Month: July 2020

If Americans were asked to describe the Statue of Liberty without looking at it, most of us could probably describe her long robe, the crown on her head, a lighted torch in her right hand and a tablet cradled in her left. Some might remember it’s inscribed with the date of the American Declaration of Independence, July 4, 1776.

But there’s a significant detail most of us would miss. It’s a feature that points to why Lady Liberty was created and gifted to us in the first place. At her feet, where her robe drapes the ground, lay a broken shackle and chains—a symbol of the abolishment of slavery.

Most people see the Statue of Liberty as a symbol of our welcoming immigrants and mistakenly assume that’s what she was meant to represent. Indeed, the opening words of Emma Lazarus’s poem engraved on a plaque at the Statue of Liberty—”Give me your tired, your poor, your huddled masses yearning to breathe free”—have long evoked images of immigrants arriving on our shores, seeking a better life in The American Dream.

But that plaque wasn’t added to the statue until 1903, nearly two decades after the statue was unveiled. The original inspiration for the monument was emancipation, not immigration.

According to a Washington Post interview with historian Edward Berenson, the concept of Lady Liberty originated when French anti-slavery activist—and huge fan of the United States’ Constitution—Édouard de Laboulaye organized a meeting of other French abolitionists in Versailles in June 1865, just a few months after the American Civil War ended. “They talked about the idea of creating some kind of commemorative gift that would recognize the importance of the liberation of the slaves,” Berenson said.

Laboulaye enlisted a sculptor, Frédéric-Auguste Bartholdi, to come up with ideas. One of the first models, circa 1870, had Lady Liberty holding the broken shackles and chains in her left hand. In the final iteration, her left hand wrapped around a tablet instead and the anti-slavery symbolism of the shackle and chain was moved to her feet.

Writer Robin Wright pondered this week in The New Yorker what Laboulaye would think of our country today. The America that is embroiled in yet another civil rights movement because we still can’t seem to get the whole “liberty and justice for all” thing down pat. The America that spent the century after slavery enacting laws and policies specifically designed to keep Black Americans down, followed by decades of continued social, economic and political oppression. The America that sometimes does the right thing, but only after tireless activism manages to break through a ton of resistance to changing the racism-infused status quo.

The U.S. has juggled dichotomies and hypocrisies in our national identity from the very beginning. The same founding father who declared “that all men are created equal” enslaved more than 600 human beings in his lifetime. The same people who celebrated religious freedom forced their Christian faith on Native peoples. Our most celebrated history of “liberty” and “freedom” is inseparable from our country’s violent subjugation of entire races and ethnicities, and yet we compartmentalize rather than acknowledge that two things can be equally true at the same time.

Every nation on earth has problematic history—but what makes the U.S. different—is that our problematic history is also our proudest history. Our nation was founded during the heyday of the transatlantic slave trade on land that was already occupied. The profound and world-changing document on which our government was built is the same document that was used to legally protect and excuse the enslavement of Black people. The house in which the President of the United States sits today was built partially by enslaved people. The deadliest war we’ve ever fought was over the “right” to enslave Black people.

The truth is that blatant, violent racism was institutionalized from the very beginning of this country. For most of us, that truth has always been treated as a footnote rather than a feature in our history educations. Until we really reckon with the full truth of our history—which it seems like we are finally starting to do—we won’t ever get to see the full measure of what our country could be.

In some ways, the evolution of the design of the Statue of Liberty—the moving of the broken shackle and chain from her hands to being half hidden beneath her robe, as well as the movement of our perception of her symbolism from abolition to immigration—is representative of how we’ve chosen to portray ourselves as a nation. We want people to think: Hey, look at our Declaration of Independence! See how we welcome immigrants! We’re so great! (Oh, by the way, hereditary, race-based chattel slavery was a thing for longer than emancipation has been on our soil. And then there was the 100 years of Jim Crow. Not to mention how we’ve broken every promise made to Native Americans. And honestly, we haven’t even been that nice to immigrants either). But look, independence and a nod to immigration! We’re so great!

The thing is that we can be so great. The foundation of true liberty and justice for all, even with all its cracks, is still there. The vision in our founding documents was truly revolutionary. We just have to decide to actually build the country we claim to have built—one that truly lives up to the values and ideals it professes for all people.

