{"id":18654,"date":"2021-11-04T00:02:26","date_gmt":"2021-11-04T07:02:26","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/politicalhat.com\/?p=18654"},"modified":"2021-11-04T00:02:26","modified_gmt":"2021-11-04T07:02:26","slug":"quick-takes-the-latest-things-that-are-now-racist-jedi-knights-baby-carriers-classical-music","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/impeachreno.org\/politicalhat\/2021\/11\/04\/quick-takes-the-latest-things-that-are-now-racist-jedi-knights-baby-carriers-classical-music\/","title":{"rendered":"Quick Takes \u2013 The Latest Things That Are Now Racist: Jedi Knights; Baby Carriers; Classical Music"},"content":{"rendered":"<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;Another &#8220;quick takes&#8221; on items where there is too little to say to make a complete article, but is still important enough to comment on.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;The focus this time: EVERYTHING IS TEH RACISM!!1!<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;First, a little mood music:<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\"><iframe loading=\"lazy\" width=\"560\" height=\"315\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/04Ny5aqm6c0\" title=\"YouTube video player\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;Carrying on\u2026<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-5372\" src=\"https:\/\/impeachreno.org\/politicalhat\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/03\/EaglewithFlag.gif\" alt=\"\" width=\"203\" height=\"176\" \/><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;The once vaunted Scientific American is now opining on the \u201cscientific\u201d problem of <a href=\"https:\/\/www.scientificamerican.com\/article\/why-the-term-jedi-is-problematic-for-describing-programs-that-promote-justice-equity-diversity-and-inclusion\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Jedi Knights<\/a> be racist.<\/p>\n<blockquote>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">\u201c<strong>The Jedi are inappropriate mascots for social justice.<\/strong> Although they\u2019re ostensibly heroes within the Star Wars universe, the Jedi are inappropriate symbols for justice work. They are a religious order of intergalactic police-monks, prone to (white) saviorism and toxically masculine approaches to conflict resolution (violent duels with phallic lightsabers, gaslighting by means of \u2018Jedi mind tricks,\u2019 etc.). The Jedi are also an exclusionary cult, membership to which is partly predicated on the possession of heightened psychic and physical abilities (or \u2018Force-sensitivity\u2019). Strikingly, Force-wielding talents are narratively explained in Star Wars not merely in spiritual terms but also in ableist and eugenic ones: These supernatural powers are naturalized as biological, hereditary attributes. So it is that Force potential is framed as a dynastic property of noble bloodlines (for example, the Skywalker dynasty), and Force disparities are rendered innate physical properties, measurable via \u2018midi-chlorian\u2019 counts (not unlike a \u2018Force genetics\u2019 test) and augmentable via human(oid) engineering. The heroic Jedi are thus emblems for a host of dangerously reactionary values and assumptions. Sending the message that justice work is akin to cosplay is bad enough; dressing up our initiatives in the symbolic garb of the Jedi is worse.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-5371\" src=\"https:\/\/impeachreno.org\/politicalhat\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/03\/eag_line.gif\" alt=\"\" width=\"500\" height=\"37\" srcset=\"https:\/\/impeachreno.org\/politicalhat\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/03\/eag_line.gif 500w, https:\/\/impeachreno.org\/politicalhat\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/03\/eag_line-300x22.gif 300w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 500px) 100vw, 500px\" \/><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\"><!--more-->&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;Apparently White people never carried their babies until they stole the technology from everyone else\u2026 according to a \u201c<a href=\"https:\/\/www.todaysparent.com\/baby\/baby-development\/babywearing-and-cultural-appropriation\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">babywearing educator<\/a>\u201d.<\/p>\n<blockquote>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">\u201cModern baby carriers that we see and use today are based on traditional baby carriers that have been used all around the world for hundreds of thousands of years. In fact, early humans may have started making carriers from animal skins, plants and other natural materials about half a million years ago as a necessity to keep their babies safe while attending to daily life. And according to James McKenna, an anthropology professor from the University of Notre Dame who studies mother-infant relationships, these carrying devices were some of the first tools ever created.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">\u201cThis is why it\u2019s so important to respect the cultures our babywearing knowledge comes from, as this ancestral practice existed long before it was popularized in the West. In fact, babywearing has often been denied to Indigenous and racialized parents and children through the process of colonization and assimilation. It was seen as \u201cprimitive,\u201d less culturally acceptable or somehow lesser-than, since historically, European, British and white North American mothers typically used prams and strollers to carry their infants.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-5371\" src=\"https:\/\/impeachreno.org\/politicalhat\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/03\/eag_line.gif\" alt=\"\" width=\"500\" height=\"37\" srcset=\"https:\/\/impeachreno.org\/politicalhat\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/03\/eag_line.gif 500w, https:\/\/impeachreno.org\/politicalhat\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/03\/eag_line-300x22.gif 300w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 500px) 100vw, 500px\" \/><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;Classical music and the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.city-journal.org\/classical-music-under-racial-attack-part-1\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">orchestras<\/a> that play it are now racist and responsible for the death of George Floyd.