Respectability politics are deadly garbage no matter what form they take.
BREAKING NEWS (12/3/14): They choked a man to death on video, and they still were cleared. No justice, no peace. #staywoke #farfromover
HELL NO! The time for remorse would’ve been when my husband was yelling to breathe. That would’ve been the time for him to show some type of remorse or some type of care for another human being’s life, when he was screaming eleven times that he…can’t…breathe. So there is nothing that him, or his prayers or anything else that would make me feel any different. No, I don’t accept his apology. No I couldn’t care less about his condolences.
Esaw Garner
Eric Garner’s wife’s response to the lack of indictment for Daniel Pantaleo and NYPD for extrajudicially executing her husband Eric Garner. A reporter asked how she feels about Pantaleo’s “apology.” Because once again, centering White “feelings” is more important than a Black woman’s grief, a family’s grief, and the impact of State violence and anti-Blackness on Black people.
(via gradientlair)
Obit of the Day: “The Woman Behind the Symbol”
Three months after the bombing of Pearl Harbor, President Franklin Roosevelt signed Executive Order 9066. The order effectively made every American citizen of Japanese descent living in the Western United States an enemy of the state. It specifically required the internment of all men, women, and children of Japanese descent, regardless of citizenship.
On March 24, 1942 the U.S. Army arrived on Bainbridge Island, located off the coast of Washington State, the first area in the country designated for internment. There they announced that all 227 residents of Japanese heritage, including those born in the U.S., were to be moved off the island. They were allowed to bring one suitcase, and had six days to get their personal lives in order.
Fumiko Hayashida was the daughter of Japanese immigrants, born in Washington. Her family grew and harvested strawberries on the island. At the time of the internment Mrs. Hayashida had a 3-year-old son (Neal), a 14-month-old girl (Natalie), and was four months pregnant with her third child (Leonard). Trying to prepare herself for an unknown journey, Mrs. Hayashida dressed herself in as many layers of clothes as possible while filling her one suitcase with flannel in order to fashion diapers for her babies.
On March 30, the internees were brought down to the docks to board a boat for Seattle. As Mrs. Hayashida stood waiting patiently, a photographer caught the moment. The image first appears so peaceful, with Mrs. Hayashida standing there quietly yet with a determined look on her face while 14-month-old Natalie sleeps on oblivious to the experience. But the tags hanging from mother and daughter show clearly the dehumanization of Japanese internees, who the goverment knew as nothing more than names on a list to be tagged and shipped.
Note: After all was said and done, 12,892 Washingon residents were designated for internment during World War II.
The Hayashidas were eventually settled in Manzanar, a camp in California, where they spent the duration of the war, isolated from the rest of the country. Even the Supreme Court decided that military segregation of the populace was legal. They were hopelessly stranded until the end of the war*.
Following the end of World War II, Mrs. Hayashida, her husband, and three children returned to Bainbridge Island to find their farm overgrown and in disarray. They decided to move to Seattle where Mr. Hayashida worked for Boeing as a machinist and Mrs. Hayashida became a receptionist. More than 40 years later, Mrs. Hayashida was given $20,000 by the United States as part of an official apology from President Ronald Reagan in 1988.
Her role in the 1942 photograph, however, remained a mystery for even longer. Taken by a Seattle Post-Intelligencer photographer, he never took down his subjects’ names. But the photograph was used time and again, to symbolize the Japanese American experience during World War II.
It was not until 1993, after the photograph was featured in a Smithsonian exhibition, that an artist named Hiro decided to find the person behind that determined face. He discovered Mrs. Hayashida still living in Seattle and he had her flown to Washington, D.C. to discuss the image and her time in internment.
Mrs. Hayashida became an activist, serving as a living reminder of what even a country based on life and liberty can do when left unchecked. At age 95, she spoke before a House subcommittee on the internment in the hopes of avoiding a similar tragedy in the future.
In 2009, a documentary about Mrs. Hayashida, the interning of her and her family, and the story of the photograph was produced by Lucy Ostrander and Don Sellers. The film was titled The Woman Behind the Symbol. (You can watch a clip of the film here.)
Fumiko Hayashida, who was the oldest living Bainbridge Island internee, died on November 2, 2014 at the age of 103.
Sources: LA Times and Seattle Post-Intelligencer
(Image of Fumiko Hayashida and daughter Natalie taken on March 30, 1942 by an unknown Seattle Post-Intelligencer photographer is now part of the collection of the Museum of History and Industry in Seattle Washingon.)