The WNBA is set to begin its season in late July with a 22-game slate at IMG Academy in Brandenton, Florida but, before the games begin, the league and WNBPA announced that the campaign will be dedicated to social justice. As part of that focus, a WNBA/WNBPA Social Justice Council has been created, with its mission “to be a driving force of necessary and continuing conversations about race, voting rights, LGBTQ+ advocacy, and gun control amongst other important societal issues.”

Members of the council include A’ja Wilson and Breanna Stewart and the group “will cultivate designated spaces for community conversations, virtual roundtables, player-produced podcasts, and other activations to address this country’s long history of inequality, implicit bias and systemic racism that has targeted black and brown communities.”

“As many WNBA players–past and present–have said and, more importantly, consistently demonstrated, the reason why you see us engaging and leading the charge when it comes to social advocacy is because it is in our DNA,” WNBPA President Nneka Ogwumike said in an official statement from the league. “With 140-plus voices all together for the first time ever, we can be a powerful force connecting to our sisters across the country and in other parts of the world. And may we all recognize that the league’s stated commitment to us – in this season and beyond – offers a pivotal moment in sports history.”

In late June, WNBA star Angel McCoughtry urged the WNBA to allow players to wear the names of victims of police brutality on their jerseys and, only a few weeks later, that vision is a reality. The names of Breonna Taylor, Sandra Bland, Vanessa Guillen and many more women and girls that have been victims of police brutality and racial violence will be recognized during the first weekend. From there, WNBA players will don warmups with “Black Lives Matter” on the front and “Say Her Name” on the back throughout the entire season, with “Black Lives Matter” also displayed on courts during game action.

“We are incredibly proud of WNBA players who continue to lead with their inspiring voices and effective actions in the league’s dedicated fight against systemic racism and violence,” WNBA Commissioner Cathy Engelbert said. “Working together with the WNBPA and the teams, the league aims to highlight players’ social justice efforts throughout the 2020 season and beyond. Systemic change can’t happen overnight, but it is our shared responsibility to do everything we can to raise awareness and promote the justice we hope to see in society.”

The WNBA and the WNBPA pledge to “drive impactful, measurable and meaningful change” in the coming days and this messaging is a strong start toward that goal. While the words displayed on jerseys and courts may draw the headlines, the work is ongoing and, with the establishment of the council, there is a strong foundation for the future.

This article originally appeared on Common Dreams. You can read it here.

A U.S. district court on Monday delivered a major win to local Indigenous organizers and climate activists—and a significant blow to the fossil fuel industry and the Trump administration—by ordering the Dakota Access Pipeline to be shut down and emptied of oil by Aug. 5 while federal regulators conduct an environmental review of the project.

DAPL, as the Energy Transfer Partners (ETP) pipeline is widely known, transports crude oil from North Dakota’s Bakken shale basin to a terminal in Illinois. The pipeline has gained international notoriety in recent years due to protests—particularly on and around the Standing Rock Indian Reservation—by environmentalists and Native Americans who live along the route.

The Monday decision by D.C.-based District Judge James E. Boasberg comes after four years of litigation brought by the Standing Rock Sioux, Cheyenne River Sioux, and others against the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers for allowing ETP to construct and operate the pipeline beneath Lake Oahe, a dammed portion of the Missouri River near the reservation.

The Obama administration denied permits for DAPL to cross the river in December 2016, but President Donald Trump signed an executive order advancing the project shortly after taking office in January 2017. The pipeline was completed and operating within months.

Boasberg’s move to shut down DAPL was welcomed by critics of the pipeline.

“Today is a historic day for the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe and the many people who have supported us in the fight against the pipeline,” chairman Mike Faith of the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe said in a statement. “This pipeline should have never been built here. We told them that from the beginning.”

“It took four long years, but today justice has been served at Standing Rock,” added Earthjustice attorney Jan Hasselman, who represents the tribe. “If the events of 2020 have taught us anything, it’s that health and justice must be prioritized early on in any decision-making process if we want to avoid a crisis later on.”

In a separate statement, the Indigenous Environmental Network (IEN) delcared, “We are celebrating this order as it vindicates the many prayers, actions, and legal arguments of Oceti Sakowin tribal nations and communities!”

“The Standing Rock and Cheyenne River Sioux Tribes have shown the world that treaty rights and environmental justice are not token concepts without merit, but rather tangible arguments that inherently protect the sacredness of mother earth,” IEN said. “We will continue to fight until DAPL is stopped completely “

Boasberg’s order Monday followed his finding in March that the Corps had violated the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) when approving federal permits for DAPL. The Corps is expected to finish it full court-ordered Environmental Impact Statement (EIS) for the pipeline by mid-2021.

