Feldman's Faves: February 16, 2021

Happy Tuesday everyone. I hope you had an enjoyable long weekend and a lovely Valentine’s Day. My Valentines gift to my wife was taking my dog (and Mike Partridge and his dog) for a long walk out of the house. She appreciated the gift but noted that an even longer walk would have made her heart even more fond (aka my secret to marital bliss)….Btw, for those of you who were able to find snowshoes on Amazon or otherwise, today is your day.

This week’s recommendations will be of a more serious nature than others. Given that we are in the middle of Black History Month and in light of George Floyd, Breonna Taylor and all of the other disgraceful incidents we witnessed that have rightly put the BLM movement at top our collective agenda, this week’s selections relate to race relations In America. I recognize that I am no expert on this topic but I am trying my best to learn and to become an ally (I hope people don’t view what I am saying as “performative” activism but if you do I understand). I am also looking for content and recommendations on the topic that are Canadian specific.

THE NEW JIM CROW by: Michelle Alexander – This book explains the trajectory of mass incarceration in the United States that began during the Nixon era (the first “law and order” president) and was enhanced during the Reagan years’ “war on drugs” and made even worse under Bill Clinton (getting tough on crime; “three strikes and you’re out”). There are heartbreaking stories about judges who had no choice (or desire) to sentence young “offenders” for prison terms they knew were morally wrong but legally required. The author’s thesis is that this system of mass incarceration, following the “victories” of the Civil Rights Movement in the 1960s really is just the latest systemically racist chapter in American history, hence the title, The New Jim Crow. Mass incarceration became the calling card for Nixon when he began to solicit “the silent majority” and emphasized “law and order” – something that is frighteningly familiar these days (from a former tweeting President whose name does not merit repeating). Michelle Alexander shows in her classic study (this book is over ten years old and was given a refreshed forward just prior to the events of 2020) why and how a caste system has emerged in the United States. The cycle of incarceration, mass eviction, lost job opportunities and poverty in the Black community are a direct result of government policies (that includes for profit prisons) made in an effort to be “tough on crime/fight drug abuse”. Reading this book is both eye opening and disturbing, but something that cannot be ignored. I highly recommend you read this book as does my “friend” Bill Gates - https://www.gatesnotes.com/Books/The-New-Jim-Crow

Marcus Garvey: Pan-Africanist on Throughline – Marcus Garvey was a unique and complex man who was a strong activist and advocate in the early 20th century. He was not shy to assert his views and clashed with people ranging from W. E. B. Du Bois, J. Edgar Hoover and even Woodrow Wilson. The promise of Liberia was he key calling card (and his ideas remind me, at least a little, of Theodore’s Herzl’s own dream for a Jewish state). As described in the PODCAST itself “Amid banana republics and Jim Crow and decades before MLK and Malcolm X, Marcus Garvey had a simple, uncompromising message: Black people deserved nothing less than everything.” https://podcasts.apple.com/ca/podcast/throughline/id1451109634?i=1000508550019

As always enjoy or ignore at your leisure.

And remember to stay safe and to docket daily.

Jon