Monthly Archives: April 2021

Tuesday, 20 April 2021, 6:19 amPress Release: ITUC

The ITUC has welcomed the formation of anationalunity government in Myanmar and calledfor it to be formally recognised by the United Nations,governments and inter-governmental bodies as the legitimategovernment of Myanmar.

The government iscomposed of parliamentarians elected in November 2020,representatives of the ethnic nationalities, academics andothers with specialist expertise.

Sharan Burrow, ITUCGeneral Secretary, said: This is the legitimategovernment of Myanmar reflecting the will of the people asexpressed in the November elections. The international tradeunion movement recognises its legitimacy and so should theentire international community.

The military junta,which is continuing its murderous campaign against thepeople of Myanmar, should be completely isolated.Governments should have nothing to do with it and allbusinesses must sever any economic ties they have with themilitary.

Failure to do so means direct complicityin mass murder of people who yearn for democracy and freedomfrom violent oppression.

The government includes UWin Myint as President, Aung San Suu Kyi as State Counsellorand Mahn Win Khaing Than as PrimeMinister.

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One of the three campaigns running in this years Student Government Association elections isForward. Forward is made up of Claire Donelan, running for student body president, Reginald Williams II, running for vice president, Nia Myrthil for student services director and Simon Jolly for executive treasurer.

The members of Forward base their campaign off of a three-pillar policy guidance for their approach to representing the student body: Intention, Progression and Connection.

Donelan explained that Forward was intentional with who they built their campaign with and who is in leadership positions. Their goal is to have people involved from all over different parts of campus and from different backgrounds.

Progression, as explained by Donelan, is making sure that Forward is focusing on important policy goals that benefit the student body and also working on past initiatives, like current president Karmen Jones anti-racism efforts.

When we transition into office, we wanna make sure we arent just forgetting about the history that came behind us. Like, right now, I am serving on Karmens executive team, and I know that we are doing great things. And it would really be a disservice to the student body if we stopped those initiatives, Donelan said.

By having previous experience with Jones executive team, Donelan wants to extend the efforts they have been working on into the next year, as to not backtrack.

Connection is where Forward wants to bridge the gap between the student body and SGA, making sure there is mutual understanding between the two, as well as promoting inclusivity amongst different communities on campus.

If elected, Forward has some of its own policy initiatives that the team wants to focus on, such as legislation on sustainability and legislation on LGBTQ+ issues.

Sustainability has been a big thing for our campaign, as well as when it comes to writing legislation, writing about LGBTQ+ housing issues and job opportunities is something that members of our campaign have been fighting for and pushing for and excited about; I think that will come up next year, Donelan said.

A big goal for the Forward team is to see a push toward the university adopting visible renewable energy on campus.

A unique characteristic about Reggie Williams as the VP candidate is that he has little experience with SGA, only serving on First Year Council during his freshman year. Williams accredits this lack of time in SGA as a benefit, as he was able to experience most of college as a part of the general student body, giving him an advantage in his abilities to bridge the gap between SGA and the student body.

Being a part of the general student body, I was able to see how people were ill-informed or didnt take part in SGA because they just didnt know about it. That is why I am really passionate about changing the FYS curriculum, so all freshman students can learn more about SGA then, Williams said.

If elected, Williams has plans to be more communicative to the student body about SGA initiatives and plans, so students are more informed about what SGA is working on.

Another area that Williams would like to focus on is addressing the students skepticism of the efficacy of SGA. Williams plans on using his leadership skills to follow a more hands-on approach with senators.

A soon as the senate gets started, I am going to let the senate know how approachable I am; I will drop in one by one with my senators to have one-on-one time, to let me know how I could do better as president of the senate and see everything they are working (on) to make sure they are staying consistent and being progressive, Williams said.

If elected, a goal of Williams is to stay consistent throughout the year, and as president of the senate, he hopes to work on making the senates process of creating legislation consistent throughout the academic year, as well.

Another area concerning the transparency of SGA, aside from the transparency of its legislation initiatives, is the transparency of SGAs financial expenditures. Talking with executive treasurer candidate Simon Jolly, Jolly has plans to stay on top of communicating this to the student body.

I think it is really important that SGA is transparent with the about $50,000 that we are spending of student dollars. A few ways I would like to see that enacted is by having the sheet where SGA is tracking how it is spending its money available to students on its website. Also, beyond just having a link on the website, I think it is important that we are using our social media to talk about, Hey, SGA spent $50,000, if you want more details, you can find that information on our website, Jolly said. ... The students should be able to see where we are spending their money and should be able to have a say in where that money is going.

With a large portion of Forwards campaign focused on inclusivity, student services director candidate Nia Myrthil talked about how student events should focus more on serving students and uplifting different voices rather than pushing out events that generalize different students identities.

When it comes to events, a lot of the times they are culturally ignorant, they are all just generalized and generalizations can be very disrespectful. I want to make sure with the events that we have, we are celebrating the culture and individuality, Myrthil said.

Myrthil mentioned wanting to start an arts committee that will focus on showcasing students from different cultural backgrounds and focusing on their art and talents.

One of the biggest things I wanted to focus on is I wanted to focus on the joys of our minority students on campus, because a lot of the time when we hear anything about minority students, it is usually about the oppression that we face on this campus, Myrthil said. A lot of time that can be a little bit too much or traumatizing for students of color, so I want to do events that celebrate our students and let them know they are appreciated here.

Myrthil wants BIPOC students to be celebrated on campus and to craft their own narratives through student engagement and events on campus.

Evan Sudduth, Forwards campaign manager, talked about Forwards approach to campaigning during the pandemic.

We built our internal executive board out of people that we handpicked because they come from different walks of life ... we are reaching out to people to let them know how to vote and what its like to be an SGA campaign, Sudduth said. ... We are specifically reaching out to individuals who align with our values and who might get on our campaign and have interests in that.

By reaching out to people of their values, they hope to connect with a larger audience of students that represent their aim to foster inclusivity among all communities on campus.

Forward has been active on social media throughout its campaign and has also held office hours on Zoom, where students can talk to candidates one-on-one.

In addition to the official Forward Instagram page, other Forward candidates have used their social media platforms to promote their campaign. For example, an off-campus senator candidate Stephen Monroe, known for the silly goose TikTok, used his internet fame to tell students to vote for Forward in a TikTok; thevideoreceived over 375k likes in a day.

The Forward team encouraged students to view all three campaigns social media pages to be informed voters. You can view their Instagram page using their handle@forwardutk.

Even if you haven't voted before, even if you haven't been involved in SGA before, I want to make sure everyone knows that it is very important you take place in this election and vote Forward if you really want to see the campus move forward, not in one area, but in all areas, Williams said.

Voting begins on Wednesday, April 21 at 8 a.m. and ends on Friday, April 23 at 5 p.m. Submit your votes atvotesga.utk.edu.

