From pop culture reviews and archives to critical genealogy and female writers, LGBTQ+ themes to labor action
This newsletter will, as always, summarize recently published articles and posts, and note articles on archives, libraries, genealogy, LGBTQ+ topics, animation, labor rights, climate change, and more
Hello all! I thought I’d publish this before the month ends. My last newsletter (which came out on June 6th) was published on archive.org. I’ve been relatively busy since then. For one, I’ve written many reviews, including various anime series which have come to an end, like Otaku Elf, Kuma Kuma Kuma Bear, Yuri is My Job!, Birdie Wing: Golf Girls Story (season 2), Tokyo Mew Mew New (season 2), Oshi no Ko, and Skip and Loafer. I also wrote about an indie animation entitled Gods School, a Black animation based on Zambia titled Supa Team 4, a mature animation titled Unicorn: Warriors Eternal, an African animated anthology series entitled Kizazi Moto: Generation Fire, and the animated film Nimona. Otherwise, I published a post on my Wading Through the Cultural Stacks blog about the arrogant curator in Tangled and the so-called archivist in Star Wars: Crimson Reign. On Pop Culture Library Review I wrote about fictional libraries and ideals of librarianship, fictional librarians and systems of oppression, Craig of the Creek and libraries, the librarian in The Ghost and Molly McGee (see here), fictional librarians experiencing burnout, and White librarians in fiction. On Issues and Advocacy, where I am the editor of their online publication at present, I published my last post, perhaps for some time, on sensitive documents, NARA’s role in declassification, and contested spaces. With that, let me begin my newsletter.
One of the biggest stories, when it comes to archives, my colleagues at NSA have published several well-researched and fascinating briefing books since June 6th. The first of these is on nuclear weapons and the laws of war, by William Burr. The second is by Rachel Santarsiero. The latter, who I corresponded with (as well as William “Bill” Burr), has a very interesting article outlining 50 years of U.S. resistance to environmental reparations requested by poorer/“developing” countries. A related post, also by Santarsiero, was posted in August 1st, about the U.S. continued resistance to such reparations. Lauren Harper, over at Unredacted, has written on State Department launching an “AI Pilot Program for FOIA Processing,” death of Daniel Ellsberg, and the Rosenberg case, along with topics such as declassification, Treasury Department “still interested” letters trying to close FOIA requests, and other issues.
There were further articles about the use of exploitative prison labor by libraries and archives by Kristen C. Howard, as she noted on X/Twitter. I mentioned my article, to which she said that Library and Archives Canada “recently partnered with FamilySearch for quality control on its 1931 census” and said she is “definitely interested in learning more about this.” It’s a project I’ll keep pursuing, going forward, for sure. There were other posts on rebinding medieval manuscripts, representation of NARA’s INS records “in Ancestry’s database portal,” understanding perspectives of sexual assault survivors toward archiving qualitative data, and getting a grasp on harmful language statements, so they can be used effectively.
There were further articles reviewing the ninth episode of Otaku Elf (and its various records themes, which will be the subject of a future post on Wading Through the Cultural Stacks), noting the internal role of archives for U.K. and Irish heritage corporations, the U.S. national archives and the military record loss in the 1973 fire, navigating reformatting challenges with audio files (for archives), a unique database indexing/listing almost 300,000 fonds at Russian archives, the breakdown of community memory (and why it matters) when it comes to asexual history, and digitizing a cache of pioneer portraits. Just as important were articles on web archiving at the National Szechenyi Library, an open access book entitled Archives and Records: Privacy, Personality Rights, and Access, an interview with Library of Congress (LOC) curator Liz Peirce, rehousing oversized museum archival documents, and anticipating the preservation needs of archived audio tapes.
