Whew! I’m not sure if it’s the shortening nights or the approach of the spooky season or just the last vestiges of pandemic induced delirium, but my comments have been wild recently. They’re absolutely brimming with conversations that I can’t wait to share with you. But before we get to them, let’s discuss what I should write about next!
Three ideas have been rattling around my brain lately:
First, I’ve been toying with the idea of writing a piece looking back at the Afghanistan withdrawal. The news cycle seems to have grown completely bored with the subject, even though it was only a month and a half ago! So I’m wondering if it’s something that still holds any interest for you all. I’m also thinking about a piece on COVID vaccination mandates. And finally, with so much focus on trans issues after Dave Chapelle’s The Closer, I’m thinking about writing a piece about trans discourse in general.
I’ll probably only have time to write one (possibly two) of these with everything else I’m working on. So please let me know what you’d most like to see. And of course, if you have a better idea than these, I’m all ears.
In other news, work on a potential podcast continues, and I thought it would be great to hear who you’d like me to talk to. Obviously, I’m still a small-fry, so landing Oprah or Meghan Markle might be a little too ambitious, but please share a few of your favourite voices/writers on topics like racism, trans rights, politics, culture etc. I’m looking for a diverse range of viewpoints, so people who you suspect I might disagree with are very welcome too (possibly even preferred).
Hopefully, the resulting list will give us all some interesting people and perspectives to engage with.
As always, a huge thank you to all of you for your support. Both financial, and with your thoughtful and insightful comments. We’re building a fascinating community here. So those of you who haven’t weighed in yet, don’t be shy! See you in the comments!
The Afghanistan withdrawal meant/means something to Afghanistan war vets and thanks to the Déjà vu aspect, Vietnam war vets. Then of course people looking for political hay piled on. Americans have sound bite interest and memory. That ship may have sailed.
COVID vaccination mandates became a horrible thing by injecting politics into medicine. The old teaspoon of sewage into a bottle of fine wine giving us a bottle of sewage. I'm an example of an over 70 triple vaxed person opposed to mandates. I'll leave my reasons out but say that you might be just the person to write something worthwhile on that in the middle of all the
emotional hell fire and damnation we see now.
The trans thing is walking into a mine field. You might be up to it. Nobody wants to discuss, they want to preach. I'll get some popcorn out for that if you do it.
😂 Get popping! I've already dipped my toe in and there are a couple of things in the pipeline that are going to be...interesting.
Yeah, the Afghanistan withdrawal, and especially the parallels to the Vietnam War, are absolutely fascinating. I also find it very interesting that it dropped out of the news cycle so incredibly quickly. I've especially been listening to what veterans have to say, and I feel like a lot of important issues haven't really been touched on. We'll see if anybody is still interested in thinking about it or if it's already out of sight and mind.
Yep, I'm double vaxxed and also oppose vaccine mandates. In fact, I find it quite easy to understand why some people don't want to get vaccinated. As you say, politics and medicine are about the worst bedfellows I can imagine, yet sadly, everything is politicised now. The fact that millions of people don't "trust the science (TM)" is a failing of the government and media far more than it is a failure of civic responsibility. I'll almost definitely cover this at some point.
A thought on the parallel between Vietnam and Afghanistan. In both cases since they fought alongside us they had to be as reliable as possible to us so we trained them to fight like us, and while we were there they got the required massive logistical support. In both cases, when we left, they lost that vital element in doing what they were trained to do. In both cases the populations level of fear justifiably rose, eroding that support.
I worked with a Vietnamese man who was too young for military service during the war. After the fall his father wanted to get the family out but his mother didn't want to go. They took his father for a week or two of "reeducation" that lasted three months and left him missing an arm and an eyeball. In Afghanistan it's been reported that they beheaded a female athlete who didn't get out. Quoting W, fear, terror.
America is too fickle to be relied upon. After we left Vietnam the Thai government had us vacate our airbases. They fought the Vietnamese inside their northeastern border for ten years after that. Not in our news. I learned of it on a family visit where I was taken to see their wall of war dead names and a museum near by. They gave the veterans some land to populate the area with Thai people. My father in-law was one of them. They could fight on their own terms and had a supporting population free of fear.
"In Afghanistan it's been reported that they beheaded a female athlete who didn't get out"
Yeah, there's some terrible stuff happening in Afghanistan right now. I hadn't heard about the athlete, but it's not a good place to be if you're a woman. That's for sure. Thanks for the added contrast with Vietnam, I didn't know about that either. Definitely food for thought.
People I’d love to hear you talk with who are not quite Meghan Markle level:
The New Liberals podcast, Angel Eduardo
Free Black Thought, Erec Smith, Michael DC Bowen
Roderick Graham (would disagree on a lot)
Some stretch goals?: Chloe Valdary, Coleman Hughes, Kmele Foster, Thomas Chatterton Williams
I’d also just like to hear more about you as a person beyond your perspectives on racial justice issues. I don’t know much about you other than you are British (I think!) and Black and male.
