Category Archives: Political Correctness

John Krull| The Statehouse File

INDIANAPOLIS Clueless and mean-spirited white guys found themselves a new poster boy this week.

Jon Gruden resigned as the head coach of the NFLs Las Vegas Raiders. Gruden left his job after The New York Times reported he had sent a series of bigoted emails that attacked league officials, players, politicians and others in scurrilous terms.

I have resigned as Head Coach of the Las Vegas Raiders, Gruden said on Twitter. I love the Raiders and do not want to be a distraction. Thank you to all the players, coaches, staff, and fans of Raider Nation. Im sorry, I never meant to hurt anyone.

Nonsense.

Of course he meant the language to be hurtful.

He just never intended to be caught or be held accountable for his cruelty.

Grudens assaults on basic decency were widespread. He attacked a players representative with a nasty racist image. He used one of the ugliest anti-gay slurs around to demean NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell and said the league shouldnt allow gay players to compete. He used an off-color word relating to a part of the female anatomy to describe people with whom he disagreed, including the current president of the United States.

If he didnt know that language was offensive to many, many people, then hes a moron.

And Gruden has made it clear through the years that hes no dummy.

He knew he was saying things that were racist, homophobic, misogynistic and rotten.

He just didnt care.

Until he got caught and it cost him something.

In that way, Gruden is like so many other blowhards a certain former president of the United States comes to mind in this shabby, disagreeable age.

They swagger around, insulting and demeaning everyone who threatens them in any way, and then, when theyre called on it, they try to dismiss their callous disregard for others by saying they didnt mean any harm. The problem, they always contend, is that other people are just too sensitive.

Or that they are victims of political correctness and their right to speak freely is being violated.

Again, nonsense.

What blowhard America calls political correctness goes by another label in most of America.

Common courtesy.

Most of us were raised not to say unkind things if we can help it. Most of us were taught that we shouldnt demean other people based on their race, their gender, their religion or their sexual orientation.

To do so isnt tough or manly.

Its just wrong.

And no one is denying Gruden the right to speak his narrow little mind. He can continue to send out ugly emails to anyone he wants.

Hes got that right.

The First Amendment to the U.S. Constitution guarantees it.

But it also guarantees the same rights to the people Gruden insulted and may insult in the future. When he says things that they dont like, they have the right to speak up and tell him hes full of it.

Similarly, the NFL owners can choose not to associate themselves with his bigotry. They too have that right.

Thats the thing that so many members of blowhard America including, again, a certain former president of the United States just cant seem to grasp. They somehow seem to think that free speech means a free pass.

Theyre allowed to say whatever they want, regardless of how callous and ill-intended, but no one ever should be permitted to tell them that theyre just nasty little twits.

But thats not the way it works.

Free speech is free for all.

And saying what you think doesnt mean you never will be held accountable for what youve said.

Thats what happened here.

Jon Gruden said what he thought, nasty as his thoughts were.

Now hes being held accountable for what he said.

Thats the way things are supposed to work.

John Krull is director of Franklin Colleges Pulliam School of Journalism and publisher ofTheStatehouseFile.com, a news website powered by Franklin College journalism students.

Read more:

Krull: Gruden is like other blowhards, lacking in common decency and courtesy - The Herald-Times

Billionaire Republican donor Peter Thiel is bankrolling election conspiracists and primary challengers againstRepublicans who backedDonald Trump's impeachment after the Jan.6 Capitol riot, including an ArizonaSenate candidate who is literally on his payroll.

Thiel, the Facebook board member who co-founded PayPal and later the controversial data-mining company Palantir, has long been a top Republican benefactor, donating millions to GOPcandidates and political action committees. But in the wake of Trump's 2020 defeat, Thiel has grown more aggressive in his political investments, dropping more than $20 millionto support two far-right Senate candidates and helping to fund primary challengers against Rep. Liz Cheney, R-Wyo., and other Republicans who called for Trump's removal after the deadly riot.

"He wants to be the patron of the Trump wing of the Republican Party," said Max Chafkin, a Bloomberg reporter and author of "The Contrarian: Peter Thiel and Silicon Valley's Pursuit of Power." Thiel is focused on building out "Trumpism after Trump," Chafkin said in an interview with Salon, describing the tech billionaire as "in many ways further to the right than Trump."

Thiel, who donated $1.25 million to back Trump in 2016, has made an even bigger splash this election cycle with a $10 million donation to back his protgBlake Masters, who plans to run for the Republican nomination in next year'sArizona Senate election. Masters is uniquely connected to Thiel, serving as the chiefoperating officer of Thiel Capital, the billionaire's venture capital fund, and co-writing Thiel's book "Zero to One."

While candidates like Virginia's Glenn Youngkinhave stepped away from their corporate careers to run for office, Masters appears to still be on Thiel's payroll. He earned $775,000 from Thiel Capital last year and received more than $340,000 in royalty payments from the sales of "Zero to One," according to a personal finance disclosurethat was first reported by Insider. Masters did not respond to questions from Salon about whether he still collectsa salary from Thiel'scompany, but still lists himself as the firm's COO on his LinkedIn page.

Thiel last month hosted a fundraiserfor Masters'campaign at his Los Angeles home that cost up to $5,800 to attend.

Saving Arizona PAC, the Thiel-funded effort that has already spent nearly $1.7 millionin Arizona, has launched ads attacking state Attorney General Mark Brnovich, Masters' principal GOPopponent, for rejecting Trump's lie that voter fraud cost him the election.

"Mark Brnovich says President Trump is wrong on voter fraud. Really? Brnovich failed to convene a grand jury, certified Biden as president. Now he's nowhere to be found, making excuses instead of standing with our president," the ad says.

Brnovich was one of multiple state officials, including Republican Gov. Doug Ducey, who certified the election results. The addoes not explainwhy Brnovich should have convened a grand jury. There has been no evidence of widespread fraud in Arizona or any other state,and courts haverepeatedly rejectedchallenges by Trump allies seeking to overturn Biden's win.

The PAC also blasted Brnovich on Twitter, arguing that he is "nowhere to be found in the fight against voter fraud."

Masters is the "only candidate who will demand fair and transparent elections," the PAC said.

The Saving Arizona PAC recently made yet another six-figure ad buy attacking Brnovich for not being Trumpy enough.

Masters, who was endorsedby Trump's former national security adviser Robert O'Brien this week, has walked a fine line whendiscussing the presidential election. He has stoppedshort of claiming that the election was stolen outright, but has boostedconspiracy theories on Twitter about "dead people voting,"Dominion voting machinesandfears about election "integrity,"echoing a trope employed by numerous other Republicanswho have tried to distance themselves from the voter fraud lie while still trying to appease Trump loyalists.

After the dubious so-called auditin Arizona's Maricopa County actually showed Biden gaining a handful of votes compared to the official total, Trump and other Republicans began to claimthat the audit had turned up serious questions about the election administration. In fact, Republican audit officials testified to Congress last week that the county held a "free, fair and accurate election."Masters, however, sided with TrumpWorld throughout the process, teasingthe release of the audit report, echoing Trump's claimsabout "fake" polls and "anti-Trump disinformation," and making the evidence-proofargumentthat "no matter what the audit finds, we know this election wasn't fair."

Masters later demanded action from Brnovich in response to the audit, though he did not say exactly what he wanted the state attorney general to do.

"The AZ audit findings have been referred to the Attorney General," Masters tweeted. "The ball is now in Brnovich's court. He has a track record of doing the bare minimum, so let's pay attention, and we'll see if the Republican establishment is serious about election integrity."

