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https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2017/jun/09/lord-buckethead-elmo-and-mr-fish-finger-a-very-british-election
If elections can be seen as performative acts, the tradition of joke candidates can be seen as a mocking (or even resistance) of the pantomime of democracy. Amongst the flux of empty promises,  instrumental campaigning, and dichotomisation, the presence of joke candidates significantly shifts the tone of performative actions during the election process; as in videos like this, where the prime minister waits for the announcement of votes for Lord Binface and Elmo.

Voting for these candidates is a sort of participation while acknowledging the failures of the electoral system. Ironically, by throwing away a vote, you are most likely to be heard. As Benerjee (2007) suggests, when the vote is not seen as a "plausible tool of material improvement" it can be used as a "powerful instrument of morality and protest" (p1559). In a sense, this could be seen as a protest.  In its most extreme form, this can be seen to undermine the authority of the voting process. As an indication of disinterest in politics, and that strategic voting is less appealing than having fun with the system.

This stands in stark contrast to antagonistic voting described in this weeks reading and in the lecture. It detracts from the seriousness enacted in the voting process. By doing this, joke candidates create common humanity outside of this a-cultural event. I think then that this can be used as an example in favour of the idea that elections are secular rituals as Banjerjee suggests. Joke candidates create a break in the election ritual while becoming a part of it. Representing resignation to the political process, and even changing the tone of hostile divisions between opposing groups.

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Bunty, Buckethead, Binface - and Boris Johnson - BBC News

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When Russel Brand told us not to vote, people were outraged that he would have the audacity as a comedian to involve himself in politics. By turning young people, and his fans away from the system we use, he was seen to be influencing in matters he knew nothing about. "David Cameron labelled him 'a joke', before describing him as 'some comic with a beard who thinks terrorism is funny'". This raises two issues, first the criticism of entertainers involvement in politics, and second this within the context of devolving electoral participation.

The attitude of Russel Brand, as shown in this article, mirrors the desperate need for change Koch (2017) draws attention to in her article. In the way that Brexiteers used their vote in hope to be heard, Brand hoped to achieve the same thing by not voting-- both can be seen as people scrambling for alternatives to the electoral process that has seemingly failed them so far.

Interestingly Brand framed his 'u-turn' on the issue as the realisation there is no current alternative to it, rather than to devote any faith to the system. There was a sense that everyone knew our system wasn't helping... but this is all we have. This mirrors Banerjee's (2007) observations on why people vote. Perhaps people see it doesn't work but '" why would anyone want to waste this opportunity?- the vote is our weapon'" (p1561).

Additionally, I think it's worth exploring celebrity endorsement and activism from a populist perspective. His supporters were framed as ignorant, ridiculous for following a comedian's opinion. For instance, one comment in this article in response to his endorsement of labour says "a lot of Brand's supporters must be feeling pretty stupid at the moment", implying that they were swayed by admiration of the man, his words alone and that they would change their mind just because he did- rather than relating to the message made popular with the face of a celebrity. His status an influential comedian, by extension a populist, masked the genuine discontent that people were (and still are) desperately trying to escape. The outright mocking of Brand, and anger felt towards him seems to mirror the way populists are described in the media.

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He famously sat in front of Jeremy Paxman and said he didn't vote. He encouraged the young not to engage in the current democratic system, either. He marched on Trafalgar with Anonymous. And he wrote a book called Revolution.

Needless to say Russell Brand's about-turn to back Labour leader Ed Miliband in the 11th hour came as something of a shock to his young supporters. And a welcome one to the left-of-centre party hoping to capitalise on some of the young, impressionable, formerly apathetic voters.

"In the episode of The Trews in which I interviewed Ed Miliband there is no Damascene moment," he writes via his website. "I did not tumble back in a white beam of enlightened reverie, scales falling, realising that the Westminster machine, with a different pilot will serve ordinary people. **We decided to endorse Labour before we approached them for the interview.**

Admitting that if we were to scrap the government, there is currently no system good enough to replace it, he adds: "The simple truth is I don't have a 'ready to wear' system of government to offer people on May 8th and neither does anyone else I've yet spoken to."

He continues: "Ultimately what I feel, is that by not removing the Tories, through an unwillingness to participate in the 'masquerade of democracy', I was implicitly expecting the most vulnerable people in society to pay the price on my behalf while I pondered alternatives in luxury.

"The reason I didn't suggest it sooner is because, twerp that I am, I have hope. I really do believe that real, radical change is possible that the tyranny of giant, transnational corporations can be ended, that ecological melt-down in pursuit of imaginary money can be arrested and reversed, that an ideology that aspires to more than materialism, individualism and profit can be realised and practiced."

Russell Brand's Most Controversial Quips
Show all 19
Elsewhere he adds: "My position will not have changed on May 8th, I'll be doing my best to amplify movements I believe in, from housing, to trade unions, football fan campaigns, social enterprises, digital activism, student occupations, organic agriculture, crypto-currencies; the same things I'm doing today, the things I've been learning about for the last 18 months; since I said I don't vote on the telly.

"My recommendation that people vote Labour is an optimistic punt that the degeneration of Britain will be slowed down and the lives of the most vulnerable will be a little more bearable than they'd've been under the Tories.

"Nothing more ambitious than that."

Nothing more ambition, in fact, than his own seeming offer to enter the political fray if it doesn't work out with Miliband, as he writes further up in the piece: "Does this country need a radical new political movement? An equivalent of Syriza in Greece or Podemos in Spain? It feels like it does and when the next administration fails to deliver because of the limitations of parliamentary politics I'll happily participate in setting it up. With you.

"Do we need an international confederation of new political alliances that are committed to real change, real democracy, a revolutionary alternative to capitalism? That can challenge the IMF, WTO, WBO and all the other global acronyms so portentous and phony they may as well be the wrestling federations they sound like? Of course we do, my schedule's pretty clear, I'll join in. Will you?"

He ends his post with an honourable nod towards those who fought for the vote.

"It will take serious activism, committed action comparable to the sacrifice of those whose memories are continually evoked as a spur for us to vote," he writes. "The women who died for that right, the people all over the world branded terrorists and imprisoned or executed for demanding democracy.

"I fully understand that real change, real democracy is not something that can be palmed off in a booth twice a decade, a crossed box and crossed fingers.

"Democracy is for life, not just elections."

Are you undecided about who to vote for? Are you confused about what the parties stand for? Take this interactive quiz to help you decide who to vote for...

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Russell Brand has something to confess about his voting U-turn

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He famously sat in front of Jeremy Paxman and said he didn't vote. He encouraged the young not to engage in the current democratic system, either. He marched on Trafalgar with Anonymous. And he wrote a book called Revolution.

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https://soundcloud.com/lsepodcasts/lse-fstival-2019-populism-and?in=lsepodcasts/sets/lse-festival-2019-new-world

This source discusses how populists movements appropriate religion as a cultural identity marker. As part of the process of cementing the 'us' and 'them' in populism, religion as a personal faith is conflated with religion as a cultural identifier. Particularly in the creation of Islam as a homogenous group in opposition to Christianity. Far-right groups can define national identity in terms of race by "hijacking Christianity...not for its values but its whiteness", creating an identity in opposition to the cartoonish Muslim figure representative of the other. This other is then used as the figure of social issues: poverty, failures of integration and criminality.

The polarisation of identity, as Samet (2019) discusses, refuses to acknowledge ambiguities in identity. A third narrative- for instance, the experience of white Muslims- is not acknowledged here. The integration problem in Britain is framed in the mainstream primarily as the failure of Muslim people to conform to British values while failing to explain what these values could mean or why they are opposed to Islam's practices. But in doing so, it creates a unified identity of the non-muslim. An argument raised in this podcast is that by creating a focus on cultural loss rather than economic loss these groups that have materialised in recent years are legitimised- cultural loss is immeasurable, vagueness makes it relatable. This draws on Gotteberg's comments on fictive ethnicity, the unification of the British people is reenforced by the exclusion of the imagined other.

Samet comments that in populist movements, "the enemy is often more clearly defined than the movement itself". This is represented in this example as Cremer (in the podcast) draws attention to the failures of identifying Christianity with right-wing populist movements in America. He points out that while Donald Trump and other right-wing leaders are seen as the saviours of Christian America, they are simultaneously opposing Christian ideology. The actual characteristics of popular figures become almost irrelevant, and the perception of what this person represents becomes crucial.

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There has been some excellent research into the link between populism and religion in the last couple of years, but the topic arguably remains under-reported given its contemporary urgency. Religion and Global Society has therefore launched its first major editorial series on this very subject. We are publishing academics at the forefront of this discussion, and it is our hope that through this conversation we will better understand the populist appropriation of religion in the West and its potential consequences.
In recent years, populist movements in the West have upset established political norms and secured major victories against the erstwhile post-Cold War, liberal democratic status quo. Trump, Brexit and several insurgent parliamentary advances across Europe have all benefitted from, and exploited, a widespread sense of national decline, out-of-control immigration and a stifling political correctness in public life.

There are several complex economic, political and social causes of this populist wave. This series, however, will focus on something less tangible but of no less importance. That is, the role of religion. Religiosity and cultural Christianity, often linked to national myth and nostalgia, are themes that have been co-opted by populist movements. For their part, religious leaders and institutions have sometimes pushed back against this appropriation, and have sometimes embraced such populist tactics by seeing them as tools for furthering their own agendas.

In an apparently ever-less-religious West, how has Christian identity, however indirectly, proven to be such a focal point for populist discontent? Our Populism and Religion series unpicks this phenomenon.

Through overviews of the current situation across the West, as well as country-specific case studies, our expert contributors are grappling with the populist appropriation of religion and the attempt to absorb it into a group identity narrative which in turn identifies 'elites' and minority groups as dangerous Others. In helping us to better understand this key ingredient of populist sentiment, our contributors also point to potential ways out of this crisis of liberal democracy.

LSE Festival 2019 event: 'Us' and 'Them': Populism and Religious Identity in the West

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There has been some excellent research into the link between populism and religion in the last couple of years, but the topic arguably remains under-reported given its contemporary urgency. Religion and Global Society has therefore launched its first major editorial series on this very subject.