Link:

Forward campaign focused on intention, connection, progression | Student Government | utdailybeacon.com - UT Daily Beacon

By Ins San Martn, Rome Bureau Chief

ROME (Crux) A papal charity says that at least two-thirds of the worlds population lives in countries where religious freedom is not upheld, and the most persecuted religious group are Christians.

The 2021 Religious Freedom Report by Aid to the Church in Need (ACN) found that around 5.2 billion people live in countries where there are grave violations of religious freedom, including three of the worlds most populous countries: China, India, and Pakistan. In most of these countries, religious minorities are the most targeted, and in recent years, the faith-based persecution by authoritarian governments has intensified.

[Related: Survey: More U.S. Catholics Concerned about Global Persecution of Christians]

The report also highlights and denounces the increase of sexual violence used as a weapon against religious minorities crimes against women and girls who are abducted, raped, and forced to convert to another religion.

The promotion of ethnic and religious supremacy in some Hindu and Buddhist majority countries in Asia has led to further oppression of minorities, often reducing their members to de facto second-class citizenship. According to the report, India is the most extreme example, but similar policies apply in Pakistan, Nepal, Sri Lanka, Myanmar, and others.

Cardinal Mauro Piacenza, the international president of ACN defended the importance of religious freedom as an inherent aspect of human dignity, insisting that it cannot be trampled upon for any reason, neither by any government nor by any political policy or any particular agenda.

Ahead of the April 20 release of the report, he said that religious freedom contains within itself the nucleus of all freedoms since it relates to the human conscience and is thus linked to the dignity of every individual human being. Consequently, it may not be violated in any way.

The report found that the most persecuted religion was Christianity.

Thomas Heine-Geldern, executive president of ACN International, writes in the reports introduction that despite the albeit important UN initiatives, and the staffing of religious freedom ambassadorships, to date, the international communitys response to violence based on religion, and religious persecution in general, can be categorized as too little too late,

Behind the violent conflicts, whether in Syria, Yemen, Nigeria, the Central African Republic, or Mozambique to mention only a few countries are those in the shadows who, manipulating the deepest convictions of humanity, have instrumentalized religion in the search for power, Heine-Geldern continued.

The 2021 report is the 15th edition of Aid to the Church in Needs Religious Freedom in the World Report, produced every two years. It is published in English, French, German, Italian, Portuguese, and Spanish. With over 800 pages, the publication has changed much since it was first published as a booklet in 1999.

The report includes case studies that put faces to the statistics such as the burning of churches in Chile, the mass abduction of schoolchildren in Nigeria, and sexual violence and forced conversion in Pakistan.

Among the many findings of the report is the radicalization of the African continent, especially in Sub-Saharan and Eastern Africa regions, where there has been a dramatic increase in the presence of jihadist groups. Violations of religious freedom including extreme persecution such as mass killings are now occurring in 42 percent of all African countries, including Burkina Faso, Cameroon, Chad, Comoros, Democratic Republic of the Congo, Mali, and Mozambique.

Yet this radicalization affects not only the African continent: The report tracks a rise of transnational Islamist networks stretching from Sub-Saharan Africa to Comoros in the Indian Ocean, and to the Philippines in the South China Sea, with the aim of creating a so-called transcontinental caliphate.

So-called Islamic State and Al-Qaeda, with ideological and material patronage from the Middle East, affiliate with, and further radicalize, local armed militias to establish caliphate provinces along the Equator; a crescent of jihadist violence stretches from Mali to Mozambique in Sub-Saharan Africa, to Comoros in the Indian Ocean, and to the Philippines in the South China Sea, the report found.

In addition, it speaks of a cyber-caliphate, with a global outreach, that has become a tool for online recruitment and radicalization in the West, with terrorists employing digital technologies to recruit, radicalize and attack.

Among the main findings listed in the report, there are three that particularly stand out. First, the West has jettisoned tools that reduce radicalization, such as discontinuing religious education in many countries, despite governments acknowledging that teaching world religions reduces radicalization as it increases religious understanding among young people.

Second, theres an increase in polite persecution, or what Pope Francis calls the rise of new cultural norms that consign religions to the quiet obscurity of the individuals conscience or relegates them to the enclosed precincts of churches, synagogues, or mosques. These new laws, the report argues, lead to an individuals rights to freedom of conscience and religion to conflict with the obligation to comply with the legislation. According to the report, this polite persecution is a reality in several Western countries, where the right to conscientious objection on religious grounds for health care professionals in relation to issues concerning abortion and euthanasia is no longer meaningfully protected in law, and where graduates from particular confessional universities are increasingly denied access to certain professions. Similarly, its increasingly hard for religious schools to follow their own religious ethos.

Third, the report highlights the Vaticans renewed impetus to foster interreligious dialogue, an initiative spearheaded by Pope Francis, who back in 2019 co-signed the declaration on Human Fraternity for World Peace and Living Together with the Grand Imam Ahamad Al-Tayyib of Al-Azar, the leader of the Sunni Muslim world.

Persecution by region

When it comes to Africa, the question is not whether the continent is the next battleground against Islamist militants, but rather when will sufficient lives be lost and families displaced to move the international community to action? Already the numbers are in the hundreds of thousands killed, and millions displaced.

According to the 2021 report, Sub-Saharan Africa is ripe for the infiltration of Islamist ideologies.

On account of generations of poverty, corruption, pre-existing intercommunal violence between herders and farmers over land rights (exacerbated by the consequences of climate change), and weak state structures, this area has become a breeding ground for marginalized and frustrated young men, the report notes. This, in turn, has become a recruitment opportunity for extremists who prey on them with promises of wealth, power, and the ousting of corrupt authorities.

In Latin America and the Caribbean, the predominance of Christianity is no guarantee that religious freedom is upheld. The greatest violations of religious freedom occurred in nations with questionable records of respect for human rights and democracy, including Cuba, Nicaragua, and Venezuela.

These governments expressed hostility and aggression towards Christian Churches both Catholic and non-Catholic when religious leaders denounced corruption, and social and political policies understood to be detrimental to the common good, the report argues.

The Middle East-North Africa region goes from Pakistan in South Asia to Morocco in northwest Africa. This transcontinental region is home to over 6 percent of the worlds population, encompassing a variety of cultural and ethnic groups.

The birthplace of the worlds great monotheistic religions Judaism, Christianity, and Islam these countries include more than 20 percent of the worlds Muslims and 60 percent of the worlds oil reserves. Two facts that, according to the report, make this a region of powerful global influence in politics and religion.

Several countries in this area have experienced positive political and societal changes during the period under review, but have stopped short of furthering the promotion and protection of human rights, the report notes. The legal and societal environment shows a reluctance to change, as discriminatory laws and practices, mainly against non-Muslims, continue.

The Islamic State terrorist organization, the report notes, is currently weakened but not destroyed, and even though heinous crimes committed by jihadist groups were less numerous in the past two years, armed Islamist fanaticism remains a major military concern.

