Freedom of Speech and Censorship Part 2

[ It would be wise to browse the recently locked due to size Part 1 @  
https://deepundergroundpoetry.com/forum/speakeasy/read/11417/
and get a sense of which DUP members will provide you with a worthwhile exchange. ]

Please use this thread to discuss Censorship happening here at DUP or elsewhere.

You are also encouraged to exercise YOUR freedom by lending voice to any protest currently in progress.

If you can lend us your personal perspective, it would greatly appreciated. For example, if you actually are non-white skinned, tell us what you think of the #BlackLivesMatter movement and what you believe would help promote reforms and equality.

Ahavati said:
What we would LOVE to see are more of our minority members in the new thread.  This includes all members who are not considered white. We understand that historically it's been difficult to discuss race relations with the majority of white people because of the potential for conflict. We understand that even with close friends it's difficult to call racism out because it's easier for you to just swallow the indignity of it rather than cause a potential wall of denial, et al.

Please, just know that there are those here willing to listen and protect your right to express yourself honestly.

I promise no one will be tear-gassed and forcefully ushered away while the Webmiss poses with a visual poem for a photo opp.

However, behavior of an inflammatory nature will not be tolerated, nor retaliations to such.

THREAD GUIDELINEZ

Share up to 2 poems per day written by others, but not your own ( or your alts ).

As great as poems are to get your point across, we wish to avoid self promotion and encourage more actual dialogue with the limit. This is the only rule you are being asked to follow.

PLEASE adhere to the Forum Guidelines by simply being civil. Here are some tips to maintain healthy discussion and/or debate, and to keep this thread from spiraling into chaos and thus an early grave.

If you must defend your position on an issue, support your opinions with links to fact based articles and perhaps quotes from these - as opposed to parroting opinion based editorials.

Say it once. - don't keep repeating the same thing over and over as if this was a street rally. It's not.

Should someone make unsubstantiated claims about you, ignore them - but do report any remarks that have overstepped into the realm of personal attack / character assassination.

Should someone make unsubstantiated claims about a group or movement you are invested in, do your best to ignore them when it is obvious the remarks are merely for the sake of garnering attention.

Should someone paraphrase or quote your words out of context for the sake of irritating you into engaging them, ignore them instead - but be sure to sigh and roll yours eyes in exasperation.

One of the positive changes that has come about from the George Floyd and BLM protests are police reforms. But, are they enough?

North Carolina Senate passes bills to reform criminal justice system

Two measures that would revamp North Carolina's justice system passed the state Senate on Tuesday.

The Senate voted unanimously to approve the First Step Act and Second Chance Act amid new momentum in addressing systemic and racial disparities in the criminal justice system.

The Second Chance Act would allow certain felonies and misdemeanors committed before Dec. 1, 2019, to be expunged from a juvenile's record. It also would eliminate barriers that limit certain nonviolent crimes to be removed from an adult's record. The First Step Act overturns a portion of the state's mandatory minimum sentencing statute.

"We all need second chances," said Sen. Natalie Murdock, D-Durham. "If people are to truly re-enter society after serving their time, they should have a real opportunity to have a second chance."

https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/politics/north-carolina-senate-passes-bills-to-reform-criminal-justice-system

Police heed calls for change, but result is hodgepodge of reforms

https://www.stltoday.com/news/local/crime-and-courts/police-heed-calls-for-change-but-result-is-hodgepodge-of-reforms/article_1e7c45cb-e959-5539-b91c-da6c8fff6402.html

New York City Council passes series of police reforms, including cops having to show badge numbers

https://www.cbsnews.com/news/new-york-city-council-passes-series-of-police-reforms-including-cops-having-to-show-badge-numbers/

Aurora announces plans for listening sessions about police reforms following unrest in recent weeks

https://www.chicagotribune.com/suburbs/aurora-beacon-news/ct-abn-aurora-mayor-reform-update-st-0621-20200619-g2zoxpcis5aibjrrz56orl5rfq-story.html

Activist leaders say Baltimore County police reforms are a good start, but not enough

https://www.baltimoresun.com/maryland/baltimore-county/towson/cng-co-to-police-reform-reactions-20200619-vkchmxpxqzgi7ogwzywvvioi4u-story.html

Amid pandemic-induced budget cuts, Colorado law enforcement begin to implement sweeping police reform

https://www.denverpost.com/2020/06/21/colorado-law-enforcement-accountability-implementation/

Ahavati said:One of the positive changes that has come about from the George Floyd and BLM protests are police reforms. But, are they enough?


In regard to improving race relations -  No, it's not enough.

In the 13 years following 9/11, there was rampant hateful rhetoric spewed across the Internet about Muslims.  

