Steve Brawner| Fort Smith Times Record

How should schools teach about history? And who should decide? The answer to the second question helps determine the answer to the first.

Arkansas state legislators are confronted with both with two bills by Rep. Mark Lowery (R-Maumelle).

House Bill 1218 would prohibit public school districts and state-supported colleges and universities from teaching material that:

Promotes overthrowing the government

Promotes division between, resentment of, or social justice for a race, gender, political affiliation, social class or particular class of people

Advocates the isolation of a group of students based on ethnicity, race, religion, gender or social class

Violates federal civil rights laws

Negatively targets specific nationalities or countries

Schools that violate these terms could lose 10% of state foundation funding.

The bill wouldnt prohibit discussing controversial aspects of history and wouldnt outlaw discussing the Holocaust,genocide,historical oppression of people based on ethnicity, race or class,or African-American history. It also wouldnt prohibit students from participating in voluntary activities.

Lowery is also sponsoring House Bill 1231, which would prohibit the use of public school funds to teach the 1619 Project, which is a curriculum developed by the New York Times that teaches that 1619, when slaves were first brought here, is Americas true founding date rather than the signing of the Declaration of Independence in 1776.

The 1619 Project elicits strong reactions from people. Supporters say it explains slaverys importance as an economic and political institution. Opponents say it inaccurately devalues the nations more noble, high-minded principles.

The bills have not yet been heard in committee.

Heres the thing about laws: They ultimately put the lawyers in charge, which makes everyone hesitant to do anything and turns us all into i-dotters and t-crossers. School districts would have to decide what promotes division and then theyd have to be really careful about teaching anything. If they cant negatively target a nationality or country, then what could they say about Nazi Germany, the Soviet Union, Chinaor Iran?

The second half of the bill tries to foresee its own potential problems by listing what schools can teach, but then it becomes self-contradictory. Schools could teach about oppression based on race but couldnt promote social justice for a race? Thats a minefield. It lists exceptions to its own prohibitions, but what does it leave out unless controversial aspects of history covers everything? Ultimately, lawyers would decide.

The 1874 Arkansas Constitution makes the state ultimately responsible for maintaining a general, suitable and efficient system of free public schools, even as schools were locally run back then. In recent years, the courts have interpreted the phrase to give the state an increasing role in public education, particularly regarding funding. Meanwhile, historical events have moved power from the schoolhouse to capitols, and not always for bad reasons. If President Eisenhower had to send troops to Little Rock in 1957 to end school segregation and protect those students from the mob, so be it.

But turning schools into arms of the state and federal governments also has a downside in a diverse, divided country. There are real differences between red states and blue states, and there are differences between parts of Arkansas. Mountain View is different from Malvern, which is different from Helena-West Helena. 48 languages are spoken in the homes of students in the Springdale School District, the states largest with large populations of Hispanic and Marshallese students.

The truth is the truth, but certain approaches to history will work better in one school than they will in another. People who live in different places and have different experiences will see history differently. Communities will have different expectations. Whats divisive in one district, or classroom, would be merely controversial in another.

Force can resolve differences, and sometimes thats necessary, as it was in 1957. But we should be hesitant to use force, which is what a law is. We can also try persuasion. The other choice is accepting that differences will occur, often even celebrating that fact, and trusting schools and teachers to make these decisions.

So we return to our first two questions. How should schools teach about history? And who should decide? Well see what answers come from the Capitol in the coming days.

Steve Brawner is a syndicated columnist in Arkansas. Email him at brawnersteve@mac.com. Follow him on Twitter at @stevebrawner.

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How should history be taught, and who should decide? - Times Record

Editor's note: This is the second of two articles on Kim Hayes's experience with one family shefirst met while serving them in pregnancy help, and with whom she would develop a lasting relationship. Shaomin and Martin, from China, came to the Ohio pregnancy help center where Kim volunteered in 1994. They had many difficulties which they saw as obstacles to giving their unborn child life. Click HERE for the first part of their story.

On April 20, 1995, a beautiful boy was born to Shaomin and Martin. They asked me to name him because, He doesnt belong to us, they said, he belongs to you and God.

So, the babys name is John, which means Jehovahs gift. He instantly became the pride and joy and focus of their world. Martin and Shaomin continued to be dear friends of my family.

But there were still many things to work out, especially seeking to secure their firstborn child, a daughter who remained in China with family members.

Martin had actually been a dean at an engineering school in China. Really, Martin needed to find work as a chemical technician or in mechanical design using AutoCAD to adequately utilize his training and skills.

Shaomin had been a math teacher in China. As layers of information were peeled away, it was clear the next step was to seek political asylum to protect them from ever being turned over to China.

In the summer of 1989, Martin was among the students who protested at Tiananmen Square. He was caught on tape by a media source speaking out. This led to his arrest, and then he spent two years being re-educated by the Chinese government.

So horrific was the torture and fear of those two years that Martin would not speak of it to his family.

As I prepared for this writing not only could his children not recount any of this information to me, but they both await eagerly to read it to learn more about their own familys history and what led them to becoming Americans.

[Click here to subscribe to Pregnancy Help News!]

One of the faithful prayer groups and many donors offering support to my friends were coming from our home church, Westerville Christian.

One friend there, Susan Banks, worked at the time for the Ohio Department of Natural Resources. Through her contacts, she reached out to the office of John Kasich, then U.S. Representative for Ohio, to help Martin and Shaomin seek a path to citizenship.

Kasichs office was instrumental in documenting Martins case and in the end, we had a great celebration of the couples citizenship at the church (complete with U.S. flag, cake and so much joy).

Now that they were citizens, Kasichs office further pursued the proper channels for getting their daughter released to the U.S.

This process took much longer. She was eight years old when I first met Martin and Shaomin. I couldnt imagine the heartbreak of being separated from your child and not know if or when you would see her again.

To protect their daughter, family members would all tell the same cover story to her so she would never be in danger of saying the wrong thing about where her parents were and perhaps call unwanted Chinese government attention to their family.

Martin and Shaomins daughter Yun and her grandmother were residing in the apartment Martin and Shaomin had lived in as well, and with Martin and Shaomins disappearance there would be threats of their eviction. Yun knew there was talk by the local schoolhouse that they would be losing their apartment.

For Yun it was many years of not understanding the situation. Years of being given vague answers about whether she would ever see her parents again. This drove my prayers and the prayers of so many others.

The main story Yun recalls being told was that her dad had received a scholarship from a university in Ohio. She may have sensed there was something more going on, but she accepted this as the reality at that time.

When the day finally arrived in July 1996 and Yun got off the plane from China in the Columbus, OH, airport it was surreal. She was obviously overjoyed to see her mother and hugged her.

Yun was also delighted to see her baby brother for the first time. Our whole family waited with Martin as Shaomin signed a document from the guardian who delivered Yun to her. As they approached us, my daughter Kayleigh greeted Yun and introductions were made by Shaomin.

Lots of smiles, so much joy! Our oldest son, Kellen held out a gift to Yun and she shyly received it. Shaomin continued to point out each of us and our names. Yun was a bit overwhelmed by the presence of these strangers and halfway hid behind her mom.

Then it got awkward. Martin stepped forward to only receive some angry comment from his daughter in Chinese as she held onto her mom and moved on toward the terminal. Martin laughed nervously and said, She said I am not her daddy.

While it was heartbreaking to see this little girls confusion, anger and pain, there was so much joy in simply having the family together safely. It would not take Yun long to learn English and learn to embrace being an American girl.

Recently in talking with Yun she recalled the present she received at the airport.

She said, That was the first present I had ever received, and I just kept staring at it thinking, my first present.

Martin did end up with a job utilizing his chemical engineering expertise. Soon they would buy their own home and have two cars. They were even able to buy a restaurant in Lancaster, OH, and Martin would go help Shaomin with running it when he had time off from his job.

Yuns primary responsibility was caring for John while their parents commuted back and forth to the restaurant. While this was perhaps a tough life for two young children, it did act to bond the siblings who remain lifelong close friends.

