DOCSLIB.ORG

Theodore W. (Ted) Allen Papers 1890-2017 (Bulk: 1940-2005) 47 Boxes (64 Linear Feet) Call No.: MS 1021

Total Page：16

File Type：pdf, Size：1020Kb

Download full-text PDF Read full-text
Theodore W. (Ted) Allen Papers 1890-2017 (Bulk: 1940-2005) 47 Boxes (64 Linear Feet) Call No.: MS 1021 Special Collections and University Archives UMass Amherst Libraries Theodore W. (Ted) Allen Papers 1890-2017 (Bulk: 1940-2005) 47 boxes (64 linear feet) Call no.: MS 1021 About SCUA SCUA home Credo digital Scope Overview Series 1. Correspondence Series 2. Writings and speaking Series 3. Research Series 4. Biographical and personal Series 5. Photos and media Series 6. News clippings and Articles Inventory Series 1. Correspondence Series 2. Writings and public speaking Series 3. Research Materials and Notes (partially processed) Series 4. Biographical and personal Series 5. Photos and Media Series 6. News clippings and articles Admin info Download xml version print version (pdf) Read collection overview Theodore W. "Ted" Allen (1919-2005) was an anti-white supremacist, working class intellectual and activist who researched and wrote outside of the academic community for almost seventy years. He developed his pioneering class struggle-based analysis of "white skin privilege" beginning in the mid-1960s; authored the seminal two-volume "The Invention of the White Race" in the 1990s; and in his writings and speaking consistently maintained that the struggle against white supremacy was central to efforts at radical social change in the United States. Born in Indianapolis, Indiana, Allen grew up in Paintsville, Kentucky and Huntington, West Virginia where he was "proletarianized" by the Great Depression. After hurting his back in the mines, he moved to New York City and taught at the Jefferson School of Social Science, did research with the Labor Research Association, and worked various jobs including factory work, teaching, the post office, and the Brooklyn Public Library. In the 1960s, after breaking from the Communist Party, Allen set out on his own independent research course, launching forty years of work that focused on white supremacism as the principal retardant of class consciousness among European-American workers and on the importance of the left and working class and progressive movements struggling against white supremacy. The Theodore W. Allen Papers are a comprehensive assemblage of correspondence, published and unpublished writings, audio and video materials, books with important marginalia, and research by one of the major theorists on race and class of the twentieth century. The Papers also include poetry and correspondence by Allen's wife, Marie Strong Allen, a radical feminist poet, who died tragically in 1962. Overall the collection is a rich and unique body of materials on the Old and New Left and on the labor, Civil Rights, and Black Liberation movements and it will appeal to students, scholars, researchers, activists, and interested readers worldwide. Background on Theodore W. Allen By Jeffrey Perry, with additions by Susan Creighton. Theodore W. "Ted" Allen (1919-2005) was an anti-white supremacist, working class intellectual, and activist who researched and wrote outside of the academic community for almost seventy years. He developed his pioneering class struggle-based analysis of "white skin privilege" beginning in the mid-1960s; authored the seminal two-volume "The Invention of the White Race" in the 1990s; and in his writings and speaking consistently maintained that the struggle against white supremacy was central to efforts at radical social change in the United States. Born in Indianapolis, Indiana, Allen grew up in Paintsville, Kentucky and Huntington, West Virginia where he was "proletarianized" by the Great Depression. He joined the American Federation of Musicians, worked in the coalmines, served as a United Mine Workers Union Local President, and joined the Communist Party. After hurting his back in the mines, he moved to New York City and lived his last fifty years in the Crown Heights section of Brooklyn. During those years, he taught at the Jefferson School of Social Science, did research with the Labor Research Association, and worked various jobs including factory work, teaching, the post office, and the Ted Allen Brooklyn Public Library. In the 1940s, he wrote probing analyses of conditions and struggles in the coal mining industry. In the 1950s, he wrote on radical political economy and produced critical analyses of U.S. capitalism, U.S. imperialism, and the Communist Party USA's analysis and program (which he thought was not radical enough), sometimes writing under the pseudonyms "Molly Pitcher" or "Milton Palmer." In the 1960s, after breaking from the Communist Party, Allen set out on his own independent research course. He sought to address the question of "Why No Socialism in the United States?" and how to explain the relative lack of class-consciousness by U.S. workers as compared to workers in other capitalist countries (what was referred to as "American Exceptionalism"). Inspired by Black Reconstruction by W. E. B. Du Bois, he analyzed and wrote about the "white blindspot" and "white skin privilege" (in