Apologies in advance for the phrasing of this comment.
The only thing I'm surprised about in this story is that Alabama is somehow only 27% Black and not more. (And, looking it up, Mississippi is only at 37%.)
That's the Great Migration. From 1900 to the 60s, African Americans somehow felt treated less-than-human in the South and moved to the marginally less racist and more opportunity-friendly North. This is why Chicago, Philadelphia, and my own hometown of Detroit acquired large Black populations.
Ignoring Federal court rulings they don't like was always what was next for the racist neckbeards. Only I expected it to be when a Dem majority was in charge. Which is to say in about 150 years from now. They're more ahead of schedule than the polar ice caps.
republicans have had enough, if they can’t maintain their minority hegemony they will deconstruct the entire government … at last there may be a clear choice in 2024 …
The Rockefeller Foundation did indeed get its start with this cause -- and the reason they had to do it was -- wait for it -- Southern Members of Congress denying that hookworm existed and blocking Federal efforts at eradication.
Sadly, some things never change.
OTOH, good times for the New York Times editorial page:
"Opined The New York Times on Oct. 30, 1909: The commission's work "involves producing a change of habits on the part of many thousands of people, most of them too ignorant to be anything but intensely conservative, and too weak in mind and body to welcome new ideas. This is the task that confronts Mr. Rockefeller's commission, and its accomplishment will require all the courage, persistence, and energy which they can command.""
I absolutely agree with Governor Ivey. Alabama Legislators likely know Alabamans so well they're aware how fast they'd be voted out of office if the map were actually fair.
The problem is two-tiered. The map we are talking about is for US Congressional districts. The changes you suggest (and I would certainly applaud) would have to be at the level of the state house and senate to affect those who are gerrymandering here.
AGAIN people, banjo- playing is NOT the domain of racist white people, and in fact an early version of a banjo came over from West Africa on a slsve ship. Black people introduced the banjo to North America. Period.
And the first white people who learned how to play were in the Appalahcins, taught by black musicians whom they always gave credit to.
There days there ar actually more professional banjo players in the Northeast than in the Deep South.
That bullshit in "Deliverance" did more to demean banjos players that anything else, and people should LEARN THE FUCKING TRUTH!
If you take the time to watch that movie thoughtfully, (not saying you did not) you will find the banjo-player and friends are NOT the butt of the movie. The outsiders, crashing in where they do not understand the lay of the land or the people and figure good ol' USA hubris will win the day. IOW, released in 1972, "Deliverance," like a slightly later Hollywood riverine epic was more explicitly, about Vietnam.
I agree that popular culture uses it the way you suggest, and that is unfortunate. I am guilty of it myself. But I disagree we can blame the film itself.
Years ago, I matched it up in a class with "Apocalypse Now" and the book "Huckleberry Finn." Was pretty good, I think.
Oh, and I do a unit when I teach geography on West African music traditions and how they were transplanted by African Americans in North America. The banjo and the diddly-bow and many others are featured. The kids like it.
I saw it so long ago that I cannot remember all the details, but I am not saying that the banjo-player and friends are the butt of the movie, but that that scene, and the ''squeal like a pig'' scene are the ones that I hear most referenced. And yes., I really cannot blame the film.
Buit I do feel that for some people, they never saw a scene like the banjo scene, and perhaps having been condtioned to think at some point that banjos mean hicks, that reinforced that idea.
I am glad to hear that kids you are teaching enjoy the info on the instruments comming from West Africa, One thing that this country needs much more of is knowledge of geography. I have felt fot a long time that some people in the US know less about geography that most other countries in the world.
As I heve been fascinated with road maps and routes since I was a kid, I notice that there are people who do not know the difference in Interstates, US highways,, and state highways. There's a big diffreernce in location between I-20 and US 20.
Some of the people that make signs don't even get it. In my town in NY state there is a sign with a US shield that should be a NY state shield, and it annoys me every time I see it, especially as we have never had a US highway in my own.
