August 4, 2024

Weekend Edition

Take Action

As mentioned below, Harris has formally received enough votes to secure the Democratic presidential nomination. Here are some ways you can join efforts to ensure that Donald Trump doesn’t return to the White House.

1. Students! Support the SVF Student Turnout Projects, a collection of state-based organizations working to organize students in four key battleground states: Michigan, North Carolina, Pennsylvania, and Wisconsin.

2. Is this your first time participating in an election? Read Voting 101 to understand your eligibility to vote and how elections work.

3. Feeling Zoom FOMO? Explore this list of upcoming virtual gatherings to support. I recommend adjusting the filters on the search results for your state or affinity group.

4. Sign up to be a poll worker or help coordinate rides so your neighbors can get to the polls.

5. Join initiatives to canvass prospective voters on the ground or via phone.

6. Fight misinformation and disinformation as you discuss the campaign with your friends, family, and colleagues. PolitiFact regularly publishes fact-checking information after rallies and events that presidential candidates attend.

Love reading? Join the team!

I'm looking for a few project-based Community Leads for Banned Books Book Club! You'll need to spend about 10 hours/month moderating our virtual book club throughout the month, and one hour hosting our virtual gathering!

Paid, flexible hours (aside from the book club date we schedule) and really fun. Send me a note directly with why you want to do it, or email [email protected].

The more people that can join, the more conversations we can host with students across the country this school year! I hope to read with you!

In The News

Algerian boxer Imane Kheli was accused of being trans after the opponent cried from her “strong” punches, sparking hateful anti-trans rhetoric.

• Conservatives are capitalizing on the abandoned Khelif-Carini fight to levy anti-trans attacks. Vox >

• J.K. Rowling knows Olympic boxer Imane Khelif isn’t trans. She doesn’t care. them >

• Khelif is the latest athlete deemed insufficiently female by extremists obsessed with the strictest of gender binaries. The Intercept >

• Discrimination against trans Olympians has roots in Nazi Germany. Vox >

• Khelif is now guaranteed at least an Olympic bronze medal after defeating Hungary and securing access to the semifinals. She deserves that and more. Time > 

As Kamala Harris formally secures the Democratic nomination, she responds to hateful racist rhetoric slung by the racist Republican presidential candidate, Donald Trump.

• Yes, Kamala Harris is both. Anand Giridharadas writes about multicultural identities and solidarity between South Asian and Black communities. The Ink >

• Capital B News examines her track record, chances for success, and other big questions. Capital B News >

• As a Baptist with a Jewish spouse with ties to the Black Church and Gandhi, Harris’ diverse religious background holds special significance for the upcoming election. PBS >

Sonya Massey’s murder reignites calls for police accountability and sparks outrage and grief.

• Body camera footage released from the shooting of the Black woman and mother by a sheriff’s deputy in Illinois has sparked outrage. 19th News >

• “This is the worst police shooting video ever.” In this sobering reflection, writer Jenisha Watts highlights the cruelty of the murder of Sonya Massey. The Atlantic >

• Past employers questioned the integrity and conduct of the deputy Sean Grayson, who killed Massey. The Intercept >

August 2nd marked what would have been the 100th birthday of writer and activist James Baldwin.

• “James Baldwin's righteous rage is more relevant than ever.” Black queer writers reflect on the impact of his work. them >

• Four of Baldwin’s nephews remember their beloved uncle: a fun, affectionate man who taught them how to play chess, breakdance, and move through the world as Black men. Esquire >

Nearly 1000 Native children died in abusive us boarding schools. An investigation found graves at 65 of the more than 400 U.S. boarding schools where Native children were forced to assimilate into white, American society. Teen Vogue >

The crackdown on antisemitism doesn’t actually have much to do with antisemitism. Republican lawmakers increasingly conflate anti-Zionism with antisemitism in an effort to limit pro-Palestine speech and criticism of Israel. Prism >

The green transition will make things worse for the Indigenous world.
A new study warns that the push for renewable energy could exacerbate socioeconomic disparities among Indigenous communities. Grist >

Here’s what Kamala Harris really thinks about Israel and Gaza. Would Kamala Harris bring change or continuity to the war in Gaza? Here's how she might navigate it. Vox >

Some plant names are racist. Scientists are looking to rename them. An international group of researchers has voted to modify the scientific names of more than 200 plant species whose names carry derogatory meanings. NPR >

The world is getting hotter. Air conditioning could make it worse. The amount of electricity needed to cool homes during hot weather is creating a power demand that drives a climate mitigation paradox. Atmos >

A new Supreme Court case threatens to gut the Court’s one good trans rights decision. Republican Justice Neil Gorsuch surprised most Court watchers by supporting trans rights in Bostock v. Clayton County. We’re about to find out if he actually meant it. Vox >

Honoring James Baldwin

James Baldwin has helped shape our collective understanding of Blackness, queerness, and systemic oppression. Born on August 2, 1924, Baldwin’s work as a writer and activist still influences us to this day. Here are five of his works we recommend reading.

The Fire Next Time, 1963 

In this popular essay, Baldwin detailed his evangelical childhood and his views on the treatment and condition of Black people in America.

