#basic racism of Italians towards migrants

[bandiera--rossa]

“Compared to other EU countries, in Italy there is hardly any framework for immigrants, hardly any path that people can follow to settle down and start building their lives again. I have met people who for more than ten years have lived in many Italian cities, without documents, without legal work, people who live in misery.

They have no access to services, they are deprived of basic human rights. You can also see the second generation, many children born in Italy who live in the same conditions as their parents when they first arrived there years ago. These people are forced to live in survival mode, in alert mode”.

- Enri Canaj - documentary photographer of Albanian origins, emigrated to Greece with his family of origin in the early 90s. Following his personal experience, he focused on migrations to Europe, first in Greece, then through Balkans and now towards Italy.

Photo by him - Italy - 2018: migrants waiting in line for applications for some documents.

#Enri Canaj #migrations #documentary photography #Italy #Italian inability to accommodate migrants #basic racism of Italians towards migrants

[iromyy]

Boxing: Knocking Out Racism and Inequality in America

Current boxing is as old as America. They grew up together, and like America herself, boxing is as grand as it is severe. It's as wonderful as it is basic. From the grisly and prohibited "shows" in New Orleans to the "uncovered knuckle" fights in the shantytowns out West, boxing grew up with America. It has been known as the "Sweet Science" and "the Manly Art of Self Defense," in any case "boxing is a game of encounter and battle, a weaponless war," setting two warriors in opposition to one another to do fight in the squared circle.

We can follow the historical backdrop of America's poor and disappointed through the bend of boxing's past. Prizefighting is a crystal through which we can see the history and battles of America's generally disappointed. Its saints of legend regularly epitomize the social issues of the day. From numerous points of view, the battle game fills in as a methods for "financial" progression. Creator and boxing student of history Jeffrey T. Sammons states in Beyond the Ring: The Role of Boxing in American Society: "The progression [of extraordinary fighters] had gone from Irish to Jewish... to Italians, to [B]lacks, and to Latin[o]s, an example that mirrored the financial stepping stool. As each gathering climbed, it hauled its childhood out of prizefighting and drove them into all the more encouraging... interests."

Two contenders specifically typify the battle of their kin: the reckless Irishman John L. Sullivan, and "The Black Menace" Jack Johnson.

Boxing's Origins

Enclosing has its birthplaces Ancient Greece, and was a piece of the Olympic Games in around 688 BC. Homer makes reference to enclosing the "Iliad." Boxing history specialist Michael Katz reviews the games crude starting points:

Much like the primary American pilgrims, prizefighting advanced toward the New World from England. What's more, similar to the explorers, boxing's initial days were regularly brutish and savage. Sammons states: "Like such a significant number of American social, social, political, and scholarly establishments, confining began England. In the late 1700s, when the game existed distinctly in its crudest structure, prizefighting in Britain expected a demeanor of modernity and worthiness Engagement Rings Perth.

The early Puritans and Republicans frequently connected game playing with the abusive governments of Europe, however as American rivals of relaxation lost ground, the game immediately started to develop. In the 1820's and 1830's boxing, regularly called pugilism, turned into a well known game among the American "settlers who were not used to limitations upon entertainments and games."

As the game developed in notoriety among the migrants, so too did the legend of the person. For better or for more awful, the United States is a country weaned on the legend of the person. This is the American Dream, that principal belief that we can all "pull our selves up by the bootstraps" and become uncontrollably rich, incredibly fruitful, and frantically satisfied. For almost 200 years the "Heavyweight Champion" was the crown gem of the brandishing scene, and the physical epitome of the American Dream. He was the hardest, "baddest man" on earth, and deserved the world's admiration.

Sammons states: "[T]he physical man despite everything represents the capability of the individual and natural selection. He is the encapsulation of the American Dream, where the lowliest of people ascend to the top by their own drive and determination. The subtlety of that fantasy is unimportant; the importance of the fantasy is in its acknowledgment, not its satisfaction." During the 1880's, nobody encapsulated the physical man, or the American Dream, more than boxing's first incredible heavyweight champion, John L. Sullivan.

John L. Sullivan and the Plight of the Irish

Sullivan, otherwise called "The Boston Strongboy," was the remainder of the "uncovered knuckle" champions. The child of helpless Irish settlers, he was a reckless and tough man who visited the "vaudeville circuit offering fifty dollars to any individual who could last four rounds with him in the ring." Sullivan broadly tested his crowds by asserting, "I can lick any sonofabitch in the house."

"The Boston Strongboy" got one of America's first games legends when he reprimanded tycoon Richard Kyle Fox, proprietor and owner of the National Police Gazette and the National Enquierer. Legend has it that one portentous night in the spring of 1881 while at Harry Hill's Dace Hall and Boxing Emporium on New York's East Side, Fox was so intrigued by one of Sullivan's bouts, that the paper head honcho "welcomed him to his table for a business talk, which Sullivan inconsiderately declined, picking up Fox's disdain."

Sammons states:

Fox was enraged and promised to break Sullivan just as control the crown. He did neither one of the sullivans; beat any and all individuals, including a couple of Fox hopefuls." Sullivan turned into a worldwide big name and American symbol "who had ascended through the positions without looking down on others. Sullivan accomplished more than manufacture an individual after, nonetheless; he raised the game of boxing. The prize ring presently crossed the bay among lower and high societies."

