Meg Sri, writing at Feministing, tells us about a progressive election victory Tuesday in Philadelphia that hasn’t received much notice, but has potentially huge implications:
On Tuesday, among resounding electoral victories for the left — including a trans candidate, Danica Roem and a socialist candidate, Lee Carter in Virginia — there was one that stood out especially to those interested in criminal justice, mass incarceration and police brutality: progressive civil rights and defense attorney Larry Krasner’s election as District Attorney in Philadelphia.
Krasner’s career so far has involved suing the Philadelphia Police Department 75 times, having recognized there is systemic racism in law enforcement. He has campaigned against mass incarceration and represented protesters, including those from Black Lives Matter, ACT UP, and DACA Dreamers pro bono. His priorities include ending the criminalization of poverty by keeping low-income community members out of prison and improving access to services for those with drug addiction and mental illness. He has promised to abolish money bail — a hot-button issue for those on the left — and not to seek the death penalty.
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Reina Gattuso, also at Feminsiting, tells progressive men that yes, there is a problem with sexual assault and sexual harassment in progressive organizations, not just among conservatives:
It’s easy to talk about gendered violence from conservative men because, well, their ideology is often consistent with their douchebaggery. When you’ve devoted your entire career to ranting against abortion rights on television or groping your way to a white-supremacist presidency, there’s a pretty clear and obvious connection between your stated values (sexist) and your actions (violent)…
If we care about building just and egalitarian societies, we will fight gendered violence in our communities, period. This is a commitment that cuts to the very core of our movements, a marker of our willingness to pursue truly transformative politics which change social relations from broad systems down to our most intimate spaces and selves. We talk about gendered violence in activist spaces —
Because we have high expectations that our behavior will match our ideology
It can be hard to identify gendered violence in radical spaces because many of us can talk the talk of gender justice so damn well — but our behavior tells a much different story.
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Latino Rebels give us another reminder (as if we needed any more) that Trump is the symptomatic expression, not the disease. The disease is racism, and it has infected the fevered brains of white conservatives since the nation was founded:
A week after Virginia Military Institute said that a Trump”No Cholos Allowed” Border Wall from a VMI Halloween costume party was “in poor taste and demonstrated a lack of appreciation that it was offensive,” a photo showing VMI’s Commandant of Cadets posing with the cadets who wore the costume has been obtained by Latino Rebels.
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Michael Harriot at The Root gives describes the permutations of white privilege and white entitlement on full display this past week:
I was still dumbstruck at the level of unaware privilege it takes for someone to ask—with innocence in their heart and every iota of Caucasian curiosity—another human being to patiently explain why it is wrong for a white person to use the absolutely worst racist slur imaginable. I was going to write about it, but in the course of human events, shit happens. I had to pack for New York, because I was going to New York for The Root 100 gala—our annual party honoring the 100 most influential black people ages 25-45.
The thought was still in my head a few hours ago when The Root fellow Anne Branigin (apparently the only one not tired as hell from the festivities) told me she was writing about comedian Louis C.K.’s apology for his predilection for asking women if he can masturbate while they watch…
This is whiteness.
C.K.’s argument is simply that—until Thursday—he hadn’t been aware that he was a creepy, power-wielding pervert. It is the same as the come-to-Jesus moment white people experienced when Coates finally enunciated why white people’s use of the word “nigger” is a bad thing. It is the same excuse that people use to explain why Confederate flags and statues of Southern Civil War heroes are bad. Apparently, white people didn’t know that celebrating slavery was distasteful until a few months ago.
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Bil Browning, in LGBTQ Nation, offers us this insight from a conservative troglodyte, about how it could possibly happen that transgender candidates might win an election:
If we’ve learned anything from Donald Trump‘s ascendency to the presidency on the back of a racist, sexist, and xenophobic campaign, it’s that Republicans – and particularly evangelical Christians – are willing to dump any vestige of morality overboard faster than a crate of tea in Boston Harbor.
