Yeah, I know, everyone is tired of cops. So are we, but they aren’t going away. Towards the end, some people drove up with a truck full of wood, and people were busy grabbing pieces and throwing it into the river, if not to build another bridge that day, to block the cops. The last shots are facing towards camp, as a lot of us were returning to rest and recoup. Click for full size.
© C. Ford, all rights reserved.
Oh, university, where you go to embark on great learning, new experiences, opening that mind! Supposedly, anyway. Seems many people at university go there with their underdeveloped brains set in cement. Today, it’s the University of Alabama. At least it’s not Ndakota again.
Students and administrators were welcomed by a sea of hateful Trump-inspired chalk messages outside Manly Hall at the University of Alabama on Friday, AL.com reports.
Manly Hall is home to the departments of Religious Studies and Gender and Race Studies and the messages clearly targeted the people who frequent the building.
The racist and anti-feminist messages were written in chalk outside the building and read, “Build a freaking wall #YUGE,” “Trump 2016,” “F*ck your feelings,” and “#Feminism is cancer.”
A faculty member of the department shared the photos on Facebook with a message that accompanied the post. Juan P Black Romero, who is a part-time instructor of “race, gender, and Latino immigration politics” at the university wrote:
Another of those hateful mornings at my office. They have become too common by now. Less than a week from the election and the push for the open display of racial difference that is becoming more desirable if not acceptable. This messages are warnings and threats to all of us who want a better world for all. These messages set the limits of the achievements of our society up to this point; these messages tell us that we have gone too far in our claims of treating each other as human beings and working together. This is what is being offered as a reality in this election with Trump, this limitation and eradication of anything that doesn’t build race and fulfill the desires of Whites.
I can’t say I am angry anymore; I am scared, but I won’t stop, ever, doing my job. If anything, I can say that I am more inclined to love. Today, I will join a group of scholars and students that deal with these issues of difference – race, gender, ageism, class, disability, and more. We will work on this, I am sure; work for a better world.
Well said, Mr. Romero. We certainly have our work cut out for us.
Via Raw Story.
Virginia man outside polling location carrying a handgun_ — Image via Twitter.
A woman in Virginia claims she was stopped by a man wearing a Trump T-shirt and wearing a handgun on his hip, who blocked her path to a voting site on Friday and asked her if she was voting for Democratic Presidential nominee Hillary Clinton.
A local GOP official defended the man, stating, “It’s a free country.”
In an interview with the Huffington Post, Erika Cotti said she was on the was to county’s registrar’s office in Loudon County in order to vote when she was accosted by the man
“I had my 9-year-old son with me. I felt intimidated,” Cotti said. “And I had to explain to my 9-year-old why a man with a 357 magnum is standing outside the polling station.”
[…]
Loudoun County registrar Judy Brown confirmed that the man was outside the office, but was beyond the 40-foot no-canvassing zone so there was nothing she could do about it, with law enforcement saying the man had a right to carry the gun in an open-carry state.
“They said that there’s nothing they could do, that he was well within his rights to be carrying his weapon,” Brown explained.
Informed about that man, a local Republican Party official, stated that the man is a former law enforcement official, and that they asked him to pull his Trump T-shirt over the gun on his hip.
“’We don’t want to startle anyone,’” Republican Committee Chairman Will Estrada told the Huffington Post. “He felt really bad, he pulled his T-shirt over it, and I think everything was fine after that.”
Oh, the wrong. He felt really bad? He didn’t seem to feel bad when he was busy intimidating voters, attempting to force a repub ticket on them, and asking who they were going to vote for. Now we know the magic of making guns everywhere okay – just pull your shirt over them. No one would ever be able to tell you had a gun then, oh no. And of course, no one would feel the least bit intimidated anymore, what with that magical piece of gun neutralizing fabric taking care of everything. FFS.
The problem with this free country business? It’s only a free country for the same people it always has been, colonial white people. Out at Standing Rock, it’s quite clear that it’s not a free country for us Indians. Across the nation, it’s quite clear that it’s not a free country for any persons of colour, and it’s certainly not a free country for those who do not profess Christianity.