“Long before the Negro child perceives this difference, and even longer before he understands it, he has begun to react to it, he has begun to be controlled by it. Every effort made by the child’s elders to prepare him for a fate from which they cannot protect him causes him secretly, in terror, to begin to await, without knowing that he is doing so, his mysterious and inexorable punishment.”

No Name in the Street, 1972

 Baldwin critiques how the criminal legal system unfairly targets Black people.

“If one really wishes to know how justice is administered in a country, one does not question the policemen, the lawyers, the judges, or the protected members of the middle class. One goes to the unprotected … and listens to their testimony.”

The Creative Process, 1962 

James Baldwin included a self-reflective piece for his anthology “The Price of the Ticket: Collected Nonfiction.” In his essay “The Creative Process,” Baldwin outlines his view of the role of the artist in an inherently unjust world.

“But the conquest of the physical world is not man’s only duty. He is also enjoined to conquer the great wilderness of himself. The precise role of the artist, then, is to illuminate that darkness, blaze roads through that vast forest, so that we will not, in all our doing, lose sight of its purpose, which is, after all, to make the world a more human dwelling place.”

The Devil Finds Work, 1976

Baldwin also criticized contemporary media during his lifetime. He wrote this essay on racial depictions in American films, naming the power that stories and narratives have on our understanding of the world.

“I think it was T.S. Eliot who observed that the people cannot bear very much reality. This may be true enough, as far as it goes, so much depending on what the word ‘people’ brings to mind: I think that we bear a little more reality than we might wish. In any case, in order for a person to bear his life, he needs a valid re-creation of that life, which is why, as Ray Charles might put it, blacks choose to sing the blues.”

Nobody Knows My Name: More Notes of a Native Son, 1961

This compilation offers revised versions of his previous work and reflections on the role of Blackness in the U.S. and Europe.

“In America, the color of my skin had stood between myself and me; in Europe, that barrier was down. Nothing is more desirable than to be released from an affliction, but nothing is more frightening than to be divested of a crutch. It turned out that the question of who I was was not solved because I removed myself from the social forces which menaced me-anyway, these forces had become interior, and I had dragged them across the ocean with me. The question of who I was had at last become a personal question, and the answer was to be found in me.”

Go Tell It On the Mountain, 1953

James Baldwin also wrote fiction, the most prominent of which is “Go Tell It On the Mountain,” a semi-autobiographical novel. Through the story of its main character, teenager John Grimes, Baldwin fictionalized his own history of sexuality, race, and religion.

“John stared at Elisha all during the lesson, admiring the timbre of Elisha’s voice, much deeper and manlier than his own, admiring the leanness, and grace, and strength, and darkness of Elisha in his Sunday suit, wondering if he would ever be holy as Elisha was holy.”

Study Hall

This week, we reflect on what voting means as a political statement.

I’ve been hesitant to engage politically over the past few years. I don’t think that either party truly has our best interests at heart. Third-party candidates have never reflected my values either. And, they never have enough support to be taken seriously. I want to “not vote” as a form of political protest. But that means I take a vote away from Harris – and I want to see a Black and Asian woman become president. How do you recommend me navigate this?

Whether you choose to vote or not, little change can be made politically by simply sitting out. If you do choose not to vote, make that stance known to your peers, your colleagues, and your local, state and federal elected officials. Without that clarity, that act of protest won’t be heard. Remember that political parties hope that the people they love will support them, and the people that don’t won’t make it to the polls. Don’t let your frustration be received as apathy and marked as a win on the opposing candidate’s checklist.

Personally, I feel that the most important thing in this election is ensuring that the Republican party doesn’t get another four years. I understand that neither party has gotten it right, and our democratic system deserves an overhaul. I also know that these political parties have drastically different policies and will comprehensively change life immediately for marginalized communities in the U.S. once elected. I’m invested in harm reduction, voting for the candidate that has more tolerable politics and is more likely to create a sociopolitical container more agreeable to comprehensive change.

I want to highlight something that Dominique wrote in response to a similar question last fall:

“I'd like to pull one word from your question that caught my eye: unwavering. Democrat candidates and elected officials have received our unwavering support across local, state, and presidential elections for quite some time, often just because they're blue. The same is probably true for Republican or Independent voters. Still, no politician or government should have our unwavering support and allegiance, regardless of our shared party affiliation. We should want more from our elected officials, whether we voted for them or their opponents. We deserve more than lip service and empty campaign promises and threats that things will be worse with the other party. Democrats have been able to coast by with that last statement for way too long, just to carry out the same policies they condemned the other party for or try to appease us with smaller wins. If we were truly the democracy we pride ourselves to be, we wouldn’t be watching our elected officials use our tax money to fund the indiscriminate bombing and ethnic cleansing of a people after being told there's no money for healthcare for all, student debt relief, etc., but especially when the majority of the populace demands a ceasefire.

Our elected officials should always lean towards what is right and just and listen to the needs and demands of their constituents, not just leading up to an election or during polling. If not, they do not deserve our support, only our dissent and anger.” 

That’s all for this week! Thanks for reading. If you learned something new and want to keep this space going,

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