To what extent do I care what the biblical writers meant?

A person's hands writing on a scroll. Image source.

I recently read "Genesis for Normal People", which discusses the biblical book of Genesis in terms of what the ancient writer meant to say. Reading it "with ancient eyes," not bringing our modern ideas into it. And, in particular, this means reading the bible without the assumption that it's true, and without the assumption that it has meaningful moral lessons to teach us. ("Genesis for Normal People" doesn't state this so explicitly; this is *my* summary of it.)

It's *just* about what the writer meant, and how the ancient readers would have understood it. (I'm sure the authors of "Genesis for Normal People," Enns and Byas, have opinions on the connection between the bible and truth/morality, but this book didn't get into that.)

Which leads me to ask the question: To what extent do *I* care what the biblical writers meant?

Evangelicals are SO INTO figuring out what the bible originally meant, to its original audience. Because, in their ideology, the bible is inerrant- meaning, whatever the writer originally intended it to mean is inerrant. (I discussed this at length in my 2017 post, "The Author of Leviticus Would Have Been Cool With It" - how can you separate the literal words of the text from the author's meaning? And how can you separate the author's meaning from the author's underlying beliefs and assumptions? And how can you separate the author's beliefs and assumptions concerning what they wrote in the bible, from their beliefs and assumptions about EVERYTHING, many of which must be completely wrong, because all of us have some beliefs which are completely wrong? And how can you claim that the literal words of the text, and/or the author's intended meaning, are inerrant, without also claiming all of the author's biases about everything are inerrant? I think about these things because I can speak Chinese- language is a rolling ocean, not an absolute solid ground. It's the words themselves but it's also an entire society's experiences with those words. Communication is not just about the words, but about having shared background assumptions. How do you say "cookie" in Chinese? Well, a dictionary will tell you it's 饼干 [or maybe 甜饼 or 曲奇, honestly 甜饼 probably gets my point across the best, in terms of what I imagine when I think of a cookie, and what I want to communicate to people about it; and 曲奇 I think sounds a little silly because it's a transliteration, not something native to Chinese], but you need more than a dictionary- you need to know that most Chinese people don't really eat cookies. Also 饼干 usually means a cracker, which is completely different from a cookie, but Chinese people have a hard time grasping what the difference is. There are plenty of examples in the other direction too- I've met Chinese people who find it just UNBELIEVABLE that the English word for 米粉 is "rice noodles." Doesn't "noodles" mean 面条? [Well, no, not exactly. 面条 in Chinese does not mean the exact same thing as "noodles" in English; 面条 is *only* the noodles that are made from flour, not other kinds of starch like rice or potatoes.] 米粉 and 面条 are COMPLETELY DIFFERENT THINGS! But in my opinion, they're not really that different? This must be how Chinese people feel when I insist that cookies and crackers are COMPLETELY DIFFERENT THINGS. The layers: the words, and what the writer meant by those words, and what people normally think is meant by those words- how can you draw a line and say where the "inerrant" layer ends and the "just regular fallible human thoughts" layer begins?)

Where was I? Ah, yes, evangelicals are SO INTO figuring out what the biblical writers originally meant. Evangelicals are all about looking up Greek and Hebrew words, debating the merits of different English translations, looking up anecdotes about whatever was going on in their society back then, which the bible makes reference to, etc. We need to know what the biblical text originally meant, because that's what it means for us too. 

In evangelical ideology: Our English translations are not necessarily inerrant. Whatever you initially understand a particular bible verse to mean is not necessarily inerrant. But what it originally meant, that's what's inerrant. 

(Or rather, the average churchgoer might understand inerrancy to mean an English translation is inerrant, or that whatever mental image they had while reading is inerrant- but if you ask extremely pointed questions about what inerrancy means exactly, the official answer is this "only what the author originally meant was inerrant" idea.)