<\/p>\n<blockquote>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">\u201cThe classical music profession deemed itself implicated in Floyd\u2019s death. On June 1, 2020, the League of American Orchestras issued a statement confessing that, for decades, it had \u201ctolerated and perpetuated systemic discrimination against Black people, discrimination mirrored in the practices of orchestras and throughout our country.\u201d The League was \u2018committed to dismantling\u2019 its \u2018role in perpetuating the systems of inequity that continue to oppress Black people\u2019 and expected its member orchestras to respond in kind.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">\u201cThat response was immediate. The Hartford Symphony Orchestra apologized for its \u2018history of inaction to effectively confront the racist systems and structures that have long oppressed and marginalized Black musicians, composers, and communities.\u2019 The Seattle Opera announced that it would \u2018continue to prioritize\u2019 antiracism and \u2018make amends\u2019 for causing harm. Opera Omaha sent a message to its \u2018black community\u2019: \u2018We know that you are exhausted and recognize we will never fully understand the depth of your suffering. We know that part of your exhaustion comes from the heartbreak of our silence, inaction, and half-measures.\u2019 Every communication that the opera sends out now concludes with the tagline: \u2018We will listen more than we speak, but will not be silent in the face of injustice.\u2019<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">\u201cBlack musicians produced manifestos complaining of their mistreatment at the hands of white administrators and conductors. Weston Sprott, a trombonist with the Metropolitan Opera Orchestra, along with three musicians from three other ensembles, declared in the New York Times that the reason there are not \u2018more Black artists in orchestras\u2019 is \u2018racism.\u2019 Six black opera singers made a YouTube video about opera racism at the invitation of the Los Angeles Opera. L.A. Opera\u2019s president, Christopher Koelsch, introduced the discussion. \u2018I come to you today as the white male leader of this institution,\u2019 he said, staring dazedly at the camera. L.A. Opera was committing \u2018anew to self-examination and . . . to do our part to heal wounds that are hundreds of years old.\u2019 Most of the discussion centered on Floyd\u2019s death, but tenor Russell Thomas also told of being rebuked for routinely showing up late and for talking on his cell phone during rehearsals for an unnamed opera. \u2018They were putting me in my place,\u2019 Thomas said, though his behavior was the result of his uncle dying in a car accident, he maintained. Only a black singer would be denied \u2018a basic amount of consideration.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;TTFN.<\/p>\n<p><meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary\" \/><meta name=\"twitter:site\" content=\"@PoliticHatBlog\" \/><meta name=\"twitter:creator\" content=\"@ThePoliticalHat\" \/><meta name=\"twitter:title\" content=\"The Latest Things That Are Now Racist: Jedi Knights; Baby Carriers; Classical Music\"\/><meta name=\"twitter:description\" content=\"The focus this time: EVERYTHING IS TEH RACISM!!1!\" \/><meta name=\"twitter:image\" content=\"https:\/\/impeachreno.org\/politicalhat\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/03\/EaglewithFlag.gif\" \/><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;Another &#8220;quick takes&#8221; on items where there is too little to say to make a complete article, but is still important enough to comment on. &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;The focus this time: EVERYTHING IS TEH RACISM!!1! &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;First, a little mood music: &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;Carrying on\u2026 &hellip; <a href=\"https:\/\/impeachreno.org\/politicalhat\/2021\/11\/04\/quick-takes-the-latest-things-that-are-now-racist-jedi-knights-baby-carriers-classical-music\/\">Continue reading <span class=\"meta-nav\">&rarr;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":5372,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[17],"tags":[47,70,42,69,48,68],"class_list":["post-18654","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-progressives","tag-affirmative-action","tag-facepalm","tag-mood-music","tag-quick-takes","tag-social-justice","tag-wtf"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/impeachreno.org\/politicalhat\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18654","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/impeachreno.org\/politicalhat\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/impeachreno.org\/politicalhat\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/impeachreno.org\/politicalhat\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/impeachreno.org\/politicalhat\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=18654"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/impeachreno.org\/politicalhat\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18654\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":18655,"href":"https:\/\/impeachreno.org\/politicalhat\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18654\/revisions\/18655"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/impeachreno.org\/politicalhat\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/5372"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/impeachreno.org\/politicalhat\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=18654"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/impeachreno.org\/politicalhat\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=18654"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/impeachreno.org\/politicalhat\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=18654"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}