While I could add many more articles here, I’m moving onto libraries. One of the top stories on the now-open /r/Libraries (it was previously closed to protest Reddit’s policies on raising API prices), was former President Obama slamming LGBTQ+ book bans in an open letter to American librarians. As The Advocate reported, he called for Americans to “be mindful of efforts to ban books,” defended such books, but also claimed that America was a “nation built on freedom of expression,” saying that if this country allows “certain voices and ideas to be silenced, why should other countries go out of their way to protect them?” Even so, it was noted that he did not “direct his criticism to a specific state or leader,” while saying the book bans are misguided and purportedly contrary to “what has made this country great.” He stated that librarians are on the front lines, with a dedication and professional expertise to allow “us to freely read and consider information and ideas, and decide for ourselves which ones we agree with,” then added that “Michelle and I want to thank these librarians for their unwavering commitment to the freedom to read.” Even so, the letter, has apparently, led to harassment of librarians by reactionary individuals.
While this all sounds well and good, his claim that the U.S. was built on “freedom of expression” is factually incorrect because enslaved people, women, and Indigenous people could not enjoy that freedom at the time of independence. Primarily, White men enjoyed such freedom, especially those with wealth and property. Other countries have been censoring “certain voices and ideas” for years, as has the U.S., at numerous points in U.S. history. I’m not sure what makes America “great” anymore. Furthermore, he is positioning librarians as some sort of neutral arbiters, even though it is more accurate to say that libraries, and librarians, are not neutral, while libraries are contested spaces. The fact that no specific state, leader, or even group, was called out, not even Moms for Liberty, shows the weakness of this statement. Some parts, like noting the value of librarians in the U.S., are good, but overall, I’d say the entire statement is heavily flawed and based on false assumptions. I could write an entire essay on it if I wanted, but I don’t wish to do so here.
When it comes to libraries, there are also stories on impact of book challenges and censorship, the pro-Nazi artist behind the Brooklyn Public Library’s facade, the resignation of Anchorage Public Library deputy director Judy Eledge after her “history of offensive comments and social media posts about Native Alaskans and the LGBTQ+ community” was revealed, remote workers flocking to libraries for resources and collaboration, the launch of a new American Federation of Labor By the People crowdsourced transcription campaign, an increase of violence in Canadian libraries, a library cancelling a trans speaker after Montana bans drag, and the library as a safe place. Last but not least were the problematic reworking of Agatha Christie novels to remove “potentially offensive” language, a Florida school district removing book about Anne Frank from libraries, and the power of progressive library boards. There was a petition defending new ALA president Emily Drabinski from homophobic and red-baiting attacks, and it seemed simple enough to sign, while I will undoubtedly remain critical of her and her actions at the ALA, as I would with any ALA president. Signing the petition does not mean I have the same political views as Drabinski, who said she felt she was running as labor organizer rather than a socialist and admitted she is not active in the socialist movement (people seem to miss this), and said that while she is a socialist, she worried about the impact of the backlash from her declaration that she is a “Marxist lesbian”. Presently, there are over 2,200 signatories for the petition, which is very impressive, compared to groups like Moms for Liberty, the Republican Freedom Caucuses at the state-level, and various lawmakers, who want states to withdrawal from the ALA.
This brings me to my next subject, genealogy. An investigation by Reuters determined that of 36 members of the last sitting Congress, “at least 100 descend from slaveholders” with 28 members Senators tracing “their families to at least one slaveholder.” This included Sens. Mitch McConnell, Lindsey Graham, Tom Cotton, Elizabeth Warren, Tammy Duckworth and Jeanne Shaheen, along with Presidents Joe Biden, Jimmy Carter, George W. Bush, Bill Clinton and Barack Obama, as descendants from slaveowners, as are Supreme Court justices Amy Coney Barrett and Neil Gorsuch, along with “11 of the 50 U.S. states…had governors who are descendants of slaveholders,” including Asa Hutchinson and Doug Burgum. It was revealed that “at least 8% of Democrats in the last Congress and 28% of Republicans have such ancestors” which reflects Republican Party strength in the South, “where slavery was concentrated,” as it was “almost entirely a southern enterprise” despite some slavery in the North by the time of the Civil War. Henry Louis Gates argued that, as quoted in the article, this is “not another chapter in the blame game. We do not inherit guilt for our ancestors’ actions…Look at how closely linked we are to the institution of slavery, and how it informed the lives of the ancestors of people who represent us in the United States Congress today. This is a learning opportunity for each individual.” It was further noted that many white Americans whose ancestors came to America before the Civil War “have family ties to the institution of slavery,” including Duckworth, who is a member of the White-centered (and formerly White nationalist and outwardly racist) Daughters of the American Revolution.
