Welcome to the latest edition of Weekly Reader, where I post interesting things that I found on the internet. Got a hot link of your own? Drop it in the comments!
‘Civility’ Is What Gave Us Trump in the First Place (from Vice): “That is how civility works in practice in the United States. By “civility,” what is often meant is that you should take your political opponent’s concerns seriously, even when those concerns are built upon falsehoods and harmful stereotypes. “Civility” means that even the most horrible systems of oppression should be dismantled slowly and gradually rather than all at once. “Civility” means white liberals telling people of color to empathize with Trump supporters—even though the most downtrodden Trump supporter has never experienced the economic angst and societal ostracism people of color have suffered since before the founding of this country. They want us to do what that black waiter had to do: Whisper, not roar, about the daily indignities we face, indignities that have been supercharged in the Trump era.”
I Know What Incarceration Does to Families. It Happened to Mine. (from the New York Times): “Once again, national safety is invoked to justify the roundup of whole groups of people. Once again, racist stereotypes are being used by politicians to ramp up fear and hatred. And once again, lies are being used to justify actions that violate the most fundamental American ideals of freedom, equality and tolerance.”
Trans, Teen and Homeless: America’s Most Vulnerable Population (from the Rolling Stone): “There is also a range of needs specific to transgender people: regular access to health care for hormones and surgery; gender markers on IDs; and access to gender-appropriate bathrooms. Police routinely assume they are prostitutes, and others on the street regard them – especially those who don’t “pass” – as easy targets of violence. And then there are countless moments of judgment, when members of the public, in myriad ways, suggest their lives aren’t as worthy. With so many cards stacked against them – poverty, racism, sexism and homo- and transphobia – they are, in many ways, America’s most vulnerable population.”
A reporter went undercover as a Facebook moderator and was trained not to delete certain racist memes and images of child abuse (from Business Insider): “The reporter found instances in which images of child abuse, racism, and violence were allowed to remain on Facebook. In some cases, the findings also exposed wild inconsistencies between the way moderators were being trained and Facebook’s standards.”
Josh Hader and America’s willingness to absolve white athletes (from SBNation): “Yet cursory statements are not a bridge to exoneration. Racism cannot be used as a ritual befitting maturation. Because, notably, it is harnessed by the state and used to kill black people. It is unrelenting in its power when it attacks those without the shield of whiteness in front of their worth. History has shown us that actions without consequences are only for the privileged.”
Get a puppy instead: A federal govt policy in 1945-70 forced unmarried Canadian women to give up their babies (from the Times Now News): “The report also suggests that the women who resided in these homes were abused and were forced to up different last names. They have also been shut away from the outside world. Some of the women who testified in front of the Senate Committee told that during labour the women were strapped to beds.”
That’s all for this week. Drop by again next week for even more links of interest. Until then, happy reading!
Iacon East 