Foster Dickson's Blog, page 63

the #newschool: #slacktivism

I’m no activist. Never have thought I was. But reading recently about this new term “slacktivism” interested me immediately. Slacktivism is the practice of supporting progressive causes in name, but not actually doing any work. A person engaging in slacktivism might post or tweet about a cause or wear a graphic t-shirt about the cause, but never actually lift a finger to make change happen.

Slacktivism is interesting to me for two reasons. First, I like neologisms. And next to the derogatory “libtard,” which made me laugh out loud the first time I heard it, this is one of the better two-word unions. Second, slacktivism reaches to the heart of the problem today with ideas like “raising awareness” and “following.” Making people aware of a social problem or injustice has value when the newly aware people change their behavior and join in the solution. Otherwise, awareness is just a nonchalant, passive recognition of unacceptable realities. Action is what makes a difference.

Filed under: Critical Thinking Tagged: new school, Pack Mule for the New School, slacktivism

Doug Jones, Alabama, and a different kind of electorate

There’s no need for me to re-tell the story of Doug Jones’ win in Alabama’s US Senate race on Tuesday night, but it is imperative that we in Alabama recognize the historic implications of Jones’ victory— and act on them to continue making progressive changes. The national spotlight was on us for weeks as we prepared to make the choice: a twice-removed judge accused of predatory sexual behavior and proven to have radical ideas about politics and religion or a mild-mannered civil-rights lawyer who prosecuted Klansmen and focused on the issues. During that period, news reports uncovered quite a few uncomfortable matters, including this one unrelated to the election: “Alabama has the worst poverty in the developed world, UN official says.” In Alabama, we’ve lived with political dysfunction and severe poverty for most of our history, but recently, our political and economic degradation was put on display daily and worldwide. The national media spared no expense in airing our dirty laundry for us.

Notwithstanding the revelations that were news to most of the country or the oversimplified “a Democrat won in Alabama” hurrah, this race and Jones’ win have shown us some important things about Alabama and its electorate, which defy the mainstream media’s “deep red state” designation:

First, when African Americans mobilize and vote, outcomes are not “deep red.” According to post-election figures, more than 90% of African-American voters chose Doug Jones this time. Likewise, Alabama’s only Democratic and only African-American House member, Terri Sewell, represents the Black Belt region that went so heavily for Jones. Keep in mind: this is the same area where voting was made difficult by driver’s license office closures that came soon after the state’s voter ID law was passed.

Second, a majority of younger voters did not go for Roy Moore. In late November, the state’s Young Republicans chose not to support Moore, and in the December 12 election, 60% of voters ages 18 to 29 went for Jones. Turnout among younger voters was also higher than normal this time. Those facts may foreshadow a sea-change from the electorate that put Moore into the Chief Justice seat twice.

Third, Jones’ support was strongest in urban and suburban areas and across the poverty-stricken Black Belt, while Moore’s support was mainly rural and in the upper and lower thirds of the state. If you look at the colors on the county-by-county map, Alabama is not as “deep red” as one might presume.

Fourth, the number of write-ins showed that more than 20,000 voters could not support either party’s candidate. That many write-ins indicates that Alabamians will show up to the polls but want more choices. These votes also contradict the rhetorical bombast that all conservative Alabamians were going to choose “party over principle” and would rather “support a child molester than a Democrat.”

Fifth, there was the disappointing realization that 40% voter turnout is high in Alabama. While Secretary of State John Merrill predicted 25% turnout, voters showed up in numbers well above his prediction (and the criticism of his handling of the election flowed freely). Granting that some voters still on the rolls are either deceased or have moved away, turnout should still be higher than this.

Beyond my open support for Doug Jones as the candidate that I wanted to support, my mind was also focused on one other factor of national importance. With the slim majority in the US Senate, now even slimmer with Jones’ win, implementing a radical conservative agenda just became more difficult. Not only does the Senate have to work with the House to pass legislation, the Senate handles the confirmation of appointees. Without a decisive majority in the Senate, the process of confirming of federal judges with lifetime appointments becomes more of a discussion than a shoo-in. Doug Jones’ partial term in the US Senate will run through 2020, the same year that Donald Trump will be up for re-election.