This is a fantastic list. Thank you. I'll keep you in suspense, but I've already been talking to one of the people here. The stretch goal list is like you've read my mind. I'd only add John McWhorter. Baby steps...😄
Yes, now that I'm devoting more time to writing, I'll absolutely be broadening the range of topics I write about. I'm not somebody who talks about themselves a lot in general (I'm not especially protective of my privacy, I just find writing about myself to be less interesting than writing about pretty much anything else), but I'm sure there'll be a few more anecdotes along the way.
John McWhorter would be great too! Maybe you can crash the Glenn show and call him out a little :)
One more I forgot is Ayishat Akanbi- I believe she is working on a book about wokeness? And if I’m correct in remembering you’re from the UK, she is your countrywoman and it would be extremely interesting to hear how much of the discourse on race is influenced by American history and how the UK perspective is/can be/should be unique.
"John McWhorter would be great too! Maybe you can crash the Glenn show and call him out a little :)" 😁
Ayishat is a great suggestion! I hadn't thought of her. Yes, she's a fellow Brit. I'm not living in the UK at the moment, but especially if she has a book coming out soon maybe we could figure something out.🤔
I second all of the above and would add Africa Brooke, Brittany King, Briahna Joy Gray, Sheena Mason, Barbara and/or Karen Fields (of 'Racecraft' fame), Adolph Reed, Jr. (see his 'The Trouble with Disparity' article). And above all, I would LOVE if you would interview TEma Okun about her "White Supremacy Culture" tract that has become absolutely ubiquitous and that I suspect you will have a few problems with to say the least. Along the same lines, how about a respectful yet challenging interview with Robin DiAngelo?
For nuanced takes on issues around transgenderism, check out Blocked & Reported podcast and Unspeakable with Meghan DAum --she has interviewed a bunch of very knowledgeable transgender health professionals lately.
Hi Erica! Sorry for the delay, and thanks very much for the list! As much as I'd love to talk to her, I think people like Robin DiAngelo are a little unrealistic for now (not to mention I don't think she's ever agreed to all to anybody who might challenge her ideas), but there are some great suggestions here who I hadn't thought/heard of.
There was someone on the radio yesterday (doctor? epidemiologist? and was it On the Media?) trying to make the point that the public should lower their expectations of Public Health and recognize that they can’t know everything. We’re all in the midst of an enormous experiment, was the idea. Except that the public does realize that. That feeling is what drives vaccine hesitancy, and instead of understanding that/expecting it/working with it, public health experts and doctors lectured us, saying we didn’t understand science, and calling us anti-vaxxers (my family is vaccinated, fwiw).
I have been interested in Public Health’s position here at the intersection of science and public relations (propaganda?). They manipulate the public but for the public good. How do they make decisions around that? What do they decide to admit and leave out?
"That feeling is what drives vaccine hesitancy, and instead of understanding that/expecting it/working with it, public health experts and doctors lectured us, saying we didn’t understand science, and calling us anti-vaxxers (my family is vaccinated, fwiw)."
Yeah exactly, I think you're spot on here. I think a key and massively under-recognised driver of vaccine hesitancy has been the awful and inconsistent messaging of governments and the criminally sensationalist reporting in the media. The lack of transparency and consistency has made so many people understandably distrustful, and as you say, the "solution" to that has been to lecture instead of to explain.
The Afghanistan withdrawal meant/means something to Afghanistan war vets and thanks to the Déjà vu aspect, Vietnam war vets. Then of course people looking for political hay piled on. Americans have sound bite interest and memory. That ship may have sailed.
COVID vaccination mandates became a horrible thing by injecting politics into medicine. The old teaspoon of sewage into a bottle of fine wine giving us a bottle of sewage. I'm an example of an over 70 triple vaxed person opposed to mandates. I'll leave my reasons out but say that you might be just the person to write something worthwhile on that in the middle of all the
emotional hell fire and damnation we see now.
The trans thing is walking into a mine field. You might be up to it. Nobody wants to discuss, they want to preach. I'll get some popcorn out for that if you do it.
"I'll get some popcorn out for that if you do it"
😂 Get popping! I've already dipped my toe in and there are a couple of things in the pipeline that are going to be...interesting.
Yeah, the Afghanistan withdrawal, and especially the parallels to the Vietnam War, are absolutely fascinating. I also find it very interesting that it dropped out of the news cycle so incredibly quickly. I've especially been listening to what veterans have to say, and I feel like a lot of important issues haven't really been touched on. We'll see if anybody is still interested in thinking about it or if it's already out of sight and mind.
Yep, I'm double vaxxed and also oppose vaccine mandates. In fact, I find it quite easy to understand why some people don't want to get vaccinated. As you say, politics and medicine are about the worst bedfellows I can imagine, yet sadly, everything is politicised now. The fact that millions of people don't "trust the science (TM)" is a failing of the government and media far more than it is a failure of civic responsibility. I'll almost definitely cover this at some point.
A thought on the parallel between Vietnam and Afghanistan. In both cases since they fought alongside us they had to be as reliable as possible to us so we trained them to fight like us, and while we were there they got the required massive logistical support. In both cases, when we left, they lost that vital element in doing what they were trained to do. In both cases the populations level of fear justifiably rose, eroding that support.
