Category Archives: Government Oppression

Hank Edmondson| Augusta Chronicle

Hank Edmondson is a Professor of Political Science & Public Administration atGeorgia College.

The stunning success of the Atlanta Braves in the 2021 World Series has generated a great deal of excitement in the state and beyond.

The most recent World Series has also provided an opportunity for some to again allege that Georgia is a racist state, in this instance because of the crowd-pleasing tomahawk chop. Native American leaders seem to be divided on the chop but at least one has noted that it is the least of his worries. He has a point: If the chop were stopped tomorrow, its doubtful that it would do anything to alleviate the high unemployment, low education levels, high crime rates, high addiction rates and hopelessness among Native Americans.

This raises another point, namely, the problem of symbolic justice, or, as it is often called virtue signaling. Too many of us seem to be satisfied if we look like we are addressing problems, rather than actually doing something about injustice. Its nice that with no more effort than using a smartphone to donate money or retweet an angry remark that we can change the world. Except that we cant.

Related: Interior seeks to remove derogatory place names that perpetuate 'legacies of oppression'

Native Americans dont have the political representation in Washington that other minorities enjoy. However, there is the Bureau of Indian. Affairs and recently their political presence has been growing.Deb Haaland, a native of New Mexico and a member of the Laguna Pueblo Tribe, is the new Secretary of the Interior; and, as of the 2020 elections, there are now five Native Americans in the U.S. Congress.

Even more significantly, Native American now have a friend on the Supreme Court, Trump-appointee Neil Gorsuch. Gorsuch is a westerner, whose home is in Boulder, Co. and, prior to jointing the Supreme Court, he was on the 10th Circuit Court of Appeals located in Denver. Hes already made an impact in several court cases, in this instance, McGirt v. Oklahoma.

Gorsuch opens his opinion in this way:

On the far end of the Trail of Tears was a promise. Forced to leave their ancestral lands in Georgia and Alabama, the Creek Nation received assurances that their new lands in the West would be secure forever.

The Trail of Tears involved 60,000 Creeks, Cherokees and Seminolesand Choctaws who were forcibly removed to the area that is now Oklahoma, despite a desperate appeal by a group of Georgia Cherokees to the Supreme Court. Thousands died of disease, exposure and hunger on the trek.

The Constitution says almost nothing about Native Americans only a phrase in Article I, Section 8 giving Congress the power to regulate commerce . . . with the Indian Tribes. This has been interpreted to give Native Americans a special relationship with the federal government, a relationship that may supersede state authority.

Thats what is at issue in McGirt. Jimcy McGirt, a Creek Indian, is no ones hero. He was convicted in 1997 and sentenced to two 500 year sentences for sex crimes. But McGirt appealed saying he should have been tried in a tribal or state court because the crime occurred on tribal land. The Supreme Court agreed and vacated his conviction. McGirt wassubsequently charged in the United States District Court for the Eastern District of Oklahoma.

But the Court decision is far more reaching than just McGirt, as these things sometimes go. It decided that about a third of Oklahoma, including Tulsa, given to Native Americans at the end of the Trail of Tears, is indeed still tribal land.

What does all of this mean? In Oklahoma, it means that Cherokee, Chickasaw, Creek and Choctaw nationswill exercise much more jurisdiction in criminal law, civil law and other ordinances. The Governor of Oklahoma, Kevin Stitts, himself a member of the Cherokee Nation, complains that this is creating chaos in the state. Representatives of the tribes respond, yes, there is a lot to work to do, but if the state of Oklahoma will cooperate, it all can be resolved. Nonetheless, Oklahoma is begging the Supreme Court to immediately reconsider the case and overrule the decision.

The most important thing about all of this is that more cases are likely to be appealed to the Supreme Court on behalf of Native Americans. Two are already on this years docket, one involving questions of jurisdiction. If nothing else, the country is hearing more about the lives of Americans who has suffered a great deal. And perhaps that will inspire those concerned about a historically oppressed minority to do more than tweet.

One last point: it is now, of course, the Cleveland Guardians, not the Cleveland Indians. We can only hope that the name change will bring better conditions to Native Americanreservations, but dont hold your breath.

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Jimcy McGirt and the Tomahawk Chop - The Augusta Chronicle

International Brigade Against Apartheid: Secrets of the Peoples War That Liberated South AfricaEdited by Ronnie Kasrils with Muff Andersson and Oscar MarleynJacanda Media 16.95

THIS extraordinary book brings together an amazing range of inspiring stories of international solidarity.

This was the unshakeable bedrock of the struggle, in the words of ANC leader Oliver Tambo, international solidarity that so firmly rejected apartheid and race oppression.

This was solidarity as an act of unity between allies, part of wider struggles for liberation in every continent where humanity yearns for justice, freedom, equality and a safe, eco-friendly world.

As Ronnie Kasrils, retired struggle veteran and former government minister, explains, the title of this remarkable book consists of two independent entities: open advocacy entailing peaceful active solidarity; the other clandestine and linked to armed struggle.

Between them these sections offer a range of different accounts. But each contributes to the overall struggle, in their own way according to their own particular abilities and circumstances, the internationals who worked underground within apartheid South Africa and the internationals in the front-line states who provided them with essential back up, the anti-apartheid activists across the globe and those who supported them from within governments and the UN.

One of the particularly striking features of the book is its emphasis on the roles of Black Internationals. Their extraordinary contributions have been relatively less well recognisedin the past. But this was teamwork of the highest order. White and Black Internationals were mutually interdependent, even if they couldnt actually meet in person, for reasons of security.

The dangers were ever present, both inside South Africa and outside its borders, in the front-line states where black and white activists both risked being murdered by the forces of the apartheid state.

Part one goes on to provide 34 accounts of amazing courage and determination. Some of these stories may already be familiar to Morning Star readers, such as those of the London Recruits, who went into South Africa to support the African National Congress from the 1970s.

Some ended up in South African prisons as a result. Others were more fortunate, though, including those who organised the African Hinterland project, carrying weapons under a safari tourist vehicle travelling overland to South Africa.

There are so many lesser-known stories of heroism as well, people who risked their lives and liberties in solidarity with the struggle.

Part two moves on to explore the contributions of the Anti-Apartheid Movement in Britain and a number of other countries. Campaigns to Stop the Sports Tours grabbed the headlines in 1970. Other may be less familiar.

