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January 24, 2022 - January 30, 2022
Vol. 49 No. 4• The Journal For Community News, Business & The Arts • insightnews.com
REAL POSITIONS: SELF-PORTRAITS BY SEITU KEN JONES
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January 24, 2022 - January 30, 2022
Vol. 49 No. 4• The Journal For Community News, Business & The Arts • insightnews.com
At Homewood Studios 2400 Plymouth Avenue
REAL POSITIONS: Self-Portraits by Seitu Ken Jones Curated by Neal Cuthbert, the exibit run through January 29.
Left to Right Mychael and Stephanie Wright being presented with their Outstanding Servant Leadership Award by NAACP President Richard Pittman, Sr.
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St. Paul NAACP awards leadership, service The Saint Paul Roy Wilkins Chapter of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) recently presented the following awards at a fellowship dinner held in Saint Paul, Minnesota. The NAACP’s Outstanding Servant Leadership Award was presented to:
Chief Todd Axtell, Saint Paul Police Dept.; Mychael and Stephanie Wright, Co-owners of Golden Thyme Coffee and Café, 934 Selby Ave.; Jonathan Palmer, Executive Director, Hallie Q. Brown Community Center; and 7th Ward, Saint Paul City Councilperson, Jane Prince. The NAACP
Outstanding Community Service Award was presented to: Commander Kurtis Hallstrom, Eastern District Commander, Saint Paul Police Dept.; Dr. Cheryl Chatman, retired Vice President, Concordia University – Saint Paul; Jim Hilbert, Vice Dean, Mitchell/Hamline Law School; Shaval Webb & Leah
Wellnitz, Saint Paul NAACP Finance Committee; and Marquitta Ransom, Treasurer, MN/Dakota Area Conference NAACP. The dinner was prepared by Faye and Willie Scott’s Southern Style Catering.
Closing Celebration: Saturday, January 29 from 2pm to 4pm “There are few artists who are as skilled in as many different media as Seitu Ken Jones,” says Homewood Studios curator Neal Cuthbert. Known by most as a visual artist for his paintings, drawings, sculptures, his career has taken him into the realms of landscape architecture, set design, fabrication of public art pieces in all manner of materials, social practice art, community development, food issues, farming, working with civil engineers and historians and people in a wide array of professions and institutions, Cuthbert says. The Homewood Studios exhibit includes the artist’s large self-portrait paintings and drawings with pages reproduced from his sketchbooks, notepads, and calendars. The exhibit includes drawings from his youth, sketches of people and ideas, lists for life and projects, calendars reflecting his work in communities all over with all sorts of people, and doodles. “They are actually images of me in some of the conditions and struggles
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Enslaved, self-portrait
African American men have been placed in America. There is an image of me as an enslaved man painted in warm colors, another is me in blue as a part of the Great Migration and the painting in red is me in the current reckoning,” Seitu Ken Jones said. Taken together they provide an intimate and personal glimpse into the reality of Jones’ life. Seeing oneself in another’s shoes, seeing the possibilities granted and denied in the lives people can live, seeing the world with open eyes, is profound and essential. Jones’ work, in whatever medium he is called to, is just that, Cuthbert says. Profound and essential.
Martin Luther King, Jr. and organized labor:
Marching toward freedom Columnist
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COVID Pandemic is the new normal and we need to take action and deal with it
By Brenda Lyle-Gray We must guard against being fooled by false slogans such as ‘right to work’. It is a law to rob us of our civil rights and job rights. Its purpose is to destroy labor unions and the freedom of collective bargaining by which unions have improved wages and working conditions of everyone. Wherever these laws have been passed, wages are lower, job opportunities are fewer, and there are no civil rights. We do not intend to let them do this to us. Our weapon is our vote. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., ‘Letter from a Birmingham Jail’ Whenever native St. Paul educator, community activist, and communicator, Yusef Mgeni, is on deck at Thursdays’ Conversations with Al McFarlane webcast, you can feel their five decades long professional and personal friendship. And it’s like I’m back in graduate school at the University of Missouri, Kansas City soaking in all the knowledge I can. As I write this article on the morning of Dr. King’s National Holiday celebration, and on the same day of a rally and march, ‘Labor
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Kerry Jo Felder Unions in a Movement to Get Equity’, I return to academia. “The real test of time is whether we will be able to educate successive generations about the real contributions of Dr. King and not the sanitized version that’s dusted off around this time each year. ‘Letter from a Birmingham Jail’ which was written on toilet paper, is one of the classic pieces of American literarature in the 20th Century,” Mgeni said last week. “We need to encourage young people to read King’s words so they can understand the bravery and resilience of participants in the Civil Rights movement. The movement not only benefitted Black people, but white women in particular. It was intended to protect humanity, and for a short while, it did,” he said. “Out of the Civil Rights struggle and under the leadership of MLK, who became the engine for
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social justice movements all around the world, quite a few humanitarian organizations rose to the occasion to call for change. The Grey Panthers, the senior citizens’ movement, and the Native American movement, the LBGTQ, yuppies, and yippies communities all stood on the shoulders of prominent and unsung civil rights icons. People put their futures and
lives on the line. Children went to jail. The protests demanded that America remember that during Jim Crow and beyond, America lynched a Black man every 2 ½ days,” Mgeni said. According to Mgeni, the Civil Rights movement was punctuated by great protest marches. The most significant was when the late Congressman John Robert
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Black Lives Matter and the Removal of Racist Statues
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Part I of a two-part series. “A rose is a rose is a rose.” Gertrude Stein No matter what you call it—“pandemic” or, down the road, “endemic” (https:// www.hsph.harvard.edu/news/ features/what-will-it-be-likewhen-covid-19-becomesendemic/ ), COVID is here to stay. But until it becomes endemic, meaning it never disappears, but enough people become vaccinated to create “herd immunity,” the pandemic environment, mask wearing and booster shots, are likely to become routine. Like flu shots, they are here to stay. Face it, these conditions are the new normal, and we’d better learn to deal with them! (https://www.charlotteobserver. com/news/coronavirus/ article257092702.html )
The idea that somehow things will go back to a pre-COVID “normal” state-of-affairs is a fallacy. After any major catastrophe, everything changes! And crisis recovery should be about establishing a new standard for what is “normal,” and adapting to the present conditions, rather than trying to reclaim something that no longer exists! Also, denial will not solve or resolve anything. It’s the human equivalent of being an ostrich—sticking your head in the sand of denial or disbelief, and hoping that when you come up for air, that things will be like they were before. Never happens— remember Dorothy and Alice? Once they returned from their journey to OZ and Wonderland respectively, both were very different people, and had to deal with how their experiences had changed them. Like bad “ex’s”— husbands, boyfriends, girlfriends, besties—we need to get over the past (e.g., pre-COVID), and stop romanticizing it.
