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— Kenneth Samson (@PangurBanC) Sep 17, 2022
This 1930s public health assessment was not good news for #DC: "Tuberculosis is the curse of the alleys. There is not enough light and there is not enough air…. Disease starts in the alleys and it spreads." #DCHistory https://t.co/tMNhoWKpfF This 1930s public health assessme…
— Kenneth Samson (@PangurBanC) Sep 17, 2022
Hey #DC! Happy @MuseumDay! Free admission to some great area museums. Make sure to download your ticket: https://t.co/BZGbNnjWUS Hey #DC! Happy @MuseumDay! Free admission to some great area museums. Make sure to download your ticket: https://t.co/BZGbNnjWUS — Boundary Ston…
— Kenneth Samson (@PangurBanC) Sep 17, 2022
When the 1970 Census low-balled the number of Latino people lived in #DC, community organizers were outraged. They decided to "Let the press count us!" and organized #DC's first Latino Festival in #MtPleasantDC. cc: @FiestaDCOficial https://t.co/PzqWHzioCN When the 1970 Cens…
— Kenneth Samson (@PangurBanC) Sep 17, 2022
The Purple Iris Inn opened c 1917 in Chevy Chase DC, part of the teahouse craze of the 1910s and 1920s. In the 1920s Berthold N Colle (1893-1965), a native of Luxembourg, bought the restaurant and ran it until it closed around 1950. Replaced by three new houses in the 1950s. …
— Kenneth Samson (@PangurBanC) Sep 17, 2022
In 1977, two brothers who had fled the Chilean dictatorship of Pinochet created a mural in Adams Morgan, “Un Pueblo Sin Murales Es Un Pueblo Desmuralizado." In 2005, it was nearly covered up: https://t.co/hGl9vwOiM1 #HispanicHeritageMonth In 1977, two brothers who had fled t…
— Kenneth Samson (@PangurBanC) Sep 17, 2022
Today in History - September 17 https://t.co/BmuKQy6qcA On September 17, 1787, members of the Constitutional Convention signed the final draft of the Constitution. Continue reading. On September 17, 1862, approximately 23,000 Union and Confederate soldiers were killed, woun…
— Kenneth Samson (@PangurBanC) Sep 17, 2022
Check out Sanford Peel Off Magic Rub Vinyl Eraser Sticks #1960 / 74201 https://t.co/3Xoip6e6r8 #eBay via @eBay
— Kenneth Samson (@PangurBanC) Sep 17, 2022
If you live in the #DMV long enough you're bound to hear comparisons between #DC and #Baltimore. That was true 90 years ago, too... even when it came to which city was the more welcoming petri dish for tuberculosis. (Spoiler alert: we won.) #DCHistory https://t.co/tMNhoWKX5d …
— Kenneth Samson (@PangurBanC) Sep 16, 2022
"We are the most complex problem here in Washington. Most of our people are not citizens... They can’t get jobs. Many of them are afraid to go out in the street." - Community leader Carlos Rosario on plight of Latinos who immigrated to #DC during 1970s https://t.co/PzqWHziWsl …
— Kenneth Samson (@PangurBanC) Sep 16, 2022
"A People Without Murals is a Demoralized People": Read the story behind one of Adams Morgan’s most enduring murals, a vibrant tribute to the Latinx community that was nearly covered up https://t.co/hGl9vwNKWt @AdMoBID @PoPville Photo credit @HolaCultura …
— Kenneth Samson (@PangurBanC) Sep 16, 2022
Whitman found his way to DC after receiving word that his brother, George, had been reported wounded. George's injuries turned out to be minor but other wounded soldiers made such an impact on Walt that he stayed in #DC for years as a hospital volunteer. https://t.co/OzIANuYXug…
— Kenneth Samson (@PangurBanC) Sep 16, 2022
Today in History - September 16 https://t.co/YT6IqL85Xk Early on the morning of September 16, 1810, Father Miguel Hidalgo y Costilla summoned the congregation of his small Dolores parish church and urged them to take up arms and fight for Mexico's independence from Spain. Co…
— Kenneth Samson (@PangurBanC) Sep 16, 2022
Quote of the Day: "If you are lucky enough to find a way of life you love, you have to find the courage to live it." - John Irving
— Kenneth Samson (@PangurBanC) Sep 16, 2022