Most significantwas the continuing support from the USSR and from the German Democratic Republic (which provided education and training). There was support from Cuba, including militarily defeating apartheid armies invading Angola at Cuito Cuanavale in 1988 and described as the turning point of the struggle.

Looking back on these experiences, activists reflect on the situation in South Africa today. There have been improvements in housing, health and education but a local elite with the assistance of the private sector has been creaming off a large slice of the countrys wealth through contract fixing, downright fraud and money laundering, says Oscar Marleyn.

But democratisation is, adds Marleyn an ongoing process in which citizens are continuously mobilised to maintain and realise their economic and political rights.

So were my efforts worth it? he asks. Well, Im waiting to see. Im a patient man.In the epilogue Ronnie Kasrils asks himself the same question: was it all worthwhile? He recognises the stench of corruption under Jacob Zumas crony capitalism along with widening inequality.

But the demise of apartheid was a turning point, not an end in itself in his view. It opened the way for the next stage of struggle and, as he concludes, the example of international solidarity is a powerful inspirational force for the future.

This book is a must for Morning Star readers, an inspiration for us all, and especially so for the next generation. A luta continua!

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The defeat of Apartheid holds valuable lessons for the present and the future - Morning Star Online

On paper, Article 25 of the Constitution guarantees everyone the right to profess, practise and propagate their religion. This is subject to two kinds of restrictions the laws regulating or restricting the secular aspects of religious practices, and the state regulating the religious practices themselves in the interests of public order, morality, health, and specific to Hindus, social welfare and reform.

Constitutionally, one can choose ones religion or choose none at any point of time in ones life. The Constitution doesnt say one is free to practise only ones birth religion (or worse, only one state-mandated religion). So where do anti-conversion laws such as the one currently being contemplated by the Karnataka government fit in?

Anti-conversion laws in India are not particularly new. Their history goes back to even pre-Independence days but post-Independence, Odisha had the first in 1967. The motivation behind this law was to check Christian missionaries in states with large tribal populations. Somewhat ironically titled the Orissa Freedom of Religion Act, 1967, the law prohibited forcible conversion and also mandated that anyone choosing to convert out of the faith they had been born in had to inform the district magistrate.

The Orissa law was challenged in the court and the Orissa High Court in Yulitha Hyde v State of Orissa (1972) struck it down as being contrary to Article 25 of the Constitution and also for the reason that the law was made on a subject which was beyond the State Legislatures power to pass the law. While the court agreed that forcible conversions could be banned, it found that the word inducement in the law was too wide and vague, and could be understood to have banned all proselytising activity.

Also Read | Karnataka anti-conversion bill will also cover 'Love Jihad', says Home Minister Jnanendra

However, when the matter was taken in appeal to the Supreme Court (and heard along with a challenge to the Madhya Pradesh law), the SC in Rev Ft Stanislaus v State of MP (1977) upheldsuch laws on the grounds that what was being prohibited was forcible conversion and therefore justified on the grounds of public order. Since it was a law related to public order, the SC also held that the State Legislature had power to pass such a law.

The Fr Stanislaus judgement is not without its problems. It accepts at face value the claim of the state government that forcible conversions cause law and order problems without asking for any material to justify it. It does not at all deal with the clause which mandates prior intimation to the district magistrate before conversion and does not engage seriously with the argument about the width of the acts which have been criminalised under the law. Though delivered by a Constitution bench, its reasoning is shoddy and incomplete.

More recently, the Himachal HC struck down parts of the Himachal Pradesh Religion Act, 2006, which imposed criminal sanctions on those who converted without intimating the government. It did this while upholding provisions similar to those upheld in the Fr Stanislaus case.

Marriage and conversion

However, a fresh set of changes took place to anti-conversion laws in the recent past attempting to bring even marriage as a forbidden reason for conversion. While the Uttarakhand and Uttar Pradesh laws in this front have been challenged and are pending in the Supreme Court, the Gujarat HC has stayed the operation of the amendment made by Gujarat to bring marriage into the purview of anti-conversion laws.

The fate of these laws might depend on the interpretation and application of the Supreme Courts nine-judge bench decision in Justice (Retd) Puttaswamy v Union of India (2017) where the scope of the right to privacy was dramatically expanded to include the right to make important life decisions such as marriage, choice of food, et al.

As things stand, if the Karnataka government introduces the anti-conversion bill and passes it into law, it will be the ninth state to pass such a law. Yet, one must ask for what purpose such anti-conversion laws? Demographic data shows little, if any, evidence of any mass conversions. Any public order issues are usually the result of Hindutva groups attacking churches and priests gathering peacefully and using conversion as a cloak to justify their violence. So, what is this anti-conversion law really trying to do?

Also Read | Will not allow BJP govt to pass anti-conversion bill in Assembly: Congress leader Siddaramaiah

If one has to be cynical, perhaps the most successful anti-conversion law isnt even about conversion or religion. It is the 1950 Scheduled Castes Order of the Union government which directs that non-Hindu Dalits would not be considered Scheduled Castes for the purposes of reservations and benefits. This has since been amended to include Sikh and Buddhist Dalits within the fold of Scheduled Castes."

The unfortunate part of this is that Christian and Muslim Dalits continue to face discrimination and oppression as a result of their caste location. Even though Christian and Islamic doctrine do not recognise caste among the followers of their respective religions, it is a fact that caste practices and untouchability are common among Muslims and Christians in India.

Even though they suffer caste atrocities at the hands of their upper caste co-religionists, Christian and Dalit Muslims do not enjoy the protections of the SC/ST Atrocities Act a fact which was brought into stark relief during the caste violence perpetrated by Christian Okkaligas on Christian Dalits in Harobele village in 2015.

What's the issue?

If the chance to escape caste oppression or get the benefits of affirmative action isnt really forthcoming from conversion, what particular problem then is the anti-conversion law trying to solve?

Applying the constitutional framework to try and understand the proposed anti-conversion law in Karnataka is, however, misleading. The Constitution assumes that laws are made for the purposes of public welfare or to promote a social, economic and cultural agenda which is in tune with the constitutional ethos. However, law-making can also have a sinister purpose that has nothing to do with the Constitution or rights. Laws can be made simply to promote and condone state-sponsored violence against vulnerable groups of people.

There is no credible basis for the claims of forcible conversion repeatedly made by a section of Hindus in Karnataka. Even the state governments surveys and reports have failed to throw up any credible evidence of such practices in Karnataka. The people alleged to have been forcibly converted, if at all, turned out to have converted voluntarily.Yet the claim is vociferously and vigorously repeated and never substantiated. The new attempt is to stretch it to include anyone who says that their religion is better than others a leap of logic, which if applied elsewhere would make every advertiser a fraud and every politician guilty of a corrupt practice. What existing and real-world harm anti-conversion laws are attempting to address is not obvious.

