Dear friends,
As my regular readers know, I’m on an educational mission. If you’ve missed the Whoopi Goldberg kerfuffle, I recommend that you skip straight to the defense of Goldberg.
The short version of what happened is that Goldberg said on TV that the Holocaust was not about race. Then, once she understood her error, she apologized. But she was suspended from her job anyway.
Read Nathan Hersh’s Whoopi Goldberg Apologized. Punishing Her Further is Un-Jewish.
Hersh explains the problem with Goldberg’s suspension and with ‘cancellation’ generally:
The problem with punishment is it uses shame, rather than teaching and reflection, as the tool to address what is at best a clumsy misstatement and at worst a failure of understanding. Shame doesn’t foster a better relationship with the truth, or history; it simply forces silence, and that can breed resentment. In turn, silence and resentment fuel antisemitism. The better answer in these situations is obvious, but not easy: education, education, education.
At this deeply uncivil moment in our society, education matters more than ever. Hersh points out that even when folks are malicious, their flawed understanding of history is still an opportunity. He gives the example of Marjorie Taylor Greene, who
compared public health restrictions around the coronavirus to the Nazi treatment of Jews. The American Jewish Committee pointed out the obvious: “Equating public health precautions with the persecution of Jews during the Holocaust is disgraceful and unacceptable.” In the end, Ms. Greene took a tour of the Holocaust Museum in Washington and publicly apologized. She has nevertheless continued to reference the Holocaust, but her moment of sober acknowledgment of the singular horrors of the Holocaust came after her educational experience at the Holocaust museum.
Congresswoman Greene’s education is probably a long-term project; just yesterday she mixed up gazpacho and the Gestapo when she told an interviewer on One America Network about
Nancy Pelosi’s gazpacho police spying on members of Congress, spying on the legislative work that we do, spying on our staff and spying on American citizens.
Greene’s mix-up relates to an incident in which a Capitol Police officer entered the unlocked, unoccupied office of a member of Congress, to check for an intruder. The officer discovered a whiteboard with a hand-drawn map and “suspicious writings mentioning body armor.” Officers returned to question the member’s staff, and then closed the case.
It’s easier to mock people than to teach them, AND this confusion is not especially difficult to clear up. The Gestapo meted out extreme punishments, including imprisonment in concentration camps and death, even when there was no evidence that individuals had committed the crimes for which they were denounced by others. In the case of the Capitol Police, no one was denounced, accused, forced to confess, or punished.
I sometimes call these ‘throwback Thursdays’, since I like to return to issues and actions that need another look and usually, more action.
Almost two months ago, I shared the good news of the first Starbucks coffee shop to successfully unionize. At the time, I included a prediction from labor historian Nelson Lichtenstein that “many more Starbucks” would be moved to follow in the footsteps of the union shop in Buffalo.
The company is resisting unionization and recently fired seven employees in a Memphis shop, having caught one of them signing a union card on its security camera. Starbucks Workers United (SWU) is planning to file complaints with the NLRB for “union busting” activity.
If you or folks you know work at Starbucks, share this info!
Our state legislators are still holding hearings. In this last stretch before the budget gets finalized, there’s still time to talk to legislators directly.
Sign up for a Zoom lobby visit to influence a legislator — preferably your own — to fight for climate investment. NY Renews is organizing!
If you don’t have time for a lobby visit, please email members of the Environmental Conservation Committee. They need to know that New Yorkers care about climate action.
Use this one-click action from NY Renews to push for climate action.
Yesterday, Eric Adams showed up for a so-called ‘tin cup day’ to ask state legislators for money to fund some good stuff for city-dwellers, including the local bonus match for the Earned Income Tax Credit, mental health care, and a tax abatement for the creation of new child care centers.
He’s also asking for local authority to set speed limits on city streets and run the city’s speed camera program.
This is all good. However, Adams came out hard for changes to New York’s bail reforms and wrangled with Brooklyn Assembly member Latrice Walker, who offered to debate Adams on the issue of bail reform.
She noted how other states that give judges the discretion he is asking for have nonetheless seen a spike in violent crime and called the standard racially biased. Adams declined the invitation, and didn’t leave it there. “I don’t think you should debate me. You should debate the 11-month-old baby [shooting victim]’s mother. You should debate the two police officers that we lost,” he said.
“It’s you who are making this a political issue. You don’t have to tell me to debate a person who lost an 11-month-old child, because I lost a brother at the age of 19 years old to gun violence,” Walker replied.
It’s time to remind our state legislators that we support bail reform and oppose the criminalization of poverty and the “soul-destroying focus on punishing others.” I forgot who I’m quoting, but this phrase has stuck with me.
Contact your legislators about bail reform and new legislation to provide drug treatment in lieu of incarceration.
This week, we are tending the soil. That means both the literal soil, and the activists organizing on the ground to address our most intractable problems by educating the public and building power.
Yesterday, I was talking to middle school students about school dress code enforcement and I asked them if they thought that dress code enforcement intersects with racial oppression. Yes, I am teaching 7th graders about intersectionality.
A number of their responses led to a discussion of what happened to Trayvon Martin ten years ago:
Yes, because people think hoodies are ‘gang attire’ even though it’s not and that rule only tends to go to Black boys/men.
Yes, because Black people are more likely to get called out because they are seen as threatening.
Trayvon would be a year older than my springling if he were alive. Why can’t Trayvon’s mom talk with her child today? All lives won’t matter until Black Lives Matter.
Support the Dream Defenders, an uprising of youth activists in Florida who are fighting for their freedom from violence and environmental destruction.
Among my friends are a number of very resourceful and effective problem-solvers. One of them has described to me her pragmatic approach when the sheer number of problems outmatches her time and energy.
In her words, she chooses a few problems and throws money at them.
Maybe you’re already directly involved, investing time and effort in this work AND maybe it makes sense for you to throw some money to outsource this work.
When we support canvassing, voter education, and youth engagement, we are creating the conditions for democracy. The masses of Americans, I believe, want to live in a society in which all young people have a future.
We can also support the advocates who work closely with the folks on the ground, providing legal expertise and services to work the system and policy know-how to help remake the system.
Support Latino Justice and Bronx Defenders, who work every day to fight over-policing of Black and Brown people.
Take Action Minnesota has been working to educate and engage voters using something called deep canvassing. Deep canvassing draws voters into long conversations about public safety and what that should look like. It should not look like Amir Locke getting shot and killed by the police while crashing on his cousin’s couch.
Support Take Action Minnesota.
Care in Action built support for Stacey Abrams in her 2018 run, delivered Black voters for Biden in 2020, and can be fairly credited for getting two Democrats elected to the US Senate from Georgia.
This year, Care in Action is endorsing three great candidates: Stacey Abrams for governor, Bee Nguyen for Secretary of State, and Representative Nikema Williams, who filled John Lewis’s seat and has been a voice for caregivers and the care agenda.
Care in Action got out the vote in 2020 and 2021. Support care canvassing to elect three great candidates in Georgia!
What happened? I said I would be brief this week and then the young people got in my head. Thanks for staying with me.
with love,
L
regarding Rep. MTG: it is difficult to invest her with any good intentions, for a variety of reasons. Teaching her the error of her ways, or investing the time to try and educate her regarding the reality of her hate and prejudice, while she sits in public office, will likely result in providing her the tools to obfuscate and camouflage her true intentions, which will harm multitudes. In the case of racist politicians, charlatans and other dangerous players with power, I see a pressing need to remove their power, and I suppose then hope that their journey to learning can begin after that point.