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This video demonstrates a disillusionment with the concept of 'the people'. The lack of consent given from minorities and their exclusion from the formation of 'the people' in history is deeply felt in this emotive explanation of black Americans' exclusion. Her defence of looting during the riots draws attention to the problem of a social contract assumed to be signed by an autonomous American society, in that it disregards any discontented voice that hasn't followed the process agreed on by those who constructed it.

Asking to exist safely, within the contract, and to say black lives matter- is not only to state the obvious but to ask for inclusion in 'the people'. To have this denied, and therefore losing the power and protection of being an American, makes the sacrifices needed for that protection unfathomable.

It could be argued that the focus on looters and unacceptable protest links to Gotteberg's discussion of fictive ethnicity and belonging. It attempts to explain the anger at these protests in terms of the shared moral code of the American people rather than discontentment at the fight for racial equality. This tries (and fails) to define the people in terms of morality rather than race and maintain an illusion of unity, and fails to contemplate the extent of the division felt and illustrated in this video.

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We don't ask often, but right now, we have a 2-to-1 Matching Gift Campaign, tripling the impact of every donation. If each of our users gave just $5, we could end this fundraiser today-so if you find all these bits and bytes useful, please pitch in.

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Trevor Noah - This! 🙌🏾 IG: kimberlylatricejones & djonesmedia : Trevor Noah : Free Download, Borrow, and Streaming : Internet Archive

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Can You Chip In? In 2020 the Internet Archive has seen unprecedented use-and we need your help. When the COVID-19 pandemic hit, our bandwidth demand skyrocketed. Right now we're getting over 1.5 million daily unique visitors and storing more than 70 petabytes of data.

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#itsokaytotalk
I used this charity as an example because I was told about it as a teenager, but no one explained what the charity was for because they still couldn't talk about suicide. I was told it was a 'charity for men to talk', and years later found out what they were talking about.

This is a charity created to try and tackle the stigma felt by men struggling with suicidal thoughts. Providing a space to talk, and trying to create an environment where talk is acceptable. Suicide is heavily stigmatised and surrounded by silence. This charity calls for a change in health-seeking attitudes. As in Das' discussion of partition, where a language of gendered violence was the only mode of discussion, suicide prevention is often framed using medicalised language to make it easier to discuss. This narrative attempts to displace blame and formalises suicide prevention in a way that makes it more acceptable for discussion.

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2014/may/29/-sp-talking-mental-health-crisis-access-therapist

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ANDYSMANCLUB are a men’s suicide prevention charity, offering free-to-attend peer-to-peer support groups across the United Kingdom and online.

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This article discusses the lasting impact of traumatic events on children's health. Increased awareness of post-traumatic stress in children held in detention centres shows consideration of the lifelong impact of structural violence on entire populations; Dr Kliman predicts, “an epidemic of physical, psychosomatic health problems that are costly to society as well as to the individual child grown-up".

Das' (2007) commentary on the silence around violence can be built on by considering the long term health implications of experiencing extreme stress. Violence is undisguisable in the body if invisible everywhere else. PTSD is a condition that cannot be disguised or forgotten. In flashbacks, anxiety and weeping, invisible violence is made visible through the bodies of these children. Like the widower, illness and disorder (like PTSD) are uncomfortable reminders of the horrors of the past.

“... the children separated from their families, locked in cages, forced to sleep on concrete floors under tinfoil blankets, will live with this trauma for the rest of their lives,” he wrote on Twitter. “We’ll have it on our consciences for the rest of ours.”

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Separated from his father at the US-Mexico border last year, the little boy, about seven or eight, was under the delusion that his dad had been killed. And he thought he was next.

Other children believed their parents had abandoned them. And some suffered physical symptoms because of their mental trauma, clinicians reported to investigators with a government watchdog.

"You get a lot of 'my chest hurts', even though everything is fine" medically, a clinician told investigators. The children would describe emotional symptoms: "Every heartbeat hurts," or "I can't feel my heart."

Children separated during the Trump administration's zero tolerance policy last year, many already distressed in their home countries or by their journey, showed more fear, feelings of abandonment and post-traumatic stress symptoms than children who were not separated, according to a report from the inspector general's office in the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), released on Wednesday.

The chaotic reunification process only added to their ordeal. Some cried inconsolably. Some were angry and confused. "Other children expressed feelings of fear or guilt and became concerned for their parents' welfare," according to the report.

Migrant families enter to be processed at the central bus station before being taken to Catholic Charities in McAllen, Texas, 29 June 2018. Photograph: Larry W Smith/EPA

The child who believed his father was killed "ultimately required emergency psychiatric care to address his mental health distress", a program director told investigators.

The child psychiatrist Dr Gilbert Kliman, who interviewed dozens of migrant children in shelters after zero-tolerance took effect, told PBS's Frontline and the Associated Press that the kids can move on with their lives after reunifying with parents but may never get over it.

As children they have night terrors, separation anxiety and trouble concentrating. As they become adults, they face greater risks of mental and physical challenges, from depression to cancer.

Among the separated children, he foresees "an epidemic of physical, psychosomatic health problems that are costly to society as well as to the individual child grown up. I call it a vast, cruel experiment on the backs of children."

The AP obtained a copy of the report in advance of the official release, the first substantial accounting by a government agency on how family separation under the Trump policy has affected the mental health of children. It was based on interviews with about 100 mental health clinicians who had regular interactions with children but did not directly address the quality of the care the children did receive.

"Facilities reported that addressing the needs of separated children was particularly challenging, because these children exhibited more fear, feelings of abandonment and post-traumatic stress than children who were not separated," said the deputy inspector general, Ann Maxwell. "Separated children are also younger than the teenagers facilities were used to caring for."

The report covers a period last year when facilities were overwhelmed by the policy under which at least 2,500 children were separated from their parents. They stayed behind in border custody while their parents were taken to federal court for criminal proceedings.

The watchdog said the longer children were in custody, the more their mental health deteriorated, and it recommended minimizing that time. It also suggested creating better mental health care options and hiring more trained staff.

The department assistant secretary, Lynn Johnson, said in a letter to the watchdog that the average length of stay was much shorter now and noted the report was not a clinical review of treatment.

Andy, seven, is reunited with his mother, Arely, at Baltimore-Washington international airport 23 July 2018. They had been separated upon entering the US. Photograph: Win McNamee/Getty Images

She wrote that "significant factors" beyond the agency's control contributed to "the issues identified in the report". Those included a surge in children at the border, the children's unique mental health needs and a shortage of qualified bilingual clinicians, especially in rural areas.

She said that efforts had been made to bring in more medical health professionals, but "adverse media coverage and negative public perception ... have hampered efforts to expand".

After a federal judge ordered the children reunified with their parents, guidance on how to do it kept changing and that led to further anxiety and distress, according to the report.

In one case, a child was moved from a Florida facility to Texas to be reunited with her father. After the child made several trips to the detention center, she was returned to the Florida facility "in shambles", without ever seeing him.

Investigators visited 45 facilities in 10 states during August and September of 2018, interviewing mental health clinicians. During the interviews, there were almost 9,000 children in shelters; nearly 85% were 13-17 in age, 13% were 6-12 and 2% were infants to age 5.

A separate report also released Wednesday by the health and human services inspector general found that migrant detention facilities were woefully substandard. Specifically, many case managers did not meet the minimum education requirements for the Office of Refugee Resettlement. In addition, the review found 28 of the 45 facilities didn't have enough mental health workers.

Beto O'Rourke, a Democratic presidential hopeful, called the report a confirmation of the psychological toll taken on separated migrant children.

"This confirms what we already knew: the children separated from their families, locked in cages, forced to sleep on concrete floors under tinfoil blankets, will live with this trauma for the rest of their lives," he wrote on Twitter. "We'll have it on our consciences for the rest of ours."

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'I can't feel my heart': children separated under Trump show signs of PTSD, watchdog finds

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Separated from his father at the US-Mexico border last year, the little boy, about seven or eight, was under the delusion that his dad had been killed. And he thought he was next. Other children believed their parents had abandoned them. And some suffered physical symptoms because of their mental trauma, clinicians reported to investigators with a government watchdog.

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A comment on this article says "Time to throw Malaysia out of the UN then." Most of the discussion is about religion and morality. It's difficult to imagine how a cultural narrative or the consideration of another perspective other than "compassionate" (as Hage, 2003 argues for) can be adopted, especially when people are still raw with horror and anger. Spaces like Twitter, where comments like these aren't elaborated or discussed, left ambiguous (perhaps deliberately) consider the broader picture difficult for most people.

I agree that an anthropological perspective has a lot to offer. But I'm concerned that long and complex anthropological studies tend to seem like a faint whisper compared to the kicking and screaming that shapes opinions when emotions are high.

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A former prime minister of Malaysia has sparked outrage by suggesting that Muslims have a right "to kill millions of French people for the massacres of the past".

Mahathir Mohamad made the comments just after a woman was beheaded and two others killed in a knife attack at a church in Nice in southern France on Thursday.

On 16 October, a teacher, Samuel Paty, was beheaded outside his school in a suburb of Paris after showing his class a controversial set of cartoons of the prophet Muhammad which were republished by the magazine Charlie Hebdo in September.

Two weeks before that, France's president, Emmanuel Macron, had sparked criticism when he set out a plan to combat "separatism" and claimed that Islam was "experiencing a crisis today, all over the world".

The former Malaysian leader, who was prime minister from 2018 until March this year, commented on the murder on Thursday by arguing that Muslims would not approve of the killing but warned that France should "not show disrespect for the values of others".

"Macron is not showing that he is civilised. He is very primitive in blaming the religion of Islam and Muslims for the killing of the insulting school teacher," Mr Mahathir said.

"It is not in keeping with the teachings of Islam."

He added: "But irrespective of the religion professed, angry people kill. The French in the course of their history have killed millions of people. Many were Muslims.

"Muslims have a right to be angry and to kill millions of French people for the massacres of the past.

"But by and large, the Muslims have not applied the 'eye for an eye' law. Muslims don't. The French shouldn't. Instead the French should teach their people to respect other people's feelings."

Mr Mahathir's statement led to widespread calls for Twitter to remove his posts, with some users describing them as an incitement to violence.