The decision to temporarily shut down DAPL came just a day after two energy companies cancelled the Atlantic Coast Pipeline (ACP) that would have transported fracked gas through West Virginia, Virginia, and North Carolina—a move that activists called a “historic victory for clean water, the climate, public health, and our communities.”

“These monumental defeats for the fossil fuel industry are a clear sign that bold community opposition, strategic legal challenges and state-level clean energy legislation are all working together to thwart the Trump administration’s pro-polluter agenda,” Food & Water Action policy director Mitch Jones said in a statement Monday, referencing both the DAPL decision and the ACP cancellation.

“The campaign to stop the Dakota Access pipeline, led by Indigenous groups whose water would have been directly impacted by that filthy project, inspired and emboldened climate activists across the country,” Jones continued. “The Trump White House can boast and bluster all it wants, and corporate behemoths can scheme to take advantage of the administration’s fondness for fossil fuels, but they are no match for determined grassroots opposition movements fighting for environmental justice and an end to the degradation of our air, water and climate.”

“Fossil fuels are dying,” he added, “and there is little that Donald Trump can do to save them.”

Greenpeace USA climate director Janet Redman called the DAPL shutdown a “huge victory for the courageous members” of the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe and allied activists “who fought to protect their land, their water, and their right to a healthy and safe future.”

“This is as much a victory for human rights and Indigenous sovereignty as it is for the climate,” Redman said in a statement Monday before also connecting the two wins.

“Energy Transfer’s Dakota Access Pipeline and other environmentally reckless fossil fuel infrastructure projects will only make billionaires richer while the rest of us suffer,” Redman said. “Today’s ruling—arriving on the heels of the Atlantic Coast Pipeline victory—may be a calamity for oil and gas executives looking to profit from the disastrous climate crisis, but it’s a huge win for those of us committed to a liveable world. A just transition to renewable energy is not only the future, it is the only responsible choice for today.”

“The past 24 hours,” she added, “have sent a loud and clear message to fossil fuel corporations still committed to constructing dangerous pipelines—the future does not belong to you.”

The entertainment industry has for the most part been shut down for nearly four months now, especially in California, where COVID-19 cases have been recently re-spiking. What is a director to do when they can’t get within six feet of a cast and crew? Rian Johnson found a solution: He directed a new commercial for Pokemon Go, all without leaving his home.

The ad finds a host of house-bound players peeling off the reality of walls, doors, and backyards as though they were wallpaper, revealing such lurking Pokemon characters as Pikachu, Squirtle, Mudkip, and Snorlax. The logistics of how Johnson directed the ad — did he have crew members shoot their families in the homes in which they’re quarantining, using professional cameras? — is unclear, although enough of it is CGI that it wouldn’t require him traveling to a set anyway. (And remember: Wes Anderson directed much of the stop-motion Fantastic Mr. Fox remotely.)

Why is the director of Brick, The Last Jedi, and Knives Out helming an ad for Pokemon Go? Because he’s a fan, of course. In a statement, Johnson said the incredibly popular smartphone game has kept me engaged with my friends remotely as I’ve been practicing physical distancing these past few months.” He added that directing a production remotely was “a new experience for me,” and he
“enjoyed the highly collaborative process and think we put together a fun and upbeat commercial that fans will enjoy.”

The reason for the ad? The “Pokemon Go Fest” is still slated for July 25, although it will have to be held virtually, for reasons we obviously don’t need to explain. In fact, the game’s top brass has made the game significantly less Go, to encourage players to not leave their homes, gather in groups, and make this pandemic even more nightmarish than it is already. Truly one of the only things making this better is that we can all still play Pokemon Go.

While various sports leagues in North America deal with positive coronavirus cases and one notable team abruptly pulled out of contention due to quite literally running out of players, the National Hockey League continues to set plans for its conclusion of the 2019-20 season.

The league announced Monday its officially schedule to resume the season with a 24-team postseason tournament, to be held in Toronto and Vancouver next month. According to the schedule, training camps would open for eligible teams in mid-July, then they would travel to their respective host cities on July 26 for a tournament which will have its opening rounds played starting on August 1.

The move comes on the same day the NHL and its Players Association announced a preliminary agreement to its collective bargaining agreement, which would keep labor relations between the two sides amiable for another four years.

