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LWV ABC Blog

One Perspective on Disablity

5/26/2022

 
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Keah Brown is a disability advocate and freelance writer who is best known for creating the viral hashtag #DisabledAndCute to dispel the myth that being disabled and attractive are mutually exclusive. Pop culture is one of her passions and she works to increase the visibility of people with disabilities in media in hopes it might shift the cultural view of disability.

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While Brown does not pretend to speak for all people with disabilities, her essays in The Pretty One, the LWV ABC May Book Club selection, raise some interesting points to think about:

  • She prefers the term “disabled”.  She views terms such as “handi-capable”, “differently abled” and “special needs” as coined to make abled bodied people more comfortable.
  •  “Disabled” acknowledges difference and when we acknowledge difference we must acknowledge the privilege that comes with being abled bodied.
  • What she needs as a disabled person are her rights, respect and opportunity, not pity or unsolicited advice about how to “cure” her disability.
  • Societal norms value constant movement and equate stillness with laziness which results in disabled people pushing themselves beyond healthy limits in order to be valued.
  • We live in a world that designs things under the assumption that everybody is able-bodied and fully functioning at all times.
  • Media portrayals of people with disabilities spend too much time making everything about the disability, so much so that the character stops being a person and just becomes the disability.
  • On TV shows disability is a joke and a horror.  Disability is punishment.
  • She has yet to see herself, a black disabled woman, reflected in any media portrayal.  In Hollywood, “disabled” is usually a white man in a wheelchair.
Read more of Keah Brown’s perspective on disability:
  • Disability Representation and the Problem with “Inspiration Porn”
  • Disabled People Are Not an Inconvenience
  • Saying Stephen Hawking Is "Free" From His Wheelchair Is Ableist
  • Disabled People Love Clothes Too​
Keah Brown has cerebral palsy, which causes her disability.  Here's a website that provides information on identifying and living with CP: ​ birthinjurycenter.org/cerebral-palsy/
Join the LWV ABC Book and Film Club Discussions!  
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What does it mean to be AAPI in Minnesota right now?

5/26/2022

 
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In May 2021, Sahan Journal and MPR News collaborated on series called ChangeMakers to ask this question.

 Civil Rights Organizer Bo Thao-Urabe described the Minnesota AAPI community as unique with over 60% are  Southeast Asians who came post the wars in Southeast Asia - Laos, Vietnam, and Cambodia, and Myanmar – compared to only 10% from Southeast Asian in most states. Minnesota also has a high number of adoptions of Chinese and Korean (15,000) babies, as well as “Medical Alley” that is now bringing in a lot of educated workers from China and India. Lily Tung Crystal of Theater Mu noted that “one of the reasons why we think that the violence is happening is because other people often see Asian Americans as not truly American, or other, or even subhuman.” Community Organizer Anthea Yur wants the Asian community to confront racism head on and hoped “that we can start breaking this narrative of being the model minorities, being considered subservient. When your parents are first-generation immigrants, there is a level of survival that you’re taught. You’re taught not to resist.”

Read the complete ChangeMaker series at Sahan Journal:
  • My celebration of AAPI Heritage Month
  • Activist and organizer Anthea Yur wants the Asian community in Minnesota to confront racism head on
  •  ‘America is not somebody else; America is us’: Civil rights organizer Bo Thao-Urabe wants Minnesota to measure success differently
  • Theater Mu’s Lily Tung Crystal: The more people hear Asian Americans’ stories, the more they will treat us as the true Americans we really are
  • Chef Yia Vang on his Minnesota Rice initiative, discovering his father’s heroism, and what he  tells the kids with the ‘stinky’ lunches​
Find out more about Asian American history:
  • A 1911 Report Set America On a Path of Screening Out ‘Undesirable’ Immigrants – Smithsonian
  • The Two Asian Americas – New Yorker
JOIN THE LWV ABC BOOK AND FILM CLUB DISCUSSIONS!  
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Celebrate Pride Month

5/26/2022

 
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June is Pride Month, a month focused on the visibility of LGBTQ+ people and celebrating movement toward equality.  June was chosen to celebrated Pride to commemorate the Stonewall Uprising, often considered the start of the modern LGBTQ+ civil rights movement.