Masters also demanded that Ducey immediately "call a special session" to impose new voting restrictions, even though Ducey had already signed a billto restrict mail ballots and purge the state's popular early voting list in the spring.

"Get the legislature back to work so they can tighten up our election laws," Masters tweeted. "Starting with universal voter ID for every kind of ballot nothing less is acceptable."

Masters did not respond to questions from Salon about whether he believes Biden legitimately won Arizona, or what he would like Brnovich to do in response to the "audit" results.

The attacks on Brnovich come as Masters seeks to close a massive early polling deficit against the attorney general. A Republican pollconducted last month showed Brnovich leading Masters, by 41% to 6%. Another September poll from OH Predictive Insightsalso showed Masters polling at just 6% and performing the worst of any candidate against incumbent Sen. Mark Kelly, a Democrat.

"It's clear Blake Masters is threatened by AG Brnovich," Joanna Duka, a spokeswoman for Brnovich, said in a statement to Salon.

Thiel has also dropped another $10 million to back J.D. Vance, another longtime business associate and the author of "Hillbilly Elegy," in Ohio's Senate race. As with Masters, Thiel has a long business relationship with Vance, who got his start in venture capital working at Thiel's Mithril Capital Management, which is named after a fictional metal in "The Lord of the Rings." Vance later got an investmentfrom Thiel to help start his own venture fund, Narya Capital, which is named after one of the Elvenrings in J.R.R. Tolkien's fantasy classic.Both men recently investedin the right-wing video platform Rumble.

Masters and Vance are "kind of extensions of Peter Thiel," Chafkin said, describing them as "hardcore ideologues" whoare more disciplined and coherent than Trump, but largely focused on the same issues.

Vance has tried to stay away from election conspiracies but defended rioters at the Jan.6 Capitol attack as mostly "super peaceful."Thiel's allies have generally avoided directly claiming that the 2020was rigged, but have continued to raise irrelevant or baseless questions about the result.

"They're trying to walk a line and come up with some kind of intellectually respectable version of The Big Lie," Chafkin said, adding that the Thiel-backed candidates have tried to "cozy up" to hardcore Trump backers and "be perceived as friendly to them."

Thiel himself has also cultivated relationships in TrumpWorld. He developed close ties to former Trump campaign chief and White House strategist Steve Bannon, whom Chafkin described as Thiel's "ideological" ally who shares his views on the "deep state." Thiel routedhis big 2016 donation to back Trump through the super PAC controlled by Rebekah Mercer, also a major donor to far-right Republicans.Mercer was a longtime patron of Bannon and his projects and has joined Thiel in funding Vance's Ohio campaign. Mercer has spent millionsto support some of the leading proponents of Trump's election lies, as well aselection objectors who fueled the Capitol riot.

More recently, Thiel met with Trump at the ex-president's Bedminster, New Jersey, resort and began funding candidates in support of the former president's revenge tour against pro-impeachment Republicans, according to Politico.

Thiel donated the maximum $5,800 to Harriet Hageman, the Trump-backed primary challenger to Rep. Liz Cheney, R-Wyo. Hageman hascontinuedto claimthat there are "legitimate questions about what happened during the 2020 election" and supported the Arizona "audit."

Thiel has also donated to Joe Kent, the Trump-backed primary challenger to Rep. Jaime Herrera Beutler, R-Wash., who also voted to impeach Trump after the riot. Kent spokeat the recent "Justice for J6" rally in Washington in support of the Capitol rioters charged in the attack. He vowedto lead a "full congressional inquiry" into the 2020 election if elected. Kent was among a group of Trump supporters who filed lawsuitslast month in Washington state accusing multiple counties of "flipping votes" and calling for a "full forensic audit" of the election.

Thiel's funding for candidates pushing election lies is "totally consistent" with his embrace of Trumpism, Chafkin said. Though Thiel ultimately decided not to donate to Trump in 2020 out of frustration about the former president's "perceived competence," the billionaire has sought candidates who will pursueTrump's hardline policies on immigration, relations with China, regulation of tech companies, "political correctness"and globalization.

On all those issues, Thiel "basically agrees" with Trump, Chafkin said. "He wants to be involved in this movement and what you're seeing now is he'smaking that play.He's trying to be the main patron to his part of the Republican Party."

View original post here:

Peter Thiel bets on the far right: Tech tycoon spending millions to bankroll "Trump wing" of GOP - Salon

As a war veteran, member of the VFW and former POW for over six years with John McCain in the Hanoi Hilton, I have known and worked with Councilmember Kathy Lambert on veterans issues over the past 20 years.I have always found her to be competent, engaging, courteous, eloquent and filled with patriotic feelings for all her fellow Americans.

This rabid accusation against Councilmember Lambert being racist is outrageous. Kathy is NOT a racist. Its amazing how that word is thrown around these days.If you dont agree with someone, youre labeled a racist. This continual name calling being used as a tool each time political correctness is called out has to stop. This is what I call posturing politics at its best.

Kathy Lambert is a valued, intelligent, well-prepared and hardworking member on the council. She is a unifier, not a divider. And shes willing to reach out to fellow councilmembers to hear their side of the situation on any issue.

Shes a tireless worker for her constituents and I would say works harder and longer hours than most anyone else on that council. She is known for 2 a.m. emails and excellent customer service. She has the largest district in area to deal with and therefore has to travel further.

The radicals know she is effective and experienced and just want her off the council so they can bring in more of their Seattle philosophy to the eastside. And, we all know how well their radical policies work. Theyre making a mountain out of a photo rather than looking at the Seattle problems and issues, which they are trying to hide.

We here in rural King County have NOTHING in common with Seattle and we do not want to be represented by someone who will fit right in with Seattle thinking. Just look at who has endorsed her.

I recall when Dino Rossi was running for electionand the radicals tried to paint him as a Mafia boss with their fliers and advertisements. As a second-generation Italian American, I was offended by that. But I dont ever recall them ever apologizing to the Italian-American community. Kathy should not have to apologize for anything either.

She will be getting my vote wholeheartedly. I urge you also to vote for Kathy.Keep Seattles deplorable politics in Seattle!!! These days, when anyone disagrees with those who lean to the radical far left, they are automatically labelled as terrorists or racists.I know what those words mean. The entire country is in a mode of trying to eliminate any and all who disagree with their radical views. Dont let them use this heavy tool to deprive us of a voice that is independent and cares deeply about our entire community.

See the article here:

Letter to the Editor: Keep Seattle politics out of rural King County - Woodinville Northwest News

SIR Billy Connolly delighted fans today during an appearance on Lorraine's chat show to plug his new book.

Viewers raced to Twitter to cheer on the 78-year-old comedy legend who chatted about his revealing autobiography from his home in Florida.

4

4

Billy, who was diagnosed with Parkinson's disease nine years ago, has been the subject of two books by his wife, Pamela Stephenson, a psychotherapist and former comedian.

But his autobiography, Windswept and Interesting, is out this week.

One viewer tweeted: "Shock horror! A book that I'm definitely buying. Love Billy, looking great!"

Another wrote: "Billy Connolly, what a legend!!"

While a third added: "I was putting the kettle on but I think I heard Lorraine #lorraine say she's got Billy Connolly on."

The Big Yin told Lorraine there are "good days and bad days" now, adding: "The good days outnumber the bad days.

"So I've got nothing to complain about. Someone once told me if you're not feeling well think of the kids in the cancer ward."

Within the pages of his new book Billy reveals how a nude bungee jump in New Zealand and stripping off in the Arctic Circle rank among his top life experiences.

He penned: "I like being naked in public.

"I discovered this made me happy when I was only four years old. It wasn't so much the willy pointing, more a lovely sense of naked freedom."

