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solarbirdRepublicans love racism and hate education so very very much, so when they can do both at once it’s a bloody bonanza! And they’ve been really going at both again over the winter.
Where do we start?
DeSantis was behind this: New Florida law blocks Chinese students from academic labs. It’s Chinese as in came themselves from China, specifically, but c’mon. Like this won’t be seen as the racist broadside it is.
Also in Republican Florida, Palestinian-American Student Expelled Over Mom’s Online Support for Gaza. Mmm, group punishment and oppression. It’s a private school, but that doesn’t really make it better, just maybe less actionable.
In Republican Texas, Prosecutors Won’t Drop Charges Against Brownsville ISD Honor Student who was arrested on bullshit charges after reporting his principal for bullying. HE’S ELEVEN YEARS OLD. ELEVEN. And for a little while, they put him in solitary, because that’s who they are. It’s the kind of sadistic horror show that wouldn’t play in a movie because it’s too bluntly evil, too stupidly, blindly cruel, and yet, here we are.
(In non-education related abuse by cops, we have Ohio prosecutors broke rules to win convictions and got away with it and 3 Tacoma police officers found not guilty in 2020 death of Manny Ellis – the latter is now being investigated by the Feds.)
Naturally, Elon Musk has been involved in attacking schools and boosting racist lies on his fascist propaganda fountain once known as Twitter, where he endorsed a tweet saying students at HBCUs – Historically Black Colleges and Universities – have very low IQ scores, far below the (white, obviously) average. He may’ve done a little walking back of that, but if he did, it’s just to cover his ass. He does this shit all the time, and uses the power of his platform to broadcast it to as many people as possible.
Over in Republican Texas, evangelicals continue their efforts to either destroy public schools or take them over as religious schools: In Texas, debate over school chaplains escalates school board culture wars. “Conservative Christian activists are hoping to turn Texas public schools into a ‘mission field.'” They’ve long seen it that way, of course.
Furor over the Ivies — and crickets about Florida addresses the right’s war against the Ivy League schools. This was written before they were able to whip up enough of a ragefest to force out Claudine Gay, but sets the stage well. The key takeaway is that this didn’t start with her and won’t end with her.
Talking of, Indiana University just suspended a tenured professor for two semesters. Officially it’s for bullshit reasons involving improper paperwork and use of a meeting room, in reality it’s in response to allowing an anti-war Israeli to speak about Palestine.
(Meanwhile, on the pro-war Israeli side, Israeli military chief rabbi-designate under fire over remarks on rape, by which they mean he said raping enemy women was basically okay, that “it was permitted [for warriors] to ‘satisfy the evil inclination by lying with attractive Gentile women against their will.’” He doesn’t deny saying it, he just says it was a “theoretical question.” Don’t fucking care, he’s still literally arguing “soldiers raping enemy women is fine.”)
To round off and give you an historical medium-read that’s not too bad, Teen Vogue once again does the heavy lifting so many US newspapers won’t, writing up how the Second Ku Klux Klan rose to prominence a century ago. As they say, it’s good background to have in times like these.
Finally, I have a few updates about anti-LGBTQ campaigns outside the US that I haven’t been able to fit in anywhere else. So given a lack of “anywhere else,” let’s get these out here:
- This is one of the way anti-LGBTQ law is used against straight people, as Russian rapper who attended ‘almost naked’ party jailed for second time. It wasn’t his New Year’s party, he was just there, but they’re making an example out of him, charging him with “Gay Propaganda” and re-charging him with something new every time he gets out.
- Burundi President calls for stoning of gay couples. While African countries had their fair share of post-Colonial-era homophobia, American evangelical groups have been encouraging it, growing it, and test-marketing anti-queer hate propaganda for decades.
- For example, in Uganda, where fundamentalist evangelical group The Family are hugely behind much of the propaganda used to whip their government into making our existence punishable by death. There’s not that much we can do, but there are measures like this: Joe Biden boots Uganda from trade deal over horrific “Kill the Gays” law. It’s not much, but it’s something that carries at least a little actual weight.
- Meanwhile in the UK, Disgusting Transphobic Labour Leader Set Upon By Disgusting Transphobes, as Terf Island shows how these purity tests have no lower limit and are eternally self-ratcheting. There’s now a conspiracy that Keir Starmer – who has been running from his previous lip-servious support for the rights of trans-people since he realised he has a shot at becoming PM – has a trans child and they’re using it to go after him. The horrible party is that he’s still better than the Tories – if he can manage somehow not to fuck this all up.
That’s it for today. Good luck out there, stay healthy, and stay warm. Things will slowly get better – but only after we win in 2024.
Posted via Solarbird{y|z|yz}, Collected.
