#leaflets from minor churches | Explore Tumblr Posts and Blogs

queermediastudies · 2 years

Text

QUEER TV

Before I watched POSE, I thought it might be a fashion show about how models express themselves. POSE is a queer television related to fashion but not as similar as what we saw in a commonplace. It is not about a great fashion design with a famous luxury designer, the roles in POSE are all designers to themselves because they designed and made the costumes.

The first queer media I watched was called Brokeback Mountain, which did not leave me with a deep impression but misconception of gay people that I do not understand why the two leading male characters fell in love but marry with other women. I have never considered what kind of humiliation or discrimination they would meet if they came out. I was ignorant before I reached out to POSE, a television that focuses on minority people within the marginalized group. It is a television that no longer focuses on white gay people but on black trans people. This brought out the breakout text in both queer media and the natural world since the world is still arguing about the problems of trans people, such as whether trans people should use the women's restroom.

According to what we have learned before, the LGBT group is a marginalized group because the whole world system is still or mainly focuses on heteronormativity. To love or have a relationship with the same sex people is violated the binary rule, human morals, and reproductive futurism. And it is perceived as demonic behavior by Catholicism.

POSE is the first queer TV that changed my perspectives on gay people. Although this TV has been controversial, it uses three seasons to sketch the queer history in New York City, starting from 1980 entirely. For me, POSE is not just a queer TV but a 'documentary' TV because the play is in chronological order, which shows the historical moments from queer history. Moreover, according to Joyrich(2014), TV is still at the top of mainstream US media institutions, and it has a function of influencing people's perceptions by bringing out intensely political history. TV is a thing that is ordinary, mundane, and unremarkable or a concept that illustrates a fixed type of framing in media. Queer is unusual in adjective and ruins things in verb meaning. Queer TV can be seen as a "breakout text" (Cavalcante, 2017, p.1) that appeared in ordinary television. This breakout is like a sudden rise of layer after layer of huge waves across the calm sea. Therefore, POSE is also a cultural breakout text to me.

"Queer is defined precisely as the subversion of the ordinary" (Joyrich,2014,p.134). Queer TV studies focus on how queer TV reflects, refracts, and generates the dominant ideology, firmly challenging and troubling the normative ideology, thus providing a powerful venue for cultural and political resistance. According to Tongson(2017), queer media has its function of examining queer history by portraying LGBTQ civil rights events. Each era's cultural, political, and LGBT activities affect queer media creations. Queer media from various eras mirrored queer society. Queer media helps people understand the challenges and limits queer people faced before. The content of how trans people defend against HIV disease and why they get infected in this TV series brought me a type of cultural shock corresponding to the breakout text function. In season2, episode2, they went to the church and started their protest to ask, "stop killing us." The director uses a close-up shot to show the cardinal's crime through the leaflet. As we can see from the picture, it pointed out what the cardinal did at that time.

The scenes played in the show used a narrative way to show how ACT UP and our main characters participated in the protest, which is similar to what happened in the actual ACT UP protest during that time. I appreciate the documentary film United in Anger which precisely explained this scene because I did not understand why they started the protest in the church when I watched the scene. But after we read and learned from our class, I re-watch the TV and finally connected some confusing points to actual history.

Another scene in the POSE that left me with a profound impression is that they spread the ashes. This scene is based on the actual hisotry, which is also recorded in the United in Anger. After Pray dead, his friends united together and joined the activity made by ACT UP— spread the ashes onto the White House lawn. Ashes are meaningful and more direct in showing how many people died from AIDS. It was more efficient in getting people to become angry and remember how this disease took their friends, families, and people they knew. This scene revealed how people with AIDS or without AIDS were angry and disappointed when the government was not fully responding to act to these dead people.

Do you remember a scene where the presenter asked trans people horrible questions about their biological body system in the last documentary film called Disclosure? Have you ever thought about why those people ask these awful questions to trans people? This is also driven by Cavalcante, "particularly on television talk shows, transgender people are routinely asked to reveal intimate details about their bodies, questions other guest never receive" (Cavalcante, 2017, p.9).

POSE has reflected the similar problem of trans people in the show. It can be recognized as a combination of Cavalcante's idea of breakout texts and Joyrich's idea that queer created "a tension between the articulation of the mainstream and the unsettling of the mainstream, both framing and displacing a televisual logic as it attempts to take queer viewers, texts, and issues into account even as it aims to undermine TV's usual accounting" (Joyrich, 2014, p.133). The worry from trans people seldom or never appeared in a show but POSE pointed out. Like Cavalcante(2017) said, trans people are worried about how the screen showed trans people, and "the movie may have made people think you have to have the surgery" (Cavalcante, 2017, p.9). In the first season, episode 4, Elektra clarified the idea of why she wants to do the transsexualism operation, it is not to be a complete woman, but it is because of inconvenience. Many media coverages mislead us to believe that trans people will only be complete after they do the surge, but did the media reveal the truth about the inconvenience? I am glad to see queer TV like POSE pointed out the fact and eliminated the misconception of transsexualism operation.

I believe POSE also indirectly explained why some people ask horrible questions to trans people. In season1, episode 7, Elektra's lover found she had done the surgery and became very angry. The words he uses: selfishness and stupidity, illustrate that he defined or identified Elektra as a toy to satisfy his perverted curiosity. This can be seen as how he identifies other trans people. In another scene in season2, episode1, Angel suffered dehumanization behavior by being photographed naked photos from the photographer. In their dialogue, he used the personal collection to highlight his wrong intention that he considers Angel a rare collection, not a human. He made her take off her clothes and underwear in an icy and commanding tone, and here's a detail of when he saw Angel take off her underwear that he swallowed. I think the director wanted to use this performance technique to express the ecstasy that he couldn't help but to imply his indifference and curiosity. The photographer, Elektra's lover in the play, identified some people's minds--to the hate, curiosity, shame, and indifference of crowds.

All these scenes I showed above correspond to Joyrich's idea that queer TV created tension between ordinary television and queer TV(Joyrich, 2014). It focuses on the intersectional people at the edge of the marginalized LGBT people. It shows the function that broke up into the mainstream and made the marginalized group visible by revealing the issue of trans people of color.

Joyrich(2014) also mentioned that reproductive futurism rests on children all hope for the future. It believes that the primary motive for political science exists is to create a better future for the next generation. The fact that we don't know what will happen in the future also limits the idea of futurism. It is based on what people think or imagine about the present. But the idea that people must have children to ensure a future is common and expected(Harada, 2017).

The ordinary TV follows the reproductive futurism pattern by creating thousands and thousands of similar televisions to meet the mass media's trend. Those televisions are TV's offspring which provide possibilities for future expectations.

I think this is why POSE only has three seasons because if it continues to self-reproduction, it may lose its initial goal to break up the normal TV interpretations of trans people. A meaningful queer TV might become an ordinary boring family drama, such as The Vampire Dairies, a fiction TV about vampires, werewolves, witches, and humans but focuses on heterosexuality across species. They are all busy dealing with their love and hate disputes. I think POSE also covers some repeated content implying the constant reproduction, but POSE retains its queerness since it only has three seasons.

Cavalcante, A. (2017). Breaking into transgender life: Transgender audiences' experiences with “first of its kind” visibility in popular media. Communication, Culture & Critique, 10(3), 538–555. https://doi.org/10.1111/cccr.12165

Joyrich, L. (2014). Queer Television Studies: Currents, flows, and (main)streams. Cinema Journal, 53(2), 133–139. https://doi.org/10.1353/cj.2014.0015

Tongson, K. (2017). Queer. In L. Ouellette & J. Gray (Eds.), Keywords for media studies (pp. 157–160). essay, New York University Press.

