{"id":5188,"date":"2020-06-05T13:56:46","date_gmt":"2020-06-05T13:56:46","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/adhc.lib.ua.edu\/pandemicbook\/?page_id=5188"},"modified":"2021-11-09T17:32:55","modified_gmt":"2021-11-09T17:32:55","slug":"06-05","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/adhc.lib.ua.edu\/pandemicbook\/06-05\/","title":{"rendered":"06-05"},"content":{"rendered":"\t\t
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Friday, June 5<\/h2>\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t
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\n\t\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tUS Cases 1.9 million
US Deaths 112,511<\/span>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/span>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/a>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/section>\n\t\t\t\t
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Jun 5: Washington, D.C., prepares for a massive demonstration on Saturday, as protests continue across the United States and around the world<\/a><\/span> in response to the death of George Floyd. Joe Biden secures<\/a> <\/span>the Democratic Presidential Nomination.  Buffalo, New York’s entire police emergency response team resigns<\/a> <\/span>in “disgust,” in a show of support for two officers who were suspended after pushing over a 75-year-old man on Thursday.<\/p>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/section>\n\t\t\t\t

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\n\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\tFrom the cutting room floor...\t\t\t\t<\/span>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/span>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/section>\n\t\t\t\t
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The power of the absurd should not be underestimated. The president claims through a televised phone call to Fox News that he did not go down into the bunker to hide on the night of May 31, but to \u201cinspect\u201d it, despite the fact that the Secret Service already said that they took #BunkerBoy there for his safety.[1]<\/a> The fabrication unleashes a torrent of mockery. Sarah Cooper, an African American woman who performs impeccable lip synchs of Trump\u2019s nonsensical rhetoric, has made a parody of this absurd moment. Her rendition of his call to Fox News pulls the curtain back on an emperor desperately trying to stitch up his invisible clothes.<\/span><\/p>\n

The playwright, Eugene Ionesco, noted in the 1960s that when the world stops making sense, when it becomes terrifying and ridiculous, simply bringing attention to its absurdity can be a powerful form of resistance.[2]<\/a> <\/span><\/p>\n

[read_more id=”1″ more=”Read more” less=”Read less”]<\/p>\n

On the streets, things are shifting as well. DC\u2019s Mayor Bowser … had city street crews paint \u201cBlack Lives Matter\u201d on 16th<\/sup> Street leading up to the White House. Street signs now also proclaim \u201cBlack Lives Matter.\u201d[3]<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n

The president responds by building a wall–well, a fence really, around the White House\u2014channeling his inner dictator, perhaps. It reminds me of when Pope Pius IX locked himself inside the Vatican in 1870 after the rest of Italy had unified. The popes stayed in the Vatican walls for the next sixty years in a self-imposed incarceration.  The allegory is not lost here, as people on the political left seem delighted that the President might do less damage if he stays behind his new wall, or even better, inside his bunker.<\/span><\/p>\n

I have been wondering how long it would take before the corporations and advertisers start monetizing the BLM movement to sell goods and make profit. Americans define themselves and their citizenship by what they buy<\/em>. During the Cold War, advertisers argued that you could insure your freedom through the purchase of cars, savings bonds, household appliances, and even baseball cards.[4]<\/a> Now, we exhibit our political and personal identity by buying either an electric car or a coal roller for our pickup truck.<\/span><\/p>\n

Nike was the first company to support the BLM movement explicitly when it signed Colin Kaepernick as a spokesperson in 2018. The National Football League blackballed him for taking a knee during the playing of the national anthem before football games. It was a small but brave protest against racial injustice and police brutality. \u201cBelieve in something, even if it means sacrificing everything.\u201d This is the slogan Nike gave him. With protests now happening on the streets of smaller cities and towns across America, more companies are realizing that there is profit to be made in BLM identity politics. Netflix, Twitter, Citigroup, Starbucks, HBO, and the Crimson Tide football team at the University of Alabama are all mobilizing the \u201cBlack Lives Matter\u201d slogan to cultivate brand loyalty.[5]<\/a> Even the NFL has apologized for its past intolerance. By in large, these companies do not<\/em> have records of investing in poor neighborhoods, of affirmative action, or of sacrificing profits to promote civil rights. This is capitalist sloganeering. Whether it helps or dilutes the cause is debatable. On the one hand, these companies \u201cmainstream\u201d the BLM movement so that people like Kaepernick are no longer pariahs. They make it acceptable to support BLM. On the other hand, they provide a conduit for empty virtue signaling. This movement needs real, sustained sacrifice and action, not people who think that buying a Starbucks frapaccino absolves them of obligation so that they can go back to life-as-usual.<\/span><\/p>\n

If the corporations really wanted to help, one thing they could do would be to address the internet access crisis. Millions of people don\u2019t have access to internet, almost all of whom are the poor and in rural communities. In February of this year, the FCC reported that 23 million Americans didn\u2019t have internet access. The company Broadband Now looked closer at the FCC\u2019s research methodology and concluded that, in fact, the number is closer to 42 million.[6]<\/a> That is about 13% of the population. Internet access is quickly becoming one of the ways that structural systems of power are reinforced in this country. Money and infrastructure would solve this problem. We have the money, but as with healthcare, we have to see it as something that everyone has a right to access. Pew Research shows that Black and Hispanic populations have significantly less access to internet at home and are markedly more smartphone dependent.[7]<\/a> You can\u2019t do school or work on a smartphone with a limited data plan and a lousy cellular signal. This would be a way to show that Black Lives Matter, that poor lives matter. It is an absurd idea, I know.[8]<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n