Financially the family would do quite well. They experienced the American dream and opened another Chinese restaurant in Athens, OH. It was called Yuns Palace. John was six and Yun was a teenager. This time they moved to the same town.

Both children learned well the value of hard work. John would test beyond his years causing the school to move him up a grade level halfway through the school year.

The 1998 season of the Touched By An Angel television program featured a two-part episode titled, The Spirit of Liberty Moon, (season 4, episodes 26 & 27). I bought the family a copy of the episodes to give to Martin and Shaomin. Apparently when they played it, Martin left the room and would not finish watching.

It was too real. The episode depicted a family that was separated by the events at Tiananmen Square and the father being placed in a re-education through labor camp. The father becomes sickly under the harsh and abusive conditions, which included torture to attempt to get him to confess his crimes and denounce his actions.

Obviously, it was my hope that viewing this show together would be an opportunity to open up a dialog about their own family history. Instead, the silence continued.

There were many arguments over the years between Martin and Shaomin or with his daughter. He would call me, or a few times I visited their home, and we would have very long and open conversations.

It amazed me how tolerant of my directness Martin wasoften it occurred to me how desperate he wanted everything I stated to be true, but he couldnt allow it. Something held him back.

Mostly I detailed the depths of Gods grace.

We would go to the Scriptures; I would use real life examples or various parables to clarify. The stopping point would inevitably be when I would press in on how he needed to let go, accept forgiveness and trust God.

Martin clung so tightly to his secrets surrounding what had been done to him.

Every now and then I would ask if he had told his family about what happened to him at the hands of the Chinese Communist Party and the answer was always the same, They dont need to know.

There was deep fear and humiliation tied to the whole thing. The psychological warfare leveled against him built an impenetrable wall. Repeatedly I tried to help him understand how he was continuing to allow them to hold power over his lifea power they could only maintain with his consent.

In 2002, when Yun was 16, the family was in great turmoil and came altogether to my home hoping I would help them change their daughters rebelliousness (which I believe they thought was merely a function of her now being an American girl).

For more than an hour I listened to them yell at one another. So much hurt on their faces.

Finally, I called for quiet and calm.

I looked at Martin and said, Does she know why she was left alone in China? Does Yun understand why you came to the U.S. without her?

His eyes dropped; he wouldnt answer me.

So, I looked into the eyes of this precious girl and began to detail for her everything I knew. By the time I finished, tears were streaming down my face but thankfully I have mastered the art of being able to talk while crying.

They were all quiet. I would love to say this resolved everything.

However, you cannot erase a decade of hurt with one story. It also would have been so much better if Martin would have been willing to give voice to what was shared. Instead, he remained stone silent, looking at me as if I had betrayed a sacred trust.

Since they had come to me asking for help, I did not believe it was wrong to share the information. Martin had been given five or six years to tell what had happened. No doubt he suffered deeply from post-traumatic stress disorder.

Yun would continue to demonstrate a rebellious spirit and decided she needed to get out on her own, so she joined the military. It was there she would gain so much confidence and learn to overcome the challenges life had given her.

Martins silence and attempts to battle his demons alone took a toll on his emotional, physical and spiritual health, as well as his marriage and relationships with family members.

In May 2005, the couple once again sought my help.

Their arguing had escalated, and both were ready for divorce. Shaomin arrived first and I spent four hours with her. When Martin arrived, we had two more hours together.

Their focus was on money. The rage they expressed toward one another made it impossible for them to listen to each other. My own kids were in the basement and they could hear the screaming from there.

But money was not really the issue, it was the distraction. They both had proven they could build a fortune in a short timeframe and were able to sustain on little to nothing in the meantime.

Shaomin had agreed with me that even if Martin had all the money, God was able to take care of her and her son.

The real oppression still was rooted in Martins secret world. He held the pain inside like it was an idol to worshipfaithfully committed to serving its demands.

All this time and Shaomin still did not know what Martin went through in China (other than the few things I had told the family three years earlier). The only reason I knew was because I read the document which was submitted to our government as he sought political asylum.

She knew he was part of the Free China movement and that is all. The unspoken rule they all seemed to obey was that is all she needed to know. But when it is the very information Martin had used as his lens for every relationship, it was exactly what Shaomin and the rest of her family needed to know.

Prior to this meeting, I had insisted Martin watch The Passion of the Christ. This became part of the conversation that day. Finally, he was able to visualize much of what he had read in the Bible and acknowledged that Jesus could understand Martins own beating and torture.

But in the next breath Martin suggested that Jesus probably was just tired of this awful world and that is why He died. Again, he questioned motiveseven Godsso why would Martin ever be able to trust anyone (this included his wife, children, everyone)?

Shaomin was still very limited in understanding the Bible. Wrongly I had trusted that she had access to the Chinese Bible I had given them years prior. She said that Martin did read it, but she had not, so I did end up getting one for her.

Because of our many conversations and her participation previously with some Bible study groups, Shaomin knew that Jesus came to save us, and He is Gods Son. She understood about asking Him into her heart to be her Lord and friend.

That day in preparation for Martins arrival I had taken her through the life of Joseph (from the book of Genesis) to show her Gods work in the midst of hard times. We talked about how God uses what the enemy meant for evil and turns it for our good. Shaomins life was already filled with very real examples of this.

This meeting did not end with a happily ever after solution. It was more painful revelations rather than reconciliation. My husband Jeff came home about the time we were wrapping up.

Martin pulled Jeff aside pleading with him to find Shaomin a job at the bank where he was employed. It was so obvious to both Jeff and I that Martin still loved Shaomin deeply.

However, Martins failure to be able to adequately express his love for his wife had destroyed their marriage. It would be another casualty of Communist oppression. They may have enjoyed freedom in the U.S., but Martin was far from experiencing freedom in his heart.

In the winter of 2005, the family would move to Florida. Martin and Shaomin began living very separate lives, but when I would speak with him on the phone, he would update me on the family, very proudly bragging about his children as if everything was fine.

Once my friends moved to Florida, I heard little from them.

In 2012 Martin was diagnosed with colon cancer which was already stage four by the time he had sought medical attention. The doctors believed he had no more than six months to live.

Martin did not tell me about the cancer, and I found out he had died while reaching out to Shaomin during the holidays. It saddened me so to not have been able to be there for my friend.

There were so many years of praying for this family and even when I was no longer part of their lives, I knew God would faithfully hear my prayers as I asked that there would continue to be Christians speaking truth to them and especially to Martin.

Tweet This: There were so many years praying 4this family & even when I was no longer part of their lives I knew God faithfully heard my prayers 4them

He heard the truth of the Gospel so many times, I feel certain he could have reiterated it to anyone who might ask him to explain it.

So, while I never specifically heard Martin confess having accepted Jesus as his Lord and Savior, I chose to believe Gods word (which Martin was always open to hearing) did not return void.

In fact, I eagerly await seeing many family and friends in heaven one day soon and expect my dear friend, Martin will be there.

To my delight, I learned that during his final months of life, Yun reconnected with her dad. They would have weekly conversations and she would visit whenever she got leave.

Not only did a lot of healing happen between daughter and father, but she said Martin had changed.

He transitioned, stated Yun. He wasnt angry anymore. Dad had always been okay with going with us to church and he liked to listen to the Scriptures, but after his diagnosis he changed.

Then I asked her specifically if Martin had accepted Christ as his Savior and she said, He did.

Yun continued, He told me, I should have been there more for you. I should have paid more attention to you.

What a joy to hear her report! What a blessing to know Martin experienced not only reconciliation with God but reconciled with his precious daughter. God granted him twice as much time as the doctors predicted and Martin passed in November of 2013.

Yun has a husband and a son. She told me that her son is a lot like Martin, Calm, relaxed and sweet.

Yun continues to love her family and has learned to love her new country. She has served in the military for 12 years and was given special recognition in 2020.