such articles as "White Blindspot" and "Can White Workers Radicals be Radicalized") and began forty years of work that focused on white supremacism as the principal retardant of class consciousness among European-American workers and on the importance of the left and working class and progressive movements struggling against white supremacy. Noel Ignatiev was a close collaborator during this time period, and the two of them corresponded frequently as well as reviewing each other's work and co- authoring articles. In the early 1970s, while involving in many of the debates of the New Left, he began twenty-plus years of research in Virginia's colonial records and in probing analysis of Irish history as he developed an analysis that racial oppression was a form of ruling class social control not determined by phenotype or skin color. This research resulted first in the unpublished The Kernel and Meaning (drafts written between 1969 and 1976) that dealt with the development of white skin privilege, its relationship to land acquisition and use, and problems with U.S. historiography. Next followed drafts of the unpublished book Peculiar Seed: The Plantation of Bondage (drafts written circa 1976) that addressed the subject of class struggle and the origin of racial slavery in continental Anglo-America. Written between 1985 and 1997, Allen's exhaustively researched The Invention of the White Race was published in two volumes in 1994 (Vol. 1) and 1997 (Vol. 2), and republished in a two volume set in 2012. With its focus on racial oppression and social control, The Invention of the White Race is one of the twentieth-century's major contributions to historical understanding. Allen's major thesis -- that the "white race" was invented as a ruling class social control formation in response to labor solidarity as manifested in the latter (civil war) stages of Bacon's Rebellion (1676-77) was reinforced by two important corollaries: 1) that the ruling elite deliberately instituted a system of racial privileges to define and maintain the "white race" and to implement a system of racial oppression, and 2) that the consequence was not only ruinous to the interest of African Americans, it was also disastrous for European-American workers. In developing these theses Allen challenges the two main ideological props of white supremacy - - the notion that "racism" is innate, and it is therefore useless to struggle against it, and the argument that European-American workers benefit from "white race" privileges and that it is in their interest not to oppose them and not to oppose white supremacy. Over his last thirty years, Allen wrote hundreds of published and unpublished articles and letters challenging white supremacy, capitalist rule, sexism, and U.S. Imperialism as well as numerous poems. In his last few years, he wrote an important philosophical piece "On the Individual and the Collective" and a major unpublished work, "Toward a Revolution in Labor History" (drafts written between 2002 and 2004). Ted passed away early in 2005 from deteriorating health issues. His friends and colleagues hosted memorial services for him both in his home city of New York, and in Virginia near the site of Bacon's Rebellion. Particularly significant in Allen's work is the full-scale challenge it presents to what he refers to as "The Great White Assumption" - - the unquestioning acceptance of the "white race" and "white" identity as skin color-based and natural attributes rather than as social and political constructions. His thesis on the origin, nature, and maintenance of the "white race" and his understanding that slavery in the Anglo-American plantation colonies was capitalist and enslaved Black laborers were proletarians, contains the basis of a radical approach to United States labor history. Scope of collection The Theodore W. (Ted) Allen collection documents the life and work of the historian and author of the groundbreaking book, The Invention of the White Race. The collection provides extensive records of the drafts of both volumes of The Invention, along with numerous drafts of other related works: The Kernel and Meaning, A Peculiar Seed, and Towards a Revolution in Labor History. Together with Allen's profuse research notes and background materials, his correspondence, and information on his social and political commitments, the collection is a major resource for study of the development of the concept of whiteness and white privilege in historical studies and for study of a working class white radical engaged in racial justice struggles. Series descriptions Series 1. Correspondence 1948-2016 The correspondence series includes materials ranging from the 1950s through the end of Allen's life, and includes both personal and professional communication. It includes a number of letters and cards from family members, including nieces and nephews for whom he was a much-loved uncle. Allen was close to both the Ed Peeples family (including Ed's daughter Cecily) and the Remco van Capelleveen family. Correspondence with these friends includes letters, poems, wedding invitations, birth announcements and family news to and from Ted and those families over a number of years.