One sees this pattern not just in the context of anti-conversion laws but also in laws which seek to ban cow-slaughter and love-jihad. None of these laws are intended to be applied by the state machinery or secular institutions.

The purpose of such laws is to give state protection for perpetrators of violence in society. An anti-love jihad law gives cover to the girls family and caste members to separate a consenting couple by putting the man in jail until the girl is pressurised to give up the relationship. The purpose of these laws is not to actually obtain convictions and punish criminals. The purpose is served at the point of filing the FIR and making the arrest. The purpose is to grind down vulnerable people through the use of state machinery.

The obvious target of Karnatakas anti-conversion law is therefore any Christian in the state. The purpose is to create an Other who can be demonised and targeted for the ends of political Hindutva. No doubt, if and when the bill becomes law and is challenged in court, constitutional principles will be used to decide its validity or otherwise. However, this exercise will completely miss the purpose of such laws.

(The writeris Co-Founder and Lead, The Vidhi Centre for Legal Policy)

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Myth and rhetoric: Dissecting the anti-conversion law - Deccan Herald

A BBC African Eye reporter and one of the faces behind the BBCs Black Axe Expos, Peter Nacjob has stated that the main motive behind the production is to get the Nigerian government to act in combating these cults.

Its not necessarily a secret that we have violent cult groups in Nigeria. The problem is that at no point has anyone made any effort to literally unpack it, and the reason is because of the fear of reprisal.

So, we are hoping that this investigation gets the Nigerian government to act, he told hosts of the Super Morning Show, on Thursday, December 16, 2021.

Mr. Macjob noted that prosecution of members of cult groups is difficult due to their affiliation with some police officers and other high-ranking members of society.

Its gotten to the point where the police have been overrun but what makes it more complicated is that in the course of the investigation there are accusations that members of the Judiciary, Clergy, the Police, military, are all members of this group, he said.

And because there are no police, ordinary civilians form themselves into vigilante groups, he added.

He explained that though they are other cult groups in Nigeria, the focus of the BBC African Eye investigation was on the Black Axe because the group has become a global syndicate operating in countries across the globe.

Black Axe is a cult group that mainly operates in Nigeria but has affiliations in some parts of West Africa. It is notorious for international scams, human trafficking, and prostitution rings.

The cult was initially created to break chains of oppression in society, to relieve the citizenry of hardships as well as seek better livelihoods for citizens in Nigeria. These, however, cannot be said of cult groups in the country since there has been a diversion from their initial motive. TheBBC African Eye reporthas more.

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Black Axe Expos: We're hoping this investigation gets the Nigerian government to act - BBC African Eye reporter - Myjoyonline

OPINION

BY LEN CABRERA

Just like the equity bait-and-switch Alachua County pulled with the charter amendment last November, advocates of critical race theory (CRT) use flowery language, misrepresentations, and intimidation to dismiss the true purpose and philosophical heritage of their radical agenda.

According to Education Week, CRT is just about how racism has shaped public policy since the nations founding. This is the language CRT proponents use to claim those who oppose CRT want to ignore the nations history of slavery and racial tensions. For example, after the State Board of Education banned CRT, Alachua County Education Association president Carmen Ward said CRT opponents are trying to whitewash history and added, The State Board of Education needs to have more respect for our educations [sic] that are teaching students to think critically and to also understand our racial narrative in our country.

The American Bar Association (reported by WCJB) claims CRT critiques how the social construction of race and institutionalized racism perpetuate a racial caste system that relegates people of color to the bottom tiers. That statement is pure garbage. People of color have served as U.S. President, U.S. Vice President, department secretaries, and in countless positions at the top of our national and state governments. Alachua County has a black sheriff, a black Supervisor of Elections, a black county commissioner, and two black school board members. The City of Gainesville has a black police chief and a black city commissioner (there were two black commissioners before Gail Johnson resigned). According to the U.S. Census Bureau, a little over 20% of Alachua Countys residents are black. If this is a racial caste system, our nation and county must not be doing it right.

This overblown rhetoric about a racial caste system should warn people that CRT may not be what proponents claim it is. One of the original (and most incoherent) proponents of CRT is Derrick Bell. In a 1995 article in the University of Illinois Law Review, he claimed there is no objective truth, just privileged choice. He also said CRT cannot be criticized or understood by those who say CRTs arguments are ineffective. So CRT cannot be true, criticized, or understood, but it must be implemented in classrooms.

The four cornerstones of CRT

To get an honest description of CRT (and know why its not appropriate for grade school students), you have to understand what CRT is built on. According to Delano Squires, there are four cornerstones: Karl Marxs conflict theory, Antonio Gramscis theory of cultural hegemony, the Frankfurt Schools critical theory, and Derrick Bells critical legal studies.

At its core, CRT artificially divides history into white and black (as is done in classes like African-American history at Newberry High School). CRT is pseudo-scholarship that is purposely political and dispenses with the idea of rights because it blames all inequalities of outcome on what its adherents say is pervasive racism (Jonathan Butcher and Mike Gonzalez). It takes brave, intellectually honest teachers to stand up against CRT because anyone who sees though the lazy arguments of CRT proponents is accused of being racist.

Decades ago, when students at George Mason University demanded a new course on black economics, the faculty took it seriously until Walter Williams, the only black professor in the department, asked, Which direction does a demand curve slope in Africa? He was disgusted that the school even considered such a ridiculous suggestion because economic principles hold true regardless of race. Walter Williams was not shy about his views on the misrepresentation of black history, either.

CRTs true purpose: activism and transformation

The key component of CRT that proponents always hide in these discussions is the true purpose: activism and transformation. In their book, Critical Race Theory (2017), Richard Delgado and Jean Stefancic wrote, Unlike some academic disciplines, critical race theory contains an activist dimension. It tries not only to understand our social situation but to change it. CRT is just another tool in the progressive toolbox to destroy our nations founding principles. So when people claim elementary schools are not teaching CRT, they are partially correct. The schools are not teaching CRT academically, but they are implementing the CRT worldview to indoctrinate students, just like Derrick Bell suggested in 1995.