The Glasgow-born comic added: "As an adult I have danced naked all over the world.

"Over a hundred million viewers have seen my willy. Not many people can say that.

"I have a close relationship with my willy, but I still never minded sharing it with strangers."

The Scottish icon recently admitted he would be "cancelled" if he was starting out as a comic now because of woke culture.

He said he feared his material would be too edgy and hit out at TV bosses for bowing to political correctness.

Asked if he would face a backlash over his classic routines in today's climate, he said: "Absolutely. You can't decide to be fearless, you're either fearless or you're not and you go about it. Because of political correctness people have pulled in the horns.

"I couldn't have started today with the talent I had then. There's a show in America with all black comedians, men and women.

"They are totally ruthless and without political correctness.

"They have me on the floor howling with laughter. It's just the cheek of them and the bravery of it." But he added: "There was a comedian who had a television series and the suits were going to take it off at the first commercial break.

"They have no bravery. We need people who give people time and a chance to develop and all of that stuff."

Connolly shot to fame in the 1970s but upset religious groups with routines like the Last Supper and Crucifixion, where Jesus begins his last days with a booze-up in a pub in the city's Gallowgate.

Connolly retired from stand-up in 2018 after being diagnosed with Parkinson's, but is filming new TV series Billy Connolly Does... for the Gold channel.

4

4

We pay for your stories!

Do you have a story for The Sun Showbiz team?

View post:

Lorraine fans delighted to see Billy Connolly looking so well as he plugs new book amid Parkinsons b... - The Sun

Back in May 2011 I joined the I Grew Up In Fairfield Too Group, or IGUIFT, Facebook group that Fairfielder Rick Williams started in 2009. Soon thereafter I was inspired to write a fictional nostalgic piece for my Monday The Last Laugh column. It was called Back to the Future of Fairfields Past. It was about me taking my moms old Oldsmobile Vista Cruiser station wagon, outfitted with a flux capacitor, which everyone knows is what makes time travel possible, back to when I first came to Fairfield in the summer of our nations bicentennial.

Tony Wade: Back in the Day

I wove into the column references to numerous places that old-time Fairfielders would instantly recognize, like Wonder World, Eucalyptus Records, Fosters Freeze and Smorga Bobs. I couldnt help mentioning the Fairfield Area Rapid Transit or FART buses, which I later found out werent around in 1976 oops.

That column resonated with a lot of folks and I subsequently pitched an idea to DR managing editor Glen Faison about doing a separate column that was kinda, sorta based on local history. Back in the Day was launched in June 2011. I now call Back to the Future of Fairfields Past my column zero (https://bit.ly/ColumnZero) in my ongoing Back in the Day series.

I remember at first really worrying that I would not have enough material to write about and initially it was a bi-weekly affair until Glen asked me to do it weekly after 50 columns.

Well, today is my 500th Back in the Day column!

I have taken my identity as an accidental local historian to heart and just put one foot in front of the other and tried to write columns that I would like to read. The one thing that I wanted to do was make them participatory like the Facebook group and include quotes from locals. That was truly a no-brainer because so much of what they posted in the IGUIFT group was thought-provoking or poignant or hilarious and often a combination of the three.

The DR used to do a thing called Dial-A-Bio where they would call up random local people and tell their stories in an article. Sometimes they were fascinating, sometimes they were not so much, but they were always interesting.

I stole, er, borrowed that concept, but didnt do it randomly. I started to incorporate written snapshots of locals into Back in the Day columns in a feature I call Ordinary Folk History. Thus far they have included ones on Warren Sheldon, Judy Anderson Engel, Yolanda Elmo Messer, Abe Bautista, Susan Macy Luckenback and others.

Other locals whose stories Ive written include first African-American Fairfield police officer Cleo Patton, community theater legend Barbara McFadden, vocal coach/actress/singer Connie Lisec, educator/first principal of Fairfield High School Sam Tracas, Fairfield-raised Sacramento attorney Melinda Guzman, funk band Con Funk Shuns frontman Michael Cooper, dentist/director/philanthropist Dr. Philip J. Rashid, Judge Ramona Garrett and many more.

While the emphasis has always been hyper local Fairfield Ive also written columns about every city in Solano County, including ones about The Wooz (Vacaville), the M & M Skateway (Suisun City), the Zodiac killer (Vallejo), Dixie the Dinosaur (Dixon), the Mizner boys (Benicia) and Humphrey the humpback whale (Rio Vista).

Here are some mosts:

Most popular: Weirdly enough, I would have to say that the one about a horrific 1928 mass murder in Fairfields Chinatown takes that honor. I dont do many columns on true crime, but people eat that stuff up.

Most controversial: I wrote a column about my friend Nanciann Greggs grandmother, who belonged to a womens auxiliary of the Ku Klux Klan. Nanciann is a bajillion years away from that and some wondered why I would write it. Uh, because it is something I would like to read.

Most fun: This is a tie. The ones I truly enjoy are those where I get to be an amateur detective, like determining why exactly all the Sambos restaurants, including Fairfields, closed (it was not political correctness; bad business decisions), and the others are ones I wrote about were hysterical gossip columns that used to be in the Armijo High School newspapers back in the 1940s.

The natural progression from the column was to write my book, Growing Up In Fairfield, California. The response to it has been wonderful and I am thrilled that so many have been touched by it. I have had an absolute blast selling and signing copies for people and I am genuinely grateful for the many folks who have stopped by and told me how much they enjoy my writing.

My last big selling and signing event of the year for my book is going to be from 11:30 a.m. to 3:30 p.m. Nov. 13 at Joes Buffet. While having William Shatner, Capt. James T. Kirk himself, actually go into space this week was so meta, if you want to go deeper, what could be more meta than having lunch and hanging out at Joes in Fairfield while getting a book about Fairfield that has a chapter that highlights Joes Buffet in Fairfield?

If your head wont explode, I would love to see you there.

Thanks for reading!

Reach Fairfield humor columnist, accidental local historian and author of The History Press book Growing Up In Fairfield, California Tony Wade at[emailprotected].

Related

Go here to see the original:

Back in the Day: This is my 500th Back in the Day column! - Fairfield Daily Republic

If you were to ask an Apple Mac Pro (made in Austin, a city named for the founder of Texas independence) to pick the hottest hot button issue in Texas history, the answer would be the 1836 siege and Battle of the Alamo, the creation myth of Texas. Mess with the Alamo, and youre messing with Texas.

Jason Stanford, writer and political consultant, Chris Tomlinson, veteran journalist and Texas historian, and Bryan Burrough, author of Public Enemies and Barbarians at the Gate, three very different writers, have collaborated to produce a book that has outraged a significant number of Texans, including Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick, who canceled a virtual forum on the book in June, calling it A fact-free rewriting of Tx history

Patrick got the second part right: Forget the Alamo is a rewrite of Texas history, one that has been a long time acomin. But fact-free it isnt, and its the facts that have a great many older white Texans riled:

The Daughters of the Republic of Texas, the self-appointed guardians of the Alamo legend, are torched: By the 1960s they had evolved into a kind of paramilitary Junior League the Daughters were the humorless school marms of the Alamo.

Alamo buffs, such as British rock star Phil Collins, who have polluted the historical waters with questionable artifacts, are put to the sword. Collins illustrated book, The Alamo and Beyond: A Collectors Journey, is a source of ridicule and horror in the Alamo-collecting and archaeological world.

Mythmongers like Fox & Friends Brian Kilmeade, who in his 2019 best-selling book Sam Houston and the Alamo Avengers referred to slaves as servants, are sent to the firing squad.