Load more

Recommended publications
  • The Electoral Geography of European Radical Left Parties Since 1990
    ‘Red Belts’ anywhere? The electoral geography of European radical left parties since 1990 Petar Nikolaev Bankov, BA, MSc Submitted in the fulfilment of the requirements for the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy School of Social and Political Sciences College of Social Sciences University of Glasgow January 2020 Abstract European radical left parties (RLPs) are on the rise across Europe. Since 1990 they became an integral part of the party systems across the continent and enjoy an increased level of government participation and policy clout. The main source for this improved position is their increasing electoral support in the past three decades, underpinned by a diversity of electoral geographies. Understood as the patterns of territorial distribution of electoral support across electoral units, the electoral geographies are important, as they indicate the effects of the socio-economic and political changes in Europe on these parties. This thesis studies the sources of the electoral geographies of European RLPs since 1990. The existing literature on these parties highlighted the importance of their electoral geographies for understanding their electoral and governmental experiences. Yet, to this date, it lacks systematic research on these territorial distributions of electoral support in their own right. Such research is important also for the general literature on the spatial distribution of electoral performance. In particular, these works paid limited attention to the relevance of their theories for individual political parties, as they
    [Show full text]
  • A Collection of Articles by Harry Ratner
    IS THERE A FUTURE FOR SOCIALISM? A collection of articles ?by Harry Ratner INTRODUCTION ANY READERS will be familiar with Harry but have a consistent theme – the need to question Ratner’s excellent book, Reluctant what passes in Trotskyist circles for Marxist ortho- RevolutionaryM , which details the more than two doxy and face up to political reality. This is not, I decades he spent as an activist in the Trotskyist imagine, a message that will be well received in movement before breaking from it in 1960. One of some quarters. the features of the book was that, while the author Among the shibboleths Harry challenges are no longer considered himself a Trotskyist, his was the necessity for centrally planned production in a not an embittered account fuelled by personal socialist economy, the rejection of a parliamentary resentment towards the movement to which he had road to socialism, economic catastrophism, re- once committed his life. On the contrary, Harry’s ductionist views on the “class character” of the memoirs were distinguished by an admirable state, the validity of the Bolshevik revolution, both objectivity, in which he gave credit to his former in its own terms and as a model for future socialist comrades as serious and honest socialists, while struggles, and more. Even those who profoundly rejecting most of the main planks of the Trotskyist disagree with the author’s conclusions will hopefully programme. at least be provoked into re-examining their political The articles in this collection continue the assumptions. general approach of Reluctant Revolutionary, but Harry would welcome readers’ comments on in theoretical rather than autobiographical terms.
    [Show full text]
  • PROOF Contents
    PROOF Contents Acknowledgements viii 1 Survival and Renewal: The 1990s 1 2 Regroupment: Establishing a European Movement 29 3 The Party of the European Left 46 4 Diverse Trends: An Overview 66 5 A Successful Model? Die Linke (the Left Party – Germany) 83 6 How Have the Mighty Fallen: Partito della Rifondazione Comunista (Party of Communist Refoundation – Italy) 99 7 Back from the Brink: French Communism (Parti Communiste Français) Re-orientates 116 8 Communism Renewed and Supported: The Communist Party of Bohemia and Moravia (the Czech Republic) 132 9 The Scandinavian Left 147 10 The European Left and the Global Left: 1999–2009 163 Notes 192 Index 204 vii PROOF 1 Survival and Renewal: The 1990s Almost two decades after the fall of the Berlin Wall, on the occasion of the German federal elections in September 2009, the International Herald Tribune marked the electoral victory of the German right with the headline, ‘Is socialism dying?’1 The German Social Democratic Party or the Sozialdemokratische Partei Deutschlands (SPD) took 23% of the votes – its lowest poll since the Second World War – just months after the European elections registered a poor performance from left- wing candidates across the European Union (EU). As the article went on to observe, ‘Even in the midst of one of the greatest challenges to capitalism in 75 years, involving a breakdown of the financial sys- tem because of “irrational exuberance”, greed and the weakness of regulatory systems, European socialists and their leftist cousins have not found a compelling response, let alone taken advantage of the failures of the right.’ There is no doubt that across Europe the failure of the social demo- cratic parties to present a ‘compelling response’ to the economic crisis has led to a wave of electoral setbacks.