Harada, K. (2017). A challenge to reproductive futurism: Queer families and nonhuman companionships in ueda sayuri's the ocean chronicles. U.S.-Japan Women's Journal (2003), 52(1), 46-66. https://doi.org/10.1353/jwj.2017.0011

#queermedia #mediaexamples #queermediastudies #queerstudies

2 notes · View notes

playitagin · 10 months

Text

1995-Navaly church bombing

The Navaly church bombing is carried out by the Sri Lanka Air Force killing 125 Tamil civilian refugees.

This incident occurred during a phase of the Sri Lankan Civil War when the Sri Lankan military were on the offensive to retake the Jaffna Peninsula. This operation was already highlighted by the use of intense artillery shelling and aerial bombardment.[3] As part of precautions to avoid civilian casualties the military had distributed leaflets requesting minority Sri Lankan Tamil civilians take shelter at places of worship. For their safety hundreds of civilians had taken refuge in the Roman Catholic church in Navaly.[4]

The Church of St. Peter and Paul in Navaly (also spelled Navali) on the Jaffna Peninsula was bombed by a Sri Lankan military aircraft on the afternoon of 9 July 1995.[5][6] Several hundred Tamil civilians were taking refuge at the church and surrounding environs at the time.[citation needed]

According to Daya Somasundaram, a professor of the University of Adelaide, the church was well away from the fighting. He termed this attack a war crime committed by the Sri Lankan Air Force.[2][7]

#Jul.9.1995 #Navaly church bombing #Sri Lankan Civil War #history today

0 notes

anniekoh · 4 years

Text

montgomery bus boycott

Martin Luther King Jr, as they say, became who we needed him to be through the Montgomery Bus Boycott.

It is the quotidian details of the Montgomery Bus Boycott that gets me in the gut. In one of my library work sessions, I took a break by reading Russell Freedman’s 2008 Freedom Walkers: The Story of the Montgomery Bus Boycott.

I learned about the role of the Women’s Political Council (WPC), which formed after League of Women Voters refused to accept African American members. One of the WPC leaders, Alabama State professor Jo Ann Robinson was more than ready to act when news of Rosa Parks’ arrest spread in town. Her own earlier experience in 1949 of being yelled at by the bus driver when she transgressed the color line had stuck with her. And despite the 1954 Supreme Court ruling striking down segregation in the school system, the front seats of Montgomery’s buses remained strictly barred to Black passengers. Robinson commented: “There were some very fine, courteous bus drivers who were kindly disposed and carried out the laws of segregation without offending the riders.”

WPC and the Montgomery Improvement Association leaders planned a 1-day boycott of the buses for Rosa Parks’ trial date. To get the word out, Robinson and some fellow Alabama State colleagues went to campus at the dead of night to use the mimeograph (without permission of course) and cut 52,500 leaflets to distribute the next morning (p 34).

Robinson taught til 10am, and then started to distribute the leaflets along with two students. Other Womens Council members were also fanning across the city to distribute leaflets: schools, “churches, stores, taverns, beauty parlors, barber shops, and every other available place.”

When the Montgomery Improvement Association (MIA) decided to hold a sustained boycott, the level of organization required was immense. King called for “every small detail” of how organizers of a 1-week bus boycott in Baton Rouge had arranged for carpool systems to get everyone to work.

The Montgomery Bus Boycott lasted for 381 days, from December 5, 1955 to December 20, 1956.

In Montgomery:

- “18 black owned taxi companies agreed to transport passengers for ten cents each, the same fair people would pay on the bus, rather than the usual 45-cent minimum” (p. 41)

- 150 volunteers offered to drive or lend cars their for the first night

- MIA’s Transportation Committee was headed by a seasoned voter registration activist, who “recruited black postal workers who knew the layout of the city's streets... [and] developed an interlocking system of forty-eight dispatch and forty-two pickup stations.”

- To bolster morale, mass meetings held every Mon / Thur at churches around town, where individual “boycott heroes” were praised for their commitment and sacrifice (p. 52). Freedman mentions in a later chapter that two children had walked more than eight miles to take piano lessons, twice a week, for the entirety of the bus boycott.

- When “funds poured in” following the national media coverage, MIA bought 30 cars, mostly station wagons, to be able to increase the carpool system’s capacity.

The response of the white mayor and city leaders?

- The Mayor declared dismissively, “comes the first rainy day and the Negroes will be back on the buses” (p 47)

Immediately after the boycott started, Montgomery’s Police Commissioner threatened to arrest any taxi driver who charged less than the minimum (p. 49), which eliminated the Black-owned cab companies as a resource.

- Later on the police commissioner ordered his men to crack down on car pool drivers, by stopping cars to check licenses, insurance, place of work, headlights, wipers, basically citing any driver with minor and sometimes entirely imaginary violations (p 62)

- The community? The White Citizens Council pressured insurance agents to cancel the carpool fleet's liability insurance, which suspended the carpool system, until the MIA figured out how to obtain insurance, from a British company represented by a Black insurance agent.

Just as a reminder, the Montgomery Bus Boycott lasted for 381 days, from December 5, 1955 to December 20, 1956.

Holy hot damn. If that isn’t shivers up your spine inspirational.

#martin luther king #american history #montgomery bus boycott #rosa parks #civil rights

20 notes · View notes

libraford · 5 years

Note

So, I'm currently reading the glue famine and "did I accidentally join a cult again?" Jumped at me. Especially the 'again'. Is that a story you shared or are planning to share?

Okay.

So…

I come from a family of journalists and my mom’s first big story was to interview a woman from her hometown who escaped from the Jonestown cult in the 1970′s. So I grew up hearing all about it because my mom had a minor hyper-focus on cults for a bit. And it’s also… kind of one of my special interests. I’m usually rather quick to point out when a corporate leaflet floats around with cult-like speech.

…usually.

An exception to this is when I was in high school and wee little bright-eyed and bushy-tailed me decided I was going to join the Bible Study group at school. Now, you have to remember- this was public school and there are rules about the separation of church and state.

We were allowed to have this Bible Study as an after-school program on the explicit grounds that it was a student-lead, academic discussion and definitely not a reason for someone to declare themselves the Word of God.

More on that… later.

So we held the Bible Study in the Geology teacher’s classroom and Mrs Hobath would leave to do something else and check in on us from time to time to make sure we weren’t doing the kinds of things that teenagers do.

I don’t think I ever saw Mrs Hobath actually in the room at any time ever.

When you think of the kinds of things that teenagers do when unattended, what do you imagine? Making out, drinking, drugs, smoking weed, vandalism?

Ha! Those are normal things.

So this upperclassman, Alex, was our ‘leader’ and his role in our group of God-fearing outcasts was to present a topic of discussion, throw a few Bible verses in our direction, and avoid derailing as much as possible. And Alex did that pretty well for the first six months.

Then Alex went to some kind of weekend workshop to reconnect with The Holy Spirit or something and came back with… ideas.

At the beginning of the meeting, he told us each to find a spot in Mrs Hobath’s classroom and sit in silence with our eyes closed. Pray. And he would go around the room and feel everyone’s presence and where we each sit with The Lord and decide where to go from there.

Truth be told, I fell asleep. I was a growing teenager with a weird sleep schedule, too many extra curriculars, and an undiagnosed anxiety disorder- I was fucking tired. And if I didn’t have reason to be awake, I was not gonna stay awake.

Forty-five minutes in, Alex tells us all to open our eyes again.

He tells us what he saw.

“There was someone in this corner- I got a distinct image of someone climbing a set of stairs- up and up and up into the sky but never reaching.”

Everyone looks in the corner.

Everyone looks… at me.

HA! PSYCH- it wasn’t me, it was Steve. Steve was in the corner.