"Take this down urgently, @TwitterSupport," Brian Klaas, an associate professor in global politics at University College London, wrote in response to the tweets.

"It's an incitement to mass killing by a former prime minister of Malaysia with more than a million followers. How has this been allowed to stay up for over an hour?!"

One of the tweets has since been taken down for violating Twitter's rules.

Mr Mahathir's comments come at a time of heightened tension between Mr Macron's government and some Muslims in France and other countries.

The French president's decision to publicly defend the cartoons of Muhammad, which have caused anger across parts of the Islamic world, has led to calls for a boycott of French products.

On Monday, France's foreign ministry insisted it was defending freedom of expression and supported Muslims in the country.

A statement from the ministry also claimed that the boycott calls were being "instrumentalised by a radical minority" and should end immediately.

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Muslims have a right to 'kill millions of French people', former Malaysian PM suggests

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A former prime minister of Malaysia has sparked outrage by suggesting that Muslims have a right "to kill millions of French people for the massacres of the past". Mahathir Mohamad made the comments just after a woman was beheaded and two others killed in a knife attack at a church in Nice in southern France on Thursday.

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This video relates to Edward's (2017) discussion on the internet's role in spreading ideology. In this video, Derek Muller discusses how posts that "tickle our brains" with powerful messages can spread through the internet because of their emotional power. The "evolution of ideas on the internet", segregates ideologies and detracts from the context, silencing multiple perspectives and ideologies favouring the most extreme. The most powerful, radical and feeling-evoking ideas get pushed to the top of the algorithm, dividing communities by creating concentrated ideology spaces.

I think this is taking place in Edward's description, particularly of Abida and peer pressure on Facebook. The spread of feeling-provoking content (as love in the form of words and music or anger evoked by "grisly images" (p177)) works to create an atmosphere which normalises the online culture and creates the need to produce and be more exception, in whatever way the user believes is needed.

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Post-Truth: Why Facts Don't Matter Anymore

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"One of the delightful things about Americans is that they have absolutely no historical memory."
I found this article via an online disagreement that started with someone claiming Asia had been at war for thousands of years. The article points out that the thought process that makes the west the hero of the other, is what allowed for colonialism. It argues the importance of remembering our history if we want to understand modern-day acts of terror.

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History takes no prisoners. It shows, with absolute lucidity, that the Islamic extremism ravaging the world today was borne out of the Western foreign policy of yesteryear.

Gore Vidal famously referred to the USA as the United States of Amnesia. The late Chinese Premier Zhou Enlai put it a little more delicately, quipping, "One of the delightful things about Americans is that they have absolutely no historical memory."

In order to understand the rise of militant Salafi groups like ISIS and al-Qaida; in order to wrap our minds around their heinous, abominable attacks on civilians in the U.S., France, Syria, Iraq, Lebanon, Nigeria, Turkey, Yemen, Afghanistan and many, many more countries, we must rekindle this historical memory.

Where did violent Islamic extremism come from? In the wake of the horrific Paris attacks on Friday, November the 13, this is the question no one is asking -- yet it is the most important one of all. If one doesn't know why a problem emerged, if one cannot find its root, one will never be able to solve and uproot it.

Where did militant Salafi groups like ISIS and al-Qaida come from? The answer is not as complicated as many make it out to be -- but, to understand, we must delve into the history of the Cold War, the historical period lied about in the West perhaps more than any other.

How the West cultivated Osama bin Laden

We needn't reach back far into history, just a few decades.

A much-circulated photo of an article published in British newspaper the Independent in 1993 exemplifies the West's twisted hypocrisy. Titled " Anti-Soviet warrior puts his army on the road to peace," it features a large photo of Osama bin Laden, who, at the time, was a Western ally.

[caption id="attachment_14218978" align="aligncenter" width="620"] Osama bin Laden, reported on favorably in the U.K.'s The Independent in 1993 (Credit: Imgur)[/caption]

The newspaper noted that bin Laden organized a militia of thousands of foreign fighters from throughout the Middle East and North Africa, and "supported them with weapons and his own construction equipment" in their fight against the USSR in the 1980s. "We beat the Soviet Union," bin Laden boasted.

The mujahedin, the Islamic militias bankrolled by bin Laden, along with Maktab al-Khidamat -- the organization bin Laden created to recruit and fund foreign Islamist fighters -- are what eventually morphed into both al-Qaida and the Taliban.

"When the history of the Afghan resistance movement is written," the Independent wrote, "Mr Bin Laden's own contribution to the mujahedin... may turn out to be a turning point in the recent history of militant fundamentalism."

Portraying bin Laden in a positive light, less than eight years before he would help mastermind the largest terrorist attack on American soil in decades, the British publication claimed that the "Saudi businessman who recruited mujahedin now uses them for large-scale building projects in Sudan." In reality, bin Laden was setting the stages for what would be become al-Qaida.

Unheeded warnings

In Greek mythology, Cassandra was blessed with the power of prophecy, but cursed in that no one would ever heed her warnings. Eqbal Ahmad, the late political scientist, historian and expert in the study of terrorism, was a modern-day Cassandra.

In a speech at the University of Colorado, Boulder in October 1998, Ahmad warned that the U.S. policy in Afghanistan would backfire:

"In Islamic history, jihad as an international violent phenomenon had disappeared in the last 400 years, for all practical purposes. It was revived suddenly with American help in the 1980s. When the Soviet Union intervened in Afghanistan, Zia ul-Haq, the [U.S.-backed] military dictator of Pakistan, which borders on Afghanistan, saw an opportunity and launched a jihad there against godless communism. The U.S. saw a God-sent opportunity to mobilize one billion Muslims against what Reagan called the 'Evil Empire.'

"Money started pouring in. CIA agents starting going all over the Muslim world recruiting people to fight in the great jihad. Bin Laden was one of the early prize recruits. He was not only an Arab. He was also a Saudi. He was not only a Saudi. He was also a multimillionaire, willing to put his own money into the matter. Bin Laden went around recruiting people for the jihad against communism.

"I first met him in 1986. He was recommended to me by an American official of whom I do not know whether he was or was not an agent. I was talking to him and said, 'Who are the Arabs here who would be very interesting?' By here I meant in Afghanistan and Pakistan. He said, 'You must meet Osama.' I went to see Osama. There he was, rich, bringing in recruits from Algeria, from Sudan, from Egypt, just like Sheikh Abdul Rahman. This fellow was an ally. He remained an ally.

"He turns at a particular moment. In 1990, the U.S. goes into Saudi Arabia with forces. Saudi Arabia is the holy place of Muslims, Mecca, and Medina. There had never been foreign troops there. In 1990, during the Gulf War, they went in, in the name of helping Saudi Arabia defeat Saddam Hussein. Osama Bin Laden remained quiet.

"Saddam was defeated, but the American troops stayed on in the land of the Ka'aba [the most sacred site of Islam, in Mecca], foreign troops. He wrote letter after letter saying, 'Why are you here? Get out! You came to help but you have stayed on.' Finally he started a jihad against the other occupiers. His mission is to get American troops out of Saudi Arabia. His earlier mission was to get Russian troops out of Afghanistan."

For bin Laden, Ahmad added, "America has broken its word. The loyal friend has betrayed. The one to whom you swore blood loyalty has betrayed you."

"They're going to go for you. They're going to do a lot more," Ahmad warned, three years before the 9/11 attacks. "These are the chickens of the Afghanistan war coming home to roost."

We now know that Ahmad was right. But, like Cassandra, the powerful ignored his sagacious admonition, and suffered the horrific consequences.

Extremist "freedom fighters"

In the 1950s and '60s, Afghanistan was a somewhat secular country in which women were granted relatively equal rights. What turned Afghanistan into the hotbed for extremism it is today? Decades of Western meddling.

Throughout the 1980s, the CIA, through the Pakistani government -- more specifically Pakistan's Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) -- supported and armed the mujahedin in Afghanistan in their fight against the Soviet Union, in what was dubbed Operation Cyclone. President Ronald Reagan famously met with the mujahedin in the Oval Office in 1983. "To watch the courageous Afghan freedom fighters battle modern arsenals with simple hand-held weapons is an inspiration to those who love freedom," Reagan declared.

[caption id="attachment_14219048" align="aligncenter" width="620"] President Reagan meeting with the Afghan Mujahideen in the Oval Office in 1983 (Credit: U.S. government)[/caption]

Those "freedom fighters" are the forefathers of ISIS and al-Qaida. When the last Soviet troops were withdrawn in 1989, the mujahedin did not simply leave; a civil war of sorts followed, with various Islamist militant groups fighting for control in the power vacuum. The Taliban came out on top, and established a medieval theocratic regime to replace the former "godless" socialist government.

There are extremists in every religion, but they tend to be few in number, weak and isolated. Salafism, in its modern militarized form, has its origins in the 1920s, and even before. For decades, this movement remained weak and isolated. Yet, in the 1970s and '80s, Western capitalist governments, particularly the U.S., came up with a new Cold War strategy: supporting these fringe Islamic extremist groups as a bulwark against socialism.

The U.S. was by no means the only one to pursue such a strategy. Echoing the U.S. policy in Afghanistan, Israel in fact supported Hamas -- now its sworn arch-enemy -- when the Islamist group was first forming in the 1980s. Israel backed Hamas' militant founder Sheikh Ahmed Yassin in order to undermine the secular socialist resistance of the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO).

"Hamas, to my great regret, is Israel's creation," a former Israeli government official told the Wall Street Journal in a 2009 article titled " How Israel Helped to Spawn Hamas."

This Cold War strategy ended up being successful: After the fall of the USSR, the secular socialist groups that dominated the resistance movements of the Middle East were replaced by Islamic extremists ones that had previously been supported by the West.

It is not a coincidence that most of the secular countries in the history of the Middle East have been socialist of some sort. In contrast, the most reactionary countries -- the countries where women are not granted equal rights and where the rule of law is based on Sharia -- have frequently tended to be close Western allies. Why? The West was much, much more interested in preserving capitalism than it was in allowing secularism, gender equality and relative economic equality to flourish under socialism.

