Mic the Whispers

Hey all! Yesterday I participated in a great workshop called "The Issues In Our Tissues: Yoga, Trauma and Social Justice." You may be wondering: what the heck does yoga have to do with trauma and social justice? Well...plenty. It's well documented that communities and subgroups of folks who suffer the injustices of the world are more likely to suffer trauma. Trauma is what happens when our ability to cope is overwhelmed, leaving us feeling helpless, hopeless and out of control. In situations of trauma and stress, our sympathetic nervous system activates and we go into fight / flight / freeze mode. Being in an activated state for a prolonged period of time takes its toll on our bodies and minds. Whether we as individuals belong to an oppressed group, or whether we are taking part in social justice work, or even if we are just existing in today's political and social landscape, our nervous systems are, no doubt, activated. When we're in this state of hig...

Hi MTW! Still Black History Month! With "Black Panther" dominating the box office in a historic way since its release, an entire generation of action movie enthusiasts and comic book lovers will have a black superhero from the genre-defining, and predominantly white, Marvel Universe lead the way for hero narratives.  Marvel's "Black Panther" release continues a paradigm shift for the way that our society has viewed "the hero" in mainstream media for the last 60-70 years or so.  Rotten Tomatoes has ranked "Black Panther" as the "Best Super Hero Movie of All Time."   DC's "Wonder Woman" is equally as important for this cultural shift at #2. In 2015, Ta'Nehisi Coates was asked to rewrite the "Black Panther" comic universe from the 1960's and revamp the narrative for our modern climate.  The result was published by Marvel and inspired the film.  Coates discusses his writing and the challenges t...

https://www.buzzfeed.com/adamserwer/how-an-1891-mass-lynching-tried-to-make-america-great-again?utm_term=.inpaaLN0vB#.pmWqq7ReVm In the hysteria following the murder of a New Orleans police chief, 11 Italian-Americans were lynched by a vigilante mob angry about the city's influx of immigrants. Here's how the past and future of American nativism may not be that different. Click the link

Hi MTW! It's Black History Month! ESPN and "The Undefeated" air "Dear Black Athlete" this month.  "The Undefeated" is a corner of ESPN's franchise which is specifically designed  "for exploring the intersections of race, sports and culture. [They] enlighten and entertain with innovative storytelling, original reporting and provocative commentary."   The show is a combination of different panel discussions, and letters from athletes, that address different issues that affect the black community. Halfway through the program, embattled ESPN personality Jemele Hill responds to a question about the measure of responsibility that the black community has to facilitate a social change.  Her response was that black people have a lot of experience talking about race, and she acknowledged that almost the entire live audience of the program was black, and very interested in the topics being discussed.  Then she asked, "Where are the w...

Mateo Rull 12th grade Social Justice Magazine Club 01/29/2018 What is justice? What does it mean and look like within our school, community, and society? Justice, similarly to the other abstract terms that will be discussed, derives its meaning entirely based off the personal, individual convictions people hold of it. If the definition and application of this particular concept is thus ambiguous, how is something veridically considered just or unjust? The answer is simple, yet very misleading; it has to be agreed upon by a majority (or the respective socio-political authority). This very incongruence in its definition has blurred the concept enough to be wrongfully attributed to its antonym, injustice. A system based by normative rule inevitably carries with it a possibility for the discussed incongruence. In times past, the people (and the power that rests with them) may have deemed something as radical as racial segregation just when, in reality (although the conflict ...

EUROPE Poland’s President Supports Making Some Holocaust Statements a Crime By  MARC SANTORA FEB. 6, 2018 Continue reading the main story Share This Page Share Tweet Email More Save Photo A rally outside the presidential palace in Warsaw on Monday, in support of a bill that would make it illegal to accuse the country of complicity in the Holocaust. A counter-protest also took place. Credit Agencja Gazeta/Reuters WARSAW — President Andrzej Duda said on Tuesday that he would sign into law a bill making it illegal to accuse “the Polish nation” of complicity in the Holocaust and other Nazi atrocities, a measure that has roiled relations with Israel and the United States, and spurred claims that the nationalist government is trying to whitewash one of the bloodiest chapters in Poland’s history. Opponents have predicted that the law — which prohibits, among other things, the phrase “Polish death camp” — would stifle free speech and put questions of historic...