And "Genesis for Normal People" is all about what the biblical writers originally meant, but in a way that's obviously off-limits for evangelicals. "Genesis for Normal People" gives examples where "what the biblical writers meant" was simply incorrect- for example, about the existence of the firmament. Like, yes, they really were writing about the firmament. And no, the firmament does not really exist. So they were wrong. But if you're a good evangelical, you can't even imagine the idea that the biblical writers would have been talking about something that clearly (we know thanks to modern science) doesn't exist. The belief in inerrancy blocks you from actually understanding what the text originally meant.

As for me, I'm not evangelical any more, and- okay I'll be blunt about this- wow it's so freeing to not have to obsess over the meanings of ancient Greek words in order to figure out if I'm allowed to treat gay people with basic decency. The bible is not in charge of me; I do *not* view it as an authority which teaches us morals. I care about "what the biblical writers meant" as a matter of intellectual curiosity, rather than an anxiety-fueled quest to determine the commands by which I should live my life. (See: It Doesn’t Actually Matter What Jesus Said About Divorce)

But reading "Genesis for Normal People," I'm wondering, wait, do I *actually* care what the bible originally meant, from an ancient near east perspective?

For example, the book discusses the Genesis flood story, in comparison with other flood stories from other ancient cultures. I'm interested to read that, but it's... it's just the way I'm interested to read cool facts about history. It's a different feeling from how driven I am in my love for the bible and for Jesus.

So I've come to this conclusion: As an ex-evangelical, I'm not *primarily* interested in the original meaning of the bible. What I'm actually interested in is the [white American] evangelical construct of what the bible is and what it means- and how I react to that and critique it.

You grow up in the evangelical church, you read the bible every day, you believe it's inerrant, you devote your life to the God you find in its pages- all of this will result in you having some kind of imagined concept of what the bible is. And even though that concept is more about evangelical culture than about what they were actually writing about thousands of years ago- even though it's very far from what the actual text of the bible originally meant- it's real, in a certain sense. It's a powerful cultural construct.

And when I talk about the bible, I want to talk about it in terms of a reaction to that cultural construct. Which has had a much greater effect on me than "what the writer meant."

For example- I wrote a bunch of blog posts about the book "Womanist Midrash", because that book is about examining the characters in the bible from a womanist/feminist perspective. The reason I was so interested in it was that I know all these characters. I know them, I know them very well, I've been reading these stories my whole life, but always through an evangelical lens, with a bunch of assumptions about what the bible is. I am so into the contrast between evangelical readings of these bible characters, and feminist readings.

And yes, "Womanist Midrash" is based on a lot of good research about language and culture and history- it *is* about "what the bible really meant back then." But what interests me specifically isn't "what the bible really meant" but the contrast between that view and the evangelical view.

And, as another example, when I write fanfiction about the bible, it's because I am Making A Point about evangelicalism. Sure, sometimes I might write it in a way that's like "here's what it was really like for these characters" but my point isn't simply "here's what it was really like" but "evangelicalism gets this completely wrong." And my Noah fanfic is full of modern American evangelical talking points about hell and salvation and what the gospel is- this is an intentional anachronism; my point was not that Noah really believed those things (because of course he didn't) but to use the Noah story to make a point about modern evangelical beliefs.

So I don't necessarily care what the bible really is/ really was to its writers. I care about what evangelicals say it is, and I react against that. And yes, learning about its history from an academic perspective, as we see in "Genesis for Normal People" is an aspect of that, but for me it's not the main thing.

Okay, so, next question: Is it a problem that I'm interested in the white American evangelical construct of the bible, rather than the actual bible?

Well... the white American evangelical construct of the bible is real, though. This imagined version of what the bible is- it's *not* actually what the bible is, but it's *real* in the sense that there's a whole culture and ideology surrounding it, and that culture and ideology has had a big effect on my life. 

It's like... "The Lion King" is based on "Hamlet", but "The Lion King" is worth analyzing and enjoying in and of itself, even if you don't care about its connection to "Hamlet." Plus "Hamlet" didn't have all those great songs. Can you imagine if people were walking around saying "it doesn't matter what you think about 'The Lion King,' it doesn't matter if you like the songs or whatever, it's just an imperfect retelling of 'Hamlet', that's all." No, it's more than that.