Orientalist posturing

Many pundits, including liberals, have argued that the Middle East, North Africa and Muslim-majority parts of South Asia are presently going through their parallel to the West's Dark Age, a bloody period of religious extremism. They blame the rise of extremist groups like ISIS and al-Qaida on Islam itself, or on the Middle East's supposedly "backward" culture, yet conveniently gloss over their own countries' sordid histories and policies.

There is much more than a tinge of racism in this orientalist idea that, for some reason, Muslims in the Middle East are centuries behind the englightened Christian West. This ludicrous claim does not stand up to even the most superficial historical scrutiny.

For one, never mentioned is the fact that, only decades ago, most Middle Eastern countries were Western colonies. Their civilian populations were terrorized and brutalized by Western colonial powers.

And, again, what were the most secular and modern governments in the history of the Middle East? It was almost always the Soviet-aligned or non-aligned leftist governments that were either enemies of the West or non-allies in the Cold War.

Regardless of the critiques of these governments' many problems, which is a separate issue, the reality is the Middle East was significantly more progressive and secular during the height of the Cold War than it is today. That's not a coincidence. The U.S. and its allies destroyed secularism as part of their larger Cold War strategy.

The Cold War bites back

This Cold War strategy continues to bite back today, and hard. Because of this policy, we have now ended up with capitalist dystopias like those in Saudi Arabia, Qatar or the UAE -- filthy rich oil states where businessmen are drowning in money while the migrant modern-day slaves upon which their economies are built die in droves, and theocratic monarchies imprison or even behead anyone who challenges the regime.

The Gulf states remain some of the most reactionary and extremist countries on the planet, and they happen to be close Western allies. Saudi Arabia, in particular, is the fountainhead of militant Sunni Islamism -- and yet the Obama administration has done more than $100 billion in arms deals with the Saudi monarchy in just five years. In fact, less than three days after the Paris attacks, the U.S. sold another $1.3 billion of bombs to Saudi Arabia -- bombs it will likely use to drop on Yemen, where human rights organizations say it is committing egregious war crimes, and where the chaos created by the Saudi-led coalition is helping al-Qaida and ISIS expand into Yemen.

Former U.S. Sen. Bob Graham has observed that modern Sunni extremist groups like ISIS and al-Qaida are "a product of Saudi ideals, Saudi money, and Saudi organizational support." Government cables leaked by WikiLeaks demonstrate that the U.S. is well aware that al-Qaida and other Salafi groups are supported by rich Saudis.

Let us not forget that Osama bin Laden was a millionaire businessman from a fabulously wealthy and prominent Saudi family with close ties to the kingdom's royalty. He used that wealth to finance an international network of Islamic extremists that coalesced into al-Qaida.

This doesn't mean that the Saudi monarchy is pulling the strings above ISIS -- which is now its enemy -- but rather that its global proselytizing and funding of Wahhabi groups and institutions made these once fringe extremist groups much stronger and more mainstream.

Ideologies are not devoid from material reality. Yes, there are extremists in every religion, but why do they not have the same power in other faiths? There is no such thing as an ideology independent of the material conditions and social forces that assert that ideology materially -- that is to say, politically -- in reality. Islamic extremism was violently imposed upon the Middle East through a mixture of imperial machinations and individual radicalization under tyranny and extreme poverty.

Creating your enemies

Western imperialism has a tendency to create its own enemies.

Up until the 1990 Gulf War, throughout the Iran-Iraq War that consumed the 1980s, the U.S. supported Saddam Hussein -- the very same dictator it would violently depose in 2003. Declassified CIA files show how the U.S. government helped Hussein when he was unleashing chemical weapons on Iranian civilians. The U.K. government allowed Hussein's regime to create chemical weapons using agents that were sold to Iraq by British corporations. These Western-provided weapons were also used in Hussein's campaign of genocide against the Kurds.

Fast-forwarding two decades later, it is now widely acknowledged that the illegal U.S.-led war in Iraq -- a catastrophic occupation that led to the deaths of at least 1 million people -- destabilized the entire Middle East, creating the extreme conditions in which militant groups like al-Qaida spread like wildfire, eventually leading to the emergence of ISIS. The former head of intelligence for the U.S. Central Command and Joint Special Operations Command (JSOC), retired Army Lt. Gen. Michael T. Flynn, agrees. U.S. policies in Iraq "absolutely" strengthened Salafi militant groups like al-Qaida, Lt. Gen. Flynn conceded. "We definitely put fuel on a fire," he lamented.

New York Rep. Chuck Schumer remarked in 1991 that Saddam Hussein was "created in the White House laboratory with a collection of government programs, banks, and private companies."

Saddam Hussein was the first Frankenstein's monster U.S. policy created in Iraq, al-Qaida was the second, and now ISIS is the third.

Blaming Islam is projection

The pundits in the West blaming Islam for the rise of extremism are projecting their own countries' crimes onto the world's 1.6 billion Muslims.

The kinds of people who blame Islam and Muslims for the spread of extremism are the kinds of people who have utmost faith in Western empire. Even if they admit that it "sometimes" engages in problematic behavior, they, deep-down, believe Western empire to be fundamentally rooted in good will, in humanitarianism, in progress, in the proselytizing of civilization.

This is the same logic that justified genocidal European colonialism, Western expansionism and Manifest Destiny, and the White Man's Burden. And it is this same logic that promotes militarist policies and anti-Muslim and anti-refugee bigotries in response to Islamist militants' attacks -- only serving to further fuel the fire of extremism.

These same pundits, the ones who blame Islam for the rise of ISIS and who have utmost faith in the putative good will of Western empire, would have wholeheartedly supported Osama bin Laden in the 1980s; these same pundits would have dubbed the father of al-Qaida a "freedom fighter" in his heroic battle against the evil Soviet Union.

In the aforementioned speech, Ahmad articulated five kinds of terrorism. He lamented, however, that of these types, the focus in the media and the political system is almost always on just one: "political terror of the private group, oppositional terror" -- which he points out is "the least important in terms of cost to human lives and human property." "The highest cost is state terror," Ahmad explained. He roughly estimated that the ratio of people killed by state terror versus those killed by individual acts of terror is, conservatively, 100,000 to one.

If we truly want to end the abominable acts of violence perpetrated by extremist groups like ISIS and al-Qaida, we should take to heart the simple yet profound counsel of Noam Chomsky, another modern-day Cassandra: "Everybody's worried about stopping terrorism. Well, there's a really easy way: stop participating in it."

Watch Muslims around the world react to the portrayal of Muslims in the media:
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We created Islamic extremism: Those blaming Islam for ISIS would have supported Osama bin Laden in the '80s

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Jingoists conveniently forget the West's Cold War strategy was to arm the Islamic extremists that became al-Qaida

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The way that coronavirus has disproportionality affected different racial groups shows the reality of Farmer's (2004) argument. The way this discussion was handled, by launching an investigation and not clearly acting on its outcomes (or not doing enough), shows how people are forced to rely on the institutions that made vulnerable in the first place. It's telling how much people questioned this when it was discussed, and the current narrative of whether the UK is racist in the first place. Covid, like HIV or TB, is an indicator of systematic inequality, and shows how historically produced prejudice has a quantifiable impact on bodies.

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Ministers have "failed" to bring in measures to reduce the disproportionate impact of coronavirus on ethnic minorities, despite warnings months ago that action was needed.

Following high death rates among minorities in the first peak of coronavirus - with official statistics showing that black people were 1.9 times more likely to die of Covid-19 than white people, and British Indians around 1.5 times more likely - the government commissioned Public Health England (PHE) to carry out a review into the issue.

The review was published at the beginning of June, and concluded that death rates were highest among people of black and Asian ethnic groups. Two days later, it was announced that equalities minister Kemi Badenoch would lead work to address the disparities that had been identified.

But four months on, as the country heads towards another peak of cases, the government has been unable to provide The Independent with details of any action taken to address the issue.

Marsha de Cordova, Labour's shadow equalities minister, said: "Ministers' failure to prevent the disproportionate impact of Covid is negligent, discriminatory and unlawful."

Dr Chaand Nagpaul, council chair at the British Medical Association, said he was "deeply concerned" that four months since the PHE review was published, 35 per cent of intensive care beds were occupied by patients from black, Asian and minority ethnic (Bame) communities, and that two times as many ethnic minority people were infected by the virus.

He called on ministers to "urgently" bring in more culturally tailored public health messaging that ethnic minority communities trust in order to ensure behavioural change. Dr Nagpaul also urged the government to collect more infection data broken down by ethnicity and longer-term interventions, as well as tackle the UK's long-standing socioeconomic inequalities.

"This is all the more important given we are in the throws of a second wave and need to protect healthcare staff at highest risk from the virus. We continue to grieve the doctors needlessly lost in the first wave of the pandemic, most of whom were Bame, and this cannot happen again," he added.

The PHE report found that people of Bangladeshi ethnicity had around twice the risk of death as white British people, after accounting for the effect of sex, age, deprivation and region. It said people of Chinese, Indian, Pakistani, other Asian, Caribbean and other black ethnicity had between 10 and 50 per cent higher risk of death.

Following its publication, Ms Badenoch announced that the government was "taking seriously" the initial findings, and said it was "clear that much more needs to be done to understand the key drivers of the disparities identified and the relationships between the different risk factors".

She added: "That is why I am now taking this work forward, which will enable us to make a real difference to people's lives and protect our communities from the impact of the coronavirus."

However, when asked by The Independent what progress had been made so far, Ms Badenoch's office did not respond.

Lord Victor Adebowale, chair of the NHS Confederation (which represents health service trusts), said the inequalities were "unacceptable", adding: "This matter affects everyone because it's about equity and equality.

"Leaders are working hard to move the needle and they recognise the challenge. A total of 74 per cent believe Bame groups get a worse service. They recognise they need to do more and government needs to fully engage with this challenge as Covid-19 continues to ravage our populations."

Ms De Cordova has written to the equalities watchdog urging it to investigate the government for breaching the Equality Act in its failure to tackle the disproportionate impact of coronavirus on ethnic minorities and disabled people when drawing up legislation to address the negative effects of the pandemic.

It comes as research from the Institute for Public Policy Research (IPPR) and Runnymede Trust concluded that the higher risk of death from Covid-19 among minority ethnic groups could not be explained by differences in underlying health conditions, but rather unequal social conditions, unequal access to healthcare and "structural and institutional racism".