Simply, Much of what you think you know about the Alamo is wrong. Lets spend no more time getting to this: The primary cause of the Texas Revolution wasnt General Santa Annas tyranny and the suppression of the rights of the Anglo colonists. Stephen Austin, the father of Texas, thought Santa Anna a friend to the American immigrants; as late as 1835 the general was giving them just about everything they asked for. Contrary to myth, Santa Anna was not some bloody tyrant, nor even a dictator; that would come later. At this point, just before the Texas Revolution began in October 1835, He was an astute politician who needed the support of Congress, the Church, the military, and the people, and thus remained keenly alert to ripples in the Mexican political pond.

The biggest ripple was slavery. The Mexicans had to settle Texas and couldnt defend settlers from depredations by the terrifying and aggressive Comanches, so Americansarmed Americanswere enticed there by land grants. The problem was that the only reason Americans would come to Texas was to farm cotton, and they would not do that without slaves. They really didnt know any other way.

The Mexican government couldnt begin to control immigration across its wide and distant border with its powerful neighbor, the United Statesa wall certainly would have come in handyand by 1825 one of four people living in Austins Anglo colony was a slave. Most Texians, settlers who immigrated from the U.S., were contemptuous of Mexican authority and continued to live as if they were still governed by American law. To add more fuel to the growing fire, Santa Anna, who had become the most powerful man in Mexico, correctly suspected President Andrew Jackson had designs on Texas and the Mexican government had to be careful not to provoke the U.S.

The anxieties of slave-owning Texians finally erupted into insurrection. The Anglos enjoyed an early success in October 1835, when they routed the Mexican garrison in San Antonio and seized the old mission-fort, the Alamo, with its 21 cannon. But the victory blinded the Texians to an important fact: they had no army. After all, Most Texians and Tejanos [Mexican citizens who had migrated to Texas] had farms and businesses to run Most hadnt asked for this fight anyway.

Luckily, a swarm of militiassuch as the Huntsville Rovers from Alabama, the Natchez Mustangs from St. Louis, and the New Orleans Greysflocked to the Texian cause. Luckily, too, the Texians found a charismatic leader in Sam Houston, former governor of Tennessee and veteran of the 1812 War, where he served under Jackson. Once Houston assumed command of Texass rag tag forces, events moved rapidly. Santa Anna, who considered himself as the Napoleon of the West, assembled a mixed force of professionals and untrained peasants. They lurched slowly north, reaching the outskirts of San Antonio near the end of February 1836. The response of the roughly two hundred Texians under the command of the fabled adventurer Jim Bowie and William Travis, an Alabamian gone to Texas for a new life, was to dig in and hunker down behind the Alamos unfinished walls.

Why they didnt choose to retreat north to join Houston isnt known. Houston thought the quarter-mile-long compound indefensible, at least by a garrison that could have been no more than 250 men. Travis and Bowie, though, for whatever reasonhonor, duty, ego, overconfidence, or strategywere determined to defend the Alamo, no matter what. It was, in every respect, a questionable decision.

On March 6, after 12 days of siege, Santa Anna assembled his troops in the cold and dark and, around 4 or 5 a.m., ordered an assault. After perhaps 90 minutes of bloody hand-to-hand fighting with bayonets and Bowie knives, all the defenders, including at least nine Tejanos, were dead. (Santa Anna had made a show of allowing a handful of women to be escorted out before the assault began.)

Travis, say the authors, and the letters he would write from the old Spanish mission have been held up for nearly two hundred years as heartbreaking evidence of his selfless bravery

But its equally true that none of this needed to happen. None of the Alamos defenders needed to dieand they only did so because Travis and Bowie ignored every warning of Santa Annas approach and inexplicably remained in San Antonio to defend an indefensible outpost.

Why havent we forgotten the Alamo? Mostly for two reasons. The first is that one of the two most famous Americans alive in 1836 (Andrew Jackson the other) died there. David Crockett was a frontiersman, former congressman, and cracker barrel humoristthink of a cross between Bear Grylls and Andy Griffithwho went west to restore his fortunes, arriving in San Antonio just days before the Mexican army. Even the Mexicans knew who he was; in the account of a Mexican officer named Jose Enrique de la Pena he is referred to as the naturalist David Crockett. In time, thanks to Walt Disney, Fess Parker, and John Wayne, Crocketts story consumed those of Bowie, Travis, and the others.

The second reason is Houstons flare for propaganda. Within 48 hours he was sending out letters likening the disaster at the Alamo to Thermopylae, where 300 Spartans died holding a pass against the Persian Army in 480 B.C. Desperately trying to forge a mob of farmers and woodsmen into an army, Houston turned the crushing defeat into a popular and potent weapon.

Six weeks after the fall of the Alamo, Houstons army surprised Santa Anna at San Jacinto, captured him, and forced a treaty which gave Texas its freedom. Houston fired up his men before the battle, shouting Trust in God and fear not. And remember the Alamo!

Still, for decades the Alamo was mostly forgotten. In 1886 there was no official commemoration of the fiftieth anniversary. The battle was absent from some historical narratives on Texas history or reduced to little more than a side story. The Alamo itself was so neglected that over a few decades only the chapel and the adjacent long barrack where much of the fighting took place were standing. (In Lonesome Dove, Tommy Lee Jones Woodrow Call and Robert Duvalls Gus McCraeboth former Texas Rangersride into San Antonio and pass the sad wreck of the chapel without a nod of recognition.)

Near the end of the century, though, the Alamo was revived to become the great creation myth of Texas, a heroic narrative written and shaped by menand a few womenwho instilled in it the value of their times. Their efforts would prove remarkably enduring. For 150 years, the world pretty much agreed on what the Alamo symbolized.

The story of the Tejanos such as Juan Sequin, who defied Santa Anna and fought and died at the Alamo, was erased, and the issue of slavery was traded for the more attractive causa belli: the myth of suppression of the rights of Texians.

The 20th century accounts established the foundation of what we call the Heroic Anglo Narrative of Texas history. They portrayed Anglo Texans as Gods righteous democratic warriors two-legged arguments for American expansion and manifest destiny. That spirit lives on in the Texas State Board of Education, which has declared schoolchildren must be taught a heroic version of Alamo history Alamo heroism thus remains the law of the land.

That law is being rewritten as a generation of new historians have begun taking the field back from popularizers and propagandists. The result is a culture war which could dictate how future generations of Texansand by extension, Americans and many around the worldperceive the history of Texas.

Stop political correctness in our schools, Gov. Greg Abbott tweeted in 2018. Of course, Texas schoolchildren should be taught that Alamo defenders were heroic!

On Aug. 17, ground was broken in San Antonio for the new Exhibition Hall, a key part of the $450 million Reimagining the Alamo project, after a protracted dispute between Lt. Gov. Patrick and Texas Land Commissioner George P. Bush (son of Jeb Bush and Senate candidate not endorsed by Donald Trump). The local Caller-Times noted, When the Reimagining the Alamo project first began to take shape about six years ago, Patrick denounced some of its proposed features as a cave-in to 21st century political correctness. Bush, whose mother was born in Mexico, suggested that critics of the project who objected to the attention paid to both Mexican soldiers and Tejano defenders under the reimagine plan were racist. Now it appears the two have come to an agreement as to what the reimagining will say about the Alamo. So well have to wait for the new official version of the story.

History doesnt really change, the authors tell us, but the way we view it does. Forget the Alamo isnt revisionist history as its critics are claiming. As historian Jeff Long puts it, To me, the earlier tales about the Alamo were the revisionism. What came later was the history, in a weird inversion.

Said another way, when the fact became legend, the legend was printed. Now, the legend is giving away to the facts. When the smoke clears from the wildcat fire this book has caused, well still remember the Alamo but in a much different way.

