Little Ben’s sell-by date is long gone.
Slightly off-topic, but this two-part podcast is pretty funny.
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“ Approximately 175 regiments comprising more than 178,000 free Blacks and freedmen served during the last two years of the war. Their service bolstered the Union war effort at a critical time. By war’s end, the men of the U.S.C.T. made up nearly one-tenth of all Union troops. The U.S.C.T. suffered 2,751 combat casualties during the war, and 68,178 losses from all causes. Disease caused the most fatalities for all troops, both Black and white.”
“ Other people of color who were not of African descent, such as Native Americans, Pacific Islanders, and Asian Americans also fought under U.S.C.T. regiments. Regiments, including infantry, cavalry, engineers, light artillery, and heavy artillery units, were recruited to U.S.C.T. from all states of the Union.”
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In case you’re unaware… Sundown Towns are still a thing in America. Here is a website with some pretty extensive research on them:
https://sundown.tougaloo.edu/sundowntowns.php
The site is a few years old, but it could still be useful information for traveling off the major interstates.
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Another belated viewing I got around to this week: the James Baldwin documentary/visual essay I Am Not Your Negro (currently included with Amazon Prime streaming). Aside from being a great writer and academic on race relations in America, Baldwin was a personal friend of three assassinated civil rights leaders: Medgar Evers, Malcolm X and Martin Luther King Jr. It was wild to learn that he was literally working on a screenplay adaptation of Malcolm X’s autobiography when he got the news about King.
Like The 13th, this documentary was released in the early days of the Black Lives Matter movement. The period footage of racist anti-protesters is pretty much indistinguishable from the footage of racist anti-protesters today. I really really want to believe my grandchildren won’t have the same reaction when they see period footage of today’s protests.
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It’s a step, I guess.
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On a meta level (but it’s too meta) the Family Matters one works. Why? Because Carl is the MC and Black cops are going to reflexively be like that. While not technically a POV character, he kind of is. So in the face of the evidence, he believes it’s fine. His son’s own pain isn’t enough to cut through his willful ignorance. Cop first, family second. On a meta level (again, very meta, you have to reallydisengagefromthe material), it’s all too real.
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Hell, it wasn’t just 1990’s sitcoms that talked about the bad blood between Black folks and the police.
I re-watched Richard Pryor Live in Concert last night; not more than 10 minutes into his routine, RP was joking about police brutality. That concert was filmed in 1979.
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I’d argue slavery is worse. The whole point of taking hostages is the implication that they might be freed if the hostage-taker’s demands are met. Slavers rarely even pretend to offer such hope for their victims.
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life in prison without possibility of parole.
Fucking good.
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This story surprised me. I’ve seen plenty of racism past and present from Illinois, but had no idea that people were enslaved there through the civil war. We must know our history to understand our present.
The 1848 Constitution ended that and made Illinois a free state that did not permit slavery.
But then in 1853, the state legislature passed a law which made the settlement of African Americans in Illinois a crime. If African Americans remained in Illinois beyond 10 days, they could be arrested and fined. If they couldn’t pay the fines, they were to be auctioned off. It only lasted five years that we were truly a free state.
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Detroit cops cuffed, threw a dad misidentified by facial recognition in jail. Now the ACLU’s demanding action
The American Civil Liberties Union has formally complained to Detroit police, who wrongfully arrested and locked up a dad after he was misidentified as a thief by facial-recognition software and a security guard.
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I love that Trump’s hometown keeps flipping him the finger.
Now fix/replace/rethink the damn police department.
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