Calling for "urgent action" to better protect ethnic minority communities from the second wave, the report said ethnicity must be considered as an independent risk factor, alongside age, gender, occupation and underlying health conditions, when deciding priority for limited Covid testing.

Parth Patel, research fellow at the IPPR, said addressing the "stark" inequalities was a matter not only of racial justice, but also of public health, adding: "We are now experiencing the second wave of this dangerous virus, and once again it is running along racist grooves. Yet many months after the unequal impacts first began to emerge, little or nothing is being done to address them."

Dr Halima Begum, director of the Runnymede Trust, said "urgent action" must be taken to address the "injustices and inequalities" in the way coronavirus is affecting different groups.

"This means including ethnicity as a risk factor in prioritising Covid-19 testing, and providing temporary isolation and pay support so that, on testing positive, people can at a bare minimum self-isolate safely and effectively," she added.

Hospitality workers urge Government to provide more financial support amid tougher Covid-19 sanctions

A number of reports have found people from minority ethnic communities have been worse affected by the pandemic than their white counterparts. In mid-June, a group of health experts writing in the Journal of the Royal Society of Medicine said ethnic minorities and migrants were being disproportionately harmed by the pandemic response.

They said many migrant groups - especially those without documents - were less likely to seek help or may seek help later once the disease has progressed.

Chai Patel, legal director at the Joint Council for the Welfare of Immigrants, said the government's "hostile environment" policies - which require NHS staff to check patients' immigration documents before they receive medical care - were contributing to the excess deaths of ethnic minorities during the pandemic.

UPDATE 20/10/20: Five days after being contacted for comment, and following the publication of this article, the Cabinet Office's "equality hub" told The Independent its work included translating advice into numerous languages and targeting messaging through specifically chosen channels, and by spending an additional £4m on reaching ethnic minorities. It said it had also awarded £4.3m in government funding to six projects that would "improve understanding of the links between Covid-19 and ethnicity". A spokesperson said it rejected the "baseless accusations" that it had taken no action to protect ethnic minorities, as measures introduced by the government "have been designed to protect and support everyone, including our most vulnerable".

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Ministers accused of failing to address disproportionate impact of coronavirus on ethnic minorities

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Ministers have "failed" to bring in measures to reduce the disproportionate impact of coronavirus on ethnic minorities, despite warnings months ago that action was needed.

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This newsreel documenting the riots in northern England links Appadurai's article on living alongside the other.

The failures of integration, coupled with the longlasting unemployment in ex-industrial towns echos Appadurai's discussion about fears of globalisation. "They're taking our jobs" has become a mocking staple of the ignorant racist. Still, it is a real complaint felt by the lower classes of the UK, who grow increasingly anxious about their positions in a changing world. These acts of violence, expressed in an endless cycle of vandalism, rioting and hate crimes, are a visible enactment of people's anxieties stuck in a scary financial and social position with no one to blame but their neighbours.

This is a good example of how structural violence can almost be seen very literally as a noose. Where anxieties are produced, and racism is built into a society like in Britain, violence is directed to align with the country's priorities. By which I mean, many refugees were sent to places like like Burnley with very little funding for integration to meet the increased demand for housing or welfare needs. This political decision was influential to the lives of people in this area, a place where acts of hate crimes and other forms of violence continue to happen daily,

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Race Riots Wreak Destruction In Burnley, UK (2001)

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This example illustrates the complicated relationship between the state, private lives and active resistance. A teenage girl was assaulted by a group of men and was later treated with disrespect by the officials dealing with her case. This later led to a denial of the assault in the first place, paired with blame on the victims family and defence of the abusers. This story is a part of a wider problem of sexual assault against lower caste women in India. It has been influenced by politically motivated action spurred by earlier protests sparked by a similar case in 2012. "Rallies in support of the accused men" in conflict with protests over the mistreatment of Dalit women changed how cases like this are handled in a strange way. Politicians are accused of "doing politics over the dead bodies of the poor", by using public outrage to better their positions. The struggles of these teenage girls are "lost amid the political din", as speaking out and protesting becomes part of a political stratergy. This relates to the problem that resisting within the framework makes space for further problems of power that Abu-Lughod outlined, but I would also say it is a problem of protest that has been mirrored in the other sources- particularly in the square.

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Late last month, a 19-year-old woman died in the northern Indian state of Uttar Pradesh after reporting she'd been gang raped and and brutally assaulted. The evidence backs up her story, so why do officials keep insisting she wasn't raped? The BBC's Geeta Pandey reports from Hathras.

The injured teenager was brought to the Chandpa police station in Hathras district by her parents and her brother. In a 48-second video filmed at the scene and shown to the BBC, she can be seen lying on a cement platform while she is questioned by a policeman off camera.

There appear to be bruises on her neck, face and hand, and she seems to be in tremendous pain. She speaks with difficulty because, it would later emerge, she has a big gash on her tongue.

She tells the policeman her attacker tried to strangle her and the policeman asks her why. "Because I wasn't letting him do zabardasti," she says.

Zabardasti is an Urdu word that literally translates into "coercion" or "force" and is used by women especially in parts of rural India as slang for rape.

"Women who are not gender sensitised or bold enough to use the word rape often call it 'ganda kaam' [dirty work] or zabardasti," said Shabnam Hashmi, a women's rights activist who visited the family earlier this week.

The 19-year-old is seen repeating the same sentence in a second video that was recorded just hours later, when she was taken to the district hospital in Hathras. In the second video, she even names an upper-caste neighbour as the perpetrator.

The victim was a Dalit - men and women formerly known as "untouchables" who languish at the bottom of India's harsh caste hierarchy. On average 10 Dalit women were raped every day in India last year, according to official figures, and Uttar Pradesh has the highest number of cases of violence against women of any state.

The young woman in Hathras - who cannot be named - was found in a field of tall millet crops by her mother. They had gone to cut grass for cattle fodder.

"She was lying on the ground, battered and bruised, barely conscious and naked from the waist downwards," her mother told me at her home in Bhulgarhi village in Hathras, sobbing into her veil. "She was bleeding, she couldn't move her neck, her arms and legs were lifeless, she was vomiting blood."

But neither of the young woman's two allegations of rape, made within hours of being attacked, were entered into police records.

"There were very serious lapses on the part of the police," said SR Darapuri, a former police officer and now vice-president of the People's Union for Civil Liberties (PUCL) in Uttar Pradesh.

"The police did not write a complaint - they instead asked her brother to do it. They did not include what the victim told them. They didn't even call an ambulance to take her to hospital, even though she was in a precarious condition," he said.

The state government has suspended Hathras superintendent of police Vikrant Vir for "negligence and lax supervision". Four other policemen, including the one who is heard on the video interviewing the victim at Chandpa police station, were also suspended. Superintendent Vir denied any any wrongdoing.

For two weeks, the 19-year-old fought for her life. But on the morning of 29 September she died in the Delhi hospital to which she had been transferred, from injuries sustained during the attack. Her autopsy report has not been released.

The case made headlines only after police and administration officials cremated her body in the middle of the night on 29 September - a move the family say was made without their consent and which has raised suspicion.

Since her death, the state government has insisted that she was not raped at all. In a series of off-the-record conversations, officials tried to deny or downplay the rape allegation. And reports in the Indian press said the state hired the services of a PR firm to press its denial.

A senior police official, Additional Director General Prashant Kumar, said last week that the woman's family had not mentioned rape in the initial complaint, and cited a forensic report which said no semen was found in her viscera sample - a claim rebutted by experts who point out that an absence of semen in this sample does not rule out rape.

Doctors at the Jawaharlal Nehru Medical College Hospital (JNMCH) in Aligarh, where she was treated for two weeks, pointed out that the forensic report was based on samples taken 11 days after the attack. Protocol says any evidence gathered beyond four days after a rape is useless.

Police have since claimed that the young woman did not allege rape until 22 September, nine days after she was assaulted. But it is clear from the video footage that she says twice within hours of the attack "zabardasti" - another word for rape.

A report by the hospital's gynaecologist, who interviewed and examined the teenager, confirmed "use of force". I have seen a leaked copy of the report - it says she confirmed to the doctors that there had been "complete vaginal penetration with penis".

"On the basis of local examination, I am of the opinion that there are signs of use of force," the gynaecologist wrote. The report deferred confirming penetrative intercourse until a forensic report had been completed.

Then, there are the victim's own words. On 22 September, as her condition turned critical, the hospital called a magistrate and she made what is known as a "dying declaration".

These declarations carry weight in court. "Rapes happen at isolated places and there are rarely any witnesses so courts generally take a victim's dying declaration at face value," Mr Darapuri said. "It is generally enough for conviction, unless contradicted by other evidence."

According to a copy of the declaration submitted in court, and an interview with a health official who was present in the room, the 19-year-old told the magistrate she had been gang raped and strangled and she named four of her neighbours as the perpetrators. All four have since been arrested and all deny the allegation.

In Hathras, only a narrow lane separates the houses of the victim and the accused. But their lives are divided by a caste hierarchy as rigid as it is old. She belonged to the Valmiki community, the lowest rung of the Hindu caste order; the four accused men are Thakurs, an upper-caste warrior community. The crime has only deepened the divide.

Under a tree behind their home, I found relatives of some of the arrested men. "We also want to know the truth," Sunder Pal, brother of one of the accused, said. "She should get justice. But my brother and other accused are also innocent and they should also get justice."

Hariom Kumar, brother of another accused, insisted his brother was away at his workplace at the time of the alleged attack.

Other Thakur men chipped in, accusing the victims's family of lying. "It's all rumour," said Kumar. "There was no rape."

It is not a surprise that the families of the accused would deny sexual assault. Laws passed in the aftermath of a vicious gang rape and murder of a young woman on a bus in Delhi in 2012 permit the death penalty for cases of rape with murder.

And state governments have potential political motivations to play down rape figures as well, said Mr Darapuri, the civil liberties activist and former police officer.

"Rape and atrocities against Dalits become political issues in elections so all governments try to keep these figures low," he said. "Village council elections and assembly elections are all due in the state in the next 18 months and the government does not want to give a handle to the opposition."