That’s all welcome news, especially for a league that perhaps is mostly known in the larger American sports landscape for lockouts more than anything over the last two decades. But as cases rise in the United States and some players are openly questioning how their leagues have handled an attempt to play sports amid the COVID-19 pandemic, the NHL escaping to Canada for a tournament starting in August is looking like the most likely to succeed plan of any put forth thus far.

College is as much about chopping it up on campus with your classmates and professors as it is about getting a quality education. Even for those Ivy League overachievers, campus life is a crucially important part of the college experience, or at least, that’s what a college tells you while they’re reaching into your pockets for that sweet loan-based tuition money.

Which is why it’s come as a surprise to many that despite the fact that we’re about to enter an academic school year in which the vast majority of American students won’t be able to congregate in jam-packed classrooms and rub elbows in crowded campus quads, Harvard University plans on charging full tuition for the 2020-2021 school year. Granted, Harvard knows that expecting students to pay full tuition — which costs $49,653 for a full year at Harvard — for an arguably lesser college experience is a big ask, which is why they’re inviting 40% of undergraduates in their residential system to live on campus for the fall semester, including all first-year students, according to an announcement made by the Faculty of Arts and Sciences on Monday, July 6th.

However, all learning will still be done remotely for the entire academic year. According to the Harvard Gazette, students invited to the campus will experience a shortened semester that is scheduled to end just before Thanksgiving, when students will complete reading and exam periods from home.

Life on campus will still be very different than the typical Harvard experience, though. Students living on campus will be required to sign a contract and agree to new health screening measures, daily symptom checks, routine viral testing ever three days, voluntary participation in contact tracing, and will be subjected to mandatory mask-wearing on campus and physical distancing. In addition, dining areas and other non-residential buildings at Harvard will be closed, as well as recreational facilities, and physical spaces in the Harvard Library. Off-campus visitors will also be prohibited from entering the campus, including students enrolled who are not currently in residence.

Seniors and Juniors in residence at Harvard? They’re the most out of luck. The rest of the student body will continue to study away from campus and attend classes remotely, though those not invited to campus for the full year have been offered the opportunity to take two tuition-free courses for the Summer term in 2021, and those receiving financial aid will receive an additional $5,000 in remote room and board allowances.

In the event that a student on campus does contract the virus, Harvard will isolate and care for that student at the Harvard University Health Services. While Harvard is giving priority to first-year students for the fall semester, they’ll instead focus on reinviting seniors to the campus for their final semester before graduation while first-year students complete the second half of their year at home.

Soon after the announcement, many took to Twitter to criticize the university for expecting students to pay full price for a lesser experience. Harvard kids, if there was ever a year to take a gap year and serve your comminities, this is it!

Major League Soccer’s return tournament is slated to kick off this week, but in a bit of huge news, the festivities will occur with one fewer team than originally planned. According to both The Athletic and ESPN, FC Dallas, which has seen 10 players and a coach test all positive while in the bubble, has decided to pull out two days before the tournament began.

As ESPN laid out, a trio of Dallas players tested positive prior to the team heading to Disney for the start of the tournament. Upon arriving, a number of positive tests for those who had previously tested positive began popping up, and in all, 14 members of the organization have received positive COVID-19 tests. Upon testing positive, those in the bubble began isolating, but as FC Dallas manager Luchi Gonzalez previously told ESPN, there were concerns about taking to the pitch, even once individuals began getting over the virus.

“There’s concerns with our participation, because as the head coach of this team, I have to be very responsible in the amount of training we can get before we can play a high level professional game,” Gonzalez said. “And that’s first and foremost for me because we want to prevent injuries. And we want players to perform the best of their ability. And on top of that, we want to maintain their health and safety and not risk contamination. So it’s just a tough balance.”

Dallas’ first match was slated to take place on Thursday against the Vancouver Whitecaps, but that had already been postponed. The team also had fixtures lined up against Seattle Sounders and San Jose Earthquakes. There is no word on what will happen with those three teams going forward. In the league’s last testing update, which was announced on July 4, 14 positive cases — 12 players of which came via players — were identified out of 1,191 tests that were performed.

Hamilton is the buzz of the Internet once more, finally getting a wide release to the public via the Disney+ streaming service. The rave reviews for the Broadway show filmed back in 2016 have made many wonder if its artistry will garner it some award season buzz, but according to Academy rules the Lin-Manuel Miranda production won’t be eligible for Oscars despite even the recent changes the award show has made.