Via Raw Story.
The kayakers were able to get in and out quickly, avoiding the cops while dropping supplies to those on the front line, such as bottles of apple cider vinegar, to help counter the near constant clouds of pepper spray. They never stopped spraying, just took a break from it now and then. The irony may have been lost on the cops, but it certainly wasn’t lost on the protectors when cops started carting water down the hill, and it was being passed out among the cops. There were more than a few offers to replace that water with cans of oil. Many of the cops happily took a break, sucking down clean water, chatting, telling jokes, and laughing. Then it was back to gassing and shooting unarmed people. Click for full size.
We’re back home, and safe. As always happens when we’re back to camp, we wish we could simply dig in and stay. In the first two shots, you can see where the fire was set. (That night, the constant air surveillance mysteriously stopped about two hours prior, and no one responded to the numerous 911 calls about the fire.) There are always infiltrators in the camp, you can’t keep them all out, and then there are people like the man in a truck full of weapons, who wanted to put up a confederate flag. Security has tightened up within the camp, and at least one infiltrator was found and being detained as we were on our way to the action on Turtle Island. There were many new semi-permanent structures up, and many more in the process of going up. Lots of yurts popped up all over camp, too.
Back to the beginning. We loaded up with firewood and supplies, and took off. Things were mostly normal for about half the trip, then we started seeing cops everywhere. Right about when we hit the town of Solen, which is still many miles away from camp, we saw cops pull over a large U-haul truck, that was full of supplies and donations for the camps. Cops were pulling them over and making them take everything out of the trucks. When we got to the Cannonball pit stop, there was another large U-haul truck, many more trucks and vans, several large dumpsters, and piles of good all over the place. At the time, we didn’t know what that was all about. We had to pass through several large masses of cops and finally made it to camp. We headed straight for the main kitchen, to offload the firewood, but it was gone. We found a spot to stay in Oglala camp, then wandered off to try and figure out wtf. Calls were going out for the elderly and women with children to get to the Cannonball School across the river. Then there were calls to get out to Turtle Island, for the action there. (In the 5th photo, you can see the cops massing on top of the hill). We took off on the long walk (in the 8th photo, you can see where it starts – all the way to the left, there’s cops on the hill, and in the boat almost directly down). Warriors race by on horseback, going full speed with messages and information. Cars were driving on the small road non-stop, and foot traffic was thick.
A bridge had been built, and subsequently destroyed by cops. On the other side of the hill, DAPL was working, and once again, DA and ETP failed to report finding sacred sites and artifacts. Up on the hill, where the cops are, right by the tree, are the graves Alma Perkin and Matilda Gain. People wanted to protect this area. Cops showed up, in increasing numbers, armed to the teeth, saying they were asked by ACE to keep the land clear. A cop at the top of the hill kept shouting through a megaphone for everyone to take the protest back across the river, then they would leave. Right. You’ve seen some of those photos, there will be more to come. As always, surveillance was constant. There were three planes and two helicopters that day.
Later that day, we made it back into camp, and settled into the council fire area to hear the latest. Rick was working on more walking sticks, and I had the horse quilt with me. 500 ministers had descended, from all over the states, and burnt a copy of the Doctrine of Discovery in an act of ceremony and solidarity. We spoke with one minister, Vicki, from California, who was active in Indigenous affairs and actions local to her, and was still a bit blown away and dazed at being in the camp. There were visitors to the camp representing Amazon Indigenous peoples, and it was very moving, listening to them talk, through translators, about their own troubles with extractive industries, and the importance of unity in the fight to protect our earth. About that time, the wind was whipping up, so I retreated to the van to continue working on the quilt. I could still hear what was going on at council fire. There was an announcement that there would be trucks coming in, including a Veterans for Peace van, with all the stuff from the Cannonball pit stop. When the cops finished destroying the 1851 Treaty Camp, and arresting and/or injuring everyone there, apparently, they tossed everything they could find into four dumpsters and just left them at the pit stop. Volunteers had been out there for a couple of days, going through the dumpsters, and retrieving peoples’ goods, and many sacred items. Everything was being brought into the camp to be sorted, and to start the process of trying to return things to their rightful owners, especially all the sacred items which had been treated so disrespectfully by cops. Head over to the Sacred Stone Blog to read more about the 1851 Treaty Camp and what happened there. ICTMN has more on the police action which took place on Wednesday and Thursday. We’ll be going back out again next week, so things might be very slow on Affinity for a while.