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Perspectives of an African
Black Lives Matter and the By Caesar Alimsinya Atuire Part 4 in a series III. The Debate: Statues of Racists in Public Space Since the public killing of George Floyd by officers of the Minneapolis Police Department on 25 May 2020, a long list of statues of historical figures known to be racists have been removed from public space in the USA and the UK. Among these are Charles Linn, 31 May (Birmingham, Alabama); Robert E. Lee, 1 June (Montgomery, Alabama); Raphael Semmes, 5 June (Mobile, Alabama); John B. Castleman, 8 June (Louisville, Kentucky); Edward Colston, 7 June (Bristol, UK); Jefferson Davis, 13 June (Richmond, Virginia); and Albert Pike, 19 June (Washington, D.C.). Many Confederate monuments and statues of Christopher Columbus have been removed or toppled. Not everyone agrees with the removal of these and other statues. The African American writer Sophia A. Nelson believes that removing statues is to run away from the past and to gag freedom of expression.11 Similar views have been expressed by Oxford University’s vice-chancellor, Louise Richardson. In the face of renewed calls for the removal of the statue of Cecil Rhodes overlooking the High Street from the façade of Oriel College, she commented “that hiding our history is not the route to enlightenment”.12 The university and Oriel College have since modified their position and have set up a committee to investigate, deliberate and advise on the question. Others, Donald Trump, for example, see the toppling and defacing of statues and monuments as a sustained assault on revered American monuments carried out by “arsonists and leftwing extremists” adding that those “who have carried out and supported these acts have explicitly identified themselves with ideologies – such as Marxism – that call for the destruction of the United States system of government”. As a result, on 26 June, he issued an “Executive Order on Protecting American Monuments, Memorials, and Statues and Combating Recent Criminal Violence” to “prosecute to the fullest extent permitted under Federal law, and as appropriate, any person or any entity that destroys, damages,
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Charles Linn in Alabama
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Raphael Semmes in Alabama vandalizes, or desecrates a monument, memorial, or statue within the United States or otherwise vandalizes government property”.13 The controversy around the removal of statues has become such a major issue in the debates surrounding the Black Lives Matter movement that it risks transforming questions of racism, white privilege, justice and equality into questions of law and order, or, worse still, a question of patriotism, where to be patriotic means subscribing somehow to the narrative that created the statues in question. From conversations with persons who are concerned about the current drive for the removal of statues of racists from public spaces, I have collected reasons that I discuss in the next paragraphs before going on to present a possible paradigm for addressing the controversy. 1. No one really cares about statues these days. We do not even notice them. By pulling them down we are opening a hornet’s nest. In fact, apart from a few exceptions like Narendra Modi of India, few leaders today are concerned about erecting statues in honour of past heroes. The statuomania era of the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries seems to have died down. What is more, even in
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Robert E. Lee in Alabama
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cities where statues abound, many citizens hardly notice them or know what they stand for. Bristolians and the world at large knew very little about Edward Colston and his engagement in the slave trade until calls for the removal of his statue started becoming louder in 2015. This view also holds that, it is more urgent to address the existential, practical and systematic issues of racism. When these questions have been addressed sufficiently, the narrative about the past will change and monuments that misrepresent the past will either be removed or complemented with newer ones which tell the other side of the story without too much controversy. This argument embodies a lot of common sense. Indeed, the removal of a statue is not a guarantee that the underlying issues of racial injustice will be addressed. It may just become an occasion to vent frustration at lifeless objects, all the while allowing authorities to sweep the vexed questions of systemic reform under the carpet by calling for calm and making promises of systemic change that will not be fulfilled. On the flip side, allowing statues of racists a permanent place in the public sphere does have a negative effect on victims of racism. When public space is adorned with figures with which black people cannot identify, even if they are not aware of the full story of these persons, a feeling of alienation is created. A similar argument can be made for the absence of statues of women in public space. Statues celebrate people who have contributed to making history. The absence of figures of blacks and women in public space reinforces the idea that our societies are led by white men and that only white men are worthy of commemoration in our societies. It is worth
Conversations From 3 Lewis was beaten unconscious by the Dallas County Police Department who had deputized 400 KKK members to assist them in preventing the march from Selma to Montgomery for voting rights. It was successful because in a third attempt, participation went from a few 100 to 54,000 with Black freedom marchers being joined by whites, by people representing a variety of religious backgrounds, and by other people of color. It was clear this movement was not mono-cultural, Mgeni said. “It’s one we all benefit from today. Unions began to strengthen as the numerous crusades led to the establishment of immigration reform, and expanded international human rights campaigns.” On April 4, 1967, the last year of MLK’s life, he gave a speech most never knew about or read. He delivered the powerful message at the Riverside Church in NYC. He came out against the war in Viet
John B. Castleman in Kentucky pointing out moreover that victims often experience what Miranda Fricker has described as hermeneutical injustice.14 This is when victims of injustice perceive something wrong and yet, on account of a deficit in shared tools for interpretation, victims or marginalized groups may not have the epistemic concepts to express what they are feeling. It is often quite difficult for persons of African descent to express the contours of racism, but this does not mean that the effects are not perceived. The predominance of figures of colonialists, racists, slave owners and traders, and the absence of monuments and statues of slaves and black anti-racists, can contribute to making public space silently but perceptibly unwelcoming towards people of African descent. 2. Persons pulling down statues are violent criminals. Law and order must prevail. Images of angry demonstrators defacing or pulling down statues have accompanied some of the demonstrations in favour of the Black Lives Matter movement. This has led to authorities placing protective coverings around statues that risk being damaged by demonstrators. On 12 June, the statue of Winston Churchill in London’s Parliament Square was covered up to protect it from being attacked by demonstrators. The Executive Order issued by President Trump on 26 June interprets the defacing and pulling down of statues as acts of violence against the state. On this premise of aggression towards the state, the President threatened to use the army to defend these monuments and to ensure that law and order are observed. For many persons opposed to the pulling down or defacing of statues, the demonstrations in favour of the Black Lives Matter