Though Doug Jones’ margin of victory on Tuesday was small, he did win. It might be tempting to spend time decrying the swell of support for Roy Moore, but what shouldn’t be ignored is this: a pro-choice, pro-Second Amendment civil-rights lawyer was elected to one of Alabama’s two US Senate seats. Furthermore, Alabama’s other US senator, Richard Shelby, himself a former Democrat who switched parties, declared that voters should not support Roy Moore. We learned throughout this campaign and on election night that yes, Alabama still does have its large “deep red” contingent of people who represent or exemplify the stereotypes, but that is not the whole story. One other truth is that Tuesday’s election showcased how a significantly more progressive contingent of African Americans, younger voters, and moderate-to-liberal whites could get out and vote to send a moderate Democrat to represent Alabama in Washington, DC.

The challenge now: doing it again in 2018, in 2020, 2022 . . . 

Filed under: Alabama, Black Belt, The Deep South, Voting Tagged: Alabama, Doug Jones, politics, Roy Moore, vote, voter turnout

Disrupters & Interlopers: Joan Little

Considering the plethora of sexual assault allegations being made against high-profile men and being documented through the #metoo hashtag, the story of Joan Little seems worthy of attention. In August 1974, Little was a twenty-year-old African-American woman held in a small-town North Carolina jail when she killed a white jailer who came to her cell during the night to sexually assault her. The man she killed was found by another guard; he had been stabbed to death and had no pants on.

After this incident, Joan Little achieved a dubious kind of fame, which came in part from her acquittal on the murder charges related to the guard’s death. It was unusual in the South for an African American even to survive the charge of killing a white person, much less to be acquitted in a trial, but the circumstances surrounding her confinement and the killing were hard to ignore. According to a New York Times story from April 1975, she was the only female inmate in the jail, the guard had been doing small favors for her, and the video camera surveillance of her was round-the-clock:

When she wanted to take a shower, she had to call the guard to turn on the water; there was no shower curtain, and the video system covered the shower area.

Joan Little’s tragic situation and her reaction to it shed light on prevailing injustices. A murder trial in the light of day caused onlookers to acknowledge acts that were being committed in the dark. According to CBS News coverage from the fortieth anniversary in 2015:

The trial drew national attention and her cause became a rallying cry for the civil rights, feminist and anti-death penalty movements.

Little, who was 21 at the time, was the first woman in the U.S. to win with what would turn out to be the groundbreaking defense that she used deadly force to resist sexual assault.

The Disrupters & Interlopers series highlights individuals from Southern history whose actions, though unpopular or difficult, contributed to changing the old status quo.
Filed under: Disrupters & Interlopers, North Carolina, Race, Social Justice, The South Tagged: Disrupters & Interlopers, joan little, North Carolina

THE Rivalry

Each year, after the Iron Bowl, no matter which team wins, fans from both sides try to rationalize what has become mythic. In conversations all over the state of Alabama, including on social media, the losing side points to referees’ errors, injured players’ absences, and lucky breaks, while the winning side clings to big plays, key first downs, hard hits, and statistics. However, when dealing in myth, facts are less important than understood truths.

Despite the fact that Auburn and Alabama have strong football programs with rich histories, some mythic aspects of the tradition have left the earthly realm and moved into territory occupied predominantly by giants, angels, and unicorns. Without the legacy of the titan Bear Bryant to build upon, it is less likely that his latter-day successor Nick Saban would be called “the greatest coach in college football” today. Because of those two coaches’ accomplishments, at this point in sports history, the Crimson Tide’s status as a top-ranked team is also among the understood truths. In another example, University of Alabama football teams may have fifteen national championships, which Bammers love to cite and even flaunt, but I’d bet most fans couldn’t name the years of those championships. Because myths trump facts— those two names and that one impressive number constitute the understood truths of the football program. That’s what I mean by mythic: once the celebrated stature of something or someone is so often-repeated that it is no longer dependent on the facts that may (or may not) underlie it, that greatness becomes unquestioned— and to confront it with a counter-narrative, to attempt to tarnish the perfection of it . . . those affronts can be easily shrugged off.