They just don't make 'em like this any more... #OTD 1981, @amhistorymuseum proved it had the oldest locomotive capable of running when it dusted off the John Bull (built 1831) & went for a spin along the @COcanalNPS. Photo: The John Bull in 1893, when it was a wee 62 years o…
— Kenneth Samson (@PangurBanC) Sep 16, 2022
From 1912 to 1941, 3 radio towers dominated the Arlington skyline. The largest was nearly 50 ft taller than the Washington Monument and powerful enough to receive a signal from the Eiffel Tower: https://t.co/c6Msvt2cH2 From 1912 to 1941, 3 radio towers dominated the Arlingto…
— Kenneth Samson (@PangurBanC) Sep 15, 2022
Michael E. López-Alegría Poses During Spacewalk via NASA https://t.co/Y8v4sAJ8CZ https://t.co/vPFv0zGLKN
— Kenneth Samson (@PangurBanC) Sep 15, 2022
Prominent residences and local businesses are illustrated in this intricate panoramic map of Woodbury, New Jersey from 1886 - including the roller rink! Check it out here: https://t.co/kdeX2gioO9 https://t.co/NvLeioXEOp Prominent residences and local businesses are illustrated…
— Kenneth Samson (@PangurBanC) Sep 15, 2022
Check out 32 ValueTales Books Set (1st Editions) Ann Donegan Spencer Johnson - Value Tale https://t.co/jFSj4VTv9k #eBay via @eBay
— Kenneth Samson (@PangurBanC) Sep 15, 2022
Today in History - September 15 https://t.co/HB0WhNjdDQ Writer, critic, and teacher Robert Penn Warren died on September 15, 1989. Continue reading. William Howard Taft, who served as both President of the United States and Chief Justice of the Supreme Court, was born on S…
— Kenneth Samson (@PangurBanC) Sep 15, 2022
Monday night’s Emmy Awards ceremony was an unsurprising mix of boring and strange and mostly forgettable, with the occasional funny moment or moving speech. (The video clip of Abbott Elementary star Sheryl Lee Ralph accepting her Emmy for Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Comedy Series — singing powerfully into the mic on stage — was impossible to miss in your social feed.)
As you wade through Emmys takes this week, we’d love to recommend the recent work from Scalawag’s newsletter “Pop Justice,” which examines popular culture through an abolitionist lens. This week’s essays take smart and critical looks at several Emmy-winning or nominated shows: Abbott Elementary, The White Lotus, The Dropout, Yellowjackets, and RuPaul’s Drag Race. Here are three favorites.
“With Abbott Elementary, what I got was not only a cheerful single-camera mockumentary, but also an unexpectedly abolitionist storyline,” writes Eteng Ettah. Black schools in the U.S. are heavily policed, and schools in Philadelphia — where the show’s titular, predominantly Black Abbott Elementary is located — are among the most segregated. Eteng Ettah commends Quinta Brunson, the show’s creator, lead actress, and now Emmy-winning writer, for keeping cops out of Abbott’s storylines; in Brunson’s universe, the protection and care of Black children comes instead from a community of patient, risk-taking, and challenging teachers. Ettah’s piece, however, is not without criticism: She also points out how the ABC sitcom occasionally “falls into the easy trap of copaganda,” citing an episode in which the teachers — discussing a social media trend among the students called desking — divide into “good cops” and “bad cops.” But overall, Ettah is elated to see in Abbott Elementary a portrait of a different — and better — world.
Still, without cops or school resource officers roaming the hallway, Abbott invites us into a world that’s possibility-laden and imaginative. It asks us both: What does it actually feel like to be a Black student? And: What should it feel like? Simultaneously grappling with how to move through an antiblack world designed to oppress Black peoples globally while imagining, organizing, and building a new world that ushers in Black liberation is one of the many central challenges of abolitionist organizing.
But our imaginations have been so flattened by media mimicking our reality that we find ourselves asking entertainers to reflect back our violence instead of offering a portrait of a better world.
