“Freedom is Slavery”
Orwell came to mind this morning.
In the grand scheme of things, the following story does not rank as high as things like damaging the Atlantic alliance, helping Russia kill Ukrainians, or, say, tanking the stock market on the way to a wholly man-made recession of choice.
But, the title quote from Orwell’s 1984 came to mind when I heard a story on NPR this morning that the Mayor of DC has been bullied by Republicans in Congress to dismantle Black Lives Matter Plaza. They want to rename it “Liberty Plaza.”
It just struck me as the opposite of liberty to threaten the city with the withholding of funds unless the city did what some members of the House wanted them to do. The bill in question was HR 1774.
Fox News reports: DC to begin reconstructing Black Lives Matter Plaza.
[DC Mayor Muriel] Bowser said she does not support H.R. 1774, a bill introduced last week by Rep. Andrew Clyde, R-Ga., that aims to “withhold certain apportionment funds from the District of Columbia unless the Mayor of the District of Columbia removes the phrase Black Lives Matter from the street symbolically designated as Black Lives Matter Plaza, redesignates such street as Liberty Plaza, and removes such phrase from each website, document, and other material under the jurisdiction of the District of Columbia.”
More from the AP, ‘More than brick and mortar:’ DC begins removing ‘Black Lives Matter’ plaza near the White House.
The far right celebrated the shift online, with conservative provocateur Charlie Kirk visiting the site to hail, “the end of this mass race hysteria in our country.”
In Trump’s second term, Bowser has worked to avoid conflict and downplay any points of contention. She traveled to Mar-a-Lago in Florida to meet with Trump after the election and has publicly emphasized their points of agreement.
Trump recently revived a frequent campaign talking point about wanting a federal “takeover” of the nation’s capital, describing Washington as being riddled with crime, graffiti and homeless encampments. Bowser has refused to comment on reports that the White House is preparing an executive order targeting Washington. She publicly said that the greatest threat to the so-called Home Rule autonomy was “some of the people in Congress.”
Congressional Republicans have repeatedly threatened to interfere in city affairs in large and small ways. A measure currently before Congress, named the BOWSER Act, seeks to completely revoke the Home Rule Act of 1973, which grants the capital city limited autonomy.
It is all bullying, plain and simple. It certainly isn’t about liberty (let alone about respect or local autonomy). The taunting of the Mayor by renaming the bill also speaks to the bullying nature of the process.
Some will, no doubt, say that the Democrats started all of this renaming business by taking Confederate names off of roads and buildings. Or, to be even more crude about it, to the victors go the spoils. But do I really have to note that Jefferson Davis led a rebellion against the US Constitution in the name of upholding chattel slavery while Black Lives Matter is a slogan that suggests that maybe being killed because of one’s skin color is unjust? For a little reminder, please see my post, Thinking about the Injustice that Feeds the Flame from May of 2020.
Of course, all of this is a reminder that many people in the GOP don’t want to acknowledge the past. This is part of the anti-DEI crusade that appears to boil down to wanting to utterly ignore any kind of racial inequity in the country and to return to the kind of colorblindness that is blind to history, justice, and inequity. It is a movement whose leader talks about “merit” while elevating Pete Hegseth to run the Defense Department but firing C. Q. Brown from his job as Chairman of the JCS only to replace him with a demonstrably less qualified white guy.
But, of course, this reminds me of another Orwell quote: “Who controls the past controls the future. Who controls the present controls the past.”
And yes, I get that there is an ongoing struggle about what parts of the past to extol and which to ignore, but I will simply note that erasing the words “Black Lives Matter” from the streets of DC is an attempt to bury the past, not to educate or learn.
And if we need another illustration of what many of the right in our politics want to do as it pertains very specifically to the recent past, note the following.
That’s right: Ben Shapiro thinks that Derrick Chauvin (one can find the video, which I have watched, if one wishes), who was convicted of murdering George Floyd, should be pardoned. And Elon Musk agrees.
Some will think that all of this is not worth any attention. And I will confess, I am somewhat at a loss as to what to focus on in the current moment. I fully recognize that my scribblings here have little consequence. But, in my own way, I think that chronicling all of this has some value. At a minimum, it helps me thing through some of this.*
Taken in a vacuum, the renaming of Black Lives Matter Plaza would be a clearly political, and to me objectionable, act. But this isn’t taking place in a vacuum. This is part of the white nationalism that has overtaken the Republican Party and now controls the government. It is part of a broader authoritarian project to bring more to the fore the type of white (and male) dominance that used to be central to our politics and society. If anyone needs a reminder about how “DEI” is used by this administration and its allies, I point back to the immediate aftermath of the plane crash over the Potomac (see here). Or, for that matter, the Baltimore bridge crash last year. Whenever people blame “DEI,” what they are doing is saying, “If a non-white person was involved, it is because we didn’t do merit hires.” Which, ultimately, means that whites are obviously better than non-whites. (Because, you know, whites are the norm!).**
Now, whether talking about all of this is pointless or not, I leave to the readers.