In the 1960's, in many cities, including New York, bars could lose their liquor license for simply serving gay patrons.  A 1967 New York Court of Appeals decision opened bars to gay patrons, but bars could still lose their liquor license if patrons engaged in "disorderly conduct".  Given that homosexuality was still criminalized, law enforcement interpreted "disorderly conduct" to mean same sex kissing, holding hands or dancing.  In response, the Mafia opened private bottle clubs, including the Stonewall Inn, which did not require a liquor license because patrons were supposed to bring their own liquor.

In the early hours of June 28, 1969, New York City police raided the Stonewall Inn and arrested 13 people, including employees for bootleg liquor and patrons for violating the state's gender-appropriate clothing statute.  Patrons who refused to disburse and neighborhood residents became increasingly agitated as patrons were aggressively manhandled by police, sparking violence by the bystanders.  Protests, sometimes violent, continued over the next six days, sometimes involving several thousand people.  The protests received almost no news coverage but were a catalyst for organizing for LGBTQ+ rights.  Within a year of Stonewall, LGBTQ+ rights organizations rose from about 50 in 1968 to over 1000 organizations.  

The first gay Pride parade was held in New York City in 1970 to commemorate the Stonewall Uprising.  The term "Pride" was coined by Craig Schoonmaker, one of the organizers of the parade "not as a slogan so much as an understanding that people should be proud and not ashamed".  Pride parades are now held throughout the world, with 5 million people attending the 2019 WorldPride parade in New York City.

In 2016, the Stonewall Inn and surrounding area were declared a National Monument. 

Learn more about LGBTQ+ Civil Rights in the 1960s and early 1970’s:
  • Listen to or read Remembering a 1966 'Sip-In' for Gay Rights
  • Read How Liquor Licenses Sparked the Stonewall Riots
  • Read The Forgotten History of Gay Entrapment
  • Read The Same Sex Couple who got a Marriage License in 1971
  • Watch our LWV ABC film club selection Before Stonewall (1984) currently available on Kanopy.
  • Watch the documentary The Stonewall Uprising currently available for free viewing on PBS.
  • Watch the National Park Service Series on the Stonewall National Monument (15 five minute videos)
 
Learn more about Pride Month:
  • Read LGBTQ+ Pride Flags and What They Stand For
  • Read the National Park Service Series Pride Through the Decades
  • Listen to the Allusionist “Pride” Podcast or read the Allusionist “Pride” transcript to learn about the origins of the term.
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Anti-racism Resources - April 2021

3/15/2021

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March is Women’s History Month and the Minnesota History Center opened both its Extraordinary Women exhibit and continues to highlight  extraordinary Minnesota women in its online Votes For Women exhibit.   Some history articles highlighting extraordinary Minnesota women:
  • Lena Olive Smith: A Minnesota Civil Rights Pioneer
  • Nellie Griswold Francis: the Vicissitudes of Activism for Women and Race
  • Minneapolis’ Phyllis Wheatley House served as a community center for the city’s African American community
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LWV ABC’s April Book Club selection “Sisters in Hate” focuses on three women involved in the white nationalist movement.  Some other resources  related to white supremacy in the US:
  • Capitol mob wasn’t just angry men – there were angry women as well  - article
  • The long history of US racism against Asian Americans, from ‘yellow peril’ to ‘model minority’ to the ‘Chinese virus’   - article
  • One flag, one school, one language: Minnesota's Ku Klux Klan in the 1920’s – MNHS history article
  • Sounds Like Hate, produced by the Southern Poverty Law Center,  is an audio documentary series about the dangers and peril of everyday people who engage in white supremacy extremism, and ways to disengage them from a life of hatred.  Links are for online listening.  Also available as a podcast.
    • Getting Out, Part I and II
    • Not Okay, Part I and II
    • Baseless, Part I and II
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Anti-racism Resources - March 2021

3/15/2021

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March marks the 56th anniversary of the Selma to Montgomery March.  Some resources to supplement our February Film Club selection of Selma (2014): 

