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#american slavery
profeminist · 6 months
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Source: "Cunk on Earth is a British mockumentary television series produced by Charlie Brooker. The series stars Diane Morgan as Philomena Cunk." - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cunk_on_Earth
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mimi-0007 · 8 months
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For the ppl in the back!!
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seasonofthewitch06 · 5 months
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A LOT of y’all would have defended slavery, indigenous American genocide, and demonized the Black Panthers if you lived back then. The plight of the Palestinian people directly mirrors those crimes against humanity.
How do you THINK oppressed peoples have fought back? Genuinely.
For nonviolence to work, your opponent must have a conscience.
Colonial powers have none.
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ahb-writes · 1 year
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A free society does not ban books.
Nikole Hannah-Jones (author, The 1619 Project; interview, with Stephen Colbert, 27 October 2022)
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silvermoon424 · 2 years
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I discovered r/ShermanPosting (a subreddit dedicated to American Civil War and utterly bashing on the Confederacy) and while all the memes are great I am living for these abolitionist memes
Btw, the guy with the awesome beard is John Brown, a staunch abolitionist and one of the most based Americans to have ever lived. I highly recommend reading up on him if you've never heard about him. His attempt to start a slave revolt, while unsuccessful and got him hanged for treason, was a huge motivating event for the Civil War.
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Voters in three states approved ballot measures that will change their state constitutions to prohibit slavery and involuntary servitude as punishment for crime, while those in a fourth state rejected the move. The measures approved Tuesday curtail the use of prison labor in Alabama, Tennessee and Vermont. In Oregon, “yes” was leading its anti-slavery ballot initiative, but the vote remained too early to call Wednesday morning.
In Louisiana, a former slave-holding state, voters rejected a ballot question known as Amendment 7 that asked whether they supported a constitutional amendment to prohibit the use of involuntary servitude in the criminal justice system.
The initiatives won’t force immediate changes in the states’ prisons, but they may invite legal challenges over the practice of coercing prisoners to work under threat of sanctions or loss of privileges if they refuse the work.
The results were celebrated among anti-slavery advocates, including those pushing to further amend the U.S. Constitution, which prohibits enslavement and involuntary servitude except as a form of criminal punishment. More than 150 years after enslaved Africans and their descendants were released from bondage through ratification of the 13th Amendment, the slavery exception continues to permit the exploitation of low-cost labor by incarcerated individuals.
“Voters in Oregon and other states have come together across party lines to say that this stain must be removed from state constitutions,” Oregon Sen. Jeff Merkley, a Democrat, told The Associated Press.
“Now, it is time for all Americans to come together and say that it must be struck from the U.S. Constitution. There should be no exceptions to a ban on slavery,” he said.
Coinciding with the creation of the Juneteenth federal holiday last year, Merkley and Rep. Nikema Williams, D-Georgia, reintroduced legislation to revise the 13th Amendment to end the slavery exception. If it wins approval in Congress, the constitutional amendment must be ratified by three-fourths of U.S. states.
After Tuesday’s vote, more than a dozen states still have constitutions that include language permitting slavery and involuntary servitude for prisoners. Several other states have no constitutional language for or against the use of forced prison labor.
Voters in Colorado became the first to approve removal of slavery exception language from the state constitution in 2018, followed by Nebraska and Utah two years later.
The movement to end or regulate the use of prison labor has existed for decades, since the time when former Confederate states sought ways to maintain the use of chattel slavery after the Civil War. Southern states used racist laws, referred to as “Black codes,” to criminalize, imprison and re-enslave Black Americans over benign behavior.
Today, prison labor is a multibillion-dollar practice. By comparison, workers can make pennies on the dollar. And prisoners who refuse to work can be denied privileges such as phone calls and visits with family, as well as face solitary confinement, all punishments that are eerily similar to those used during antebellum slavery.
“The 13th Amendment didn’t actually abolish slavery — what it did was make it invisible,” Bianca Tylek, an anti-slavery advocate and the executive director of the criminal justice advocacy group Worth Rises, told the AP in an interview ahead of Election Day.
She said passage of the ballot initiatives, especially in red states like Alabama, “is a great signal for what’s possible at the federal level.”
“There is a big opportunity here, in this moment,” Tylek said.
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thoughtportal · 1 year
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noperopesaredope · 6 months
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Hey, just curious, but do any of ya’ll think there is a term for Black Americans whose ancestors were slaves? Because if not, I think there should be. This is all from my experience as an American who has not gotten to travel abroad. This post is specific to the US, as I cannot lump all nations’ experiences with this topic together.
Black Americans have forged a bit of a shared identity and community due the deep rooted aspects of race present in American society. Whether a Black American is a descendant of slaves, they are still impacted by racism in this country. However, a bit ago, I remember hearing someone talk about how they were talking with a group of Black college students having a discussion on race in America.