Oh, it has been reported that two cops have turned in their badges over what they have been made to do lately. Here’s hoping more of them find their conscience.
© C. Ford, all rights reserved.
Driving by back home to pick up more firewood. We arrived at camp in time to hear a call for all women with children and the elderly to get to the school across the Cannonball River, word was the camp (Oceti Sakowin) was going to be raided. It wasn’t, but that’s because they were busy a bit to the northeast of camp, what was being called Turtle Island by all those at camp. More on this later, when I have more time. The unnecessary, cowardly actions taken by cops was very ugly to see. Protectors were being gassed and shot by cops who were mere feet away from them. (Rubber bullets, but one young man has already been hospitalized with bleeding from the lungs, thanks to one of those harmless bullets). It was a terrible shock to hear and see one of the cops raise his gun and fire into the protectors. Over one hundred cops were there, including snipers. Okay, off again, back home tomorrow. Click photos for full size.
All photos © C. Ford, all rights reserved.
Every year, there’s always a slew of “Indian” costumes, and plenty of thoughtless, ignorant people to use us and our cultures as a shallow dress up day. Social media on Halloween is especially bad for Indians, as you see one asshole after another, most often white, tweeting or facebooking their oh so cool gonna be an Indian for a day costumes, bristling with defensiveness over their right to appropriation, and how awful us damn Indians are for speaking out about it, that’s just bullying poor white people who aren’t doing anything wrong!
This year sees yet another celebrity who thinks Indian dress up is cool and fun:
Hillary Duff and Boyfriend Jason Walsh Dress as Pilgrim and Native American ‘Chief’ – MICHAEL KOVAC/GETTY IMAGES.
UPDATE: Apologies proffered by Duff and Walsh. Walsh’s, um, apology, trotted out the standard “I meant no disrespect, I have nothing but admiration!” yada, yada, yada. No, you don’t have admiration, and that’s not wanted anyway. There are, of course, a number of people who are upset any apology was offered, tweets at the link. Some non-native people have also posted photos of themselves dressed up as “Indian” and have posted to #NoDAPL. As for Natives who play dress up, Dr. Keene addresses that at Native Appropriations.
This year, 2016, sees a new twist on the bigotry and appropriation. It seems some people think it’s really cool to depict those NoDAPL water protectors for what they are – lazy, shiftless, drunken injuns living on handouts from all those hard working white people:
These are Ndakotans, people we are surrounded by. I can’t say anything right now, this is one lousy way to start the day. You can read more here.
Grant Stinchfield.
NRA TV. There’s something that is unneeded as an extra hole in the head. The host of NRA TV is Grant Stinchfield, pro-Trump, and quite the conspiracy fan. There are times I miss television, and there are times I’m very grateful I decided I could live without it. This is definitely the latter.
Grant Stinchfield, the host of a new venture from the National Rifle Association called NRATV, has written on social media that minorities should be blamed for gun violence and promoted conspiracy theories that Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia was murdered and that “maybe Israelis” shot down a Russian passenger aircraft.
Launched earlier this month, NRATV plays material from the NRA’s video archive 24 hours a day, with Stinchfield breaking in to give live updates. Many of the updates involve promoting the candidacy of Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump and are branded with a graphic that says, “ELECTION COUNTDOWN: SAVE THE 2ND.” (Though Stinchfield, a conservative Texas-based radio host and former Republican candidate for Congress, previously authored a column in which he said he regretted voting for Trump during the GOP primary.)