In this essay, Mariah Rigg outlines the many problems within The White Lotus, HBO’s dramedy (and Emmy winner for Best Limited Series) about a group of guests and employees at an exclusive resort in Hawaii — and how their lives intertwine over the course of a week. Creator Mike White has claimed the show is an indictment of white American privilege and settler colonialism, but as Rigg digs into its use of policing and stereotypes, it’s anything but. Consider how all the Native characters are either sidelined (Lani, the employee who goes into labor); exoticized (the male paddlers who venture out to sea); or vilified (Kai, the staff member who falls for Paula and is arrested for attempting to steal from the Mossbachers). The show “[sanitizes] the moral failures of white capitalists at the cost of Kānaka Maoli and locals,” writes Rigg, and missed an opportunity to critique the systemic harm, targeted policing, and cultural obliteration of Native Hawaiians throughout history to today.
It’s hard to see political or cultural critique in a show that was filmed in Hawai`i during the first wave of the COVID-19 pandemic, when Kānaka Maoli and politicians alike were asking visitors not to come to Hawai`i. It’s even harder when the writer and director himself was comfortable saying that his idea for the show came from a desire to “get out of L.A.” during quarantine.
If the show is satire, it’s the wealthy white elite who get the last laugh. Because while Kānaka Maoli characters like Kai are arrested for attempted robbery, white characters like Shane get away with “accidental” murder, reinforcing the white American idea of Hawai`i as an amusement park to be exploited for pleasure—much like Westworld—an adventure they can buy and abandon for their privileged lives on the continent.
Bria Massey examines the rise of Theranos founder Elizabeth Holmes, portrayed in The Dropout by Amanda Seyfried, who won the Emmy for Outstanding Lead Actress in a Limited Series. She asks: How could a dropout raise $945 million and win the support of important investors and public figures with fraudulent technology? And what can bring political opponents together? “The answer to both questions: U.S. imperialism, or the promise to advance it.” Massey explains that Holmes got as far as she did because she “[played] into the illusion that a portable blood-testing device could be used on the battlefield to save American lives,” and appealed to public figures and political leaders — some of them on Theranos’ board of directors — who have historically supported war, military expansion, and mass incarceration. “We deserve so much more than police, prisons, and jails,” writes Massey. “We deserve so much more than Theranos and companies alike, or the shows that glamorize this terror.”
It’s hard to fathom that someone could rack in billions of dollars from investors without evidence of a viable, working product. Nevertheless, history shows us that the budget and support for police and military funding is limitless. Technology has always been a tool used to advance western imperialism; the implications of this oftentimes result in the death and destruction of our most vulnerable and under-resourced communities. So it’s unsurprising to learn that the billionaires and public figures who supported Theranos didn’t do their due diligence to better examine the company’s claims. These same individuals have shown us, time and time again, that there’s no expense too great, including the lives of poor and working-class people, to expand the military and prison-industrial complex further.