So Alex walks up to Steve and puts a hand on his shoulder. “Steve,” he says. “I think you might be a prophet.”

The room gasps as a unit. The word ‘prophet’ rolls over the group of twenty or-so. And then the word ‘witness’ and then the word ‘hallelujia.’

“We’re done for today,” Alex says. And we’re dismissed.

And in retrospect, I probably should have seen this as a great big red flag. But as a teenager who had just the bare-bonesiest grasp on what was and was not acceptable in early 2000′s Indiana, all I could think of it was:

Well. That was goofy.

Week goes by and I forget all about this weirdness. I go back to the Bible Study, pretty sure we were going to go back to what serves for normal around here, and… was disappointed.

“Steve is leading the group today,” Alex says. “I will be observing.”

We all turn to Steve. “Same as last time,” he says. “I want you to close your eyes and pray- and we will talk about what needs to be talked about.”

I should have thought: This. This thing you’re doing here with the divining? That’s the thing that needs to be talked about.

But what I actually thought was: Fuck yes! Another nap!

It’s somewhat quicker the second time. About half an hour.

“Everyone open your eyes.” We opened them.

“You,” he says.

He points his finger at me.

No, for real this time. This part I remember really clearly. I was wearing a rose-pink peasant-style shirt and jeans that didn’t fit and I had one tiny braid off to the side of my face, as was the (tragically unhip and out of date) style at the time. He really was pointing at me.

“What about me?”

“I saw a gray mist, confusion, desperation.” Wow, don’t we all buddy? George W Bush is president- we’re all confused. Steve turns his head to the side. “You don’t know how to pray.”

So… I start crying because of that aforementioned undiagnosed anxiety disorder and the entire room takes this as a confession even though I was notorious for crying all the damn time.

And they start laying hands on my shoulders. There’s a circle around me- 20-ish people with hands on my shoulders and arms, heads bowed. Steve starts reciting a prayer over me and as he spoke I felt it- a wave washing over me.

A wave… of extreme… discomfort.

Steve finished his prayer, they all said ‘amen.’ We departed. I made a very smart decision to never go back to that Bible Study. And I recall saying to myself-

Well, that’s the last time I take a nap in that classroom.

221 notes · View notes

inwintersolitude · 5 years

Text

state your name Kelly.

go to the nearest window and look out it. Go on!!!... I can see outside from where I'm seated.

are there any people out there?? Just one person walking their dog.

do you have any interesting plans for today? No, nothing interesting.

what perfume do you use the most? I don't use perfume.

what is the most extreme weather your area has ever experienced? In the nearly 6 years since my husband and I moved here, I think the most extreme weather was that blizzard we got a few years ago. We ended up getting almost 4 feet of snow and were snowed in for about 3-4 days. Oh and there was a tornado here two summers ago but it was a very minor one. I'm originally from Ohio, where we wouldn't consider an EF0 tornado to be “extreme.”

is there anything you plan on watching on TV today? No.

are there any broken appliances in your house? No.

what colour is the lampshade in the room you're in? They're both light beige.

at school, what is/was your worst area in maths? Math was one of my best subjects, but statistics was probably my worst area within math.

have jevovahs witnessess ever called to your door? No.

what about travellors? (gypsies) No, I don't think there are any gypsies around here. Most American gypsies/Roma/whatever live out west or in the northeast as far as I know.

do you say 'hello' to people you pass on the street? No. Not unless I know the person.

how is your posture right now? Not that great. I'm sitting semi-curled up in a recliner.

do you ever throw money in those 'wishing' wells? No.

ever take money out of them?? No.

how long would it take you to walk to the nearest shop? About 15 minutes.

when was the last time you went to mass/church? Years ago.

do you live in a rural or residential area? I live in a residential neighborhood on the edge of a large town, near a rural area.

are there any people in your area that are kinda odd? Some people here seem a little odd to me since I'm not from around here. There's definitely some minor regional cultural differences between here and where I grew up.

are you well known by people in your area? No.

what is the picture on the desktop on the computer you're using? Ducks on a misty pond.

have you ever crossed the street to avoid seeing someone? I don't think I have?

have you ever heard someone bitching about you? No.

what would you do if you did hear someone bitching about you? I'd probably tell them that I can hear them.

do you believe the rumours that lady gaga ain't no lady? I don't know.

do you care either way?^ No.

do you use public transport often? Only when I'm traveling around a place where it's efficient. Large cities, mostly. The public transport where I live consists of one small bus line. It's not even a full sized city bus, it's one of those half-sized shuttle bus things.

do you know what a 'spindle fibre' is? Yes.

don't you just hate when people hand you out leaflets on the street? That hardly ever happens, but yeah.

have you ever had your future told? No.

do you 'spit on it', to seal a deal? No.

what do you do to try and get a guy/girl's attention? I don't. I'm happily married.

do you ever get asked for ID when you go out? I don't do that kind of “going out," like to clubs and stuff. But I definitely look younger than 29 so I occasionally still get carded if I'm ordering a drink at a restaurant.

do you think the bad auditionee's on american idol are too stupid to be believable? I don't know, I don't watch that show.

have you heard of that show 'glee'? Yes.

have you ever seen a drunk guy ask a tree for a lighter? No.

have you ever done something humiliating whilst drunk? No. I've done some goofy shit while drunk, but it wasn't humiliating.

do you even drink alcohol? Not very often.

name one stereotype you think is totally untrue: That women don't make good pilots. One of my former flight instructors actually told me that most of his female flight students were, on average, better pilots than his male students, because they tend to be more focused in the cockpit and better at multi-tasking.

have you ever told a guy you were a lesbian to get him to leave you alone? No.

or are you actually a lesbian? No.

have you ever experienced sleep paralysis? I occasionally get hypnagogic/hypnogogic auditory hallucinations, which are closely related to sleep paralysis.

if so, have you had any scary hallucinations? They don't scare me now that I know what they are. But my auditory hallucinations are almost always the sound of doors opening/closing, or of brief voices, so that was definitely a freaky thing to “hear” before I knew that they were just hallucinations when I was falling asleep or waking up.

do you believe in ghosts? No.

would you ever stay overnight in a haunted house? I don't believe in hauntings, so sure.

is there anything irritating you right now? A little bit.

are there any musical instruments in the room you're in? No.

have you had a swine flu vaccination yet? Pretty sure that outbreak is loooong gone. Wasn't that around 2010-ish?

when was the last time you had an injection? what for? About a year and a half ago. My updated Tdap vaccine.

do you ever feel like you are under constant observation? No.

is there anything you cannot wait to be over? I can't wait til Phase I of my TMJ disorder treatment is over and I can start making more progress with my jaw issues.

how many guy's/girls have you kissed? Just my husband.

would you prefer to buy new shoes, or a new book? A new book.

do you have any enemies? No.

are there any new bands that your loving lately? No.

if you could go to any country right now, which would it be? The Netherlands. Or maybe back to England.

what was the last thing you had done at the dentist? TMJ disorder treatment. It was my weekly appointment to assess my progress and my jaw's range of motion and level of pain. Thankfully I'm done with the weekly appointments now and am going to every other week.

do you scrunch your face up when eating sour things? No.

how many bars/pubs are in your town? A quick Google Maps search shows about 15.

any last words? No.