If anyone asked me which routes to take to most major cities (and some small ones) I could tell them exactly how to get there,
And in the past (when I had a car), I might be somewhere I had never been, I could just pick up the road map, zero in to the area I was in, and know immediately where I was in seconds. I would not look at where Amarillo is, when I was closer to Brownsville.
I love teaching geography, even though we give that to freshmen in my school. A tough crowd sometimes, but such kids!
I do love maps, and have reproductions of antique ones on my walls. I especially love those 16th-17th century cityscapes, I have a volume of Matthäus Merian (early 17th c.) ones that are really cool.
I am only an amateur musician, but I got into it for the blues originally and love inflicting it on my students!
The harsh solution is to withhold Federal funds till the dumb fucks comply. The problem is there are a lot of folks who depend on Federal money who don't deserve to get fucked over.
Alabama, the Ohio of the south. Ouch.
Hey if republicans can ignore this illegitimate court, why can’t democrats ?
Damn, I was told my omelets suck, so I cracked the fifth egg first.
Apologies in advance for the phrasing of this comment.
The only thing I'm surprised about in this story is that Alabama is somehow only 27% Black and not more. (And, looking it up, Mississippi is only at 37%.)
That's the Great Migration. From 1900 to the 60s, African Americans somehow felt treated less-than-human in the South and moved to the marginally less racist and more opportunity-friendly North. This is why Chicago, Philadelphia, and my own hometown of Detroit acquired large Black populations.
They've always been of the opinion that for them laws are only to be followed when they want to follow them.
God DAMN it feels like this country is sliding backwards.
Yep. All the progress that’s been made since the 60s is being very quickly erased by republican extremism
Wait so states can ignore SCOTUS rulings now? Sweeet
Impeach Earl Warren! This is nothing new for Alabama. Governors threatened to ignore federal courts in the '60s, though they did not stick to it.
Ignoring Federal court rulings they don't like was always what was next for the racist neckbeards. Only I expected it to be when a Dem majority was in charge. Which is to say in about 150 years from now. They're more ahead of schedule than the polar ice caps.
republicans have had enough, if they can’t maintain their minority hegemony they will deconstruct the entire government … at last there may be a clear choice in 2024 …
You would think that Alabamans would realize what a low-rent shithole their state is and vote the GQP out.
But I guess "Racism Uber Alles" is the State song.
"You would think that Alabamans would realize what a low-rent shithole their state is and vote the GQP out."
Alabama was one of those states that resisted the effort to eradicate hookworm -- and hookworm infections can lead to negative cognitive outcomes.
https://www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/article/how-a-worm-gave-the-south-a-bad-name/
If a third of your population was once infected, and you still haven't shaken that off...you just might make a lot of bad decisions.
Even now, Alabama has a hookworm issue, and they're not going to do a thing to fix the problem.
https://www.npr.org/sections/goatsandsoda/2017/09/12/550387650/the-u-s-thought-it-was-rid-of-hookworm-wrong
Slightly awkward for the lefties, since the hookworm eradication was paid for and driven by . . . John D Rockefeller.
Fun and true fact from the past: when Southerners were described as 'slack-jawed,' that was a symptom of the worm.
The Rockefeller Foundation did indeed get its start with this cause -- and the reason they had to do it was -- wait for it -- Southern Members of Congress denying that hookworm existed and blocking Federal efforts at eradication.
Sadly, some things never change.
OTOH, good times for the New York Times editorial page:
"Opined The New York Times on Oct. 30, 1909: The commission's work "involves producing a change of habits on the part of many thousands of people, most of them too ignorant to be anything but intensely conservative, and too weak in mind and body to welcome new ideas. This is the task that confronts Mr. Rockefeller's commission, and its accomplishment will require all the courage, persistence, and energy which they can command.""
https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/lifestyle/wellness/1992/06/30/hookworms-strange-history/3457d2b9-3c08-4f33-8254-5c001dc36f8e/
"too ignorant to be anything but intensely conservative" is how I describe modern day Repubs as well.
Isn’t ivermectin a treatment for that?
Isn’t that wingnuts medication of choice?