In the wake of the death of the young woman in Hathras, protesters flooded the streets. Police were heavily criticised for cracking down on the protesters. Many were beaten with sticks in an attempt to stop them from visiting the victim's family. Opposition leaders who had joined were shoved around.

Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath, one of India's most controversial right-wing politicians, who is also a Thakur, is facing criticism for his government's handling of the case. Some of his party colleagues have held large rallies in support of the accused men attended by their relatives. Mr Adityanath, who has accused the opposition of "doing politics over the dead bodies of the poor", has not visited the victim's family.

On Tuesday, state authorities claimed to the Supreme Court that there was an "international plot" to cause caste and religious riots in Uttar Pradesh and topple Mr Adityanath's government.

Lost amid all the political din is the desperation and grief of a family in Hathras. At their home in Bhulgarhi village, well-meaning journalists ask the young woman's father to reply to allegations from the Thakurs that their daughter was in a consensual relationship with the main accused.

They ask him if he opposes the state's decision to hand over the investigation to the federal police; would he submit to a lie-detector test as being demanded by the accused; how much compensation has he received?

"I just want justice I don't want money," he told me. "I'm a daily-wage labourer. I earn 200 rupees [$3; £2] a day, I can live on 50 rupees. But I just want justice."

I asked her brother if he thought justice would come. "We have no faith any more," he said. "We'll believe it if it happens."

Read more on our coverage of the Hathras rape case:

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Hathras case: A woman repeatedly reported rape. Why are police denying it?

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Late last month, a 19-year-old woman died in the northern Indian state of Uttar Pradesh after reporting she'd been gang raped and and brutally assaulted. The evidence backs up her story, so why do officials keep insisting she wasn't raped? The BBC's Geeta Pandey reports from Hathras.

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This video shows the narrative of a female tattoo artist in Kabul. In this video she is shown walking down the street with everybody looking at her, she doesn't wear a veil, she is wearing different clothes and her lip is pierced. She talks about how she stands out, that people don't like what she does or they think it is against the law, but that she does it anyway because of the personal fulfilment she gets from embracing her personal identity. But she situates her job within Afghanistan's history and culture, pointing out women have had their faces tattooed. She talks about how women come to her to talk, and she wants to set an example for them, her 'everyday resistance' made clear by her appearance creates a safe place for people (especially women) to think and talk. "Because Afghanistan should change, and someone should start it, so I started tattooing."

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Threats & Tats: Afghanistan’s ‘Forbidden’ Tattoo Artist | Under the Ink

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This links to everyday resistance and especially Navo-Yashin's (2002) article on cynical citizens. This is a semi-autobiographical comedy show written by Caitlan and Caroline Moran. Their mother is a conspiracy-theorist, anti-establishment character, who decided to keep them out of school. Increasing resistance to state schooling is an interesting perspective to take when thinking about everyday forms of control.  This tv series shows the funny side of political action and acts of resistance from the perspective of people growing up without deliberate political resistance.

https://www.theguardian.com/education/2018/nov/03/get-to-be-free-rise-in-home-schooling

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Raised by Wolves: Raised by Wolves - On Demand

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Re-imagining the brilliant chaos of Caitlan and Caroline Morans' childhood

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This documentary aligns with the narrative on what we value, and how this is projected onto how we cope with immigration. Its focus on refugee children and families is part of the need to make refugees relatable- done through family narratives valued so much in Britain. The ending asks each child what job they will do as an adult, I think this is part of the same argument- they are valuable to us because they will be beneficial to our economy, health services and country. It simultaneously appeals to public anxieties about the danger of others, while appealing to our humanity by evoking images of family values.

This also demonstrates the liminality of refugees, and the unsteady status of their citizenship as the status of many of the young people are questioned. For instance, one boy was sent to another country because he had claimed asylum there first, although his family lived in the UK.

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This documentary follows six refugee children as they adapt to new lives in Britain

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Plans like these are symptoms of the racism of our political system. These attitudes show how people are reduced to that status as refugees and criminalized. This article comments on Britains treatment of undesirable citizens by sending them away. "Outlandish plans" to offshore refugees reflects the precarious position Khosravi () highlights in his auto-ethnography. People are dehumanised and made nothing more than their status as 'other', their humanity becomes blurred as they are distanced from us (literally).

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The home secretary, Priti Patel, has reportedly been exploring a range of outlandish plans for sending refugees who arrive on British shores to very faraway places.

The week began with a Whitehall leak that revealed officials had been asked to consider setting up an immigration centre on Ascension Island, over 4,000 miles away in the South Atlantic. When that idea was kiboshed, further leaks identified other territories being considered for extraterritorial processing, including Moldova, Morocco and Papua New Guinea.

Britain has a long and rather grubby history of sending people to faraway territories in order to solve political problems. The principle that out of sight is out of mind first underpinned the establishment of penal colonies where hundreds of thousands of criminals and other "undesirables" were banished throughout the British empire.

Other European states have followed suit, the most famous example of such a place being Devil's Island, in French Guiana. More recently, in 2002, the United States started using Guantánamo Bay, a US naval base on the southern tip of Cuba, as a detention centre for handling hundreds of "unlawful combatants" that it refused to put on trial in the US.
UK asylum detention: top civil servant says 'all options on the table'
In the past two decades governments have toyed with this extraterritorial solution to try to "look tough" in the face of small numbers of desperate people arriving in Britain. In so doing, asylum seekers - who share with you and me the legal right to seek refuge - are being treated as criminals.

It was a Labour government in 2003 that first came up with the idea of using offshore immigration processing centres. The context was a rise in asylum applications to the UK, which had seen a 20-fold increase over 15 years. Having already considered both harsh clampdowns and amnesties for deterring asylum seekers, the then home secretary, David Blunkett, enthusiastically supported by Tony Blair, floated a number of proposals for immigration centres outside the UK.

He suggested creating "regional protection zones", which would be in, or next to, areas witnessing major flows of people. These zones would offer a safe haven to those fleeing persecution but keep them within touch of their home countries.

His second proposal was to create "transit centres" on the fringes of the European Union, which would hold all applicants heading west and handle applications for those seeking to enter the UK. The list of proposed sites for these centres has a rather familiar ring, and included nations on the major transit routes such as Turkey, Somalia and Morocco.

Blunkett's ideas received the welcome backing of a number of thinktanks, including Demos. But, not to be outdone by New Labour, the Tories followed up a few months later with their own proposals.

The then shadow home secretary, Oliver Letwin, went to the Conservative party conference in October 2003 promising that all asylum seekers arriving in Britain would be immediately deported to a "far-offshore processing" island. Letwin told the conference in Blackpool: "We will replace the present asylum system, in its entirety, with a system of quotas for genuine refugees and the offshore processing of all claims, to deter all but genuine claims for protection from persecution."

And he made clear that under this policy all asylum seekers who reached Britain would find the door closed firmly in their faces. "There will be no applications in the United Kingdom," he said.

Asylum welfare groups reacted to the plan with horror ,and there followed an instant chorus of disapproval on human rights grounds. The Refugee Council said it was "unlawful, inhumane and ridiculous". Its deputy chief executive, Margaret Lally, said: "The UK is committed under international law to providing a safe haven for those fleeing persecution." Others compared the policy to plans more associated with wartime emergencies

But the Tory idea turned out to be half-baked when Letwin admitted that he did not "have the slightest idea" where the island would be.
UK offshore detention proposal could create 'human rights disaster', Australian experts warn
However, it is the immigration policy of a former British colony that has given new life to the current home secretary's offshoring designs. Asylum seekers stopped in boats in Australian waters are held in facilities on the offshore islands of Nauru and Manus Island under a policy called Operation Sovereign Borders. There is another one, on Christmas Island. The government seems to believe that if this can work for Australia, there is no reason to stop Britain doing the same.

But these notorious facilities have been a source of much controversy during their time of operation. There have been a number of riots and escapes, as well as accusations of human rights abuses from organisations including Amnesty International, the Australian Human Rights and Equal Opportunity Commission, Human Rights Watch and the United Nations.

The British government's reliance on the Australian "solution" to a refugee crisis risks once again dangerously muddling refugees' rights with those of people convicted of criminal offences. This is a slippery constitutional slope that could cast us adrift from well-established international law. Instead of adopting humane policies for the processing of asylum seekers, the government seems keen to create legal black holes for people who have the right to a fair hearing on British soil.

* Robert Verkaik is an author and journalist specialising in extremism and education
Topics

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British plans to 'offshore' asylum seekers have a long and grubby history | Robert Verkaik

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he home secretary, Priti Patel, has reportedly been exploring a range of outlandish plans for sending refugees who arrive on British shores to very faraway places. The week began with a Whitehall leak that revealed officials had been asked to consider setting up an immigration centre on Ascension Island, over 4,000 miles away in the South Atlantic.

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Ticktin's (2006) article drew on the idea of commonality in illness. I found this an interesting contrast to this article (and others like it) where families were deported from Australia if a member had an illness or disability which could be considered a strain on their medical system. I think this shows the varying attitude towards migrants, but also how ideas about national identity can influence how others are treated. In this case, people's identities are only valued as contributors to the country. Whereas in the French example it is the opposite- they are the subjects of charity and can stay as long as they fit into the image of a vulnerable migrant- relatable as bodies rather than people. Selectivity in both cases depends on an idealised image of migrant people, and failure to fit into this makes them vulnerable. Here, the mother arguing the case is clearly aware of these expectations and is emphasising that he does not take much space, he is doing well at school - they are worthy by the framework given to them.

I picked this case because of the way it is framed, it is written to appeal to our better nature and take pity (or become outraged) by this families deportation based on disability.

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A Bhutanese family who have lived and worked in Australia since 2012 are appealing to the immigration minister to give them permanent residency after it was refused because their deaf son would be a "cost" to the taxpayer.

The Wangchuk family live in Queanbeyan, in New South Wales, and are facing deportation this month unless the immigration minister, David Coleman, uses his discretion to grant them visas.

The family came to Australia in 2012 so the mother, Jangchu, could study in Melbourne, after which they moved to NSW.

In March the administrative appeals tribunal upheld a decision not to give the family permanent residency visas.