More here:

Majority of World's Population Lives in Countries That Violate Religious Freedom, Report Says - The Tablet Catholic Newspaper

Just three short months ago, a violent mob overran our nations Capitol Building to revolt against certifying Joe Biden as the winner of the 2020 presidential election. Many of the rioters carried signs proclaiming Stop the Stealreflecting the lies that President Donald Trump and his team stoked about voter fraud. Today, many elected officials are using that same pretext to dismantle the voting rights won during the civil rights movement.

As many Republican officials continue to spread lies about the last election, they are working in state legislatures across the country to create the conditions that will allow them to suppress enough votes to win future elections. Just as President Trump targeted voters in majority-Black cities such as Atlanta, Detroit, Milwaukee, and Philadelphia, these state lawmakers are taking their cues from the old white supremacy playbook, which teaches: If you cant win fair and square, then suppress the vote.

In Georgia, Governor Brian Kemp just signed into law a bill that adds many obstacles to voting, including reducing the number of ballot boxes, shrinking the window for early voting, adding additional photo ID requirements, and allowing state officials to circumvent the work of county election officials if they dont like the outcomes they are seeing. The Georgia bill even goes so far as to make it illegal for outside groups to give water or food to voters stuck in long lines.

We are witnessing right now a massive and unabashed assault on voting rights unlike anything weve seen since the Jim Crow era, Georgia state Senate Minority Leader Gloria Butler, a Democrat, said of the bill.

Georgia is sadly not alone in its assault on democracy. According to the Brennan Center for Justice, As of March 24, legislators have introduced 361 bills with restrictive provisions in 47 states.

These bills are the aftermath of the Supreme Courts 2013 ruling in Shelby County v. Holder, which said that state and local governments with a history of discrimination are no longer required to preclear amendments to voting laws and processes with the federal government.

Coverage today is based on decades-old data and eradicated practices, Chief Justice John Roberts wrote for the court in its 5-4 ruling. Racial disparity in those numbers was compelling evidence justifying the preclearance remedy and the coverage formula. There is no longer such a disparity.

But the recent flood of voter suppression bills is a powerful reminder that voter registration and turnout in those states rose dramatically in the years since passage of the Voting Rights Act because of that preclearance. It is no coincidence that the day after the Shelby ruling, North Carolina lawmakers began work on a voter suppression bill that the United States Court of Appeals would later strike down, finding that the provisions target African Americans with almost surgical precision.

Indeed, voter suppression for party and voter suppression of race are intricately connected. For example, in 2020, The Guardian found that growing Black and Latino or Hispanic neighborhoods in Texas saw the majority of polling station closures.

This year, the Supreme Court will decide another landmark case that will determine the future of the Voting Rights Act. This case revolves around Section 2 of the act, which expressly forbids any election law that results in a denial or abridgement of the right of any citizen of the United States to vote on account of race or color. This is important because it focuses attention on disparate outcomes regardless of the legislations purported intent. Section 2 provides protections so that even if unscrupulous lawmakers use the pretext of voter fraud, their suppression efforts can be challenged. If the Court rules against Section 2, it will further embolden voter suppression efforts like the Georgia bill.

The United States is supposed to be a bastion of political freedom and democratic participation. Indeed, our foreign policy explicitly claims to advance these values abroad. But if we are suppressing the vote at home, what does that say about the values we supposedly hold? Fifty-six years after passing the Voting Rights Act to counter the systemic oppression encoded into law through the Jim Crow regime, we find ourselves right back in the fight to ensure that every American has the opportunity to help direct the future of the nation.

It is time to stop the real steal. We need new federal legislation that will defend voting rights against the encroachment of unscrupulous lawmakers. And we also need the Supreme Court to do its job in vindicating minority rights against the tyranny of white supremacy and systemic racism.

Visit link:

Georgias voter suppression bill is an assault on our democracy - Brookings Institution

The CHRO honors all elected cabinet members of the National Unity Government. we send our best wishes for all those who will try to forge a new democratic path for our conflict-torn country amidst bloodshed and grief.

Chin Human Rights Organization (CHRO) welcomes the formation of the National Unity Government formed by the Committee Representing Pyidaungsu Hluttaw (CRPH), according to its statement on April 17th.

Salai Za Uk Ling, Assistant Executive Director of the CHRO said: The main point is they emerge from widespread consultation with ethnic peoples organizations. On the other hand, the army regards themselves as the government after illegally grabbing power. We welcome and support the NUG in its work for the public and the implementation of human rights, democracy and federalism.

But the NUG needs to think about the fact that the successive governments failed to conduct an analysis on the source of oppression against the minorities and change it. I think now is the best time for the current government to correct the past mistakes after doing a thorough review.

In its statement, the CHRO urged the people that how different races, religions and politics are, all Myanmar citizens should stand in unity behind the NUG.

All together we need to protest against the lack of legitimacy of military leaders who operate using illegal means and violent means.

Link:

CHRO welcomes formation of (NUG) the parallel government - Burma News International

Dear UVM Community Members,

As many of you are aware, former Minneapolis police officer Derek Chauvin has been on trial facing murder charges for the death of George Floyd. Yesterday marked the closing statements in the trial.

As we await a verdict, our attention and hearts are with Black, Brown, Indigenous and People of Color who continue to experience the heartbreak and violence of systemic racism in our country and in our communities.

There is no way to give full honor to the victims of racial injustices, and this is why we continue to work for justice and equity. At UVM, we strive to be in solidarity with our BIPOC community, and believe that Black lives matter.

We understand that each of you will have unique needs as we navigate the potential and cumulative impact of this moment. What follows are some of the opportunities for learning, community support, and space for healing: In solidarity with the BIPOC community, the Student Government Association (SGA) has approved our request to raise the Black Lives Matter flag in front of the Davis Center this week, per the SGAs flag protocol. Beginning Friday, the Interfaith Center will host an interactive art installation on the fourth floor of the Davis Center inviting people to share their hopes and concerns for racial justice in this moment. Counseling support is available for all students via Counseling and Psychiatry Services (CAPS) and through the identity centers on campus. Community gatherings to learn, be together, and process are being developed by campus partners, including the Center for Cultural Pluralism and Identity Centers.

As we continue to reflect, we want to highlight UVM's Our Common Ground:

"...we unite against all forms of injustice, including, but not limited to, racism. We reject bigotry, oppression, degradation, and harassment, and we challenge injustice toward any member of our community."

Racism is an ongoing problem rooted in a complex history, and it impacts us all. As you continue to reflect on what your role is within the work of equity, justice, and inclusion please know that as challenging as this work can feel, it is our responsibility to continue, together.

In solidarity,

Erica Caloiero, Interim Vice Provost for Student AffairsSherwood Smith, Senior Executive Director for the Vice Provost for Diversity, Equity and InclusionJim Vigoreaux, Vice Provost for Faculty Affairs

See original here:

A message to the UVM community as we await the verdict of the Derek Chauvin trial - UVM News

ROME Violations of religious freedom are increasing and persecution takes place in more than 25 countries, with China and Myanmar among those that have the worst records, according to a report by a Vatican-backed charity.