Media Matters has the full story, along with an assortment of Stinchfield’s conspiracy tweets.
Donald Trump and Wayne Allyn Root (YouTube/screen grab).
That perpetual font of nuttery, Wayne Allyn Root is at it again. He seems to think it’s simply not possible for “one of the handsomest billionaires ever” to commit sexual assault because handsome. Good lookin’ does not excuse anyone from sexual assault.
Root rejoiced that Trump’s army of “deplorable” supporters have now taken over the GOP, warning that these “savages” are intent on burning Washington, D.C. to the ground.
“Donald Trump is a middle finger to Washington, D.C.,” Root crowed, before warning Christians that they cannot sit on the sideline in this election because Hillary Clinton and the Democrats “are coming to take our Bibles away.”
“If you’re a Christian, you just can’t spend your life worrying about the words of Donald Trump from 11 years ago,” Root said, “or what women he groped 30 years ago. I don’t believe any of it anyway. I believe Donald Trump is one of the handsomest billionaires that’s ever lived; I don’t think he ever had to grope a single woman ever. I think they threw themselves at him, so it’s all a lie.”
Okay, which is it, he did grope women and it’s okay because handsome, or is it a case of bitchez be lying? (No comments about Trump assaulting Wayne, okay? That’s not funny, and it’s not appropriate.) Once again, the cognitive dissonance of Christians never ceases to amaze. There are times I think if you put someone like Root in an MRI, you’d see all the compartments in his brain, keeping things all sealed off.
“The man isn’t a perfect Christian,” Root admitted, but he is “the perfect guy sent from God and from central casting to be the vicious guy we needed to save America, save capitalism, fight the Clinton crime cartel and save Christianity from these vicious, vicious people. They’re terrible, dirty people and a nice guy could have never won this war. Only a dirty player could win the war, so I think Donald’s the perfect guy, sent by God to fill the perfect role and save us all.”
God and central casting. Ohan. So God’s a hollywood mogul with a casting couch now? Saving capitalism? Wait a minute, I thought he was supposed to save your bibles. In spite of themselves, the truth always slips out.
Via Right Wing Watch.
There’s a professor at Suffolk University in Boston who seems to think that certain words simply cannot be used by those inferior brown peoples. This is shameful, full stop. Yes, I know teachers need to be alert for the possibility of cheating, but it’s quite obvious that is not what happened here.
A Latina student at a university in Boston said that her professor on Thursday handed back her paper and told her, in front of the class, “This is not your language.”
After looking at more of the comments the professor left on her literature review, Suffolk University sociology major Tiffany Martínez noticed that the professor had circled the word “hence” and had written, “This is not your word,” underlining “not” twice.
And at the top of her paper, the professor had written, “Please go back & indicate where you cut & paste.”
[…]
Martínez, an aspiring professor who was born and raised in the Bronx, told BuzzFeed News that her professor had called her to the front of the senior seminar course on Thursday to receive her graded paper when she made the language comment.
“She spoke loudly enough that students at the back of the room heard and asked if I was OK after class,” Martínez said.
She felt terrified after the incident.
“I spent the rest of the class going back through every single line, every single citation to make sure that nothing had been plagiarized, even though I knew I hadn’t,” she said.
Later that day in a blog post titled “Academia, Love Me Back,” Martínez wrote about her experiences as both a first-generation college student and US citizen at what she calls “an institution extremely populated with high-income white counterparts.”
“My last name and appearance immediately instills a set of biases before I have the chance to open my mouth,” she wrote.
“As a minority in my classrooms, I continuously hear my peers and professors use language that both covertly and overtly oppresses the communities I belong to. Therefore, I do not always feel safe when I attempt to advocate for my people in these spaces,” she added.
This incident certainly makes me wonder just how many other people have been stomped on and rendered suspect by this professor over the years. Such openly racist behaviour has no part in decent society, and definitely should not be part and parcel of a person’s education.
Martinez also described how the incident made her doubt her capabilities as a scholar.