I worked with a Vietnamese man who was too young for military service during the war. After the fall his father wanted to get the family out but his mother didn't want to go. They took his father for a week or two of "reeducation" that lasted three months and left him missing an arm and an eyeball. In Afghanistan it's been reported that they beheaded a female athlete who didn't get out. Quoting W, fear, terror.
America is too fickle to be relied upon. After we left Vietnam the Thai government had us vacate our airbases. They fought the Vietnamese inside their northeastern border for ten years after that. Not in our news. I learned of it on a family visit where I was taken to see their wall of war dead names and a museum near by. They gave the veterans some land to populate the area with Thai people. My father in-law was one of them. They could fight on their own terms and had a supporting population free of fear.
"In Afghanistan it's been reported that they beheaded a female athlete who didn't get out"
Yeah, there's some terrible stuff happening in Afghanistan right now. I hadn't heard about the athlete, but it's not a good place to be if you're a woman. That's for sure. Thanks for the added contrast with Vietnam, I didn't know about that either. Definitely food for thought.
People I’d love to hear you talk with who are not quite Meghan Markle level:
The New Liberals podcast, Angel Eduardo
Free Black Thought, Erec Smith, Michael DC Bowen
Roderick Graham (would disagree on a lot)
Some stretch goals?: Chloe Valdary, Coleman Hughes, Kmele Foster, Thomas Chatterton Williams
I’d also just like to hear more about you as a person beyond your perspectives on racial justice issues. I don’t know much about you other than you are British (I think!) and Black and male.
This is a fantastic list. Thank you. I'll keep you in suspense, but I've already been talking to one of the people here. The stretch goal list is like you've read my mind. I'd only add John McWhorter. Baby steps...😄
Yes, now that I'm devoting more time to writing, I'll absolutely be broadening the range of topics I write about. I'm not somebody who talks about themselves a lot in general (I'm not especially protective of my privacy, I just find writing about myself to be less interesting than writing about pretty much anything else), but I'm sure there'll be a few more anecdotes along the way.
John McWhorter would be great too! Maybe you can crash the Glenn show and call him out a little :)
One more I forgot is Ayishat Akanbi- I believe she is working on a book about wokeness? And if I’m correct in remembering you’re from the UK, she is your countrywoman and it would be extremely interesting to hear how much of the discourse on race is influenced by American history and how the UK perspective is/can be/should be unique.
"John McWhorter would be great too! Maybe you can crash the Glenn show and call him out a little :)" 😁
Ayishat is a great suggestion! I hadn't thought of her. Yes, she's a fellow Brit. I'm not living in the UK at the moment, but especially if she has a book coming out soon maybe we could figure something out.🤔
I second all of the above and would add Africa Brooke, Brittany King, Briahna Joy Gray, Sheena Mason, Barbara and/or Karen Fields (of 'Racecraft' fame), Adolph Reed, Jr. (see his 'The Trouble with Disparity' article). And above all, I would LOVE if you would interview TEma Okun about her "White Supremacy Culture" tract that has become absolutely ubiquitous and that I suspect you will have a few problems with to say the least. Along the same lines, how about a respectful yet challenging interview with Robin DiAngelo?
For nuanced takes on issues around transgenderism, check out Blocked & Reported podcast and Unspeakable with Meghan DAum --she has interviewed a bunch of very knowledgeable transgender health professionals lately.
Hi Erica! Sorry for the delay, and thanks very much for the list! As much as I'd love to talk to her, I think people like Robin DiAngelo are a little unrealistic for now (not to mention I don't think she's ever agreed to all to anybody who might challenge her ideas), but there are some great suggestions here who I hadn't thought/heard of.
Re: DiAngelo, well that speaks volumes doesn't it.
Haha, yup.
The conversation around vaccines interests me.
There was someone on the radio yesterday (doctor? epidemiologist? and was it On the Media?) trying to make the point that the public should lower their expectations of Public Health and recognize that they can’t know everything. We’re all in the midst of an enormous experiment, was the idea. Except that the public does realize that. That feeling is what drives vaccine hesitancy, and instead of understanding that/expecting it/working with it, public health experts and doctors lectured us, saying we didn’t understand science, and calling us anti-vaxxers (my family is vaccinated, fwiw).
I have been interested in Public Health’s position here at the intersection of science and public relations (propaganda?). They manipulate the public but for the public good. How do they make decisions around that? What do they decide to admit and leave out?
"That feeling is what drives vaccine hesitancy, and instead of understanding that/expecting it/working with it, public health experts and doctors lectured us, saying we didn’t understand science, and calling us anti-vaxxers (my family is vaccinated, fwiw)."
Yeah exactly, I think you're spot on here. I think a key and massively under-recognised driver of vaccine hesitancy has been the awful and inconsistent messaging of governments and the criminally sensationalist reporting in the media. The lack of transparency and consistency has made so many people understandably distrustful, and as you say, the "solution" to that has been to lecture instead of to explain.