#survey #surveys #personal blog

1 note · View note

anarcho-smarmyism · 6 years

Text

“But covert operations, as far as is known, played a relatively minor role in the American campaign to break the back of the Italian left. It was the very overtness of the endeavor, without any apparent embarrassment, that stamps the whole thing with such uniqueness and arrogance — one might say swagger. The fortunes of the FDP slid downhill with surprising acceleration in the face of an awesome mobilization of resources such as the following:

A massive letter writing campaign from Americans of Italian extraction to their relatives and friends in Italy-at first written by individuals in their own words or guided by "sample letters" in newspapers, soon expanded to mass-produced, pre-written, postage-paid form letters, cablegrams, "educational circulars", and posters, needing only an address and signature. And-from a group calling itself The Committee to Aid Democracy in Italy-half a million picture postcards illustrating the gruesome fate awaiting Italy if it voted for "dictatorship" or "foreign dictatorship". In all, an estimated 10 million pieces of mail were written and distributed by newspapers, radio stations, churches, the American Legion, wealthy individuals, etc.; and business advertisements now included offers to send letters airmail to Italy even if you didn't buy the product. All this with the publicly expressed approval of the Acting Secretary of State and the Post Office which inaugurated special "Freedom Flights" to give greater publicity to the dispatch of the mail to Italy....The form letters contained messages such as: "A communist victory would ruin Italy. The United States would withdraw aid and a world war would probably result."...

The State Department backed up the warnings in the letters by announcing that "If the Communists should win ... there would be no further question of assistance from the United States." The Italian left felt compelled to regularly assure voters that this would not really happen; this, in turn, inspired American officials, including Secretary of State George Marshall, to repeat the threat. (Marshall was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 1953.) ...

A daily series of direct short-wave broadcasts to Italy backed by the State Department and featuring prominent Americans. (The State Department estimated that there were 1.2 million short-wave receivers in Italy as of 1946.) The Attorney General went on the air and assured the Italian people that the election was a "choice between democracy and communism, between God and godlessness, between order and chaos." ...

Several commercial radio stations broadcast to Italy special services held in American Catholic churches to pray for the Pope in "this, his most critical hour". ...

Voice of America daily broadcasts into Italy were sharply increased, highlighting news of American assistance or gestures of friendship to Italy. A sky-full of show-biz stars, including Frank Sinatra and Gary Cooper, recorded a series of radio programs designed to win friends and influence the vote in Italy. ...

American officials in Italy widely distributed leaflets extolling US economic aid and staged exhibitions among low-income groups. The US Information Service presented an exhibition on "The Worker in America" and made extensive use of documentary and feature films to sell the American way of life. It was estimated that in the period immediately preceding the election more than five million Italians each week saw American documentaries. ...

The Justice Department served notice that Italians who joined the Communist Party would be denied that dream of so many Italians, emigration to America...It was urged that this information be emphasized in letters to Italy. ...

President Truman accused the Soviet Union of plotting the subjugation of Western Europe and called for universal military training in the United States and a resumption of military conscription to forestall "threatened communist control and police-state rule". ...

The United States and Italy signed a ten-year treaty of "friendship, commerce and navigation". This was the first treaty of its kind entered into by the US since the war, a point emphasized for Italian consumption. ...

The US, Great Britain and France maneuvered the Soviet Union into vetoing, for the third time, a motion that Italy be admitted to the United Nations....

A "Manifesto of peace to freedom-loving Italians", calling upon them to reject Communism, was sent to Premier de Gasperi. Its signatories included two former US Secretaries of State, a former Assistant Secretary of State, a former Attorney General, a former Supreme Court Justice, a former Governor of New York, the former first lady Eleanor Roosevelt, and many other prominent personages. This message was, presumably, suitably publicized throughout Italy, a task easy in the extreme inasmuch as an estimated 82 percent of Italian newspapers were in the hands of those unsympathetic to the leftist bloc....

More than 200 American labor leaders of Italian origin held a conference, out of which came a cable sent to 23 daily newspapers throughout Italy similarly urging thumbs down on the Reds. At the same time, the Italian-American Labor Council contributed $50,000 to anti-Communist labor organizations in Italy.

The CIA, by its own later admission, gave $1 million to Italian "center parties", a king's ransom in Italy 1948," although another report places the figure at $10 million. The Agency also forged documents and letters purported to come from the PCI which were designed to put the party in a bad light and discredit its leaders; anonymous books and magazine articles funded by the CIA told in vivid detail about supposed communist activities in Eastern Europe and the Soviet Union; pamphlets dealt with PCI candidates' sex and personal lives as well as smearing them with the fascist and/or anti-church brush.

Six days before election day, the State Department made it public that Italy would soon receive $31 million in gold in return for gold looted by the Nazis...Two days later, the US government authorized two further large shipments of food to Italy, one for $8 million worth of grains....Four days before election day, the American Commission for the Restoration of Italian Monuments, Inc. announced an additional series of grants to the Italian Ministry of Fine Arts.

The American ambassador, James Clement Dunn, traveled constantly throughout Italy pointing out to the population "on every possible occasion what American aid has meant to them and their country". At the last unloading of food, Dunn declared that the American people were saving Italy from starvation, chaos and possible domination from outside. His speeches usually received wide coverage in the non-left press. By contrast, the Italian government prohibited several of its own ambassadors abroad from returning home to campaign for the FDP.”

-Killing Hope: U.S. Military and C.I.A. Interventions Since World War II by William Blum

#imperialism #capitalism #socialist #leftist #anarchist #killing hope #education multiplies power

21 notes · View notes

todaviia · 5 years

Text

also while we’re on the topic of Christian minorities vs. Christian majorities, to add to that “Culturally Christian State/ Christian Values” discourse, I also think it’s very interesting that when talking about that, nobody mentions Jehova’s Witnesses and their history in Germany.

They were responsible for the biggest single organized resistance action in Nazi Germany (a coordinated distribution of Anti-Nazi leaflets), collectively refused using the Hitler salute or serving in the Wehrmacht and continued practicing their religion in secret after it was prohibited. For those acts, many of them were sent to concentration camps (they had to wear purple triangles), the conscientious objectors were executed and families had their children systematically taken away.

Oh and churches of other Christian denominations often supported this persecution, some to the point of helping the Gestapo organize it.

Obviously, the persecution of Jews was on a completely different level (while Jehova’s witnesses were sometimes considered a “Jewish-Pacifist sect”, their members could be released from concentration camps if they signed a declaration that they had changed their fate and denounced JW’s) and a lot of JW’s refusal of Nazi Germany’s autocratic structures was rooted in their loyalty to their own autocratic structures, but basically my point is... a lot of stuff that gets called “Christian vs. Non-Christian” is really a lot more “Majority vs. Minority Culture” and these two are not interchangable.

#i know no one is on this topic except me but shhh

2 notes · View notes

techcrunchappcom · 4 years

Photo

New Post has been published on https://techcrunchapp.com/african-american-are-taking-this-election-as-a-life-or-death-situation/

African-American are taking this election as a life or death situation

The division of opinion and choice with the caste system is continuing to become a factor in the upcoming presidential election for the US. Since the death of George Floyd, the issue has risen to its height of the conflict. The people from the African-American clan are finding it difficult to live their daily life in the States.

The conflict of skin color

The issue of racism has taken such a turn with the recurring events and the role the Government has played in it, that former US President Barrack Obama himself has spoken of his concern on the issue openly for the first time. He is a representative of the darker community felt ashamed of such incidents.

The former first lady of US Mitchel Obama took the instance of various crimes related to racism and shared her concern over the latest podcasts she is doing to reach the citizens of America and this has been reported in Celebrity news magazine. Amidst all this turmoil, the election is the option; the community of African- American is looking for.

Wrong turn

They are preparing to make the occasion a chance to protest against the alleged voter suppression condition. People united under different churches are using the church as a central point to make the citizens understand the importance of the election. They are trying to awaken a community of people to vote for their own rights. The way racism is taking a toll can be changed through changing the power at the center is what they need to understand.

