#I’ve done just about every Midwestern thing I can do to signify that it’s time for him to fucking leave and he’s still here

[smokingsunflower]

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#so my bf’s friend invited himself over at 11:30 last night and says he’s just coming over for one beer #I was sick with food poisoning so I told my bf no but his friend said he was coming anyways #then when he got here they stayed up drinking until 5:30 this morning and slept in until 2pm #and conversely I was awake sick as fuck since 3am last night and barely slept at all #then all day today his friend has just sat around the house and asked him what my bf wants to do tonight #the whole time acting stir crazy and saying he wants to make plans and do something tonight. but has just sat around our house all day #i’m at my fucking limit #I’ve done just about every Midwestern thing I can do to signify that it’s time for him to fucking leave and he’s still here #now we’re starting another movie and I’m going to be squished on this couch for another 2 hours #fuck. go the fuck home dude. we aren’t having fun clearly. #personal #text post #g rants

[davidmann95]

Despite DC occasionally trying to drop “The American Way” from Supes motto, it’s still widely associated with Supes. Do you think swapping “American Way” with say “Universal Way” as a code of ethics baker into the United Planets set up that Superman adopts as a motto in his role of advocate for said organization could work? It would mean defining what that code IS which could get dicey but I think it could work.

The idea of ‘the American Way’ in regards to Superman is something I’ve been thinking about lately due to PKJ taking over the book and pointedly using the term (as did Bendis), noting in interviews it’s in part because he wants to ‘reclaim’ the idea of those values in spite of the nature of the American reality as opposed to what the perception of them popularly become. It’s understandable, and while we’ve been friendly on Twitter recently I don’t know that I could bring up why I don’t prefer it for the character without his eyes also understandably glazing over after the other 50 times he’s probably gotten negative responses to that. Which is a shame, because my reasons for thinking it doesn’t quite work aren’t the same reasons as a lot of peoples’.

As much as I like to think “Superman is for EVERYBODY! so long as you’re not an asshole”, the guy’s also inextricably draped in Americana - he’s a midwestern immigrant dressed in red and blue with a flaglike cape fluttering behind him, and one of his first ‘iconic’ covers was him with an eagle on his shoulder. Even if those ideas are paid lipservice more often than they’re actually explored, they’re there. I don’t think occasional stories interrogating him through that lens are remotely inappropriate, and in fact are probably necessary for keeping things honest whether you’re doing that from a largely positive (Of Thee I Sing, Superman Smashes The Klan) or negative (DKR, Other History of the DC Universe) angle. Yes, there are takes on Superman who would unambiguously condemn America (hell, those are some of my favorite takes), but it’s not particularly a stretch that there are other perfectly legitimate interpretations of the guy thinking “everybody having the inalienable rights to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness would be nice even if America the extant entity doesn’t really provide those”. And let’s be real, Truth, Justice, and the American Way just rolls off the tongue in a way no one catchphrase for him has managed yet.

The problem is he isn’t Captain America.

The thing about ‘reclaiming’ the idea of the American Way is that you have to be really, really specific about what that means. In fairness, it’s not as if Johnson hasn’t done anything to do that: when he draws a mere mortal parallel to his take on Superman in his second story to illustrate the latter’s values, it’s in a man who fought fascism and then took and dished out beatings standing up to cops and counter-protesters in civil rights marches. It’s clear where his Superman stands in the broad strokes. But what about the next person who takes over after him? Even if they think of it as meaning the exact same thing, what if the topic simply never comes up and the notion of the American Way is left hanging there, a contextless, vague signifier of moral righteousness? People disagree all day every day about truth and justice, but they’re at least mostly arguing from a shared definition of the terms.

Captain America can’t have his notion of the American Way he’s fighting for be contextless for long, because he as a character is built around constantly reckoning with it. Even if it exists on a vast sliding scale from socking Crossbones and Batroc to delivering a speech about how America is a piece of trash and a flag is just cloth without ideals behind them, generally speaking we’re constantly having what Steve Rogers (and moreso those writing him) thinks of as ideal American values reaffirmed, even if just by the implication of a guy with America in his name doing what he does. Challenging and relitigating the notions popularly underpinning the country are what his character is about. But Superman doesn’t have to have much of anything to do with America beyond the fact of living there, so just sticking that big nebulous qualifier in his list of core values and assuming we can pick up the finer details from stories that may or may not have anything to do with it sort of gives us “well, I guess the American Way is...stopping Bizarro?”* I don’t dislike it because I think it’s impossible to tell a good story where it fits for the character, but because its utility as a signifier is not only charged but limited.