The Religious Freedom in the World Report, covering 2019-2020 and issued on Tuesday, said that in some countries, such as Niger, Turkey and Pakistan, prejudices against religious minorities led local residents to blame them for the COVID-19 pandemic and denial of access to medical aid.

The 800-page report was prepared by Aid to the Church in Need International (ACN), a worldwide Catholic charity that studies violations of freedoms of all religions.

The latest report put 26 countries in a red category denoting the existence of persecution, compared to 21 countries at the time of the last report two years ago.

It put 36 countries in the orange category denoting discrimination, compared to 17 two years ago.

The report describes discrimination as when laws or rules apply to a particular group and not to all, and persecution as when there is an active program to subjugate people based on religion.

There has been a significant increase in the severity of religiously-motivated persecution and oppression, the report said.

It was particularly scathing about China and Myanmar.

The apparatus of repression constructed by the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) in recent years is fine-tuned, pervasive, and technologically sophisticated, the report said.

The most egregious violations were against Muslim Uyghurs in Xinjiang where the atrocities have reached such a scale that a growing number of experts describe them as genocide, it said.

In February, the administration of U.S. President Joe Biden endorsed a last-minute determination by the Donald Trump administration that China has committed genocide in Xinjiang and has said the United States must be prepared to impose costs on China.

China says the complexes it set up in Xinjiang provide vocational training to help stamp out Islamist extremism and separatism. The Chinese Foreign Ministry has called allegations of forced labor and human rights violations groundless rumor and slander.

The ACN report said Catholic hierarchy in China continue to suffer harassment and arrest despite a landmark deal signed in 2018 between Beijing and the Vatican on the appointment of bishops on the mainland.

Reuters reported last year that two nuns who work at the Vatican mission in Hong Kong were arrested when they went home to the mainland for a visit.

China was increasing the use of facial recognition on worshippers of various religions, it said.

In Myanmar, the report said Rohingya Muslims have been the victims of the most egregious violations of human rights in recent memory.

Last year, the International Court of Justice ordered Myanmar to take urgent measures to protect Rohingya from genocide. The government has denied accusations of genocide.

The ACN report said the military coup on Feb. 1 was likely to make things worse for all religious minorities in Myanmar, where about 8% of the population is Christian.

Africa would be the next battleground against Islamic militants, the report said.

Militant groups were causing havoc in countries including Mauritania, Mali, Burkina Faso, Niger, Nigeria, northern Cameroon, Chad, Central African Republic, Democratic Republic of the Congo, Somalia and Mozambique, it said.

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China, Myanmar and others criticized in report on rising religious persecution - The Japan Times

The juridical apparatus of the Indian state is built to criminalise Kashmiri resistance and normalise their oppression.

One of the oft-repeated assertions that one comes across concerning Kashmir is that it is marked by a condition of lawlessness.

However, such an argument presupposes the possibility of a stable and steady rule of law, against which the lawlessness stands as a kind of anomaly. Such an argument fails to consider how the application of law, its reformulation, its suspension, are all malleable instruments in the Indian colonial epistemic and political arsenal.

The fact that Kashmiris are subjected to Indian laws, regardless of the complexion of the law, is in and of itself a problem. The point is not that the Indian state misuses its power in Kashmir, but that the Indian state must not wield any power at all, regardless of how this power is made use of.

The people of Kashmir do not resist India's rule in Kashmir because it does not give them their rights - they resist because the Indian state does not have the position or the power to confer on them any right, or deprive them of it. It is this power and subjection that they challenge. It is this power that sustains colonialism and characterises it.

Take, for example, the law called Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act. This law has been regularly deployed against Kashmiris and many have been imprisoned under it. One of the clauses of this law penalises any act or speech that creates disaffection against India. Can a colonised population feel, or express, anything besides disaffection for the colonising nation?

The same clause in the law marks as terrorism any speech or action that disclaims, questions, disrupts or is intended to disrupt the sovereignty and territorial integrity of India. The Indian state has perennially maintained that Kashmir is an integral part of India; therefore, one can argue that for the Indian state, the colonisation of Kashmir is constitutive of its very sovereignty.

As a result, under this law, resistance against colonisation inevitably becomes an act of terrorism. So, the function of Indian law in Kashmir is not, and cannot be, the dispensation of justice, or the provision of rights. Rather, the entire juridical apparatus stands to criminalise resistance to Indian colonisation, decriminalise or conceal the violence of the Indian state against the Kashmiri population, and help the Indian state in projecting an image of its rule in Kashmir as one marked by commitment to principles of justice.

Or take the example of Armed Forces (Special Powers) Act (AFSPA). The AFSPA provides the Indian troops with powers to shoot to kill, conduct warrantless searches, and detain people arbitrarily, all of which they have regularly done.

Indias colonisation of Kashmir is not typified by militarisation and forced cultural assimilation alone. It is, first and foremost, characterised by the power the colonial-state wields to kill subject populations at will, without being subject to any rule other than the will itself.

Normalising occupation

After the Indian government abolished the so-called autonomy of the state of Jammu and Kashmir in August 2019, many people have misconstrued the political struggle of Kashmiris as one for the reinstatement of this autonomy. Such an assumption fails to explain the civil and armed uprising against Indian rule that existed prior to the abrogation of Article 370 and 35 A.

I would like to demonstrate the nature of this autonomy through an event that took place in Palestine.

As Neve Gordon narrates in Israels Occupation, on June 8, 1967, a few hours after the Israeli military captured Jerusalems Temple Mount, Defense Minister Moshe Dayan visited the site. He noticed that the troops had hung an Israeli flag on the cap of the Al Aqsa mosque and he immediately asked one of the soldiers to bring it down, adding that displaying the Israeli national symbol for all to see was an unnecessarily provocative act.

Moshe, a committed Zionist, did not tell his soldiers to remove the flag out of respect for the Palestinians, but simply because power is most effective when it is invisible, when its presence is concealed.

Article 370, in a similar vein, was not a concession but a shackle. It was aimed at giving Kashmiris a false illusion of being free, at enslaving Kashmiris without them being conscious of their own enslavement.

Between 1967-1980, the Israeli colonial authorities distributed fertilisers and pesticides among Palestinian farmers for their agricultural crops, and also distributed vaccines against diseases that could compromise livestock of Palestinians. But as Gordon argues, these practices were not informed by generosity, but by a desire to normalise the occupation, and these practices were always balanced against other practices that undermined Palestinian attempts to create a self-sufficient and independent economy.

It illustrates the point I made at the beginning. The Indian state permitted the application of Article 370 in 1949, to normalise what was otherwise a colonial occupation. It allowed it because it was advantageous for the project of consolidating occupation. In 2019 it was abrogated completely because it had lost its usefulness for the Indian state.

