"The Criminalizationn of Black Joy"

[tishaLA]

I was watching Dorian Warren's show "Nerding Out" on msnbc/shift this morning--the stuff on Shift is often better than the crap on MSNBC itself, BTW--and Prof Warren hosted a panel that focused, unsurprisingly, on the spate of high profile cases like Ferguson, McKinney, Baltimore, etc.

The discussion, of course, was great, because Prof Warren is smart as hell and he had a great panel. They discussed the kinds of restraints on dissent African Americans experience, the way water has an almost mythological status in white-black relations in the US (not only segregated pools, but also water as a conveyor to freedom in the antebellum South), etc. But the most striking thing to me was his idea of "the criminalization of black joy"--the linkage of happy black folks to savagery, threats to order and white hegemony, etc.

I'd never really thought of it before and I sent him a tweet thanking him for the phrase, then I began thinking how true it is. Its not just about what happens to young black kids at pools, but the threats posed by music (from jazz to rap and everywhere in between), dancing, art, oratory, etc. And it's so insidious that it's easy not to see it.

[leveymg]

1. In another place known for its own violent segregation, water scarcity drives repression

http://www.btselem.org/south_hebron_hills/20150604_birkat_al_karmel

Soldiers Expel Palestinians from Pool in Area A to Enable Settlers to Bathe Undisturbed
Published:
7 Jun 2015

On 7 April 2015, during Passover holidays, a group of hundreds of settlers accompanied by Israeli security forces came to Birkat al-Karmil – a natural pool close to the village of al-Karmil, which lies in the southern Hebron Hills within Area A. In 2011, Yatta Municipality renovated the site, creating a park there and restoring an ancient pool at its center.

B'Tselem’s investigation found that at about 2:00 P.M., hundreds of settlers arrived at the pool accompanied by dozens of soldiers, Border Police, and representatives of the Civil Administration (CA). The security forces ordered the Palestinian bathers to leave the pool and remain on the edge of the park. They allowed the settlers, however, free and exclusive use of the rest of the park. At about 5:30 P.M., the settlers and the security forces left the area.

"According to media reports, reveal that the settlers came to the pool on the initiative of the Susiya Tour and Study Center. In its publications, the center described the pool as the historical site of the Biblical settlement of Carmel and emphasized that the visit was authorized and accompanied by the military. The center reported that some 1,000 people had taken part in the tour, including Chief Military Rabbi Rafi Peretz, and that similar events have been held at the site for several years, particularly during the festivals of Sukkot and Passover.

According to testimonies collected by B'Tselem, when the settlers arrived at the pool there were almost 200 Palestinians there. Some were bathing in the pool, while others were relaxing in the park. Muhammad Mahaniyah, 20, a resident of Yatta, told B'Tselem field researcher Musa Abu Hashhash that when the settlers arrived, accompanied by the security forces, he was bathing in the pool with friends:

"A Border Police officer ordered me to get out of the water quickly. At first I refused and told him that I wanted to be in the pool and had a right to be there. I said that I had no problem with the settlers swimming along with me. He threatened to use force if I didn’t get out of the water quickly, so my friends and I had no choice but to get out. The soldiers ordered the Palestinians who were around the pool to move back to the edge of the park, to stay there, and not to approach the settlers."

[enough]

2. An interesting point that really rings true. (nt)

[NOLALady]

3. Criminalize their Pleasures

"Look, we understood we couldn't make it illegal to be young or poor or black in the United States, but we could criminalize their common pleasure. We understood that drugs were not the health problem we were making them out to be, but it was such a perfect issue...that we couldn't resist it."

- John Ehrlichman, White House counsel to President Nixon on the rationale of the War on Drugs.

"[Nixon] emphasized that you have to face the fact that the whole problem is really the blacks" Haldeman, his Chief of Staff wrote, "The key is to devise a system that recognizes this while not appearing to."

- See more at: http://www.thomhartmann.com/forum/2012/09/nixons-drug-war-re-inventing-jim-crow-targeting-counter-culture#sthash.Un3Rtr5i.dpuf

[Number23]

4. This is the kind of discussion that keeps me coming back here when I have absolutely NO IDEA

why I do so.

Thanks to you and the OP. This is a great thread.