damnedifIknow
damnedifIknow's JournalThe Confederacy was the Islamic State of Its Time
If ever a cause was unworthy, that cause was the US Confederacy. If ever a cause was righteously defeated, it was the cause of the US Confederacy. And if ever a flag was and is an insult to human decency and dignity, it is the US Confederate flag.
The mere fact this is still being debated in the United States, the fact there are those who continue to accord a nobility, valor, and romanticism to the Confederacy – regarded wistfully as the ‘Lost Cause’ by its adherhents – this is evidence of the deep polarization that divides a society yet to fully come to terms with its legacy of slavery, racial oppression, and barbarism."
*Racial oppression, whether delivered from the gun of a mass murderer in a South Carolinian church, or the gun of a police officer, has yet to be expunged in the land of the free, even though 150 years have passed since the Confederacy was defeated in battle.
*The end of Reconstruction in 1877, and the withdrawal of federal troops from states such as South Carolina, resulted in the plight of blacks in said states suffering a sharp reverse. The Klu Klux Klan’s influence and power as America’s first terrorist organization instantly made its presence felt, measured in the rise and entrenchment of white supremacy as a state and culture of segregation returned across the South. Blacks were lynched, murdered, and tortured with impunity from then on, and their status as second-class citizens entrenched.
This mindset remains a fact of life not just across the South but also across the United States, carried in the hearts and minds of right wing Republicans and a reactionary media that on a daily and nightly basis whips up divisions and spews prejudice and racial stereotypes with blithe disregard for common decency.
By far the most compelling evidence of this culture of racial prejudice, however, has been the treatment of the nation’s first black president, Barack Obama, since he entered the White House in 2009. Never has a US President been subjected to such a sustained campaign of demonization and hate as he has.
*There was nothing noble or romantic about the Confederacy, and its defeat marked a victory for human progress."
http://www.counterpunch.org/2015/06/30/the-confederacy-was-the-islamic-state-of-its-time/
Openly transgender swimmer at Harvard believed to be a first
CAMBRIDGE, Mass. (AP) — Schuyler Bailar was a star recruit for the women’s swimming team at Harvard University, a tough competitor with a shot at winning titles. But Bailar is opting to forgo such honors to join the men’s team instead, competing as the first openly transgender swimmer in the NCAA.
“It’s half terrifying and half exciting,” said Bailar, a 19-year-old from McLean, Virginia. “I’m just kind of embracing it with open arms.”
Bailar, an incoming freshman, came out as transgender this year after already being recruited for the women’s team. Initially he planned to stay on that team but had mixed feelings about it — he wanted to swim, but he also wanted to embrace his identity."
The Harvard women’s coach saw that Bailar was torn and helped orchestrate another option: In a surprise move, the university offered Bailar a spot on either the men’s or women’s team.
“I was blown away,” Bailar said. “I had no idea how to respond.”
“I just want to be a boy,” he remembers thinking. “I can’t live this in-between thing anymore.”
By then, men’s coach Kevin Tyrrell had already gathered the team to talk about adding Bailar.
“We talked about how we’re all about character and values, and I kind of gave my two cents: If we’re going to say that we care about others, then this is something we should consider,” Tyrrell said. “And basically all the guys said, within 15 seconds, ‘Yeah, let’s do it.'”
http://college.usatoday.com/2015/06/30/first-transgender-swimmer-at-harvard/
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