Selma - The Bridge to the Ballot  - 43 minute documentary
The Selma Voting Rights Struggle: 15 Key Points from Bottom-Up History - article
Why Diane Nash is Selma’s Best Supporting Role – article

 
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Podcasts are a great way to discover a variety of BIPOC voices and viewpoints. The links below are for online listening. Podcasts may also be listened to or downloaded to a smartphone using a podcast app such as Apple Podcast, Google Podcast or Spotify.   If you enjoy the recommended episode, all the podcasts have additional episodes available.
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Asian Enough Podcast
Jen Yamato and Frank Shyong interview fellow Asian-Americans centered around the questions, "Am I Asian enough? Am I American enough?"
A Conversation with Director Jon M. Chu - 2020
 
Code Switch Podcast
Shereen Marisol Meraji and Gene Demby welcome guests to explore how issues of race and identity manifest in every corner of American culture, from music to poetry to sports.
Who’s Black Enough for Reparations? – Feb 2021
 
Coffee with My Ma Podcast
Canadian actress Kaniehtiio Horn records the stories of her mother Kahn-Tineta Horn, a 1960’s model and lifelong Mohawk rights activist - “inspiring, funny, emotional”.
Episode 1 - Ma Takes On the Toronto Telegram
 
MPR News with Angela Davis Podcast
Conversations about life in Minnesota and how the state is changing.
Renewed conversations about racial justice – January 18, 2021
 
Tamarindo Podcast
Hosts Ana Sheila Victorino and Brenda Gonzalez bring a Latinx perspective to current events and culture.
Reflecting on the term BIPOC, Race, and Identity – November 2020
 
Yo, is this Racist? Podcast
Actress and musician Tawny Newsome, writer Andrew Ti, both professional comedians, and a weekly guest provide funny-yet-thoughtful responses to voicemails from people wondering whether a given situation is racist.  (Note:  Discussion on the nuances of racism are very informative but this podcast may not be for you if you find swearing offensive.)
Anti-Mitten Twitter with Joey Clift – January 2021
 
Submit your recommendations for articles, blogs, video, podcasts, etc. to lwvabc@gmail.com
Write: RECOMMENDATION in caps in the subject line

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Book and Film Club

Book and Film Club
See our website calendar  more information about upcoming books and film, including were to watch and the Zoom link for our discussion.  Email reminders are only sent to members, but everyone is welcome to join us.
 
March Film and Book Selections:​
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NOTE: March’s film selection Malcolm X is only available for free viewing by requesting a DVD from the library.
April Film and Book Selections
​The book “Sisters in Hate” may have a short waiting list at the library so get your requests in now. The film “I am Not Your Negro” has multiple options for free streaming online.
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Book and Film Discussions - via Zoom! - with LWV ABC

8/30/2020

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Expand your knowledge, participate in interesting discussions via Zoom. Member Pat Kennedy has organized some more noteworthy and relevant selections. Here are dates and descriptions for some of the upcoming titles.
 
Click on our website Calendar for the Zoom link and more information, scroll down to find the event. 
  • Wednesday, September 2 --  The film, 13th
Director Ava DuVernay documentary argues that the 13th amendment provided a loop hole for the continuation of slavery, converting slavery from a legal business model to an equally legal method of punishment for criminals resulting in mass incarceration.
  • Wednesday, October 7 – The film, The Hate U Give
Director George Tillman, Jr presents the story, based on a young adult novel, of Starr who witnesses the fatal shooting of her childhood best friend Khalil at the hands of a police officer. Now, facing pressure from all sides of the community, Starr must find her voice and stand up for what's right.  (PG13)
  • Wednesday, October 21 – The book, An Indigenous Peoples’ History of the United States
Roxanne Dunbar-Ortiz challenges the founding myth of the US and shows how policy against the Indigenous peoples was colonialist and designed to seize the territories of the original inhabitants, displacing or eliminating them.  Spanning more than 400 years, this peoples’ history radically reframes US history and explodes the silences that have haunted our national narrative.
 
                       Time is 6:15 pm Socializing, 6:30 Discussion
                                  for all book and film discussions
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    LWV ABC serves most of Anoka County and the city of Champlin in northern Hennepin Couny, Minnesota.  

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