More:

'Forget the Alamo' Book Trashes Texas' Beloved Origin Myth - The Daily Beast

(RNS) Not long ago the popular (and controversial) pastor John Piper addressed questions from his podcast listeners about whether Christian couples should engage in role-play in the bedroom.

To one woman, who expressed distress because her husband likes to fantasize that he is raping her,Pipers answer was no. Fantasizing about sin is also a sin, he argued, as is coercing others into sexual acts they dont want to engage in. He also took exception to any kind of sexual role-playing at all.

The usual detractors objected not only to Pipers response but to his even addressing such a topic.

Nevertheless, Piper was right.

But he was right in ways that extend beyond the confines of the bedroom.

Role-playing, in various forms whether inside the bedroom or out, in a sexual context or otherwise cultivates a rejection of life for what it is as well as a rejection of ourselves for who we are.

RELATED: Edmund Burke wouldnt recognize evangelicals vaccine resistance as conservatism

This consequence is suggested in Pipers final argument against bedroom role-play when he says that if sexual desire has become so prominent in the way you pursue satisfaction in life that you must push the limits of sexual conventions in order to be a joyful and contented person, your God and your purpose for living have become too small.

This is a point with universal application, not only about our personal lives, but our public lives, too. Anytime we find ourselves pretending, we ought to ask what about our real life and our true self is not enough.

This is particularly important for Christians in a variety of contexts. Christians who are eager in the face of any opposition or hostility toward Christianity (or even just personal preference) to jump into the role of being persecuted come to mind.

Examples abound. One pastor with a large public platform recently made a public defense of breaking the law in response to a common government regulation, which he considers persecution. I suspect thousands of religious martyrs of the past and believers of the present who cannot legally worship in their countries would beg to differ with his characterization.

Like bedroom fantasies, this impulse toward what I call Cosplay Christianity develops when faithfulness alone is not enough when drama is required to excite the soul, enemies are necessary to rouse energy, and obstacles are manufactured in order to present challenges to would-be Arthurian knights on galloping steeds or wannabe damsels in constant distress.

Sometimes this cosplay is as common as a steady stream of hot takes or provocative tweets by those for whom these create a role they must continually refill, lest the vortex of their own making fall in on itself. Sometimes its as banal as a social media post about masks or medicine that adopts the language of the Founding Fathers in the midst of a revolution.

Sometimes its as deadly serious (and ironic) as a riot in which grown men in costumes channel William Wallace in Braveheart crying Freedom! while attacking the seat of democracy.

Sometimes cosplay looks like an essay a friend recently sent me by an English professor that details opposition he faced teaching because of woke ideology and political correctness. I had only to skim the first few lines before I had a hunch, scrolled to the bottom, and found my suspicion confirmed: The authors byline was a pseudonym. I didnt waste more time reading.

Such anonymous articles are common, as are the kinds of outlets that publish them. The excuse usually offered in such a context is that people who are honest about these things (see the irony?) will lose their jobs (or not get one). Ive heard more than a few Christians complain that they cant be openly Christian and be employed. In America. This is another kind of Cosplay Christianity.

Now, dont hear what I am not saying. There is a time for anonymity and pseudonymity. Being a spy comes to mind. Or a missionary in China. But what most people who say these thingsreally mean is that they cant post their views about some things on blogs and social media.

Having worked for years in Christian institutions, I understand that its a privilege that part of my job is to make my Christian views known. But I, like many other Christians, have spent a good portion of my work and educational years in spaces hostile to Christian beliefs. Most of us must find a way to hold to those beliefs with integrity and stay employed.

Christians being Christians in non-Christian contexts has been the life and calling of most believers for 2,000 years. We still have that ability in this country, even if, arguably, it is getting harder.

If America ever becomes a place where it actually is true that one cant be a Christian and hold a job, it will come in some part because of those who dont know how or refuse to be Christians with integrity in truth and love in the free country that we currently have. For as the Gospel of Luke tells us, One who is faithful in a very little is also faithful in much, and one who is dishonest in a very little is also dishonest in much.

RELATED: In The Jesus Music, Erwin Brothers recount the glory and mess of Christian music

Perhaps weve come to expect life to be as conflict-ridden and exciting as Minecraft or a Lifetime television movie. If so, then Cosplay Christianity is, perhaps, a reflection of our inability to find contentment and satisfaction in ordinary life and in our ordinary lives. Meanwhile, those who have not lived ordinary lives because of extraordinary abuse, suffering and pain would beg for a mundane existence.

Whether we have a conscious desire to pretend to be someone else or media consumption has cultivated unconscious ways of thinking that recast reality into the terms of drama from another time or place, Cosplay Christianity fails to live fully and faithfully in the life to which God has actually called us.

Its not just sad. Its dangerous. Its an indication of a life and purpose that have become too small, a rejection of the truly abundant life.

View post:

'Cosplay Christianity': The sin is in the denial of the life God calls us to - Religion News Service

When diversity and inclusion training company The Right Track took to Twitter to discover how people felt about the topic, more than half associated it with political correctness, rather than as an opportunity for change.

As Claudia Cooney, lead director of The Right Track, points out, this means in a team of ten as many as half of team members havent yet been brought into the diversity and inclusion conversation.

AV is ahead of that curve in terms of attitude, our diversity survey reveals with a predominantly positive and open view of the topic: 58 per cent of respondents drawn from across the world of AV, predominantly in EMEA, recognise it as a positive move worth pursuing, rather than the latest incarnation of political correctness.

Its encouraging from an industry that, like many other STEM industries is very male and pale, that 66 per cent report D&I to be one of their organisations stated values and/or priority areas. However, not everyone is convinced: 29 per cent think D&I is a great idea but hard to deliver, another six per cent questioned whether it will make any difference, while the naysayers albeit very much in the minority deem it nonsense, a waste of time or even a scam.

Challenge and educateEducation and awareness are critical in learning about the perspectives and experiences of minority groups, explains Stephen Cuppello, principal research psychologist at Thomas International, an international talent assessment platform and co-author of Rethinking Workplace Diversity 2021. The wider the audience you learn from, the greater the awareness you will build.

Almost half our research respondents have attended diversity training and of those, nearly half thought training had either challenged or changed how they think and act in the workplace. Others said it deepened their understanding and opened their eyes to diversitys breadth of definition. For the most part, AV attitudes have moved beyond mere legal compliance; the majority report the primary focus of their organisations diversity programmes is to attract and retain talent.

There is a lack of diversity in our industry and an appetite to increase it, says Denise OKeefe, director of specialist AV recruiter, Woop Jobs. The issue is timing. The industry hasnt returned to pre-pandemic levels, so for many businesses the focus is still on survival.

What is back to normal is there are more vacancies than candidates, as it has been for twelve of the thirteen years Ive been in business. The priority for our clients is to hire someone with the right level of AV experience. We can only consider the candidates that are available. More could be done in job descriptions only one of our current positions includes a statement on diversity for example.

Even the language of the job ad can be optimised to ensure it does not inadvertently put anyone off. Multiple studies found job descriptions for male-dominated jobs for example, contained more masculine-themed words associated with male stereotypes than job descriptions from female-dominated jobs and vice versa.

Widening the talent poolWhen AV Magazine surveyed the issues of diversity in 2019, long before any of us had heard of Covid-19, one respondent nailed the issue facing AV: There is a very small pool of talent coming into the business and this works against the principles of diversity and inclusion.

In that respect nothing has changed. There is a shortage of talent, says Graeme Massey, director of Jacobs Massey. As an industry we know we have to make AV better recognised and attractive to those at the start of their careers.