For us Auburn fans, our football program has its myths, too. Auburn’s national championship years are easier to remember – 1957 and 2010 – but of course there is Auburn’s transcendent runningback Bo Jackson, the Heisman winner and baseball player of “Bo Knows” fame. We also have our pre-game flying eagle— whose backstory many fans seem not to know for certain. Since 2010’s national championship and undefeated season, Cam Newton is generally regarded as one of the best football players of all time, and we can’t forget our other Heisman winning quarterback Pat Sullivan. These and other features of the narrative have come together form our “Auburn family,” a feeling of belonging that allows us not to question why a team called the Tigers has “War Eagle!” as a battle cry.

Over in Tuscaloosa, Bama’s mythic history has roots before most fans today were born, with early football championships in 1925, 1926, and 1930. Then more championships came to the Crimson Tide in 1961, 1964, and 1965, and more in 1973, 1978, and 1979, before the big season in 1992, though it has been the most recent run in 2009, 2011, 2012, and 2015 that has secured Nick Saban’s honorific among sportscasters and led to those red-and-white bumper stickers that simply read “15.” Now, here’s what I mean about myths and facts: both the Wikipedia page on Alabama football and the Bear Bryant Museum website list championships in 1934 and 1941 as well, though the NCAA’s list has Minnesota as champ both of those years. Furthermore, Alabama fans like to remind Auburn fans that our 1957 title was shared (with Ohio State), though the NCAA has Alabama as sharing the championship seven times, some of those during Bear Bryant’s tenure. A few people who know these stories better than I do might be able to argue down my points, but for the majority of fans, this will be news to them.

Perhaps even more complicated than the matter of championships is the history of the rivalry. While Alabama fans like to point to past glory to answer for current losses, Auburn has its own historic bragging rights that are seldom discussed. According to Alabama: History of a Deep South State, Auburn won seven of the first eleven meetings with the Crimson Tide, and al.com clarifies that by adding more detail: in those eleven meetings between 1893 and 1906, Auburn also outscored Alabama 248 to 124. After a 6–6 tie in 1907, Alabama stopped playing Auburn completely until the state legislature forced UA to start playing the Tigers again in 1944. That’s why Auburn-Georgia is the Deep South’s oldest rivalry; Alabama refused to play Auburn for nearly four decades. And five of those fifteen national championships came during that period.

This Auburn-Alabama rivalry is complicated—much more complicated than the modern two-name/one-number Bama myth allows. Though Auburn won the game this season by a score of 26–14, it had been a five years since Auburn’s last victory, which came in the literal last second with the now-infamous Kick Six in 2013. While these recent Bama-dominated years have included a 48–0 routing of Auburn in 2012, one often-cited fact this season was that Nick Saban, the greatest coach in college football, has never beaten an Auburn team with nine or more wins. We also can’t forget the six consecutive Auburn wins from 2002 until 2007, a streak that was ended when Bama shut out Auburn 36–0 in 2008. In the 21st century, though Bama has won four national titles to Auburn’s one, Auburn is leading the Iron Bowl series ten wins to eight. And, although Bama leads the overall series by a handful, in the last thirty Alabama-Auburn games, from 1988 to 2017, they’re tied at fifteen wins apiece. Hardly what I’d call domination.

This rivalry and its myths bring out something odd and inexplicable in our state. Some writers have described college football as our religion, and that description fits our obsession with this myth. Fandom in the state of Alabama involves a great deal of faith, immeasurable irrationality, wild fervor, strong connections to family, and a massive yielding to tradition. Otherwise-sensible people have been led to do crazy things over this rivalry: people have ended friendships and marriages, a few have even committed murder during heated arguments about the two teams and their annual meeting. Personally, I enjoy the friendlier side of the competition, including the razzing, and I haven’t ever been able to understand some of the meanness and belittlement that some fans – on both sides – seem to regard as appropriate. Most fans involved in this statewide rivalry never any sport played for either team, so when the hateful and demeaning use of “we” versus “y’all” replaces good-natured and playful kidding, it takes all of the fun out of it for me.