A couple of these students were not descendants of American slaves, and were instead Caribbean American. Also when the topic of slavery came up, there were very different perspectives due to the very different experiences both groups had. The thing is, the Caribbean American students were fully connected to their cultural roots, and had an easier time tracing back their ancestry. Meanwhile, Black Americans descended from slaves (like myself) have a culture of sorts, but we are also often unsure as to which cultures our ancestors came from. There is a feeling of sadness and a very specific generational trauma from knowing what happened to our ancestors.
We are unified in our Blackness, but some of us have very different relationships to race and Blackness in American and our country’s history with slavery. Some are more directly connected to it than others, while some bare very different generational trauma tied to their cultures. Both types of experiences are valid, but extremely different when it comes to the topic of history.
I feel like there should be a term that can be used to specifically refer to Black Americans who are descended from slaves, as that could be important context in conversations like these.
Does anyone get what I mean?
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ausetkmt · 6 months
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Introduction
For most of the past two millennia, Christian churches have not only accepted slavery, but have also participated in the slave trade and owned human property. The ethics of Christian slaveholding, however, have changed significantly. While Christians owned other Christians without controversy during the late ancient period, Christian churches began to forbid that practice over time. By the early modern period, it was considered taboo for Christians to own other Christians, although the practice sometimes continued illegally. While some individual Christians, including ministers and members of the clergy, questioned the legitimacy of slavery during the early modern period, it was not until the 18th century that a small minority of Christian churches began to assert an abolitionist stance.
Even then, it was deeply contested. For the majority of the early modern period, most Christian churches—both Catholic and Protestant—supported slavery and benefited from the institution. Even the Quakers (Society of Friends), who were leaders in the abolitionist movement, took a century to disown enslavers from their congregations. In the United States, many Christian denominations split on the issue of slavery in the 19th century, and Christian ministers and missionaries developed robust defenses of slavery based on Christian scripture and proslavery theology.
Enslaved and free Black Christians were the most ardent abolitionists, and they drew on scripture to support antislavery and abolition. While a significant amount of scholarship has debated whether Christian churches were pro- or anti-slavery, some of the most exciting research about the church and slavery has focused on why enslaved people became Christian and how they used the bureaucracy of the church to advocate for their rights and to protect their communities.
Much of this scholarship has emerged from a Latin American context, where archival records are more robust, but there are also important studies focusing on Black churches in the North America, especially the role of the African Methodist Episcopal (AME) and other African American–led churches. Within this area, scholars debate the meaning of conversion as well as the relationship between African religions and Black Christianity. Recent scholarship has emphasized that Africans and their descendants were not passive recipients of Christianity.
Rather, many enslaved men and women actively sought out baptism and used church institutions not only as a place of worship, but also as a way to protect themselves and their families. Another significant area of research has examined the relationship between the church, slavery, and race. Scholars have demonstrated how European Christians drew on categories of religious difference as they developed new racial categories. They have shown how categories like “Whiteness” and “purity of blood” were transformed within the context of slavery, as enslavers sought to reconcile slaveholding with Christian practice.
General Overviews
As Christian nations began to build empires across the Atlantic, the pope condoned the enslavement of Africans as long as certain conditions were met. A century later, Protestant nations followed Catholic lead in creating colonial slave societies in the Americas, although they developed different laws and practices related to slavery and Christianity. Blackburn 1997 provides an overview of the shifting relationship between slavery and Christian churches in European empires, while Davis 1966 is a classic study of slavery from Antiquity to the early modern period.
Over the past decades, scholars have sought to understand the history of the church and slavery from the perspectives of non-Europeans, especially Africans and Native Americans. Sanneh 2006 and Gray 2012 examine the history of Christianity in Africa, focusing on the role of African Christians. Johnson 2015 is a wide-ranging study of the relationship between African American religions (including Christianity), slavery, and colonialism, while Frey and Wood 1998 is an important survey of African American Protestantism in the British Atlantic world. Gin Lum and Harvey 2018 contains several essays relevant to the study of religion, race, and slavery. Reséndez 2016 explores the under-examined history of Native American enslavement.
Blackburn, Robin. The Making of New World Slavery: From the Baroque to the Modern, 1492–1800. London and New York: Verso, 1997. Blackburn examines the Old World foundations for American slavery. While not the focus of his study, Christian churches play a central role in creating a precedent and a legal justification for slavery in the New World.
Davis, David Brion. The Problem of Slavery in Western Culture. Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press, 1966. The first in David Brion Davis’s classic trilogy about slavery and abolition. Davis examines the ancient history of slavery and traces the relationship between slavery and the church in Europe and the Atlantic world.
Frey, Sylvia, and Betty Wood. Come Shouting to Zion: African American Protestantism in the American South and British Caribbean to 1830. Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 1998. An important survey of Afro-Protestantism in British America and the early United States. Early chapters cover the history of Catholicism in Africa and the persistence of African religious traditions under slavery in the Americas. Later chapters cover Protestant missionary efforts, and the expansion of Afro-Protestantism after the Great Awakening.