The Academy has long favored films released in the traditional theatrical format for consideration for its awards. It’s something Netflix has not-so-quietly battled for years, releasing films like Roma and The Irishman in extremely limited capacities in major cities to honor that requirement while featuring them on the streaming service. That also came with, mind you, a considerable For Your Consideration campaign to try winning the favor of Academy voters in an effort to, hopefully, eventually, ease those rules in favor of streaming services hoping for prestige glory.

Earlier this year, the Oscars changed its rules to allow films to be eligible for the 2021 Oscars awards despite not doing a one-week theatrical run in the Los Angeles area. But according to Vulture, those rule changes won’t be enough to give Hamilton an opening for a belated 2021 award season.

However, it appears that the Academy has in fact said no to this. Despite the various historical precedents that would seem to point toward Hamilton’s inclusion — most notably, the filmed version of Give ‘Em Hell, Harry, a one-man show about Harry Truman that earned a Best Actor nomination for James Whitmore at the 1976 Oscars — an AMPAS source says plainly that, as a recorded stage production, Hamilton is not eligible for awards consideration. (As for the Golden Globes, the HFPA has not yet responded to a request for comment.) Satisfied? Looks like Team Hamilton will just have to content themselves with the 11 Tonys, the Grammy, and the Pulitzer Prize.

It would certainly be a shame for Hamilton, especially considering it is one of the stronger films we’ve seen in a year that has been lean on new titles of any quality whatsoever. But considering the rave reviews and the truckload of trophies the musical won at other award ceremonies, including the Tonys, it seems like Hamilton will do okay legacy-wise either way.

[via Vulture]

In City Girls‘ new video for “P*ssy Talk” with Doja Cat, their work dress code stretches business casual to its limits as the three women flaunt their assets in an office. There’s also plenty of misuse of company property as they preen for the camera with various office supplies, dropping it extra low to get to those files in the bottom drawer of the cabinet. Daps directs as Doja, JT, and Yung Miami also take it to the jungle in cat-themed costumes and dress up for an elegant dinner.

“P*ssy Talk” is the second single from City Girls’ recently released surprise album City On Lock, which they issued to streaming services shortly after it leaked online. They started the promotion of the new album just a week before with the single “Jobs” announcing their official return after JT was released from prison after spending a year inside on credit card fraud charges.

The group’s 2018 takeover was marred by JT’s impending incarceration shortly after City Girls appeared alongside Drake on his monster single “In My Feelings.” Then, in 2019, Yung Miami revealed she was pregnant with her second child while she kept the group’s promotion going by touring solo. However, City On Lock proved that the duo’s chemistry remained intact and their star power hasn’t diminished one bit.

Watch City Girls’ “P*ssy Talk” video with Doja Cat above.

If nothing below suits your sensibilities, check out our guide to What You Should Watch On Streaming Right Now.

Hamilton (Disney+) — We shouldn’t have to tell you to watch Hamilton on Disney + now that it’s finally arrived. You should have already watched Hamilton on Disney +. But, in case you haven’t, here’s your reminder. Watch Hamilton, on Disney +. Watch it if you love Broadway musicals. Watch it if you’ve never heard of Wicked or the Book of Mormon before. Watch it if you’re a history buff who loves hip hop. Watch it if you failed your high school AP US history class and only jam out to Willie Nelson. Just watch it.

The Bachelor: The Greatest Seasons – Ever! (ABC, 8:00 p.m.) — Remember the first seasons of The Bachelor and The Bachelorette? Neither do we, which might be why ABC’s taking us all the way back to the beginning to explore the many ups and downs of Alex Michel and Trista Sutter’s journeys in finding true love.

The Titan Games (NBC, 8:00 p.m.) — Victor Cruz and stunt woman Jessie Graff await new competitors on Mt. Olympus.

I May Destroy You (HBO, 9:00 p.m.) — Arabella makes some life-changing decisions, choosing to finally open up to Biagio about her assault and reassess a sexual encounter with Zain before going off during a writer’s summit. Meanwhile, Kwame takes steps in his own healing journey by reporting his assault to the police.

Warrior Nun (Netflix) — Look, is Netflix’s newest fantasy series a Catholic riff on Buffy the Vampire Slayer? Maybe. But it’s also an addictively good binge-watch for these troubled times. It’s about a group of highly trained nun assassins, ridding the world of demonic spirits with the help of an otherworldly weapon that falls into the unlikeliest of hands — a quadriplegic teenager with a lot of sass and no faith. Don’t take anything too seriously and you’re in for a hell of a fun ride.