CRTV commentator Gavin McInnes and Gateway Pundit’s White House reporter Lucian Wintrich proved that in spades when talking about this week’s election results. Democrats stomped Republicans in race after race as voters reacted to Trump’s unhinged tantrums and bigoted policies by electing a historic group of diverse officeholders. The two had a strange theory on why so many transgender candidates won election…
“The liberals say, ‘Maybe we should give up on identity politics,’ but you look at all the Sikhs and black people and trans who won in this election and all these unprecedented cases. It had nothing to do with policy. It was all identity politics,” McInnes said on his YouTube show “Get Off My Lawn.” (No, seriously. That’s what it’s called.)
He continued, “I was looking at those two trannies who won. There’s no substance there at all. And I think it’s because we let women vote. Women have been voting now based on their ‘feels’ for many years. They brought us Obama, no substance.”
“It’s all just girls, girls, girls playing politics,” McInnes said.
In case you still had any questions who we’re dealing with when we try to eradicate every horrible thing conservatism has wrought, Trump, the GOP, right-wing-talk radio, cannot be magically distinguished from the people who support them. The contemptible candidates and pundits don’t appear from nowhere-- these are the views of the rank and file, the ones that don’t want to be ‘lumped together with a few extreme members’ of their community. The views so artfully expressed by McInnes above represent every bit what it means to be a conservative, and to align with the GOP, whether someone wishes to disown their prejudices, or disclaim any responsibility for those they vote for.
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From the Pluto Press blog (Pluto Press describes itself as ‘Independent Radical Publishing’), Akwugo Emejulu and Leah Bassel elucidate how the devastating effects of austerity economics fall hardest on women of color:
The asymmetrical, racialised, gendered and classed effects of austerity are devastating – especially for women of colour. However, starting our analysis with austerity measures introduced by the 2010 Conservative-Liberal Democratic Coalition government is, in fact, very misleading. Charting the deterioration of women of colour’s economic security using the frame of austerity actually misrecognises the nature of women of colour’s experiences of poverty and economic inequality. Well before the 2008 crisis, women of colour, on the whole, were already living in an almost permanent state of austerity.
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In the ICYMI department, the Carolina Herrera writes for the Natural Resources Defense Council about the environmental activism of indigenous women around the world:
For this year’s observance, the United Nations celebrates the 10th Anniversary of the UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples, which recognizes the rights and fundamental freedoms of indigenous peoples. Over these last ten years, several key international treaties and goals, such as the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, the Addis Ababa Action Agenda and the Paris Agreement, have recognized and incorporated the rights of indigenous peoples. Yet despite this progress, indigenous people must still fight to protect their rights, their lands, and their cultures. They must work to safeguard their natural resources and serve as stewards of the environment—often putting their lives on the line.
The threats these communities face are complex and manifold—from climate change to corporate interests. In the face of these threats indigenous women have risen up to push for sustainable solutions both locally and for the global community, and to defend their lands from destructive projects. In this first part of our blog celebrating Indigenous Peoples’ Day we look at the leadership of these indigenous women, the importance of their presence in international and local dialogs and celebrate their powerful voices and all they can achieve. The second part of our blog will look at how indigenous communities are fighting for their rights against corporate interests.
Women lead sustainability efforts in their indigenous communities
With indigenous communities already facing the effects of climate change, indigenous women are taking action. In one example, after a devastating hurricane hit the coast of Honduras, 35 local women led a restoration project to protect their community from future climate events. Following failed attempts by outside organizations to restore the beach with nonnative vegetation, the Garifuna federation OFRANEH helped the women established a nursery that produced 3,600 seedlings of native shrubs and trees. The vegetation thrived and now serves as natural protectors from increasingly severe climate events and erosion.
Indigenous women are also crossing borders to catalyze change within their communities. Four indigenous women from the rural town of Punta Burica in Costa Rica traveled to India on scholarship for Barefoot College’s Solar Lighting Program. The six-month course teaches women about solar technology and how to build electricity producing solar devices. Returning to Punta Burica, the women have built solar powered panels for roofs.
previous Alternative Voices Roundup compilations:
Alternative Voices Roundup: Other voices around the net.
Alternative Voices Roundup: Other voices around the net. (Oct. 29, 2017)
Alternative Voices Roundup: Other voices around the net. (Nov. 6, 2017)