Gin Lum, Kathryn, and Paul Harvey, eds. The Oxford Handbook of Religion and Race in American History. New York: Oxford University Press, 2018. An excellent edited volume with over thirty essays, covering race and religion from the colonial period until the 2020s. Several essays are relevant for discussions of the church and slavery.
Gray, Richard. Christianity, the Papacy, and Mission in Africa. Maryknoll, NY: Orbis, 2012. A posthumously published set of essays. Gray’s overarching argument is that African Christians played a central role in initiating papal interest and involvement in sub-Saharan Africa. Several essays touch on the history of slavery and the slave trade.
Johnson, Sylvester. African American Religions, 1500–2000. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press, 2015. DOI: 10.1017/CBO9781139027038While not focusing exclusively on the church or Christianity, Johnson’s synthesis of five hundred years of African American religions is an indispensable study that traces the relationship between Black religion, slavery, racism, and colonialism within a transatlantic frame.
Lampe, Armando, ed. Christianity in the Caribbean: Essays on Church History. Kingston, Jamaica: University of the West Indies Press, 2001. A helpful overview of the relationship between the church and slavery in the Caribbean, with essays on Catholic and Protestant churches in different imperial and national settings.
Reséndez, Andrés. The Other Slavery: The Uncovered Story of Indian Enslavement in America. Boston and New York: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, 2016. The history of Native American enslavement has long been under-examined, largely because indigenous slavery was illegal for most of colonial American history. This study does not focus on the church explicitly, but the relationship between Catholicism and Indian slavery is an important theme.
Sanneh, Lamin. “Christianity in Africa.” In The Cambridge History of Christianity. Edited by Stewart Brown and Timothy Tackett, 411–432. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press, 2006. Sanneh’s survey traces the changing role of Christianity—both Catholic and Protestant—in West and East Africa, focusing on the role of Christian missions and the impact of slavery and colonialism
Abolition of Slavery
Michael Guasco, Matthew Wyman-McCarthy
Subject: Atlantic History »
Date Added: 2010-05-10
Abolition of SlaveryIntroductionThe abolition of slavery in the Atlantic world occurred during the 19th century, but its origins are generally recogni...
Abolitionism and Africa
Bronwen Everill
Subject: Atlantic History »
Date Added: 2016-02-25
Abolitionism and AfricaIntroductionFrom the beginning of the organized abolition campaigns in the Atlantic world in the 1780s, antislavery campaigners...
Africa and the Atlantic World
David Northrup
Subject: Atlantic History »
Date Added: 2010-05-10
Africa and the Atlantic World Introduction Africa from Morocco to the Cape of Good Hope experienced new contacts with Europeans during the...
African American Religions
Stefania Capone
Subject: Atlantic History »
Date Added: 2011-08-26
African American Religions Introduction Since its beginnings, the study of African American religions has combined anthropological and histori...
African Religion and Culture
David Northrup
Subject: Atlantic History »
Date Added: 2010-05-10
African Religion and Culture Introduction Africa has been home to a great variety of religious and other cultural practices and beliefs, i...
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lyledebeast · 16 days
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I want respond to @malicious-compliance-esq this way because my original post is already very long, and I've reblogged it a couple of times already to give more people a chance to see it. The original post with your added commentary is linked here.
First, I think we're talking about the closet and its impact on Martin's identity in different ways.
And it’s tricky business negotiating any of that when one hasn’t even gotten latitude to understand one’s sexuality completely in the first place—as often happens for bisexual folks and those who occupy other liminal queer experiences. Without that coming into identity, the closet remains not only constraining but also shadowy and fathomless. I see this happening with Ben Martin absolutely, which likely explains a good bit of his approach-avoidance behavior towards Tavington. He defaults to the language he speaks most fluently: physical violence, and threats thereof. It’s foreplay and cover all rolled into one.
I think it's very generous to Martin to present his violence as a cover up for his sexuality. What I'm arguing here is that his lust for violence is what is being covered up and represented as "justice" the way Roy Cohn's AIDS diagnosis gets relabeled as "liver cancer." Yes, Martin's rape-y violence is carried out exclusively against men, but is his queerness really to be prioritized here over his horrendous ways of enacting it? Also, he's enacted it with other men long before meeting Tavington, and while he certainly seems to be savoring the opportunity to kill him particularly after Thomas's murder, he also engages in extremely brutal violence against a man who is just following orders.
The other part I wanted to respond to is your reading of Charlotte Selton in contrast to Martin and Tavington.
Charlotte Selton certainly constitutes a fit match for Ben Martin in her own unique propensity for violence; a generous interpretation of her character would frame her as passively reproducing harms against Black people by not freeing her slaves. Parallels between Ben’s history at Fort Wilderness and Charlotte’s own life on her plantation before it burns invite themselves readily. What even happened to the other people impacted by the fire? Did the enslaved people living there lose what passed for housing, winding up caught by patrols and tortured? What happened to the families of all the people Ben and his men killed in that previous bloody war against local Native American communities?
