Today’s post is prompted by this tweet and the accompanying article:
How colonialism and racism explain the inept US response to Hurricane Maria https://t.co/EioxarIQ5j
— Vox (@voxdotcom) October 9, 2017
Too many of us were educated in a system that shies away from words like colonialism, imperialism, or racism when talking about our country. And yet, the evidence is readily available if one is willing to look. Today, we’re looking.
Our colonial acquisitions were typically portrayed as unruly children needing our care.
Kindly Uncle Sam will take care of the poor, beleaguered children.
Anti-imperialism voices existed…
…but they were often drowned out by jingoism and white supremacy.
Anti-imperialists pulled no punches…
…but “American exceptionalism” prevailed as a point of pride.
So when we see things like this…
FEMA director: ‘We filtered out’ San Juan mayor ‘a long time ago’ https://t.co/aZ75p85kgf pic.twitter.com/MwvZNXWeY8
— POLITICO (@politico) October 8, 2017
…or this…
Don’t forget this moment. When #PuertoRico was crying out for help Trump took to Twitter to blame the victims of the disaster. pic.twitter.com/j9BT3JRx28
— Nick Walden Poublon (@NWPinPDX) October 8, 2017
…or this…
Trump mocking a Spanish accent when he says Puerto Rico is gross. Let it end. pic.twitter.com/2QRRCdE100
— deray mckesson (@deray) October 7, 2017
…it’s an undeniable part of who we’ve been and who we are, BUT not who we have to be.
In record time, an Almost Like Praying music video.
Watch, enjoy, and DONATE: https://t.co/RzM7fnYpQq— Lin-Manuel Miranda (@Lin_Manuel) October 6, 2017
Good morning, Pond Dwellers and thanks, DiReMi for the double, different posts. I just can’t get over the way Puerto Rico has been treated…from FEMA ignoring the mayor’s tweets to the POS mocking themnwith a phony accent. How can the decent remain so complacent and do nothing? It breaks my heart to see this.
It also breaks my heart to see the fire storms in California and know that we probably won’t get any assistance because “democratic voting state like PR”. Also, while we burn, he’s challenging Tillerson to an IQ test. Really.
50 degrees out with an afternoon high of 83. A great week for walking puppies and getting outside. Now? Let there be coffee.
I hadn’t planned on different posts, but DK5 struck again. The minute I use graphics that don’t fit their pre-determined scale, it becomes impossible to lay out neatly (for me…I suppose someone with more computer savvy could figure it out).
The firestorms in CA are hard for me to wrap my head around; as a Midwesterner through and through, I just can’t envision them. But what I can envision is the devastating impact of fire. When I was a little kid, a lumberyard near my grandmother’s house went up in flames, and I remember walking with my parents to watch the firefighters work on containing it. I was terrified by it and was sure we were going to die; my poor parents hadn’t anticipated that reaction and felt terrible for taking me along, even though we stayed several blocks away. There was just something so alive about the fire that I’ll never forget the unpredictable power that I felt.
Someone else may have a better suggestion but I simply plan to center every graphic. The align left or right options are a snare and a delusion. :)
Thank you for the wonderful diary here, I will hop over to DK in a sec. But this one is outstanding, so Imma tweet it. :)
I’ll have to pay better attention next time I try a post at DK; I’m embarrassed to admit I don’t remember seeing the align options. This is the point where I usually tell my family that it’s a good thing I’m cute…!
Good morning and thank you DoReMI for the different perspectives. We need courage as well to discuss PR and keep it in the news when everyone seems to be trying to get it to “go away”.
{{{DoReMI}}} – Seriously thank you for the double duty. From the Puritans who came here not for religious freedom but for the freedom to force their rigid white-male-dominance religion on everybody else to the resurgence of the White Male Supremacists today, there has always been a strain of this evil in America. They have never been the majority but by the simple expedient of making White Male Supremacist propaganda both the religious and the educational information in this country they’ve frequently gotten the majority of votes.
This is slowly changing. Too slowly for the lives, health, and well being of all people of color and women of any color in this nation. And we’ve just has about the most severe backlash/setback the country has known combined with the most severe national emergencies that require the opposite. But we will persist, resist, block, push back – and recover from this Evil to go forward again. {{{Moose Village}}}
DoReMI, did you see this article in Slate about the Insular Cases that are the underpinnings of the current attitude towards Puerto Rico? I found it fascinating:
This needs to be fixed. When Democrats take back Congress and the White House, we need to remedy this vestige of our racist past.
(By the way, you (and the other Village authors) can remove the “It Takes A Village” from your titles so that they are more to your topic and less housekeeping. The Category does a fine job of identifying it!)
The language used in the court opinions of the Insular Cases is horrifying. (I hadn’t seen the Slate article [thank you!], but read through some of the case language prior to posting this.) To some extent, I agree with the viewpoint that we can’t use a 21st century lens to judge earlier times, but I firmly believe we can use our 21st century sensibilities to correct the wrongs of the past. Obviously, the problem we have currently is that too many people currently in power want to maintain or go back to those old ideas, rather than leaning into the arc of justice and equality.
And thanks for the tip about shortening the title; now I just have to remember to click the Village box (I had to go back this morning, because I initially forgot!)