It was only after Barack Obama was reelected that anchors on the major news outlets - ABC, NBC, CBS - started publicly calling out the rhetoric during live broadcasts for what it was: lies and misinformation. It took 10 years to begin driving a stake through the heart of what was a pandemic of ignorance intentionally fueled to advance political agendas.

We need to be like those news anchors - calling the bullshit for what it is in real time, in full view of the public. We need to address hate vocalized  on social media, whether it is blatant in the form of derogatory insults and threats or subtle smear campaigns against groups and movements empowering minorities and yielding reforms.

We don't need to be hardcore vigilantes; we just need to dispel misinformation and lies with facts when the opportunity manifests.

This is an interesting page:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Racial_politics

Philip Bowring of International Herald Tribune wrote that the political organization of Malaysia has long been largely on racial lines, Islam has at times become a device for use in racial politics, a yardstick for measuring the commitment of competing parties to Malay racial advancement.[15]

I think it’s important to be aware of the blended agenda nuances.

You don’t want religious bigotry to run race politics.

https://deepundergroundpoetry.com/poems/387811-the-24-7-outrage-mob/

Sarcastic political art... is always refreshing.

If the white person is your problem, then only the white person can be your solution. ~ Emmanuel Acho, Uncomfortable Conversations with a Black Man

Emmanuel Acho is one of the panelists that was featured in the Wrap's excellent video on How ‘Open Dialogue’ Might Combat the Wounds of Racial Injustice, that I posted earlier today in the first Freedom of Speech and Censorship thread. That link can be found here:

https://www.thewrap.com/emmanuel-acho-tika-sumpter-on-how-open-dialogue-might-combat-the-wounds-of-racial-injustice-video/

Acho sits down in his own video series to have an “uncomfortable conversation” with white America, in order to educate and inform on racism, system racism, social injustice, rioting & the hurt African Americans are feeling today.

You can enjoy the first episode below. ( It's closed captioned for the deaf )

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h8jUA7JBkF4&feature=emb_logo

The second features a dialogue with Matthew McConaughey, who beautifully reads an excerpt of Langston Hughes's poem Let American Be America Again

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CwiY4i8xWIc

Brown University

Martin Puryear’s “Slavery Memorial,” dedicated in 2014, recognizes Brown University’s connection to the trans-Atlantic slave trade and all those, enslaved and free, who helped to build the University, Rhode Island and the nation.

The memorial is a space for reflection, as is this date, June 19 — Juneteenth — which the University has designated as a paid day off for employees to reflect and educate on issues of anti-Black racism. The University is deeply committed to addressing the enduring impact of racism and bias on campus, recently announcing a series of actions to support this mission, including upcoming opportunities for discussion and evaluation.

Here are a few resources compiled by the Office of Institutional Equity and Diversity to help with these important conversations: https://brow.nu/oied-resources

I’m still processing all of this information. I have strongly supported and defended the Black Lives Matter movement. But now I’m wondering: Do Vietnamese lives matter? Do Asian lives matter? Where is the outrage and empathy? Why do hearts break for Charleena Lyles, while Tommy Le doesn’t seem to get a second thought? Is it because people don’t care, or because many people just don’t know? Is Charleena Lyles’s death a better “story”? And for the people who staunchly respond “All Lives Matter” anytime “Black Lives Matter” is mentioned, where are you now? Does “All Lives Matter” really just mean “White Lives Matter,” or “Be Quiet”?
It’s a lot to unpack. I expect my thoughts on this to evolve as I learn more. As someone of Asian descent, I am also trying to separate my personal perspective in all of this as well. But regardless, I am deeply disturbed by the disparate coverage that these two cases are receiving. Tommy Le deserves more.

https://medium.com/@awchristensen/do-asian-lives-matter-contemplating-disparate-coverage-of-charleena-lyless-and-tommy-le-s-deaths-f29ed982be90

Posting this because when the Bible was teaching me that all lives matter, it always included Asians. ❤️

Amazing article. Harding has been trashed by history over the Teapot Dome scandal and he died early in his administration. But this was, in the context of the times, courageous and inspiring.

The Republican president who called for racial justice in America after Tulsa massacre

Warren G. Harding’s comments about race and equality were remarkable for 1921

https://www.washingtonpost.com/

Racial violence and a pandemic: How the Red Summer of 1919 relates to 2020

Racial strife flaring across the United States. Black Americans standing up to societal structures in unpredictable ways. And people enduring months of a deadly pandemic infecting millions worldwide, shuttering businesses and heightening fears of a lengthy economic downturn.

That was 1919, during what would later be coined the "Red Summer," when communities across America were reeling from white mobs inciting brutality against Black people and cities were still wrestling with a third wave of the so-called Spanish flu pandemic that emerged the previous year.