Arthur Cotton Moore, defining architect of Washington, dies at 87 https://t.co/35UGRbipI1 Arthur Cotton Moore, defining architect of Washington, dies at 87 https://t.co/35UGRbipI1 — Streets of Washington (@StreetsOfDC) Sep 14, 2022
— Kenneth Samson (@PangurBanC) Sep 14, 2022
Unlabeled photo capturing a meeting on the roof of the C&P Telephone Co at 722 13th St NW. Looks like maybe WWII era; several military officials on the stage. View is facing west. The Bond Building, at the corner of 14th and New York Ave is visible beneath the flag. …
— Kenneth Samson (@PangurBanC) Sep 14, 2022
#FedExField opened 25 years ago today in LANDOVER, MD. But Jack Kent Cooke (then owner of Redskins/@Commanders) got @USPS to recognize the stadium & parking lots as RALJON, MD as a shout out to his sons, Ralph & Jon. The geography shenanigans were... um... not popular. #MDHi…
— Kenneth Samson (@PangurBanC) Sep 14, 2022
Is it too early for Halloween posts? Asking for a friend https://t.co/uVdB4KZatB Is it too early for Halloween posts? Asking for a friend https://t.co/uVdB4KZatB — Boundary Stones (@BoundaryStones) Sep 14, 2022
— Kenneth Samson (@PangurBanC) Sep 14, 2022
A Bird's-Eye View of the Vehicle Assembly Base via NASA https://t.co/gDX01oUAgL https://t.co/n4CAmWzV7s
— Kenneth Samson (@PangurBanC) Sep 14, 2022
Today in History - September 14 https://t.co/gIUDxU50y1 On September 14, 2016, Dr. Carla Hayden was sworn in by Chief Justice John G. Roberts as the 14th Librarian of Congress. Continue reading. On September 14, 1638, John Harvard, a 31-year-old clergyman from Charlestown,…
— Kenneth Samson (@PangurBanC) Sep 14, 2022
Quote of the Day: "It is easy to sit up and take notice, What is difficult is getting up and taking action." - Honore de Balzac
— Kenneth Samson (@PangurBanC) Sep 14, 2022
For most guests, check out time at @HayAdamsHotel is 12pm. For #CloverAdams it's half past... Never. #DCHistory https://t.co/UpXPC6EjP9 For most guests, check out time at @HayAdamsHotel is 12pm. For #CloverAdams it's half past... Never. #DCHistory https://t.co/UpXPC6EjP9 —…
— Kenneth Samson (@PangurBanC) Sep 13, 2022
Check out 3 issues GARDEN DESIGN magazine journal 2004 See Photos For Individual Issues https://t.co/LKi10AM65f #eBay via @eBay
— Kenneth Samson (@PangurBanC) Sep 13, 2022
Check out 6 issues GARDEN DESIGN magazine journal 2005 See Photos For Individual Issues https://t.co/11K22nADxW #eBay via @eBay
— Kenneth Samson (@PangurBanC) Sep 13, 2022
Snowcapped Mountains in Western China via NASA https://t.co/ZID3IuohFz https://t.co/tvG3MXKBRN
— Kenneth Samson (@PangurBanC) Sep 13, 2022
This 18th-century map of the Gulf of Mexico and the Caribbean includes insets of 4 Caribbean islands - Dominica, St. Vincent, Jamaica, and Grenada. Meanwhile, Florida has been split in two by an enlarged Lake Okeechobee! Get a better look: https://t.co/dmmPO1HEDD …
— Kenneth Samson (@PangurBanC) Sep 13, 2022
Today in History - September 13 https://t.co/K1zYdQiEz1 As the evening of September 13, 1814 approached, Francis Scott Key, a young lawyer, was detained in Baltimore harbor under guard by the British navy. Continue reading. American writer Sherwood Anderson was born on Sep…
— Kenneth Samson (@PangurBanC) Sep 13, 2022
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— Kenneth Samson (@PangurBanC) Sep 13, 2022
Quote of the Day: "Big words seldom accompany good deeds." - Charlotte Whitton
— Kenneth Samson (@PangurBanC) Sep 13, 2022
"It has the aspect of a factory chimney with the top broken off." - #MarkTwain & Charles Dudley Warner, describing the unfinished Washington Monument in their 1873 novel, The Gilded Age. (Sorry fellas, those were #DC's awkward middle school years. Hope you came back in 1884.) …
— Kenneth Samson (@PangurBanC) Sep 12, 2022
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— Kenneth Samson (@PangurBanC) Sep 12, 2022
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— Kenneth Samson (@PangurBanC) Sep 12, 2022
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— Kenneth Samson (@PangurBanC) Sep 12, 2022
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— Kenneth Samson (@PangurBanC) Sep 12, 2022
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— Kenneth Samson (@PangurBanC) Sep 12, 2022