They're proud of it. Always have been.
Jesus. The sheer cynical audacity of these fuckholes.
I absolutely agree with Governor Ivey. Alabama Legislators likely know Alabamans so well they're aware how fast they'd be voted out of office if the map were actually fair.
Like what happened Iin Michigan when Whitmer unngerrymandered the maps
The problem is two-tiered. The map we are talking about is for US Congressional districts. The changes you suggest (and I would certainly applaud) would have to be at the level of the state house and senate to affect those who are gerrymandering here.
Banjos playing through the broken glass
That sounds like an alternative final quote for Roy Batty.
It's Neil Young
https://youtu.be/d1neNOmxGAc
Love Neil Young!
Or Ned Beatty
Oh, sweet intertextuality!
AGAIN people, banjo- playing is NOT the domain of racist white people, and in fact an early version of a banjo came over from West Africa on a slsve ship. Black people introduced the banjo to North America. Period.
And the first white people who learned how to play were in the Appalahcins, taught by black musicians whom they always gave credit to.
There days there ar actually more professional banjo players in the Northeast than in the Deep South.
That bullshit in "Deliverance" did more to demean banjos players that anything else, and people should LEARN THE FUCKING TRUTH!
If you take the time to watch that movie thoughtfully, (not saying you did not) you will find the banjo-player and friends are NOT the butt of the movie. The outsiders, crashing in where they do not understand the lay of the land or the people and figure good ol' USA hubris will win the day. IOW, released in 1972, "Deliverance," like a slightly later Hollywood riverine epic was more explicitly, about Vietnam.
I agree that popular culture uses it the way you suggest, and that is unfortunate. I am guilty of it myself. But I disagree we can blame the film itself.
Years ago, I matched it up in a class with "Apocalypse Now" and the book "Huckleberry Finn." Was pretty good, I think.
Oh, and I do a unit when I teach geography on West African music traditions and how they were transplanted by African Americans in North America. The banjo and the diddly-bow and many others are featured. The kids like it.
I saw it so long ago that I cannot remember all the details, but I am not saying that the banjo-player and friends are the butt of the movie, but that that scene, and the ''squeal like a pig'' scene are the ones that I hear most referenced. And yes., I really cannot blame the film.
Buit I do feel that for some people, they never saw a scene like the banjo scene, and perhaps having been condtioned to think at some point that banjos mean hicks, that reinforced that idea.
I am glad to hear that kids you are teaching enjoy the info on the instruments comming from West Africa, One thing that this country needs much more of is knowledge of geography. I have felt fot a long time that some people in the US know less about geography that most other countries in the world.
As I heve been fascinated with road maps and routes since I was a kid, I notice that there are people who do not know the difference in Interstates, US highways,, and state highways. There's a big diffreernce in location between I-20 and US 20.
Some of the people that make signs don't even get it. In my town in NY state there is a sign with a US shield that should be a NY state shield, and it annoys me every time I see it, especially as we have never had a US highway in my own.
If anyone asked me which routes to take to most major cities (and some small ones) I could tell them exactly how to get there,
And in the past (when I had a car), I might be somewhere I had never been, I could just pick up the road map, zero in to the area I was in, and know immediately where I was in seconds. I would not look at where Amarillo is, when I was closer to Brownsville.
All because of geogpahy!
I love teaching geography, even though we give that to freshmen in my school. A tough crowd sometimes, but such kids!
I do love maps, and have reproductions of antique ones on my walls. I especially love those 16th-17th century cityscapes, I have a volume of Matthäus Merian (early 17th c.) ones that are really cool.
I am only an amateur musician, but I got into it for the blues originally and love inflicting it on my students!
I love good bluegrass music.
And yes I know the banjo originated in Africa
The harsh solution is to withhold Federal funds till the dumb fucks comply. The problem is there are a lot of folks who depend on Federal money who don't deserve to get fucked over.
Or DoJ goes in to enforce the law "with extreme prejudice." Recall, Ike sent the 82nd Airborne to Little Rock to enforce court orders.
POOP!
Angry.