movement are being hijacked by violent persons whose actions need to be suppressed. This line of reasoning is practically relevant from a social viewpoint. However, logically, it may be riddled with a fallacy of changing the subject because it shifts the question from whether statues of racists should be allowed in the public space to a question of how demonstrators are expected by law to express their frustrations. Concentrating on vandalism by some of the demonstrators is a distraction that can lead to a missed opportunity to address issues of importance regarding identity and history. There is no doubt that it is part of the duty of government to ensure that law and order prevail. The state cannot allow citizens to express their frustration by damaging property or objects. However, the appropriate response, in this case, may not be to increase the coercive powers of the police and military. The Black Lives Matter movement was galvanized by a viral video showing police violence towards George Floyd, an African American man. This act of violence, which led to his death, was perpetuated by members of the police force. The police force is an arm of government that is supposed to protect citizens. If there was already a perception that the police do not discharge this duty equally to all citizens, and indeed, a lack of trust in their impartiality, then this event was a confirmation of that belief. Therefore, escalating the coercive powers of the police and other armed forces towards demonstrators is perhaps not the best way to restore the trust required for successful policing. Other ways of engaging with demonstrators and isolating radical elements need to be explored. What is more, a deeper understanding of civil protests is
Nam, Mgeni said. A year later, he was murdered on that very date. Mgeni said prior to transitioning, King could not get a book published, was not invited to give any speeches or write opinion articles for newspapers and magazines, was not a guest at any national dinner gatherings, legislative or public policy functions, and was ignored and isolated. “Even Black leaders such as Ralph Bunche with the United Nations, Whitney Young, President of the Urban League, and Roy Wilkins, President of the NAACP turned on him. They told him he should pay attention to the domestic agenda and not meddle in international affairs. What a travesty of logic! How can you be in one country that perpetuates poison, harm, and death and not have a voice in trying to correct it? The real Dr. King was not just a solider in the war on poverty, but a general in the fight for liberation,” Mgeni said. Kerry Jo Felder, Teamsters Union Local 120 organizer said MLK came out of organized labor. “It was all about the Poor People’s
Campaign focusing on education, housing, and jobs.” A rally and march were held on Monday, January 17th, at the Hennepin County Government Plaza commemorating the King Holiday, celebrating his contribution to human kind, and bringing attention to the critical need in critical times for equality in the workplace, especially when it comes to the welfare and wellness of children. Shaun Laden is president of Minnesota Federation of Teachers Chapter 59 a union chapter with approximately 1,200 members. Laden is an ESP (Education Support Professional) working in the Minneapolis School District of 30,000 students. As an active union leader, Laden says, “Our members’ work is key. We like to say, ‘we make school happen!’ During the pandemic, it was ESPs who were required to be on site providing services and support for first responders and health care workers’ children. Classroom assistants coordinate transportation, family support, and social and emotional group resources,
needed. These arise when social groups feel that the existing channels of dialogue for change are not open to them or do not heed their calls for change. It is the absence of adequate fora to engage in constructive dialogue that fosters the need for mass protests. A better response to protests would be to create space for the protesting parties’ voices to be heard and to follow up with real responses that seek to address their concerns. This would be a more inclusive approach. 3. The statues are an important part of our collective historywhich we cannot and should not erase. The removal of statues is an act of damnatio memoriae which is always negative. Various persons, including the vice-chancellor of Oxford University, have warned against trying to erase history by pulling down statues. The persons who are represented by the statues are protagonists of events that have made us who we are. The removal of statues would seem to be an act of damnatio memoriae in which conscious attempts are made to cancel positive traces of ignoble persons from the annals of history. Such actions may in turn contribute to greater ignorance about the past and a poorer understanding of the present. This argument is problematic because it encapsulates many questionable assumptions. First, statues represent an interpretation of history. In fact, many statues are erected to reinforce a narrative that does not always present a complete picture. Many of the Confederate statues in the USA were erected during Jim Crow, an era known for its affirmation of white supremacy. The claim that statues teach history is a tall one; at best, they reinforce a particular narrative of history. Secondly, the removal of a statue cannot be equated to the ancient practice of damnatio memoriae. As Charles W. Hedrick argues, the damnatio was an effort to repress and obliterate the representation of a person. It was not so much a question of oblivion as of disgrace.15 The removal of the statue of a racist from public space does not obliterate, it is an act of refusing to celebrate the achievements of the person either because those achievements are ethically questionable or other important aspects of the person’s life cast a large dark shadow on their achievements. To continue to keep statues of infamous persons in the public space might require re-interpreting our understanding of statues, that is, as representing not persons we celebrate but also those we vilify. It is difficult to imagine, for now, statues of villains in public space. Would it be advisable to erect statues of villains standing on high plinths and in postures denoting success? 4. It is unfair to judge persons from the past with today’s criteria. When I visit the slave forts along the coast of Ghana, which I often do, I walk
serve as family liaison, and are on hand as translators and media specialists as needed. “We are calling upon Minneapolis Public Schools’ elected leadership to direct their administration to distribute equitable state and federal funds” Laden said. “Historically, ESPs have made poverty wages of about $24,000 annually. They pay the same amount for hospitalization as an administrator earning $125,000 annually. Where’s the fairness in that? In these difficult and uncertain times, our work is even more essential. It’s a collective in action to help save our children.” Rev. Brenda Johnson is an ordained clergy of the African Methodist Episcopal Church and a long time ESP. Her current position with the Minneapolis School District is described as a ‘school success program assistant’. “I work with families and incarcerated youth who deserve to get the education they need no matter what, whether being sentenced or in out-of-home placement. My goal is to constantly interrupt and thus
