On this day, 20 January 1900, health officials in Honolulu, Hawaii, trying to fight an outbreak of bubonic plague attempted to conduct controlled burnings of homes and businesses in Chinatown which quickly got out of control. The fire accidentally set light to the wooden roof of the old Kaumakapili church, then continued to spread for 17 days, devastating an area of 38 acres, including 4,000 homes of mostly Chinese and Japanese residents.
Authorities disregarded evidence that rats spread the disease, and instead scapegoated Asian residents for the disease which had killed a Chinese bookkeeper. They based their tactics not on science but on racist stereotypes about Chinese homes being dirty. So they set up a cordon sanitaire, effectively quarantining people of Asian descent in the city for weeks. Their possessions were thrown out into the street, their homes sprayed with carbolic acid, and they were forced to shower in public in mass, makeshift cleaning stations. Officials then began burning the homes of Chinese and Japanese people.
When the January fire first started spreading out of control, residents fleeing for their lives were turned back by the National Guard, backed up by white vigilantes. Eventually a single exit in the cordon was opened to allow people to escape the fires.
The Honolulu Advertiser declared that “intelligent Anglo-Saxon methods” had been employed to combat a “disease wafted to these shores from Asiatic countries”. Another local paper celebrated the fire for supposedly eradicating the plague while also clearing valuable real estate.
After the fire, many of the residents made homeless were never able to return to live in the area, and its demographics were permanently altered.
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Read this and hundreds of other stories in our first book, available here in our online store: https://shop.workingclasshistory.com/products/working-class-history-everyday-acts-resistance-rebellion-book https://www.facebook.com/workingclasshistory/photos/a.296224173896073/1634514043400406/?type=3

tendie-defender

This cartoon is 10 years old and it’s still valid.

tendie-defender

1/20/21 time to switch pins again.

Kitty can’t even believe the scritches

Sharp-tailed Grouse

Pink Rose Dresden, Germany

trixclibrarian

everything accelerated and amplified… to get our attention eh? nature’s pacing reacts. 

Hello, I have frustrations about being an 'essential worker' during the pandemic.

abusive parents constantly teach children that the only correct way to deal with adults is to appease them and give them what they want and hope they don’t hurt you, how the hell are we supposed to deal with predators and pedophiles then? Explain this to me, why is it our fault when we can’t say no and can’t fight back when we were already taught that saying no and resisting will only end us in a sea of pain and shame, what was your fucking plan for helping us stay safe?

your plan was to just serve us to predators as helpless as possible and to make sure we blame ourselves for it

libraryadvocates

Yesterday I said that bookmobiles are an instant reblog. Today, I learned that rule also applies to book donkeys.

rockpapertheodore

BIBLIOBURRO

Bruce Cockburn - If I Had A Rocket Launcher

isletconqueror

felt like this should be enunciated! rightful credit goes to @/celisiastanton on instagram

reverseracistpoc

[ID: White text on black background with large, all caps pastel pink titles on every image. Each image has @/celisiastanton in the bottom right corner.

“5 Ways White Women Center Themselves in Conversations About Race

1. Crying

I don’t care whether you’re crying because you feel attacked or crying because you feel guilty — either way, you need to stop. When you cry the natural focus shifts to you because many folks don’t feel comfortable continuing a conversation with someone who is so visibly distraught. You’ve created two scenarios: either I have to console you, or I have to put away the conversation. Neither is fair and both are to appease you — the white person who is not harmed and is actually *benefitted* by racism.

2. Redirecting to Your Trauma 

Trauma and mental illness are both very real and should be taken seriously. That said, conversations about racism are not the time and place to focus on the struggles you’ve been through in your life, nor are they sufficient excuses for not engaging in the intentional work of anti-racism.

I always find these redirects ironic because *racism* is traumatic. Constantly dealing with *white fragility* is traumatic. By re-centering the conversation to be about you and your trauma you are contributing to the racial trauma of the person you’re speaking to.