Sullivan turned into an image of expectation and pride for ongoing Irish workers living in another, threatening area. About 2,000,000 Irish foreigners showed up in America somewhere in the range of 1820 and 1860. Most showed up as contracted hirelings and were viewed as minimal more than slaves in the new nation. Of those 2,000,000 settlers, about 75 percent showed up during "The Potato Famine" of 1845-1852. The Irish fled from neediness, malady, and English mistreatment. "The Potato Famine" had killed very nearly a million Irishmen.

Creator Jim Kinsella states:

America turned into their fantasy. Early worker letters depicted it as a place that is known for wealth and asked others to finish them the 'Brilliant Door.' These letters were perused at get-togethers urging the youthful to go along with them in this awesome new nation. They left by the thousand on ships that were so packed, with conditions so awful, that they were alluded to as 'Final resting place Ships.' (standard. 1)

The Irish showed up in America desperate and frequently undesirable. A familiar axiom summarized the dissatisfaction felt by American settlers in the Nineteenth Century: "I came to America since I heard the avenues were cleared with gold. At the point when I arrived, I discovered three things: First, the avenues weren't cleared with gold; second, they weren't cleared in any way: and third, I was relied upon to clear them."

Kinsella says:

Our foreigner precursors were not needed in America. Advertisements for work were frequently trailed by "no Irish need apply." They had to live in basements and shanties... with [no] plumbing and [no] running water. These day to day environments reared affliction and early passing. It was assessed that 80 percent of all newborn children destined to Irish outsiders in New York City kicked the bucket... The Chicago Post stated, "The Irish fill our jails, our helpless houses... scratch a convict or a beggar and the odds are that [we] stimulate the skin of an Irish Catholic. Putting them on a vessel and sending them home would end wrongdoing in this nation.

In any case, the Irish showed up in America during a period of scarcity. Kinsella proceeds:

The nation was developing and it required men to accomplish the overwhelming work of building scaffolds, waterways, and railways. It was hard, hazardous work. A typical statement heard among the railroad laborers guaranteed "an Irishman was covered under each tie.

John L. Sullivan was the pride of the Irish during his incredible title rule between 1882-1892).

Antiquarian Benjamin Rader composed:

The competitors as open legends filled in as a compensatory social capacity. They helped people in general in making up for the enthusiasm of the customary dream of accomplishment... what's more, sentiments of individual frailty. As the general public turned out to be progressively confounded and organized and as progress must be won progressively in administrations, the requirement for legends who jumped to notoriety and fortune outside the principles of the framework appeared to develop.

[loudlytransparenttrash]

12 Wacky Things The Left Mistakes For Oppression

1. Black men are disproportionately being incarcerated

Maybe that’s because black men are disproportionately committing the most crime and murder? Despite making up just 13 percent of the population, blacks have been committing 52 percent of homicides in the United States for 30 years. In the other categories of violent crime such as rape, robbery and aggravated assault, blacks consistently committed a staggering disproportion of the total (40 percent while making up just 13 percent of the population) in 2013, 2012, 2011, and 2010. The murder rate among blacks is similar to the rates in some of the most violent third-world nations. No other racial or ethnic group comes close. Note that for 20 to 24-year-olds, the murder rate committed by blacks (109.4/100,000) is 17 times higher than the rate for whites (6.4/100,000). Among 15 to 19-year-olds, it is over 20 times higher. The average for all ages is 13 times higher. The media have relentlessly fanned the flames of racial hatred while engaging in a systematic pattern of misinformation and blatant suppression of facts surrounding the perpetrators and victims of crime. As a result, so-called “criminal justice reform” is now being proposed to release a ton of black criminals from prisons, supposedly to “make amends” for the unjust “mass incarceration” of black men. The vast majority of blacks in prison are there because of violent crime and mostly against black people. Ordinary black people cannot afford to go along with the liberal agenda that calls for undermining police authority over black criminals, they are still criminals regardless of their skin color. That agenda only makes for more black crime victims. The black incarceration rate isn’t racism, it is simply a sad but accurate reflection of the horrific black crime rate. It’s your own fault.

2. Some women don’t have high paying jobs

These young women either have taken woke intersectional feminist genderqueer majors which resembles less of a qualification in anything useful and more of a retarded child’s participation certificate. Or they have actually chosen happiness and personal fulfilment over frantically comparing their wage slips to every man they meet. Despite the fact that young women flock to these pointless and low paying courses, young women are still earning more than young men after graduating. Girls are getting better grades from kindergarten to university, they are being accepted into college more, they are being handed grants and scholarships simply for being women, they take home 57 percent of university degrees and they are dominating in many STEM fields plus they are twice as likely to be hired. If there is a biased structure in play favoring one gender over another, women are not on the losing end. The problem we have is once women are hired, they usually lack the motivation, competitiveness and win-at-all-cost mindset it takes to rise up the corporate ladder. Women also tend to work less hours, they don’t want to do overtime, they don’t want to take their work home with them and if the job involves danger, difficulty or physical labor, regardless if it offers high wages, they will turn it down. Feminists only reference the highest paying males of Fortune 500 companies as evidence of their “oppression” but these men are examples of working 90 hour weeks and not having a life away from work and making the worst partners and parents imaginable. If you don’t want a family, you don’t want to study a real major, and you don’t want to work hard but you still want to blame “the patriarchy” when you are broke and miserable, it’s your own fault. 

