"Joy Is Resistance"

[justaprogressive]

Saturday night at the Beacon Theatre in New York City started out like any other stop on Ramy Youssef’s “Love Beam” tour: phones locked away in Yondr pouches, fans twitching in their seats, and Ramy delivering gentle blasphemies about love in a war-pilled world. I’m a Jersey-born Muslim, same as Youssef, and I was wedged in Row N next to an auntie who looked primed to eye-roll any haram punch line. But even she was cackling; Youssef has a way of disarming every faction in the room—Muslim aunties, ex-Catholic cynics, even the odd finance bro—by toggling from self-deprecation to sudden, sincere tenderness so fast you forget you were ever skeptical. Then, near the end of an already gushy set, Youssef paused and asked the room if he’d left anything out.
One voice from the mezzanine screamed: “Zohran!” Youssef grinned, teased the unseen heckler for missing the half-dozen nods he’d already dropped, and finally waved an arm toward the wings: “Put your hands together for Zohran Mamdani!”
The presumptive Democratic nominee for New York City mayor floated onstage still full of confidence after his stunning Tuesday-night primary victory. In that instant, I realized I was watching the handshake of arguably the two most influential Muslims in America. On a Broadway stage no less! It felt like for that brief moment, everything in the hall—the ornate statuettes, the velvet curtains, the legends of countless artists who performed here—suddenly felt like it belonged to us.
The house lights turned on as 2,800 people rose to their feet for endless applause. Mamdani soaked the moment in, then reminded everyone that his win ran not only through progressive strongholds but through districts that swung for Trump in the last election.
Youssef couldn’t help himself. He riffed about secret Muslim Trump supporters in the audience, and Mamdani talked about a Yemeni New Yorker named Yahya who’d previously voted for Trump and then had switched to endorsing him. “Shoutout to Yahya!” Mamdani said to big laughs. Youssef also urged him to be wary of islands, and to say no if he were to be inexplicably invited to one as he ascends into the realm of American politics.

snip

Any number of political consultants and advisers might tell a front-runner in Mamdani’s shoes to play it safe, to avoid anything—or anyone—the right can paint as radical. Instead, Mamdani walked onstage with a man opposition pundits insist is a “terrorist sympathizer.” Usually, candidates would listen to their handlers and consider folks like Khalil too politically toxic to support. It’s what we’ve come to expect. National Democratic leaders, like Hakeem Jeffries, seem to value caution above all else. And that’s why this gesture felt surreal and inexplicably impossible, and broadcast a seismic change in politics as usual. Mamdani continues to prove that voters (and not just Democratic ones) favor genuineness over electability.

https://archive.is/Ktl8c#selection-1553.0-1553.736

[WhiteTara]

1. he looks like a rising star

[Ping Tung]

2. Those who do not dare to offend, cannot be honest. Thomas Paine