People are still reeling from Beyonce’s Juneteenth drop, coronavirus cases are increasing as states reopen, and protests continue. Highlights: What is owed, Arthur Jafa’s “Love Is the Message, The Message Is Death,” the future of bail funds, James Baldwin and Nikki Giovanni, Elijah McClain, the Church of White Guilt, Ahmad Erakat, DC statehood, maybe it’s fireworks, and studying pandemic distractions.
1. New York Times: What is Owed
Black people are owed a lot of shit from this country. For centuries, the US and its white supremacist principles have been oppressing and stealing from Black people. This happens in many different ways, and “while unchecked discrimination still plays a significant role in shunting opportunities for black Americans, it is white Americans’ centuries-long economic head start that most effectively maintains racial caste today. As soon as laws began to ban racial discrimination against black Americans, white Americans created so-called race-neutral means of maintaining political and economic power.” This history is deep, and “when it comes to truly explaining racial injustice in this country, the table should never be set quickly: There is too much to know, and yet we aggressively choose not to know it.” Nikole Hannah-Jones explains the history of today, and that “if we are truly at the precipice of a transformative moment, the most tragic of outcomes would be that the demand be too timid and the resolution too small. If we are indeed serious about creating a more just society, we must go much further than that. We must get to the root of it.”