Adding to this, as Reuters pointed out, while 58% of Americans support reparations, 74% of Black Americans favor it “compared to just 26% of white Americans”! Some of those who oppose reparations, like Louie Gohmert, Tommy Tuberville, Lindsey Graham, and John N. Kennedy, have slaveowner ancestors! In contrast, Elizabeth Warren, Chris Van Hollen, Lloyd Doggett, Martin Heinrich, Earl Blumenauer, Julia Brownley, Lloyd Doggett, Rick Larsen, Carolyn Maloney, David Trone, and Tammy Duckworth acknowledge those ancestors. Others with slaveowner ancestors include the reactionary Marsha Blackburn, Roy Blunt, Richard Burr, and John Cornyn. As I noted in an earlier newsletter, noting a Pew Research Center Survey where many Black Americans supported “educational scholarships, financial assistance for starting or improving a business, financial assistance for buying or remodeling a home, and cash payments”, as a form of reparations. This included many saying the federal government should have all or most of the “responsibility for repaying descendants of people enslaved in the U.S.,” while smaller shares said the same for banks, businesses, colleges, and universities which benefited from slavery, and even 60% said “descendants of families who engaged in the slave trade…should have all or most of the responsibility for reparations.” Black conservatives were said to be “more likely than moderates or liberals…to say that descendants of families that engaged in the slave trade should have all or most of the responsibility.” All of this should be kept in mind when doing any sort of reparative/critical genealogy.
When it comes to family history, there have been posts on researching Irish burial and death records, Civil War pensions, handling of family archives, what to do about inaccuracies in records, and Miyamoto Jensen’s criticism of FamilySearch for not rooting out racism and prejudice. In a piece by Koritha Mitchell in the Los Angeles Review of Books, she noted that enslavement was a widely accepted American practice which denied humanity to Black people, adding that “equating the South with virulent racism creates a disconnect for many Black people…[with] mythic representations of the South as a place teeming with violence overshadow[ing] dynamic lived realities”. The same piece states that dominant practices and discourses “elevate straight white men’s perspectives at the expense of other citizens,” with the built environment telling a story in which “white men make contributions and never commit crimes.”
However, in her words, telling the story with a focus on Black women shifts one’s “encounter with a location,” and is part of restoring memories honors to “those whose humanity is denied whenever their experiences are disregarded.” It goes against any form of erasure, and a society which built its wealth by “treating the sexual exploitation of Black women as a necessary nonevent”. As such, such a story, in the words of Mitchell, goes against the “pleasure, power, and profit for white men” and supports dignity for Black women. There’s much more in Mitchell’s piece which I’m not summarizing here. It has relevance when it comes to critical genealogy and gives me the inspiration to do the same in my genealogical narratives. I’ve already contributed to Beyond Kin (shown earlier), but would like to do much more. I just have to think about how that will work. It’s a work in progress, to say the least.
There are many stories in the broader realm of history. History News Network had articles on Japanese internment in Hawaii, an industry-led effort to “feed students and their teachers ‘correct information’ about capitalism and free-market principles,” how content restrictions can backfire, the myth of the West, the success of James Garfield in an “Age of Division,” historians on the politics of abortion rights, the importance of maps, Bob Dylan and the FBI, California’s collusion with timber companies to cut ancient Redwoods, the long road to veteran’s health, the power of dependency in women’s legal petitions in Revolutionary America, what can be learned from historical fiction, why LGBTQ Americans fear the weaponization of bureaucracy, and many other topics. Others wrote about how Southern prisons “shaped American music,” a conversation with Krista Burton, author of Moby Dyke: An Obsessive Quest to Track Down the Last Lesbian Bars in America, perspectives on the ten crucial days of the American Revolution, and preserving the legacy of “the Women Astronomical Computers of the Harvard College Observatory.”