3. Islamophobia

Islamophobia is not a real thing, it’s just a term pushed by Islamists in order to export Islamic blasphemy laws to the West. This word is nothing more than a thought-terminating tool conceived in the bowels of the Muslim Brotherhood for the purpose of silencing critics. Every religion, ideology or idea is allowed to be subjected to criticism without turning those critics into people suffering from a phobia - except for Islam. Islamophobia is classic political correctness. You don’t have to deal with the substance of arguments against the oppression and human rights atrocities celebrated under this barbaric seventh-century ideology or the fundamentals within the Quran and Hadiths which are the driving force behind Islamic extremism, all you have to do is label critics a cluster of “Islamophobes” and the argument is over. As this lie prevails, we become infinitely more vulnerable to Islamic terrorism and sickening Islamic practices because we are afraid to talk about them and it prevents us from being honest about the danger we are faced with. People have become too scared to report radicalization, police have become too scared to investigate mass Muslim rape gangs grooming and abusing young girls, women have become too scared to report their rape when it’s committed by a migrant. All because we don’t want to be “Islamophobic.” It requires that no one speak ill of Islam or say anything that might put a frown upon a Muslim, if so then we are accused of spreading hate and being responsible for radicalizing and pushing these Muslims to terrorism but in reality it’s to enforce Islamic blasphemy laws onto the West, easing us into getting used to Sharia law. Ten years ago we could never have imagined British citizens being sent to prison for writing a criticism of Islam on a personal social media account but today it is illegal blasphemy and we are now being arrested for it. Brushing off Islam’s primitive religious fundamentals and pretending they are harmless and cute all because the majority of those who believe in them aren’t white is not progressive, it is not being tolerant, it is being submissive and dumb. If you believe your backwards religion is beyond criticism and your beliefs can’t hold up to basic scrutiny, it’s your own fault.  

4. Immigrants are being deported 

No. Illegal immigrants are being deported. I know the left have popularized the crazy idea that once somebody illegally breaks into our home, they are to be rewarded with citizenship, protection and handouts but that’s not how immigration works, this is not the immigration you say our country was built on and you know it. This country was built on legal immigration, and the ones who made it through learned the language and assimilated while bringing a ton of jobs with them. Legal immigrants are as safe from ICE as the President so let’s stop pretending that every immigrant is living in fear. I read children of Italian immigrants from the 60′s are “scared” of being deported - give me a break and learn the difference between legal and illegal, fucking morons. When you break the law, you do not get rewarded, that is not progressivism, that is stupidity. Today’s scenario is 15 million illegals ridiculing those who played by the rules. Illegal immigrants should have no expectations that their lives here should be the same as those who are legal citizens. These people are here illegally, they are aliens, they are not “dreamers.” By lumping together illegal and legal immigrants, the “let them all stay” folks are vigorously trying to muddy the water so the actual issue, illegal immigration, gets lost in the process. Though people are waking up and are finally putting border security before caring about being called bigots. If you cheat the system, sneak into a country illegally and you get caught and your ass is sent back, it’s your own fault. 

5. Women live in a “rape culture”

Feminists describe our society as a “rape culture” where violence against women is so normal, it’s invisible. Films, magazines, fashion, books, music, humor, even kids toys according to the feminist activists cooperate in conveying the message that women are there to be used, abused and exploited. Recently, rape culture theory has migrated from the lonely corners of the feminist sphere into the mainstream. Obama’s admin asserted that we need to combat campus rape by changing “a culture of passivity and tolerance in this country, which too often allows this type of violence to persist.” Tolerance for rape? Really? The 1 in 5 myth is just that. A myth. It comes from this 2007 Campus Sexual Assault study. In the study itself, the researchers make it clear that the research consisted of students from just two universities. There are over 4,000 colleges and universities in the U.S and the research was confined to just two of them. It was a basic online survey that took 15 minutes to complete, it was anonymous, no one’s claims were verified and any affirmative answer to questions such as “have you ever had sex while intoxicated” was marked as rape. Even the study authors have since come out and explicitly stated that it is “inappropriate” to use their survey to make the claim that 1 in 5 women are being raped. Even the nation’s largest and most influential anti-sexual violence organization rejects the idea that culture as opposed to the actions of individuals is responsible for rape. RAINN urged Obama’s White House to “remain focused on the true cause of the problem” and explained “In the last few years, there has been an unfortunate trend towards blaming “rape culture” for the extensive problem of sexual violence on campus. It is important not to lose sight of a simple fact: Rape is caused not by cultural factors but by the conscious decisions of a small percentage of the community to commit a violent crime.” RAINN is especially critical of the idea that we need to focus on teaching boys not to rape, the hallmark of feminist activism. “No one would deny that we should teach boys to respect women. But by and large this is already happening. By the time men reach college, most students have been exposed to 18 years of prevention messages, in one form or another. The vast majority of men absorb these messages and view rape as the horrific crime that it is. So efforts to address rape need to focus on the very small portion of the population that has proven itself immune to years of prevention messages. They should not vilify the average guy.”

6. Nobody wants to have sex with trans people

These “transphobic” people aren’t gay. I’m sorry to break it to you but we know the difference between a woman and a guy in a wig and we know the difference between a man and a girl with a buzzcut. Mutilating what’s between your legs makes no difference either. No amount of repeating ‘it’s all just a silly social construct’ will change biological facts and the nature of human attraction. We all support your right to live your life in any way you please but you cannot expect everyone to just go along with what’s inside your head especially when it comes to preferring who we want to have sex with, because uh you know, that should always be our choice. I can only imagine how difficult it must be to feel that you are in the wrong body but this does not mean that people should feel obligated to have sex with the gender that you “feel” when all they see is the gender you are. You are not being discriminated against, people should be allowed to be as picky as they want when it comes to who’s dick they let inside of them. To be discriminated against, one needs to be denied something without a valid reason and it seems like having a cock hanging between your legs when a straight guy is expecting pussy is a whole lot of reason to not to have sex with you. Do we call gay men misogynists for not having sex with women? Do we call lesbians man-hatin… forget that one. I get it, you’re desperate for love, you’re desperate for affection, aren’t we all? But manipulating and shaming people into having sex with you is pretty fucked up. It’s not your fault that you suffer from dysphoria but if you believe it makes you entitled to shame people into having sex with you, it’s your own fault. 