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Removal of Racist Statues down into the dark dungeons, breathing in the damp air of the large cells where young black women and men were chained and held for weeks whilst waiting to be led through the infamous ‘doors of no-return’, onto ships to be carried away forever across the seas to the New World. The experience of visiting these forts is so hideous that most visitors exit with a feeling of sadness. For whites, the sadness is tinged with guilt; for blacks, the sadness is tinged with anger. Exiting these forts, I have on many occasions asked myself the hypothetical question of what I would have done if I had been born into a white slave-trading family 400 years ago? Of course, I have no answer to this question. The context in which a person is born and lives is part of the moral heritage which influences their choices and decisions. However, it is difficult to subscribe to total moral relativism. A moral distinction can be made between those who actively enslaved people, engaged in the slave trade or went to war to defend slavery, and those who perhaps benefitted from it without actively engaging in slavery. There is also something to be said about those who did not challenge the institution of slavery but in their own little ways tried to be humane towards slaves. And, of course, there were those who actively fought to put an end to slavery. In other words, even within the era of the North Atlantic slave trade, there were different moral positions and there was room for choices even if the choices were narrower and conditioned by the general climate of acceptance of slavery. Thus, active engagement in the slave trade or fighting battles to defend slavery was arguably a matter of choice and not just a result of the era in which the slave traders lived. To judge figures like Colston, Jack Lee and Rhodes negatively is not just an opinion of the twenty-first century. There were contemporaries of these persons who did not agree with their choices and would not buy into a narrative that celebrates these figures. The difference today, perhaps, is that these critical voices have become louder. Statues are erected to immortalize narratives about persons. When that narrative no longer holds in public opinion, the statue can be perceived as a monument that is propping up a lie or an injustice. 5. All human characters have flaws. To demand that persons represented by statues are flawless is a tall order. It will ultimately lead to an end of human statues in the public space. There is a benevolent view towards statues of fallen heroes which holds that it is impossible or almost impossible to come across a human character that has no flaws. The persons represented in statues are humans who had their flaws and failings, but they also had achievements worth celebrating. It is unfair to fail to recognize their achievements just because they had some failings like all humans do. What is more,
Conversations From 4 eradicate the vicious school-toprison pipeline by any means necessary” she said. Johnson said “Black and Brown students are at the bottom at all academic levels. It’s not very welcoming to be a teacher nowadays, and more educational support professionals are needed. How do we make the profession attractive for people to want to commit to being the very best they can be and give the most of themselves to educate, nurture, and guide future generations?” Johnson and other panel members called for training more Black and Brown educators, licensed and nonlicensed. 80% of public school educators are white. “The the way you see people is how you treat them,” Johnson said, “and the way you treat them is who they become. There is no pipeline for Black and Brown candidates, no concerted recruitment, and no effort to
since flaws can be found in almost every human being, if we continue along this path, perhaps the only statues that will remain are those erected in honour of unknown or mythical persons, like Molly Malone on Dublin’s Grafton Street or some of Botero’s statues. Perhaps we are heading towards the end of the era of statues of historical persons. And this, some hold, might not be a desirable end. It is true that one can find faults in any human character. It is virtually impossible to find human beings that are perfect or blameless on all fronts. When Mother Theresa of Calcutta was declared a saint by the Roman Catholic Church, critics argued that she was a cynical activist making money and building a brand out of the suffering of the poor.16 Nevertheless, in the context of the current discussion about the removal of statues of racists from public space, there are some considerations that need to be taken into account when following this line of reasoning. First, in the context of the Black Lives Matter movement, the persons whose statues are being challenged are those whose achievements relied on slavery and racism. This is not about other flaws linked to character or virtue in the strict sense. The calls for the removal of the statue of Winston Churchill from Parliament Square in London are not because of the stories or myths that he was a heavy drinker.17 Edward Colston built up wealth through slavery, Cecil Rhodes through white supremacy. The Confederate generals fought bravely in a war which, for them, was a battle to uphold slavery. There are other cases where a statue is erected to celebrate a person’s admirable achievements in fields not directly related to slavery or racism, yet the person has a deeply flawed record. An example is the famous twentieth-century Italian journalist, Indro Montanelli, who as a young man of twentyfour, during the invasion of Abyssinia, bought, married, and regularly raped a twelveyearold local girl. Montanelli later abandoned the fascist camp, became a champion of press freedom against fascists and dictators, was imprisoned, even suffered an assassination attempt by the Brigate Rosse terrorist group, and remained throughout his long life an uncompromising sharp leader of Italian independent journalism. This earned him awards and a public statue in Milan. However, throughout his lifetime Montanelli remained unrepentant about his actions towards the young girl in Abyssinia. Even decades after these events, as an old man and a celebrated hero of Italian journalism, he tried to justify his actions by saying, “that was the way it was done in Abyssinia”. And he added: the young girl was a “docile little animal”.18 In the wake of the Black Lives Matters movement, protestors splashed red paint on the statue of Montanelli, wrote ‘rapist and racist’ on the plinth, and called
support vested interests of the Black community. Even more important is the equality, relevance, and truthfulness in how the criterion for licensing is being defined and who is preparing the candidates,” she said. “I never will forget how pleased and proud I was when I looked over at the growing crowd outside the courthouse as we awaited the verdict in the Derek Chauvin trial and Native Americans standing with us. It was powerful! BIPOC (Black, Indian, People of Color) communities uniting for a common cause and in support of one another no matter the outcome,” said Dr. Samantha Hill, Vice-President of AFSCME Local 34. Hill has been a Case Manager and Marriage and Family Therapist in Hennepin County for 17 years. “I think what we’re saying now is ‘no more’. No more poor treatment, low wages, unsafe working conditions, lack of quality education, poor health, and no more hope deferred. We need something different.