Of note are posts from the ERA Coalition on influential Black female writers and early feminist writers. The latter post mentioned Mary Wollstonecraft (1759-1797), Angela Davis (1944-), Margaret Fuller (1810-1850), Audre Lorde (1943-1992), bell hooks (1952-2021), Elizabeth Cady Stanton (1815-1902), Alice Walker (1944-), and Virginia Woolf (1882-1941). The former post mentioned well-known present writers, like journalists Yamiche Alcindor, Abby Phillip, and Errin Haines, poets such as Audre Lorde, Nayyirah Waheed, and Gwendolyn Brooks, novelists such as Alice Walker, Zora Neale Hurston, and Octavia E. Butler. Each has a short biography. Otherwise, the Journal of American Revolution had various articles, either on newspapers as a source of rebel intelligence, writing about the American Revolution, cross-border shopping for Loyalist provisions (1783–1784), the purpose of the Electoral College, an attempted assassination in Revolutionary Boston, the unimportance of John Brown’s raid on Fort Ticonderoga, and cooperating with the French fleet in 1778.
Lastly were articles on the contradictions of slave trade legislation, Canadian history showing that sex workers getting the “short end of the stick” more times than not, the 1900 Scofield mine disaster in Utah, congressional reactions to the assassination of President Garfield, 75 years after the Palestinians Nakba, Samuel Gompers and the American Federation of Labor, digitization of War of 1812 pension files, the fight against anti-history legislation, the vitality of highlighting Indigenous history, the changes of the 1970s gas shortages in America, and an article on race, murder, medicine, and media in the Gilded Age, in the case of Chastine Cox.
With that, I move to an entirely different topic: LGBTQ people. I’ll start with posts about lesbian fashion (from Kira Deshler of the Paging Dr. Lesbian Substack), the most influential gay and women in Corporate America (from Fabrice Houdart), and corporate support for Pride and the need to go back to the basics (from Houdart). Otherwise, there were articles on the future of polyamory’s legality in the U.S., the bisexual community helping to break stereotypes and stigma about bisexuality, pansexual celebrities, and movies which “made” people queer. While I haven’t heard of most of them, it was interesting they listed Jurassic Park (1994), with the comment about paleobotanist Ellie Sattler, with a respondent saying she was “smart, strong, and independent”. Otherwise, there was an interview with Keke Palmer (who voices Maya in The Proud Family: Louder and Prouder) on her Nickelodeon stardom, Nope, and queerness. Palmer previously told fans to “prepare to fall in love with 14-year-old activist Maya Leibowitz-Jenkins,” who she voices. This is after she insisted on a role on The Proud Family: Louder and Prouder, which the show creators honored.
There were other articles about Janelle Monae saying she is polyamorous. She previously came out as pansexual and non-binary as well, with her work as implicitly queer. With the growing number of Black animated series coming out nowadays, it would be rad if she would voice a character or if her music was used. Sadly, nothing has been announced yet, but I remain ever hopeful. I almost forgot that she voiced Mary Jackson in Hidden Figures, among an assortment of other roles (almost exclusively live-action). Otherwise, there was an article which went behind the scenes of this year’s ‘Marvel’s Voices: Pride’, featuring interviews with creative people, like Stephanie Williams (of What May Bloom), Steve Foxe (of Today’s Lesson), Shadi Petosky (of Everywhere), Sarah Gailey (of Be Gay, Do Crime), H.E. Edgmon (of No Trespassing: Beware of Dog), Marieke Nijiamp (of Everything’s Coming Up Aces), Katherine Locke (of Purim Spiel), and Stephen Byrne (of Jumbo Carnation’s Ultimate Creations).