Your vote your power

Black people under the church are trying to bring all their strength together to protest against the brutal racism with their fundamental right of voting and choosing the right and capable President who will prioritize the people irrespective of their skin colors. They won’t become a part of the entertainment articles in popular dailies worldwide.

The members of the churches solely including black inhabitants are trying to design and print leaflets to make them understand the importance of vote and using their power to change their own fate. They are using social media and email too to make them understand the gravity of the situation.

The limitation

Weeks before the election, allegations have been made that GOP is going to limit minority voting. Since the Supreme Court decided on cutting down some of their rights including voting in 2013 has made the scenario worse. This has taken the chance to the particular regions to cast their views and register their votes against the popular notion and make it Trending entertainment news.

Bring the change

In some cases of local elections, the people from places like Georgia have complained about the long ques and the technical problem in machines. Later these became reasons for their not willing to participate in the election procedure and more. Now, the churches are trying to change that mindset only.

The father of the churches is coming forward to use the latest events of brutal racism in the developed country of the world and make people realize their power in a democracy and use it to their benefit. They won’t get a chance and opportunity like this once the election will be ever.

#celebrity news magazine #entertainment articles #trending entertainment news #Entertainment

0 notes

winsonquan · 5 years

Text

Week 04 - Something Awesome Blog

Vladimir Lenin

Vladimir Lenin was born during the Russian Empire which functioned as an absolute monarchy where the monarchs held supreme authority and where that authority is not restricted by written laws, legislature or customs. During his early life, Lenin distinguished himself by studying physics and mathematics and graduating at the top of his class and further pursuing his studies in law. However, Russia was under the rule of a Tsarist Government which attempted to suppress knowledge individual as they had to ability to rally the working class which lead to highly educated and intelligent individuals to be denied elementary civil and political rights in fear of a revolution. A government fearing the spread of public education had suppressed individual such as Lenin’s father and eldest brother by executions for conspiring with a revolutionary terrorist group that plotted to assassinate Emperor Alexander III. Whilst in his studies, Lenin become in contact with previous revolutionaries and began to read revolutionary political literature such as Marx’s “Das Kapital” solidifying that his ideologies have become that of a Marxist.

Following, Lenis graduation in law, he worked with poor peasants and artisans and grew to understand the class bias in the legal system but also the prevalent class disparity between the lower and upper class. Lenin would begin the formation of a revolutionary party by unifying the Marxist groups of the capital in an organization known as the “Union for the Struggle for the Liberation of the Working Class.” The Union issued leaflets and proclamations on the workers’ behalf, supported workers’ strikes, and infiltrated workers’ education classes to impart to them the rudiments of Marxism. Lenin joined other Marxist editors in a newspaper called “Iskra” (“The Spark”) which aim to unify the Russian Marxist groups into a cohesive Social Democratic Party.

Vladimir Len’s newspapers had 3 focuses:

1. Writing leaflets that aimed to shake the workers’ traditional veneration of the Tsar by showing them their harsh life was caused by their support of Tsar

2. Attacking the self-styled Marxists who urged Social-Democrats and workers to concentrate on wage and hours issues whilst leaving political struggle to the upper class

3. Addressing himself to the lower class

Lenin actions would echo throughout Russia as he had sided with the working class, those without a voice and unable to act individually. He gave them a view that if there was a revolution that overthrow the Tsar Government, they would be able to usher in socialism. At the time, Russia began to progressive move towards a capitalist state which they aimed to rapidly increase growth of industry. Lenin voiced his opinion by showing people the repercussions that would occur from a capitalist country where lands would be divide amongst individuals and a free market in agricultural produce, the result would not be socialism.

The widespread nature of media allowed Lenin to recruit intellectuals to Marxism given them enough power to intervene in the First Congress in 1898 in Minsk but failed to achieve anything. This followed by another intervention in the congress in Brussels in 1903 where key questions centered around the relation between the party and the proletariat, for which Lenin spoke for. As Lenin continued to fight as the vanguard for the working class, The Russian Revolution in 1905 and World War I divided the classes in Russia causing more anxiety and suffering for the lower class. Lenin took this opportunity to instigate the February Revolution in 1917 which lead to the overthrow of the Tsar as Russia began suffering from economical and social problems compounded with World War I in 1914 sought great dissatisfaction in the governing body by all classes.

The fall of the Tsar only sparked the beginning of the Rise of Socialism and from here on Lenin aimed to increased the popularity of the Bolsheviks party. During the fall of the Tsar, a party formed the Russian Provisional Government which was heavily dominated by aristocrats and capitals led by Aleksandr Kerensky wanted to continue their involvement in World War I disregarding the social and economical status in Russia. Lenin capitalized on the growing disillusionment of people as the Provisional Government began losing popular support as increasing war-weariness and the breakdown of the economy overtaxed the patience of workers, peasants and soldiers. Lenin took charge and demanded peace, land and bread which won support among workers, soldiers and peasants which allowed the Bolsheviks majority vote.

Lenin’s decision to establish soviet power derived from his belief that the proletarian revolution must smash the existing state machinery and introduce a “dictatorship of the proletariat”; that is, direct rule by the armed workers and peasants which would eventually “wither away” into a non-coercive, classless, stateless, Communist society. He expounded this view most trenchantly in his brochure The State and Revolution, the brochure, though never completed and often dismissed as Lenin’s most “Utopian” work, nevertheless served as Lenin’s doctrinal springboard to power.

Until 1917 all revolutionary Socialists rightly believed, Lenin wrote, that a parliamentary republic could serve a Socialist system as well as a capitalist. But the Russian Revolution had brought forth something new, the soviets. Created by workers, soldiers, and peasants and excluding the propertied classes, the soviets infinitely surpassed the most democratic of parliaments in democracy, because parliaments everywhere virtually excluded workers and peasants. The choice before Russia in early September 1917, as Lenin saw it, was either a soviet republic—a dictatorship of the property-less majority—or a parliamentary republic—as he saw it, a dictatorship of the propertied minority.

After two revolutions, civil war broke out between the Red Army lead by Lenin and the White Army consisting of political monarchs, capitalist, alternative forms of socialism followers and former Tsarist generals. The White Army was supported by the Allies which advocates for capitalism as the Allies feared the Rise of Communism. However, By proclaiming the right of the peoples to self-determination, including the right to secession, he won the active sympathy, or at least the benevolent-neutrality, of the non-Russian nationalities within Russia, because the Whites did not recognize that right. Indeed, his perceptive, skillful policy on the national question enabled Soviet Russia to avoid total disintegration and to remain a huge multinational state. By making the industrial workers the new privileged class, favoured in the distribution of rations, housing, and political power, he retained the loyalty of the proletariat. His championing of the peasants’ demand that they take all the land from the gentry, church, and crown without compensation won over the peasants, without whose support the government could not survive.

0 notes

auskultu · 7 years

Text

DETROIT RIOTS SEEM AT END; SIGHTSEERS EVOKE CURFEW

Jerry Flint, The New York Times, 28 July 1967

Detroit’s four-day riot appeared to be ending today. Only an occasional sniper shot broke the silence this evening in the city’s riot areas. A 9 P.M.-to-5:30 A.M. curfew in the city was lifted early this morning, but then reimposed because of the many sightseers who poured into the destruction zones.

“It’s pretty close to over,” Cyrus R. Vance, President Johnson’s personal representative here, said. “It looks 'pretty good,” Jerome P. Cavanagh, Detroit’s Mayor, added.

Walter P. Reuther, president of the United Automobile Workers, offered to mobilize the city’s union members to aid the cleanup. He told a meeting of 500 city leaders late this afternoon that he had talked with local union leaders and could pledge up to (100,000 men to help clean up the city in their spare time.He asked industry to provide the tools, such as bulldozers, to help with the job.