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for its removal. The mayor of Milan, Giuseppe Sala, replied that he is open to dialogue, however, he is of the opinion that the statue must remain because “lives are to be judged in their complexity”, adding that whereas it is possible to demand an unblemished life from all, if we pursue this line, there will be few persons left to remember.19 Mayor Sala is perhaps right in his assessment, but his conclusion is debatable. Great thinkers and philosophers like Voltaire, Hume, and Kant all made explicitly racist and white supremacist affirmations.20 Yet, their works are still studied, admired and commented on by students of philosophy from all races. The perdurance of their intellectual legacy cannot be attributed to statues that have been erected in their honour. Persons like Montanelli, whose undeniable contribution to good journalism and press freedom in the face of tyranny and dictatorship is enviable, can perhaps be better analysed, studied and understood in contexts of reasoned dialogue. A mute statue in a public square may not provide the best context for a pondered evaluation of the ideas of a person like Montanelli. What is more, the statue of a person who is declaredly unrepentant about being a paedophile and racist rapist is not a reassuring presence to children who need to grow up with a certainty that their society is willing to protect them. 6. Many statues are works of art that have aesthetic value which goes beyond the persons they represent. Destroying them is similar to burning libraries or ‘bad’ books. There is no doubt that some statues have an aesthetic value that needs to be preserved irrespective of the historical facts they represent. Michelangelo’s Pieta, David, Moses and other statues are of
immense value even though historians or theologians could raise questions about his depiction of these figures. The equestrian statue of Marcus Aurelius has influenced political sculptures for centuries. More modern statues, those from the era of Romanticism, which may have lesser artistic value, are worthy of conservation because they represent an era of artistic expression, which is always a window into understanding the spirit of the times. From this point of view, the destruction of statues can deprive citizens and art students of important pieces that enrich our aesthetic experience and enhance our understanding of the past and the present. A counter argument could be made that the removal of statues from public space does not mean destroying them. Indeed, some will be better conserved over time if they were kept in a museum where they can be protected, preserved and presented within a framework that allows people to understand and interpret them better. One might ask: what about statues carved into natural spaces, the bas-relief of the three Confederate leaders, for example, which cannot be transferred to museums or other sites? Here, perhaps the only alternative is to widen the narrative by ensuring the silenced voices are also heard. 10 Simon John, Statues. 11 Sophia A. Nelson, Don’t Take Down Confederate Statues. Here’s Why, in: NBC News, 1 June 2017, https://www.nbcnews.com/ think/news/opinion-why-ifeel-confederate -monumentsshould-stay-ncna767221 (12.08.2020). 12 Sean Coughlan, Don’t hide history, says Oxford head in statue row, in: BBC News, 11 June 2020, https://www.bbc.