For someone who claims to find such regret in past violence, Martin seems to accept the lot blithely if it means he gets to kill Tavington and not constantly have that reminder of his own unexamined sexuality following him around. He returns to a bland facsimile of the life he once knew with his late wife—which ironically spotlights how in many ways Will might have been the more upstanding choice of partners. And that’s after he killed two of Martin’s kids. Structural violence is a thing, folks.
I'm as critical of Charlotte Selton as anyone, but I think this is conflating oppressive systems with individual actions in a way that presents her in an unfairly poor light. She is guilty of not freeing the enslaved people she inherited from either her father or late husband--the film is unclear about this--and that is evil. But while structural violence is a thing and she is guilty of participating in it, however passively, murder is not a thing she is guilty of. Tavington may not own slaves personally, but not only does he force free Black men into servitude, he kills enslaved Black men. It is historically unlikely that a man of Martin's station would employee free Black men when slavery was so common in his community, but that is not a reason to doubt the truth of what the field worker who speaks to Tavington tells us. Tavington shoots two enslaved people (I think) and would possibly have shot more had Martin not arrived to lure him away.
At the same time, Martin does not just passively benefit from Native genocide; he has gotten his hands dirty in that ugly business in the most literal way. And unlike Martin with his so-called remorse, if Charlotte ever had a change of heart about slavery, the enslaved people she inherited were still alive to be set free! Or they're alive to free themselves, as many enslaved people in South Carolina did after the British arrived. If the people on Charlotte's plantation are left homeless by the fire--a situation in which the British soldiers who set it are at least as culpable as her--it is entirely possible that they did just that.
With the exception of a couple of British officers and Martin's younger children--characters who have comparably few lines and tiny amounts of screentime--everyone in this movie is kind of shitty, but there are degrees of shitty-ness. Charlotte is evil in a very banal ways as befits her banal personality, but the hero and villain are in a class by themselves as far as violence goes.
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mimi-0007 · 8 months
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Lucinda Davis (c. 1848-after 1937) was a slave who grew up in the Creek Indian culture. She spoke the Muskogee Creek language fluently. The main information source was from an interview in the summer of 1937, at which time she was guessed to be 89 years old. Lucinda's parents were owned by two different Creek Indians. Being enslaved so young without her parents, she never found out her birthplace, nor the time of her birth. Her mother was born free in African when she escaped her captors either by running away or buying back her freedom, the white enslaver, who was also the mother's rapist and father of Lucinda, sold their child to Tuskaya-hiniha. Lucinda was brought up in The way the Creeks treated slaves was considered a much different and kinder form of slavery than the way the white Americans, Cherokee, or Choctaw went about it. Families could work under different slave owners and did not have to live on the same property as whom they worked for. The slaves worked quite hard and were paid, but had to give most of their pay to their owners, being allowed to keep a small amount. Lucinda was treated as a family member and did her duties. Her responsibility was taking care of the baby, amongst being an extra hand for cleaning and cooking here and there. She was not beaten or disrespected. It was understood what was needed of her, and she followed along.
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horizon-verizon · 1 year
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The Greens may have stolen the gold from King’s Landing, but it was Rhaenyra’s job as queen to come up with an adequate solution. She failed miserably. She overtaxed the smallfolk instead of the nobles. That caused the city to turn against her which led to her being overthrown. She let her paranoia consume her and ordered the execution of Nettles and Addam, both of whom were loyal to her. She did nothing when the smallfolk stormed the dragon pit. Therefore, it’s clear that the message of the story is that both Aegon and Rhaenyra are bad people and rulers, and that we aren’t supposed to choose sides.
*EDITED* (12/2/23)
Consider what @azureflight says down in comments as well.
If Rhaenyra weren't a woman, I'd agree. But since she is and this Dance is about misogyny and how it ended with the realm losing its dragons and making women lose more power, I disagree.
Also, read this POST.
A)
You: "She did nothing when the smallfolk stormed the dragon pit."
This is the passage of Rhaenyra's response to the Storming:
As soon as word had reached her that the Shepherd’s savage flock was on the march, Rhaenyra sent riders to Ser Balon at the Old Gate and Ser Garth at the Dragon Gate, commanding them to disperse the lambs, seize the Shepherd, and defend the royal dragons…but with the city in such turmoil, it was far from certain that the riders had won through. Even if they had, what loyal gold cloaks remained were too few to have any hope of success. “Her Grace had as well commanded them to halt the Blackwater in its flow,” says Mushroom. When Prince Joffrey pleaded with his mother to let him ride forth with their own knights and those from White Harbor, the queen refused. “If they take that hill, this one will be next,” she said. “We will need every sword here to defend the castle.” ("Rhaenyra Overthrown")
I hardly call that "nothing".
