting.”
“The irony of the moment was sharp: the head of a party that has justified a four-year campaign seeking to attack and ban books and school curricula about Black people and this nation’s history of racism by arguing that Democrats are obsessed with racial identity was now attacking Harris for her racial identity.”
We urgently need more antiracist journalism. Here is how we’ll play our part.
This article from The Emancipator, a nonprofit digital magazine that reimagines the nation’s first abolitionist newspapers, reminds readers of our country’s history of racism and the pushback from progress toward a true multiracial democracy.
“I now understand that accepting the permanence of racism in this country does not mean accepting racism,” scholar Michelle Alexander wrote in 2018, introducing a new edition of Bell’s book. “It does not mean being a passive spectator as politicians engage in racial scapegoating.”
A Failure by Politico
The headline below was a major failure by a mainstream media outlet following Vice President Harris’ interview with CNN this past week. Saying Vice President Harris evaded questions is extremely deceptive when she has been very consistent in her responses when questioned about explicitly racist attacks from the former President. If you are a journalist and you don’t understand that the following is a deliberate and complete response to questions about this guy’s ongoing racist attacks, then please resign your position:
“Same old, tired playbook. Next question, please.”
Podcasts/Interviews that resonated
The Wilderness (podcast) -Kamala Harris’s Winning Message
In this episode with political strategist Anat Shenker-Osorio, the discussion focused on the type of messaging that would best resonate with undecided voters. Shenker-Osorio talked about the “credulity chasm” around some things that might happen if the former President is reelected. For instance, some of the goals of Project 2025 seem so far-fetched when they are discussed, some people simply write them off as B.S.
As Shenker-Osario explains, “One of the biggest challenges that we have serving about Project 2025 is that when we actually cut and paste verbatim from the Heritage document, people are like, that’s a bunch of bullshit. Like, why did you make that up? And what is wrong with you? And why are you lying to us? And we’re like, we actually have to temper what is in the document in order to be able to ask questions about it. It’s extraordinarily hard to write these questions because people think that it’s apocryphal and like, so we have to make it sound less terrible.”
'Not a badge of honor': how book bans affect Indigenous literature - From NPR’s Code Switch
From the episode website:
“For some authors, finding their book on a "banned" list can feel almost like a badge of honor, putting them right there with classics like The Bluest Eye and To Kill a Mockingbird. But the reality is that most banned books never get the kind of recognition or readership that the most famous ones do. And books by underrepresented authors have been disproportionately targeted by bans.”
Great Resources I found this month!
The History of Racial Injustice Calendar from the Equal Justice Initiative highlights a racial injustice event each day from our country’s past. It is a great way to gain a fuller understanding of the horrific events of our past and put to rest any thoughts that large-scale racism happened infrequently or in certain places.
Politifact - Just a reminder that this is a good site to check out if you want to fact check what either side is saying during the election season…