    [Show full text]
  • A Word from the Societies Officer
    A Word from the Societies Officer It has been an extraordinary year for societies in NUI Galway, a year which reinforces the view that the societies are at the very heart of the cultural and social life of the campus. With over 7000 students signing on to societies during both societies days this year, their can be no doubt about their continuing popularity. With a turn-over of over €600,000 this year their range and level of activity can not be in question. When you consider that over €150,000 of this was donated to charity the generosity and altruism of the society individuals is a shining example to all of us. It has been a pleasure facilitating and supporting the societies in their unbelievably diverse range of activities. This year our aim was to improve societies’ infrastructures and facilities, to this end workshops for the various committee members were organised. The success of the societies organisational, record keeping and book keeping skills is clearly evident in this publication. In the following pages you will uncover, in the societies own words, the fascinating and diverse range of activities they engaged in and also the immense sense of pride and joy they have in their achievements. The purpose of this book is not only to celebrate the year that the societies have had and to keep a record for future years but also to acknowledge the hard work, imagination, determination and creativity of the dedicated committee members. Congratulations to all of you. This year saw a number of reunions. It was obvious from the alumni that the years spent in societies, while in university, enriched their experiences and forged life long friendships.
    [Show full text]
  • Manufacturing Discontent: the Rise to Power of Anti-TTIP Groups
    ECIPE OCCASIONAL PAPER • 02/2016 Manufacturing Discontent: The Rise to Power of Anti-TTIP Groups By Matthias Bauer, Senior Economist* *Special thanks to Karen Rudolph (Otto-Friedrich-University Bamberg) and Agnieszka Smiatacz (Research Assistant at ECIPE) for research support all along the process of the preparation of this study. ecipe occasional paper — no. 02/2016 ABSTRACT Old beliefs, new symbols, new faces. In 2013, a small group of German green and left- wing activists, professional campaign NGOs and well-established protectionist organisations set up deceptive communication campaigns against TTIP, the Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership between the European Union and the United States. Germany’s anti-TTIP NGOs explicitly aimed to take German-centred protests to other European countries. Their reasoning is contradictory and logically inconsistent. Their messages are targeted to serve common sense protectionist demands of generally ill-informed citizens and politicians. Thereby, anti-TTIP communication is based on metaphoric messages and far-fetched myths to effectively evoke citizens’ emotions. Together, these groups dominated over 90 percent of online media reporting on TTIP in Germany. Anti-TTIP protest groups in Germany are not only inventive; they are also resourceful. Based on generous public funding and opaque private donations, green and left-wing political parties, political foundations, clerical and environmental groups, and well-established anti-globalisation organisations maintain influential campaign networks. Protest groups’ activities are coordinated by a number of former and current green and left-wing politicians and political parties that search for anti-establishment political profiles. As Wallon blockage mentality regarding CETA, the trade and investment agreement between the European Union and Canada, demonstrates, Germany’s anti-TTIP groups’ attempts to undermine EU trade policy bear the risk of coming to fruition in other Eurpean countries.