John has a masters degree and got married. His life is filled with many joys and he is enjoying his career and his marriage.

Shaomin is gratefully delighting in an amazing life in Florida. She loves Jesus. I know she prays for her children and thanks God for them.

She wrote to me in an email, You know since I met you, I start learning Gods word and I cant live without (it). Remember John name you gave to him told me Gods gift to me and truly I very proud (of) my son.

The last time we got to see one another was on Mothers Day, 2018. Shaomin and John came to Columbus and she insisted on taking my family to dinner at a way too expensive local steakhouse.

She has such a generous heart. None of us ordered enough food to her liking so then she ordered multiple appetizers to make up for it (I cannot even imagine what the final bill was).

This January I asked John if he knew anything about his fathers oppression at the hands of the Chinese government and his escape from China.

He stated, Not much, just everything that I learned from you when my mother and I visited Columbus a couple of years ago. For my sister, I believe she was staying with my Aunt and other relatives in China, but I dont know much else.

John also noted, I do know that he (Martin) hated the color red, but dont know if that was related or not.

When I asked John about his sister Yun, he answered, Im absolutely proud of her! I know her going into the military was a huge source of conflict, but with everything shes been able to do now Im just incredibly proud of her.

Whenever I retell the story of what God did in the lives of Martin, Shaomin and their children, I am reminded what a joy it is to be used by God.

Once again, as I have seen so often in my life, you cannot out give GodIve tried and failed enormously!

What a blessing it is to know this dear family!

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After decades in the grip of oppression, family has the promise of hope with Christ and pregnancy help - Pregnancy Help News

The Salem transit agency has unsuccessfully sought to attract minority and women-owned businesses to share millions in contract work. Now, the agency's leadership is embarking on a sweeping review thats an early step in making its operations more equitable.

A Cherriots bus on State Street outside the Oregon Capitol (Rachel Alexander/Salem Reporter)

The Salem Area Mass Transit District awarded just a single contract to a company owned by a woman or minority in its most recent reporting period, well short of its own goal to see that such businesses get a share in millions in government spending.

Agency leaders point to a small pool of minority and women-owned businesses as well as there being less work and outreach because of the pandemic as reasons why it only met 16% of its contracting goal.

Between October 2019 through September 2020, Cherriots awarded 248 federally funded contracts for services and goods that totaled $1.5 million, according to a Dec. 29 internal memo provided to Salem Reporter. For that period, Cherriots had a goal of awarding $173,430 to disadvantaged business enterprises, certified as small for-profit companies that are owned by women or minorities.

During that period, Cherriots awarded one contract to one of these businesses: Marco Ideas Unlimited, a woman-owned business in Portland, paying $28,583 for uniforms.

Agency leaders have since launched a top-to-bottom review last year with the aim of meeting contracting goals while making overall operations more equitable.

Can we do better? said Chi Nguyen, a director on the Cherriots board and chair of its Diversity, Equity and Inclusion Committee. I think we can, and we will.

The federal Transportation Departmentstarted the disadvantaged business enterprise programin 1980 as a way to increase the participation of minority and women-owned businesses in federal contracting.

State and local transportation agencies that receive money from the department are required to establish goals for contracting with disadvantaged business enterprises. The federal government doesnt penalize agencies that fail to hit their goals if they are trying.

Dan Knauss, Cherriots manager of procurement and contracts, explained that Cherriots goal is based on the number of expected projects and the number of disadvantaged business enterprises based in the Salem area or in nearby counties.

The memo blames the shortfall partially on the pandemic, which scuttled an in-person training and delaying or canceling planned projects. Thats meant less overall work companies had a shot at landing. Knauss said one notable project Cherriots had to postpone work on was the new South Salem Transit Center because of a dispute with a property owner. Final costs for the project werent finalized.

That one project made up the lions share, said Knauss.

Knauss said there were other large projects that were canceled. Additionally, Cherriots had to delay a contract for a survey of riders, delayed because not enough people were riding buses because of Covid, among other projects.

He said Cherriots contracted with Brown Contracting for a project at the Keizer Transit Center and the company subcontracted with two disadvantaged business enterprises, CBK Constructors LLC of Canby and Pac Green Landscape of Woodburn, paying them $62,371. But those payments recorded during the most recent reporting period didnt count toward Cherriots goal.

The memo states that the agencys potential pool of disadvantaged business enterprises is relatively small and outreach events were canceled because of the pandemic. Knauss said Cherriots has attended trade shows remotely this year and is preparing to distribute its outreach brochures to recruit more interest among businesses to share in the transit districts business.

But he said disadvantaged business enterprises tend to be smaller and the requirements for government contractors can seem daunting.

Numbers provided by Cherriots show it hasnt met its disadvantaged business enterprise goals going back four years.

In 2019, it awarded $85,445 about half its goal and in 2018, it awarded $8,000 towards a goal of $50,505. For 2017 and 2016, the agency didnt give any contracts to disadvantaged businesses.

Cherriots now has a goal of awarding disadvantaged business enterprises 2.49% of the $3.3 million worth of projects it has planned for fiscal years 2021 through 2023..

The Oregon Association of Minority Entrepreneurs declined to comment for this story. Salem Capitol Connections, a group that helps connect small businesses to government agencies, didnt respond to an email seeking comment.

Ian Davidson, Cherriots board president, said he wants to improve the agencys contracting with disadvantaged business enterprises. He pointed to documents showing that disadvantaged business enterprises were solicited for projects but ended up not bidding, which he said could point to other issues that stymie their participation.

He said that Cherriots is hiring a consultant to conduct an equity analysis. The consultants work is being finalized but will evaluate how Cherriots operates internally and with the community, he said.

Im really interested to get that critical feedback to start closing gaps, he said.

Last June, the board created a Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion Committee as Cherriots accelerated its plan to broadly address inequities in its operations.

Nguyen said the review will highlight some of Cherriots sausage-making," exposing dominant cultural artifacts that continue to allow oppression. She expects the consultants findings will present clear actions for the transit agency.

A small business owner herself, Nguyen said shes been struck by the lack of diversity in the pool of contractors. She also wonders if the process intended to boost contracting with disadvantaged business enterprises is itself a barrier.

You go through all the hoops and that doesn't guarantee you a contract, she said.

Contact reporter Jake Thomas at 503-575-1251 or[emailprotected]or @jakethomas2009.

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Cherriots failed to meet minority contracting goals for years - Salem Reporter

Switzerland could follow in the footsteps of France, Belgium, the Netherlands and Bulgaria by banning women from wearing the burka or niqab in public spaces. On March 7, the people will vote on a popular initiative that aims to enshrine a ban on hiding ones face in public in the constitution.

Journalist based in Bern. I am particularly interested in topics about society, politics and social media. Previously I worked in regional media, for the newspaper Journal du Jura and Radio Jura bernois.

More about the author| French Department

The Egerkingen Committee launched the initiative in 2016. Made up of numerous members of the right-wing Swiss Peoples Party, the committee was the same that instigated the initiative to ban minarets, accepted by the Swiss in 2009.

Opposed to the text, the government has developed a counterproposal which has also been supported by parliament. It proposes to create a law that would oblige individuals to show their faces during identity checks carried out by authorities.

Peoples Party parliamentarian and member of the initiative committee Jean-Luc Addor argues the ban promotes equality between men and women and will help fight against radicalisation of Islam.

SWI swissinfo.ch: Given we are all walking around wearing masks to protect against Covid-19, isnt the arrival of an initiative to ban hiding ones face now untimely?

Jean-Luc Addor: One would think so, but this is not the case. Walking around the streets, its easy to see the difference between a woman who wears the burka [a full veil which covers the whole body and hides the eyes behind a cotton mesh] or the niqab, and a person wearing a protective mask. Its obvious the text is not targeting masks. The initiative allows for a certain number of exceptions, including the possibility of waiving the ban for health reasons. The pandemic shows that adequate exceptions were thought about by the initiators.