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Notes<\/p>\n

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[1]<\/a> Julia Musto, \u201cTrump Says He Went to White House Bunker for \u2018Inspection,\u2019 Hits Back at Criticism of Church Visit,\u201d Fox News, June 3, 2020, https:\/\/www.foxnews.com\/media\/trump-bunker-inspection-church-tear-gas; David Moye, \u201cTrump Brutally Mocked For Saying He Went To Bunker Just To Inspect It,\u201d HuffPost<\/i>, June 3, 2020, https:\/\/www.huffpost.com\/entry\/trump-bunker-excuse-twitter-mock_n_5ed7c613c5b67887de3fa952.<\/span><\/p>\n

[2]<\/a> Pedro Querido, \u201cFrom Kharms to Camus: Towards a Definition of the Absurd as Resistance,\u201d The Modern Language Review<\/em> 112, no. 4 (October 2017): 765\u201392.<\/span><\/p>\n

[3]<\/a> Alisa Gumbs, \u201cWashington, D.C. Mayor Muriel Bowser Trolls Trump in the Blackest Way,\u201d Black Enterprise<\/i>, June 5, 2020, https:\/\/www.blackenterprise.com\/washington-d-c-mayor-muriel-bowser-trolls-president-trump-in-the-blackest-way\/.<\/span><\/p>\n

[4]<\/a> Margaret Peacock, \u201cCold War Consumption and the Marketing of Childhood in the Soviet Union and the United States, 1950-1960,\u201d ed. Mark Tadajewski, Journal of Historical Research in Marketing<\/em> 8, no. 1 (January 1, 2016): 83\u201398, https:\/\/doi.org\/10.1108\/JHRM-05-2015-0015.<\/span><\/p>\n

[5]<\/a> Mitchell Hartman, \u201cMarketers Are Embracing Black Lives Matter,\u201d Marketplace<\/em>, June 2, 2020, https:\/\/www.marketplace.org\/2020\/06\/02\/marketers-are-embracing-black-lives-matter\/; Cedric Thornton, \u201cNFL Commissioner: \u2018We, The NFL Admit, We Were Wrong for Not Listening to NFL Players Earlier,\u2019\u201d Black Enterprise<\/em>, June 6, 2020, https:\/\/www.blackenterprise.com\/nfl-commissioner-we-the-nfl-admit-we-were-wrong-for-not-listening-to-nfl-players-earlier\/.<\/span><\/p>\n

[6]<\/a> John Busby and Julia Tanberk, \u201cFCC Underestimates Americans Unserved by Broadband Internet by 50%,\u201d BroadbandNow, February 3, 2020, https:\/\/broadbandnow.com\/research\/fcc-underestimates-unserved-by-50-percent.<\/span><\/p>\n

[7]<\/a> Pew Research Center, \u201cDemographics of Internet and Home Broadband Usage in the United States,\u201d June 12, 2019, https:\/\/www.pewresearch.org\/internet\/fact-sheet\/internet-broadband\/.<\/span><\/p>\n

[8]<\/a> Linda Poon, \u201cThere Are Far More Americans Without Broadband Access than Previously Thought,\u201d Bloomberg.Com<\/em>, February 19, 2020, https:\/\/www.bloomberg.com\/news\/articles\/2020-02-19\/where-the-u-s-underestimates-the-digital-divide.<\/span>
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\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tBlack Panthers march in BLM protests, Atlanta\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t
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\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tWell, this was a surprise. The Marines still displayed the Confederate Battle Flag?! Better late than never.\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/a>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/section>\n\t\t\t\t
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Donald Trump: \u201cThis Is a Great Day\u201d for George Floyd \u2013 Video<\/i>, 2020. https:\/\/www.theguardian.com\/us-news\/video\/2020\/jun\/05\/donald-trump-this-is-a-great-day-for-george-floyd-video<\/a>.<\/div><\/div>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t
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WCCO 4 Minnesota, “Minneapolis Agrees To Ban Chokeholds & Require Officers To Intervene Against Unauthorized Use Of Force,” June 5, 2020. https:\/\/youtu.be\/Wvfc3EJv0cs<\/a><\/p>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/section>\n\t\t\t\t

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Stephen Colbert, “Sen. Cory Booker Talks Race, Empathy, And His Legislation To Stop Abuses Of Power By Law Enforcement,” The Late Show with Stephen Colbert, June 5, 2020. https:\/\/youtu.be\/Ayizzcv-NCE<\/a><\/p>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t

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“Breonna Taylor\u2019s Sister Tells Us What It\u2019s Like to Hear People Chant Her Name,” Vice News, June 5, 2020. https:\/\/youtu.be\/1j7rogAuUaY<\/a><\/p>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/section>\n\t\t\t\t

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Chris Hayes, “Chris Hayes Reads \u2018Incoherent\u2019 Transcript Of Trump On Radio Show,” All In, MSNBC, June 5, 2020. https:\/\/youtu.be\/VFxxLNYK6fs<\/a><\/p>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t

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“All members of Buffalo PD’s emergency response team resign in protest (GRAPHIC VIDEO),” Fox News, June 5, 2020. https:\/\/youtu.be\/5ktzglI8X4A<\/a><\/p>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/section>\n\t\t\t\t

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There was a dispute this week about whose street this is. Mayor Bowser wanted to make it abundantly clear that this is DC\u2019s street and to honor demonstrators who peacefully protesting on Monday evening. https:\/\/t.co\/bjdVXLUf12<\/a><\/p>— John J. Falcicchio (@falcicchio) June 5, 2020<\/a><\/blockquote>