A Few Things

Hello, Friends. How are you? We had a full, emotional, and interesting week. There was a funeral yesterday — it was my first online funeral. We went through all of our old scrapbooks and photo albums, seeking out the photos of our friend Christopher Clark, and letters they exchanged when he and Ben were missionaries (one in Finland, one in Greece).

There was quite a bit of time spent responding to questions about my recent Twitter thread. I ended up sharing it first on Twitter, then here on Design Mom, then in my Instagram Stories, and then at the request of a few followers, I created an Instagram post of the tweets (Instagram makes it easy to share posts, but harder to share Stories, and they wanted to share it).

The Instagram post got way more attention then I was expecting — I think it’s my most liked IG post ever. It made me realize that I’ve been doing this work for 14 years and my instincts for social media are still way off sometimes. Sharing the tweets as a post hadn’t even occurred to me. Hah!

Another interesting thing this week is that the kids were back in school, and suddenly it was like: Oh yeah! This is how a work week feels. I had forgotten.

I know there are a whole lot of people who have gone from “working from home while the kids are also schooling from home” to “working from home while the kids are on summer break at home”, so our situation feels a bit unique. Most schools in the U.S. are out for the summer, but school in France ends July 5th. So our kids still have a few weeks left. School is definitely different, with a lot more safety features implemented, but the kids really enjoy being back. And the house feels so strange with only Ben Blair and me at home.

Let’s get to those links. Here are a few things I’ve wanted to share:

Confessions of a Former Bastard Cop. Please read this essay.

-Woah. Did you see this chart on public opinion about Black Lives Matter? That is an epic shift in a short amount of time.

-“What doesn’t kill you makes you stronger — that claim is so universally accepted it’s a common truism. But a team of ⁦Brown University researchers found this is false — in fact, new research suggests the opposite is true.”

-Richmond’s confederate statues were used to sell a whites-only development. “No lots can ever be sold or rented in MONUMENT AVENUE PARK to any person of African descent.”

The fight to redefine racism.

The Incredible Ice Formations of Lake Baikal.

-Widespread mask-wearing with higher quality masks could help mitigate a second wave.

-American’s shocking history of private prisons.

-If you are unsure about what gaslighting is, and what the purpose of it is, have a read.

-A mother was sentenced to 30 years in prison for “enabling” child abuse. The man who actually abused her child got only 2 years. This is true for a number of cases.

-“News organizations’ core value needs to be the truth, not the perception of objectivity.”

-What time do you put your kids to bed?

-AP looked at social media feeds for 217 people arrested in MN and DC and found one anarchist but multiple Trump supporters. So more profa than anti.

-A spreadsheet with over 400 videos of police violence over the last two weeks.

The Color Of Law.

Here are some tweets I saved for you:

-Are we done compromising with with white supremacy?

-Please, please read this thread about a police ride-along.

-I keep laughing at this tweet.

-Dang. 2020 is out for blood.

https://twitter.com/QasimRashid/status/1271415398622269446?s=20

Covid-19 isn’t over.

-I don’t trust police reports.

-Have you ever wondered why there are Army bases named after Confederates?

-It doesn’t take a mathematician.

-Still mad about what was done to Hillary? This thread captures some of the why.

https://twitter.com/queerBengali/status/1271188555327582208?s=20

A helpful chart.

-This thread on wage theft will make you pull your hair out.

-Were you taught this as a kid?

I hope you have a safe and healthy weekend. I’ll meet you back here on Monday. I miss you already.

kisses,
Gabrielle

P.S. — I’m putting together a list of resources for those who want to read more about the research behind defunding and abolition. I’ll share that as soon as it’s ready — aiming for Monday.

12 thoughts on “A Few Things”

  1. Thank you for posting all these amazing links every week! I look forward to this list every Friday — you always uncover really amazing threads.

  2. I came across that Medium story, “Confessions of a Former Bastard Cop”, a few days ago. It made me sick. I almost avoided the Comments, fully expecting the author to be roasted. I couldn’t believe how many people agreed with him & said they experienced the same.

  3. Thank you for not letting us rest in the comfort of what we’ve normalized and pushing us to think more deeply on so many subjects. You are creating change!

  4. Thank you for the links, I find them helpful.

    When my car was stolen I reported it to the local police. It took my calling every day for 16 days to finally hear “Oh yes, I think we found that…” Only to then hear the police had found it after 2 days “a complete burn to the frame” and it was in impound, where I was LEGALLY being charge $75 every day until I came and picked it up. When I argued about calling everyday I was told “You need to feel lucky because we also don’t have to inform you of a thing for 60 days, so you’re getting off cheap.” Recap: My car was stolen. It was found. Completely totaled. *I* was charged $1200 at that point, but because I no longer had a car I had to access other transportation, plus a tow truck and then pay an additional $150. because all that took 2 days to arrange, so LEGALLY that police department thought *I* was lucky to give them $1350 to tow away my stolen car frame.
    After my daughter’s death we were informed that she had $3,500 on her person at the time of her death, which was immediately seized by the police department, along with her vehicle, and other personal items that were with her at the time of death. We were told this was LEGAL because they needed to investigate why she would have that much money on her, was it drug money? Long story short, After 7 attorneys, and 4.5 years, we were finally given a release of 2 letters, a ziplock bag with 5 Target Gift Cards, and asked if we wanted the clothes she was wearing at the time of her death. Her car and all other personal items were LEGALLY claimed by the police department to pay for the investigations that proved she had every claim to the items she was carrying…it’s just that they used up all the value of those items proving her innocence. This is a LEGAL system on most states.

    I could go on, but there is too much to tell in a comments section.

    1. PC: I don’t know if you’ll see this because I’m a bit late. Your story has absolutely enraged me. All that on top of the death of your daughter (I’m so sorry). The ability to retain whatever they want without returning any of it has to be overturned. It’s clear abuse of power.

        1. I was wondering if you were still oilpulling? How’s your mental health? I ‘d live to read a random thoughts post!
          Love, annette

  5. My son (we’re in Paris) went back to school last week, only two days a week (not all kids are back to school in Paris, we’re still an orange zone, I think), and it is SUCH relief! We both work from home and yes, I feel I have two full days of good work now, and that makes me a better person! My son is so happy, even if his teacher didn’t go back to school (she’s fragile), even he’s with just 5 classamtes and the rest are older children (he kinds of enjoy this experience). Kids need to play (he’s an only child), kids neen to grow away from their parents’ eyes (sometimes). Kids and older people have been so mistreated during this time (I’m only thinking about France). Many thoughts your way, I’m sorry you’ve had such a sad week. Your posts have been strong and brave. Thank you, I appreciate your writing.

  6. I’m still glowing over your June 10th’s post lead-sentence: “….I, a 45-year-old
    white woman and mother of six, currently at her peak Karen power…”

    THANK YOU, THANK YOU, THANK YOU for using the slang Karen in an empowering, strong and positive way.

    I’m so sick of my birth-given name being dragged through the mud.

  7. Hi Gabrielle, love this round up as usual. Could share more details about what the experience of your kids going back to school looks like during the pandemic? It’s hard to imagine, but we will be living something similar in the fall. Thanks!

  8. still again – just on fire with all the information you share! thank you! and did my heart break again when i listened to the 60 min show about a mother getting SO MUCH MORE time in prison for being on the side. we are in serious need to judicial reform. and now more than ever with the courts being flooded by conservative leaning judges. they have been put into position very quickly during the t administration. could you do a story about this? i feel like this is a rather important fact, which many americans just don’t know about, and we are being inundated with so much news these days. as always — thank you thank you!

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