And this is something most people would have done, which is already a lot once you consider that when she first tried to "arrest" the Shepherd, she ended up losing many 10 guardsmen & loyal soldiers. Other soldiers and gold cloaks were at the different points/city gates to protect them from any invaders (which includes the greens). By the time the Shepherd came back to rile the KLers for them to finally be inspired to storm the Dragonpit--not long after this mob-killing--she was already shorter than soldiers than ideal. We also have to remember that the Blackwoods, riverland supporters, etc. PLUS Cregan and his Northern men were not in KL at this time. they were either fighting the greens outside in other territories or they were still traveling to KL/the crownlands!
B)
The American Civil War had both sides display racism in that both white Northerners and Southerners believed that Africans and black people were inherently lesser peoples--some abolitionists still believed so and their problem was that slavery is a step too far because they believed that their God and country is based on more "graceful" ideas of freedom for all humanoids. For years, systematic methods to convince and reaffirm this belief of white supremacy through a mixture of education, entertainment, advertising, Jim Crow Laws, and structural, legal segregation.
Yes, the cognitive dissonance was/is real, but what slavery needed to end and its ending was a step towards gaining more political rights for black people. Would we rather go forward or backward? With Aegon--the only other choice other than Rhaenyra--it was way backward.
Also, while Rhaenyra was not herself a compassionate or strategic person even before her paranoia (partially because she was), she herself wasn't as terrible as she became. While her own blood purity was definitely there--this is still a feudalist world and realm--it was not the thing that started the Dance and pushed her and her family into the position to defend themselves and her to develop the paranoia she had.
Her children would have been great rulers. And if she wins, they win, because they draw their claim through her, not Aegon the Elder. Also, she seems had a huge hand in how they developed their personalities, strategic-ness, and sense of responsibility they all developed. This makes me feel even more that the fault of the Dance came from the circumstance of a woman being further denied power more than her making some decisions.
C)
1.
Bigger picture-wise, I think it's fascinating and useful to see how the imperfect victim (azureflight's comments-considering and learning more about the glass cliff) not totally digging her own grave after facing a lifetime of psychologically undermining and acting like her imperfect human self in order to survive psychologically, by the simplest means necessary, yet losing all the same because of a combo of her not being able to respond as quickly to the challenges of what's left to her to "fix". Yet given no space and time to do so. And she not choosing we Watsonianly, Rhaenyra is one particular way a victim of misogyny tries to aggrandize and gain control.
I agree that her, as the Queen and an adult, still was accountable for her own loss of focus and responsibility for the way she accumulated the taxes after the treasury was depleted. Celtigar was not the person to depend on (even here, she happened to have the wrong people at the wrong time bc the better ones already decided to go green not out of loyalty to the greens but either fear or greed), nor should she have turned against the dragonseeds.
But again, the greens depleted the treasury intentionally to make the very problem she had in KL AND Aemond burned down one of the major suppliers of food in Westeros' "south" regions: the riverlands and esp their farmer's villages and fields.
And with all that was dealt with and has to be done, I think it is very easy to see how she and most people in her position would falter. What was on her to do list:
an influx of refugees
a manic Shepherd preaching against her and calling her and Targ dragons unnatural to incite riots
rumors flying about that she killed her own sister with no valid evidence, the crowd and others blaming her for Larys' action of taking Maelor
her need to maintain relations with the lords immediately surrounding the Keep and in KL so she may be assure they continue to support her without her having to resort to Syrax and dragon fire
Me, I probably would have tried taxing both the rich and poor, but make it so that the rates are dependent on resources available to those houses. What else could she do to raise money for herself?
But with a completely empty coffer and the rumor-mongering Larys performed, I'd still likely be called "Maegor with Teats" in my having to heavily tax rich people/merchants, which goes to show how misogyny really opens one up to unanalytical criticism.
Other than that, Rhaenyra and I and the readers are very different people with different experiences and similar-but-different backgrounds--one fictional and created for a particular narrative purpose and I have the luxury of being removed from her specific situation by not being a dragon-riding princess of a super-misogynist land (after azureflight's notes below) in a situation in KL already horrid for any ruler to deal with treasury gone, missing green master of whispers who took Maleor despite the boy being safe with Rhaeyra and the rioters pulling the kid apart, refugees from Tumbleton, etc.
I also have the remove that helps me to see the bigger picture without being directly affected so I can better see how she should/could have responded to things--but because I am not a dragon-riding princess, do I really know what it's like to have lived in court and live in the middle of when chauvinism and female chastity reigned as completely normal?