The city’s major downtown stores were all open today, and it became a little harder, but not impossible, to find a free parking slot in downtown Detroit.

No Conspiracy Found Police Commissioner Ray Girardin said he had found no evidence that a conspiracy was involved in the rioting.

So far the riot, worst in the nation’s recent history, has claimed 38 lives. One of the latest to die was George Messeu-lina, 68 years old, a white shoe repairman, who was one of the first victims of the riot. He was beaten by a Negro gang Sunday afternoon, the first day of the looting, burning, and sniping.

Riot-torn streets, such as Grand River Avenue, were jammed today win sight-seeing motorists. City buiidozors, cranes and cleaning crews knocked down walls and were moving debris in the hardest-hit areas.

Soldiers were ordered to sheathe their bayonets. However, soldiers, guardsmen and convoys of policemen continued to patrol through the city and stand guard at public buildings. There has been no indication thus far that the military forces wilt be removed.

Many soldiers left their bayonets out despite orders, and a ban against the sale of alcoholic beverages and gasoline in containers continued. The city authorities, however, turned their attention to rebuilding the city.

A second man, Caleb Moore, a Negro, was found dead of unknown causes in jail.

Property damage has been estimated at more than $200-million. More than 1,000 have been injured, 5,000 persons including juveniles have been jailed, 1,700 stores looted, and 1,383 buildings set afire.

The clean-up is moving quickly. Piles of brick and rubble have been cleared from the streets and sidewalks in the riot areas, often pushed into the gaping holes that once were basements.

Broken glass has been swept from the sidewalks. All streets in the city are open to traffic today, Mayor Cavanagh said, but the signs of destruction still are visible.

Spotty Destruction It is a spotty rather than a total destruction, with an entire block on one side of a business street in a Negro area destroyed while the other side of the street may be untouched. An area of the city may appear normal except for one store, burned to the ground.

On a single block, three stores may be burned or looted. The next three on the same block may be untouched.

There appears to be little pattern. Many of the untouched stores have “Soul Brother” painted on the window but so do many of the stores that have been looted.

One block on the west side of 12th Street between Philadelphia and Pingree Avenues was 10 stores long Saturday night. Only blackened facades and twisted girders remain today. There are no roofs, no second floors, and no first floors.

The facades were being pulled down and the rubble pushed into basement holes by bulldozers today.

At the Superior Beauty and Barber Supplies Store up a block on 12th, business was going on behind plywood boards set up to replace broken windows. The apartments above the store are ruined, too, but not by rioters or looters.

A Sniper’s Nest Louis Morgan, business manager, gave this account: “There was a sniper somewhere around. The police really shot us up. They did all the damage. The people living upstairs got out, thank God."

"We’ve got to decide what to do, fix it up or move out. This place feeds about 50 people," Mr. Morgan said. Repairing the damage will cost $35,000 or $40,000, and it is unlikely that the store, if repaired, would be able to get insurance, Melvin Jefferson, the owner, said.

At Honest Joe’s clothing store, which stood safe and unlooted on 12th Street Tuesday but burned last night, broken mannequins lay grotesquely in the windows and a small fire continued to burn this afternoon.

At the Reliable Rug Company, a furniture store on 12th near Clairmount, the son of the owner stood among the blackened rubble while a workman tried to pry open the safe.

“This is it. Forget it. Who needs this," he said, predicting that the business would not be rebuilt. The store was one of the first to go Sunday. "They wanted the TV’s," he said bitterly.

On Linwood and Pingree, three-quarters of a mile west, one house stands near the corner. At the site where the nefct eight homes stood, there is now nothing but a row of blackened chimneys.

“The fire leaped over our house from the rug cleaner’s on Linwood," said Dalton Blackburn. “If I hadn’t watered this place it would have gone.”

“The fire trucks came in Sunday but they ran them out with bottles," Mr. Blackburn went on, "but thank goodness, thank God for that fireman, he put some water on this house. I was working at the rug cleaner’s. My job is gone."

West Side business streets running north and south such as 12th, Linwood and Dexter are the hardest hit. Grand Kivcr Avenue, a major artery on the West Side of the city, is a three-mile stretch of broken windows or blackened stores.

On the East Side, streets running from east to west, such as Mack and Kercheval, are pockmarked by burned or looted stores, with plywood boarding revering the broken window fronts. There is heavy destruction on business corners on other streets in the city.

On Seven Mile Road and Livernois Avenue, one of the city's richer residential areas, with wealthy and middle-class whites and Negroes, there is little sign of damage. But one large hardware store, the Merchandise Mart, was burned to the ground.

Long lines of Negroes and some whites queued up at food distribution centers receiving free groceries. One such center, St. Leo’s Church at Warren and 15th, bore the sign “Soul Brother Lives Here" in a window.

On Linwood this afternoon, two Negroes pulled up to a corner in a panel truck and began passing out boxes of free food to passers-by.

Richard Hardrich, one of the two, said he was a worker at the Pontiac automobile plant. He said the food had been donated.

The pair also passed out leaflets reading, “Tell that grocer go to hell” and signed by the ‘Crisis Council.” Some grocers have been accused of raising food prices because of the crisis.

“We parked in front of a store on Hamilton that raised prices. We stuck these leaflets on his window and passed out Food. That took care of him,” Mr. Hardrich said.

The city said more than 10,000 persons were fed at emergency centers yesterday. Detroit is a motor city, however, with most residents having automobiles or knowing drivers. Thus, even those in the riot areas may drive to stores outside the destroyed blocks.

The city prosecutor’s office ilso said moves were being made to lower the bond to be posted for some of those arrested in the riots. About 5,000, some children, were picked up n the last four days.

Bonds ran as high as $200,000 for accused snipers and averaged $10,000 for accused looters. In effect, this has meant that practically all the persons picked up were still incarcerated.

The prosecutor’s office said that efforts would be made to lower the bond requirements for women and those with no criminal records who had been picked up for minor offenses such as curfew violations. But because of the jam in the jails and in the prosecutor’s office, few are likely to be released soon anyway.

“We arraigned more people in the past four days than in the first six months last year,” a county official said.

The city is not under martial law. Civilian officials retain their authority despite the presence of Army and National Guard troops on the streets.

The Army, cooperating with the police, patrol the riot section of Detroit’s East Side. The National Guardsmen, which are federalized, patrol the West Side with Dolice.

#1960s #1967 #1967 detroit riot #60s #civil unrest #detroit #law and order #long hot summer #national guard #race riot #sixties #riots

1 note · View note

pnwdoodlesreads · 7 years

Link

The year-long 50th-birthday party for this pioneering suburb on Long Island is winding down. The parade drew 5,000 marchers. Crowds came for candlelight church services, an antique-car show, exhibits, seminars and tours of the fabled Levitt houses that started it all.

There were even Potato Day festivities honoring the flat farmland here where Levitt & Sons began mass-producing single-family tract homes in 1947, heralding the wave of migration from cities that lasted for decades.

But not everyone touched by the Levittown experience has been celebrating.

''The anniversary leaves me cold,'' said Eugene Burnett, who was among thousands of military veterans who lined up for their green patch of the American dream here after World War II. But he was turned away because he is black. ''It's symbolic of segregation in America,'' he said. ''That's the legacy of Levittown.

''When I hear 'Levittown,' what rings in my mind is when the salesman said: 'It's not me, you see, but the owners of this development have not as yet decided whether they're going to sell these homes to Negroes,' '' Mr. Burnett, now a retired Suffolk County police sergeant, recalled. He said he still stings from ''the feeling of rejection on that long ride back to Harlem.''