    [Show full text]
  • Crisis & Critique Democracy and Revolution Volume I
    C R I S I S & C R CRISISI & T I Q U E # CRISIS & CRITIQUE1 CRITIQUE CRISIS & CRITIQUE DEMOCRACY AND REVOLUTION VOLUME I / ISSUE I, 2014 Dialectical Materialism Collective 1 The Impasses of Today’s Radical Politics C R I S I S & C R CRISISI & T I Q U E # CRISIS & CRITIQUE1 CRITIQUECRISIS & CRITIQUE Editorial Board: DEMOCRACY AND REVOLUTION Henrik Jøker Bjerre VOLUME I / ISSUE I, 2014 Aaron Schuster Adrian Johnston Joan Copjec Editor-in-Chief Robert Pfaller Agon Hamza Frank Ruda Gabriel Tupinambá Sead Zimeri Fabio Vighi 2 Slavoj Žižek Benjamin Noys Roland Boer Editorial note, 238 C H.J.Bjerre & A.Hamza Communism is Wrong, R by Jana Tsoneva I 8 S The Impasses of Today’s Radical 264 I Politics, by Slavoj Žižek The Jews and the Zionists; The Story ofS a Reversal, by Sina Badiei 46 & Socialist Democracy with Chinese 280 Characteristics, by Roland Boer Review articles: C R CRISIS &66 H.J.Bjerre: Prolegomena to Any FutureI The Indignant of the Earth, Materialism, by Adrian Johnston T by Frank Ruda I C.Crockett: From Myth to Symptom: theQ 90 case of Kosovo, by S. Žižek & A.HamzaU Democracy and revolution on the Inter- E net, by Katarina Peović Vuković D.Tutt: Enjoying What We Don’t Have: The Political Project of Psychoanalysis,# 116 by Todd McGowan 1 Alain Badiou and the aporia of democracy within generic communism, A.Ryder: Badiou and the Philosophers, by Panagiotis Sotiris ed.T.Tho & G.Bianco CRITIQUE136 308 Climate Crisis, Ideology, and Collective Notes on Contributers Action, by Ted Stolze 154 Lacan and Rational Choice, by Yuan Yao 166 Redemptive
    [Show full text]
  • The Left in Europe
    ContentCornelia Hildebrandt / Birgit Daiber (ed.) The Left in Europe Political Parties and Party Alliances between Norway and Turkey Cornelia Hildebrandt / Birgit Daiber (ed.): The Left in Europe. Political Parties and Party Alliances between Norway and Turkey A free paperback copy of this publication in German or English can be ordered by email to [email protected]. © Rosa Luxemburg Foundation Brussels Office 2009 2 Content Preface 5 Western Europe Paul-Emile Dupret 8 Possibilities and Limitations of the Anti-Capitalist Left in Belgium Cornelia Hildebrandt 18 Protests on the Streets of France Sascha Wagener 30 The Left in Luxemburg Cornelia Weissbach 41 The Left in The Netherlands Northern Europe Inger V. Johansen 51 Denmark - The Social and Political Left Pertti Hynynen / Anna Striethorst 62 Left-wing Parties and Politics in Finland Dag Seierstad 70 The Left in Norway: Politics in a Centre-Left Government Henning Süßer 80 Sweden: The Long March to a coalition North Western Europe Thomas Kachel 87 The Left in Brown’s Britain – Towards a New Realignment? Ken Ahern / William Howard 98 Radical Left Politics in Ireland: Sinn Féin Central Europe Leo Furtlehner 108 The Situation of the Left in Austria 3 Stanislav Holubec 117 The Radical Left in Czechia Cornelia Hildebrandt 130 DIE LINKE in Germany Holger Politt 143 Left-wing Parties in Poland Heiko Kosel 150 The Communist Party of Slovakia (KSS) Southern Europe Mimmo Porcaro 158 The Radical Left in Italy between national Defeat and European Hope Dominic Heilig 166 The Spanish Left
    [Show full text]
  • SHOULD NEWSPAPERS CRUSADE? Answer: Yes George Chaplin
    ----------------------~----------------------------------------------------------~-~ Ieman• orts October~ 1949 SHOULD NEWSPAPERS CRUSADE? Answer: Yes George Chaplin Turnover Among Newsmen William M. Pinkerton The Guild and Education Norval Neil Luxon The Character of the Newspaper Job Louis M. Lyons V A Dutchman Looks at the U. S. Press Jan Roelof Klinkert A Country Editor's Creed Donald A. Norberg The Story Behind the Story "CBS Views the Press" Seminar on Russia Houstoun Waring Nieman Scrapbook Letters Nieman Notes Nieman Reports is published by the Nieman Alumni Council, elected by former Nieman Fellows at Harvard University. It aims to provide a medium for discussion by newspapermen of problems common t.o their profession. Nine out of ten sub!Scriber·S to Nieman Reports and very many of its contributors are not themselves former Nieman Fellows but share a belief in the purpose of the Nieman Foundation "to promote and elevate standards of journalism in the U. S." NIEMAN REPORTS and receptions given by large corporations, and under the heading, "They Made It Possible" on the NEA programs, 22 firms and organizations were thanked for "making this con­ NiemanReports vention a success." Seventeen hosts were business concerns and organizations, including General Motors, the United States Brewers Foundation, Ford Motors, Geneva (U. S.) Steel, Kennecott Copper and the Utah Manufacturers Asso­ Nieman Reports is published by the Nieman Alumni ciation. Geneva Steel and Kennecott have large operations, Council: John MeL. Clark, Claremont, N. H.; Paul L. so like the other Utah companies they could legitimately Evans, Mitchell, S. D.; Lawrence A. Fernsworth, New play host to Utah visitors. York City; Thomas H.