2. Comparison to Daenerys "Stormborn"
In comparison to Rhaenyra, Dany proved herself both capable and more resilient against circumstances that one wouldn't pick over Rhaenyra's. Dany was abused and isolated from all that Rhaenyra had all her life, as her mother birthed her at Dragonstone and died not long after and she and her abusive brother lived traveled to several different places and with Illyrio Mopatis. These men sell her into sexual slavery. She almost died several times, once by her master-husband's own riders, in the desert while leading her own khalasar, she's targeted by those who shelter her, went through 2 miscarriages with the first being much more traumatic than the next, lost the husband she bonded with (even with him being her abuser as well), she faces Jorah Mormont's attempts to further emotionally isolate her, she's in danger every day from slavers and disgruntled men who wish to use her or destroy her, and her own husband-for-peace is plotting against her...and yet she still manages to manage an entire city and get her good-good simultaneously without totally failing as Rhaenyra did. Dany was under 15 when she went through all she went through, while Rhaenyra died at 33, so she ruled in her 30s.
Dany is so special because she comes into some sort of awareness and is thus the real change-agent. Partially because she was exiled from Westeros after Robert and the others usurped the Targs, Dany experienced having a remove from her own dynasty and family for her to see them from a more objective lens while Rhaenyra lived within that Targ-Andal paradigm from birth. If she hadn't been removed as she was, with how she tried to placate her brother for some time until she chose herself, she could have been similarly trampled under the machinations and dealing of abusive men like some Targ women. (And this was before she had her dragons, thank you very much).
Both women are constantly criticized for how they run their respective territories during heightened periods of violence or threats against them seeking to kill and usurp them. I think Dany is obviously doing a lot better than Rhaenyra, is much more concerned with how to live better for the "smallest" of smallfolk, and is Rhaenyra's superior in terms of leadership morally or strategically--while the past sentence is also correct. Dany was herself a compassionate intelligent and driven person. Rhaenyra wasn't compassionate or had true foresight or was willing to have one, but also came to be self-driven. (And why isn't Aegon or any other man expected of the same?) It happens that, with Rhaenyra's context (kids, lack of remove for perspective [not the abuse!]), she devolved into paranoia easier.
At first, Dany defended her brother and her father's claims as being automatic, and then through her removed experience, admitted that while they were usurped they also weren't fit for the rule, WHILE finding the justification of her own claim to the Iron throne through them both and her ancestry, WHILE also claiming from her own need to protect others. Rhaenyra also claims through her father and Valyrian heritage, without looking out for the disadvantaged and focusing more on herself, only succeeded in blinding herself to how looking out for other women/girls (or at least being strategic about it would have also strengthened her own legitimacy.
If for nothing else, they are coming from a similar place of needing to develop a new meaning of self and autonomy, and Rhaenyra fell into the more selfish identity. Very Jaehaerys I of her in that she chose herself over those she could have called a kind of "kin"--girls and female leaders.
I and Rhaenyra and Dany all have the shared experience of being born and raised in a misogynist society where most girls grow up having to confront and choose whether/how they will accrue power in a space that would deny them the same power, dignity, or self-respect as men are granted automatically, which does create a dearth that needs philosophical filling, so to speak. How the subject fills it is their responsibility, and different people respond to that differently and according to circumstances that both were out of their control and resulted in their own decisions. But it's always good to trace how each event both OUT of and IN their control has shaped how they view their own capabilities and the actions they took, this is analytical reading. It does not have to come with actually liking a character.
3.
However, apart from comparing her to Dany, who she falls short of obviously, I think it's worth more to investigate why Rhaenyra in her own story falls as she does instead of expecting her to be equal to Dany or Rhaegar or any other person. Who is Rhaenyra, and what makes her the way she is? That way, we find out truths about the way she was, where she faltered and failed. What exactly defined her fall and how do we, as readers and people look for aspirational behavior and principles, identify?
The idea of Rhaenyra's seeming lack of the most ideal creative pragmatism (which again, most people actually don't have) and sense of entitlement comes from these things:
the Andal-adapted-Targ attitude to its own claims of power-from-its-historical-means-of-maintaining-power in conflict with its adopted Andal misogyny to maintain itself at the expense of its Targ's women's autonomy and right to the same authority
a lack of real training that stems from that misogyny "for the sake of the dynasty"--denoting a lack of true confidence in her and thus leaving a such an effect on young Rhaenyra that she must rely on herself above all else -> I usually try my best to not get "psychological" here, but in building self-confidence, to me, she seemed to have relied and fallen back on her right to power through heritage and lineage, as most other males would feel entitled if they had been named heir and grew up as royal in a time of prosperity to legitimize herself as self-persuasion/defense mechanism
Alicent/the greens' harassment of her since she was a child and the subsequent reclaiming of autonomy by sheer, necessary tenacity
As all these things provided shape to Rhaenyra's mindset towards her claim, I don't think we should ignore how her being set against didn't feed her sense of entitlement other than Viserys naming her. Her heritage as well as her means to assure herself and claim power.
I already explained what I think about her being unstrategic or pragmatic HERE, going a more Doylist route and mostly "blaming" GRRM.