The tribunal member, Jennifer Cripps Watts, found the family did not pass the public interest requirement of the visa process, which stipulates the applicant be free of a disease or condition which would likely require healthcare or community services which would likely "result in a significant cost to the Australian community in the areas of healthcare and community services".

"I know my son is deaf, but it's not that he's going to incur a huge amount of spending of taxpayers' money," Jangchu Wangchuk told Guardian Australia.

"He's just deaf and uses a hearing aid and he never has any ongoing treatment or medication or anything. My husband and I are working so hard, and we are paying taxes. We have a very stable jobs and we love our jobs.

"He just goes for a yearly hearing test, that's it. It's not that someone has to take care of him, he's quite independent, I don't have to do anything for him."

David Randall, a retired teacher from Melbourne, first came across the family when he was a teacher for the deaf at Kinley's school, and has been advocating for them to stay in the country.

Randall, who started a petition to garner community support for the family, said when their bridging visas runs out this month the family won't be allowed to work for the period Coleman is considering their application.

Kinley and his 17-year-old brother Tenzin are both in high school, and Jangchu works in childcare while their father Tshering recently began full-time work in aged care.

"They're both trained nurses but their qualifications aren't recognised here," said Randall.

"They're employed under one of the work-sponsored visa categories but part of that in terms of the residency component is that they all have to pass the health requirements."

The tribunal hearing in March heard Kinley's condition was likely permanent and would probably require both state and commonwealth disability services.

Watts said she had heard evidence that the family and its supporters believed the state costs of caring for Kinley would be "minimal" and that he had shown success at school since arriving in Australia.

"The applicant said that when they lived in Bhutan Kinley did not communicate effectively and now he does, by signing and in other ways as well," she said.

However Watts said under the requirements of the act she had to uphold the decision to refuse their applications. She also decided against making a specific recommendation to refer the case to the minister for intervention.

Randall said the family had been contributing taxpayers while in Australia, and would be able to support Kinley.

"Kinley arrived essentially without education and is quite language disabled," he said.

"No one who meets Kinley sees him as a burden. They see him as a contributing member of the population. He's just that sort of young man. He's cooperative, keen to learn, friendly, sharing and caring. They just make wonderful citizens."

More than 28,000 people have signed a change.org petition calling for minister Coleman to intervene in the Wangchuk's case and grant them visas.

"Everyone knows we're going through such a difficult time but all this support, it makes it a little bit easier for us to bear," said Jangchu Wangchuk.

"People are so supportive and I think they understand our story ... Some organisations are even doing a rally tomorrow to help us. We don't know any of these people but they are very good people."

The midday rally, calling for the government not to deport the family, will be in front of Parliament House in Canberra.

A spokesman for the department said the health requirement was not condition-specific and was an objective assessment which affected all members of a family group even if only one person failed it.

"Ministerial intervention is not an extension of the visa process," the spokesman said.

"A person is able to request intervention, however the minister cannot be compelled to exercise his powers and he is not required to explain his decisions on any case. What is or is not in the public interest is entirely a matter for the minister considering each case on its own merits."

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Family face deportation from Australia because deaf son deemed taxpayer 'burden'

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A Bhutanese family who have lived and worked in Australia since 2012 are appealing to the immigration minister to give them permanent residency after it was refused because their deaf son would be a "cost" to the taxpayer.

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This poem portrays the anger and betrayal felt by the people involved in the Windrush Scandal. It talks in terms of 'you' and 'us', which is powerful because this shows the division that is created by denying citizenship to your own people. It situates the scandal within the stigmatization felt by black British in everyday life- "what to do with these darkies? The sarcastic tone of the poem is indicative of the feeling of division, a tone we've got used to, a mocking of the racism so thinly veiled in Britain. But it communicates the pain too, of losing a family member in a place where belonging is delegated by the colour of your skin.

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So, after slavery, colonialism, two world wars,

teddy-boys, skinheads, rivers of blood speech,

neo-nazis, thatcher, 3 kids, 5 grandkids, a cosy

council house, 20 floors up, a small pension,

now you want to send me home. Oh Woooow!

Even the sandwich van outside the station

selling jerked chicken sandwiches, yet you claim

not to know how they got here. Oh Wooowow!

I can buy beef patties at a literary festival in Yorkshire.

Truth is you were always planning my departure,

from the moment I walked down the gangplank,

freestyling "London is the Place for Me".

I notice you wasn't clapping...or smiling.

Can't help thinking this has always been the plan.

In the long game, we've drawn the short jab.

We could hear it in the whispers, even as we

squared your bedsheets and delivered your

blue, veiny kids on the ward. As soon as the labour's

done we could hear as we turned our backs:

Darkie! Sambo! You must think we're dumb.

Are we dumb? From the slaveships to world wars,

to the underground and the hospitals, it's always

been about the labour, never about the living.

Cheap muscles and blood to build you an empire.

It has never been about our living, never about

our tambourine church, our Christmas rum cake,

the audio-science of soundsystems. Our relationship

has never been more than strained at best.

Every second street name is a shout out to my captors.

This one going out to the Wilberforces, who whipped

a little less than the Beckfords. These are the streets

we walk through. We need some black plaques

on these buildings, godammit. Here lived

Florence Scarborough between 1960 and 2005

and, boy, she took nooooooooo shit. My gran said,
Let Enoch Powell come to Brixton, talking that river of blood shit to her face, and he'd be
tasting a river of salty blood in his mouth.

To this day her grandchildren still bring

that rage to the page. So the unspoken question

remains: What to do with these darkies

after we've wrung them out...AHA. Warm up

them planes, boys, we are returning a cargo called

Windrush generation. What do you mean my dad

can't return from his holiday? The burden of proof

is on us? Again? Think legality and lineage

at the very least. Get the grand kids into a jail or two,

or better yet kill them... in the street, on cctv,

and cellphones, it doesn't matter. It's fine, they think.

These people are an easy target. They do not organise,

centralise or come as one; they've got no major

media outlets, or effective representation in government.

We can send them back for months without

this thing breaking. I smell subterfuge and sleight of hand.

These people keep meticulous records of everything,

even their genocidal imperatives. Hell, I could go

online right now and check on the height, weight,

condition and price of the slaves you brought

and sold in your family, yet our records (poof!)

disappeared. How can you be banished

from your own home? Congratulations.

You fooled us. Render your work, not your lives.

This seems like the newest answer to an old question.

Cheap muscle and blood to build you an Empire -

that we can't stay in. Gran's gone missing from

Saturday morning. Brixton Market? No one is frowning at

the quality of the yams, or asking how the snapper's

eye so cloudy. There'll be no Saturday soup tonight.

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So, after slavery, colonialism, two world wars, teddy-boys, skinheads, rivers of blood speech, neo-nazis, thatcher, 3 kids, 5 grandkids, a cosy council house, 20 floors up, a small pension, now you want to send me home. Oh Woooow! Even the...

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What is punishment for? Who does the law protect? This documentary explores how sex offenders are treated in America and the emotion that is connected to their punishment. Dooley questions whether the way people are prosecuted is a way to protect children, or rather an emotional response to a horrible thought (ill-considered in reality). A striking interview with a father and daughter who fight to increase the persecution of sex offenders shows the emotion that is behind the construction of laws to protect children- particularly the children of those with authority, money or power. The effects of this system of emotional lawmaking have problems in practice, it doesn't eradicate the crime, and it fails to deal with people who commit it properly.

Sex offenders are dealt with by public persecution (like warning signs on their lawn), and by distancing. The problem seems to be that this protects some children and not others. Sex offenders are forced to live on the street, which poses different public safety dangers. They are also made to live in a closed-off community away from schools-- but surprisingly are still allowed to be in contact with children. This calls into question which children are being protected here.

Variations on this crime are punished with equal power, so men who have abused young children live and are punished alongside young men who have, for example, dated girls a few years younger than them. This method fails to hold people accountable for their actions, and more importantly, fails to show people what they have done wrong- it doesn't seem so bad compared to this other guy. The extreme response to smaller offences means that people are unlikely to seek help or change, and more likely to find ways to hide their behaviour in a way that makes it unprovable.

Shifting to a medical narrative for people who commit crimes like these is interesting because it seems to propose an approach that is less persecutory and therefore, less emotionally triggered.

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Stacey Dooley Investigates - Second Chance Sex Offenders

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In Florida Stacey investigates whether sex offenders ever deserve a second chance.

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Molly Crabapple's video illustrations represent the discussions around this week fantastically. For instance, 'the zo'  narrated by Michael K. Williams, draws on the double standard for prisoners and police, where criminality is a social role rather than a result of behaviour. It also goes towards questioning: what is punishment for? The psychological abuse experienced in these stories relates to the purpose of punishment as a place of emotion, rather than a socially purposeful institution. The illustration of how police and state treat sex workers alludes to the problem of what we consider crimes. Moral lawmaking directed at vulnerable individuals is a mode of forcing uniformity. It highlights where the power lies. Sex work becomes an issue of female morality in a way that puts everybody involved at serious risk. I am sickened by the fact that male police officers trap female sex workers by having sex with them,  and I wonder what this has to do with justice?

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Reconstruction in America

Illustration of EJI's report, Reconstruction in America ( http://eji.org/reconstruction). The report documents nearly 2,000 more confirmed racial terror lynchings of Black people by white mobs in America than previously detailed, bringing the total number of confirmed lynchings to 6,500 with thousands more that may never be documented. The report examines the 12 years following the Civil War when lawlessness and violence perpetrated by white leaders created an American future of racial hierarchy, white supremacy, and Jim Crow laws-an era from which our nation has yet to recover.

Illustrated by Molly Crabapple, Narrated by Tera DuVernay, Directed and produced by Kim Boekbinder and Jim Batt

Everyone Loves Someone Who Had An Abortion

Access to reproductive healthcare, including abortion, largely depends on where you live and how much money you have. But abortion funds are taking the hassle, hustle, and harassment out of healthcare by helping people all across our network access and fund abortions .