The salesman was not honest with Mr. Burnett. Blacks and other minorities had no chance of getting in, because Levitt had decided from the start to admit only whites.

Housing denied

Delano Stewart, editor of The Point of View, a Long Island biweekly on black affairs, said of Levittown: ''It's something we'd like to forget rather than celebrate. It's a black mark on the Island, or maybe I should say a white mark.''

The whites-only policy was not some unspoken gentlemen's agreement. It was cast in bold capital letters in clause 25 of the standard lease for the first Levitt houses, which included an option to buy.

It stated that the home could not ''be used or occupied by any person other than members of the Caucasian race.''

That clause was dropped in 1948 after the United States Supreme Court, ruling on another case, declared such restrictions to be ''unenforceable as law and contrary to public policy.''

Ignoring the law of the land, however, Levitt continued adhering to its racial bar. Levittown quickly filled up with young white families. Minority residents trickled in during the 1950's, but the pattern was set.

Today Levittown has changed, but only a little. While the community has more minority residents than ever, it remains overwhelmingly white -- 97.37 percent in the 1990 census.

''It's certainly not a melting pot, but it is a community in transition,'' said James A. Edmondson, the chief executive of the Yours, Ours, Mine Community Center in Levittown, who is black. ''Ethnically it's changing every day, and in 25 years it won't look like it does today.''

Although blacks account for 8 percent of Long Island's population, they are scarce here. Of Levittown's 53,286 residents in 1990, there were 51,883 whites, 2,184 Hispanic people, 950 Asians and Pacific Islanders, 137 blacks (0.26 percent), 31 American Indians and Aleuts and 285 ''other.''

Most blacks intent on moving to Long Island ended up in the few ''open housing'' communities, which became predominantly minority pockets. ''We didn't have many other choices,'' said Mr. Burnett, who lives in Wyandanch, in Suffolk County.

As a result, ''Nassau County is the most segregated suburban county in the United States,'' said Dr. Andrew A. Beveridge, a sociology professor at Queens College. He based that view on a computer study of national census data, in which he calculated what portion of the population of each county would have to move to achieve racial integration.

Living by Rules They Did Not Make

Whenever historians, planners and sociologists plumb the lessons of Levittown, race always looms. The debate is not simple or comfortable, especially for people here. Early Levittowners moved here under rules favoring them that they did not make. Later arrivals inherited a history that they did not create.

''There is a sensitivity to it, because the community has for many years tried to overcome that image,'' said Louise Cassano, a co-chairwoman of the Levittown 50th-Anniversary Committee and a resident since 1951. ''There was that lingering prejudice,'' she said, ''but I think we've come a long way.''

At the outset, some whites here fought racism, forming the Committee to End Discrimination in Levittown. There were protests and a leaflet against ''Jim Crowism,'' Mrs. Cassano said. ''Some people moved in very unaware of the Caucasian clause and were disturbed when they found out,'' she said.

In the second Levittown, near Philadelphia, angry white mobs threw rocks in 1957 to protest the prospect of blacks moving in. In the response back here, the Levittown Democratic Club, Jewish War Veterans and a Protestant minister all spoke up for open housing.

But this Levittown has had its share of bigots. The Levittown Historical Society's president, Polly Dwyer, recalled one incident: ''An Asian family moved in, and some people moved out because of them. It's so silly. They were good, quiet, decent people.''

A Hofstra University political science professor, Dr. Herbert D. Rosenbaum, who lived here from 1953 to 1965, said: ''In those years, even liberal people like ourselves tended to take residential segregation for granted, without approving it. None of us went out into the street to change it.''

Levittown's history seems especially jarring, experts say, because the community was founded as segregation was beginning to crumble. While the first Levitt houses were being built, Jackie Robinson was breaking the color barrier in baseball. A year later, President Harry S. Truman integrated the military.

Hopes Dissipated For Black Americans

Another paradox was that although Levittown was built for World War II veterans, who had fought tyranny and racism, its doors were opened to at least one former German U-boat sailor, while black American soldiers were turned away.

The role of the developer, the late William J. Levitt, is debated. He defended his actions as following the social customs of the era.

''The Negroes in America are trying to do in 400 years what the Jews in the world have not wholly accomplished in 600 years,'' he once wrote. ''As a Jew, I have no room in my mind or heart for racial prejudice. But I have come to know that if we sell one house to a Negro family, then 90 or 95 percent of our white customers will not buy into the community. This is their attitude, not ours. As a company, our position is simply this: We can solve a housing problem, or we can try to solve a racial problem, but we cannot combine the two.''

Indeed, the official Federal Housing Administration policy back then called for ''suitable restrictive covenants'' to avoid ''inharmonious racial or nationality groups'' in housing.

''To paint Levitt as a villain would be unfair: the whole system was villainous,'' said Dr. Herbert Gans, a Columbia University sociology professor who lived in Levittown, N.J., and wrote ''The Levittowners.'' ''Levitt strictly reflected the times,'' he said.

Dr. Kelly said, ''To single Levittown out on racial covenants, as if it weren't going on everywhere else, is unfair.''

But critics say Mr. Levitt was no passive bystander. His company branded integrationists as Communist rabble-rousers and barred them from meeting on Levittown property. It also evicted two residents who had invited black children from a neighboring community to their homes.

Building the third Levittown in New Jersey, the company openly defied that state's antibias laws and opposed a lawsuit from two blacks seeking to buy homes. Levitt capitulated to integration there in 1960, though by then much of the development was sold out.

As late as the mid-1960's, Mr. Levitt was still defending segregated housing, at that time in Maryland. And blacks were not the only targets. Although he was the grandson of a rabbi, Mr. Levitt also built housing on Long Island that excluded Jews.

Assembly-line houses

No one disputes William Levitt's visionary talent in applying assembly-line methods on a grand scale. Called the Henry Ford of housing, he spurned unions to organize an army of 15,000 workers into dozens of specialized crews, including one to apply red paint and another, white. His company made its own nails and bought forests to supply lumber.

At its peak, Levitt built 36 houses a day, each on a 60-foot-by-100-foot plot. The original Cape Cods had two bedrooms and an unfinished attic. Some models had a 12-inch Admiral television set built into the staircase. Drawn by prices of about $7,000, or monthly payments of around $60, hundreds of buyers flocked here. When the last nail was driven in 1951, Levitt had created 17,447 homes.

But critics say that Levittown could also have been integrated, endowing suburbia and the nation with a social vision as innovative as Levitt's construction technology and marketing.

''Levittown was an opportunity tragically lost,'' said Dr. Kenneth T. Jackson, a history professor at Columbia. ''There was such a demand for houses -- they had people waiting on lines -- that even if they had said there will be some blacks living there, white people would still have moved in.''

Whatever the past concerns or prejudices, there is scant evidence of problems involving the minority residents who finally trickled in.

''First there's fear, then there's somebody who makes friends with the new family and says they're very human, they keep nice houses,'' said John A. Juliano, a real estate agent here for 32 years.

He chuckled about finding a rental for a black woman whose absent landlord did not learn her race till three years later. When the landlord found out, Mr. Juliano recalled: ''He said, 'John, she's black.' I said, 'Yeah?' He said, 'She's a terrific tenant.' If I had mentioned it at first, there might have been a problem.''

Few blacks in Levittown are eager to talk publicly. A couple who lived here for 20 years agreed to comment if their names were not printed. ''We had a problem getting in,'' said the husband. But his wife added, ''After we moved in, we didn't actually have any trouble. I never felt excluded.'' Since retiring, they have left the state, but return every year to visit their Levittown friends.

George Nager, a lawyer and longtime local activist, welcomes the growing mix of black, Hispanic and Asian Americans. ''These are mostly upward-bound, entrepreneurial people,'' he said. ''They're absolutely great neighbors. There are no rednecks here and never any cross burnings, I can tell you that, and I go back almost to the Year One here.''

