Clear Language on Slavery

Hands On with Lexis+, New Premium Research Service from LexisNexis – Robert Ambrogi has authored the definitive review of Lexis+. His precise and expert review of the site, accompanied by relevant screen shots, is a must read guide for legal researchers as they consider whether to transition to this new platform.

Ambrogi states: “The basic experience of conducting legal research in Lexis+ is not all that different from Lexis Advance. But the added features that I described above — Search Tree, Missing and Must Include, Search Term Maps, and Ravel View — are valuable in that they give researchers more control over their searches and results without requiring them to be power researchers.”

 

Unclassified FBI Intelligence Assessment – White Supremacist Infiltration of Law Enforcement

 “Today, Rep. Jamie Raskin, the Chairman of the Subcommittee on Civil Rights and Civil Liberties, released an unredacted version of a 2006 Intelligence Assessment – White Supremacist Infiltration of Law Enforcement17 by the Federal Bureau of Investigations (FBI) entitled, “White Supremacist Infiltration of Law Enforcement.” Previously redacted portions of the document, made public for the first time today, reveal startlingly prescient FBI warnings about the potentially dangerous effects of infiltration of law enforcement bodies by violent white supremacist ideas, attitudes, and organizations…Since a redacted version of the assessment was published by The Intercept in 2017, it has provided an important foundation for numerous journalistic and academic investigations into the problem of white supremacist infiltration of law enforcement.  Earlier this year, a group of House Democrats asked the Department of Justice to release the unredacted document.   Despite sustained public interest, the FBI has refused to release an unredacted version of the assessment.  It has also refused to acknowledge to this Subcommittee that the threat of white supremacist infiltration of law enforcement is substantiated.  That claim is roundly contradicted by the previously redacted language of the FBI’s own assessment, which sketches out a broad spectrum of white supremacist infiltration and its wide-ranging implications and consequences…”

 

 

 

Don’t underestimate the power of the putdown in a presidential debate

PRICK THAT BALLOON: Delivering a comeback can be a potent political weapon, deflecting criticism, hammering home a point and even leaving an opponent speechless.

Clear Language on Slavery

I’ve posted before about how the language we’ve been conditioned to use about slavery and the Civil War obscures reality. From historian Michael Todd Landis:

Likewise, scholar Edward Baptist (Cornell) has provided new terms with which to speak about slavery. In his 2014 book The Half Has Never Been Told: Slavery and the Making of American Capitalism (Basic Books), he rejects “plantations” (a term pregnant with false memory and romantic myths) in favor of “labor camps”; instead of “slave-owners” (which seems to legitimate and rationalize the ownership of human beings), he uses “enslavers.” Small changes with big implications. These far more accurate and appropriate terms serve his argument well, as he re-examines the role of unfree labor in the rise of the United States as an economic powerhouse and its place in the global economy. In order to tear down old myths, he eschews the old language.

@absurdistwords had a great thread on this recently, urging us to “stop obscuring the horror with detached, antiquated, euphemistic terms”.

Clear Language on Slavery:

Slaves = Hostages
Slave Owners = Human Traffickers
Slave Catchers = Police
Plantations = Death Camps
Mistresses = Rape Victims
Discipline = Torture/Murder
Overseers = Torturers
Trading = Kidnapping
Profit = Theft
Middle Passage = Genocide

For example:

“The prominent slave owner never publicly recognized the offspring of he and one of his slave romances but allowed him to serve in the house”

is really

“The rich human trafficker raped his female hostage and then held their son hostage as well at the death camp he owned”

And from an earlier thread:

When you replace

“Owned slaves” with

“Was an active and willing participant in a vast conspiracy to kidnap children from their families in order to force them into industrial and sexual servitude”

It becomes harder to write slave owning off as just a blot on one’s record.

For instance:

George Washington was our first President and was an active and willing participant in a vast conspiracy to kidnap children from their families in order to force them into industrial and sexual servitude

They continue:

America treats slavery like an oopsie rather than a centuries-long campaign of nightmarish, brutal terrorism.

America sees the systemic and sadistic destruction of Black families as an etiquette violation.

Which is why it will excuse slave owners so readily.

More Synthetic Microfibers Now End up on Land Than in Water TreeHugger

“Fungi Can Teach Us a New Way of Looking at the World” Der Spiegel

A History Of Wheat American Conservative

Facebook suspends environmental groups despite vow to fight misinformation Guardian

What the OAS Did to Bolivia Counterpunch

Instagram model who poses as Catwoman jailed for masked robberies New York Post. Meow

Nigerian artist Arinze Stanley uses hyperrealistic techniques to draw surreal portraits in stunning detail. From his artist statement:

I draw inspiration from life experiences and basically everything that sparks a feeling of necessity, I find myself spending countless hours working on an artwork to stimulate deep and strong emotions in order to connect more intimately with my viewers 

Most times it’s almost like I lose control of my pencils and the art flows through me to the paper. 

I work with my Principle of the Three P’s namely Patience, Practice and Persistence. These have guided me over the years towards perfecting my craft.”

 

NSW treasurer’s policy adviser cost icare $700,000

COSTLY: Edward Yap had not undertaken any work for icare until August 2020, but resigned less than two weeks after moving from Treasurer Dominic Perrottet’s office to the agency.