7. Women can’t walk alone at night without feeling scared

Name one person apart from maybe Thor who isn’t vulnerable to violent crime if they walk home alone at two in the morning. Men make up the large majority of all victims of violent crime, everything from threats to robbery, assault and murder so if anyone should feel afraid of walking alone at night, it’s guys. Except men aren’t being told the responsibility for their own safety falls to everyone else but themselves. The responsibility does not fall onto every man to keep you safe from your own actions, the responsibility remains with you and your decision to be stupid enough to put yourself in such a vulnerable situation. If a white man walks around at night alone and he gets robbed by a black person, would we say it’s every black person’s job to make sure it never happens again to another white person? Would we tell black children not to grow up to be robbers? So why do feminists insist on ‘reprogramming’ young boys and ‘rewiring their brains’ to teach them a crime they already know is wrong is wrong? Feminists instruct women to be scared and suspicious of every man that looks at them or they cross paths with but the idea that scary boogeymen are jumping out from behind bushes to rape women as they walk to their cars is a myth. Almost all rapes are committed by someone known to the victim so being scared and suspicious of random males on the street is an irrational and sexist paranoia perpetuated by feminism’s false rape statistics and anti-male campaigning. If you want to walk home alone late at night dressed like a slut, drunk and lacking all self-awareness, it’s your own fault. 

8. Black people are shot by police officers

Let’s be clear, by far more whites are shot by police than blacks. Although I don’t pick and choose when to consider demographics so it’s true, black people are more likely to be shot but for the same reasons black people are more likely to be incarcerated, this comes directly back to the black crime rates we talked about earlier. When you commit the most crime, you are going to have the most confrontations with police and thanks to black culture’s anti-police and thug mentality, most young black people don’t know how to properly react to the police which is a recipe for disaster. Police don’t patrol black neighborhoods for the fun of it, they go where the most crime happens and the astronomical black crime rate warrants such police presence. In almost every case Black Lives Matter have rioted over, their martyr has either been armed, attacking the officer, ignoring demands or resisting arrest. Hands up don’t shoot is a myth. What’s also a myth is the idea that white police officers have declared open season on black innocents. How many white cops have been responsible for shooting a BLM darling? Practically none. Black and Hispanic police officers are more likely to fire a gun at blacks than white officers, these are facts. Police are also more likely to be killed by blacks than to kill unarmed blacks. In 2013 alone, 49,851 officers were assaulted with firearms, knives and other weapons. On average, 150 police officers have been killed in the line of duty every year. These include being shot, stabbed, strangled or beaten. Of the several hundred officers feloniously killed in the past decade, 46 percent of the perpetrators were black, despite them representing only 13 percent of the population. Do we call this a black war against the police? Blacks are 18.5 times more likely to shoot and kill a police officer than an unarmed black person being shot by an officer himself. If anyone’s life is consistently in danger, it’s the cops. If you commit crime, you attack a cop or you resist arrest, it’s your own fault.

9. The Pink Tax 

Feminists say that they’re being discriminated against for being women because products advertised to women are sometimes more expensive than products advertised to men, even though they’re exactly the same product. So, if they’re exactly the same, then why the fuck aren’t you buying the cheaper option? These “pink” products and services are only more expensive because companies know women are the only ones gullible enough to pay for a pink razor with a naked goddess on it and believe it’s better than the boring cheap brown razor alternative next to it that men will buy. The same thing applies for health foods, they’re usually priced higher because they know creepy vegan people and health fanatics are dumb enough to fork out cash for sundried pumpkin seeds and cabbage juice. The same thing applies with make up and beauty products, you slap a label on them that tells us it hasn’t been tested on a pig and people are willing to pay triple the price. The same thing happens with sports team merchandise and clothing and footwear, men’s versions are usually more expensive than women’s because they know men are dumb enough to pay whatever it costs to wear their favorite team’s gear around. Women are not exclusive to this targeting, if you’re dumb enough to pay for the more expensive option then sellers will remain smart enough to continue to charge you for it. An even more ludicrous tantrum feminists are having is about women having to pay more for certain services. They complain how mistreated they are because women get charged more to get a hair cut, even though on average women have more fucking hair to wash, cut and dry and men aren’t exactly lining up to get highlights, curls and extensions now are they. Listen ladies, it’s not rocket science, it’s simple business that keeps our economy as one of the strongest in the world. As I said, if you’re dumb enough to pay for it then it’s your own fault.