A small additional observation: the work in BLM Plaza costs money, and it is clearly not the more efficient expenditure of resources by the city. Given the GOP’s alleged mania for “efficiency” and cost-cutting, this seems worth noting.
*There is a broader conversation to be had about how to react to the current administration. But this post is already way longer than I thought it would be.
**Let me note that most people don’t really know exactly what DEI is, and I am using the term here the way it is used in popular parlance. I think that in the whole “merit” conversation, it is synonymous with “affirmative action hire” as was used in the past. And the way CRT was used, briefly before DEI took over at the bogeyest of bogeymen.
IMO it goes further, assuming or implying that non-whites are good for nothing, or for very little like unskilled jobs.
I forget which GQP person said of Harris that Biden had pledged to hire a black woman, and therefore you could expect mediocrity. The assumption is that no black woman can possibly be an adequate VP, ever.
Just a reminder of this quote from Rufo, one of the thought leaders who organized opposition to CRT and then DEI.
“We have successfully frozen their brand — ‘critical race theory’ — into the public conversation and are steadily driving up negative perceptions. We will eventually turn it toxic, as we put all of the various cultural insanities under that brand category,” he wrote. “The goal is to have the public read something crazy in the newspaper and immediately think ‘critical race theory.’ We have decodified the term and will recodify it to annex the entire range of cultural constructions that are unpopular with Americans.”
In my mind this is very much akin to the kinds of claims like Haitians eat cats or schools have letterboxes for furries. There was an orchestrated campaign, largely based upon lies and exaggerations against CRT and DEI. CRT largely didnt really exist in schools. DEI idiot really lead to millions of white men losing jobs.
That leads to the wanting to pardon Chauvin. If I had to bet I would bet Trump does it. It’s pretty clear he wants to own the libs and that would go a long way. For those unaware there have been at least a couple of conservative movies made claiming Chauvin was innocent. I am most familiar with the Fall Of Minneapolis and for those interested Balko did a nice series on it in which he enlisted the help of a broad range of legal and medical expertise. As a physician with lots fo critical care experience and managing acute physiology and understanding airway and pulmonary issues I was just appalled at the awful kind of evidence that they offered. Positional asphyxia, what killed Floyd, has been known about for many years. I guess it wasn’t surprising that the medical expert they got for the film was a nurse with no apparent experience or expertise related to the issue.
They also perseverated over drug levels while practicing physicians know that a drug level out of context is meaningless. We routinely had people walk into our ED in no distress with higher drug levels than Floyd had. Heck, many of our cancer pts have higher levels. Drug tolerance is well known, unless you decide to make films for conservatives. Anyway, I could write about this a lot more and make another too long comment so will stop there.
Steve
Well, the felon can pardon Chauvin for the Federal hate crime, but it won’t get him out of jail any sooner, since he was convicted of murder in a state court.
Arbeit macht frei
Chauvin could end up spending a couple of years’ less time in prison if he gets a federal pardon. As reported by CNN:
Chauvin literally murdered Floyd. Kneeled on his chest until he died. Utter disregard. Flat-out murder.
I lived in Minneapolis a big portion of my life. Mpls cops, as a rule, suck big time. The expectation is that they will be a thumper and an asshole. It’s systematically baked in. They train it. You’re lucky if you go through an encounter with a Minneapolis cop and don’t end up in the ER. Or you’re white.
And it’s been a problem for literal decades. 1980s were way worse. I’m white, so I was mostly spared.
A few weeks ago, a report about the removal of DEI materials from a high school included the removal of posters featuring George Washington Carver and Harriett Tubman. I can think of no history that would not consider both of these Americans as notable in American history without regard to the color of their skin – although achieving what they did while black is its own heroism. This is literally erasing these people, not because what they did was not notable, but because they are black.
The most important requirement to be a MAGA in good standing is the willingness to lie; to believe a lie, and to repeat it enthusiastically and performatively, and the more absurd the lie, the more it becomes a litmus test of loyalty.
Ben Shapiro and Charlie Kirk seem to be the same guy…a “look at me” meathead who (remarkably) makes a living as a right wing troll. No decent person would argue for pardoning Derek Chauvin – a sadistic murderer with a badge who is where he belongs. Shapiro/Kirk cheered the pardons of the J-6 thugs who attacked cops, and now Shapiro calls for a sick POS cop to be pardoned for murdering a civilian. Looks like the right wing trolls favor violence regardless of who the victim happens to be.
It’s about more than refusing to acknowledge the past. They want to re-establish racial segregation.
Think back the hundred years…I mean, six weeks since the inauguration. What was the first executive order Trump signed? The one that revoked LBJ’s EO prohibiting companies contracting with the federal government from racist hiring practices. He went back over 60 fucking years to undo an anti-discrimination executive order.
Then the purge of anyone in government who had even touched anything related to DEI, as if they were somehow rendered unclean by having done so.
Adam Serwer wrote a piece titled “The Great Resegregation” for The Atlantic:
That’s what garbage like this is all about.