Beyond the fans who have that unseemly tendency toward ugliness, the other people who aggravate me are the ones who bash our college football tradition as misguided or inane. If this were only about the game itself, that would be one thing, but a short-sighted perspective that this is “just a game” does not assess its cultural significance. Taking college football away from the state of Alabama would be like removing Macy’s Day Parade from New York City. Saying that the Iron Bowl is “just a game” would be like saying that the Grand Canyon is just erosion. Furthermore, sometimes those naysayers bring out the argument that the money “could be better spent” on some of the state’s many problems, but that ignores college football’s role as an economic engine and as a mechanism for social advancement. College football not only doesn’t lose money, it generates a tremendous profit, which then allows for scholarships, drives a whole sector of retail sales, creates jobs both on and off the field, and enhances non-sports fundraising. If college football were eliminated, as some people grouchily propose, it would not achieve what they might prefer, and it would be devastating to Alabama’s culture and economy.

Though I’m not a sports talk-radio listener and don’t follow the who’s who and goings-on, I do love college football in the state of Alabama. Where I differ from some of the more rabid fans is: for me, the rivalry is about the excitement of the struggle, not about establishing ultimate truths. I have earned two degrees from Auburn University at Montgomery (AUM), I married an Auburn grad, and have taught through Auburn and at AUM, so when we watch Auburn play, we are pulling for our school. And I fully expect that others do the same thing. I’ve got friends who are Bama fans, some who attended UA and who teach there, and I wouldn’t fault anyone for having pride in that wonderful institution, its stellar football program, or its winning coaches. For me, though, the Iron Bowl is an annual athletic contest with important effects in our state, not a measure of either side’s absolute superiority. I prefer to stay more grounded about the whole thing, because that mythic narrative not only offers too many opportunities for hateful behavior, it leaves out too much of a really intriguing story.

Filed under: Alabama, College Football, The Deep South Tagged: 26-14, Alabama, Auburn, College Football, Iron Bowl

the #newschool: “who dares do more is none.”

In Act I, scene vii of William Shakespeare’s “The Tragedy of Macbeth,” as the title character debates whether to murder King Duncan, who is both his kinsman and his house guest, he says to his wife, “I dare do all that may become a man; who dares do more is none.” Macbeth has just halted a rebellion, has been awarded a new title, and is enjoying honor among his peers when he expresses this sentiment about manhood. This is before he goes on a power-hungry rampage that will have him killing his king and ordering the murders of his best friend, his best friend’s son, and fellow thane Macduff’s wife and children.

The measure of a man may well be in his actions, not his words, but just as music critics will comment on the note not played, that measure should also extend to what a man does not do. In the South, where Protestant evangelical Christianity dominates, the idea of restraint might immediately bring to mind the choice not to drink, not to swear, or not to sleep around. But when Macbeth proclaims that “who dares do more is none,” he isn’t talking about personal choices about abstinence; he is talking about outward behaviors toward other people. He is speaking about how a man chooses to use the power he has, how he treats other people, and how he respects the faith and trust that others have placed in him.

Certainly, while men and women who seek power – by amassing wealth, obtaining political office, or cultivating influential friendships – do so for a variety of reasons, it is those who understand power as a responsibility, not as a privilege, who use it well. When Macbeth is defending his king, protecting his friends, and standing up to a traitor, he is celebrated as behaving honorably. Yet, when he crosses over to using his strength and position for personal gain, we see him fall, even as he rises. Once Macbeth resorts to treachery, he cannot stop, and even though he does gain the throne, he neither enjoys the prestige nor the comfort of the position. Macbeth becomes a living example of his own maxim.

Though Shakespeare wrote “The Tragedy of Macbeth” more than four hundred years ago, we still see these tragedies today. When a candidate seeks to represent his people then becomes a politician who gerrymanders voting districts, who employs manipulative rhetoric, and who votes against the interests of his own constituents, he is no better than Macbeth, who knows that what he has done is wrong but lashes out at everyone around him in an attempt to avert his own guilty conscience.

A man should not misuse his power nor violate the trust of those who hold him in high esteem. If he does, he has lost what won him honor in the first place. A man knows that power is honorable when it is used for beneficent ends, like maintaining peace and order and ensuring what is best for all people.