10. Transgender suicides

People who become so convinced they are something they’re not and resort to mutilating their genitals and hormonal development to make what’s inside their minds a reality have mental health issues? Who’d thunk!? Again, this is what happens when we pretend this is normal behavior and go along with it, we pump them with drugs and cut their tits off instead of actually helping them deal with their mental disorder in a humane and responsible manner. If someone came to a doctor and asked him to cut off a perfectly healthy arm because it just felt “wrong” for the arm to be there, should the doctor do it? This isn’t an idle question because this does happen with a mental illness called Body Integrity Identity Disorder (BIID). People who have it feel as if they’re not supposed to have a certain body part, like an arm or leg. Doctors won’t remove a healthy body part, so some of these poor deluded people crush, mangle, burn, or otherwise deliberately destroy their own arms or legs in order to get a surgeon to slice them off. This raises a question: Are surgeons who refuse to remove healthy limbs from people with BIID doing them a service because they’re mentally ill or are they denying them their civil rights? Is BIID going to be the next mental disorder we are shamed into normalizing and accepting? When children who reported transgender feelings were tracked without medical or surgical treatment at both Vanderbilt University and London’s Portman Clinic, 70%-80% of them spontaneously lost those feelings. Imagine removing your genitals and realizing that it didn’t make any difference or worse yet, that it was a HUGE MISTAKE. Nobody wants to talk about the suicide and depression of trans people once they have realized it was all a mistake. Nobody is denying that transgendered people face a high risk of suicide, but it’s not because people aren’t using the correct pronouns, it’s because they are suffering from a mental disorder so for as long as we enable their suicide and depression by hacking their bodies and filling them with drugs instead of providing real and effective help, it’s your own fault.

11. Blacks still waiting for slavery reparations 

Black Africans and Arabs were responsible for enslaving the ancestors of African Americans and most people around the world including white people. Only 6 percent of African slaves were taken to North America, most slave imports were overwhelmingly taken to South America and the Caribbean. In 1830 there were almost 4000 black people who owned around 13 thousand black slaves. Are reparations to be paid by the descendants of Africans, South Americans and Arabs too? Or are we just going to keep pretending whites are to blame for slavery? Only a tiny fraction of whites owned a tiny fraction of the slaves so expecting every white person 200 years later to provide a black guy with a free sandwich or gift him a job for being black makes zero sense. The claim for reparations is premised on the false assumption that only whites have benefited from slavery. If slave labor created wealth for Americans, then obviously it has created wealth for black Americans as well. Black buying power is expected to reach $1.2 trillion this year, and $1.4 trillion by 2020. That is so much combined spending power that it would make black America one of the largest economies in the world in terms of gross domestic product, the size of Mexico based on world bank data. Black people earning $75,000 or more per year are growing faster in size and influence than whites in all income groups above $60,000. American blacks on average enjoy per capita incomes in the range of up to fifty times that of blacks living in any of the African nations from which their ancestors originated. Is it time to check that little thing called privilege? No evidence-based attempt has been made to prove that living individuals have been adversely affected by a slave system that was ended over 150 years ago. But there is plenty of evidence that economic adversity is the result of failures of individual character rather than any lingering after-effects of a system that was abolished 150 years before most of Black Lives Matter members were even born. Reparations were meant as payments to Jewish survivors of the Holocaust, Japanese Americans and African American victims of racial experiments in Tuskegee, or racial outrages in Rosewood and Oklahoma City. But in each case, the recipients of reparations were the immediate family or direct victims of injury caused by injustice. It’s never been about giving free shit to black people a century or two later and neither should it ever be. That’s just trying to rip off the system and it’s your own fault. 

12. Black people are held back by white privilege 

White privilege has become one of the favorite arguments of BLM and pandering guilt-riddled liberals who like to make excuses for the fact that black Americans struggle to keep up. The concept of white privilege is also a favorite weapon for those who make their living stirring up racial discord by saying that to be anything but white in America is to be handicapped by default. For those who wish to exploit an entire demographic of people for political benefit, the idea of white privilege has great appeal. However, there are a number of problems with the fundamental premise of white privilege. One factor that tends to undermine the premise of white privilege is that poor whites face every one of the same challenges that poor blacks and poor people of all races face, it would be easier to make a case for wealth privilege in America than white privilege. If that’s the case, white people still wouldn’t be the privileged group as all socio-economic indicators show Asian Americans come out far on top. This being the case, all Americans would do well to consider why it is that Asian Americans as a group do so much better on basic socio-economic indicators than white, black, and Hispanic Americans. There may be something worth learning from such an exercise. What Asian Americans have proven is that privilege in America is based not on race but on merit. People of any race can succeed in America if they emulate the approach of Asian Americans: take education seriously, develop a positive work ethic, obey the rules, respect the laws, and stay together as families. There is no escaping the fact that education and family structure play huge roles in determining the success or failure of various racial and ethnic groups. This plays a greater role in the difference between white and black success than automatically throwing a blanket over the entire white race. There are many issues within the black community that need to be fixed by themselves, acknowledging these issues is the first step as we all too often want to ignore them and expect whites to make the change. You cannot lack education, work ethic, family structure and respect for law and then go on to expect equal success and opportunity, it’s not plausible and it’s your own fault.

#feminism #equality #equal rights #gender equality #blm #black lives matter #sjw1

[dare2flourish]

Social distancing in Tøyen

ABOUT HOW I BECAME A LOCAL

It has been just over 4 years since I moved to Tøyen in Oslo. Four years is long enough to go through all the feelings and challenges of building a new home, a bit like the stages of grief. 

The first six months start off with a shallow sense of optimism. Telling yourself it’s only going to be temporary, if you don’t like it you can move on...right?! You take barriers to practical things like opening a bank account or finding a part-time job as little bumps on the road to new beginnings. Basically you have a touch of denial. 

Autumn is over and the winter starts getting really dark and so do your thoughts. Your new self-made job (because no one will hire you) is not going to plan. Things really get in the way like the fact that Norway is not in the EU...which small business can afford an extra 20% VAT on anything ordered from outside Norway? EEA haaahhhaaa.... Schengen hahhahaha as if I have the spare cash to go see my family in Italy and I obviously have a passport anyway. So you start resenting things you have totally no control over. Like racists. Especially the do-gooder white people who think they know what it’s like to be out of a job, stuck in a housing block with drug addicts, the mentally down-trodden and the old and senile with no one it look after them. As if. Structural racism is real man! So unless you are black (and not aristocratic) or muslim (and not caucasian)...you just don’t know! 