Massey has been one of the team working hard behind the scenes to develop the newly-announced AV apprenticeship. Spearheading the two-year apprenticeship is Jack Laidlaw, HE cross-college co-ordinator at Middlesbrough College, also responsible for creating the UKs first BSc Honours degree in AV technology. It has been a labour of love, three years in the making, says Laidlaw. The challenge is that AV is five jobs in one. A new apprenticeship may not overlap existing ones so we had to eliminate any perceived cross-over. It took a lot of persuasion.

The AV industrys response has been incredible but, says Laidlaw, there is much work to be done to drive sign-up for a career in an industry theyve never heard of. AV isnt visible to them in the way the film or music industries are, explains Laidlaw. The world is full of impressive AV displays live events, theme parks, museums but a lot of the technology is hidden.

We need, says Laidlaw to better tell the stories of the people and the technology that make these impressive displays happen to attract new, young talent into an industry populated by professionals who fell into AV rather than sought it out.

Raising awarenessDiversity is a topic rising ever higher on the AV industry agenda. AVIXA has brought focus and discussion to the topic with its Diversity Council while Women in AV has done much to provide a networking and mentoring framework.

Its first report on female representation in AV in May 2020 revealed 52 per cent of those surveyed felt the industry could be better at valuing womens representation and diversity. According to the report, 80 per cent of women in AV are white/Caucasian, 92 per cent live in the US or Europe and 58 per cent hold a non-technical position. Notably, like many other professionals in the AV world, rather than choosing AV as their career path, 67 per cent fell into AV.

While there is no doubt women are under-represented in AV, diversity is more than an issue of gender, or ethnicity for that matter. Age and physical ability are other core and typically visible factors, as AVIXA points out in its video on unconscious bias, but there are other less visible core factors like ethnic heritage, social class, sexual orientation and religion to consider, along with secondary factors such as organisational role and level, income, expertise, education and training and family status and role.

It is a much wider definition than many appreciate. Less than half of our research respondents considered level of education and training, political opinion, family status and social class to be aspects of diversity and less than a quarter, role, level of seniority and length of service.

When were hiring we may focus on these visible aspects of diversity, but these additional factors are more likely to come into play in workplace inclusion. Bill Schaninger, senior partner at McKinsey, responsible for driving organisational change, explains: Diversity is the mix of people. Inclusion is the culture in which the mix of people can come to work, feel comfortable and confident to be themselves, work in a way that suits them and delivers your business needs. Inclusion will ensure that everyone feels valued and importantly, adds value.

This is where the E in DEI comes into play. DEI is the term increasingly adopted by organisations including AVIXA, but while you might think the E is for Equality, and the majority of our research respondents certainly did, the E is for Equity.

The meaning of equityEquity means fairness, not in the sense of treating everyone the same, but in supporting them to succeed by providing each with the resources they need. Emily Holtaus, managing director of diversity, equity and inclusion at NonProfit HR, explains it well in the AVIXAs Unconscious Bias video.

Holtaus analogy focuses on three people all wanting to pick apples from a tree. None can reach the apples unaided. Equality would provide them with a box to stand on, but boxes of the same height. Equity would give each a box that enabled them to reach the apples. The first is fair but fails to take their differing height into account. The second is tailored to the specific needs of each. An even better approach, Holtaus suggests, is to place all the apples in a basket, making them available to all without assistance.

If the goal is to enable everyone to succeed, to support the employers success, then employers should, the argument goes, ensure the creation of a fair work environment where demographic related needs are taken into account.

Differing needs go beyond physical characteristics to personal circumstances. Today that includes supporting remote and hybrid workers, and ameliorating any potential cultural conflict with office-based staff. City of London office workers made news headlines recently when it emerged fully office-based workers were using an insulting acronym-based nickname for colleagues spending only Tuesdays, Wednesdays and Thursdays in the office.

Funny or insulting? It depends if youre making the joke or are the victim of it no harm in it work culture is one that urgently needs diversity and inclusion training, was the off-the-record response from one AV professional.

As Iffat Chaudhry of Involve Visual Collaboration told AV Magazine at an AVIXA diversity panel last summer, we need to build a work culture where people have the confidence to call out behaviours that arent acceptable and to speak up on others behalf.

Inclusive focusIf diversity in hiring helps to attract talent, an inclusive workplace aids talent retention. Close to 70 per cent of our research respondents thought their organisations D&I programmes should have a strong focus on creating an inclusive environment, which, diversity specialists concur, is one where people feel valued and accepted in both their team and in the wider organisation, without having to conform.

Successful DEI is less about programmes and more about culture, warns DEI strategist Jeff Waldman. Integrating a culture of DEI with DEI baked into everything the organisation does within its operations is, he argues, a more effective way to drive improvement in employee engagement, employee productivity, and quality of hire. Every organisation may measure these things differently, but the constant remains that by building a culture of DEI you will see obvious measurable business results.

A 2018 report on Diversity and Inclusion in the Workplace by Deirdre ODonovan suggests workplace diversity and inclusion can also inspire feelings of belonging. Inclusion matters more today because, ODonovan says, individuals simply wish to be allowed to be themselves.

When you make it easy for people to bring all their skills and thoughtfulness to innovation and problem solving, they do better. It builds up social exchange. It builds up goodwill. Its a virtuous cycle, says Schaninger. Contrast that with finding out about a meeting after the fact having your background, your experiences, and your ideas discounted. Thats a vicious cycle. No doubt, this has a direct impact.

The majority of our research respondents report they feel valued, included and able to succeed in their organisations. Their line manager listens to and values them while and their contribution to the organisation is recognised. Of more concern is that close to a quarter do not think their workplace has a mix of people that look and think different from one another and over 30 per cent do not feel or feel only partly supported.

Nearly 70 per cent believe their colleagues demonstrate a commitment to creating an inclusive environment, but again, we should be concerned that more than 30 per cent do not. There is clearly plenty of room for improvement. So what can be done? Is an inclusive mindset like a sense of humour in that we all think we have one? Being prepared to challenge our personal thinking is surely a good place to start.

Unconscious biasUnconscious bias is integral to human psychology; it enables fast decision making and is formed from our life experiences. When we open our eyes and ears, we start to notice assumptions and preconceptions. Like the myth that women talk more than men, and myth it is with multiple studies showing women actually talk less than men and are less listened to.

One study by Yale psychologist Victoria Brescoll, found that when male executives spoke more often they were perceived to be more competent, but when female executives spoke more often, they were given lower competence ratings. Other studies showed women were less listened to in meetings and their valid points ignored, only to be accepted when repeated by male colleagues.

The experience is often mirrored in online meetings. In an interview with The New York Times, Mita Mallick, head of diversity and inclusion at Unilever, said frequent interruptions by male colleagues often prevent her sharing opinions in online meetings.

Luxury or necessity?Massey admits as we emerge from the pandemic, focusing on diversity and inclusion might feel like a luxury not every business can afford. Actually, its the ideal time.

The pandemic put the spotlight on AV we were the ones that enabled everyone to work from home, hold and attend meetings and conferences and its brought a new level of respect. Now is a good time to tell the wider world what we do.What we need are AV ambassadors, says Massey.

People who will share their stories and inspire the next generation of AV professionals. Many AV businesses invest in telling their stories to prospective customers to win business.

Maybe its time to explore how to come together and shine a light on what we do in AV to inspire new talent to join an industry that can offer them a great and fulfilling career. Research suggests D&I can boost profitability and innovation as well as attract and retain talent so its a win: win.

