Good morning!
Welcome to Issue 17.4 of Digestable, your daily mouthful of real things happening in the world, minus alarmist pandemic news.
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Today’s news, fermented:
I’m pretty glad to have lived to see the day when an elected member of the US House of Representatives tweets this tweet:
The twitterverse—not to mention the conservative media cave—found itself truly shook at a speech Omar recently gave. She uttered the words that have long been on this country’s mind but not in its mouth: “dismantle systems of oppression.”
The Republicans shit a collective brick.
Post-speech, Omar has received death threats from other legislators, and an almost-amusing conniption from Marsha Blackburn, a Senator from Tennessee, in which Blackburn equates Omar’s call to dismantle oppressive systems to “shredding the Constitution.”
(Almost-amusing because elected officials’ familiarity with the Constitution is…rather pale these days.)
Omar said, in the wake of this fuss, that “It is telling that a Black woman discussing systematic oppression is so triggering to the right.” As Glenn Greenwald, co-founder of the Intercept, suggested, Omar is actually just doing her job.
As we know, the pandemic has been apocalyptic, in the literal definition of the word: to reveal or uncover. The inequality and oppression underlying every system we have has more or less been laid bare in much broader public view than in the past.
One of the places where the virus has taken the worst toll is also an epicenter of inequalities: the American prison. As Barbara Bradley Hagerty writes, “If the coronavirus were to design its ideal home, it would build a prison.”
There has been talk, and in fact, action, to release prisoners in light of the dangerous conditions created by the virus (further exacerbating the already dangerous conditions behind bars). But the problems recently-released people face are even more acute than always: struggles to find housing and employment, along with food and healthcare, and build community.
To hear some personal accounts of these struggles, check out this recent episode of Ear Hustle, which is produced by people currently and formerly incarcerated at San Quentin Prison in California. Hagerty gives some context for how the incarceration system has made it it so impossible for people to re-enter society:
“Since the dawn of the tough-on-crime era, people convicted of violent and even some nonviolent crimes have received ever-longer sentences. This is not because Americans have become more savage; in fact, rates of violent crime have fallen by 50 percent since the early 1990s. But even as street violence has been quelled, time served in prison for homicide and non-negligent manslaughter has tripled, and one out of seven inmates will be in prison for life. New offenders arrive and old offenders take years to leave; prison is like a dam with no outlet, and today the reservoir is flooding its banks.”
And then, what happens during the flood? Hagerty spoke to David Singleton, an advocate for justice for formerly incarcerated people. “The people [who] get out of prison will be willing to do the frontline jobs where they’re at risk. It’s almost like they can’t be at more risk than they are in prison.”
Ok, so, back to Ilhan Omar’s comments: in what way, knowing what we do about the intersecting crises of the pandemic, the economy, and what it means to be in and released from prison, how can we stop short of dismantling those oppressive systems?
I wonder if these gulls are wondering the same.
*Hot Goss*
Brought to you by the superb Latifah Azlan.
At the height of news coverage over the Black Lives Matter movements that have unfolded and is continuing to unfold across the U.S., many in the sphere of pop culture decided to have a moment of reckoning with how their music, films, and television shows were reinforcing the marginalization of Black people in the industry.
Some comedy shows like It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia, 30 Rock, and Scrubs decided to pull episodes featuring white actors in blackface from circulation. Some actresses like Jenny Slate chose to step down from longstanding roles voicing Black characters on cartoon series Big Mouth, stating that “Black characters from an animated show should be played by Black people.” And some music groups chose to change their names to distance themselves from monikers associated with the Confederate-era South, most notably The Dixie Chicks, who will now go by The Chicks.
Country band Lady A (formerly known as Lady Antebellum) chose to go down this route when they announced several weeks ago that they were changing their name to disassociate from the confederate (and racist) connotations that come with their former name. The issue became complicated, however, when people pointed out that a blues singer named Lady A already exists – and has been performing by this sobriquet since the 1980s.
Lady A (solo) initially told music magazine Rolling Stone that she had no intention of changing her name for the trio, stating that she was frustrated that “Lady Antebellum hadn’t gone to her before making a decision” and calling it ironic that the band claimed to “change their name in support of racial equality while simultaneously taking another one from a Black performer.” And though both Lady As eventually discussed the situation, it seems that neither could reach a resolution to this dilemma seeing as a lawsuit was recently filed by Lady A (band) in Nashville, TN for use of the name.
Lady A (band) claims that they have had the aforementioned name trademarked since 2010 and had been performing interchangeably both as Lady A and Lady Antebellum since 2006. This claim is what their lawsuit hinges on: that Lady A (solo) is infringing upon the band’s trademark rights, which they “have held for more than a decade.”
I guess it doesn’t matter to the country trio that Lady A (solo) has been releasing music under this name for even longer than the band has been around or these names trademarked.
It doesn’t matter that they should have done their research first before making this decision, upending a Black woman’s livelihood and creative outlet.
It doesn’t matter that they are a mega-successful country band that has sold millions of albums in the United States alone suing a woman who puts out her own music and sings about racial justice in addition to working a day job with the Seattle Public Utilities.
No, none of those matter. What matters is that the band doesn’t appear to be racist without having to do the actual work of being anti-racist. Which I think is what the French call performative wokeness and American history once called antebellum. Huh. Funny how that works out.