But they say anger only leads you head first towards the dumps. In fact by the middle of year two you’re a diminished, dimmed down version of yourself. Depression comes knocking so you try not to stand out too much. You try not to take up too much room at social events because your bloody Norwegian sucks. But you keep trying to fit in. Ultimately you want to be liked, right?1?!

In year three it's the bargaining phase. You start dedicating way too much energy to half-baked ideas and promises of opportunity by those that gave you a tiny bitzy witzy job. You work for a bit less money or terms that normally you’d be like ...

“heeelllllll no!”

You know the kind of job that in normal circumstances you’d be like...

“...can't you see what I'm capable of!” 

You start listing in your head all the experiences or sacrifices you’ve made. Two degrees, dead end admin jobs, that time you worked in a call centre, that waitressing job that gave you a bad ankle and that scar on your elbow. That summer you stank of fish and cleaned toilets to save enough money to pay student debts and to visit your sick grandfather. The list goes on and you keep playing that old broken record again and again.

But spring comes along....and suddenly you remember the jobs you actually enjoyed. Like that time you had awesome colleagues and worked for the largest humanitarian organisation in the world. How against all odds (a rubbish boss and cuts in funding) you made work count. Like that time when Jen, Paula, Karen and you started a community interest company after the NHS stopped funding community advocacy workers. When the white tide of conservative public policy cuts started hitting all social justice initiatives - and you bounced back with more grit and fire then before. These thoughts finally remind you of your old self and you start to apply your long lost identity to what’s in front of you. You realise you are surrounded by people like you. You start loving your job and hanging out with your neighbours and really cherishing your new friends. 

‘YOU ARE ONE OF US’

Finally by the end of year three your are like...

“why do I always fall for the trap of the grass being greener on the other side?”

You remember why you really made the move in the first place. You start to look around this place you now call home. You realise for practical reasons you might as well change your address on the old bank account. Officially make this your new home and cut the emotional ties to your old home. 

And major events such as a mortgage (you can barely afford), your first baby (joy and exhaustion), and oh a bloody global pandemic (total panic)...force you to face the fact that this place...Tøyen - Oslo - Norway...is in fact home. So no matter what the haters say...we are all migrants except for the very few. I’ll call these few, the privileged or the uncultured elite or the down right self obsessed with fail to look beyond their noses to understand that the majority of the human race have to move around to survive. The lucky ones can afford to stay in the same place all of their lives and still flourish. The rest of us we move to where we can access stuff. You know kind of essential things like an education, like an affordable house, like a job, shelter from persecution and violent prejudice.

In this time of crisis I hope we all take one big-long-deep breath and accept that we are just human beings. None of us belong. We are all on borrowed time. 

I can only speak for myself and my immediate loved ones when I say the time is now. It is in these moments of profound change that “we” the people (everyday people that need jobs to pay our bills) need to really put our values first. So don’t just go to the supermarket but support your local bakery, the florist (you always mean to get flowers from but think it’s too indulgent), get a takeaway from the new Italian restaurant up the road, order a burger and encourage your friends to do the same and just have a ‘houseparty’ (I obviously mean on the app). 

SHOW UP

Show up for the kind of jobs you hope will still be around when this crisis is over. Show up for the daring entrepreneur who risked his house, or her savings, and definitely their family holidays...to start up something for themselves. I for one will be going to Gallery Bastian later for a takeaway because they make lasagna as good as my mamma’s. On Monday if the sun shines again I’ll have a delicious pizza, in a box, on the bench, in front of the church where the sun shines the brightest and sip on a homemade ginger and carrot smoothie....in the hope that Noah keeps sleeping long enough to eat at least three slices. When he wakes up I will pop down to Nordby Bakery on Tøyen Torg get a coffee and a yummy bolle. Then I'll buy myself flowers because I’m worth it. When Noah goes to bed tonight I’ll continue working on that business plan for my mum who is starting a new chapter in her life. Her new chapter is called “retirement without a pension” - because who knows if BJ will have any money left after Brexit is done. 

As my papa always said: 

chi va piano va sano e lontano 

Loosely translated: those who go slow, go safe and go far!

Love from a peaceful block of apartments in Tøyen.

#rummages #thinkpiece #feelings #socialchange #socialmovement #shoplocal #smallbiz

[eurekamagdoteu-blog]

EUREKA PRINT EDISH 2018: HELP, MY MUM VOTED 5STARS!

This article is from Eureka Magazine’s print edition. You should be able to find one of the 500 copies of our FORTRESS EUROPE edition in a common room near you, but if you’re summering away (darling!) we’re publishing all of the articles online anyway, because print is dead and so is truth! 

BY BEATRICE BACCI 

The Italian election results weren’t a shock to anyone, just our worst nightmares coming true. What was shocking, however, was my mum’s revelation that, disappointed by Renzi, she’d stopped supporting PD (Democratic Party, the “good party” of my childhood) and begun supporting The Five Star Movement (M5S), initially because of a lack of alternatives and then because she didn’t despise their policies as much as she thought she would. Ever since the post-war parties collapsed in a huge scandal in the 90s, which revealed a system of systematic corruption, parties in Italy have been short-lived and centered on just as short-lived personalities, so that it’s impossible to support a party for life. You have to choose anew at every election.