The aforementioned Deshler (of Paging Dr. Lesbian) wrote about what she considered the 20 greatest lesbian films of all time. As it turns out, I’ve only watched four of them (The Watermelon Woman (1996), But I’m a Cheerleader (1999), Carol (2015), Portrait of a Lady On Fire (2019)) but not the other 16 (Go Fish (1994), Saving Face (2004), Aimee & Jaguar (1999), Summerland (2020), Professor Marston and the Wonder Women (2017), Thelma (2017), Imagine Me & You (2005), Kiss Me (2011), Elisa & Marcela (2019), The Children’s Hour (1961), Pariah (2011), Mädchen in Uniform (1931), Disobedience (2017), The Handmaiden (2016), Desert Hearts (1986), Bound (1996)). So, I may have to watch those at some point! There were further posts criticizing the so-called end of LGBTQ marketing, with Hodart saying it is only “the end of amateurism in LGBT marketing,” partnership of pop stars Hayley Kiyoko, Ava Max, and MAY-A with Webtoon in which there are comics inspired by their songs, and “rainbow-flag waiving” corporations which donated millions to anti-gay politicians since 2022. The companies include Comcast, AT&T, Home Depot, and Deloitte.
I’m moving to the next topic: anime and Western animation. I’ll start with anime. We Got This Covered listed what they considered the 15 best yuri anime series. I’ve watched most of them, like Kase-san & Morning Glories, Fragtime, Sakura Trick, Sweet Blue Flowers, Revolutionary Girl Utena, Bloom Into You, Miss Kobayashi’s Dragon Maid, Adachi and Shimamura, Whispered Words, Strawberry Panic!, El Cazador de la Bruja, Liz and the Bluebird, and Konohana Kitan, but not some of the others, like kanamewo, and Hibike! Euphonium. Others recommended anime such as Cyberpunk: Edgerunners (2022), Violet Evergarden (2018), A.I.C.O. Incarnation (2018), and A Whisker Away (2020), along with others, which look like worthy watches. There were reviews of the Spring 2023 anime season. While I have yet to finish Mobile Suit Gundam: The Witch from Mercury, I have to agree that Skip and Loafer and Yuri Is My Job are worth a watch. It was great to hear that The Dangers in My Heart TV anime season 2 was announced for January 2024. This follows announcements that the seemingly yuri series Shuumatsu Train Doko e Iku? will begin broadcasting in 2024, as will Tonari no Youkai-san. The latter centers on a cat, which piques my interest.
There was further news on the release of Rascal Does Not Dream of a Sister Venturing Out in Japan, that Yuru Yuri is getting a 4th season, the girls love spin-off manga Ohmuro-ke is getting two anime adaptions (Ōmuro-ke dear sisters and Ōmuro-ke dear friends) in 2024, and the yuri I’m in Love with the Villainous anime adaptation is having an October 2nd debut. In October two other anime, that I’m looking forward to, will premiere: The Family Circumstances of the Unreliable Witch and Stardust Telepath. In addition, Anime New Network reports that a film about Rui Komada, “the young head of her ailing family whisky distillery,” entitled Komada - A Whisky Family is coming out in November in Japan, and that Manga UP! added the Do It Yourself!! manga in English (it had an enjoyable anime adaptation). The site reported that Risa Kubota has retired from voice acting, the debut of The 100 Girlfriends Who Really, Really, Really, Really, Really Love You in October, and release of the third visual and video of Jellyfish Can't Swim in the Night, an original yurish(?) anime by Doga Kobo, releasing in 2024.