In this interaction, my undergraduate career was both challenged and critiqued. It is worth repeating how my professor assumed I could not use the word “hence,” a simple transitory word that connected two relating statements. The professor assumed I could not produce quality research. The professor read a few pages that reflected my comprehension of complex sociological theories and terms and invalidated it all. Their blue pen was the catalyst that opened an ocean of self-doubt that I worked so hard to destroy. In front of my peers, I was criticized by a person who had the academic position I aimed to acquire. I am hurting because my professor assumed that the only way I could produce content as good as this was to “cut and paste.” I am hurting because for a brief moment I believed them.
Buzzfeed has the full story. One thing I know already: Ms. Martinez will make an outstanding professor, and is already much better than Prof. Not your word.
Jerry Falwell.
Most people associate the religious right with issues like abortion and “family values”. Those were latecomers to the religious right’s embrace though. Donald Wildmon started the whole decency campaign business, in the mid 1970s, which was aimed at television, because he thought most television shows were terribly indecent. Shows like M*A*S*H, but not because of the serious subjects like war and death, but hey, sleeping around! Around 1980, Wildmon recruited Jerry Falwell in his crusade against television. They hadn’t yet glommed onto abortion as an issue, but it wouldn’t be long before that became their main banner, and a highly successful tactical move, along with the move of fueling paranoia about all those perverted gays and their satanic agenda. Things hadn’t gone well for them on the television front, they were dismissed and mocked, for the most part, and of course, the shows they railed against gained very large viewerships. I ended up watching a few shows myself just because of the fuss they made. Prior to the attempt to control television, then moving onto controlling the lives of possibly pregnant people, and trying to stuff all queer people down a well, the religious right was very active in keeping things white. Very white. There are a number of evangelical people now citing abortion as a reason for sticking with Trump, even though they freely admit he’s an awful person, but I suspect the main reason is white nationalism, now back and more popular than ever before. Right Wing Watch has a good look at this, and the hope for the good ol’ days which is fueling much of the religious right’s backing of Trump.
Decades before the current paranoia about LGBT and women’s rights somehow contributing to anti-Christian persecution, right-wing activistsemployedrhetoric about religious liberty and government overreach to defend their private segregated academies and deride efforts to “redefine” marriage to include couples of different races.
Evangelists such as Jerry Falwell and Bob Jones explicitly preached racial separation and opposition to the civil rights movement. Falwell opened a segregated school in response to efforts to integrate Virginia’s education system. Jones’ university openly practiced racial discrimination for decades, citing the Bible.
In fact, the modern Religious Right movement emerged as a political force not to fight abortion rights, as many of its supporters routinely claim, but to protect segregated private schools and institutions like Bob Jones University from losing tax-exempt status because of their racist policies, claiming that losing tax-exempt status constituted a government attack on their religious beliefs.
Religious Right favorites like former Gov. Mike Huckabee, Alabama Supreme Court Chief Justice Roy Moore and Family Research Council head Tony Perkins courted a well-known segregationist group, and pamphlets such as “Segregation: God’s Plan and God’s Purpose” and “God: The Original Segregationist” portrayed integration as a direct attack on God and biblical commandments.
Trump, much in the tradition of conservative stalwarts like Jesse Helms and George Wallace, has stoked outrage about social progress, and has run a campaign based on the demonization of Latinos and African Americans.
Trump’s warnings about a global conspiracy of powerful bankers, media barons and secret puppet masters seeking to take down his campaign and destroy America resemble past and current conspiracy theories popular on the far Right that are often ridden with anti-Semitic imagery. His remarks about nefarious elites quashing U.S. freedom and sovereignty to create “a world government“ mirror the conspiratorial warnings about a coming “New World Order“ from televangelists such as Pat Robertson and John Hagee.
Those white nationalist roots of the religious right are now close to coming home to roost, and they most seriously want that to happen. They’ve learned to talk only about hot button issues, like abortion, or fueling panic and paranoia about transgender people occasionally having the need to use a public lav, but the initial shared desires have not changed, and they won’t have a much better chance of bringing those roots to bear than with Trump.
Via RRW.