Filed under: Critical Thinking, The Deep South Tagged: Macbeth, Pack Mule for the New School, power, The New School

Disrupters & Interlopers: Ralph McGill

Ralph McGill was the editor and publisher of the Atlanta Constitution newspaper, and from the late 1930s through the late 1960s his strong support for social justice and progress in race relations led some to call him “the conscience of the South.” McGill was born in 1898 in rural Tennessee, served in the Marine Corps, went to Vanderbilt, and entered journalism in the 1920s as a sports writer. He came to work at the Constitution in 1929.

During his time at the Atlanta Constitution, McGill wrote thousands of editorials and won the Pulitzer Prize for editorial writing in 1959. This passage from his 1963 book, The South and the Southerner, gives a sense of his stance on the racial issues of his day:

The solution is relatively simple if we would but admit to ourselves. It is no longer as complicated as it was. Much of the undergrowth of myth and self-deceit has been cleared away. The clamor of mongrelization of race, of supremacy, of tradition has ceased, but more and more it is known to be noise, not fact. The problems were aggravated because they were made into more than they were. The remedy is no longer as difficult. It is to grant the Negro the rights and privileges of full citizenship. It is to look at the Negro and see another human being. (232)

Ralph McGill died in 1969 of a heart attack. Though his ideas on race and justice may not have been embraced in his day, he is now celebrated as a champion of Southern progressive ideals. In the 1970s, the City of Atlanta honored him by changing the name of Forrest Boulevard (for Ku Klux Klan founder Nathan Bedford Forrest) to be Ralph McGill Boulevard. He has also been included in the National Parks Service’s Civil Rights Walk of Fame.

Filed under: Civil Rights, Critical Thinking, Disrupters & Interlopers, Georgia, Race Tagged: Atlanta, Disrupters & Interlopers, georgia, progressive, Ralph McGill

Roy, His Rock, and This Hard Place

I was thinking about writing something about Roy Moore but decided against it, mainly because I wasn’t sure about what I could add to this multifaceted conversation about him and his effect on Alabama politics, the Republican Party, and our nation as a whole. Instead, I’d like to share a few pictures from my one experience with his supporters.

Back in 2003, during the Ten Commandments monument controversy, I worked in downtown Montgomery and used to go on my lunch break to watch them meander around, cluttering up the sidewalks with their vigils outside our state and federal courthouses. Here are three images from that time that, to me, are noteworthy when considering the effects of Moore’s politics on our culture.[image error]

This truck circled the block repeatedly and blared ominous messages from a loud speaker mounted on top. Notice that the American flag flying on the driver’s side is hung upside down.[image error]

This lady wandered among the small crowd, draped in the Confederate flag you can see her holding here.[image error]

If you look closely at this man’s “IMPEACH” sign, at the bottom he has “DROP DEAD ACLU PS 55:15.” That Bible verse from Psalms reads: “Let death seize upon them, and let them go down quick into hell: for wickedness is in their dwellings, and among them.”

Fourteen years ago, I saw firsthand the kinds of ideas that Roy Moore’s politics bring out into the light. Though these few of Moore’s supporters are not indicative of all of them, I do hope it is clear to every Alabama voter – supporter or not – that his politics are certainly not the mainstream Republican conservatism of the suburbs.

Filed under: Alabama Tagged: 2003, Alabama

the #newschool: Let it be.

This one is pretty simple: it’s OK sometimes to let it be.

While activism and working for change are important, there are also arguments that aren’t worth having and that will never be won. In a story in the tenth chapter of the Gospel of Matthew, Jesus was instructing his disciples to go out into the world and preach, and he gave this advice:

12 As you enter a house, wish it peace,

13 If the house is worthy, let your peace come upon it; if not, let your peace return to you.

14 Whoever will not receive you or listen to your words—go outside that house or town and shake the dust from your feet.

I also like to keep in mind a saying that was once shared with me: Arguing with a damn fool makes you a bigger damn fool than that damn fool. That second example, while far more vulgar than the Biblical passage, is equally applicable.

Even in our age of social media and 24-hour news, when some people will goad us into professing outrage with accusations about our “silence,” it’s still OK not to share all of our negative responses to the world. They don’t all have to come out for everyone to see and hear. And keeping our responses to the world’s ugliness to ourselves doesn’t negate the validity of our ideas and emotions, nor does it weaken the person who exercises restraint. Speaking out takes one form of strength; remaining silent requires another. Think about Rosa Parks answering the arresting officer by saying, “You may do that,” or about Martin Luther King, Jr. kneeling in prayer on Turnaround Tuesday.