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— Kenneth Samson (@PangurBanC) Sep 12, 2022
In 1940, Henry Tizard made a visit to Washington and changed the course of World War II. (Not pictured: his very special suitcase.) #WWII https://t.co/JQz8B9rwQY In 1940, Henry Tizard made a visit to Washington and changed the course of World War II. (Not pictured: his very …
— Kenneth Samson (@PangurBanC) Sep 12, 2022
After the engagement, the Kennedys lived in a home on Dent Pl, NW, which #JFK's secretary, Evelyn Lincoln, arranged for them to rent. More on #JFK's #DC experience here: https://t.co/bq2i7jeyzo After the engagement, the Kennedys lived in a home on Dent Pl, NW, which #JFK's s…
— Kenneth Samson (@PangurBanC) Sep 12, 2022
Legend has it that Kennedy proposed at Georgetown's Martin's Tavern restaurant where he was partial to the eggs Benedict and Smithfield ham. (There are competing stories but we are partial to this one!) #DCHistory https://t.co/ZskWJWEMq1 Legend has it that Kennedy proposed a…
— Kenneth Samson (@PangurBanC) Sep 12, 2022
#JFK and #JackieO were married #OTD 1953... But before that, the future POTUS was doing the most Washington-thing possible -- living in a group house in Georgetown. #DCHistory Photo: Toni Frissell photograph collection at @librarycongress https://t.co/jcjQqVj1kW #JFK and #Ja…
— Kenneth Samson (@PangurBanC) Sep 12, 2022
Reflecting on President Kennedy's Moonshot Speech via NASA https://t.co/51i6Ce069j https://t.co/65BFjXve4p
— Kenneth Samson (@PangurBanC) Sep 12, 2022
Did you know that Abraham Lincoln once argued a case before the Supreme Court? The self-taught lawyer argued a case before Chief Justice Roger Taney in 1849 – and lost. https://t.co/pAFV4vVJ8v Did you know that Abraham Lincoln once argued a case before the Supreme Court? The…
— Kenneth Samson (@PangurBanC) Sep 12, 2022
1930s postcard of Thomas Circle, looking a bit busier and less bucolic than the last view. https://t.co/pcvC5mdR8Y 1930s postcard of Thomas Circle, looking a bit busier and less bucolic than the last view. https://t.co/pcvC5mdR8Y — Streets of Washington (@StreetsOfDC) Sep 12…
— Kenneth Samson (@PangurBanC) Sep 12, 2022
Today in History - September 12 https://t.co/GGd1RwvPoB On September 12, 1918, the American Expeditionary Forces under commander in chief General John J. Pershing launched its first major offensive in Europe as an independent army. Continue reading. Writer, editor, philolo…
— Kenneth Samson (@PangurBanC) Sep 12, 2022
This 1873 Russian map of the Khanate of Khiva & the lower reaches of the Amu Darya River shows historic cities, like Khiva & Kunya-Urgench, in a marshy & cultivated landscape which has been devastated as the Aral Sea has dried up. Take a look: https://t.co/dtgSUZ0Xgh …
— Kenneth Samson (@PangurBanC) Sep 12, 2022
Quote of the Day: "Living in dreams of yesterday, we find ourselves still dreaming of impossible future conquests." - Charles Lindbergh
— Kenneth Samson (@PangurBanC) Sep 12, 2022
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— Kenneth Samson (@PangurBanC) Sep 11, 2022
At 9:37am on September 11, 2001, hijacked American Airlines Flight 77 slammed into the Pentagon. We remember the 184 lives lost in our community and thousands more who perished in NYC and PA. #911NeverForget Photo: Rescue workers unfurling flag at Pentagon from @USNatArchives …
— Kenneth Samson (@PangurBanC) Sep 11, 2022
1905 postcard view of a restful Thomas Circle. The circa 1843 Wylie Mansion is seen on the right, at 10 Thomas Circle NW. It was torn down in 1947. In 1962, the International Inn was built on the empty site. https://t.co/a3ZHefs7mV 1905 postcard view of a restful Thomas Circle…
— Kenneth Samson (@PangurBanC) Sep 11, 2022
Today in History - September 11 https://t.co/8UgEEmExHk Within hours of the terrorist attacks on September 11, 2001, the Library of Congress staff began to call for and collect a vast array of original materials concerning the attacks on the World Trade Towers and the Pentag…
— Kenneth Samson (@PangurBanC) Sep 11, 2022
Quote of the Day: "One cannot and must not try to erase the past merely because it does not fit the present." - Golda Meir
— Kenneth Samson (@PangurBanC) Sep 11, 2022