    [Show full text]
  • Holt Atherton Special Collections Ms4: Brubeck Collection
    HOLT ATHERTON SPECIAL COLLECTIONS MS4: BRUBECK COLLECTION SERIES 1: PAPERS SUBSERIES E: CLIPPINGS BOX 3a : REVIEWS, 1940s-1961 1.E.3.1: REVIEWS, 1940s a- “Jazz Does Campus Comeback but in new Guise it’s a ‘Combo,’” Oakland Tribune, 3-24-47 b- Jack Egan. “Egan finds jury…,” Down Beat, 9-10-47 c- “Local boys draw comment,” <n.s.> [Chicago], 12-1-48 d- Edward Arnow. “Brubeck recital is well-received,” Stockton Record, 1-18-49 e- Don Roessner. “Jazz meets J.S. Bach in the Bay Region,” SF Chronicle, 2- 13-49 f- Robert McCary. “Jazz ensemble in first SF appearance,” SF Chronicle, 3-6- 49 g- Clifford Gessler. “Snap, skill mark UC jazz concert,” <n.s.> [Berkeley CA], n.d. [4-49] h- “Record Reviews---DB Trio on Coronet,” Metronome, 9-49, pg. 31 i- Keith Jones. “Exciting and competent, says this critic,” Daily Californian, 12- 6-49 j- Kenneth Wastell. “Letters to the editor,” Daily Californian, 12-8-49 k- Dick Stewart. “Letters to the editor,” Daily Californian, 12-9-49 l- Ken Wales. “Letters to the editor,” Daily Californian, 12-14-49 m- “Record Reviews: The Month’s best [DB Trio on Coronet],” Metronome, Dec. 1949 n- “Brubeck Sounds Good” - 1949 o- Ralph J. Gleason, “Local Units Give Frisco Plenty to Shout About,” Down Beat, [1949?] 1.E.3.2: REVIEWS, 1950 a- “Record Reviews: Dave Brubeck Trio,” Down Beat, 1-27-50 b- Bill Greer, "A Farewell to Measure from Bach to Bop," The Crossroads, January 1950, Pg. 13 c- Keith Jones. “Dave Brubeck,” Bay Bop, [San Francisco] 2-15-50 d- “Poetic License in Jazz: Brubeck drops in on symphony forum, demonstrates style with Bach-flavored bop,” The Daily Californian, 2-27-50 e- Barry Ulanov.
    [Show full text]
  • No. 835, October 29, 2004
    W(JRKERS 'AMIIIAR' soC!: No.83S @~il~c'701 29 October 2004 Elections 2004 Scull/Newsweek AP Rel,gion, '. Racism and Reacli on t.'. B.'.. ' reak.·· ...· ••···.· •..... ·._. ···•···.. ·.··it ..• ...· ..·.' .. ,.I ..•...' .....'.'.~ ·::.. .... ,.:·.....•• · •... ··· .. ·.· .. ' ..........••. ·.b ........ ,.8.' •.............. D.··••.····. 8:1D......·.:.· ... 0.·.. c.···:.r ......·.· .. a.. ··,. I.·.S!· We!I'.. ~a .. Revolllli8I!a~I;~_orkersParq! The Bush cabal that occupies the White same-sex marriage, favored restrictions House is fanatical, arrogant and believes on abortion and imposed limits on embry­ it is doing the work of God. One would onic stem cell research. He has promoted think the U.S. were some kind of theo­ vouchers for religious schools and shifted cratic state given all the heavy emphasis money for sex education and reproductive on religion, Newspaper articles detail health programs to those that instead pro­ how God supposedly told evangelist Pat mote abstinence." The Bush administra­ Robertson that the Iraq war would entail tion is certainly a pack of crazed woman­ heavy casualties. Bush supporters testify hating, anti-black, anti-gay bigots. that they believe that through Bush, "God It is understandable that many would is in the White House." There is an open see Kerry as some kind of "lesser evil" disdain for facts and reality. A New York to the Bush gang-it's not so much that Times Magazine (17 October) article by people are voting for Kerry but that Ron Suskind describes how a senior Bush they're voting against Bush. But from the advisor told Suskind that "guys like me standpoint of the interests of the working were 'in what we call the reality-based class, black people and the oppressed.