CRT proponents like to present themselves as ground-breaking, forward-thinking progressives, but the incoherent thinking behind their politics of envy dates back to Cain and Abel. In more modern times, their thinking comes from Jean-Jacques Rousseaus Discourse on Inequality (1755), which described two kinds of inequality: natural (physical) and moral (political). Rousseau wrote that political inequality comes from a king or is otherwise authorized by the consent of men. These inequalitiesremember, according to Rousseau, these things only come about because one class oppresses other classesinclude things like wealth, honor, and different privileges. (That same language is regurgitated today.)

If it seems CRT activists are determined to destroy our way of life, theyre simply following Rousseaus guidance. He said his imagined political inequality would continue until new revolutions completely dissolve the government or bring it nearer to a legitimate institution. Of course, Rousseau never defined what a legitimate institution is.

The Declaration of Independence is based on individual rights

Our founders did not hesitate to define legitimate government in our Declaration of Independence as one that has the consent of the governed for the purpose of protecting individual rights to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. Note that they listed individual rights, not group rights. They were against redistributionist policies because the pursuit of happiness was known to include the right to property as an extension of ones own faculties and labor. For example, James Madison, the primary author of the U.S. Constitution, wrote: Government is instituted to protect property of every sort; as well that which lies in the various rights of individuals, as that which the term particularly expresses. This being the end of government, that alone is a just government, which impartially secures to every man, whatever is his own. (See his essay Property from 1792.)

That is clearly not the philosophical lineage of CRT proponents. They do not talk about individual rights but group power dynamics. They echo Rousseau, as do our city and county commissioners and school board members. Thats why they had a tyrannical COVID-19 response, determined to create new classes (masked and unmasked, vaccinated and unvaccinated) and why they are more concerned with the rights of people who dont speak English or who are temporary residents of our area than with the people who have lived here for a lifetime and find themselves unable to afford rising GRU rates and property taxes.

Over time, Rousseaus ramblings were further twisted by Georg Hegel (1820) to effectively deify the State (The state as a completed reality is the ethical whole and the actualization of freedom.) A couple decades later (1848), Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels imagined a fictitious war between the haves and have-nots. As with Rousseau, their proposed solution was a revolution to dissolve the status quo. Also like Rousseau, they do not define the conditions for their end-state workers paradise. (Similarly, COVID-19 lockdown proponents refuse to clearly define objective criteria to end their totalitarian policies.)

Marx and Engels Communist Manifesto feeds directly into CRT: But these Socialist and Communist publications contain also a critical element. They attack every principle of existing society. The point is to tear down existing society to make way for their unspecified utopia.

Recruiting minority groups to create a revolution

These dead white guys are the philosophical ancestors of todays proponents of equity and CRT. For them, the cause effectively becomes the reason for existence. They are true believers who share the collective fantasy of the infinite perfectibility of human nature that by changing mans environment and by perfecting a technique of soul forming, a society can be wrought that is wholly new and unprecedented (Eric Hoffer, The True Believer, 1951).

The current manifestation of the envy crusade is directly descended from Herbert Marcuse, whose pseudo-intellectual gibberish in the 1960s failed to explain why there had been no Marxist uprising in the U.S. He butchered the language and redefined words to provide the illusion of academic rigor. Heres a sample of his thinking from the 1965 essay, Repressive Tolerance:

This essay examines the idea of tolerance in our advanced industrial society. The conclusion reached is that the realization of the objective of tolerance would call for intolerance toward prevailing policies, attitudes, opinions, and the extension of tolerance to policies, attitudes, and opinions which are outlawed or suppressed Conversely, what is proclaimed and practiced as tolerance today, is in many of its most effective manifestations serving the cause of oppression.

By the 1970s, Marcuse decided to recruit oppressed social minorities and the womens liberation movement to fulfill Marxs fanciful revolution, and critical theory was born. Like other types of Marxist analyses of society, critical theory is all about creating categories of oppressors and oppressed.

CRT questions the very foundations of the liberal order

In Critical Race Theory, Delgado and Stefancic described CRT as a collection of activists and scholars engaged in studying and transforming the relationship among race, racism, and power [CRT] questions the very foundations of the liberal order, including equality theory, legal reasoning, Enlightenment rationalism, and neutral principles of constitutional law.

Like Marx, the ultimate goal of CRT is to justify redistributive policies to reach some utopian equality of outcome. Delgado and Stefancic complained that under our system of government, rights are almost always procedural (for example, to a fair process) rather than substantive (for example, to food, housing, or education). This is the same negative vs. positive liberty debate thats been going on for years. Even Barack Obama admitted that positive liberty is a violation of the U.S. Constitution, which prevents the government from doing things to us (negative liberty) but does not require or permit it to do stuff for us (positive liberty).

Also like Marx, CRT is inherently racist because it deals with group stereotypes and prejudices. CRT uses race rather than class and property ownership to create oppressor/oppressed groups. Derivative versions of CRT also include gender and ethnicity to bring more groups into the revolution. Lindsay Perez Huber, for example, pushes Latina/o Critical Race Theory (LATCRIT). In a 2010 article in Educational Foundations, she wrote: Racism is defined as, the assigning of values to real or imagined differences in order to justify white supremacy, to the benefit of whites and at the expense of People of Color, and thereby defend the right of whites to dominance (italics in the original). This is exactly what CRT does: it assumes all disparities in outcome are caused by race, so by Hubers own definition, it is racist.

Emphasizing differences instead of similarities takes us in the wrong direction

Delano Squires says CRT is a Marxist framework that causes racism and teaches people to judge each other based on skin color. Squires relates more to Frederick Douglas than Ibram X. Kendi and likens the attitudes of CRT and antiracists to slave traders who treated blacks as property rather than people, writing that [The respective conceptions of racist slave traders and antiracism advocates] have different starting points but they both reach the same conclusionabsent benevolent interventions, the American Negro is without agency, direction or purpose, a vessel of melanated chaos driven by historical trauma and extant oppression. Both groups see black people as incapable of moral reasoning and bearing no responsibility for our own actions.

Heres what Dr. Wyatt Tee Walker, former chief of staff to Martin Luther King, Jr, wrote in 2015: Today, too many remedies such as Critical Race Theory, the increasingly fashionable post-Marxist/postmodernist approach that analyzes society as institutional group power structures rather than on a spiritual or one-to-one human level are taking us in the wrong direction: separating even elementary school children into explicit racial groups, and emphasizing differences instead of similarities.