The story line parallels with today: violence against Black people, leading to mass demonstrations and calls to end systemic racism, converging with a months-long coronavirus pandemic. Such commonality is not lost on historians and scholars of African American history.

"These are moments of extreme precariousness, where people are suddenly uncertain about their fate, economic protests, and the social order," said Geoff Ward, a professor of African and African American studies at Washington University in St. Louis who has mapped out historic incidents of racial violence.

"Mass mobilization may be more likely in such circumstances where people feel they have little to lose," he said, "and so much at stake."

But if history is any indication, the developments of barely a century ago, when civil rights groups were reinvigorated and Black journalists and activists asserted their voices, might also offer a glimpse into how 2020 — and beyond — could play out.

Racial strife flaring across the United States. Black Americans standing up to societal structures in unpredictable ways. And people enduring months of a deadly pandemic infecting millions worldwide, shuttering businesses and heightening fears of a lengthy economic downturn.

That was 1919, during what would later be coined the "Red Summer," when communities across America were reeling from white mobs inciting brutality against Black people and cities were still wrestling with a third wave of the so-called Spanish flu pandemic that emerged the previous year.

The story line parallels with today: violence against Black people, leading to mass demonstrations and calls to end systemic racism, converging with a months-long coronavirus pandemic. Such commonality is not lost on historians and scholars of African American history.

"These are moments of extreme precariousness, where people are suddenly uncertain about their fate, economic protests, and the social order," said Geoff Ward, a professor of African and African American studies at Washington University in St. Louis who has mapped out historic incidents of racial violence.

"Mass mobilization may be more likely in such circumstances where people feel they have little to lose," he said, "and so much at stake."

But if history is any indication, the developments of barely a century ago, when civil rights groups were reinvigorated and Black journalists and activists asserted their voices, might also offer a glimpse into how 2020 — and beyond — could play out.

What happened during the Red Summer of 1919?

The general mob-led violence against Black people actually began before the summer in localized incidents.

In the book "Red Summer: The Summer of 1919 and the Awakening of Black America," author Cameron McWhirter described what led up to a deadly riot in Jenkins County, Georgia, in April, when Black churches were burned and Black men killed.

It was just the start: "In coming months, similar horrors would afflict cities and towns across America. The violence that April Sunday was only the beginning of what would become known as the Red Summer of 1919, when riots and lynchings spread throughout the country, causing havoc and harming thousands — yet also awakening millions of blacks to fight for rights guaranteed them, but so long denied."

Story continues:

https://news.yahoo.com/racial-violence-pandemic-red-summer-090452290.html

Here’s a black voice...


“We are not her to peacefully protest, we are here to disrupt”
“Got to break it all the way down to rebuild”

https://www.foxnews.com/us/seattle-chop-protest-police-video

An excerpt from the above article:

[ . . . ]

The fight for racial justice in 2020 follows a series of high-profile incidents of Black Americans being killed at the hands of police or former law enforcement and of Black Americans having to affirm their place and existence while doing ordinary things and often facing the threat of police being called on them.

Mathieu said the blatant racism of 1919 reverberates in other ways today, including by white women who are caught on viral videos questioning a Black person's agency and yet don't see themselves as exhibiting racism. Social media users label them as a "Karen."

"These current Karens believe that they are defending their families and their communities, that they're these moral vigilantes," Mathieu said. "And they get away with it much more quickly than white men with guns because we still ascribe a fragility to these white women that I'm not always sure they have earned. When you look at history, white women were foot soldiers in some of these riots and women 100 years ago were just starting to flex their muscle within the Klan."

[ . . . ]

The more things change the more they stay the same.

To our black community who have expressed a desire to participate in race discussions, but not on a dissenting platform, we are working diligently toward making that happen. Please have patience; your voice will be heard without argument or reprisal.

https://educationpost.org/tag/charter-school-leaders-of-color/

The Newest Civil Rights issue today:

Dept. of Justice looking into noose found in NASCAR star Bubba Wallace's garage stall

https://www.cnn.com/2020/06/22/us/nascar-noose-bubba-wallace-spt-trnd/index.html

"The U.S. Attorney's office for the Northern District of Alabama, FBI and the Department of Justice Civil Rights Division are reviewing the situation surrounding the noose that was found in Bubba Wallace's garage to determine whether there are violations of federal law," US Attorney Jay E. Town said in statement.

"Regardless of whether federal charges can be brought, this type of action has no place in our society."

Fuckers.

Wallace tweeted Sunday that the "despicable act" left him "incredibly saddened and serves as a painful reminder of how much further we have to go as a society and how persistent we must be in the fight against racism."

"This will not break me, I will not give in nor will I back down. I will continue to proudly stand for what I believe in," Wallace said.

You go, Bubba, GO!