SOCY 240 / Week #8 by Gregory Woolston https://padlet.com/gwoolsto/llslg49humsj9afo Blues Geographies and Ways of Knowing en-us 2021-11-11 19:21:59 UTC 2026-02-25 06:07:24 UTC hello@padlet.com Woods --> Les Misérables of New Orleans https://padlet.com/gwoolsto/llslg49humsj9afo/wish/1895353807 "One of several hundred thousand Louisiana workers unemployed by the disaster, former shrimp factory worker Brenda Thompson, was denied work after being told the firm was “not hiring those looters from New Orleans.” Former construction worker Malcolm Tibb’s experience was similar. “I been trying to find work. They look over the people who were born and raised here.” The Advancement Project documented the experiences of several other Black workers: A Black public public works employee put it bluntly, “They are trying to do ethnic cleansing here.” Another Black city worker could barely contain his anger: “Why are you writing down what I’m saying? Nobody’s going to care. We are getting chased out of the city. I have to watch my back" (pg. 780)]]> 2021-11-16 23:16:07 UTC https://padlet.com/gwoolsto/llslg49humsj9afo/wish/1895353807 Roane & Hosbey, "Mapping Black Ecologies" https://padlet.com/gwoolsto/llslg49humsj9afo/wish/1895356137 "As political scientist Michael Hanchard posits, “Black memory is often at odds with state memory.” Examining Black ecologies draws to light the environmental history sedimented in ongoing unequal exposure but also reveals insurgent visions of an environmental future free of the relations and geographies engendered by the racial capitalocene. These visions depart from mainstream environmental discourses that privilege conservation and preservation without critically analyzing the ways these conceptions maintain the dominant subject-object relations of mastery and draw directly on the history of imperial management. Instead, they draw on a more liberatory vision for freeing the land and the people available through our paradigm of Black ecologies."]]> 2021-11-16 23:18:11 UTC https://padlet.com/gwoolsto/llslg49humsj9afo/wish/1895356137 The portrayal of working-class African Americans and their communities as deviant and pathological is the product of a deviant and pathological strain deeply embedded in American thought. It is a sickness masquerading as science. It makes the creation of new social disasters seem logical and profitable while simultaneously encouraging the celebration of human misery. (Wood, p. 771) mncard1 https://padlet.com/gwoolsto/llslg49humsj9afo/wish/1895359949 2021-11-16 23:21:32 UTC https://padlet.com/gwoolsto/llslg49humsj9afo/wish/1895359949 "The hurricane had hit the inner city before Katrina ever got here ....There was no real attempt to address poverty. Their answer was to lock everybody up, put them in jail, and claim the problems were not systemic."-Malik Raheem pg. 788 https://padlet.com/gwoolsto/llslg49humsj9afo/wish/1895363001 2021-11-16 23:23:38 UTC https://padlet.com/gwoolsto/llslg49humsj9afo/wish/1895363001 "Mapping Black Ecologies" (Roane & Hosbey) https://padlet.com/gwoolsto/llslg49humsj9afo/wish/1895372635 "Often prevented from participating in the production of state recognized cartographic and ecological knowledge due to the political economy of knowledge production in an anti-Black world, this wide-ranging set of sources shows the capaciousness of Black culture, thought, and social life for producing trenchant analyses and critiques of the continuities in the devastation and the possibilities shaping Black living. We argue that these Black counter-cartographies are spatial tactics of resistance. These “people’s geographies” refuse statist claims of irredeemable low income and working-class Black Southern communities that can acceptably be allowed to face the brunt of ecological vulnerability in the United States.” 

]]> 2021-11-16 23:31:34 UTC https://padlet.com/gwoolsto/llslg49humsj9afo/wish/1895372635 gwoolsto https://padlet.com/gwoolsto/llslg49humsj9afo/wish/1895402701 2021-11-16 23:56:13 UTC https://padlet.com/gwoolsto/llslg49humsj9afo/wish/1895402701 "Trapped" Tupac Shakur https://padlet.com/gwoolsto/llslg49humsj9afo/wish/1895403582 https://open.spotify.com/track/1SIwEtA6vOapGw7fA7T9Gy?si=7aee684819e4424e

Lyrics (from genius.com)

[Verse 1: 2Pac]
You know they got me trapped in this prison of seclusion
Happiness, living on the streets is a delusion
Even a smooth criminal one day must get caught
Shot up or shot down with the bullet that he bought
Nine-millimeter kickin' thinkin' about what the streets do to me
'Cause they never taught peace in the Black community
All we know is violence, do the job in silence
Walk the city streets like a rat pack of tyrants
Too many brothers daily headed for the big pen'
Niggas comin' out worse-off than when they went in
Over the years I've done a lot of growin' up
Gettin' drunk, throwin' up, cuffed up, then I said I had enough
There must be another route, way out to money and fame
I changed my name, played a different game
Tired of being trapped in this vicious cycle
If one more cop harasses me, I just might go psycho
And when I get 'em, I'll hit 'em with the bum rush
Only a lunatic would like to see a skull crushed
Yo, if you're smart you'll really let me go, G
But keep me cooped up in this ghetto and catch the Uzi