Anime Feminist had articles on various topics, including on non-monogamous love in yuri, writing women protagonists by “using Battle Shounen tropes”; Hotaru, Sailor Moon, and “overcoming disability” narratives, systemic casting hurdles for actors of color, different brains allowing neurodivergent people to tell their own stories; mobility limitation; “inspirational” disability and Josee, the Tiger, and the Fish, and how the Carole and Tuesday anime wrote (and had) a diverse cast. Other articles focused on mob mentality, conformity and intersectionality in Yurikuma Arashi as compared with what is depicted in Gatchaman Crowds Insight. More recent articles focused on “systemic villainy” in Sailor Moon, Healin’ Good Pretty Cure and chronic illness, and three-episode check-in which doesn’t mention the Yohane anime (Yohane the Parhelion: Sunshine in the Mirror) or the new Bang Dream! one (BaNG Dream! It’s My Go!!), showing they didn’t think it was even worth mentioning. That is too bad, as both are anime which people should watch. They only called the latter series “an enjoyable intro to the world of girl band anime” and didn’t mention the Yohane anime in their Summer 2023 digest, which is deceptive, to say the least.
With that, I come to the ever-expansive topic of Western animation. Surely there are articles about asexual icons in animated shows, those who see Gwen Stacy in Across the Spider Verse as trans, a profile of Brandon Rogers who has a role in Helluva Boss (which has been mapped out into future episodes within a four-season story), and listing of animation in IndieWire’s “The Most Essential LGBTQ TV Shows of the 21st Century”. The latter lists Tuca and Bertie as number one, followed by Steven Universe and Harley Quinn later in the list. The same list notes an anime: Wandering Son. Other IndieWire lists linked in that article note Bojack Horseman, Nimona, Q-Force, She-Ra and the Princesses of Power, Flee, and Sailor Moon. This is unlike Pride’s “87 LGBTQ+ Movies We Can’t Wait To See In 2023” which doesn’t list any animated films, apart from Nimona, which is a damn shame.
Further articles focused on series like The Ghost and Molly McGee (ongoing), The Owl House (ended in April), Legend of Korra (ended in December 2014), and Harley Quinn (ongoing). I enjoyed reading the article on Space.com about five sci-fi cartoons similar to Futurama. They listed: Inside Job, Final Space, Solar Opposites, Star Trek: Lower Decks, and Cowboy Bebop. I further enjoyed reading about St. Louis' Lion Forge Entertainment teaming with Nickelodeon for some animated series, Koreans flocking to theaters to watch Elemental for over three weeks, the release date of Adventure Time: Fionna and Cake (on Aug. 31) which is said to be for grown-up Adventure Time fans, and announcement of three new Disney series in development: StuGo, The Sunnyridge 3, and The Doomies. There will be the premiere of The Proud Family Louder and Prouder season 3 and the recent premiere of Kizazi Moto: Generation Fire.
At the same time, Paramount+ did a content purge, removing six animated series (Becca’s Bunch, Digby Dragon, Monsters vs. Aliens, Peter Rabbit, Pig Goat Banana Cricket, and Star Trek: Prodigy), and a new indie film titled Lovers featuring the Philippines released. Animation Magazine reported on announcement of two new Pokémon animated series, Elemental preparing for release on Digital Platforms on August 15, Seth McFarlane donating $1 million to WGA and SAG strikers, reveal of trailer and images for the final season of Disenchantment (on Sept 1.), and animation directors rebuking Paramount CEO’s “IP priorities.” Articles elsewhere noted Disney opening an AI taskforce “to help control spiraling production costs” which is undoubtedly related to demands by strikers to limit AI, launching of an event by Women in Animation to “empower industry professionals of all levels,” and Lackadaisy raising enough money in a crowdfunding campaign and then some “to fund a full, five-episode first season.” The latter is great to hear. Indie animation for the win.
This brings me to another part of the newsletter: which focuses on climate and environmentalism. My colleague, Rachel Santarsiero, wrote a post about how John Kerry is “continuing the U.S. government’s long opposition to environmental compensation”(mentioned earlier in this newsletter). Otherwise, there was an illustration about the new climate normal, an article about how central Appalachia could be a “safe haven” for climate change migrants, the carbon removal ecosystem, Tesla’s takeover of the U.S. electric car charging network, queer climate solutions, California's collusion with “a Texas timber company [to] let ancient Redwoods be clearcut,” and ways pollution and climate change are “linked to policing and incarceration.” Others wrote on the use of drones in environmental humanities research, centurial persistence of “forever chemicals at [U.S.] military fire training sites,” wildfire smoke worsening public health, plugging readers into the “real-life tsunami of change” with climate fiction, and the role of Hollywood in climate.