See the original post here:

Diversification is the key to success - AV Magazine

Former Prime Minister Raila Odinga and Deputy President William Ruto chat during Jamhuri Day celebrations at Nyayo National Stadium, Nairobi on Saturday, December 12, 2020. [Boniface Okendo, Standard]

The political heavens have earmarked another evil in Kenya; that Raila Odinga and William Ruto are the gates through which political intolerance could enter Kenya towards 2022.

Undoubtedly, the followers of Raila and Ruto are the titans of political intolerance in this country.

I have observed that since 2013, the leading faceoff in Kenyan politics has been between Raila and Ruto. It still will reign in 2022 and thus, Raila and Ruto must take charge and responsibility.

Yes, the two political titans in next year's elections will be Raila and Ruto. This binary opposition started in 2013 through 2017.

In 2013 and 2017, and this has been agreed on by many political pundits, those who voted Jubilee were not voting for Uhuru Kenyatta, they were voting against Raila.

Likewise, those who voted for Raila were doing so against Ruto not for Uhuru. Raila's followers hate Ruto because they love Raila.

Ruto's followers hate Raila because they love Ruto the fight between Jubilee and ODM, has not at one time involved Uhuru.

Ruto supported Uhuru in 2013 and 2017 not because he believed in the president. Actually, that was the irony that Uhuru learnt too late. Ruto was using Uhuru to stop Raila from ascending to presidency.

We have seen openly that Raila and ODM had no bile with Uhuru the thorn in their back has been Ruto. ODM and Raila must learn to stay with it because it is not going away soon.

Raila and Ruto must stop unhealthy competition, especially created through jobless and desperate bloggers who make the 2022 presidential election model look like a football match because of a few coins.

These trolls are driven by money and they shift their political propaganda in favour of who pays them they dont care about values or peace and unity of Kenya.

I have seen a much-distorted interpretation of Mount Kenya region since Ruto started campaigning there in 2018. The mountain people have always come in large numbers to listen to the deputy president.

This was wrongly interpreted as meaning that Ruto has been accepted by the Mt Kenya people and the case for other aspirants is closed.

That was the beginning of the seed of discord and that seedling should be cut.

For the last few weeks, Raila broke through the imaginary firewalls created by Ruto and his allies. It shocked both Railas enthusiasts and Ruto followers.

Immediately, Raila and ODM enthusiasts started interpreting the big turn up to mean Raila has been accepted in Mt Kenya and that Ruto has been rejected.

This binary opposition political interpretation is very shallow it confuses peace-loving citizens.

It legitimises hiring of thugs by any of the two sides to disrupt opponents' rallies to assume political correctness.

I have a dream that Ruto will go to Kisumu City and pull a big crowd just like he has done in Central Kenya.

I wish that the crowd will not be interpreted as Railas loss of ground in his region, as propaganda political analysts sensationalise.

I look forward to Raila going to Eldoret town and pulling a throng of Kenyans and that the presence of this crowd will not be politically used to mean Ruto has lost his ground.

Kenyans yearn to hear Ruto telling his followers, "When Raila comes around, come out, listen to him and dont shout my name or against him; listen to what he promises you and decide for yourselves."

I also want to hear Raila commit to preaching the same message to his followers.

My conclusion is that the first manifesto Raila and Ruto can give their followers ahead of 2022 is not the reduction of fuel prices, employment, tax reduction and other political clichs nay, the number one promise they should give to Kenyans, without which others have no roots, is political forbearance.

Dr Ndonye Is a Lecturer of Communication and Media. @Dr_Mndonye

Here is the original post:

Raila, Ruto must end political intolerance ahead of elections - The Standard

When it was announced that The Many Saints of Newark, David Chases return to The Sopranos, would be set during the 1967 Newark riots, and would feature prominent Black characters (most notably Leslie Odom Jr.), I was intrigued, but a little bit nervous. No one had asked David Chase to take on race. No one had said, Do you know what television show can really speak to the Black Lives Matter moment? The Sopranos!

This is not to deny that The Sopranos was always about race. When the focus wasnt on violence and crimeor on large stupid men eating salted meats and stewing in their pettinessthe show explored what happens when a certain Italian American subculture moves to the suburbs, when ethnic pride becomes melting-pot patriotism. As critics and academics observed, it was a show about how Italians became white. Tony Sopranos anxiety that he came in at the end was about his fear that his mode of ethnic whiteness was losing its coherence in an increasingly multicultural and multiracial America. I think about my father, he famously laments in the closing minutes of the pilot episode: He never reached the heights like me, but in a lot of ways he had it better. He had his people, they had their standards, they had pride. Today, what do we got?

As critics and academics observed, The Sopranos was a show about how Italians became white.

But if it was damning in its exploration of the psychic underbelly of patriarchal ethnic whitenessleading to more than a few Did The Sopranos predict Trump? think piecesthe show could be cringingly ham-fisted when it came to other races and ethnicities. Its Jews were moneylenders or mystics, its Native Americans were academic frauds or casino moguls, and its Black characters, perhaps the most offensively served, were invariably thugs, rappers, and grinning hustlers. They all play the race card, a phrase encapsulating the belief that minorities are less oppressed than capitalizing on exaggerated claims of oppression. In other words, it wasnt just that the protagonists themselves were enthusiastic raciststhough they certainly were that, and it can be hard to watchit was that the show so often portrayed the world as they saw it. Tonys anger at political correctness often seemed endorsed by the show itself.

Of course, the Italian protagonists of The Sopranos were also a caricature of superstitious and money-hungry Italian American stereotypes. In The Sopranos, shamelessly cashing in your identity might be the most American thing of all: Every race and ethnicity is portrayed as cynical frauds, addicted to violence and chained to a desire for money. But the shows racism (or meta-racism) has still aged very poorly. As we go through a renaissance of interest in The Sopranosassisted by its availability on streaming platformsits not groaningly clichd characters like the rappers Massive Genius or Fabolous, or the many caricatured Black gangsters who invariably die stupidly, that viewers are rediscovering. For its well-read fans, the show they love was simply not about Black people, or about any other ethnic minority. Its about white people.

Which leads us to the million-dollar question: Does The Many Saints of Newark have anything to say about Black people? After all, this movie wasnt just made in a different time than The Sopranos was, it has been released during a very particular moment of historical resonance. Though filmed in 2019, were watching it a year after the historic protests against the murder of George Floyd. The Sopranos was unmistakably of its dot-com-bubble, Y2K, and 9/11 moment, but the timeliness of this movie is inescapable.

Its almost shocking, then, to discover how little this movie has to say about the historical material it plays with, how careless it is with its Black characters, and how strangely caught in narcissistic nostalgia it turns out to be.

It must be said that The Many Saints of Newark is simply not a very good movie: busy, unnecessary, disappointingly ordinary as Manohla Dargis put it. On the Sunday after the movies release, the Sopranos Twitter group Im in (which will tell you something about my level of fandom) briefly changed its name from no spoilers until Monday to spoiler: its bad.

Sometimes a piece of entertainment just doesnt work, and theres nothing else to say. Maybe something as distinctly of its moment as The Sopranos cant be made today; maybe a Sopranos reboot without James Gandolfini was always going to be doomed. However, I would propose that the movies problem runs deeper, that its basic structural problem also illustrates a particular failure of imagination.

Its almost shocking to discover how little this movie has to say about the historical material it plays with, how careless it is with its Black characters.

The structural problem is simple, and many have pointed it out: The movie tries, in only two hours, to tell two very different and difficult stories at once, but because it lacks the time to let either plot breathe or develop, it fails at both. On the one hand, this is a movie about the insulated white community of the show, telling the story of Tonys family before they fled to the suburbs. On the other hand, its a movie about the Black people that they fled from, about the rise of a Black gangster who would take over the inner-city spaces that whites were fleeing.