More colorful and entertaining responses to CRT can be found on YouTube from angry parents like Ty Smith, who agreed with Walkers assessment and said CRT is absolutely doing the complete reverse of what Martin Luther King, Jr, argued for. This Colorado Springs father said that he is not oppressed and his kids are only victims of their own ignorance, their own laziness, and their own poor decision-making.

Our own ignorance, laziness, and poor decision-making empower our corrupt educational establishment to push CRT and present dishonest, incomplete accounts of our nations founding and history for the purpose of indoctrinating future radicals. Dont trust the rehearsed talking points of CRT advocates. Read the original sources for yourself: Derrick Bell, Richard Delgado, Kimberle Crenshaw, Ibram X. Kendi, Robin DiAngelo, Nikole Hannah-Jones, etc. You can find excerpts of many of them in Mark Levins book American Marxism. Compare their ramblings to the governing philosophy espoused by our Founding Fathers in The Federalist Papers or search other original works at the Online Library of Liberty.

Its also important to be aware that nice-sounding terms like diversity, equity, inclusion, social justice, culturally-responsive teaching, and social-emotional learning are all related to CRT and are used to gain support from people who want everyone to have an opportunity to succeed. But all of these policies focus on equality of outcome rather than equality of opportunity and actually implement the systemic racism that CRT proponents claim to oppose.

CRT is inherently racist and goes against the founding principles of our nation and the civil rights movement. Rather than being some new enlightenment movement, it continues a dark philosophical heritage that is shared by China, North Korea, Cuba, and Venezuela. Its just rebranded Marxist ideology that always leaves suffering in its wake.

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CRT is just rebranded Marxist ideology, and yes, it's in our schools - Alachua Chronicle

Alexander Lukashenko has ruled Belarus since 1994, earning the epithet Europes last dictator along the way. Now, after his suppression of local opposition protests, one can add more descriptions: last blood-soaked dictator and last antisemitic dictator because people with such twisted ideas havent held power in Europe since World War II.

After winning the 2020 elections through massive fraud, Lukashenko launched a terror campaign against his country and his people. Some 10 people have been killed during demonstrations; hundreds have fled abroad and over 4,000 political prisoners are being held. They include popular blogger Sergei Tikhanovsky, who was sentenced to 18 years imprisonment. The authorities placed him under lock and key the moment they saw him as a realistic candidate for the presidency. In that same trial, the leader of the Social Democratic Party, which the regime refuses to register, was sentenced to 14 years in prison, while two other bloggers were given 15 years each.

One can understand how hated the dictator is based on estimates that Tikhanovskys wife Sviatlana, who submitted her candidacy in his stead, received 80 percent of the votes in the election.

Lukashenko, who seized control of the country where Marc Chagall, Isaac Asimov, Chaim Weizmann and Menachem Begin were born, has a track record as an antisemite. He shocked the world when he compared Bobruisk, a predominantly Jewish city, to a pigsty. After all, it is a Jewish city, and the Jews do not take care of the place where they live, he said. In 2015, he called on the head of his administration to keep all the Jews under control.

Regime propagandists are attacking Jews to explain the mass demonstrations against the man they venerate, describing them as part of the mythic Jewish conspiracy and as attempts to overthrow the legitimate government.

A few days ago, Lukashenko outdid himself when a female member of parliament representing the government, Lilia Ananich, submitted a draft law titled On the Genocide of the Belarusian People, a bill many see as damaging to the memory of the Holocaust, if not outright denial of it. With the wave of a hand, the Jews were included among the Belarusian people, just like the Turkmen, Gypsies, Russians and other Soviet citizens who lived on Belarusian territory and were murdered by the Nazis.

The bills author forgot that the Jews contrary to the Belarusians, for example were murdered only because they were Jews. However, there is not a word about the Holocaust in Lukashenkos Belarus. Even when it comes to the Maly Trostenets extermination camp, one of the biggest in Europe, in which the Jews of the Minsk ghetto were murdered, the dictators representatives do not speak of the Jews but rather the Belarusian people.

Lukashenkos Belarus has no property restitution law and never will. Contrary to many countries, the property of Jews murdered there will never be returned to anyone. It is only possible to try things such as bringing back into use old synagogues, if they are currently not in use as public buildings.

The dictator uses Jews, and indirectly Israel, at every opportunity to explain the protests against him. In other words, he is promoting a simple antisemitic idea: anything bad merits searching for the hand of Israel, the Jewish lobby, the Mossad; evil always wears a Star of David around its neck. Schlimazels and schnorrers read a subheadline in an article by the state press attacking historian Alexander Friedman, who can express himself freely because he was deported from his native Belarus and lives in Germany.

A few days ago security forces broke into the home of an Israeli citizen, software engineer Daniel (Dzmitry) Plashchynski, after learning he had visited extremist Telegram channels and corresponded with their editors. As proof of his malicious deeds, they published on the Administration Responsible for the Fight against Organized Crime and Corruptions official Telegram channel a photo of Plashchynskis valid and expired Israeli passports against the background of the Belarusian oppositions red and white flag. They placed a rifle next to them, sending a clear message: See, the Jews are preparing the revolution.

Belarusian state television recently broadcast a film, Killing of the President, in which Jewish circles are behind a fictitious assassination attempt of Lukashenko and his son. Need more? The state-run newspaper Belarus Segodnya added snatches of Hatikva to a clip about refugees trying to cross the Belarusian border into Poland, deleting the music only after it caused an uproar.

In another incident, Israeli Alexander Fruman, who was in Minsk on vacation, was detained for three days by security forces even though he didnt participate in protests. They beat him and threatened to give him another circumcision, he said. His confiscated passport was lost. Two other Israeli citizens were detained at that time, and to the best of my knowledge none of them received assistance from the Israeli consulate. And thats not all. Israels Foreign Ministry, which is ready to dispute Polish authorities, sent its ambassador to Belarus to present his credentials to the dictator an act that Western ambassadors avoid.

The presence of Israels ambassador gives very little help to Belarusian Jews, who live in an atmosphere of state-sponsored antisemitism, or to others who identify with them. After Zinaida Timashuk, the chairwoman of a Belarusian language society, laid flowers at the place in Slutsk where the Nazis destroyed the Jewish ghetto, she was arrested for three days and fined the relatively high amount of about $500. The reason for the fine? Organizing an unauthorized demonstration.

