Garrison Keillor | The Old Indoorsman Looks Out at Winter

03 February 19 PM

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Garrison Keillor | The Old Indoorsman Looks Out at Winter 

Garrison Keillor, Garrison Keillor's Blog
Keillor writes: "Severe cold weather gets a person's attention and encourages intelligent adaptation to real-life conditions by threatening genuine misery if, for example, you venture outdoors in your bloomers to tinkle in the shrubbery."
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Tulsi Gabbard. (photo: Reuters)

Congresswoman Gabbard Officially Declares 2020 Candidacy
James Oliphant, Reuters
Oliphant writes: "U.S. Representative Tulsi Gabbard, an Iraq War veteran who at times has had a spiky relationship with the Democratic Party, on Saturday added another liberal voice to a burgeoning field of candidates seeking the party's 2020 presidential nomination."
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Ralph Northam's medical school yearbook page. (photo: AP)

Policies That Harm Black Bodies Deserve the Same Outrage as Blackface
Shanita Hubbard, Guardian UK
Hubbard writes: "Racism and bigotry are woven into the fabric of this nation. Dismissing this notion, or pretending that progress made with social inequality negates the point, is intellectually dishonest at best. Without question, racism is fully present in America." 

Governor Ralph Northam faces calls to resign over a yearbook photo. That’s good, but voter suppression and other racist policies deserve equal outrage

acism and bigotry are woven into the fabric of this nation. Dismissing this notion, or pretending that progress made with social inequality negates the point, is intellectually dishonest at best. Without question, racism is fully present in America.

Yet it appears the impetus to publicly demand accountability for racism is largely commenced by blatant examples, rather than practices and policies that directly harm people of color. The recent conversations around Virginia governor Ralph Northam fully illustrate this point.

A photo from a 1984 yearbook shows a man in blackface standing next to a person dressed as a member of the Ku Klux Klan. It was made public on Friday. In response, the governor seemingly declared that he was in the photo, though he did not say which man was him. The following day, he said he was not in the photo, but mentioned that he once wore a dark shoe polish on his face as part of a Michael Jackson costume.

Unsurprisingly, the backlash was swift, with Republicans and Democrats calling for his resignation. And with good cause. The blackface picture is not only transparently racist, it is another painful reminder of how normalized this behavior is. In 1984, this picture was included in a yearbook. Northam says he had never seen the yearbook before Friday. If he had, he presumably would never have imagined it would have political ramifications.

This absolutely warrants the public outcry it is receiving, and demanding our leaders be held accountable for their actions is the mark of a healthy democracy. But if the litmus test for accountability is transparent racism, then this same vigor must be applied to policies and practices and the politicians who impose them.

Bipartisan outrage and immediate public acknowledgment of racism must extend beyond images of blackface. The same citizens and politicians who boldly acknowledge that Northam should be held accountable should join the group of people who are ignored when publicly addressing other aspects of our political landscape that are racist and detrimental.

Voter suppression not only meets this same standard, it threatens democracy itself. Yet it has reportedly occurred several times within recent elections, to less outrage from politicians and even some private citizens.

An investigation conducted by the Associated Press indicated that since 2012, in his position as Georgia secretary of state, Brian Kemp cancelled more than 1 million voter registrations. Kemp, the Republican opponent of Democrat Stacey Abrams in the 2018 gubernatorial election, also froze 53,000 registrations. A huge portion of those belonged to African American voters; many were unaware their registration was on hold.

In 2017, the AP said, Kemp cancelled 670,000 registrations. Asked about this, he called it “voter roll maintenance”. Given that many of those impacted by this “maintenance” were African Americans, this act can be viewed more as a form of voter suppression. After a tumultuous and historic election, Kemp became governor by a slim margin.

In Republican states, voter suppression also appears to be done preemptively, when the population of communities of color begins to rise. According to census estimates, Texas has experienced a large growth in the Hispanic population. In 2010, the state had 9.7 million Hispanics. In 2017 it was 11.2 million, while the population of white Texans had only increased by approximately half a million people to 11.9 million. It is projected that by 2022, Texas will be majority Hispanic.

Perhaps this is a factor in the state’s recent announcement that it will cut 95,000 people from the voter rolls because “they don’t seem to be citizens”. The League of United Latin American Citizens has filed suit against Texas secretary of state David Whitley, claiming a violation of the Voting Rights Act and an attempt to deter Latinos from voting.

From Texas to Georgia, claims of voter suppression are not uncommon. Voter suppression impacts the ability of marginalized communities to fully participate in the democratic process upon which this nation prides itself. It silences voices and systemically targets people of color in an attempt to strip them of power. It makes them more susceptible to living with the ramifications of policy decisions that could disproportionately harm them. It is by all accounts racist and harmful.

Yet the public outcry and demand to hold those responsible accountable are not nearly as loud as the outrage about politicians apparently in blackface. Holding Governor Northam accountable and demanding his resignation is more than fair. In fact, a zero tolerance policy around racism should be the standard. I just hope this becomes more of a practice with politicians who were smart enough to avoid evidence of blackface, but still impose policies that harm black and brown bodies.

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Rep. Raul Grijalva, D-Ariz., speaks with reporters on Capitol Hill in Washington, Wednesday, Jan. 17, 2018, following a meeting with the Congressional Hispanic Caucus and White House Chief of Staff John Kelly. (photo: Susan Walsh/AP)

Puerto Rico Statehood Supporters Pin Hopes on House Action
Rafael Bernal, The Hill
Bernal writes: "The head of Puerto Rico's Statehood Commission has high hopes for action on statehood legislation in the U.S. House now that Democrats are in the majority."
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Gillette Super Bowl ad. (photo: Gillette)

'Be a Man': What Does That Mean in Modern America?
Harry Bruinius, The Christian Science Monitor
Bruinius writes: "Almost a decade ago, when Timothy Malefyt was doing research on the nitty-gritties of masculinity for his client Gillette, he and his small team of corporate anthropologists observed what they considered to be a 'paradoxical' set of masculine values among NASCAR fans."
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A worker cleans a museum display case in Riyadh. The departure of more than 1 million foreign workers since 2017 has added to a sense of uncertainty in Saudi Arabia. (photo: Salwan Georges/AP)

Saudi Arabia Encouraged Foreign Workers to Leave - and Is Struggling After So Many Did
Kareem Fahim, The Washington Post
Fahim writes: "Rising costs, as part of an overhaul of the economy intended to make Saudi Arabia less dependent on oil, have hit low-wage foreign workers especially hard. The result has been a massive exodus of foreigners from the labor force."
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Marshes at Blackwater National Wildlife Refuge on Maryland's eastern shore. (photo: Ataraxy22/Wikimedia)

Protecting the World's Wetlands: 5 Essential Reads
Jennifer Weeks, The Conversation
Weeks writes: "World Wetlands Day on Feb. 2 marks the date when 18 nations signed the Convention on Wetlands in 1971, in the Iranian city of Ramsar on the shores of the Caspian Sea."
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