* In one of the saddest ironies of the war, Japanese-Americans were allowed to join the military. The 442nd Army Regiment was composed of men who were formerly interned, and they became the most highly decorated regiment in the entire U.S. military.
Other relevant posts on Obit of the Day:
Bob Fletcher - A Sacramento-area man who quit his job to look after the farms of three interned familes. He returned the farms to them when they were released.
Gordon Hirabayashi - As a student at the University of Washington he took the federal government to the Supreme Court over Executive Order 9066.
Omar Kaihatsu - Interned during the war, he joined the 442nd Regiment and fought in Europe during the war. He later received a Congressional Gold Medal
Yuri Kohiyama - Interned as achild, she later was deeply involved in the U.S. Civil Rights movement.
Reblogging because tomorrow is the big day! As Deee Lite said, VOTE BABY VOTE!
UPDATE: as of right now Nate Silver’s FiveThirtyEight.com is giving Republicans a 74% chance of taking over the senate tomorrow.
Those numbers are based on polls and historic turn-outs. We can only stop this from happening if we get more people to show up and vote than would have shown up otherwise! Tell a friend, bring a friend, and VOTE!
VOTE! Make them eat those numbers!
I didn’t exchange any bodily fluids with anyone, so I’m not worried about it. I’m much more likely to be mistakenly killed by a police officer in this country than to be killed by Ebola, even if you were in the same bridal shop.
(TPM) The Obama administration rolled out a plan on Friday to protect access to copay-free birth control for women in response to the Supreme Court’s Hobby Lobby ruling.
A new “proposed rule” by the Department of Health and Human Services lets female employees of for-profit businesses, like Hobby Lobby, obtain birth control directly from their insurer, at no extra cost, if their boss opts out of covering the service in the company’s insurance plan for religious reasons.
The move extends an accommodation that already exists for non-profit organizations, which are allowed to refuse to cover for birth control. In short, the religious owners can pass the cost on to the insurer so that they’re no longer complicit in what they view as sin.
"Women across the country deserve access to recommended preventive services that are important to their health, no matter where they work,” said HHS Secretary Sylvia Burwell. "Today’s announcement reinforces our commitment to providing women with access to coverage for contraception, while respecting religious considerations raised by non-profit organizations and closely held for-profit companies."
A little bit of good news for once.
Y E S
IT IS GETTING BETTER
When I first read about this woman’s plan I thought it was a strong idea but I was worried that it was a little bit much for one person, no matter how dedicated, to keep it up for too long, especially since she has, you know, college to commit to. I never thought about how, if other people helped her carry her burden, I never thought about how much it would look like pallbearers with a coffin. Which is simply one of the strongest visual symbols one can use to disturb people in the western world.
The Ferguson City Council convened for the first time since Mike Brown’s death, and proved that they literally give no fucks about what the community has to say. Added to their vague, paltry proposed reforms, seems real change will have to come in Ferguson via the ballot box. I don’t care where you live folks— let this be a lesson in voting/participating in your local elections and government! #staywoke #farfromover
My people getting it!
these people are the real heroes. not the military, not politicians, not the Hollywood actors. they risked their lives and livelihoods to challenge white supremacy and institutionalized racism.
on that note, is everyone who’s old enough registered to vote wherever you live? now’s the time if you’re not, a lot of deadlines are coming up.
Someone painted the hands on a statue of George Washington red in Trenton. Police are investigating.
oh ho ho
The state has sent more pension money to big-name Wall Street firms like Blackstone, Third Point, Omega Advisors, Elliott Associates and Grady’s old firm, The Carlyle Group. Additionally, the amount of fees the state pays financial managers has more than tripled since Christie assumed office. New Jersey is now one of America’s largest investors in hedge funds.
The “maximized returns” have yet to materialize.
Between fiscal year 2011 and 2014, the state’s pension trailed the median returns for similarly sized public pension systems throughout the country, according to data from the financial analysis firm, Wilshire Associates. That below-median performance has cost New Jersey taxpayers billions in unrealized gains and has left the pension system on shaky ground. Meanwhile, New Jersey is now paying a quarter-billion dollars in additional annual fees to Wall Street firms — many of whose employees have financially supported Republican groups backing Christie’s reelection campaign.
antique-romantic