Now, I didn’t vote for Renzi either, as I don’t like the Cameron-like way he proposed a constitutional referendum that he then made into an all-or-nothing judgement on his government, and his New Labour style liberalism undercut by random cash handouts.

But I’m a good little ESPS student who’d never vote for a populist party. I voted for a small and quite insignificant left-wing party that just about made it to parliament, but that is beside the point. The Five Stars are now governing together with the Lega Nord (Northern League). The first government they proposed was rejected by the President of the Republic (elected by the parliament, the figure who has to defend the interests of democracy and the Republic in tricky situations) because Savona, the Minister appointed to Economic Affairs, was anti-Euro and that was a kind of tricky subject considering how much the economy has been freaking out since elections, without mentioning the fact that the subject of currency change hadn’t been a topic of the electoral campaign, so it was all out of the blue. After calling a demonstration and threatening to impeach the President, who was about to call new elections, the same parties proposed a new government, with Savona appointed Minister of European Affairs (a great match, don’t you think?). The new Economy Minister Tria, by the way, is also anti-Euro. But since I love my mum, and since they won the elections and for five years we have to deal with them being the biggest party in parliament, I’m going to say something I never thought I’d say: The Five Star Movement aren’t so bad, and here are three reasons why:

Number one: populism? Only two nations hate Italy: the French… and the Italians. The North hates the South, every town in Tuscany hates every other town, everyone hates Pisa, and most importantly, we all hate politics. The systematic corruption from the 90s that I mentioned hasn’t disappeared: half the people in parliament (and in the high cadres of administration) are still the same people, mafia is an omnipresent reality, a massive scandal every 5 years changes nothing… you know, the usual. Oh, you don’t know? Lucky you, you actually live in a decent country. Anyway, I wouldn’t really blame them for being anti-establishment. That’s not even unique to them. Virtually every party in Italy came into the mainstream as a ‘breath of fresh air’, including those of Berlusconi and Renzi. So here’s to populism and everyone chipping in.

Number two: the Northern League. The other, also populist, side of the coin is the Northern League. Head of the party: Matteo Salvini. This guy is frankly terrifying. A healthy mix of fascism, racism, islamophobia, ardent Catholicism (i.e. let’s make it even harder to get an abortion or the morning after pill, homophobia, homophobia everywhere...) and literally talking about migrants like he used to talk about the South just ten years ago (and it wasn’t nice). So yeah, between the two, I really would prefer the M5S to form a government with Renzi rather than with them (but he won’t lower to their level yet). These are the people we need to be scared of..

Number three: they won’t stop. The Five Stars Movement is here and it’s not going anywhere. As we all know, populism is a worldwide trend and it’s here to stay. The German Great Coalition will stand for as long as it can but it’s not much, this is the last time it will be possible for them to do it. We (the liberal democratic European elites here, anyone?) need to get off our high horse and have a conversation about where we want this world to go. As I pointed out above, let’s not leave it to the Nazis just because we’re too snobby for the chaotic good.

Now of course the M5S aren’t really exactly good. It’s a collection of people who’ve never done politics, have never been in government, all have quite different political ideas and backgrounds, come from the most various professions and just want to change things. They are unpredictable. They pick up on trends just because they’re popular (e.g. they are anti-vaccination… I have no words…). Their programme is vague enough and really stands on a couple of points: universal basic income (impossible with the debt Italy’s in), “tied mandate” (the MPs have to follow party line and cannot change party once elected, and if they do they’ll be fined, and the funds go to a private company to the name of one of the party’s leaders, Casaleggio), referendum on the Euro (as expressed by the new Ministers. Not the EU though, luckily? Yet? Who knows!). Basically, we do need to watch out and make sure we’re going towards a social democratic direction, and not just chaos.

I don’t give this government a long life. Very few people are happy about it, as the electorate of both parties is fundamentally different. They will definitely stay there long enough to do damage, but there is no getting rid of the Five Stars. We need to work with them to arginate the more damaging elements of the coalition and the most unreasonable tendencies. I'm full of criticism for those that don't fully represent me, but the the Five Stars Movement might, right now, be the country's lesser evil. One can only hope.

#italian elections #five star movement #mymum #beatrice bacci #ucl #eurekamag #london #University College London

[renka-aardvarknews-blog]