According to government estimates, the number of women who wear the burka in Switzerland is between 95 and 130. Is it really necessary to institute a ban for such a small number of people?

I would be curious to know on what basis the government is making these estimations. Of course, its rare to meet women who wear the burka in Switzerland, except in certain tourist spots. However, we do see women wearing the niqab [full veil which covers everything except the eyes], even in the small Valais town of Sion.

In recent years we have witnessed a form of radicalisation of the ostentatious character of Islam in the public space. This trend has manifested in an increase in the number of women who go out wearing the hijab [covering the hair, neck and sometimes the shoulders] and in the most radical cases wearing a niqab. France, a country which belongs to the same civilisation as us, has practically lost control of the situation. We dont want to get to that.

In Ticino, where a ban has been in place since 2016, there have only been around 30 interventions. Isnt that a weak record?

Its like if I told you: In the end, there are only a few assassinations. What is the point of maintaining the infringement in the criminal code? Thankfully, there are only a few cases!

The example of Ticino shows that banning hiding ones face is useful, because there have been interventions. It also proves that it can be applied without creating particular problems, especially with foreign countries, as (the opposition) have tried to make us believe.

The opponents of the initiative fear that the text will have a counterproductive effect: that women who are obliged to wear the burka would be forced to retreat from public view. Isnt that a risk?

Their position amounts to legitimising the number of cases of women and girls who are forced to dress in a certain way. The burka is a symbol of oppression and alienation of women. We refuse to be complicit in female oppression. We want to promote the dignity and equality of women. Proof is that even on the left, prominent personalities support the initiative. They have understood that it is not credible to invoke principles only to forget them under the pretext that the initiative comes from the ranks of the conservative right.

The Peoples Party is not known for fighting for equality. In this case, isnt this engagement opportunistic?

This initiative is not only a Peoples Party initiative, it is also supported by a large cross-section of people, including from the left. It is true that the Peoples Party is not always at the forefront when it comes to equality. The party is nonetheless committed to a more fundamental fight: we defend the notion of female dignity. There is a slight difference.

The indirect counterproposal put forward by the government aims to ensure that a person shows their face for identification purposes. Isnt it an acceptable compromise?

The governments indirect counterproposal is a smokescreen. It is trying to take a tiny step to make us believe the problem has been resolved. The initiative has a much larger field of application. Parliament wanted to add elements to the text which touch upon integration and equality between men and women, but in fact the counterproposal avoids the issue. The initiative takes the problem head on and offers a way to deal with it. This way exists already, and we can evaluate it. It is the system established in Ticino.

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'The burka initiative defends the dignity of women' - swissinfo.ch

Real revenge requires abolishing the financial sector as we know it and the systems of oppression it fosters.Lauren Walker / Truthout; ADAPTED: Aaron Amat, Ilona Nagy / Getty Images

Theres a catharsis to actually making money off their pain a little bit, Justin Speak, a 27-year-old evangelical pastor from California, told The New York Times in reference to his part in the great GameStop caper that saw small-time investors, coordinated on Reddit and other platforms, sabotage a series of Wall Street hedge funds by revenge buying the ailing video game retailers stock.

Speak himself made a cool $1,700 thanks to the way he and others used online stock-trading platforms like Robinhood to pump up demand for (and therefore the value of) the shares of GameStop, the movie theatre chain AMC, and other well-known brands that have a soft spot in consumers hearts but that have been hard-hit by the pandemic. While this movement began in online stock advice forums that purport to share tips about how to find undervalued companies whose shares can be bought cheap now to be sold dear later (going long, as it is called in the industry), it soon found a more political orientation.

By January 28, it had reached such a frenzy that Robinhood began to severely limit users powers to prevent what represented a kind of reverse run on the bank. In typical financial panics, spooked consumers seek to withdraw their investments for fear of collapse, triggering banks to slam their literal or metaphorical doors for fear of bankruptcy. In this case, Robinhood and other platforms were pressured by financial and government forces to take measures to discourage consumers from investing because it threatened to upset the financial order.

The enthusiasm of small investors swarming, seemingly out of nowhere, toward otherwise undesirable shares created havoc for several big Wall Street hedge funds. These funds strategy had been to short these underperformers to bet against their future rise in value. Hedge funds are essentially pools of very rich peoples money that borrow even more money to make risky bets on the market based on careful research into market niches. They were among the major culprits behind the frenzy of predatory lending that led to the 2008 financial meltdown. Hedge funds bet on both sides of that crisis and many came out ahead. In that calamitys wake, hedge funds used their connections and acumen to benefit from the bailouts. And during the pandemic, when millions have been thrown out of work and suffer economic precarity and hardship, hedge funds have been enjoying record profit.

So, when it turned out that a rag-tag swarm of investor-trolls with seemingly little coordination could bring one or two financial giants down by weaponizing what former Federal Reserve chair and neoliberal eminence Alan Greenspan once called irrational exuberance, it was, for many, sweet revenge. Eat the rich, Speaks wife chimed in, echoing her husband with what has become the slogan of the GameStop movement.

But while such revenge can indeed be sweet, those who hunger for social and economic justice should think again. This incident will largely be remembered as a momentary, comical blip on the financial sectors otherwise untroubled ascent to power and wealth. Moreover, this form of resistance is a reflection of, rather than an opposition to, the financialization of society and the imagination. And it resonates with a growing tendency toward revenge politics that all too often substitute symbolic victories for meaningful social change and the kinds of organization of the oppressed it would take to achieve it. The silver lining here is that, in this mass act of financial disobedience, tens of thousands of people have come to, for a moment, exercise their collective power. What comes next is the question.

While the GameStop caper represents a victory in the battle against the hubris of Wall Street, it actually represents a step backward in the war against the power of capitalisms financial sector. Over the past three decades, financialization has advanced in lockstep with the ideology of neoliberalism, which holds that the best and fairest way to organize society is around the needs of markets. Accordingly, public services have been cut, industries (including finance) have been deregulated, and taxes on the rich and on corporations have been slashed, with the ultimate effect being a world where the rich are getting richer and the poor even poorer as the fabled trickle-down principle fails to manifest its bounty for most people. The effects have been highly racialized, with graver impacts on Black, Indigenous and other communities of color.

Over this same period, the financial sector has grown in wealth, power and influence, and used its position to further drive forward both financialization and neoliberalism. The fact that, in the wake of the 2008 financial crisis that it caused, the sector escaped any real repercussions, punishment or loss, made it clear that finance, rather than governments, is ultimately in charge of policy. This fact has been rammed home by the fact that, around the world, in both liberal and conservative governments, the finance minister or their senior staff are almost always alumni of large investment banks which, as we also know, are very generous benefactors of political candidates and parties the world over.

But this economic and political power is also matched by a social and cultural power. As most of us have become poorer and more precarious, and as shared government services (housing, health care, old age and disability insurance and the like) have been slashed, we have been sold the lie that we have been liberated from government paternalism and empowered to embrace our potential as a miniature financier. From education to housing to hobbies to personal relationships, we have been encouraged to reimagine nearly every aspect of our lives as assets to be leveraged in an unforgiving, competitive world. This is financialization: the way the ideas, ideologies and methods of finance begin to seep into every aspect of our lives.

On the one hand, the GameStop caper saw thousands of small-time individual market actors swarm together in a way that, for a brief moment, caught the dominant financial powers off-guard and off-balance. A few hedge funds lost a lot of money. But it relied on individuals that have already adopted the disposition and the tools of the miniature financier: precisely the endgame of financialization.

Indeed, the most intelligent and (for all I disagree with them) freedom-oriented of neoliberal philosophers predicted such things should happen: For them, the unseating of power corporations by upstarts is an essential part of the triumphant progress of markets. For these thinkers, the usurpation and disruption of business as usual by uninvited guests is evidence that free markets are working, not failing, because it allows for (disruptive) innovation and the ruthless creative destruction of market inefficiencies and abnormalities.

