[Xmca-l] Re: USA & Chile social revolts

Sun May 31 14:33:10 PDT 2020

And Helena, I couldn’t help but think of your post about the labor rally
some time ago (with the anarchists participating peacefully but perhaps
somewhat awkwardly) when I heard about Trump declaring Antifa a terrorist
organization.
Greg

On Sun, May 31, 2020 at 3:14 PM Helena Worthen <helenaworthen@gmail.com>
wrote:

> This is my idea of a happy story.   It was front page and continued for
> nearly a full page after the jump. Of course, the rest of the paper is full
> of the riots, protests, burnings, etc.
>
> But look at what this one says -  the big truth which is how hard and
> complicated it is to set up what we mean by  (from Greg): *"**the whole
> of life as found in history and baked into culture, including our
> politico-economic systems and institutions.”  *
>
> This 66-year old man has been in prison for 44 years — his original
> sentence was 17 years; the story isn’t about whether he was innocent or
> guilty or how reliable the witnesses were (not very), but it’s about the
> small difficult changes in the pro security/defense process, the gears and
> wheels that eventually all clicked through.  A small unit in the public
>  defender’s office reviews cases looking for people who are suitable for
> reduced sentencing; they have to go through major bureaucratic reviews;
> this connects to Chesa Boudin and his election (he was in the public
> defender’s office) as the new DA of SF; the review doesn’t go to a parole
> board any more — so the path of the process is changed — and eventually the
> guy gets out.
>
> This should be a tremendously encouraging message to all those people who
> are grindfing away in the offices of government pushing paper back and
> forth to make something clear out of the way and get something done. Or
> doing basic research or writing long, difficult things. It’s not a heroic
> one-person accomplishment; it’s terribly detail-oriented and time-consuming
> and full of pitfalls.
>
> So while the protests are happening all over (and I think they are
> necessary), once you’re done burning buildings and you’ve got people's
> attention,  this is where the work gets done.
>
> 'The power of redemption': Oakland man goes free after 44 years in prison,
> more than 30 in solitary
>
>
> https://urldefense.com/v3/__https://www.sfchronicle.com/crime/article/SF-public-defender-unit-helps-Oakland-man-go-free-15301831.php?utm_campaign=CMS*20Sharing*20Tools*20(Premium)&utm_source=share-by-email&utm_medium=email__;JSUl!!Mih3wA!VjCcVqwo37FNejsdxiPn6bFH-Ixi1jWM944UBot8xx2IWC8Uwn-4tSN-Xs4EBc3Aga5AbQ$ 
> <https://urldefense.com/v3/__https://www.sfchronicle.com/crime/article/SF-public-defender-unit-helps-Oakland-man-go-free-15301831.php?utm_campaign=CMS*20Sharing*20Tools*20(Premium)&utm_source=share-by-email&utm_medium=email__;JSUl!!Mih3wA!W_68UA9vN33ySTU983cmHoR_JcM8ljg9IMi1QdAsGjIaKONttISaVWyZArCOnwitNWj4Wg$>
>
> A new post-conviction unit at the San Francisco public defender’s office
> offers a fresh eye to sometimes decades-old cases, many of which were
> sentenced under harsher, “tough-on-crime” laws that no longer exist today.
>
> This message was sent via SFChronicle.com
> <https://urldefense.com/v3/__http://sfchronicle.com__;!!Mih3wA!W_68UA9vN33ySTU983cmHoR_JcM8ljg9IMi1QdAsGjIaKONttISaVWyZArCOnwiiB6xaTw$>
>
>
>
> As I write this I remember that one of basic uber-narratives is, “The
> prisoner goes free.”
>
> Helena Worthen
> h
> <https://urldefense.com/v3/__http://helenaworthen.wordpress.com__;!!Mih3wA!W_68UA9vN33ySTU983cmHoR_JcM8ljg9IMi1QdAsGjIaKONttISaVWyZArCOnwgs-qawGA$>
> elenaworthen@gmail.com
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
> On May 31, 2020, at 1:22 PM, Greg Thompson <greg.a.thompson@gmail.com>
> wrote:
>
> David P,
>
> Glad to hear about your research (I have been wanting to do an ethnography
> of police officers for a while now but haven’t been able to fit it in).
>
> It will be important to bring the full power of a cultural historical
> approach to get beyond the very thin analyses I see all around me (by very
> well intentioned people, I might add) that reduce the issue to a simple
> concern with biases in the heads of individuals or, worse still, just a few