Illustrated by Molly Crabapple, Narrated by Padma Lakshmi, Directed and produced by Kim Boekbinder and Jim Batt

The Zo, Episode 3, "Retaliation"

In The Zo, prisoners often face retaliation from prison administrators when they file grievances about ever-changing regulations or misconduct they uncover through their documentation. Our final installment explores how,even though administrators encourage incarcerated people to file these grievance forms, those who do are frequently punished for bearing witness with transfers, solitary confinement, or harassment by prison guards.

Narrated by Michael K. Williams, Illustrated by Molly Crabapple for The Marshal Project. A Sharp as Knives production

The Zo, Episode 2, "Adaptation"
When you're incarcerated, how do you fight The Zo? The second part of our series covers the tiny concrete details and routines you cling to when prison rules and regulations shake their grip on reality.
Narrated by Michael K. Williams, Illustrated by Molly Crabapple for The Marshal Project. A Sharp as Knives production

The Zo, Episode 1, "Induction"
Step into The Zo-a term coined by one prisoner who felt being in prison was like living in 'The Twilight Zone.' The Zo is not a place you can point to or a system you can fight. It's the result of quixotic, arbitrary moves by prison wardens and staff that incarcerated people can rarely prove or defend themselves against. Our first episode, "Induction," shows how prison guards and administrators use deliberate bureaucratic paradoxes to make you question your grip on reality and your sense of self.
Narrated by Michael K. Williams, Illustrated by Molly Crabapple for The Marshal Project. A Sharp as Knives production

Life at the Fenceline
There are over 12,000 high-risk chemical facilities in America - and roughly 40% of U.S. residents live within three miles of them. We teamed up with Rashida Jones, Molly Crabapple and https://comingcleaninc.org/ to tell the stories of these vulnerable communities - disproportionately black and Latino - that live every day with the threat of chemical leaks, spills, and explosions that threaten families' health, their livelihoods, and ultimately, their lives. Learn more: https://on.nrdc.org/2Via8ZA
Narrated by Rashida Jones, Illustrated by Molly Crabapple, Directed by Jim Batt and Kim Boekbinder

A Message From the Future with Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez
What if we actually pulled off a Green New Deal? What would the future look like?
Narrated by Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez​
Illustrated by Molly Crabapple
Co-directed by Kim Boekbinder​ and Jim Batt
Music/sounds by Kim Boekbinder
Written by Avi Lewis and AOC
Produced by Naomi Klien​ and The Intercept​

The Truth About the Money Bail Industry
Between 1990 and 2009, the percentage of people charged with felonies rose, and those who were required to pay money bail for their release increased by 65%. By design the number of people jailed without even being convicted skyrocketed. These are people who deserve to be free but have had their lives ruined by jail even when their cases were dismissed or they won.
Narration by John Legend. Directed and produced by Kim Boekbinder and Jim Batt. Illustrated by Molly Crabapple.

The Chainsmokers: Somebody
Animated music video for the Chainsmokers' song 'Somebody'
Directed and produced by Kim Boekbinder and Jim Batt. Illustrated by Molly Crabapple.

We are America. Immigrants are us.
A year after a U.S. election marred by divisive rhetoric, thousands of families have been torn apart and millions are living in fear because of cruel and ineffective immigration policies. Every day, people who call the United States home - including the parents and spouses of U.S. citizens, tax-paying employees, and respected community members - are arrested, locked up, and deported, under laws that treat their deep and longstanding ties to this country as a thing of no consequence.
Full accompanying article here on Huffington Post.

Narration by Samantha Bee. Directed and produced by Kim Boekbinder and Jim Batt. Illustrated by Molly Crabapple.

Time Marches Forward and So Do We

Only 18 states explicitly and comprehensively protect trans people from discrimination. Many other state lawmakers are focused on targeting us for more discrimination. In 2017, lawmakers in 22 states introduced more than 50 bills restricting the rights of trans people.Even as these lawmakers signal that we are not worthy of protection, we persevere. Most of us have already spent years in dark places wrestling with our truths, feeling ashamed of who we are. But when we manage to survive, and even to love ourselves, we are stronger than ever. Try as they might, these lawmakers cannot erase us. Our rights will be hard won, but we are winning.
More info at TIME.Com: http://time.com/4894647/trans-transgender-rights-video/

Narration by Laverne Cox. Directed by Kim Boekbinder and Jim Batt. Drawn by Molly Crabapple.

The War on Drugs is 'Epic Fail'

This short film, narrated by Jay Z... is part history lesson about the war on drugs and part vision statement. As Ms. Crabapple's haunting images flash by, the film takes us from the Nixon administration and the Rockefeller drug laws - the draconian 1973 statutes enacted in New York that exploded the state's prison population and ushered in a period of similar sentencing schemes for other states - through the extraordinary growth in our nation's prison population to the emerging aboveground marijuana market of today. We learn how African-Americans can make up around 13 percent of the United States population - yet 31 percent of those arrested for drug law violations, even though they use and sell drugs at the same rate as whites. -New York Times 09/15/2016
Full article available here: http://www.nytimes.com/2016/09/15/opinion/jay-z-the-war-on-drugs-is-an-epic-fail.html?_r=0

Narration by Jay-Z. Direction and audio design by Kim Boekbinder and Animation by Jim Batt. Produced by Dream Hampton and Revolve Impact.

Slavery to Mass Incarceration

The elaborate mythology of racial difference created to sustain American slavery persists today. Slavery did not end in 1865, it evolved. #SlaveryEvolved
The legacy of slavery can be seen in the presumption of guilt and dangerousness assigned to African Americans, especially young men and boys, the racial profiling and mistreatment that presumption creates, and the racial dynamics of mass incarceration.
EJI's Race and Poverty project explores racial history and attempts to deepen our understanding of the legacy of racial injustice. By telling the truth about our past, EJI believes we can create a different, healthier discourse about race in America.
More information here: http://www.eji.org/raceandpoverty

Narration by Bryan Stevenson. Script by Bryan Stevenson and Kim Boekbinder. Directed by Jim Batt. Sound design by Kim Boekbinder. Shot by Burke Heffner.

Locking up Immig rants for Profit

The United States puts immigrants behind bars every day. Though the vast majority of these immigrants are not criminals, they are kept in conditions as brutal as those for any other prisoner. Congress requires Immigration and Customs Enforcement, also called ICE, to keep 34,000 immigrants behind bars each day in order to keep its funding. But, out of the 350 facilities it uses to incarcerate these immigrants, only 8 are owned and operated by ICE itself. For the rest, ICE pays between $122-$200 per person, per night, to for-profit corporations and local jails. Politicians love to bray that 'illegal aliens' are bleeding America. But the real leeches are the private prison companies who rake in billions in taxpayer money to ruin immigrants' lives - including those with the legal papers to live and work in the US..

Animation by Jim Batt. Sound design by Kim Boekbinder. Shot by Burke Heffner.

How Police Profile and Shame Sex Workers

In May 2013, Monica Jones, a student and LGBT activist at Arizona State University, was arrested for "manifesting prostitution." Monica said she just accepted an undercover officer's offer of a ride home from her favorite bar. Monica is among the tens of thousands of people arrested every year for prostitution-related offenses. According to the FBI, police arrested over 57,000 people on such charges in 2011. The vast majority were women.

Animation by Jim Batt. Sound design by Kim Boekbinder. Shot by Burke Heffner.

Solitary Confinement

As of 2013, there were 80,000 men and women in solitary confinement in the United States, some of them as young as 14 years old. In this illustrated op-ed video, artist Molly Crabapple explains the psychological and physical trauma suffered by those forced to spend 22-24 hours a day alone - sometimes for arbitrary reasons, like reading the wrong book, or having the wrong tattoo - in a grey, concrete box. (According to the U.N. 15 days in solitary is torture.) "There is no limit to how long someone can be held in solitary confinement," says Crabapple. "And very little evidence is needed to justify holding a person in solitary indefinitely."

Broken Windows

Last summer, a New York city police officer choked a black grandfather named Eric Garner to death. Garner was suspected of selling loose cigarettes. The arrests of people like Garner are part of a controversial policing tactic called Broken Windows. Broken Windows claims to prevent large crimes by cracking down on small ones. But it's really about controlling and punishing communities of color, through police encounters that can sometimes be deadly.

Written, illustrated, & narrated by Molly Crabapple. Directed by Jim Batt. Sound design by Kim Boekbinder. Shot by Keith Jenson.

How Ferguson Showed Us the Truth about Police

This is a short by animator Jim Batt and Molly Crabapple, explaining the events in Ferguson, and the events brought to light outside the city, since the shooting of Mike Brown.

I Have Your Heart

A Short Film by Crabapple, Boekbinder and Batt
A stop motion, paper puppet animation about love, loss and open-heart surgery.
Directed by Jim Batt. Art by Molly Crabapple. Music by Kim Boekbinder.

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Reconstruction in America Illustration of EJI's report, Reconstruction in America (http://eji.org/reconstruction). The report documents nearly 2,000 more confirmed racial terror lynchings of Black people by white mobs in America than previously detailed, bringing the total number of confirmed lynchings to 6,500 with thousands more that may never be documented.

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Vitale's book strongly criticises the heavy reliance on policing as a form of social management. The presence of a military mindset built into the policing system is poorly transferred to issues like protection of sex workers, management of young people in schools and housing disparities. He is repeatedly insistent: the police are not here to protect you; punishment is a method of sustaining inequalities.

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This documentary (available on 4od) looks at a weekend prison camp for children to try show them what happens if they misbehave. These kids are treated like dirt for crimes the adults in their lives assume they will one day commit. It's the impact of the 'breaking windows' theory, and it raises questions about what the police are for. In this situation, parents blame their kids for being 'bad', police blame parents for poor skills, and the presenter is taken aback by the whole situation.

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On an all-new episode of VICELAND's HATE THY NEIGHBOR, comedian Jamali Maddix treks to South Carolina for an inside look at a controversial reform program for kids with a habit of getting in trouble, designed to scare them into cleaning up their acts. The cops behind " Project STORM" force their campers to experience prison life for a grueling 72 hours, introducing them to inmates, putting them through brutal drills, and screaming at them every time they get out of line.

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On an all-new episode of VICELAND's HATE THY NEIGHBOR , comedian Jamali Maddix treks to South Carolina for an inside look at a controversial reform program for kids with a habit of getting in trouble, designed to scare them into cleaning up their acts.