[Chorus: 2Pac & Shock G]
They got me trapped
Uh-uh, they can't keep the Black man down
They got me trapped
Nah, they can't keep the Black man down
Trapped
Uh-uh, they can't keep the Black man down
Trapped
Nah, they can't keep the Black man down
[Verse 2: 2Pac]
They got me trapped, can barely walk the city streets
Without a cop harasskin' me, searching me, then askin' my identity
Hands up, throw me up against the wall, didn't do a thing at all
I'm telling you one day these suckers gotta fall
Cuffed up, throw me on the concrete
Coppers try to kill me, but they didn't know this was the wrong street
Bang bang, count another casualty
But it's a cop who's shot for his brutality
Who do you blame? It's a shame because the man's slain
He got caught in the chains of his own game
How can I feel guilty after all the things they did to me?
Sweated me, hunted me, trapped in my own community
One day I'm gonna bust, blow up on this society
Why did you lie to me? I couldn't find a trace of equality
Worked me like a slave while they laid back
Homie don't play that, it's time I let 'em suffer the payback
I'm tryin' to avoid physical contact
I can't hold back, it's time to attack, Jack

[Chorus: 2Pac & Shock G]
They got me trapped
Uh-uh, they can't keep the Black man down
You know they got me trapped
Nah, they can't keep the Black man down
Trapped
Uh-uh, they can't keep the Black man down
They got me trapped
Nah, they can't keep the Black man down
[Verse 3: 2Pac]
Now I'm trapped and walkin' for my getaway
All I need is a G and somewhere safe to stay
Can't use the phone 'cause I'm sure someone's tapping in
Did it before, ain't scared to use my gat again
I look back in hindsight, the fight was irrelevant
But now he's the Devil's friend, too late to be tellin' him
He shot first and I'll be damned if I run away
Homie is done away, I should've put my gun away
I wasn't thinkin', all I heard was the ridicule
Girlies was laughin', Tup saying, "Damn, homie's dissin' you"
Fired my weapon, started steppin' in the hurricane
I got shot, so I dropped feelin' a burst of pain
Got to my feet, couldn't see nothin' but bloody blood
Now I'm a fugitive to be hunted like a murderer
Ran through an alley, still lookin' for my getaway
Copper say, "Freeze, or you'll be dead today"
Trapped in a corner, dark and I couldn't see the light
Thoughts in my mind was the nine and a better life
What do I do? Live my life in a prison cell?
I'd rather die than be trapped in a living Hell

[Chorus: 2Pac & Shock G]
They got me trapped
Uh-uh, they can't keep the Black man down
They got me trapped
Nah, they can't keep the Black man down
Trapped
Uh-uh, they can't keep the Black man down
You know they got me trapped
Nah, they can't keep the Black man down
[Outro]
Trapped
Yo, y'all seen 2Pac, man? Y'all seen 2Pac, man?
There he go! Ayy 'Pac, ayy,
rollers out here, Pac, we gon' bail
Let's go, man...
]]> 2021-11-16 23:56:50 UTC https://padlet.com/gwoolsto/llslg49humsj9afo/wish/1895403582 gwoolsto https://padlet.com/gwoolsto/llslg49humsj9afo/wish/1895403849 2021-11-16 23:57:01 UTC https://padlet.com/gwoolsto/llslg49humsj9afo/wish/1895403849 https://padlet.com/gwoolsto/llslg49humsj9afo/wish/1895410189 There's a devil in my soul, and I'm full of bad booze, I'm out here for trouble. I've got the Black Mountain Blues." -Bessie Smith, Black Mountain Blues (1930)]]> 2021-11-17 00:01:20 UTC https://padlet.com/gwoolsto/llslg49humsj9afo/wish/1895410189 "Not all assets are visible and not all assets can be stripped. New Orleans is the birthplace of many tragedies. It is also home to many miracles. Despite the worst of intentions, assist stripping policies of the past have often brought fort miraculous transformations." (Woods 2009, pg. 792) https://padlet.com/gwoolsto/llslg49humsj9afo/wish/1895413896 2021-11-17 00:03:35 UTC https://padlet.com/gwoolsto/llslg49humsj9afo/wish/1895413896 Letter to the Free - Common ft. Bilal (from the documentary "13th" on Netflix) https://padlet.com/gwoolsto/llslg49humsj9afo/wish/1895416804 https://youtu.be/KO7tVuPHOxA]]> 2021-11-17 00:05:27 UTC https://padlet.com/gwoolsto/llslg49humsj9afo/wish/1895416804 https://padlet.com/gwoolsto/llslg49humsj9afo/wish/1895417642 2021-11-17 00:05:53 UTC https://padlet.com/gwoolsto/llslg49humsj9afo/wish/1895417642