If we are going just Watsonianly, I'd say that Rhaenyra, again, was a quasi-Othello figure even by being a spoiled princess and Queen at the same time. Both Rhaenyra and Othello are figures that are given the circumstances of people doubting their placements in higher positions of military and nonmilitary power. Both develop paranoia based on the existing fear of losing that power and dignity. While Othello gains his power, self-perception of dignity, and male credit/reputation through his own means in battle victories, he also is in the position of having to constantly prove how "useful" he is to this Christian/European society that is always going to be set against him and will only allow him to have his privileges and rights if he doesn't rock the boat. It is that element of self-proving to the domineering power that Rhaenyra shares with him in that she would always be held in some contempt or condescension for being a woman who goes after male-coded power, even with her growing up to be a princess-then-ruling-Queen. Inevitably she cannot share his started-from-the-bottom/culturally foreign and racialized Otherness, but she is also Other for being a woman, a Targ dragonrider (magic) in a Faith/Andal world. Both felt the need to "prove" themselves through patriarchal ideals to keep a sense of dignity provided by the same oppressive and embedded forces/sociopolitical contexts.
In the end, both succumbed to monarchical patriarchal forces but both also have always been vulnerable and compromised in some way by those forces and given the problem of where and how to compromise to gain power/peace and space to live. I want an ideally good and smart character from anyone who finds themselves in such positions, especially when they are in the highest seat of power with the ability to revolutionize the injustices of the world. But humans are diverse in temperament and develop differently by circumstances and their own decisions simultaneously.
In this way, I think that Rhaenyra was the victim turned perpetrator who continued to be a victim at the same time. Her entitlement was both her strength & her fatal flaw, which was engendered by her decisions to respond to circumstances. But her entitlement was also hardly a fault of her so much as par for the course for someone of her rank and position.
GRRM wanted Rhaenyra to be a little different and yet similar enough from Daenerys in terms of circumstance and backgrounds--someone to surpass--and provide context/stakes for why Dany comes to being physically, historically, and narratively so that we see what can form a leader. Rhaenyra is why a Daenerys "Stormborn" is necessary while being her cause. And part of that is that remove I speak of, and sometimes that remove is forced or self-willed or something of both. GRRM goes with "both" being necessary and caused by each other in a constant cycle.
D)
That being said, while both Rhaenyra I and Aegon II had blood purist expectations and drew claims from a misogynist Targ-Andal paradigm, one is a woman who was usurped because of misogyny while the other is a man who would have plunged the realm into a worse form of it than Rhaenyra if he had more time to actually rule. Rhaenyra's death and loss were disastrous for women: (bride of fires' post).
While he eventually lost, he/Alicent still usurped her and caused the war to happen in the first place based on misogynist principles instead of accepting her rule. that Rhaenyra lost all and lost out the opportunity to rule strengthened the notion that a female leader was undesirable AND that a woman would cause chaos for men if left to have influence and more power over them if there are no active higher powers on them even in the form of a specific will and testament, like with Rohanne Webber having to marry by a specific date or lose her right to power. Female=evil. Female ruler=herald of disorder. With such stakes, I'm not going to accept Aegon--the only other option aside from Rhaenyra in this feudal context.
The other option is a power vacuum. This society is not like Russia of the 20th century where there were people who studied political ideas of political liberties for the common man in other nations/states/territories. The riots are not revolutionary riots, they are incitements from a specific group that wishes to form their own vision of a monarchial feudal vision without dragons--which I must say, again, were necessary to get rid of the Others AND unify the previous warring states of the Westerosi kingdoms in the first place. Such does not exist in ASoIaF/real medieval societies.
Shit's complicated. Dragons are destructive, any yet this is a feudal, society where only the strongest (supernatural and ordinary) gain all and win. Dragons are useful for both ends, yet the Targs/both sides of this Dance are examples of humans who human their way into fucking shit up for themselves, but one was put out more and would have given (even unintentionally) some benefit to the realm by flouting patriarchal norms against female autonomy. Again, if we're forced to choose--and we certainly are because this state is not going to turn democratic overnight--Rhaenyra is still the one for me.
Again, I think that her dumber decisions made things worse, not that they 100% made her situation alone what it was.
Again, consider what @azureflight says in comments, which had me rethinking calling her actions "dumb" and more just inevitable.
(8/21/23):
THIS is a great post by mononijikayu about medieval queens, female rulers, the history of how women in leadership positions were made and seen as threats to the very structure of social "order", and contextualizing Rhaenyra thru Empress Matilda. I didn't even know about Matilda's husband being comparable to Rhaneyra's Daemon! PLZ READ!!!!