So, while the GameStop caper can feel like revenge, it is not really. In my recent book on the politics of revenge in our moment, I explore how small revenge fantasies can become transformative avenging imaginaries capable of transforming power at its root.

Revenge fantasies are, in our own individual lives, incredibly common: As ugly as they may be, we all have them, especially in a world where so many of us suffer systemic oppression, inequality and exploitation, or where these manifest on the level of everyday life in forms of interpersonal cruelty or violence. In fact, revenge fantasies can be quite important and healthy: Theyre often based on and help us remember that what we suffer or have suffered is not our fault, and that we have value and are owed something for harms we have endured. Revenge fantasies can, of course, become dangerous infatuations. But they are often most dangerous not because they lead us to take revenge, but because we satisfy ourselves by endlessly nursing a grudge, neither forgiving and forgetting nor finding the courage to claim the debt. The fantasy becomes our home.

On a collective, political level, revenge fantasies can be opportunities for solidarity when we recognize that we share a common source of pain, that we are owed a collective debt. Sometimes we dont know how to change the system that caused the injury or pain or oppression, and so the only grounds for our protest and passion is refusal and a common dream of getting back at those who have harmed us. But these sentiments can be easily manipulated, and often by precisely those people who caused the harm in the first place. On one level, U.S. society in the grips of financialization endlessly dreams of revenge in the form of television and film: Game of Thrones, the works of Quentin Tarantino, and other popular spectacles offer a kind of cathartic expression for the unnamed vengefulness that many of us feel as we ensure and are made to participate in a financialized society.

But it gets more dangerous still. Financialized capitalism, which transforms us each into a competitive risk-taker in a world of unmanageable risks, necessarily produces profound alienation, a sense of being cheated, a rage at being unable to live as we imagine we ought to be able to live, and these can find horrific political expressions. Throughout the history of the United States, the ruling classes, many of them enriched by finance, have stoked and harnessed the vengefulness of non-elite whites to foment racial violence, lynchings, extrajudicial murder and racial terrorism, of which Donald Trump and his armed legions of reactionaries are only the latest incarnation.

I am not arguing these are the woeful left behinds with legitimate grievances as some do; they are heinous expressions of the very worst. But their significant popularity draws its energy from the way they embody a revenge fantasy that flourishes in white supremacist financialized society where the sources of social pain and discord are willfully misidentified as migrants, feminists and queer folk, unruly Black people and intellectuals, rather than the system of capitalism.

The GameStop caper is a kind of vivified revenge fantasy, a dream of getting back at the powerful come to life, if only for a moment. Such revenge fantasies can be important for the struggle for social and economic justice, but are also very dangerous. On the one hand, the momentary realization of the fantasy can be mistaken for a substantial change in reality, but we would be foolish to presume that the momentary upsetting of financial business-as-usual will result in any real change. And in some ways, this kind of activism is what finance has always intended: the recoding of our dreams such that even rebellion takes a financialized form.

On the other hand, this revenge fantasy can easily be harnessed by reactionary forces, and in many ways already has reactionary characteristics. Famously, the Nazis made a central plank of their rise to power the promise to bring to heel the speculative financiers who were, according to their ideology, ruining things for the good, faithful, earnest and honest German workers and small business owners. Then as now, the line between antagonism towards finance and antisemitism is far from sharp, and critiques of parasitical financiers often slides easily into conspiracy theories about the Rothschilds or George Soros. No less dangerously, when Main Street is nostalgically presented as the hapless victim of Wall Streets predation, we neatly forget that Main Street was also the site of many lynchings, race riots and other acts of racist cruelty.

For these reasons, we must be wary of the way challenging finance can serve to perpetuate its power or to elevate reactionary politics. This easily happens when an analysis of finance and financialization is detached from an equally critical approach to the way it works in tandem with capitalism, patriarchy, white supremacy, and other systems of power, and when we mistakenly imagine that all that it will take to achieve social and economic justice is improving access to markets.

What would it mean for the GameStop caper to move from a revenge fantasy to an avenging imaginary?

Revenge fantasies are brewed by individuals and collectives in a moment of powerlessness, hurt and anger and, as a result, often bear the hallmarks of a kind of poetic justice: The same cruelty that was once used against you becomes the form of retribution against your tormentor. After years of being the abject loser, one is now the winner and one exacts on the enemy the same injustice. How does it feel, Wall Street, to have your own tools used against you; to be, for a moment, the victim of the same unfair, manipulative and destructive instruments that you arrogantly wielded for so long? Revenge is sweet.

But what distinguishes an avenging imaginary is an abolitionist and feminist worldview: it does not seek to claim the power of the oppressor for its own, but to annihilate that power so that it can no longer harm anyone. An avenging imaginary is a way of coming together around a dream where revenge means the destruction and replacement of the systems that cause pain, oppression and injustice in the first place.

In the case of the GameStop caper, an avenging imaginary would dream not simply of tweaking the nose of Wall Street, but of abolishing the financial sector as we know it. Maybe that would look like nationalizing the banking sector so it could be used to support investment in a Green New Deal. Maybe that would mean a minimum and a maximum income to redistribute the financial sectors misbegotten wealth. Maybe it would mean reappropriating that wealth to fund excellent and universal health and social care. Maybe it would mean abolishing household and student debt. Maybe it would mean the much broader goal of abolishing the system of capitalist exploitation as a whole.

An avenging imaginary is a collective leap of the radical imagination that opens new horizons of how we might live and work together beyond the neoliberal, financialized, capitalist model where we each compete with one another until the Earth is destroyed.

The glimmer of possibility in this GameStop caper is that, in a flash, some new we came to recognize that we indeed have power when we act together. The same neoliberal financialized capitalist system that oppresses, exploits and seduces us has bestowed us with powerful digital tools to coordinate and communicate. How could we use these to rebel, not only as individual investors or for the fun of it, but in the name of collective liberation?

The GameStop caper offered a potentially important moment of shared vindictive laughter as the powerful, for a moment, appeared weak. But if, as has been often said, the best revenge is the laughter of our children, how will we make the most of this moment to create a post-capitalist world where they can enjoy the wealth of human potential and ecological justice?

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The GameStop Saga Is Not the Revenge Against Finance We... - Truthout

Ilya Somin, Opinion contributor Published 8:00 a.m. ET Feb. 3, 2021 | Updated 4:48 p.m. ET Feb. 3, 2021

Biden's immigration changes would transform the lives of vast numbers of migrants fleeing poverty and oppression. For many, it could literally mean the difference between life and death.

The new Biden administration has the most expansive pro-immigration agenda of any president in decades. In the wake of Donald Trump the most anti-immigrant president in modern times it was inevitable that any Democratic successor wouldchange course.But the scope of Bidens agenda goes well beyond merely reversing Trumps more egregious policies. If fully implemented, it would have enormous benefits for both potential migrants and current U.S. citizens.

It is especially notable that Biden is pursuing this agendaamidst the COVIDpandemic. Historically, economic crises tend to promote nativism. The last year has been a rare exception, as public attitudes have continued to become more pro-immigration.

Bidens otherwise admirable policies do have two drawbacks:heavy reliance on executive actions, and his proposal for a $15 minimum wage that would shut many recent immigrants out of the labor market.

Some of Bidens initiatives terminate Trump policies, such as reversing the anti-Muslim travel bans forbidding entry by residents of many nations with large Muslim populations, ending the remain in Mexico policy(though those previously subjected to it will not immediately be released), which forced asylum applicants to remain in dangerous conditions in Mexico for months on end, ceasing construction of Trumps border wall, and terminating Trumps efforts to pressure sanctuary cities. Biden has also ordered a full restoration of the DACA program, which protects undocumented immigrants brought to the US as minors by their parents. The repeal of the travel bans is especially laudable, because that policy was motivated by anti-Muslim bigotry and cruelly separated many thousands of people from their families.Some other Trump policies are likely to take more time to wind down. But the administration still intends to ultimately reverse them.