Now, it has introduced a new set of domicile laws which allow Indian citizens to permanently reside and buy land in Kashmir if they have worked in the region for fifteen years or studied there for seven years.

So, the only consideration that dictates what the Indian state does in Kashmir is the question of what is necessary for the sustenance and continuity of occupation? Sometimes, it is the application of the law, and sometimes, its suspension. Sometimes, it is the carrot that is effective, and sometimes, the stick. And sometimes multiple forms of power are deployed simultaneously.

Living under colonialism, one learns that the lawmaking in the assembly, the courts of the occupation and the gun of an army man work in tandem, constantly overlapping and reinforcing the other.

No reconciliation or peaceful coexistence is possible between the coloniser and the colonised, between the Indian state and the Kashmiris. The two do not share a conception of humanity, peace, or justice. The interest of the Indian state lies in subjugating the Kashmiris, the interest of the Kashmiris lies in resisting this subjugation.

While the Indian state promises peace and development in Kashmir, one must remember that the coloniser and the colonised do not share a conceptualisation of peace.

For the Indian state, peace is a condition where the occupied Kashmiris accept the occupation as an unchangeable reality, as a fact of life that one must grow accustomed to.

For occupied Kashmiris, life and peace can only materialise from the death of colonialism.

Disclaimer: The viewpoints expressed by the authors do not necessarily reflect the opinions, viewpoints and editorial policies of TRT World.

We welcome all pitches and submissions to TRT World Opinion please send them via email, to opinion.editorial@trtworld.com

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The metaphysics of Indias colonial project in Kashmir - TRT World

The January 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol dramatized the threat from the far right in a way that the United States hasnt seen since the 1995 Oklahoma City bombing, which killed 168 people. January 6 sharpened battle lines and intensified far-right militancyyet it also highlighted a number of questions and uncertainties that far-rightists are facing as they enter a new period, now that Donald Trump is no longer in the White House.

Removing Trumps twisted charisma from the picture might inflame factional infighting, but it might also clear the way for newer leaders with stronger organizational skills.

As President, Trump echoed and validated far-rightists more than any of his predecessors, with his racism and misogyny, demonization of political opponents, celebration of violence, and blatant authoritarian tendencies. In the final months of his administration, Trump refused to accept his electoral defeat, a stance that fueled far-right politics in a way no other President has done.

Tens of millions of people have bought into Trumps fraudulent claim that the vote was rigged, thereby calling into question the legitimacy of the U.S. government itself. The great majority of those who stormed the Capitol, according to one detailed study, had no apparent affiliation with far-right organizations, but rather were normal Trump supporters suddenly ready to use force to overturn a presidential election.

The far right has grown dramatically in recent months, but its newer adherents are not yet well organized, and their long-term commitment to the movement is uncertain.

Insurgency reflects the far rights contradictory relationship with the established order. Far-rightists want to bolster systems of oppression and exclusion that have been integral to U.S. society since the beginning. Yet theyre deeply angry at the status quo and the people in power.

Part of this anger comes from a fear of losing the relative social privilege and power they traditionally held over oppressed groups; another part comes from a sense of being beaten down and disenfranchised by elites. This double-edged anger coalesces into the belief that economic and political elites are using people of color, feminists, immigrants, and LGBTQ+ people to weaken and destroy white Christian America.

Far-right anti-elitism is real, but it doesnt challenge real social or economic hierarchies. Rather, it takes peoples sense of disempowerment and channels it in ways that bolster inequality and oppression all the more.

The U.S. far right encompasses several different ideologies. Most notorious is white nationalism, an openly racist doctrine that literally aims to establish an all-white nation through migration, mass expulsion, or genocide. White nationalism is promoted by such groups as Patriot Front, but its less common among far-rightists than other ideologies that bolster racial oppression in ways that are easier for proponents to deny.

The Proud Boys, for example, advocate Western chauvinism (i.e., European cultural dominance) but also include people of color as members; notably, the groups current leader, Enrique Tarrio, identifies as Afro-Cuban. The Oath Keepers, a leading Patriot movement group, routinely scapegoat and demonize Muslims and immigrants but uphold color-blind ideology, which reinforces racial oppression by denying that its there.

Other major far-right ideologies dont center on race at all. The theocratic wing of the Christian right wants to take dominion over society, meaning that it advocates a form of supremacism based on religion rather than race. One of the largest theocratic formations, the New Apostolic Reformation movement, has a multiracial membership and active branches in Asia, Africa, and Latin America. Christian right mobilization efforts have largely centered on issues of gender and sexuality through campaigns opposing abortion rights and LGBTQ+ rights.

Another type of far-right ideology is conspiracism, which interprets political and social conflict primarily in terms of imagined plots by sinister cabals. The QAnon movement, which claims that a network of satanic, cannibalistic pedophiles secretly controls the Democratic Party and many key institutions, is only the most recent well-publicized incarnation.

Conspiracism can be found in most branches of the far right. Its roots trace back to the long history of antisemitism but also numerous anti-Catholic, homophobic, and anticommunist witch hunts that have occurred repeatedly in U.S. history.

The Patriot (or militia) movement, which fears a plot by globalist elites to impose tyranny on the United States, draws from all of these ideological currents and adds another: the glorification of individual property rights. This is the belief that freedom is fundamentally about owning and controlling property without government regulation or limits. Property rights ideology is an expression of class privilege because it bases peoples civic worth on whether or not they are owners.

How will these ideologies interact in the months and years ahead? Which themes and beliefs will gain ground within the far right, especially among newer members?

Ideological diversity sometimes fuels sectarian conflict. Yet several of the U.S. far rights biggest upsurges of the past forty years have been powered by different ideologies converging and interacting in dynamic ways. In the weeks following the November 2020 election, the pro-Trump Stop the Steal movement provided an umbrella for such convergence, as QAnon conspiracists, Proud Boys, and neo-Nazis not only marched together but began to borrow each others slogans and symbols.

Beyond ideology, the events of January 6 and Trumps departure from the White House two weeks later raise a number of questions about the mindset of far-rightists and how they view their current situation. These questions can help us understand some of the movements internal dynamics and possible courses of action.

One question is how far-rightists regard the January 6 Capitol takeover. Strictly speaking, if its aim was to overturn Bidens election and keep Trump in the White House, then the attack failed. This led to what observers called confusion, disillusionment, and infighting among hardcore Trump supporters, some of whom coped with their sense of defeat by claiming, absurdly, that the Capitol takeover had been orchestrated by antifa posing as Stop-the-Steal activists.

To other far-rightists, however, the Capitol attack was a heroic moment, a mass action that brought Congress to a standstill for hours and sent politicians a warning they could not ignore. One Patriot activist described January 6 as one of the most powerful things that I was ever a part of and will ever be a part of.

The event gave the movement a martyr in Ashli Babbitt, who was fatally shot by a Capitol Police officer when she tried to enter the building, bolstering calls for greater militancy and commitment. A post-Trump upsurge of far-right violence was already likely, and the polarizing effects of January 6 intensify this, whether through heightened enthusiasm or growing desperation.

