Tikkun Daily Blog Archive (https://www.tikkun.org/tikkundaily/category/politics/page/116/)
Posts about politics and social change, from a spiritual progressive perspective
Blatant religious violence is still ongoing in our world today, where in the name of “God” people fight and kill people who are not like them, launch vitriolic hate-filled speeches against one another, and kidnap young school girls. Beyond lazy hate speech against religion, in a world confronted by extremism, how might we as religious and non-religious people play a thoughtful role in creating the conditions for a healthy God-view in our society?
“Many black people and other peoples of color see “race” and racism as salient and central to their reality. Many white people — excluding members of the more race-conscious extremists groups — consider “race” as a peripheral issue, and may even consider racism as a thing of the past, or as aberrations in contemporary U.S. society. Since the 1960s, many people of color have embraced and expanded the definition of “racism” to reflect contemporary realities, while many white people have not.”
Warren Blumenfeld offers his commentary on race, critical multiculturalism, and how we as a society can use social justice to break down the barriers between us.
Holocaust survivors and their descendants publicly condemn the occupation of Palestine and the massacre of Palestinians in a letter published as an advertisement in The New York Times.
Israelis For a Sustainable Future, a growing group of Israelis living in the United States who oppose Israel’s military operations in Gaza, have written a letter calling on American Jews to reexamine their support for Israel’s actions and to denounce the occupation of Palestine. The group writes, “We are reaching out to you because we want to re-examine what it means to be pro-Israel or pro-Palestine. We argue that these terms might be one and the same.”
The events in Ferguson have led to a powerful uprising and surge of violence between the police and activists. How can we respond to the violent confrontations? Michael N. Nagler offers his commentary on culture, suggesting we can stop violence by never engaging with the societal influences that encourage that violence.
“But any partnership depends on trust, and my young neighbors have been teaching me how difficult it is to trust police culture in our neighborhood today. Beyond the age of thirteen, any young black man in Walltown knows that he is subject to being stopped on the street, asked for identification, frisked and possibly put in hand-cuffs while officers ‘check things out.'”
Jonathan Wilson-Hartgrove explains how the struggle against racism is one not just based on policy, but also in learning to love.
How can we trust the promises political candidates make? Warren Blumenfeld suggests that in order for democracy to work, we must be an educated electorate and use our voting power.
When discussing equal rights between the sexes, biology and possible gendered differences should be left out of the conversation. Equality is not based on privilege or earned, equality is everyone’s basic birthright.
On the surface, the unrest in Ferguson, Mo., was about local police using deadly force on an unarmed young man. But on a deeper level, it reflected the increasing poverty and economic decline that affects ethnic communities all over America. Despite rosy reports in the media about the end of the national foreclosure crisis and the recession that followed, all is not well in our inner cities and suburbs with largely minority populations, like Ferguson. The foreclosure crisis was hard on many Americans, but it was a disaster for communities of color, including the citizens of Ferguson.
In the wake of Michael Brown’s murder, we must not and cannot dismiss these incidents as simply the actions of a few individuals or “bad cops,” for oppression exists on multiple levels in multiple forms. The killers live in a society that subtly and not-so-subtly promotes intolerance, imposes stigmata, and perpetuates violence. These incidents must be seen as symptoms of larger systemic national problems.