Excerpt:
just as much, along with these fictitious portrayals, more lies are depicted. these women are considered vixens that cause havoc to men by shifting them into desires and danger. through the written word, we see how women are cast in roles of villains in men’s lives. it is because by their conclusive thoughts, women are the only creatures that are able to turn ‘good honorable men’ into despicable creatures who do shameful, deplorable acts for the sake of women’s pleasures.    [...] itis within this narrative that ancient chroniclers declare that women were in fact the doom of men. if they were not able to control the dangers posed by the wiles of women, then the foundations of the mighty society they had built would be up in flames.  [...] as i mentioned, these factors of community are written down and preserved. and with that, the example of the ancients were the foundations by which medieval society built itself. the same concepts continued to cause the same issue within society and that was the exclusion of women from participating in the bigger picture of community and state, much so with governing states in their own right—without judgment or disapproval. 
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"The Commencement" - 1843
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After the plan was all set and done, the following Sunday, the McNeils held a commencement ceremony for Reginald and Nora's beginning of a new life.
"Ladies and gentlemen, we gather here today to commence our dear community members, Mr. Reginald and Mrs. Nora, on their journey to Newcrest, Pennsylvania," Darren says as the congregation follows with applause. "We're here to lift them up in prayer and love so their journey may be successful. We pray that the good Lord watches and keeps them on a narrow way. Let us bow our heads and pray..." Darren says as he leads the congregation into a faith-fueled and passionate prayer.
After the prayer, Darren reads some passages from the Holy Bible and allows for some words to be spoken by Reginald and Nora.
"Any final parting words that you would like to share with the family?" Darren asks them. Nora clears her throat and says, "Well... I just want to say from the bottom of my heart.. thank you. Thank all of you for everything that you've done for my family. I especially thank Mr. Darren McNeil and the McNeil family for taking us in. If it weren't for Mr. McNeil, we wouldn't have been here today... we'd probably be somewhere six feet under by now," Nora says, followed by a nervous chuckle.
"And I also wanna say thank you to all of you..." Reginald steps up and says. "Mr. McNeil and I have bonded very strongly over the time of our stay, and sure enough, he's proven himself a good man. You all are truly lucky to have him as a part of your lives. He reminds me of my own father, whom I've lost as a child... He was kind of like a father figure to me, ya' know... But... I know Mr. McNeil will continue to do great things for this community. And Mrs. McNeil... this is one heck of a woman right here!" Reginald says as the congregation chuckles. "Mrs. McNeil is a lady with spunk, passion, knowledge... and not afraid to speak her mind or do what's right... She helped me and Nora become literate... though my wife Nora is better at it than me, I know that with drive and determination, I can get better, just as Mrs. McNeil taught me. The children of the McNeils show that they were products of some good folks. Especially my late partner in crime, Zachariah... God rest his soul. Your young girls, Joclyn and Elise are beautiful and educated; I just know they'll make it far in life... I hope one day, our family will be just as talented and beautiful as your own, Mr. and Mrs. McNeil. We'll definitely carry out the legacy to help people who are in bondage and seek freedom.. just like you did for us."
The congregation stands and erupts in passionate applause.
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"And this is a gift from all of us. From our hearts to yours." Darren says as he hands Reginald a gift box. As Reginald removes the lid, he's greeted with a box full of money. "Whew-wee, Mr. McNeil! That sure looks like a lot of money!" Reginald says as he's in shock. "800 dollars, to be exact!" Darren replies as he chuckles. "It's the money for your new home. We were able to set up everything with the landlord there, who is a well-respected free colored man. You shouldn't have any problems to worry about!" "Thank you, man... thank you," Reginald says as his eyes start to well up with tears as he hugs Darren. "Thank you.. all of you!... I know with all of this help, I'm able to give my son a better life," Reginald says as he goes into the congregation, hugging everyone.
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"Mrs. McNeil... thank you so much," Nora says to Michelle, her eyes well up with tears, "No honey, thank you!" Michelle replies, "You helped me to further realize my purpose in this world... to help people achieve in their lives! And it looks like I was blessed enough to do that for you, Nora. And I'm forever grateful for you."
"Indeed... you've helped me find my passion, too! To learn... I finally feel like I have something that no master could ever take away from me... Mrs. McNeil, you've shaped me into a brand-new woman! I love you, Mrs McNeil, and I wish you all the best." Nora says to Michelle as she goes in to embrace her.
As the community shared their final goodbyes and gave a benediction over Reginald, Nora, and Reginald Jr., the new family began to set their carriage up for the travel. They stacked the inside of the carriage with their sacks of food, horse feed, and belongings. Reginald went into the outhouse of the church to paint his face with makeup to make him appear as a caucasian man (see previous post). A few of the ladies in the church helped him to relax and dye his hair brunette, styling it.
"My God... I don't even know if I know who you are right now...." Nora says as she's stuck in a state of shock. "Honey... my name is now Eugene... Eugene Howard... Eugene was the name of my father... and Nora... you're Nettie. Nettie Howard. That was the name of my mother..." Reginald states to Nora. "You are my slave... and... we had a child together... and we're off to Pennsylvania to start a new life."
With Reginald's and Nora's new disguises, Reginald hops onto the driver's seat of the carriage with Nora and his child inside of the back, taking off towards their first stop, Rock Hill, South Carolina...
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