com/news/education-52999319 (12.08.2020). 13 The White House, Executive Order on Protecting American Monuments, Memorials, and Statues and Combating Recent Criminal Violence, issued 26 June 2020, https://www.whitehouse.gov/ presidential-actions /executive-order-protectingamerican-monumentsmemorials-statues-combatingrecentcriminal-violence/ (12.08.2020). 14 Miranda Fricker, Epistemic Injustice. Power and the Ethics of Knowing, Oxford 2007. 15 Charles W. Hedrick, History and Silence. Purge and Rehabilitation of Memory in Late Antiquity, Austin 2000, 114. 16 Douglas Robertson, Mother Teresa wasn’t a saintly person – she was a shrewd operator with unpalatable views who knew how to build up a brand, in: The Independent, 4 September 2016, https:// w w w. i n d e p e n d e n t . c o . u k / voices/mother-teresa-wasnta-saintly-person -she-wasa-shrewd-operator-withunpalatable-views-whoknew-how-a7224846.html (12.08.2020). 17 On the question whether Churchill was an alcoholic or not, see an analysis by Michael Richards at https:// winstonchurchill.org/resources/ myths/alcohol-abuser/ (12.08.2020). 18 Annalisa Teggi, «Lei, signor Montanelli, violentò una bambina di 12 anni?» chiese Elvira Banotti, in: Aleteia, 16 August 2018, https://it.aleteia.org/2018/08/16/ indro-montanellielvirabanotti-violenza-bimba-12anni-africa/2/ (12.08.2020):
“Regolarmente sposata, in quanto regolarmente comprata dal padre. Aveva 12 anni, ma non mi prendere per un bruto: a 12 anni quelle lì sono già donne. […] Avevo bisogno di una donna a quell’età. Me la comprò il mio sottufficiale insieme a un cavallo e un fucile, in tutto 500 lire. […]. Lei era un animalino docile; ogni 15 giorni mi raggiungeva ovunque fossi insieme alle mogli degli altri.” 19 Sala: “ L a statua di Montanelli resta, le vite si giudicano nella loro complessità”, in: ADNKronos, 14 June 2020, https://www.adnkronos.com/ fatti/ cronaca/2020/06/14/ sala-statua-montanelliresta-vite-giudicanonella-loro-complessita_ vayPmLbg2XFrxrELdPFXCM. html (12.08.2020). 20 Björn Freter, White Supremacy in Eurowestern Epistemologies. On the West’s Responsibility for its Philosophical Heritage, in: Synthesis Philosophica 33, 1, 2018, 237–249. Caesar Alimsinya Atuire is a Senior Lecturer in the Philosophy and Classics Department at the University of Ghana, Legon. He is also a 2020 Visiting Fellow at All Souls College, University of Oxford. Dr. Atuire’s work draws from African and European philosophical traditions to reflect on normative issues in bioethics, health, and intercultural relations. He is coeditor of the volume Bioethics in Africa: Theories and Praxis. He has also lectured and published on epistemic decolonization in academia. Originally published as 21: INQUIRIES INTO ART, HISTORY, AND THE VISUAL #2-2020, pp. 449– 467 https://doi.org/10.11588/ xxi.2020.2.76234
Teachers need to be excellent and great mentors. Trades and advanced technology need to be introduced at a younger age. My philosophy is college teaches you to work for other people. Trades teach you to work for yourself,” Hill said. Hennepin County’s general salary adjustment of 2.5% is a losing proposition for County workers who are experiencing the current increase inflation range from 5.5 to 7%. “There is no way to keep up. Student loan payments are astronomical. We are asking for hazard pay for volunteers who at the peak of the pandemic worked tirelessly and at the risk of their own health. We want reimbursement of costs for some who had no internet service to do their work remotely. We want the same pay of social workers and psychologists who were first in the field and get paid $10,000 more when we all do the same work. Kamau King, a regular panelist on “Conversations with Al McFarlane, a retired corporate attorney for Coca Cola and now residing in
Atlanta said communities need to look at how schools are funded. Noting that he grew up in an activist union household, he said, “As long as we continue to base school funding on property taxes, it puts Black communities at a disadvantage. Our real estate has seldom been valued as high as white homeowners. Consequently, our schools get less.” Ronisha Buckner, AFSCME Local 35 Sgt at Arms, co-chairs of the union’s anti-discrimination committee, and is a team coordinator for the Local’s Member Action Team (MAT). The team is responsible for communicating, programming, and the organizing for its 2,500 workers. Brianne Carmichael, another member of Local 34, works as a financial case aide for adult, disabled, and senior protective services. “We connect culturally relevant and diverse and inclusive services. In the 18 months I worked with the, Project Diversity initiative, we made progress in tackling racial disparities’ reduction and calling for collective grieving
with expanded bereavement leave. Yunuen Avila, a member of AFSCME Local 34, is a MAT coordinator, an anti-discrimination committee member, and a human service representative who manages MAT leaders. The team acts to protect and support, members in the workplace. “We are all ‘allies in solidarity’ and I would say to the powers-that-be, let’s at least be honest. Leaders can fix this.” On January 19th a Union Information picket was held at theMinneapolis Public Schools’ South Minneapolis Hub were to bring awareness and offer “gratitude, support, and respect for front line workers.” “No one rises to low expectations,” Mgeni says. “If our children grow up in nurturing and loving environments, they will feel valued and have hope. Expectations for most generations of youth of color have been so low that it was assumed we weren’t going anywhere, and we were not capable of success. The same kind of ‘the best there can be’
quality environment, resources, preparation, organization, compassion, and support can go a long way with workers, as well, especially those who are caretakers of our children. We must also teach parents to stand up for their children,” he said. “My wife and I were at our children’s schools on the first day. The teachers got our business cards, knew where to contact us immediately, answered the questions we had prepared before parent conferences, understood the expectations for our children that we had made quite clear. We knew the school board members, and today take great pride in our successful offspring.” Children ought to be able to get a quality education wherever they are. As a retired educator and single mother, I sometimes went overboard in my activism for my children and my students. As my youngest daughter, then in junior high, once responded to a group of friends trying to entice her to go to the beach with them, said, “Have you met my Mama?” Mutual respect and love.
Page 6 • January 24, 2022 - January 30, 2022 • Insight News
Insight 2 Health
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The tests available for order are rapid antigen at-home tests, not PCR test, that can be can be taken anywhere and provide results within 30 minutes (no lab drop-off required).