Another question facing far-rightists is whether Donald Trump will continue to be a rallying figure going forward. During his presidency, far-right attitudes toward Trump diverged widely. At one extreme, most QAnon supporters viewed him in superhuman, messianic terms. Christian theocrats often compared Trump to Cyrus in the Biblean unbeliever who nonetheless served as an instrument of God.

Yet many members of the alt-right, whose skillful online activism in 2016 helped Trump win the nomination and the presidency, quickly came to believe that he failed to deliver most of his promises on immigration, trade, and foreign policy.

The attitude of some on the far right shifted after January 6. Many Proud Boys, previously staunch supporters, called Trump weak and a total failure for agreeing to leave office and for dissociating himself from the violence at the Capitol, while many QAnon followers felt betrayed by his failure to arrest Democrats and other opponents en masse, as they had predicted he would do. Yet some alt-rightists hope that Trump might now be more effective at combating the conservative establishment than he had been as President.

Donald Trump got eleven million more votes in 2020 than he did four years earlier, despite his disastrous handling of the pandemic and the recession, among other failings. He remains popular within the Republican Party and among forces further to the right.

Yet its unclear whether he will continue to play an active leading role, which has mixed implications for his movement. Removing Trumps twisted charisma from the picture might inflame factional infighting, but it might also clear the way for newer leaders with stronger organizational skills.

The Capitol takeover raised major questions concerning far-rightists attitudes towardand relations withthe police. The January 6 attackers physically assaulted more than a hundred Capitol Police officers, one of whom was attacked with a chemical spray and died from a stroke the next day. Yet they also carried thin blue line flags, and some off-duty cops are believed to have participated in the attack.

Those on the far right have long tended to support local cops but oppose federal law enforcement, yet deeper complexities are involved.

Solidarity with police became a far-right rallying point in the spring and summer of 2020, in the face of the Black-led mass protests against police violence after the murder of George Floyd. Yet members of the boogaloo movement rejected President Trumps law-and-order rhetoric and called instead for cops to be killed, to help further their movements goal of provoking a civil war. Boogaloo activists stepped up these calls after the Capitol takeover.

Other far-right groups have shifted in their attitudes toward law enforcement. The Proud Boys, founded in 2016, initially positioned themselves as a vigilante arm of the Republican Party and enjoyed friendly relations with police. But after the November 2020 election, they found themselves in physical confrontations with cops, notably at a New Years Day protest in Salem, Oregon, after which members of the group made a show of stomping on a thin blue line flag.

The Patriot movements relationship with police is more complex. Some leading groups within the movement (the Oath Keepers, and the Constitutional Sheriffs and Peace Officers Association) specifically recruit members of law enforcement. But the movement also has a history of armed confrontations with cops, most dramatically the 2014 standoff at Cliven Bundys ranch. Clivens son Ammon Bundy leads the group Peoples Rights, which has promoted the belief that the county sheriff is the only legitimate law enforcement official.

Given this complicated background, its likely that many far-rightists, especially newly radicalized activists, are uncertain or conflicted in their attitudes toward police. This will likely continue to be a point of significant debate.

But the far right is certain to remain a serious force, because its supremacist and exclusionary politics speak to widely held fears and, in distorted ways, address real social tensions and problems.

It would be a serious mistake to rely on the state repressive apparatus to stop this threat. As Cloee Cooper noted in a February 22 article on Progressive.org, The mechanisms of repression and policing aimed at suppressing the far right inevitably get turned on communities of color and the left.

Instead, we need grassroots-based organizing and activism to confront organized far-right forces and defend communities that are under attack, with space for people to act in different ways and with different politicsmilitant and nonmilitant, leftist and nonleftist.

At the same time, we cant let the insurgent far right present itself as the only real oppositional force. We must offer liberatory visions and strategies that speak to the disempowerment and isolation that most people in this society experience to varying degrees, and that the far right feeds on.

Against the far rights twisted anti-elitism founded on bogus conspiracy theories, supremacism, and exclusion, we must offer radical critiques based on systemic analysis, egalitarianism, and solidarity.

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After the Storm - Progressive.org - Progressive.org

For the inaugural kickoff of THR Talks a new Hollywood Reporter series in which an of-the-moment artist is put together with a cultural or political figure for a dialogue that goes deeper than the usual conversation Andra Day and Roxane Gay plunged effortlessly into in-depth, far-ranging discussion, with THR editorial director Nekesa Mumbi Moody listening in. Oscar-nominated actress and social commentator Day did not hold back when it came to unpacking racial inequality in the opioid "epidemic" (and the Derek Chauvin trial), white supremacy in textbooks and in what American children are taught, and why Stacey Abrams and the iconic jazz singer of "Strange Fruit" share political DNA.

ROXANE GAY I was watching the movie and thinking about how oftentimes it seems like suffering brings a dimension to art that we don't seem to find in other ways. Do you think that Billie Holiday's suffering is what made her such an amazing artist?

ANDRA DAY I'd like to be like, "No, she could have done it without suffering," because I love her. But of course it's a part of art. It's reflective of the times and our experiences. It's healing, also. I think that music's design is healing at its core. I'll never forget about the scripture I read about waters [that] could only be healed with someone playing the lyre. So yeah, [suffering] was a part of her music, because it was a part of her story and what was challenging for her but also strengthened her. But I don't think it's a darkness. I think it's a healing from that pain that really makes art birthed from pain so potent and so powerful.

GAY That's an interesting way of thinking about it, because we tend to think of pain as dark and we don't necessarily know what's on the other side. One of the things that we saw throughout the movie was that Billie Holiday struggled, like many people, with addiction, and at the same time, that wasn't the whole of her story. What did you do as an actor to get to know her beyond what we knew about the worst of her life?

DAY I mean, I have to say that my research and my getting to know her really started before becoming an actor in this movie. I've been a fan since I was 11 years old. So I started with her music and then went into her relationship with her band members. Then the story about her life, from where she was born, her losing her father to Jim Crow because no hospitals would take him and her being raised in a brothel. So my study of her goes way back. And I think in that study of her, you find out about addiction, about mental illness from trauma, the underlying causes of addiction. Addiction is a way to remedy and to cope in a way, to stave off the pain.

And in the study of addiction and mental illness, you have to study the intersectionality of race, and how Black people have been portrayed in this realm, how we've been criminalized. When I look at drug addicts and their criminality, I often see Black and brown faces, right? And so then you [see the racial component in] the war on drugs. It's this evolving thing that you begin to see this huge fractal of oppression and intention to criminalize Black bodies, which dates all the way back to the Emancipation.

GAY When you look at the way in which the FBI had targeted her, and I think went about it in a really criminal way, it's interesting to see that it's been more than half a century and nothing really has changed, at least for Black and brown people. Did that impact your portrayal, thinking about how history is also part of our present day?