The Levittown Tribune's new editor, David Mock, is black. He said that although race may lurk as an issue, he has been accepted as a professional. ''They opened up to me,'' he said of the residents. ''I don't have any problem at all; it's been an absolute pleasure.''

Mr. Edmondson, the black community center official, stood out when he started working here 28 years ago.

''I can't tell you the bad words that were scrawled on the walls,'' he recalled, and the police sometimes stopped him to ask why he was in the neighborhood. Although he never moved to Levittown, living instead in Hempstead, he became a respected community leader here.

''The black families I know here have not had a bad experience,'' he said. ''The thing is, I've watched the children. They really get along in a most fantastic way.''

''Because Levittown promised affordable housing, with no down payment, it offered hope to the African-American working class when no other community did -- but that hope was quashed,'' said Dr. Barbara M. Kelly, Hofstra University's director of Long Island Studies. ''After the war, blacks thought things had changed, but they hadn't, and Levittown became a microcosm of that frustration.''

#discrimination

1 note · View note

gordonwilliamsweb · 4 years

Text

LA Hospital Seeks Vaccine Trial Participants Among Its Own High-Risk Patients

The patients at Dr. Eric Daar’s hospital are at high risk for serious illness from COVID-19, and he’s determined to make sure they’re part of the effort to fight the disease.

He also hopes they can protect themselves in the process.

When Daar and his colleagues at Harbor-UCLA Medical Center on Wednesday announce the start of enrollment for a trial to test a COVID-19 vaccine produced by AstraZeneca, they will also unveil the hospital’s community-based recruitment strategy.

Harbor-UCLA wants to recruit most, if not all, of the trial’s 500 participants from among the high-risk patients it already treats: people over 65, those with chronic illnesses and members of underserved racial and ethnic groups. Hospital officials also expect that the recruitment task will not be easy.

“It’s a priority and obligation to make sure our community is well represented in these trials,” said Daar, chief of HIV medicine at Harbor-UCLA and a researcher at the UCLA-affiliated Lundquist Institute, who dropped his other research projects last spring to focus on a COVID-19 vaccine.

The safety-net hospital in Torrance, California, serves patients in the South Bay area of Los Angeles County who are predominantly Black, Latino and Pacific Islander. Many live in crowded homes and do “essential” work that requires them to expose themselves to the virus to make a living: They’re orderlies and cooks and house cleaners, day laborers and bus drivers and sanitation workers.

The area has high rates of heart disease and stroke.

“If you don’t have a community represented in the trial, it’s hard to extrapolate your results to the community,” said Dr. Katya Corado, one of Daar’s colleagues. “We want to find something to protect our patients and loved ones.”

Latinos and Blacks in the United States are nearly three times more likely than non-Hispanic whites to be diagnosed with COVID-19 and nearly five times more likely to be hospitalized with the disease. In Los Angeles County, Latinos in particular have been disproportionately stricken by the virus.

Eight of 10 COVID-19 deaths nationwide occur among people 65 and older, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

Historically, Blacks and Latinos have been less likely to be included in clinical trials for disease treatment, despite federal guidelines that urge minority and elder participation.

The National Institutes of Health and the Food and Drug Administration have urged infectious disease researchers to focus on these vulnerable populations in the large phase 3 trials that will test how well vaccines prevent COVID-19.

Harbor-UCLA, a public teaching hospital owned and operated by Los Angeles County, is one of roughly 100 sites nationwide testing the AstraZeneca vaccine candidate, which was developed in collaboration with Oxford University in Britain. Phase 3 trials of about the same size for vaccine candidates produced by Moderna and Pfizer are already underway. Each of the three companies seeks to recruit 30,000 people, 20,000 of whom will get the vaccine and 10,000 a placebo, or harmless saline solution, to test whether the vaccine prevents coronavirus disease.

Recruitment at Harbor-UCLA will include patients with well-controlled chronic diseases such as diabetes and hypertension, and people with HIV who’ve kept the virus under control with medication, Daar said.

According to the AstraZeneca trial protocol, patients will get up to $100 for each of 15 to 20 visits during the two-year trial. The Harbor-UCLA team will also offer car services to bring people to the hospital through L.A. traffic.

To reach its targeted recruits, the hospital will distribute leaflets to clinics and community organizations and create targeted social media campaigns, in addition to taking any free publicity it can get, Daar said.

Recruitment of high-risk patients in other COVID-19 trials so far has been mixed. Moderna, which began the first phase 3 trial of the experimental vaccines on July 27, announced Friday that 18% of its 13,000-plus enrollees so far were Black, Latino or Native American — a high percentage as clinical trials go, but only about one-third of the goal set by NIH officials.

Other AstraZeneca trial sites have also publicized their efforts to reach those most at risk from the virus. The University of Southern California’s Keck School of Medicine placed one of its AstraZeneca recruitment sites in Vernon, south of downtown Los Angeles in an area with many factories and meatpacking plants, which have experienced high COVID-19 infection rates.

Clinicians suspect that the higher rates of disease and hospitalization in minority groups are due both to health conditions — such as undertreated diabetes and heart disease — and to higher exposure to the virus in workplaces and crowded housing. Environmental factors like polluted neighborhoods may also have an impact.

While there’s little evidence that vaccines affect Blacks or Latinos differently than white people, the subject hasn’t really been studied, said Dr. Akilah Jefferson Shah, an allergist/immunologist and bioethicist at the University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences. That’s another reason for making sure these groups are well represented in trials, she said.

“We know now there are subgroup responses to drugs by sex, but no one figured it out until they started including women in these studies,” Jefferson Shah said. “Race is not genetic. It’s a social construct. But there are genetic variants more prevalent in certain populations. We won’t know until we look.”

Perhaps most important, diversity in the research will be needed to build trust and uptake of the vaccine, Corado said. In a May poll from the Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research, just 25% of Blacks and 37% of Hispanics said they would definitely seek vaccination against the coronavirus, compared with 56% of whites.

In July, the Harbor-UCLA vaccine team began holding weekly Zoom meetings with about 25 activists and clergy members to learn what their communities were saying about the vaccine and get tips on how to design educational materials for the trial.

What they’ve heard suggests they’ll have an uphill recruitment battle.

One member of the community council, HIV activist Dontá Morrison, noted that people frequently say on social media that the vaccine is designed to give them COVID-19 as part of a plot to get rid of Black voters. (None of the vaccines contains infectious COVID virus.)

“It may seem far-fetched, but those are the conversations because we have an administration that has not shown itself to be trustworthy,” Morrison said.

He noted that the first challenge UCLA researchers face is to convince community leaders, particularly clergy members, of the vaccine’s safety. Church leaders worry they’ll be blamed for supporting the trial if the vaccine ends up making their congregants sick, he said.

If done right, the trial could build trust in medical science while helping minorities help themselves — and the rest of us — find a way out of the current mess, Morrison said.

Dr. Raphael Landovitz, another UCLA scientist working on the trial, agreed.

“We’re hoping that people understand this is a chance — if we succeed — to take back some power and control in this situation that has made so many of us feel so powerless,” he said.

This KHN story first published on California Healthline, a service of the California Health Care Foundation.

Kaiser Health News (KHN) is a national health policy news service. It is an editorially independent program of the Henry J. Kaiser Family Foundation which is not affiliated with Kaiser Permanente.

USE OUR CONTENT

This story can be republished for free (details).

LA Hospital Seeks Vaccine Trial Participants Among Its Own High-Risk Patients published first on https://nootropicspowdersupplier.tumblr.com/

0 notes

dinafbrownil · 4 years