Bidens immigration liberalization initiatives go well beyond undoing Trumps work. The new administration plans to raise the annual ceiling for refugee admissions to 125,000, which is not only a sea change from Trumps near-total gutting of the refugee system, but also a higher figure than even the peak number under the Obama administration (110,000). It also has imposed a 100-day moratorium on most deportations, and is likely to cut back on many even after.

President Joe Biden on Feb. 1, 2021, in Washington, D.C.(Photo: Saul Loeb/AFP via Getty Images)

The immigration reform bill Biden will submit to Congress would legalize nearly the entire population of undocumented immigrants currently in the United States some 11 million people and give them an 8-year pathway to citizenship. That goes beyond any previous presidential initiative. The bill would also expand legal immigration in a variety of ways, including dropping per-country quotas for employment visas, raising them for family reunification migration, and making it easier for family members of employment and H-1 B visa holders to get green cards and work authorization.

All told, Bidens agenda would expand legal immigration by up to hundreds of thousands of people per year, and enable many millions of undocumented migrants already here to come out of the shadows (as Barack Obama put it), and begin to live normal lives, fully integrated into our economy and society. These changes would transform the lives of vast numbers of migrants fleeing poverty and oppression. For many, it could literally mean the difference between life and death.

The Biden policies would provide major benefits to American society.Bringing undocumented immigrants out of the shadows would increase their productivity and facilitate assimilation. Increasing employment visas and other migration would further expand immigrant contributions to Americas economy. Immigrants contribute disproportionately by starting new businesses at higher rates than natives,and making major contributions to scientific and other innovation. Immigrant scientists and medical workers have played a major role in improving health care, including being responsible for both of the new COVID-19 vaccines approved by the U.S. government.

Lingering trauma: Families separated at border suffer long-term mental health challenges

Curbing deportations would also protect the civil liberties of current U.S. citizens by reducing racial profiling, and the all-too-common detention and deportation of citizens by immigration enforcement agencies. Reducing deportation can also help combat the COVID-19 pandemic by incentivizing undocumented immigrants to get tested and vaccinated, which many now hesitate to do, for fear of being deported. Americas often-unsanitary immigration detention facilities also help spread COVIDand other diseases. Less deportation means less detention.

Bidens proposed immigration legislation is likely to face an uphill struggle in a closely divided Congress. But even partial passage could make a big difference. Moreover, the very fact that the president is proposing this law and making it a major initiative can help shift the Overton Window of political discourse. Even if these ideas are not enacted anytime soon, they will now be part of mainstream political debate.

One key weakness of Bidens immigration agenda is the heavy even if sometimes unavoidable reliance on executive actions. What one president does with a pen and phone can often easily be reversed by the next, as Biden himself is doing with many Trump initiatives. Some of the new policies are susceptible to legal challenge. The 100-day moratorium on deportations has been temporarily blocked by a federal court, for example.

Sadly, Bidens laudable immigration initiatives could also be undercut by his proposal for a nationwide $15 minimum wage. If enacted, it would price millions of workers out of the job market by making it unprofitable for employers to hire them, and would have a disproportionate negative effect on recent immigrants. This would both reduce immigrant workers ability to contribute to the economy and impede their assimilation and social mobility (both of which are furthered by participation in the job market). These negative effects may be delayed, but not avoided, if the minimum wage increase is phased in over several years, as Democrats propose. Hopefully, Congress will reject this idea.

The last amnesty: How to finally get immigration reform done (and do it the right way)

To make his immigration reforms more effective, Biden would do well to push Congress to enact as many as possible in legislation. He should also drop the ill-conceived minimum wage increase.

Despite somelimitations, this is the most impressive immigration-reform agenda put forward by any administration in many years. If it is even partially realized, it will do much to restore what Ronald Reagan called Americas role as a beacon of freedom and opportunity that draws the people of the world.

Ilya Somin is a law professor at George Mason University, an adjunct scholar at the Cato Institute, and author of "Free to Move: Foot Voting, Migration and Political Freedom."

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Biden's pro-immigration agenda is more expansive than Obama's, but it has drawbacks - USA TODAY

The summer of 2020 jolted America out of a complacent slumber. George Floyd didnt walk into a Minneapolis convenience store foreseeing his death, but his lynching reminded many Americans of the precarity of Black life when confronted with maximum-force policing. It only took a 911 call over Floyds alleged counterfeit $20 bill to seal his death by Minneapolis police.

Grotesque public killings like Floyds disturb the conscience of many. But for Black people, theyre also routine reminders of what often happens when they encounter police: harassment, or worse, death.

2020 saw newfound enthusiasm for mutual aid networks and community-based public safety systems amid the twin threats of the pandemic and law enforcement. But communities adversely impacted by American institutions have used this model for years, with an awareness that working together better ensures their survival. Existing systems will not meet their needs; instead, they often create and exacerbate them.

Police are more likely to shoot and kill unarmed Black men presenting signs of mental illness, compared to white men showing similar behavior, according to a UC Berkeley School of Public Health study. (2020 provided a harrowing example upstate in Rochester, where Daniel Purdue died by asphyxiation in late March after police pressed his head and naked body into the ground. The 41-year-old was suffering a mental breakdown intensified by drug abuse. Purdues brother had made the 911 call.)

Six years ago, the litany of police killings catalyzed Vanessa Green and other Black Lives Matter Hudson Valley organizers to brainstorm ways to reduce Black peoples contact with the police. What if they were their own first responders? We asked, what would a hotline for Black people look like? Green says. What would it look like for us to respond in our own community that we know and love?

Green and other organizers began by tackling mental health crises in the Black community, starting a rapid response team to mitigate such deaths in their neighborhoods. We knew that if you called the police on somebody in a mental health crisis and theyre Black, they could die, says Green.

At first they focused on Newburgh, where 24.5 percent of residents are Black. Green and others shed trained in crisis intervention made house calls to de-escalate situations.

Sometimes they got callers from outside the city and state. When they couldnt make those housecalls, theyd steer callers to other resources. But it soon became clear that they should nationalize their work. In 2016, they shifted gears, retiring their in-person response initiative to focus solely on phone calls and texts nationally. Thats when they became Call BlackLine, a 24/7 hotline that helps BIPOC navigate the struggles, abuse, and harassment they face in America.

Call BlackLine is part crisis line, part warmline. While some callers need immediate counseling, others just need a friendly ear to share day-to-day highs and lows. Still others might need emotional support in their distress or may be on the brink of crisis.

The organization answered 1,016 calls between January and August last year, ranging from Black students facing racism at school to people living with schizophrenia searching for a daily constant in their lives. Green says more people are calling about COVID-related stressors amid the pandemic. Ive got moms with kids at home who just need to talk to anybody because theyve been isolated, she says.

January was another recent major flashpoint for the hotline, after Congress certified Joe Bidens election victory and a pro-Trump mob stormed the US Capitol. All day the phones ringing off the hook, Green says.

Through an LGBTQ+ Black femme lens, the hotline embraces and affirms even the most marginalized within BIPOC communities. Green and the team of 10 volunteers, most Black, queer, and/or people with disabilities themselves, connect with callers through their shared experiences with racism, violence, and other forms of oppression. Transphobia and other bigotry arent tolerated by callers either. Our philosophy is, thats how we get freewhen we start lifting up our trans sisters, Green says.

Those lived experiences also inform the training volunteers undergo and the protocols they take with suicidal ideation and mental health crises. Major hotlines like the US National Suicide Prevention Lifeline have come under fire for tracing and routing callers locations to local police departments without their consent. Some are harassed by police and forcibly hospitalized. For BIPOC, LGBTQ folks, and sex workers, these interactions can be fatal. For that reason, Call BlackLine doesnt call the police.

Instead, the team connects callers to regional therapists, psychiatrists, homeless shelters, and other resources as needed. Many are Black or Black-led, and all are vetted by Green and a national network of other racial justice and Black Lives Matter organizers, with approval based on Black women and femmes past experiences with the resource.