DAY Yes, absolutely. You mentioned that the FBI did it in a criminal way. The FBI does everything in a criminal way. That is the nature of the FBI. I think that that's something that really needs to be dealt with in the nation, too. J. Edgar Hoover being the source of that. This was a man who was incredibly racist and homophobic and sexist. So everything was flawed about the procuring of information, of intel.

We filmed the movie at the end of 2019, so this is pre-George Floyd, but this was not pre-Kalief Browder, pre-Tamir Rice, Sandra Bland. This is not pre-Malcolm X. There is a relevance here today. We don't even have to go back to Holiday's time to see that. We're seeing a really crystalizing example of it right now. The opioid epidemic considered an epidemic because it is affecting white kids stopped being an epidemic and became criminalized yet again during the George Floyd case. It became used against George Floyd. We are here right now in 2021, and there are the two different portrayals of addiction to the same drug.

I think we need to change the way we look at addiction and it needs to be treated as a mental illness. And we need to speak very, very honestly about race and justice when it comes to addiction, and to acknowledge that, yes, this has been something that has been used against Black people to criminalize and monetize, ultimately, their bodies.

GAY Absolutely. The prison industrial complex is predicated on abusing Black bodies and profiting off of them. It seems like nobody in power is willing to have that conversation, even though that conversation desperately needs to be had. We can see some of that playing out right now with the Derek Chauvin trial in Minneapolis. I'm all for due process, but it's truly outrageous that we have video [on Derek Chauvin]. We know what this man did. Why are we talking about it?

DAY I agree with you. We've actually got to change what due process is.

GAY Due process has never really served us at all.

DAY Never. So those things have to be gutted. Our nation's foundations have to be unthreaded so that we can sew a new, equal fabric that's really based on principles of justice and equality of the greater good. So it's a difficult reconciling, I guess, for a lot of people.

GAY Do you think it's possible for us to get to this place where we rethink justice and really unravel a lot of the foundations of this country?

DAY I have to believe it's possible. That comes from my faith perspective. We have to hold out hope for those triumphs and victories. I see a lot of hope in the younger generation. I think truth is going to be a huge, huge part of that. The reason this Billie Holiday story is resonating with people so much is that she represented truth. "Strange Fruit," the song, represented truth in a system that is built on deception and suppressing the narrative. If it's built on lies, truth [is] probably the only thing that can dismantle it.

GAY It was clear that truth is definitely dangerous because of the ways that the United States tried to suppress the song. She had this streak of social justice in her and was interested in using art for political ends. Why do you think it's taken so long for us to recognize that she used her music to fight for the greater good?

DAY It's taken so long because it was meant to never be known. This has everything to do with controlling narrative this is what Hoover did, what [FBI agent] Harry J. Anslinger did. Billie Holiday was globally famous. But she was using her platform to speak out about racial terror and lynching in America. And she was integrating audiences. She was using her voice to sort of push legislation, The Emmett Till Antilynching bill, which still hasn't been passed today. So the reality is we didn't know because we weren't supposed to know. We didn't know because textbooks are designed to continue white supremacy, right? In schools and colleges. I didn't know about [the women of] Hidden Figures because we weren't supposed to know. I didn't know for a long time that Black people were kept in zoos. I didn't know that a slave netted us our independence as a nation, his great act. Billie Holiday was a threat to a system of racial inequality. So we were only supposed to know her as a tragic addict who wasted her life on drugs, which could not be further from the truth.

The reality is, I don't think that Billie Holiday was stepping in to be like, "I'm going to be a hero of civil rights" and whatever. She was just a human. You hear her talk about it very matter-of-factly. She's like, "Well, it's not right, man." She's just like, "You shouldn't be lynching people. People should not be segregated. We should not be treated unfairly, and there should be racial equity." And so, she was a very empathetic person. I don't think she had a choice. If she wanted to think as a free Black queer woman, that alone was a huge challenge to the system.

GAY Absolutely. White supremacy does try to keep a lot of important historical knowledge from us. So where do you go to educate yourself beyond what we're taught in schools and the mainstream media?

DAY Fortunately, we have the internet, though you have to vet a lot of things that you read. Which is another tricky thing because I go test my information against this encyclopedia or whatever, and I'm like, "But you forget those things are dictated by white people." Even what we would test the accuracy of information and events [against] is all based off of the standards and narrative of the white male patriarchy. So I often see people talk about Black stories and say, "That's not true because I looked at the Library of Congress," and I'm like, "Well, that could be your first mistake."

For me, it comes from reading the books of my ancestors. Reading Angela Davis' work and her research. Reading Assata Shakur's work and her research and life experiences. Listening to our grandparents, and doing research on what they're telling us against things that we know have happened. People who were there, oftentimes, are the things that I find the most informative.

GAY It's funny. I have a podcast [Hear to Slay], and my co-host [Tressie McMillan Cottom] and I were talking today about how you can't get all of your information from a single book, because everything is incomplete, and it's up to us to flesh out the whole picture. So, yeah, you've been doing that through that work.

DAY And it's sort of like semantics as well, right? Just how things are portrayed. Like, when white men commit terrorism in America. It's just described as murder or it's not described as a hate crime.

GAY Right, or a lone wolf.

DAY Exactly. We recently just [saw] Soul of a Nation [ABC's six-part doc series on the Black experience in America]. It was such an amazing program, and I'm so glad they talked about Tulsa, Oklahoma Black Wall Street. It gets in me when I hear people refer to Tulsa as a race riot, because a riot implies two sides. That was not a riot. That was a massacre. That was genocide. That was a holocaust. We murdered an entire city of people. They were bombing and killing them. So it's also paying attention to those little details about how you describe things.

GAY It is, and unfortunately, we live in a culture that does not always appreciate nuance and/or take the time to think about language. I'm a writer, so of course I think this, but language really does matter. And the ways in which we talk about Black history, in particular, matter, because when it's framed from a position of white supremacy, it seems one way, and then when it's framed from a position of actual reality, it's a completely different way.

DAY Yeah, I always reference my young cousin. I was taking care of him when he was here, and his textbooks are framed around not just white culture, but white supremacy. That is where they come from. Often, the biggest manufacturer of textbooks is Texas, so think about that agenda there alone.

GAY Texas has a ridiculous stronghold on the textbook industry, and they actually dictate a lot of the curricula children across the country learn, including curricula that try to make slavery seem like, "Oh, it was just a bad day. It was like hard work."

DAY Do you believe what's said in my young cousin's textbook? It says, "Slavery, a difficult situation." And the book did everything it could to paint the slaves as lazy and complaining about having to work hard in the hot sun. When you see stuff like that, you go, "We have to pay attention to the details, because the details are what's going to dictate to future generations what actually happened." So, yes, I agree with you 100 percent there. I told him, "Uh-uh. I'm going to call your teacher. Put that book down. I'm going to teach you history about slavery."