* Granted, such a story might not be much about ‘truth’ either, but again, at least we probably don’t need to read much into creators’ intent to guess what their definition of it is.

(As for your question - went on a bit of a tangent there - I like that but then you��d constantly have to keep bringing that back up and reexplaining it, so I don’t think it’d stick.)

#Superman #America #Phillip Kennedy Johnson #Captain America #Opinion

[the-connection]

As Trump highlights decreasing unemployed figures, Kansas City uses a window into how the healing has actually passed lots of African Americans by

Kansas City is expanding. Investors and companies have actually put into the midwestern city because the economic crisis. A minimum of $1bn has actually entered into its gleaming brand-new downtown, rejuvenated arts district and glossy brand-new condominiums. Why is Sly James, its extremely related to outbound mayor, so dissatisfied?

James, who steps down in July 2019, is leaving workplace with a sense of frustration that in spite of Kansas City's apparent achievements, the city's healing has actually left one big area of society behind: African Americans.

About 30% of Kansas City's population is black. On a monthly basis, apparently, Donald Trump utilizes Twitter to trumpet how well black individuals have actually done under his presidency. Across the country African American joblessness is now 6.5%, below a peak of 16.8% at the height of the economic crisis.

But nationwide numbers in a nation as huge as the United States can be deceptive. For numerous African Americans in the Kansas City location, the spoils of a roaring healing have actually passed them by.

June 11, 2018

"The effect of all things racial has actually left communities divided and segregated which causes a perpetuation of things like hardship and absence of chance, "states James, including he would"need to disagree [with anybody] who states that the genuine African American joblessness circumstance is 5.9 %".

Kansas City might boast a joblessness rate of 3.6%. Take the city's Blue Hills area. Blue Hills is 91% African American and the joblessness rate is 17%. Neighbouring Ivanhoe is 86%African American and the joblessness rate is even greater, at 26 %.

Blue Hills and Ivanhoe are 2 primarily African-American communities in Kansas City, MO.

James is not alone in his evaluation of his city. A loud chorus of people looks skeptically at the numbers Trump so happily provides. Reducing joblessness figures would normally signify that things are working out. When you are one of the 14.3%of black individuals paid a hardship wage, compared with the 8.3%of white individuals who get a hardship wage, it does not feel like it.

As with the remainder of the United States'healing from the 2008 economic downturn, Kansas City's return still brings the scars of the deliberate and structural bigotry of its not-so-distant past.

The financial states in communities Blue Hills and Ivanhoe are various from the nationwide average.

Carl, who did not desire his surname released, is 57 years of ages and has huge dreams:" I wish to conserve up, put something aside for a correct burial, settle my home, stay up to date with my vehicle payments and pay that off. Normal American dream things,"he states. His access to the American dream had actually to be postponed.

Carl has actually been out of work for almost a year, gathering social security insurance coverage after a hip replacement following an occurrence on his full-time building task.

Carl might be out of work however he still strives. The white spots of his graying hair almost match the white of his securely starched dress shirt and well-shined, tuxedo shoes. A lot of informing are the smoothed calluses on his fingertips; among his numerous tasks is playing the bass guitar for his regional church.

"One Sunday a statement was made at the church about task workshops, "he states. He hustled, calling the numbers noted on the handouts left on the back of church tables."After doing that program, I became aware of the monetary chance centers. "

These monetary chance centers(FOCs )are a pillar program of the Local Initiatives Support Corporation( LISC), where, inning accordance with Trese Booze, who heads these FOCs in Kansas City, coaches assist "neglected skill to prepare them for quality, living-wage tasks, while ending up being resistant to monetary shock".

Maurice Jones, LISC's nationwide CEO, states the objective was for individuals to end up being "net money favorable", culminating in a life strategy that is" motivating to them ". Individuals much like Carl make their method into FOCs at a range of points on their work trajectory.