Beyond this were articles on how hurricanes get their names, post-Katrina tourism marketing “whitewash[ing]…Black culture and s[elling]…the city’s soul back to tourists,” New Urbanism selling faux sustainability “as a luxury on Florida's 30A,” and more than 802,000 homes “at risk of climate disaster—mostly in the South.” Related newsletters focused on how speculative fiction “thanks about social change,” the clean energy cost of “green hydrogen”, the climate case for getting a bidet, writing nature “with agency”, how climate data can show “how current and future generations could have different experiences with climate change,” and the problem with bioplastics.
Otherwise, there are reports that climate change, along with winds, hurricane conditions, invasive grasses, and flash drought are driving the devastating fires in Maui, Florida’s reactionary Department of Education approving classroom use of videos “produced by a conservative group that denies climate change,” why some Americans do not see climate change as an urgent issue, the world’s oldest moss possibly not surviving climate change, growing hidden costs of climate change, and what the data says about “Americans’ views of climate change.” UAE’s industry minister Sultan al-Jaber called for additional financing to “help Caribbean and other regions fight climate change” a meeting in Bonn, Germany. It will prepare for the 2023 United Nations Climate Change Conference (also known as COP-28) in the UAE from 11/30-12/12 of this year. However, there are justified accusations of greenwashing by the UAE, as much of the country’s energy still comes from oil and gas..
With that, I move to the next-to-last part of this newsletter, which focuses on workers, unionization, and labor rights. Cartoon Brew reported that VFX workers working at Marvel Studios filed to unionize with IATSE. Tyler Ruggeri posted a thread on X/Twitter on how much screenwriters got paid in the early days of physical media compared with how much the same writers are paid for streaming. On the same site, Jorge A. Reyes wrote that writers don’t hate the directors, but their “leadership are cowards that squandered a historic moment & struck a bad deal w/more holes than Swiss cheese, on the backs of OUR fight, again.” Eliza Skinner noted that if performers, crew, writers, and other working on reality TV were “paid standard union wages for their work” then reality TV wouldn’t be cheaper than “scripted” TV. Others argued that “a big writers guild and directors guild negotiating point [should be] if they bury a movie as a write off, rights should revert to the creators.” This is connected to a story that Disney is taking a $1.5 billion content write-off charge in the June quarter “after pulling dozens of titles from streaming services.”
Of note is Hornbake Library’s collection of documents and memorabilia chronicling the activities of the AFL-CIO’s second Director of Organization and Field Services, offering “researchers a personal window into the USA’s largest labor coalition.” Others stated that the writers’ strike has opened “old wounds,” pointed to Justices Kagan and Sotomayor joining other justices in ruling “against unionized drivers who walked off the job with their trucks full of wet concrete” (the Biden administration even sided against the strikers!). Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson was the lone dissenter in saying the ruling in the case, Glacier Northwest, Inc. v. Teamsters, stating that the ruling would hinder labor law development and “erode the right to strike.” Some wrote that the WGA strike is the “latest example of cultural workers joining together as entertainment technology changes. There were further articles on a damning law in Louisiana “used to target trans sex workers,” a survey showing that 94% of Japanese creators are concerned about A.I., and an interview with Zeno Robinson about his favorite roles, fighting harassment, and voice actor unionization.