Free at-home COVID-19 tests now available to all US homes
Every home in the U.S. is now eligible to order free athome COVID-19 tests. The tests are completely free. Orders will usually ship in 7-12 days. Tests can be ordered online at COVIDtests.gov. The tests available for order are rapid antigen at-home tests, not PCR test, that can be can be taken anywhere and provide results within 30 minutes (no lab drop-off required). These tests work whether or not you have COVID-19 symptoms and/or whether or not you are up to date on your COVID-19 vaccines. The only information needed to place an order is name and residential address. No ID, credit card, or health insurance information is required. There is an option to share your email address to get updates on your order. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) recommends that you take an at-home test:
If you begin having COVID-19 symptoms like fever, sore throat, runny nose, or loss of taste or smell, or At least 5 days after you come into close contact with someone with COVID-19, or When you’re going to gather with a group of people, especially those who are at risk of severe disease or may not be up to date on their COVID-19 vaccines. A positive at-home test result means that the test found the virus, and you very likely have COVID-19. If you test positive on your athome test, follow the latest CDC guidance for isolation. A negative at-home test result means that the test did not find the virus, and you may have a lower risk of spreading COVID-19 to others. Check your test kit’s instructions for specific next steps. If you test negative, you should test again within a few days with at least
24 hours between tests. If you test negative, follow the latest CDC guidance for self-testing. To promote broad access, the initial program will only allow four (4) free individual tests per residential address. If a household contains more than four residents, the limit of four tests still applies. There are, however, numerous other options to get tested for free, including over 20,000 free testing sites across the country. If you have health insurance, your insurance will also cover the cost of over-thecounter, at-home tests (up to eight at-home tests per month for each person on your plan). All tests distributed as part of this program are FDA-authorized at-home rapid antigen tests. These tests will be delivered in the mail through the U.S. Postal Service. Tests will typically ship within 7-12 days of ordering. All orders within the
continental United States will be sent through First Class Package Service. Shipments to Alaska, Hawaii, U.S. Territories, and overseas military and diplomatic addresses (APO/FPO/DPO) will be sent through Priority Mail. Once your order is shipped, you will receive an email with an estimated delivery date and a tracking number. You can track the status of your delivery on USPS.com. All orders within the continental United States will be sent through First Class Package Service. Shipments to Alaska, Hawaii, U.S. Territories, and overseas military and diplomatic addresses (APO/FPO/DPO) will be sent through Priority Mail. To get help with a delivery issue, contact USPS. For more on when to use athome tests, see the latest CDC self-testing guidance.
COVID From 3 Whose ‘Normal’ Are We Talking About? Before COVID struck, the world was not a happy place for everyone. Now, people who had immense privilege before the pandemic are discovering that they are not immune. As a result, they hunger for a return to a moment in the past when their privilege mattered and made a difference. Right now, they have become painfully aware that privilege protection is limited under COVID. When accompanied by stupidity— believing that you have so much wealth and power that COVID can’t touch you—the consequences can be disastrous. The proof is that those who consider themselves privileged and think every day rules of pandemic prevention don’t apply to them are getting COVID too—and some may die from it. Even Stupidity Has Its Limits Take Ben Carson, for example, a noted heart surgeon, but a terrible Housing and Urban Development (HUD) Secretary, and clearly privileged; he contracted COVID, after paling around at an election watch party with the 45th White House staff, attending rallies unmasked, and hanging out with his boss—then President Trump—at staff meetings, still unmasked. (https://www. essence.com/news/ben-carsoncovid-white-house/ ). All of Carson’s medical training should have kicked in and his medical spider sense should have warned him that these actions were a bad idea. After the fact, and to his limited credit, Carson acknowledged that it was his access that provided him the same treatment as the 45th—COVID privilege—and probably saved his life. I’d like to see him share the news of his privilege at a rally of COVID survivors and the families and friends of hundreds of thousands COVID deceased, many whom could barely get a ventilator, much less have access to experimental drugs, because they lacked privilege! In total, since COVID
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All tests distributed as part of this program are FDA-authorized at-home rapid antigen tests. These tests will be delivered in the mail through the U.S. Postal Service. Tests will typically ship within 7-12 days of ordering. began in February 2020— the start of the announced pandemic, there have been 64,476,992 reported cases and 849,566 Americans have died. And, the bad news is that over 800,000 cases are being reported daily, according to the New York Times “Coronavirus in the U.S. Map and Case Count” (https://www.nytimes. com/interactive/2021/us/covidcases.html ). Back in June, 2021, I reported that India had reached a health crisis of 400,000 deaths daily, and we needed to heed the warning. Also, one year ago on January 15, 2021, when we knew less about the Coronavirus, the number of daily cases was much lower—232,201 to be exact! How is it that we know more about the virus today and how it spreads, and the number of cases are escalating. Also, we have no idea of how many unreported cases there are. The COVID Disparity Gap COVID has made visible the major fault lines in our culture that divide the “haves” from the “have nots” and the “privileged” from the “marginalized.” It has laid bare the false notion that we are a democratic society who cares. It is clear that access to good health care and services is not equitable—it seems only those with privilege and financial resources, like Dr. Ben Carson, and the 45th President, can count on getting the best medical attention and exposure to experimental drugs that keep them alive and healthy, even after they have made dumb mistakes. Health Disparities and the Healthcare Divide, as uncovered by COVID, are real and can no longer be ignored. Cities, communities, politicians, social and healthcare service delivery systems can no longer fake white innocence and ignore structural racism, which are significant and very real variables that cause Black and Brown communities to be disproportionately and adversely vulnerable to COVID with imminent death or long-term impairment as consequences. We are Americans too. Black and Brown people deserve better. Dismantling the Master’s House The great Black lesbian feminist poet, Audre
Lorde, once stated “The Master’s tools will never dismantle the Master’s House.” She stated “…those of us who are poor, who are lesbians, who are Black, who are older— know that survival is not an academic skill. It is learning how to take our differences and make them strengths. For the master’s tools will never dismantle the master’s house (https://collectiveliberation.org/ wp-content/uploads/2013/01/ Lorde_The_Masters_Tools.pdf ). How then can we fix economic, health, and police systems that all inflict some form of violence — or major harm — on marginalized communities? How will institutional structures that have operated with impunity for creating gaps in healthcare delivery and other sectors like education, employment, police violence, sentencing in the justice system, and incarceration make amends to eradicate this structural violence? Clearly, their current (Master’s) tools cannot be used to dismantle the very system they created. Something radical and different is needed. We have to ask ourselves as a society, not just if it even possible to dismantle the decades of oppression that have built up and reproduced generation after generation of traumatized people, inequality, and limited access to strategic resources, but is there a collective American will to do so? Where does this country even begin to make reparations and repair the damage done to BIPOC individuals, families, and communities? What tools can it use to disrupt and dismantle its own systems? (Part II next week) ©2022 Irma McClaurin Irma McClaurin (http://irmamcclaurin. com/ https://twitter.com/ mcclaurintweets) is the Culture and Education Editor and columnist for Insight News, an award-winning writer, activist anthropologist, the CEO of Irma McClaurin Solutions (IMS), and founder of the Irma McClaurin Black Feminist Archive (bit.ly/ blkfemarchive) at the University of Massachusetts Amherst. Her book, JustSpeak: Reflections on Race, Culture and Politics in America, is forthcoming in 2022.