@Mikey:
A reminder that one of the motivations in the development of CRT was specifically to address the failures of the Civil Rights Movement.
Which is precisely by design. There is just such an enormous river of sh!t flowing everywhere that people don’t know where to focus. And, we’re been gaslit by every Republican elected official.
There’s the serious stuff (jerking Ukraine around, destroying NATO, destroying the relationship with our allies, aligning with Russia, and tanking the economy with tariffs), and the less-serious-but-we-look-like-idiots stuff (51st state stupidity, invading Greenland). Then we have the dismantling of the government, and deporting legal residents because Trump doesn’t like what they are saying (violation of the first amendment by the “free speech” crowd).
I’m overwhelmed, and realize THAT’S THE INTENT. But it also serves to make it feel like the Democrats are doing nothing, because the institutional responses (e.g., court filings) are spread so thinly.
Yes, Steven, this matters. It matters because:
1. The “DEI” banner is a smokescreen for hiring politically friendly, but less competent people. Less competent people means less effective, and weaken us as a nation. Which is exactly what the claim against “DEI” is.
2. Minorities – first trans people, now people of color – are the canaries in the coal mine. The people who do this will trample on anyone who gets in their way, regardless of race, gender, religious affiliation. They will of course find some pretext to label any offender as “olther”. But they go for the easy targets first, because they are bullies.
And this is unhealthy, because it prioritizes political reliability over competence. Which also results in prioritizing lies over truth. The result is that you create a culture where lying to your boss is kind of expected, as long as it is the right kind of lie. All of this is very bad for a society.
@Joe:
Sure. But that’s the point; isn’t it?
ETA: “Looks like the right wing trolls favor violence regardless of who the victim happens to be.”
Again, no argument from the cracker barrel.
@Joe: I’m not convinced that George Washington Carver is all that notable other than being a black guy named George Washington who did something. He filled a slot of non-controversial Black historical figure.
Certainly when I learned about him in grade school, he was presented as “the guy with the peanuts that we have to talk about because no other black did anything of note and our textbooks hadn’t been updated in decades.”
Harriet Tubman was mentioned, and we were supposed the read some Fredrick Douglas (the entire “primary sources” push seemed designed to make history less accessible by making the first introduction to ideas be written in boring 1800s style).
George Washington Carver was the DEI hire historical figure in the worst possible way.
FWIW, I agree.
This is bound to be one of the most significant inflection points in our history.
Chronicle the f out of it.
@Gustopher: Well, I just read George Carver’s wikipedia page and dang if I’m not impressed with that guy.
The challenge is to get across that thing that impresses an old white guy like me to a 10 year old. Yeah, it can sound a lot like tokenism.
But George Carver has a list of accomplishments that far outshines me, and I have all the credentials one might ask for. He figured out something to do that mattered, and it mattered a lot. A real impact player, was George Carver. (He never referred to himself as George Washington Carver, it seems.)
@Jay L Gischer: He’s worthy of a Wikipedia page, but I don’t think he would get any classroom time if it wasn’t Black history month and they weren’t trying to fill time without bringing up Malcolm X.
Even as scientists/engineers go, he pales against folks like (the white, and thus ineligible to fill that time) Thomas Midgely — inventor of leaded gasoline and CFCs. Midgely is more of a warning than an aspirational figure, granted. We are so lucky Midgely got polio, and then strangled himself in a pulley system he devised to make it easier to care for him (ruled a suicide, but he’s such a poster child for unintended consequences some people doubt that)
I guess you have to give this one as a point for polio — Midgely living long enough to have a third “great” invention would have been bad.
I think it’s worth noting that after the Nov 2024 elections, there are seven state legislative chambers where 50% or more of the members are women. All of them are in western states. A one-seat change in the Washington House would make it eight. In three states, 50% or more of total legislators are women: CO, NM, and NV. These are modest gains in the West from two years earlier.
The real dystopia isn’t a jack boot stamping on a human face forever, it’s a Birkenstock lightly tapping your cheek once in a while to remind you to be nice to fellow humans and to not be an asshole.
Imagine!
@Gustopher: You said: He’s worthy of a Wikipedia page, but I don’t think he would get any classroom time if it wasn’t Black history month
Isn’t this the exact reason we have Black History Month? Aren’t there very clear reasons why, as in evidence by George Carver’s bio, black people were not generally on the forefront of science for a long time? Not because of talent or desire, but because of exclusion?
We all have rankings in our head for what’s “important” in school and what isn’t. There is far more stuff that somebody ranks as “important” than can be covered. Wouldn’t it be ok to explore somebody else’s high-ranked topics for at least a little bit?
@Mikey:
And yet my (now former) friend who is Black and Republican is cheering this administration on because he is so upset about the existence of trans people.
Does he know that he is a DEI hire in MAGA eyes? He does not. I wonder if he knows what happened to the members of the pro-Nazi organization the Association of German National Jews?
Oops. Accidental Double click.