Italy on Collision Course with EU

For the first time, a populist coalition has taken over a Western European state. After 11 weeks of negotiations, the populist parties that triumphed in March’s Italian elections have agreed on who should be Italy’s new prime minister. Before they could settle on Giuseppe Conte, a 53-year-old law professor with no previous political experience and little political conviction, they had to agree that Silvio Berlusconi, an 81-year-old swinger with plenty of political experience and convictions for tax fraud and wiretapping, should not be prime minister. Only when Berlusconi withdrew did a deal become possible. This, as much as Conte’s inexperience and the ideological differences between his patrons, the old-right Lega and the alt-left Five Star Movement, suggests that Conte is not going to be a real prime minister at all, but a messenger who happens to sit in a big chair. The terms of the message are still being worked out but, whatever it is, it won’t please the European Union. March’s election result confirmed that the Italians, once the most Europhile of EU publics, are deeply disenchanted with the union. The reasons for the electoral rebellion are a stagnant post-2008 economy, high youth unemployment, mass immigration from the Middle East and Africa, and the utter failure of Italy’s political class to do anything other than feather its nests and fill its pockets. In 2008, Italy’s GDP was equivalent to $2.39 trillion. In 2016, Italy’s GDP was $1.85 trillion, which is where it was in 2005. Italy’s public debt is equivalent to 132 percent of its GDP; the third-largest debt of any developed economy. As of January 2018, youth unemployment was at 31.5 percent. This is not as bad as Spain (36 percent) or Greece (43.7 percent), but it is twice as high as the EU average (16 percent), and roughly five times’ higher than in Germany (6.6 percent). A lost decade, and frustration at the way in which Berlusconi, having promised to get rid of Italy’s corrupt postwar political class, replaced it with another corrupt political class, produced the electoral upset of March 2018. The Five Star Movement, a populist anti-party of left-wing provenance founded by the comedian Beppe Grillo, won the most votes (32.7 percent), but a center-right coalition of four parties carried a plurality (37.35 percent). The dominant parties in that coalition were the Lega (League), a populist party of hard-right and regionalist provenance (17.35 percent) and Berlusconi’s Forza Italia (14 percent). Berlusconi’s withdrawal allows the Legal and Five Star to form a working coalition, with Conte as their puppet. Italy’s president, Sergio Mattarella, now has to approve Conte’s nomination. He has no grounds to refuse. No one knows what Conte’s first ventriloquized statements will be, but their drift is clear. Five Star and the League have surged to power on the back of massive popular dissatisfaction with the EU’s post-2008 economic and immigration policies, and with a domestic political class that, when it lifts its nose from the trough, is complicit with Brussels. For the first time, populists have taken over a western European state. Or rather, two populist parties who hate each other have made an alliance of convenience against their common enemies. The League, based in the northern industrial city of Turin, is one of Europe’s more established New Right parties, and a political party in the traditional sense. Under its current leader, Matteo Salvini, the League has managed to shed its recurrent taint of racism and nostalgia for Mussolini. The Five Star Movement is not a party: Beppe Grillo, like Mussolini, founded an anti-party. The capital “V” in MoVimento Cinque Stelle stands, Grillo says, for Vaffanculo!: “Fuck off!” Five Star is as much a political cult as a people’s movement. It may now be led by Luigi de Maio, but its office remains Grillo’s website. Five Star could be called “alt-left,” in that it emerged from the collapse of the institutional parties of the left, and from Grillo’s failure to secure a leading position in one of them. Again, the parallels to Mussolini’s fascism are striking. The Five Star-League alliance is ideologically tense and perhaps untenable in the long term. But it looks like they will divide their turf domestically. The League wants to free the Italian economy from its bureaucratic and legal paralysis. Five Star has promised a universal basic income for the unemployed, the restoration of the social safety net, and free internet as a human right. Both parties want to get the trains running on time, and both have promised to fill them with unwanted migrants. Neither party has experience of government at the national level. The League does have experience in running northern cities and regions. But Five Star is full of neophytes. The failure of Five Star’s Virginia Raggi, mayor of Rome since 2016, suggests that while Five Star has more seats in the parliament, the League has a better understanding of how government works. Conte, for what he is worth, is a Five Star-ish post-leftist with technocratic leanings. In the past, both Five Star and the League have been explicitly Euroskeptic. The League, which is still registered under its full name, the Northern League for the Independence of Padania, has proposed that Italy’s industrial north should secede from Italy as the state of Padania, and held pro-autonomy referenda in the northern regions of Veneto and Lombardy. In the run-up to March’s elections, both the League and Five Star moderated their positions. The likelihood is that they will send Conte to Brussels to ask for debt relief. The League and Five Star have agreed a spending program that would cost 100 billion euros year. To find it, they need the European Central Bank to forget that, during post-2008 quantitive easing, it spent 250 billion euros on Italian sovereign bonds. This sets Italy on a collision course with the EU. Manfred Weber, who leads the European People’s Party grouping in the Brussels parliament, has warned that Five Star and the League are “playing with fire, because Italy is already heavily indebted.” On Sunday, Bruno Le Maire, France’s finance minister, said that Italians “must understand that the future of Italy is in Europe and nowhere else,” and that Italy should “respect” the rules. But a future in Europe is not the same as a future in the Eurozone. Last week, a leaked document showed that Five Star and the League want the EU to create a mechanism for countries to leave the Eurozone. Reviving a weak national currency would be another way to dissolve Italy’s Euro-denominated debts. Italy is not Greece. In 2016, Greece’s GDP was $194 billion, about the same as Kentucky’s ($197 billion). Italy’s GDP ($1.85 trillion) is between that of Texas ($1.6 trillion) and California ($2.62 trillion), or Britain, which has California’s GDP but not its climate. Greece has no economic leverage against the EU, but Italy and Britain do. Thus the EU is able to ignore Greece’s pleas for debt relief, but is obliged to negotiate with Britain. The question is, will the EU feel obliged to negotiate with Italy, when a majority of Italians still want to remain in the EU, and when neither party in Italy’s unlikely coalition has a solid position on its EU policy? It’s possible that Italy will become a laboratory for the new European politics—against the immigrants, for the natives, accommodating toward Russia, skeptical toward Brussels. It’s quite likely that the populists will bungle their chance at government, and create an opportunity for Berlusconi, with whom the EU would prefer to deal. It’s very likely that the EU will refuse to negotiate a custom deal for Italy. If it did, the EU would encourage Spain, Portugal and Greece to ask for debt relief, and a refusal often offends, leading to further anti-EU sentiment in Europe’s southern tier. Whatever happens, just when the Eurozone seems to be tipping into recession, the EU is about to face a crisis in relations with a core member. Dominic Green Dominic Green, Ph.D., is a columnist at Spectator USA and a frequent contributor to The Weekly Standard. Read the full article

#Europe #Eurozone #Italy #eu