Green herself does not have a therapists license, and she says that the hotlines legitimacy has been critiqued since Call BlackLine was founded. But neither she nor other team members present themselves as therapists, and callers in acute need are connected to help. She addressed that criticism in a prior interview: We dont need licensing because weve been doing counseling in our communities since you trafficked us here.

The hotline fills another niche in BIPOC community care: its a place to report brushes with consumer discrimination, negative police interactions, and racist vigilantism.

In the hopes of changing the way our communities are policed, we hope to speak to people who have had negative experiences with law enforcement or vigilantes, Call BlackLines website states. We want to help build a new network of support that our community can rely on.

For many Black folks, reporting police harassment to the local department can be daunting because of the fear of retaliation. Raising red flags about white racist vigilantism to local law enforcement can also be futile, as they often fumble their response, enable the activity, or even cheer it on. Police departments have failed to crack down on this activity despite the Department of Homeland Security naming white supremacist extremists the most persistent and lethal threat in the homeland in a 2020 report, and warning about the current rise of right-wing extremism as far back as 2009.

The threat is not foreign to the Hudson Valley, even if it hasnt risen to widespread ideological violence. According to the Hudson Valley Anti-Fascist Network (HVAN), Patriot Front is the main white nationalist group recruiting in the region, primarily through flyering and stickering. John, an organizer with HVAN who prefers to remain anonymous, says Patriot Fronts activity has declined after HVAN doxxed its regional director, who fled Poughkeepsie soon after. But that hasnt stopped other local white supremacist groups from attempting to make their presence felt: in December, the neo-fascist group Proud Boys threatened a Putnam for Black Lives food drive led by BIPOC high schoolers.

As for vigilantism, John says individual activity that HVAN has monitored pales in comparison to last summers counterprotest against a Rally for Black Lives in Pleasant Valley, when Back the Blue counterprotesters hurled slurs, punches, slaps, and spit at Black women, children, and other rally attendees. It was so shocking because it was so unprecedented for this area. It seemed almost like Charlottesville that day, John says.

Only one arrest for disorderly conduct was made by New York State police, after two months of public pressure. An early analysis of the event by the Dutchess County Sheriffs Office found that a small group on both sides were violent. Since those preliminary findings, Captain John Watterson says no new information has surfaced, no evidence of misconduct has been discovered, and no charges have been filed.

Green says Call BlackLine doesnt receive many calls about vigilantism, but that isnt to say its not happening. Most of the calls they do get are about activity that feels threatening but doesnt quite cross the line: white neighbors looking through a Black neighbors window or trailing them by car. And long after Black codes and Jim Crow, national store chains and small business retailers still perpetuate the Shopping While Black phenomenon. Green hopes to help BIPOC navigate this reality by developing an app to document these experiences.

This isnt criminal behavior per se, so police might chalk it up to unfounded paranoia. But in a country known for gaslighting Black people about their pain and trauma, the hotline is an alternative safe place where these experiences are affirmed.

Cataloguing those experiences can also provide a clearer picture of the problem, and help Call BlackLine quantify its impact. A Vassar College student is creating a database of these reported incidents and other call data that, when complete, Call BlackLine will draw from to bolster grant applications that will allow the organization to pay volunteers.

Despite Call BlackLines social justice mission, Green hasnt always had a social justice worldview. Her 31-year career in the social work, human services, and nonprofit sectors slowly but surely radicalized her.

Green can attest to how social servicesparticularly foster carecan be inherently oppressive for communities of color and the poor. During her 11-year stint at Pius XII Youth and Family Services in Orange County, the overflow of Black and Latinx families in her caseloads disturbed her. Why are there so many Black and brown people in the system? she remembers thinking. And then I realized its because theyre Black, and theyre brown, and theyre poor.

Green says that the foster care systemor family policing, as she calls itholds Black and brown families to oppressive standards. Instead of helping families in hard times, the system punishes them. We know that poverty is one of the root causes of kids being hungry, moms being on the streets, moms prostituting themselves, [and] doing whatever they need to do to survive, she says.

Green did everything in her power to keep families together. But if that wasnt possible, she made sure they kept in touch. Theres no such thing as adoption being private with a Black child. These kids need to know where they come from, she says.

A year after Pius XIIs office closed in 2000, Green joined the Mental Health Association of Orange County to direct rape crisis services, where she witnesses more failures by local government to protect victims.

For one thing, Green says police involvement often did more harm than good. At one point, St. Lukes Cornwall Hospital had a policy of calling Newburgh police when they admitted rape victims. Green believes this policy ultimately got one person killed by her attacker, who thought the woman had snitched to police. Through meetings and relationship-building with staff, Green helped to get the hospital to change its policy. You just killed her, she remembers telling St. Lukes staff. Its about giving a woman autonomy. You let the victim decide if they want to report their rape.

Year after year, Greens supervisors at the Mental Health Association couldnt keep up with her visions for reform. They told me, Youre moving too fast. Im scared, she says.

Green was also working part-time for the mental health, family counseling, and advocacy nonprofit VCS, gaining the social justice acumen shed use to attempt to reform mental health response in Orange County. Black women and girls are at disproportionate risk of sexual violence, but are less likely to report rape compared to white women. When Green did targeted outreach for Black women and other women of color, she was met with resistance from her supervisors. Feeling unsupported, she left the Mental Health Association in 2006 to work full-time for VCS.

Green had her ups and downs with the trailblazing social justice nonprofit, as well. On one hand, she gained invaluable knowledge of institutional oppression through her mentor, Phyllis B. Frank, a longtime social justice advocate. On the other, Green says the organization mirrored many other nonprofits in its day-to-day dehumanizing treatment of people of color. You can ask any Black person working at a nonprofit organization: We experience that on the daily. Thats just par for the course, she says.

But it was anonymous death threats that ultimately ended her time at VCS, after she and other BLM Hudson Valley organizers filed a lawsuit alleging illegal surveillance by Clarkstown police. Green says that put a target on her back. She left her post as a racial justice organizer for VCS in 2018, sought cover from the public eye, and threw herself into the work of Call BlackLine.

Green is dubious of the United States willingness to address the institutional and societal oppression driving the calls to Call BlackLine. This is a country that has never atoned or acknowledged the abuse, terror, and genocide that they have perpetuated on every marginalized peoples since they began their system of colonization hundreds of years ago, she says.

According to Green, social services, human services, and the nonprofit industrial complex arent the answers either. Three decades in these sectors has taught her that much. White supremacy, homophobia, sexism, and patriarchy are all embedded in the institutions and structures that purport to serve the public. Some within these systems have pure intentions. But with the exception of some policy changes, Green says, transformation isnt possible for innately oppressive structures. Reform, as witnessed in policing, doesnt eradicate inherent anti-Blackness.

If were working on providing services for marginalized communities, we cant continue to use structures and institutions steeped in maintaining the status quo, that work in hand in hand with police and systems that continue to cause harm within our community, she says.

As an abolitionist and community organizer, Green also believes strongly in divesting funds from police departments bloated budgets and investing in education, youth programs, housing, mental health, and restorative justice initiatives. Poverty and poorly funded public infrastructure should be considered public health crises, Green says.

Above all, communities should get to shape their futures, unfettered by paternalistic governments and nonprofits. When we say defund, we want to create different programs for our communities where were working as a unit together, Green says.

There is power in self-determinismthat is, there is power in marginalized communities deciding what their freedom looks like. That often doesnt look like what the government wants it to be. But until thats realized for all marginalized peoples, Call BlackLine helps BIPOCfrom single Black mothers to sex workersnavigate present-day America.

Call BlackLine can be reached 24/7 by calling or texting (800) 604-5841.

This article was published in the February 2021 issue of Chronogram.

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Call BlackLine: Community Care and Liberation on Speed Dial - The River Newsroom

Trigger warning: Rape, murder and violence.