GAY I think one of the best ways that we can continue to teach young people, people of all ages for that matter, is through stories. Why do you think it's important that the right people tell stories like this?

DAY First of all, if you don't tell stories like this, then you cannot actually move forward. You can't progress as a society, as a culture. You can't heal, you can't get better. Ultimately you destroy yourself. It is integral to survival, in my opinion. We can't grow to racial equality if we're not telling the truth.

If it was that important to them at the time to slaveholders on down to the Hoovers, the Anslingers of the world and the Reagans to control the narrative and to lie about our stories, it's got to be that important for us to tell the truth. The only thing that can dismantle a system of oppression is truth.

Because for future generations, it goes, "Well, how can I be mad at Black people if a Black person helped America become an independent nation with the sacrifice of [James Armistead] Lafayette, infiltrating the enemy camp and rerouting troops as a spy?" That is such a dangerous act. He was willing to give up his life for people that enslaved him. So when you know the truth about that, I think it's, "Well, I can't hate that guy." It is harder to hate someone when you have access to the depth of their struggle, their contribution, and their triumph.

GAY So the movie has done very well, and you won the Golden Globe. Congratulations. How do you process that kind of acclaim? Are you competitive? Do you want these kinds of recognitions?

DAY I'm probably the opposite of that a little bit. I am extremely appreciative. I always think about this scripture that discourages competition. And I love that. Because competition is very much a human nature thing. We believe that we have to do this in order to survive, that there's not space for everyone. But the reality is, if we're here, that there is space for everyone. There's this scripture that says, "Don't work as if working unto man," like to beat man, "but work as if working unto the Lord," which is a much higher standard in self-accountability.

To me, it just thrashes this idea that you and I are in competition, especially when it comes to Black women. So I'm going to work hard. To me, even when I look at my fellow nominees, I don't say, "They're competitors." We're sharing the space together, and we're representing different stories. As far as continuing in it, I'll probably do a little more acting, but I look forward to hitting the background and doing some writing and developing.

GAY What kind of writing do you do?

DAY Music and poetry. And right now it's screenwriting.

GAY Oh, fantastic.

DAY It's new, so I don't have any sort of misconceptions about like, "I am just going to dive in, get it right away." Really, I write everything the same way I write lyrics or poetry. I dump everything out, every single idea. Research, research, research, dump, dump, dump. Then I begin to form and craft it from there. So I'm in that phase of dumping everything right now, trying out ideas. It's actually a limited series that I'm working on. Ultimately, I want to get with a great experienced screenwriter. I don't need to be the one to tell it top to bottom. I want people who are experienced, who are Black and who are preferably female, but also allies as well.

GAY Who are some of the political or artistic or other voices that have stood out to you in this moment?

DAY I've started with the artists of my community. There are some rappers and some singers. Geminelle Rollins, from southeast San Diego, where I'm from. Ryan Anthony, Marty McFly. Just people that are from my neighborhood, Black people. There's also a girl I went to high school with, Joshlyn [Turner], who has a juice truck. She's trying to get healthy food and healthy juice into the community. It's called The Write Juice. So really first start supporting those businesses by making people aware of them. I have people from multiple ethnicities and backgrounds on my team, but really being targeted and focused on hiring and working with Black talent. I've done work actually with the amazing Michelle Obama. So I feel like I could just stop right there.

GAY I mean, I think that's a mic drop. That covers it.

DAY Yeah. To be available for her efforts in what she's doing as far as educating girls. Not just girls of color, but girls all over the world who have been denied education. That was the Let Girls Learn campaign. I mean, Stacey Abrams is another one as well.

GAY She's incredible. They literally are redoing the voter repression laws. And what they don't realize is she can outthink them every single day of the week. This kind of thing emboldens Black people.

DAY This is where I go back right to Billie Holiday. That is the same DNA. That is why they had to shut her up. You know what I mean? Because she is the DNA that is in Stacey Abrams; [the Republican-led revisions to voting rules] are a direct response to Stacey Abrams registering millions of voters. She just did the right thing. Someone said in an interview not too long ago: "You would think the government, the FBI, had more important things to do than go after Billie Holiday." I said, "Well, that depends on your goals. Their goals are to continue white supremacy, racial oppression, systemic inequality. So if those are your goals, then Stacey Abrams got to go. Right? Billie Holiday got to go." Absolutely dangerous. I'm so inspired by her and her efforts.

GAY So we're coming out of the pandemic, hopefully. What are you looking ahead to, as we all get vaccinated and life hopefully returns to a different kind of normal that maybe isn't as messed up as the previous normal?

DAY First thing I look forward to is vacation. I'm going to head somewhere and take a little bit of a break. Seeing family again, just connecting with people. A big thing. I'm looking forward to in-person, right? Showing up and saying yes, and being present for certain opportunities and things that come along, and just seeing what happens. I'm hoping, as far as socially, that we hit the ground running. And then just turn up. You know what I'm saying? Everybody just turn the fuck up, and have a good time.

GAY I mean, I have never been more ready. This year is going to be the Summer Freaknik. Let's go!

DAY It's on! It's on and popping! You let me know, are we in New York? Are we in L.A.?

GAY Oh, we're in L.A. We're going to enjoy the sun. We're going to have some friends. I just have some lighter questions. What was your favorite book as a child?

DAY You know what I liked when I was young? I liked a lot of those scary stories. It was R.L. Stine.

GAY I think R.L. Stine has written like 150 books.

DAY I don't know why, because I hate scary movies and scary stories. So I'm this dumb kid, right? Why would I torture myself? As a kid, it was terrifying. You were reading every single word, so it was happening in your head at the same time. I wish I could be sophisticated, like, "I only read Langston Hughes as a child."

GAY I wouldn't believe anyone who said that. What did you want to be at that age, when you grew up?

DAY Always a singer. Always an entertainer. There was never a plan B. Although I had random moments where I'm like, "Mom, dad, I think I'm going to be a paleontologist." They'd be like, "OK, girl."

GAY What's the best piece of advice you've been given?

DAY From my parents, and it is to not let fear dictate my decisions. Fear is a liar. To not let fear decide what I'm going to do for me.

GAY Lastly, what do you like most about your work and what you do?

DAY I like the people. Yeah, people do some crazy shit sometimes. But again, I don't want fear of somebody screwing me over to dictate how I interact with people. I think that has to do with my faith. It says, "Love the Lord, your God, with all your heart, soul and mind, and love your neighbor as yourself." I love loving my neighbor, and I love being loved by my neighbor. I like people, their experiences. It's enriching to me. Most of the time. Even when you meet somebody who you're like, "I'm not supposed to engage with them anymore," you're still enriched because now you know that.

Interview edited for length and clarity.

This story first appeared in the April 21 issue of The Hollywood Reporter magazine. Click here to subscribe.

Originally posted here:

THR Talks: Andra Day and Roxane Gay in Conversation About Suffering in Art and Racism in Addiction - Hollywood Reporter