> bad apples in the police force.
>
> One needs to study the whole of life as found in history and baked into
> culture, including our politico-economic systems and institutions. That’s a
> tough row to hoe but anything short of that will land us right back in the
> land of race riots in another 30 years or so (and maybe if we recognized
> these as “protests” or “revolts” (cf. Michel-Rolph Trouillot’s work on the
> broad failure of humanity to recognize the REVOLUTION happening on the
> island of Haiti in 1791 because people couldn’t imagine that “slaves” could
> mount a revolution so it was simply called a “slave rebellion”)).
>
> Anyway, I’m very much looking forward to seeing what comes of your work!
>
> Very best,
> Greg
>
>
> On Sun, May 31, 2020 at 1:33 AM David Preiss <preiss.xmca@gmail.com>
> wrote:
>
>> Dear colleagues and friends of XMCA living int he USA,
>>
>> The images from the unrest in the USA are strikingly similar to those we
>> experienced during our own "estallido social" since last October. Our
>> social revolt was literally quarantined with the arrival of COVID19, and
>> yours started during it. These are very complex days everywhere without any
>> doubt.
>>
>> The main issue we experienced here (previous to COVID19) was how to
>> understand institutional and social violence and how to protect our
>> democracy. Although the unrest in the USA was triggered by a new event
>> of police brutality, the same underlying issues seem to foster the social
>> protest.
>>
>> There are many themes that I see there that are strikingly similar to our
>> situation, including the widespread crisis of legitimacy of the police
>> forces, which relate to issues of race, social and gender
>> inequality. Democracy is not working for a large majority of the
>> population, and is neglecting many vulnerable communities while the rich
>> get unethically richer. That a private company sent a rocket to the
>> international space station the same day that 25 cities in the USA were
>> under curfew summarizes all. In Chile, however, the social unrest
>> was channeled in a wider social movement for social reform and ended up in
>> an agreement to change our constitution, which was about to be voted but
>> COVID19 happened.
>>
>> I have started to work on a project on human rights and the police (not a
>> topic that was in my mainstream area of research but to whom I arrived as a
>> part of a social concern) and will certainly be very attentive to your
>> thoughts on the matter as events unfold. The images of police brutality
>> that are in social media are very similar to those we experienced here as
>> well as those of opportunistic civil violence by infiltrators, looting and
>> so on. I really hope the social protest there achieves some substantive
>> change and it is not just marginalized or reduced to mere chaos.
>>
>> But first of all, besides entering an academic discussion, I just wanted
>> to share with you all my full solidarity. These are very painful moments.
>> We went through them. I understand how painful they are. I share your pain
>> and grief.
>>
>>
>> David
>>
>>
>> --
> Gregory A. Thompson, Ph.D.
> Assistant Professor
> Department of Anthropology
> 880 Spencer W. Kimball Tower
> Brigham Young University
> Provo, UT 84602
> WEBSITE: https://urldefense.com/v3/__https://anthropology.byu.edu/greg-thompson__;!!Mih3wA!VjCcVqwo37FNejsdxiPn6bFH-Ixi1jWM944UBot8xx2IWC8Uwn-4tSN-Xs4EBc151RjHnw$ 
> <https://urldefense.com/v3/__https://anthropology.byu.edu/greg-thompson__;!!Mih3wA!QxmUxAYvk6CQVBjEjsW4Qt76ZE3soFXVZqkkNivFE4kQFkKzYkEBxKZ0gkzfFS5nbIg8lw$>
>
> https://urldefense.com/v3/__http://byu.academia.edu/GregoryThompson__;!!Mih3wA!VjCcVqwo37FNejsdxiPn6bFH-Ixi1jWM944UBot8xx2IWC8Uwn-4tSN-Xs4EBc0Igx4qHw$ 
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>
>
> --
Gregory A. Thompson, Ph.D.
Assistant Professor
Department of Anthropology
880 Spencer W. Kimball Tower
Brigham Young University
Provo, UT 84602
WEBSITE: https://urldefense.com/v3/__https://anthropology.byu.edu/greg-thompson__;!!Mih3wA!VjCcVqwo37FNejsdxiPn6bFH-Ixi1jWM944UBot8xx2IWC8Uwn-4tSN-Xs4EBc151RjHnw$ 
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