What is it like to be a woman in Indian society? Well, in my experience, it is a struggle because, on daily basis, I come across heinous crimes that take place towards other women, children and men. Rape and violence towards women, children and oppressed sections have become a toxic culture in India. Our society has normalised this unsafe environment. This goes on to the extent of accepting rape jokes, casual sexism, acceptance of toxic masculinity, victim-blaming, and violent acts against women.

The Nirbhaya case was still fresh in our memories when India witnessed another heinous crime that took place in Hathras and Kathua.

The alleged gang-rape of a 19-year-old Dalit woman by four Thakur men was a shock to the whole nation. A woman said caste-based sexual atrocities were common in the village.We dont let our daughters walk around alone, said a Dalit woman. Normally, the Thakurs dont even touch us, she said, referring to the age-old practice of untouchability, but to rape, they take our daughters, the woman mentioned.

The caste skew that drives this caste-based sexual violence against Dalit women is not a new culture in several parts of India.

The caste-based hierarchy system in India in many ways contributes to this culture where individuals belonging to the deprived section of the society face caste-based sexual violence as an act of oppression. In detailed interviews with rape survivors and Dalit activists across five western, central and eastern districts of the Uttar Pradesh-Hathras, Shravasti, Unnao, Jaunpur and Lucknow. It was also found that state-wide public programmes to ensure the safety and rights of women-projects, shelters, helplines-have become defunct over the last few years, neglected, drained of funds or simply shut down.

Acts such as stalking, molestation, sending unsolicited photographs of genitalia contribute to the degradation of woman. Such acts are normalised by the society by sayings like Most women at some point in their life become a victim of such acts.

Looking at this through the lens of intersectionality we can say that gender-based violence is as an instrument of oppression or a means of teaching a lesson.

However, this is not a lone incident that has shaken up the country. Several incidences like Nirbhaya rape case (2012), Unnao rape case (2017), Kathua rape case (2018) and the Hyderabad rape-murder case (2019) expose the grim reality of bestial sexual crimes against women in the country. A survey by the Thomas Reuters Foundation in 2018 ranked India as the most dangerous country for women.

In the Annual Crime in India Report 2019 published by the National Crimes Records Bureau, crime against Schedule Castes and Schedule Tribe has been recorded an increase of over 7% and 26% respectively in the year 2019. Crime against women hs steadily been rising over the years. The NCRB 2019 states that 4 lakh crime-based cases were reported against women which means 88 rape cases per day. Experts say this is nearly just 10% of the crime and violence women experience. Many of the worse cases go totally unreported.

In the Kathua rape case, where a nomadic minor 8-year girl was kidnapped on January 10, 2018, and allegedly gang-raped in captivity in a small village temple in Kathua district after being kept sedated for four days. Her mutilated body was found in a forest on January 17. The question here is what did a little girl do to deserve this level of torture? Or what did any individual do, to go through such violence and humiliation? These cases of child and women abuse are gross and traumatic and literally show that even in this new era women, children and oppressed are not at all safe and are prone to such outrageous acts.

This breach of bodily dignity and violence creates a long-lasting phycological and physical impact on the survivors which cannot and should not be neglected by the justice system and society. Such grievous violence must be handled on a quick, efficient and professional basis with empathy to provide justice to the aggrieved.

When talking about this caste-based issue, I really cannot forget to mention the Payal Tadvi and Rohit Vemula case which depicts the deeply rooted casteist society that we live in which is being represented by leaders, a few of who still live in another era and fail to understand the energy and ambitions of the youth. A major section of youth demands human rights and dignity and want to feel accepted.

The system of oppression continues to fail the deprived class repeatedly. The poverty rate in India is 21.9% which is grossly understated. Among the lower castes, 81% of the STs, 66% of the SCs, and 58% of the OBCs live under the poverty line. On the other hand,the poverty level among the rest of the population is 33%. The lack of representation and lack of important resources such as education, food security and health care, continues to increase the gap between the privileged and the deprived.

A voice of a Dalit and Adivasi is usually silenced over savarnas in each and every field including governance, justice or this so-called progressive society!

Talking about justice, most often in caste-based violence, the system completely chooses to ignore the caste angle or sometimes even the bodily violence itself.

In most cases, blame-shifting is also seen as in Dr Tadvis case her capacity to deal with academic pressure was questioned. The lawyers then promptly moved ahead to argue that her unstable mental health and the alleged marital discord were the real cause for her death. This despite the colleges anti-ragging committee finding evidence that Tadvi was subjected to extreme harassment by three defendants.

Well, we as humans ignore that caste-based discrimination is very much a thing and it can completely affect a persons self-worth. Sheetal Kamble, a PhD scholar from Mumbais Tata Institute of Social Sciences, mentions the case of Khairlanji massacre. A woman, her college-going daughter and three sons were publicly tortured and murder. The media, and the caste society, assassinated the character of the women. Whether the deceased woman had a romantic relationship outside her marriage or not was the primary focus of every discussion. The perpetrators and the police leaked baseless stories about their faulty characters and the media readily lapped it up, Kamble points out. The focus, she says, was shifted from the criminals to the characters of the victims.

In India, there are no laws made towards hate crimes in general but there we do have Scheduled Caste and Scheduled Tribe (Prevention of Atrocities Act).Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes for past so many years have been humiliated and have faced crime violence by the upper caste, and this represents an extreme form of prejudice and discrimination.

Across the world, we find upper caste individuals humiliating another individual based on caste identity in the form of rape, abuse by police personnel, harassment, illegal land encroachments, forced evictions and so on. After the Nirbhaya case, the government may have taken measures but no increase has been seen in conviction rates. As the NCRB data of 2018 shows, only 25.5% of cases end in conviction.

Human Rights Watch reported that Dalit women exist at the lowest end of genders class, caste hierarchies, and therefore upper caste men have used sexual violence as a tool against Dalit women as a means to inflict political lessons and crush dissent and labour movements within Dalit communities.

I can say that we as a society, have failed to address this issue, we have failed to provide women, children and the deprived section of a safe environment and fair justice. We as a society forget to unlearn toxic things which are passed down through generations.

When we look into empowerment, especially of Dalit-Advisai females, the historical experiences of Dalit communities particularly in the context of education are based on deprivation and oppression. They were traditionally denied access to learning due to their so-called polluted and lowest status in the Indian caste system. Education is an important input for human resources development and it plays a key role in empowering women in general and Dalit women in particular. It is a very powerful instrument for the emancipation of Dalit women. It not only improves prospects for economic development but also promotes self-confidence and helps in capacity building to meet the challenges that the changing socio-economic scenario poses.

The education of Dalit girls is a serious issue as they are often doubly disadvantaged, due to both their social status and their gender.

Gender equity is a major concern, as the drop-out rate is higher among them at the elementary level. Dalit girls are particularly disadvantaged because family and social roles often do not prioritise their education. Early marriage and poverty lead to large scale drop-out in the 5-10-year-old and 16-20-year-old age groups, interrupting the completion of girls education. However, this is not the only reason that Dalit girls drop-out.

Memories of humiliation can also play an important role in the decision to leave, albeit a less visible one (National Commission on Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes, 1998). There is also a feeling that reservation of seats and preferential treatment benefit Dalit students, but the empirical reality is quite different. It has been seen in various studies that there is a minimum enrolment of Dalit girls. This lack of empowerment through education and basic rights deprives the Dalit-Adivasi females to live a life that they deserve and also makes them prone to caste-based violence.

In most caste-based crimes, we see failures in the filing, investigating, and pursual of cases that empowers potential perpetrators by signalling that crime against lower castes will go unpunished. It further disempowers marginalized communities by eroding their trust in the legal system. Moreover, a regular occurrence of such crimes may lead to secondary victimization i.e., it creates a sense of vulnerability and anxiety not just for the victim but also for the wider community.

Read more:

When Violence Is Used To Teach A Lesson: A Day In The Life Of A Dalit-Adivasi Woman - Youth Ki Awaaz