Israel was founded partly as a refuge for Jews suffering oppression abroad. My roots are Belarusian, as is the case with many other Israelis. I observe daily how a confused dictator, who holds onto power with the polices help, plays the antisemitism card. Although this behavior endangers Jewish lives, we see and hear no response at all from the Israeli government or Foreign Ministry. Israel stubbornly refuses to join Western nations in condemning the dictator and his dictatorship. Its shameful. Perhaps its worth remembering that any attempt to appease antisemitic dictators has ended badly for the Jews.

Leonid Nevzlin owns 25 percent of Haaretz and is a member of its board.

More:

The silence over Lukashenkos antisemitism - Haaretz

It is a total myth and falsehood that the United States won the Cold War when the Soviet Union unexpectedly collapsed, and Mikhail Gorbachev dissolved it on December 25, 1991. During the remainder of the 1990s the Washington elite, American academic specialists and especially the inept U.S. intelligence agencies completely failed to anticipate, and predict the rapid rise of Communist China at the turn of the century as a possible military AND economic superpower.The Peoples Republic of China (PRC) has now become a much more potential dangerous adversary in 2021 than when the Soviet Union opposed the United States during the Cold War from 1945 to 1991.

One of the PRCs long term goals in its ambitious Belt and Road Initiative is not only the domination of the South China Sea and reunification of Taiwan along with neutralizing much of the western Pacific Ocean, but the semi-encirclement of India through the indirect control of Nepal and Bhutan along with Sri Lanka, Pakistan and perhaps Bangladesh.

Their recent desire to establish a naval base in Bata, Equatorial Guinea on Africas Atlantic coast is a further indication that PRCs plans to establish itself as a dominant military and economic superpower before 2049 in addition to its three existing naval bases in Hambantota, Sri Lanka, Gwadar, Pakistanand Doraleh, Djibouti. I would not be surprised before 2030 that the PRC also attempts to establish another naval base in either Cuba or a country in the eastern Caribbean located between Puerto Rico and Trinidad. That especially includes Barbados and possibly Venezuela.

Washingtons failed economic policy since January 1993 of encouraging the corporate investment of trillions of dollars and the wholesale exportation of five million American manufacturing jobs to mainland China as advocated by Presidents Clinton, Bush and Obama has completely failed to produce any liberal multi-party or semi-democratic reform resembling Gorbachevs 1986 policy of glasnost within the PRC.

Communist China under President Xi Jinping has no intention of liberalizing or reforming his countrys political system let alone apologizing for the Chinese Communist Partys mass murder of forty-five million Chinese citizens, who died during the Great Leap Forward (1958-62), and another million executed under Mao during the Cultural Revolution (1966-76) or its shameless de facto military alliance with despotic and totalitarian North Korea under Kim Jong-un. This also includes the PRCs violation of the 1997 Sino-British Joint Declaration on Hong Kong in 2019, the continued oppression (Sinonization) and enslavement of the Muslim Uyghurs in Xinjiang province in far northwestern China, and the cultural genocide or brutal assimilation (Sinonization) of Tibet since 1950.

The Ukraine must not join NATO because the United States needs to befriend and improve diplomatic relations with Putins Russia and an eventual post-Putin Russia as a future counterweight to the PRC. While some critics might mistakenly call this diplomatic approach as appeasement I call it simple pragmatism or realpolitik.

Vladimir Putin is not Adolf Hitler with Machiavellian grandiose plans of western military expansion and the occupation of eastern Europe because the former KGB lieutenant colonel has much more common sense and intelligence than the drug-addled and eloquent ranting Hitler. In order for the United States to improve diplomatic relations with Russia, the Ukraine must not join NATO in order to lessen any potential military tensions between the United States, which is essentially NATO, and Russia for many different reasons.

Many Americans, Canadians and western Europeans fail to understand that Kiev, the capital of the Ukraine and cradle of Eastern Slavic civilization along the strategic Dnieper River, has always held a special historical, commercial and cultural significance to the Russian national psyche. It was in Kiev where Vladimir the Great, the ruler of the Kievan Rus and Eastern Slavs composed of both modern day Ukrainians and Russians, first accepted Eastern Orthodox Christianity in 988.

Through the subsequent centuries Kiev became the foundation or springboard for the creation of modern Russia itself ultimately ruled by Muscovy or Moscow, which regarded itself as the Third Rome after the fall of Constantinople in 1453, and increasingly superseded the city of Kiev with the Russians becoming the most dominant ethnic group among the Eastern Slavs.

The special relationship existing between the Ukraine and Russia is somewhat analogous to the special relationship between the United Kingdom and United States, but one that is much stronger and more enduring because of a shared 1,426 mile border, identical religions (Eastern Orthodoxy) and most especially length of time: over 1,000 years for both good and bad. If the Russians often regard the Serbs as their little brothers in the Balkans, the relationship between Russia and the Ukraine often resembles an argumentative middle aged or elderly husband and wife. And Russia believes that divorce is not an option.

If the Ukraine were to join NATO, it would be the geographical equivalent of either Canada or Mexico joining a military alliance led by the PRC. The United States would naturally find this scenario both totally unacceptable and intolerable especially if there was a Communist Chinese naval base located along the Pacific coast of either Acapulco, Mexico or Vancouver, Canada.

The United States must pragmatically recognize that the Ukraine is clearly within the Russian sphere of orbit similar to how either Central America or the Caribbean is to the United States according to the Monroe Doctrine of 1823. To think otherwise would clearly be not only stupid, but also a sign of Pax Americanas imperial overreach, which replaced Pax Britannica in 1945. Plus, the last time I looked at the map of Europe, Kiev is approximately 1500 miles from London or the English Channel unless some government official or bureaucrat in Washington or Brussels preposterously considers the Black Sea to be a far eastern extension of the Atlantic Ocean! Good luck with the illogical reasoning that Kiev or Odessa is geographically near the north Atlantic Ocean.

The future inclusion of the Ukraine into NATO from a Russian perspective most definitely would make NATO appear to be much more of an offensive than a defensive military alliance. Whether Russia is paranoid of another land invasion or pretends to be is subject to much speculation.

I highly suspect that Russias paranoia is somewhere between the former and the latter similar to the Krajina (Croatian) Serbs justified paranoia from 1991-95 toward Nazi Germanys and fascist Italys former ally Croatia led by Ante Pavelic from 1941-45. However, Russia unlike the United States has had a long history of at least twelve invasions, occupations and foreign interventions beginning with the brutal Mongol Golden Horde (1223-1473), Teutonic Knights (1240-42), Ottoman Turkey (1571), Poland (1605-18), Sweden (1610-17; 1707), France (1812), the Crimean War (1853-56), Japan (1905), Germany and Austria (1914-18), its former World War I allies and Japan (1918-22, Japan (1938) and most destructively Nazi Germany (1941-45) resulting in the death of at least twenty million Soviet soldiers and civilians.

