Shawn > Recent Status Updates

Woodrow Wilson's ceding to southern interests; the origins of NAACP; Marcus Garvey; black economic freedom vs. civil rights priorities; DuBois' influence

"economic collapse of 1929, a nonwhite minority with no power, such as the blacks, was reduced to a level of mendicancy lower than that of a helot. At least a helot, slave, or serf merits the right to be fed, but a freed serf without a master becomes the worst victim of the economics of scarcity. The Great Depression was an era of artificial scarcity in which the prize of civil rights was the freedom to starve...

I like the premise. This is the third of three books I spontaneously borrowed from the ‘New SF’ section. I was disappointed w/ the first & second titles, and confirmed for myself why I prefer to read award-winning SF. But this book here ain’t so bad…so far.

Interesting parts on comparing Chicano vs Afro

“ Blacks are a minority, but women as a class or sex, also presenting grievances that fall within the purview of constitutional equal protection, are not a minority. However, the liberal civil rights consensus compares societies treatment of women to societies treatment of blacks. Thus, subordination or discrimination based on sex differences is equivalent to plastically with subordination…on racial differences

“ according to these models, roughly 6 stages, plus a final stage, characterize the integrative process of nonwhite minorities into the larger American society. In the initial stages, minorities encounter curiosity from the dominant group, which allows them recognition as a cheap labor source. Next, the minority outsider becomes the object of industrial antagonism as a competitor.” (46)

“ ancient civilizations were built on human slavery, and if it was the fate of New World civilizations to have inherited the institution of slavery to use as a footstool in their climb to advanced stages, there remains no further need…either to defend or bemoan the moral misdemeanors of American slavery. American civilization, as we know it, could not have been built without African slavery.” (33)

“ certain social scientists and democratic idealist might claim that the concept of race is a dangerous myth, but when blacks, whites, and other non-whites in America believe in the concept of race, then race, myth or not, is a social fact and must be dealt with as such.”

Informative, educational & enligthening! These boring-looking books on sociology are often laden with gems of sincere insight into the ailments, the frailties, the frustrating paralyses, and the maladies of modern societies. In this, Cruse beginswith discussion about the first educational bill-reform, “The Blair bill”. It goes on to talk about how struggles for rights continued long after The Civil War.

“ in the south, having the lowest per capita income has little to do with the demographic results of racial distribution within the school systems except that the equalization of the two systems eliminated untold numbers of black school teachers, principles, and administrators from the formerly segregated schools, sending them into the ranks of the displaced and unemployed.” (21)

“ what happened during the 58 year interim between Plessy V Ferguson of 1896 and the Brown decision of 1954 in American race relations was the inevitable result of the lost opportunities for ‘forgotten alternatives’. what happened in the southern states did not have to happen, but did happen.”

“ for their part, the overwhelming majority of blacks did not make segregated classrooms an issue with regard to the Blair bill.” (15)
“ during the 1880s many blacks opposed school integration in the north because it often resulted in the loss of black jobs…” (15)

“ From 1890, when the Blair bill was finally defeated, onward into the 20th century, what was described as ‘educational lethargy’ settled all over the South. Millions of illiterate whites were sacrificed by southern leaders whose main objective was to keep millions of illiterate blacks ignorant, impoverished, and politically impotent by denying them education.” (Cruse, 14).

Not enjoying this, it feels prompted solely by C-19 and goes on & on about dying people, very morbid but without any soul or biting intelligence to the writing, and the Japanese culture -isms is overboard & kinda stereotypical (shamisen--because Japanese people don't play a guitar, they play a shamisen; and they don't drink imported beer, they drink Kirin beer, b/c the author is trying to say 'Japanese' this & that)

not bad but too safe and conventional for me, and not smart enough or deep.

Feeling a more optimistic about this book, after recognizing what type of book it is, didn’t realize until p.100 that each chapter is a different character and that that is it for that character’s viewpoint. I was SO glad to move on past the talking pig. NONE of that made sense or was plausible, and nothing was explained. Also, again, why cremation? It’s only lightly deep, wish it’d go deeper.

when u wanna DNF because of the preposterous content, when a pig starts talking amd they don’t even explain how (does the pig’s lips move, does it open its mouth, is it telepathy, what does the voice sound like, is it loud?)—questions that are just skipped over like they don’t matter. and more parents casually going to Olive Garden during a plague that kills children…?! I’m so tempted to DNF

Argh...I shouldn't be able to starkly notice that the author does not believe in God or in religion or in any spiritual faith. But I do! There's something detached & all-too [USA 2020] with this work. Like it came straight out of a CNN/Democratic Convention. There are kids dying in this book but no discussion on: Soul, Spirit, afterlife, God, creation, healing. The parents are just casually & all-too coolly fine.

it’s about a plague but the author hasn’t set up (built) the world. i’m puzzled how things got so bad that an amusement park was converted into a death/euthanasia camp for kids! explain please, author. i know it’s cool to make your readers guess & piece things together but you’re losing me on the plausibility. and hopefully this book’s smart enough to talk about GAIN OF FUNCTION research re: viruses…

Kinda disturbing: a plague infects only kids (!?) and the parents send them to a park, they go on a rollercoaster, and are euthanized during the ride. The bodies are then cremated, and the parents grab the urn & walk off. First—what parent would do this?! Second—what parent would cremate their child? There is zero spiritual or religious energy here when there really should be. Nagamatsu, atheist or agnostic?

a fair start, it’s got a solid SF setup going, it’s refreshing to open one of these ‘new SF’ books and actually see (and learn) some science stuff. ‘New SF’ is too often a mishmash of magic & fantasy, or some love story disguised as SF. there’s something good to be said for hard SF or for the traditional syle of Asimov or Clarke. Ya learn a bit as ya read.

cool name