As far as I’m concerned, hateful people and dishonest people are their own worst punishment. I can get away from them. I can leave their hate or their lies behind me and “shake the dust off my feet.” But those people have to live all of their waking hours with it, with hate and lies churning in their heads. What the rest of us can do, instead of contributing our own noisy anger to their noisy anger, is: be aware of them, be ready for them, and be diligent in not allowing them to affect good lives. It’s when we get mired in our own converse form of hate that they have won.

Filed under: Catholicism, Critical Thinking, The Deep South Tagged: Critical Thinking, new school, Pack Mule for the New School

Some Other News from Around the Deep South #13

Welcome to “Some Other News from Around the Deep South,” my periodic look at news stories from the region that may not have gotten so much attention.

South Carolina

Despite the fact that the Civil War ended 152 years ago with the Confederate States’ defeat, a South Carolina ice cream shop owner is keeping the conflict going by insisting on flying the Confederate flag on a tiny parcel of land in front of his shop in Orangeburg, a small town of about 13,000 people located fifty miles south of Columbia. Orangeburg is also home to two historically black colleges, South Carolina State University and Claflin University.

Alabama

Last month, a drag queen named Ambrosia Starling donated some of her clothing to the Alabama Department of Archives & History after wearing the items while protesting former judge Roy Moore, a vehement opponent of same-sex marriage and LGBTQ rights. (Moore is now running for US Senate.) Additionally, a photographer donated more than two-thousand pictures of same-sex marriage events to augment the donation of the clothing items.

Georgia

In Macon, the leadership of one of that city’s longest-standing churches has decided to accept the reality of same-sex marriage. The nearly two-hundred-year-old First Baptist Church of Christ is among a minority of Baptist churches in the South to defect from the larger Southern Baptist Convention organization. Its pastor acknowledged that it was a decision “that could yet split the membership.”

Mississippi

Two new museums will open in Jackson in December: The Museum of Mississippi and the Mississippi Civil Rights Museum. Given the diversity of the state’s culture and the complexity of its history, the “conjoined” museums have gone through a long process in their making. The state legislature OKed $40 million back in 2011, and the museums are now about to open.

Louisiana

In October, the US Supreme Court declined to hear an appeal from a “dirt farmer” in Cut Off, Louisiana, who claimed he was not paid for dirt that was taken from his seventeen-acre “farm.” The man sells dirt for construction projects, and some of his dirt was used in a nearby levee. The Louisiana Supreme Court overturned a $164,000 judgment in his favor.

Filed under: Alabama, Bible Belt, Georgia, Louisiana, Mississippi, South Carolina, The Deep South Tagged: Alabama, Deep South, georgia, Louisiana, Mississippi, news, south carolina

Disrupters & Interlopers: Juliette Hampton Morgan

Juliette Hampton Morgan was a librarian in Montgomery, Alabama. She was born in 1914, was a native Alabamian descended from a prominent family, and earned her college degree in English from the University of Alabama. However, unlike many women of her time and age, she was a vehement advocate for social justice.

In the years prior to the Montgomery Bus Boycott, Morgan was writing letters to the local newspaper about civil rights abuses, and she even stood up for mistreated African Americans when she witnessed injustices on Montgomery’s city buses. However, in the summer of 1957, after the boycott had succeeded, her vocal advocacy of civil rights causes led opponents to burn a cross in her yard. Juliette Hampton Morgan then quit her job and committed suicide.

Though her life ended tragically, Morgan’s legacy would win out over time. In 2006, Mary Stanton’s book Journey Toward Justice: Juliette Hampton Morgan and the Montgomery Bus Boycott was published. Today, the downtown branch of Montgomery’s public library system is named for Morgan, and the Southern Poverty Law Center’s Teaching Tolerance program offers a classroom lesson about her.

Though her efforts were not appreciated in her day, Juliette Hampton Morgan’s insights and attitudes prevailed in the long run.

Filed under: Alabama, Civil Rights, Critical Thinking, Disrupters & Interlopers, Race Tagged: Alabama, Disrupters & Interlopers, English major, Juliette Hampton Morgan, librarian, montgomery