3. Bringing Up Times When You Were A ‘Good Ally’ 

Please stop. You think we can’t tell, but I promise you —we can. I don’t want to hear about that one time when you stood up for a Black person I don’t want to hear about how inspiring the book you read last month was, and I certainly don’t want to hear about that one friend you have who you noticed did something racist once. I’m sorry you just not going to be getting a biscuit for *any* of that. Save yourself some energy, girl! Quit the show. We’ll know if you’re a good -ally if you show us with your actions. When you recenter yourself in this way it forces us to reassure you that you are in fact a ‘good person’ and ‘not a racist’. Exhausting.

4. Credentialing

This is something that Robin Diangelo discusses in her book White Fragility shaped by her learnings from Black folks. Stop talking about all the qualifications you have in this area. Having Black friends, living in a Black neighborhood, getting a degree in ethnic studies, working in social justice, writing a book. I don’t care how “official” the credential sounds. If you are white there are not enough credentials in the world to immunize you from racism.

This really builds off the last point because you are again centering yourself in a way that expects the person you re speaking to to validate your ‘credential’ as sufficient credit to excuse you of your racism. Yet again, the conversation has become about you.

5. Apologizing For White People And Expressing Your Guilt

Unless you are being called out for a specific harm *you caused* I’m not sure why you’re apologizing. I certainly don’t understand why you re apologizing for people other than yourself!! You can’t do that. Often when I’m talking to white people about race I’m looking for active listening, for empathy, compassion and solidarity. Not apologies and not guilt. I can’t do anything with your guilt. When you recenter the conversation this way the person you’re speaking with is forced to ‘accept your apology’ or attempt to ease your guilt.

A Final Note

While this list was created from my, and other Black folks, experiences with white women, I think some of these items are also relevant to any of us in dialogue about oppressive systems that we benefit from: whether it be transphobia, colorism, xenophobia, or any other form of oppression, those of us who benefit from an oppressive system need to be aware of the way we show up in conversation with those of us who are harmed.”

END ID]

blackfilmmakers

There are too many White people and nonblack people in the notes that would read the first note, take immediate offense, and just ignore everything else

That right there is a physical demonstration of how yall prioritized Becky's wellbeing over Black people's

BLM Protest

Teamster Strike

January 18, 2021. New York

Police made two demonstrations violent by charging, injuring, and arresting people at protests for police accountability and workers striking for a $1/hr pay increase. Over 30 people were arrested at the two actions, double the number of arrests of white supremacists who stormed the Capitol in DC.

The Teamster workers arrested have since all been released and are striking again.

NYPD PBA tweeted this the same day they beat and arrested people demonstrating for Black lives and for higher pay.

bastion-official

I remember bumping into an amazon worker the other day and he looked exhausted, asked him if he heard about the amazon workers unionizing in alabama

almost immediately it seemed like a lightbulb flipped on, and he mentioned he would look into it

i wonder how he's doing

mr-downer

this is how I’m finding out the fucking pinkertons still exist huh

ed-caernarfon

they actually tried to sue rockstar for being villains in rdr2 iirc

mr-downer

Lmao what a bunch of cry babies

roblox-oldhead

Pinkertons still coping fellas havent forgotten they committed legit massacres against striking workers trying to unionize

an-alarming-number-of-bees

The fact that the Pinkertons still exist is a testament to America's utter failure as a nation.

soul-hammer

it's fucked up because they KEPT the name. they REALIZE it has specific historical connotations, and those connotations are "ruin union organizers' lives." they have no place bitching about being infamous when they use their infamy for MARKETING.

Like this isn’t anything new but it’s a message that has to be repeated

I will never forgive or forget what Donald Trump has done. And it will be a cold day in Hell before I ever vote for a Republican.

Excellent 3D-Art Work. Love it! Artist: Odeith Portugal