As discussed previously, this is my weekly Twitter roundup. Note that tweets of articles generally include header images from the articles, which are not included here unless they happen to be available under a free license. Most are not. But I now add most of my commentary here, where I’m not restricted by the message length.

diagrams showing the division of the day and of the week

I also don’t generally attach pictures to posts with quotations.

9:03 – Mon 01 June 2020

Corporate Immunity, Mitch McConnell’s Priority for Coronavirus Relief, Is a Longtime Focus of the Conservative Right from The Intercept

…pushed similar corporate immunity measures on the state level since the early 2000s, part of a broader Republican push to overhaul tort law.

You’ll notice that the “push to re-open” hasn’t had anything to do with making people safe, other than a hope that the novel coronavirus will go away for the summer. It has all about shielding employers and facility owners from lawsuits when people get sick. (And you might notice that the virus tends to incubate for ten to fourteen days, today being eleven days since Memorial Day in the United States; watch the numbers carefully.)

12:04 – Mon 01 June 2020

The services rendered by Negroes in America…make a chapter of history transcending in importance anything which has taken place in the old world.

Arthur A. Schomburg

Schomburg—a Puerto Rican-American (born prior to the United States claiming it as a territory) of German and African descent—oversimplifies, more so after I elided the middle to fit in a tweet, but this is the earliest point I can find of someone acknowledging that the wealth of the United States is owed almost entirely to centuries of exploiting slave labor.

9:02 – Tue 02 June 2020

100 Great Books From African American Women from The Internet Archive

…the works don’t just make up a novel canon; they form a revealing mosaic of the Black American experience during the time period. They’re also just great reads.

Obviously, their list has different constraints, but in some ways, it’s more interesting than the list I created back in February.

12:03 – Tue 02 June 2020

No quote out of respect for the ongoing protests. You should go listen to the leaders of the protests, instead of whatever old-timer I would’ve scrounged up.

9:05 – Wed 03 June 2020

A Yorùbá language activist strives for linguistic diversity in digital spaces from Global Voices

Language has been described as the conveyor belt of culture. Èdè ẹni ni ìdánimọ̀ ẹni (“one’s language is one’s identity”). Identity is embedded in the culture…

Preserving languages and making spaces for them is important, especially in a world where translation is widely available, anyway.

12:02 – Wed 03 June 2020

Those who make peaceful revolution impossible will make violent revolution inevitable.

John F. Kennedy

Granted, this has nothing to do with Caribbean Americans or gender/sexual minorities, but seems relevant to current affairs. And Kennedy made this remark at the anniversary of the Alliance for Progress, which is at least loosely adjacent.

9:01 – Thu 04 June 2020

A GOP Lawmaker Tested Positive for Coronavirus and Didn’t Bother to Tell His Democratic Colleagues from VICE

Lewis cited privacy concerns for not disclosing his diagnosis. “Out of respect for my family, and those who I may have exposed, I chose to keep my positive case private,” Lewis continued.

Interesting that he chose to protect the privacy of the exposed to the people he was exposing. Doesn’t exactly seem honest, there…

12:05 – Thu 04 June 2020

Let us know every ecstasy and pain

That rides upon the swirling tides of life.

Tears, and rejoicings, and contentions rife

Are passions we may never feel again;

For they will fade and perish in their strife

And only our devotion will remain.

Lucius Morris Beebe

Beebe published Fallen Stars, a book of poetry that is mostly about romance, but resonates beyond that.

9:04 – Fri 05 June 2020

Animal Rights Activists Uncover the Locations of Thousands of Factory Farms from The Intercept

…“no federal agency collects accurate and consistent data on the number, size, and location of CAFOs.” As a result, the EPA “does not have the information that it needs to effectively regulate these operations.”

If you wrote a science-fiction story about thousands of hidden or missing farms, people would call it unrealistic…

12:01 – Fri 05 June 2020

Our union must know no clime, boundary, or nationality…let us hold together under all climes and in every country…

Marcus Garvey

Bonus

Because it accidentally became a tradition early on in the life of the blog, here’s a sixth article that didn’t fit into the week, but too weird to not mention.

When Innocent Until Proven Guilty Costs $400 a Month—and Your Freedom from VICE

“I don’t think the county thinks I’m a threat to public safety,” she said, parting her red braids away from her face. “But the way they go about it makes you feel like they think you’re a threat. I don’t see why they think I would skip out on court, because I’ve never been in trouble before. I don’t see why I would ever be put in that category or looked at in that way.”

Especially as the United States tries to put policing under a microscope for once, it’s worth taking a long look at the failures of the criminal justice system beyond merely poice violence.

Credits: Header image is Circular diagrams showing the division of the day and of the week from a manuscript drafted during the Carolingian Dynasty.