This brings me to the final part of this newsletter, bringing in articles about topics which I haven’t covered elsewhere. One of those is opposition of “nine progressive Democrats of color” (Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, Cori Bush, Jamaal Bowman, André Carson, Summer Lee, Ilhan Omar, Ayanna Pressley, and Delia Ramirez) to a nonbinding resolution (which passed 412-9, and later in the Senate with unanimous consent) on the face “condemning antisemitism and expressing support for Israel” but actually declaring that Israel is “not a racist or apartheid state…[rejecting] forms of antisemitism and xenophobia” and stating that “the United States will always be a staunch partner and supporter of Israel.” This resolution is part of an effort to equate any criticism of Israel with anti-Semitism. It makes me think of the U.N. General Assembly Resolution 3379 which determined that Zionism was a form of racial discrimination (it passed in November 1975, but was rescinded in 1991 as Israel asked for it to be revoked, with U.S. support). It was a resolution drafted by Palestinian writer Fayez Sayegh. While Priscilla Jaypal ended up voting for the resolution, she had previously called Israel a “racist state” (she later clarified her statement, saying that Israel has only enacted “discriminatory and outright racist policies”). Ocasio-Cortez argued that it was wrong to pair “accusations of antisemitism with real concerns around the human rights crisis in the region” and that combining a “vote on antisemitism and discussion of apartheid and...two-tier legal systems is very cynical.” All the while, there is a gap between the U.S. public and those “elected to represent them is widening when it comes to U.S. policy on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, particularly among Democrats,” with a remarkable shift from “only a decade ago.” The “Israel and apartheid” Wikipedia page adds more detail if you are interested in learning different perspectives on this topic.
There were posts criticizing CDC masking guidelines, noting that many job interviews are not accessible to neurodiverse folks, displaying photographs of “professional hairstyle for black women,” noting data ethics and the clash between anonymity and analytics, explaining radical care work in the project of schooling, describing how a rural town in Georgia fighting a rail company that wants its land, and noting women rewriting the history of incarceration. Other posts said that Dr. Strangelove is missed, explained obscure government algorithms “making life-changing decisions about millions of people around the world” in terms of the welfare system, and stated that the Black superhero complex should be abolished. The latter article, by Bria Massey, criticizes Black Panther, Black Panther: Wakanda Forever, Miles Morales (Black Spider-Man) who has a cop father, Falcon from Disney+'s Falcon, John Ridley's Black Batman working with cops, Black Lightning delivering "bad guys" to the police and Luke Cage in the show of the same name having “a romantic relationship with a detective.” Massey says all of these examples are forms of copaganda. In addition, there are two different perspectives on Barbie in the same publication. One called the film a “hypnosis of capitalism, nostalgia, and lifelessness” and another takes a more abolitionist perspective on the film.
Then there are illustrations in The Nib on “anti-social behavior,” U.S. controversially sending cluster bombs to Ukraine (which claimed they would use them “responsibly”), how the current economic system of capitalism prevents the end of homelessness, strikes and labor disputes, rising maternal deaths, the future by the numbers, dreaming bigger, absurdity of moral panic over trans people “ruining” children, UPS drivers getting deal to get air conditioning in trucks, and Biden not closing Guantanamo Bay Prison despite a U.N. investigator criticizing the prison’s conditions as inhumane, cruel, and degrading. When it comes to cluster bombs, Sullivan admitted that there isn’t “unity on the use of the [cluster] munitions” while Zelensky said that using cluster munitions was “difficult” but supposedly necessary. Jen Psaki admitted in February 2022 that reported Russian use of the munitions “would potentially be a war crime.” Would this standard not be applied to Ukrainian use?
Other illustrations in The Nib were on the Oceangate submarine disaster, role playing, possibly shifting views of Americans on climate due to Canadian wildfires, cutting of DEI (Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion) programs across the U.S., a Westinghouse time capsule set to be opened in 5,000 years, pause on student loan payments ending (I think it was replaced with a limited program), a mutual understanding, right-wing jargon and manufactured controversies, the haughtiness of cops and claims of “blue lives matter,” and book bans in Georgia creating a hostile environment.
That’s all for this newsletter. Until the next one (hopefully sometime in September).
- Burkely