But while it would be a tall order to tell a coherent story across the American color line at one of the moments of its most heightened tension, the movies inability to integrate these two worlds is more than just a screenwriting failure, or something that you could have fixed by expanding it to miniseries length. Its a refusal to look closely at how integrated these worlds once were, and how increasingly segregated this country became after the civil rights era.

Ask yourself this: If Leslie Odom Jr.s Harold McBrayer were removed from the movie, and if every scene that takes place in Black Newark were excised, how different would Tonys story be? How different would the rest of the movie be? The answer is simple. Dickie Moltisanti would still kill his father to take his stepmother as his mistress; Tonys beloved uncle would still be killed by his less beloved uncle; and Tonys mother would still blame him for everything (and vice versa). If this is the story of how Tony became a gangster rather than a football player, his tragedy is that no one in his familyexcept dead Uncle Dickiewants him to be good. Nothing in Black Newark alters or even touches that story.

In the film, Black people are a spectacle, a useful red herring to cover up crimes. Dickie burns his fathers body in his car dealership as the city is in flames, holding the rioters responsible. Juniors killing of Dickie presumably goes unremarked because everyone assumes Harold had him whacked. Paulie and Pussy steal a TV because they know it will be blamed on the Harlem Globetrotters, as Paulie puts it. Black Newark is a place you stay out of, and flee from, as when Dickie accidentally finds himself in a riot or when the family flees to the suburbs because a Black doctor bought a house. Black people are the orange sky they stare mutely up at, a baffling reflection of riots whose causes and meaning they find utterly mysterious.

We see Harold McBrayer reflect on his exploitation by his white colleagues, listen to Black Power poetry, turn against his onetime high school football buddy Dickie, and begin to build an empire. Unlike virtually every character in The Sopranos, he seems like a real hero. He is capable, thoughtful, cautious, and his grievances are real. More than just handsome, hes exactly the kind of man Tony Soprano would claim to revere, the strong silent type. He is, in short, one of the least Sopranos characters David Chase has ever written. He should be incompetent, unattractive, and short-sighted. He should harbor bizarre delusions of grandeur and an unfounded persecution complex. He should spontaneously make narcissistic choices that ultimately ruin him. The point of his character should be his self-deceptions and pettiness.

But Harold doesnt just come from a different part of Newark; he comes from a different show. And if the great thing about The Sopranos was that it demystified the mafia, showing them to be lazy, violent slobs, the strange thing about The Many Saints of Newark is that it seems to be doing the opposite in Harolds world, not a deconstruction of the gangsters self-image, but a glorification of it.

The missed opportunity was for the movie to connect these two story lines. Dickie Moltisanti should have been that point of connection, and that should have been what made his death meaningful. But we see no indication that Tony knows or cares that Harold was supposed to have been who killed his uncle; Dickies death is not made meaningful to him in racial terms.

What if it was? What if Dickies death didnt just shed light on Tonys strained relationship with Junior? What if Tonys origin story was his (false) belief that his avuncular father figure had been murdered by a Black man? It would not only resonate with his racist insistence in the show that you stay with your own people, it would explain why that box of Uncle Bens rice knocks him out in Season 3. And what if the movie had explored the time before Tony learned to be a racist, his path not taken? It could have been jazz records that Tonys dead uncle gave him, rather than the JBL speakers he listens to white rock n roll through. But the movie doesnt go there. Its left to our ghostly narrator to relate the Sopranos flight from the inner city, as an interstitial afterthought, between scenes: That fall, Johnny moved to the suburbs, the Black thing. Its impossible to tell what Tony makes of the Black thing (or even if he makes anything of it at all).

The Sopranos was about Italian whiteness, but what if Many Saints had been about Italian non-whiteness? The history embedded in a slur like guinea, as in the Guinea coast of West Africadirectly asserting that Italians are Blackis strangely absent from this story. Cops might not have been pulling Italian cab drivers out of their cars, but its strange to do a historical drama about race in the 60s and not address the extent to which Italians really were less white, with much fresher memories of real grievances.

Theres a reason that Junior Soprano reveres the Kennedys, after all; today, its a moderately interesting piece of trivia that our Supreme Court has a Catholic supermajority, but in 1960, a Catholic president was a big deal. And while there is some playful banter in the movie about how Sicilians have Black bloodto which one Sicilian takes great offenseimagine a version of this movie in which Dickies mother-in-law was explicitly coded as having North African heritage. Sicily is a lot closer to Tunisia than Rome, after all, a geographical fact that could have been made into a thematic one. What if the movie explored a lost interracial desire and solidarity, instead of simply white flight? (Instead, shes from Ariano, a short drive from Tonys own Avellino.)

The movie were left with tells a story about the civil rights struggle in Newark, Black Power, and white flight that rhymes strangely well with what white people often tell themselves.

Im not just asking David Chase to have made a different movie than the one he did. This much better movie he didnt make is implied throughout, as when the movie seems to be building toward the reveal that Giuseppina will turn out to have been Christophers real mother. But after much is made of the fact that Dickie cant seem to conceive with his wifeand he takes up with his Italian mistressthey suddenly, without explanation, are able to have Christopher. You can almost smell the much more interesting movie this could have been if these plots had connected.

Theres even an early scene in the movie when Harold jokes that Dickies skill as a football player was his hypothetical Black blood (Thats Sicilians, Im Napoletano, Dickie corrects him), but at that moment, the camera cuts to Junior Soprano, who looks up, interested. Its just a tiny moment, easily lost, but it might be that in that one quick shot, we finally get an answer for Juniors dogged insistencein both the show and the moviethat Tony never had the makings of a varsity athlete. Just as Christopher suggests, from the grave, that moving to the suburbs is what made Tony a pussy, is there something buried here about Tonys fear of, or lack of, or distance from Blackness? Is that why he lacked the makings of a varsity athlete?

Unfortunately, connections like this remain buried, barely implied. When its revealed that it was Junior who had Dickie killed, Dickies entire struggle with Harold is rendered moot, revealed as a massive misdirection. But the same is true for what had seemed like the movies effort to say something about race, about the Black thing. The orange skies above Newark are picturesque, as the flames of downtown looting reflect across the city to where a young Tony Soprano (and a young David Chase) could see them. But those riots turn out to be as inconsequential as Harold is to the story, just a means of camouflaging a murder that no one seems to care about anyway.

The movie is just as disinterested in the era of re-segregation that followed the 60s, as white families not only fled the prospect of living beside Black people, but erected new structures of discrimination to keep them from following. After the credits, we see a strangely triumphal scene of integration, as Harold cheerfully greets a (hostile) white neighbor, and then turns to making some kind of criminal payoff. He has won, the movie implies; the city is his. Is this a triumph? That would be a strange takeaway for a movie about the world we live in, where we are more segregated now than weve been in decades.

Instead, the movie that were left with tells a story about the civil rights struggle in Newark, Black Power, and white flight that rhymes strangely well with what white people often tell themselves about where racial strife comes from: Black people. After all, the story of civil rights is of Black people demanding social integration, equality, and an end to racial segregation; white flight is a story of whites abandoning their cities rather than allow all of that. But if the mob story in The Many Saints of Newark is a microcosm of racial history, its striking that Harold turns out to be the source of that division, with Dickie its victim. Its superficially easy to understand Dickies confusion when Harold turns against him, after having treated him quite wellalmost a brother!in every scene we see of the two together. How, after all, could he ever understand what drove Harold, or what its like to be Black in Newark? All of that happened in a completely different movie.

See the original post:

The Many Feints of The Sopranos - The American Prospect