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Insight News • January 24, 2022 - January 30, 2022 • Page 7
America’s role in assassinating Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Hobb servation Point
By Chuck Hobbs Ever since President Ronald Reagan signed an edict making the third Monday in January a Federal Holiday commemorating the birth of Dr. Martin Luther King, the event has, in some ways, been diluted into trite recitations that do precious little to highlight the importance of King’s life—and untimely death at the age of 39. These “highlights,” if you will, contain excerpts from King’s speeches or Civil Rights Movement songs, like “We Shall Overcome,” without any context to the tragedy that played out in America from 1955, when King first rose to prominence, until 1968, when he breathed his last breath in Memphis, Tennessee. As a lover of history, I do believe that what I called “trite” recitations above have their place; yes, it is important to note that King graduated from Atlanta’s Booker T. Washngton High School at the age of 15, from Morehouse College at the age of 19, and finished with a master’s in theology from Crozer Theological Seminary and a Ph.D in philosophy and religion from Boston University before the age of 26. Yes, it is important to note that he became pastor of Dexter Avenue Baptist Church while finishing his dissertation at Boston University during the very same year that he was tapped to lead the Montgomery Bus Boycott after Rosa Parks was arrested for violating the city’s Jim Crow seating laws. Yes, it is important to note that Dr. King founded the Southern Christian Leadership Conference in 1957 along with other civil rights giants like Rev. Ralph Abernathy and Rev. C.K.
Mother Coretta Scott King observes President Reagan signing the MLK Holiday into law Steele, and that over the next 11 years, the organization would be at the vanguard of leading peaceful non-violent resistance in the face of extremely violent resistance from the Ku Klux Klan and other assorted racists who viciously attacked them in Albany, Georgia, St. Augustine, Florida, Birmingham, Alabama and yes, even in Chicago, Illinois. Yes, it is important to note that King was the keynote speaker among a “Who’s Who” of American figures at the March on Washington in August of 1963, and how his most famous words from that speech were ad-libbed after the legendary singer Mahalia Jackson repeatedly shouted to him to “tell them about the dream” that he had spoken to her and other audiences in the week’s prior to the event. Yes, we would be wise to remember this day that King’s efforts led to the passage of the crucial Civil Rights Act of 1964, and the Voting Rights
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Act of 1965, two measures that theoretically provided the legal end of nearly 100 years of legal discrimination against Blacks in America. But what often goes unmentioned on MLK Day, but not here at the Hobbservation Point, is that it wasn’t just the KKK minions that were real menaces to King’s life—but the United States government as well! Lest we forget the truth that men like President John F. Kennedy and Attorney General Robert F. Kennedy claimed to be King›s ally to his face, all the while considering him to be a communist due to his professional associations with lawyer Stanley Levinson and civil rights leader Bayard Rustin; King stubbornly refused President Kennedy’s demand that he break all ties with Attorney Levinson, in particular, during a chat in the White House’s Rose Garden in June of 1963. Lest we forget that
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both President and Attorney General Kennedy authorized FBI Director J. Edgar Hoover’s surreptitious surveillance efforts that were designed to dilute, discredit, and ultimately destroy King’s power (after he won the Nobel Peace Prize in 1964). Lest we forget that it was the FBI that tapped King’s phones at home and his offices in Atlanta; planted informants in his inner circle; taped alleged sexual trysts at hotels across America and forwarded the tapes to Mrs. Coretta Scott King to foment marital discord; and when that didn’t work, sent a letter threatening to expose his private business to the public—while encouraging King to commit suicide to avoid the scandal. Lest we forget that alleged King assassin James Earl Ray claimed until his dying day in 1999 that a man named “Raul” and the FBI played a part in framing him for the shots that rang out and shattered Dr. King’s jaw on April 4, 1968.
President Lyndon Johnson shakes hands with Dr. King after signing the Civil Rights Act of 1964 a So yes, it is important to remember that “Dr. King tried to love somebody,” as he mentioned in his famous I’ve Been to the Mountaintop speech that›s often recited by those alive today who would have despised him had they lived back in the 1950›s and 60›s. And yet, it is far more important to remember that the very nation Dr. King tried to love—and the very racists he extended love to—hated him and because of their hatred, his parents lost a son, his wife lost a husband, his children lost a father, his Morehouse and Alpha Phi Alpha families lost a Brother, and we all lost a towering figure in world history at the age of 39. Ergo, as we spend this day remembering Dr. King’s life, let us further remember why it was cut far too short… Thank you and please subscribe to the Hobbservation Point—have
wonderful MLK Holiday Chuck Hobbs is a freelance journalist who won the 2010 Florida Bar Media Award and has been twice nominated for the Pulitzer Prize for Commentary.
Page 8 • January 24, 2022 - January 30, 2022 • Insight News
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