Donald Trump at a rally in Kansas City throughout the governmental race. Picture: Dave Kaup/Reuters

For Carl, a felony conviction has actually made getting a task more difficult than normal. He states he was pushed into a plea offer after displaying an unregistered gun in self-defense, in reaction to being threatened numerous times by gang members in his apartment building.

Like numerous with rap sheets around the nation, Carl should leap the obstacles of the" security repercussions of convictions "if he is to obtain a task. Inning accordance with the National Inventory of Collateral Consequences of Convictions (NICCC)put together by the Council of State Governments

, Carl might confront 185 lawfully approved barriers in Kansas to various sort of work and task accreditations since of his conviction. In Missouri, that number increases to 313-- which is prior to any factor to consider of the intangible impacts

of understanding of being a black male with a felony conviction.

According to the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People(NAACP),"a rap sheet can minimize the possibility of a callback or task deal by almost 50%"-- almost two times the effect suffered by white peers with a rap sheet.

The decreasing joblessness numbers Trump promotes on Twitter do not represent the almost 2.3 million "jobless"African Americans in jail, who comprise almost 34%of the overall United States jail population.

Carl's rap sheet and the hip replacement that lost him both his "side-hustle "as a home-health company and his full-time building and construction gig have not stopped his fondness for hustling.

Downtown Kansas City has actually recovered considering that the economic crisis. Picture: Charlie Riedel/AP

If you're in Kansas City, he may

be your beauty consultant or barber. He may be your bass guitar player in a wedding event or church band. And in Carl's words:" I've dug ditches and I 'd do it once again to stay up to date with the payments if it wasn't for my injury."

Shellie, a jobless, 46-year-old mom, states that for her, bad things can be found in sets.

>"First my cars and truck that I utilized to obtain to work was taken,"she states, as her hair conceals her tears. She states that days later on, her "apartment was closed down due to the fact that the property manager had a lot of code infractions". The property manager, whose activities she states amounted being a slumlord, never ever upgraded his occupants and provided just 24 hours to vacate.

While the loss of the vehicle may not be a stumbling block for some in significant cities, citizens cannot anticipate much assistance from Kansas City's Area Transportation Authority. KCATA's director of company advancement, Frank White, states the tasks with habitable salaries aren't quickly available since"transit hasn't been at the table when financial advancement discussions occur". If the group that transfers" the bad individuals "isn't really at the table when significant choices are made, those"bad individuals" will not be ensured a voice.

Walled off by Troost Avenue, black individuals were traditionally limited to the east side of the city by thoroughly built covenants that avoided them from moving into Kansas City's Country Club district.

The houses of a growing African American neighborhood were destroyed to make space for Highway 71 throughout years, even more hindering travel from black communities to the remainder of the city. The primarily white Country Club district stays among the most affluent areas in the United States, abutting among the poorest locations of Kansas City.

Carl has actually been out of work for almost a year. Picture: Jason Dailey for the Guardian

None of this, as James notes, occurred" strictly by happenstance".

The net outcome is that tasks considered geographically near black neighborhoods are really far if taking a trip by public transit. Shellie, who lives in the city core, is about

an 18-20 minute drive from Lenexa, Kansas, host of a brand-new Amazon satisfaction. Without a cars and truck, the 18-20 minute drive ends up being 2 hours and 12 minutes of bus-riding and walking, typically without walkways.

Shellie, like Carl, discovers tasks and public advantage programs that she can utilize to feed her kid, and she leverages programs like LISC's monetary chance center to obtain her" monetary home in order ".

" Everybody falls and ideally everyone returns,"she states."But when an individual falls, you require a little cushion so you can obtain back up. Nowadays with a president that desires to cut the programs that assist me get up, I live in worry every day that I cannot get up any more."

Kansas City might be well and genuinely back on its feet-- however not surprising that James appears glum. The apparently cooperative relationship in between structural bigotry and inequality, specifically in education," hampers [African Americans'] capability to be utilized in rewarding work that supplies a living wage or perhaps good wage,"states James, and it" suppresses wish for hope"for African Americans.

Read more: http://www.theguardian.com/us