Considering Russias long history of repeated invasions and fear of another one it has no desire in a worst case scenario to be conquered and permanently dismantled, and suffer the same tragic fate as the former Yugoslavia, and end up like a landlocked Serbia in a semi-Arctic truncated territory located to the west and east of the remote Ural Mountains with the possible loss of much of eastern Siberia to an expansionist Asian country.

Their paranoia does indeed have a rational basis considering their long history of invasions from the east, south and west, and NATO seems to be either totally oblivious of this fact or most likely completely indifferent. From a Russian perspective I can honestly understand why 100,000 or more Russian troops are currently massing along Ukraines southeastern border or the Donbas, and I am neither a Russophile nor a Russophobe.

As far as I am concerned the Russian occupation of Crimea in February 2014 is a fait accompli, which historically had been a part of Tsarist and Soviet Russia for over two centuries until 1991, and not worth the lives of any American or NATO soldiers despite the death of at least four million Ukrainians by the terror famine during the catastrophic Holodomor (death by hunger) in 1932-33 under Joseph Stalins Soviet Union. This is strictly a Ukrainian-Russian concern, which frankly is not worth the start of World War III.

The best future diplomatic solution for the Ukraine (along with Georgia) is to become a neutral country like Switzerland, Austria, Sweden or Finland, which would pose no offensive military threat to Russia. A second possible solution may be to emulate Serbia, which would like to become a member of the European Union, and not a member of NATO. A third possible solution is to follow the example of Belarus, and remain a non-offensive military threat.

The Ukraine must realize that neither the United States nor any other NATO country will most likely go to war against Russia for their occupation of the Crimea or the southeastern part of the Ukraine near Donetsk. Plus, there are clear limitations to American military power, which the Pentagon completely fails to understand, and the Ukraine is a clear example. Endless wars will not produce endless peace.

The United States and NATO can sell the Ukraine all the military weapons they require such as the shoulder-fired FGM-148 Javelin anti-tank/helicopter missiles and launchers along with other non-lethal assistance, but Putin realizes that it is highly doubtful that a western country is going to risk World War III in order to defend the Ukraine. Ironically, Russia does not presently consider the three Baltic non-Slavic NATO countries of Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania much of a military threat. The same could be said for Norway, which is also a NATO country and shares a 121.6 mile border with Russia.

In the final analysis the Ukrainians will have to defend themselves if necessary without NATO and American troops on their soil. However, I think that the Ukraine must not join NATO because it will make their lives much easier in living peacefully as a neutral country with Russia, and improve their standard of living due to less military spending for the remainder of the twenty-first century and beyond. Both countries must also mutually reconcile.

If a confused President Joseph Biden or NATO political leader were to militarily intervene in the Ukraine, this would be an extremely serious and foolhardy mistake, which could optimistically result in massive Russian retaliatory cyberattacks (and counterstrikes), disastrous economic disruption during a worldwide COVID-19 pandemic, and an inevitable slowdown or complete disruption of Russian natural gas flowing to much of Europe despite being possibly cut off from the international banking system.

The United States and Russia do not need to be involved in either a second cold war reminiscent of the Cuban Missile Crisis of October 1962 or a nuclear conflict, which could unimaginably be much worse.

Robert L. Maronic / Roanoke

December 18, 2021

Read this article:

Should The Ukraine Join NATO? - The Roanoke Star

The Associated Students of the University of Oregon, the university's student government, is proposing that every student be required to take a course on critical race theory in order to graduate.

During the University of Oregon Board of Trustees meeting on Wednesday, Associated Students of the University of Oregon President Isaiah Boyd said that the goal of the "Critical Race Theory" project is to "implement the primary teachings of CRT into the curriculum track for all undergraduates."

Boyd said that the Associated Students of the University of Oregon will be working with university administration members to incorporate the critical race theory course requirement into the bachelor's degree track.

"Racism and the social power structures that have enabled and continue to manifest the inequalities that many marginalized identities groups face must be continuously addressed and studied," Boyd said.

An even mix of proponents and opponents to teaching Critical Race Theory are in attendance as the Placentia Yorba Linda School Board in Orange County, California, discusses a proposed resolution to ban it from being taught in schools. (Robert Gauthier/Los Angeles Times via Getty Images)

WHAT IS CRITICAL RACE THEORY?

Boyd defines critical race theory as a "framework used to examine power and oppression dynamics between racialized groups."

"Increasing awareness of systemic racial inequities creates opportunity for people in power to engage in socially conscious action and decision-making within higher education," Boyd added.

Boyd said that the "Critical Race Theory" project is among student leaders' "highest priority" within the Associated Students of the University of Oregon.

The University of Oregon Office of the Provost indicated to Fox News in a statement that they are open to discussing the proposal.

CRITICAL RACE THEORY TAUGHT AT MANY OF AMERICAS 50 MOST ELITE PRIVATE K-12 SCHOOLS, ACCORDING TO NEW STUDY

"Recently, the university went through an extensive process to update its undergraduate Core Educationrequirement focused onissues of race and inequality. The Office of the Provost is happy to continue the dialogue with student leadership around core curriculum requirementsin conjunction with the University Senate and its curriculum committees, which now have student representation for the first time in several years, thanks to the ASUO," the statement read.

University of Oregon students walk across campus in Eugene, Ore. (Andy Nelson/The Register-Guard via AP)

The office added that "diversity of background, thought, and perspective is an absolute necessity for building academic excellence."

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Currently, students are required to take one course which covers US: Difference, Inequality and Agency, and one course relating to Global Perspectives.

Read more here:

Oregon university student government wants critical race theory graduation 'requirement' - Fox News

Accusing the BJP of using coercive tactics to put pressure on former DSGMC Manjinder Singh Sirsa to join the party, Sukhbir Singh Badal Thursday said the Shiromani Akali Dal chief was ready to face any challenge thrown by the saffron party.