    [Show full text]
  • Media 2070: an Invitation to Dream up Media Reparations
    An Invitation to Dream Up Media Reparations AN INVITATION TO DREAM UP MEDIA REPARATIONS Collaborators: Joseph Torres Alicia Bell Collette Watson Tauhid Chappell Diamond Hardiman Christina Pierce a project of Free Press 2 WWW.MEDIA2070.ORG CONTENTS INTRODUCTION 9 I. A Day at the Beach 13 II. Media 2070: An Invitation to Dream 18 III. Modern Calls for Reparations for Slavery 19 IV. The Case for Media Reparations 24 V. How the Media Profited from and Participated in Slavery 26 VI. The Power of Acknowledging and Apologizing 29 VII. Government Moves to Suppress Black Journalism 40 VIII. Black People Fight to Tell Our Stories in the Jim Crow Era 43 IX. Media Are the Instruments of a White Power Structure 50 X. The Struggle to Integrate Media 52 XI. How Public Policy Has Entrenched Anti-Blackness in the Media 56 XII. White Media Power and the Trump Feeding Frenzy 58 XIII. Media Racism from the Newsroom to the Boardroom 62 XIV. 2020: A Global Reckoning on Race 66 X V. Upending White Supremacy in Newsrooms 70 XVI. Are Newsrooms Ready to Make Things Right? 77 XVII. The Struggles of Black Media Resistance 80 XVIII. Black Activists Confront Online Gatekeepers 83 XIX. Media Reparations Are Necessary to Our Nation’s Future 90 XX. Making Media Reparations Real 95 Epilogue 97 About Team Media 2070 98 Definitions 99 #MEDIA2070 3 TRIGGER WARNING There are numerous stories in this essay that explore the harms the news media have inflicted on the Black community. While these stories may be difficult or painful to read, they are not widely known, and they need to be.
    [Show full text]
  • Abner Diamond Teaches Communications at the Fashion Insitute of Technology in New York. He Canvassed Door-To-Door for Marcantoni
    Abner Diamond teaches communications at the Fashion Insitute of Technology in New York. He canvassed door-to-door for Marcantonio, and this woodcut was inspired by the graphic artists of Mexico. Rebel in the House The Life and Times of Vito Marcantonio JOHN J. SIMON You only live once and it is best to live one’s life with one’s con- science rather than to temporize or accept with silence those things one believes to be against the interests of one’s people and one’s nation. —Vito Marcantonio in Congress June 27, 1950, the only Congressional voice opposed to U.S. intervention in the Korean War. Vito Marcantonio was the most consequential radical politician in the United States in the twentieth century. Elected to Congress from New York’s ethnically Italian and Puerto Rican East Harlem slums, Marcantonio, in his time, held office longer than any other third-party radical, serving seven terms from 1934 to 1950. Colorful and controver- sial, Marcantonio captured national prominence as a powerful orator and brilliant parliamentarian. Often allied with the U.S. Communist Party (CP), he was an advocate of civil rights, civil liberties, labor unions, and Puerto Rican independence. He supported social security and unemployment legislation for what later was called a “living wage” standard. And he annually introduced anti-lynching and anti–poll tax bills a decade before it became respectable. He also opposed the House Un-American Activities Committee, redbaiting, and antisemitism, and fought for the rights of the foreign born. He was a bold outspoken opponent of U.S.
    [Show full text]