This is BJPs revenge against us for standing by our principles, breaking the alliance with them and quitting the cabinet to stand by farmers. But we have no regrets whatsoever. In fact, we are very proud of what we did then. We are ready for repression, oppression and conspiracies and will defeat them, said Sukhbir. Sirsa, a prominent face of the Akali Dal in Delhi and a strong supporter of the farmers protests against the three contentious farm laws, joined the BJP Wednesday. Sukhbir said that the BJP-led government at the Centre was stooping to a new low in abusing power to deal with democratic opposition. The SAD president also showed some WhatsApp message that he had reportedly received from Sirsa. Sirsa on WhatsApp told me that they will put him in jail and harass his family if he (Sirsa) did not join the BJP, said Sukhbir.

You suppress the DSGMC president, slap cases and then point a gun on his head telling either you leave (SAD) or you will be sent behind the barsBut I am disappointed and sad that instead of being true to the traditions of his religion against repression, Sirsa chose to bow down. This was disgraceful, especially coming from someone on whom the Sikh qaum (community) and the SAD have bestowed so much honour, Badal said. He said Punjab is a border state and his party is an example of mutual brotherhood. If the Centre thinks it will weaken the SAD, they will not succeed, he said. Sukhbir said this new attack is a continuation of the old tactics of mixing repression, oppression and conspiracy to break the spirit of the Sikh qaum.

Let them try everything. Repression cannot break us. The Mughals tried it. The British tried it. The Congress rulers including Indira Gandhi tried it. The whole world knows what the outcome was then. It will be no different this time, he said. Sukhbir said that Sirsa leaving SAD will not impact them as he has no following in the state. Everybody in Punjab knows that he has no roots here, he added,

See the rest here:

Ready for BJPs repression, oppression, conspiracies, says Sukhbir - The Indian Express

Some American leaders are using sharper, more belligerent language about China.

From Sen. Ted Cruz:

"China is the single greatest geopolitical threat facing the United States over the next century," the senator tweeted in 2020.

To Mike Pompeo:

Now, I've spoken about this at some length, the People's Republic of China represent an absolute existential threat to our country, the former secretary of state said.

We often hear from Washington that the United States is locked in another great powers conflict with China. But is the "great powers" Cold War era analogy the right one for modern China?

Today, On Point: The fear and folly of invoking Cold War rhetoric when grappling with U.S.-China tensions.

Melvyn Leffler, professor of history emeritus at the University of Virginia. Author of several books on the Cold War, including "For the Soul of Mankind" and "A Preponderance of Power." Co-editor of the three volume "Cambridge History of the Cold War."

Jack Beatty, On Point news analyst. (@JackBeattyNPR)

Yangyang Cheng, postdoctoral fellow at Yale Law School's Paul Tsai China Center. Frequent columnist on Chinese politics and U.S.-China relations. (@yangyang_cheng)

On echoes between Cold War era language and U.S.-China relations in 2021

Yangyang Cheng: China is used as a subject. But China is a country. It cannot think and do. So who in China is bent on dominating Asia or other parts of the world? There may be certain people in different levels of Chinese government, or punditry in society, who may have these views. But are these the dominant views? Are these the only views? Can these views be changed? And can power relations be changed? I feel that this kind of rhetoric really reflects a profound lack of intellectual curiosity. As well as a lack of moral imagination. That these fears and insecurities are all projected onto a faceless other. And the world is being collapsed into this kind of false binary. And so oneself can pretend to be both morally superior, as well as innocent.

But isnt that one of the hallmarks of how world powers talk about other nations in moments of tension?

Yangyang Cheng:Absolutely. And I would like to also point out that similar rhetorics are also used by the Chinese government. In terms of talking about U.S. or Western imperialism bent on subverting the Chinese system, bent on keeping China backwards. And these are the language that are directed at a domestic audience in order to legitimize the Chinese government's way of governing, in order to enhance its own control within China, and potentially also overseas.

China doesn't necessarily have to forcibly project its power. The fear is that the biggest difference today is that China actually has its economic tentacles, by our own invitation, in the United States already.

If you look at the economic power of China, the United States can be almost seen as a vassal state to China. And that's the existential threat that not just Ted Cruz, but occasionally Joe Biden and people on both sides of the aisle, talk about. What do you make of that?

Yangyang Cheng: It is interesting, right, because, for example, earlier in the clips, you've shown certain senators on the floor saying, 'commie China' and this and that. But of course, the Chinese ruling party is nominally communist, China is now an integral part of the global capitalist system. And the Chinese government itself is a major player in the global capitalist system.

"And if we think about this integration, a lot of the overseas influence, and political pressures the Chinese government exerts through its economic leverage really is not so much as China is weakening the democratic system, but behaviors from certain Chinese entities are exposing the pre-existing weaknesses in a lot of societies. Where there are companies that prioritize access to the Chinese market, instead of standing up for principles of freedom and human rights.

"And how these global supply chains, including the forced labor issue among the Uyghur people in the northwestern region of Xinjiang. And so it's really systems of oppression, including state oppression, are all connected. And simply projecting them as all in one single country contained by a border, it's a profound misunderstanding.

On lessons from the Cold War, and how we might apply those lessons regarding America and China today

Melvyn Leffler:Even President Reagan came to realize that the Soviet Union and the United States had mutual interests. Mutual interests in curbing the strategic arms race, in negotiating arms limitation agreements. And most of all, in seeking to abolish nuclear weapons. Once again, Republican officials from Ford to Reagan, from Nixon, Ford and Reagan, while waging the Cold War, also understood that they needed to seek out mutual interests. And that's what we need to do today.

Yangyang Cheng: "The Cold War really was a hot war in many parts of the world. And it's like the people who exist on the edges of empires, on the margins of nationhood, who are bearing the ... cost of it. And we are seeing these being played out again. And so I think one really important thing is to listen to the voices in the margins who are bearing the brunt of the cost in terms of xenophobic rhetoric, in terms of state oppression, in terms of climate change. And to be able to see the edge not as an end, but as a new beginning. And to imagine a world where humanity as a species can come together and imagine the future where no one is in exile.

Highlights have been condensed and edited for clarity.

The Atlantic: "China Isnt the Soviet Union. Confusing the Two Is Dangerous." "Anyone looking for evidence of a growing economic and ideological conflict between China and the United States will have no trouble finding somethingthe trade war now roiling both countries economies, the standoff between police and pro-democracy protesters in Hong Kong, Beijings swift retaliation against the NBA over a single Houston Rockets executives tweet in support of those same protesters."

The Guardian: "The west sees China as a threat, not as a real place, with real people" "I was at dinner with a friend, and she asked about my work. 'Name one thing you wish Americans knew about China,' she said."

Go here to see the original:

A rekindled Cold War? A reality check on the narrative around U.S.-China tensions - WBUR