And this evangelical ideology, with its biblical inerrancy and all the beliefs that come with that- this is where I first loved the bible, and where I first loved Jesus. This is what the bible meant to me, for many years- so of course I have things to say about that, more so than I have things to say about the fact that there are similarities between Noah's flood and the epic of Gilgamesh, or any other point that biblical scholars present about what the bible really is.

So I do want to read more about actual academic scholarship on the bible, but that's not necessarily the main point for me.

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Posts about "Genesis for Normal People":

"Genesis for Normal People": Separating "what the writer meant" from "what is true" and "what it means for us"
God Made the Firmament
When the Bible is Racist
To what extent do I care what the biblical writers meant?

Related:

The Bible and the Pixar Theory

Figuring Out What I Believe About "The Prince of Egypt" 

"Text, Image, & Otherness in Children's Bibles" (I LOVE THIS BOOK SO MUCH)

Blogaround

Links not related to the antichrist:

1. SCOTUS Allows For Trans Discrimination In Medical Care: A Full Analysis Of Today's Ruling (June 18) "The ruling effectively greenlights medical care bans across the country and may pave the way for broader restrictions, including for adults, while leaving lower court rulings on bathrooms, schools, sports, and employment remain intact—for now."

Really not good for trans kids. We have to keep doing what we can to support them.

And from Law Dork: Where is the outrage over Skrmetti? (June 20) "In its U.S. v. Skrmetti ruling, the Supreme Court’s Republican appointees shaved off the edges — if not more central parts — of the Fourteenth Amendment’s Equal Protection Clause in order to uphold laws that bar an exceptionally small number of teens from receiving a type of medical care that only one group of teens need."

The reasoning in this Supreme Court decision is about how the equal protection clause of the 14th amendment applies (or doesn't apply) to trans people. In her dissent, Justice Sotomayor draws comparisons with the Loving vs Virginia case, where the Supreme Court ruled that states could not ban interracial marriage. I guess in the Skrmetti case, the majority opinion said that both trans and cis children cannot get treatment for gender dysphoria, so it's not discrimination. And this is like how the argument to ban interracial marriage was that people of every race are equally not allowed to marry outside of their race, so it's not discrimination. And the Skrmetti decision is really opening the door to a skewed interpretation of the equal protection clause, which could lead to rights being eroded in so many other areas.

I'm literally in an interracial marriage, but I never thought about "hey my marriage is about the 14th amendment" or anything along those lines. Learning about Loving vs Virginia in high school, it felt like ancient history, like of course people can marry a partner of a different race, why would that be an issue, aren't we glad we don't have those racist laws like they did back then. When I got married, I didn't think about "some of my ancestors thought this shouldn't be legal" or anything like that- it never occurred to me that anyone would think there would be a legal issue. 

BUT ALSO I grew up evangelical and so back then I totally bought into all the anti-queer stuff, like we can't let gay people get married, we can't let trans people have rights, etc. We usually didn't talk about the details about how you turn that into an actual legal argument, but apparently one argument that was being used in court was "both straight and gay people aren't allowed to marry a same-sex partner, so it's not discrimination."

ANYWAY my point is, I should read more about the equal protection clause. It turns out to be related to a lot of things.

Also related to Skrmetti: After Getting The Ruling It Wanted, New York Times Publishes 6 Anti-Trans Articles (June 20) "In all, at least half a dozen articles have been published by the Times in the 24 hours following the ruling—ink still drying—spreading misinformation, shaming transgender people, and giving prominent space to voices that seek to strip us of our rights."

2. Baby of brain-dead Georgia woman on life support delivered via C-section (June 17) Not sure what to say about this- if I died and was pregnant, I would want them to continue the life support to save the baby. But the key thing is, it should be the family's choice. This case is horrific because it was forced on this family by faraway politicians and heartless laws.

3. The short history of global living conditions and why it matters that we know it (2016, via) "The result of a media — and education system — that fails to present quantitative information on long-run developments is that most people are very ignorant about global development and have little hope that progress against serious problems is even possible."

4. HIV prevention drug hailed as a 'breakthrough' gets FDA approval (June 18) 

5. The Meta AI App Lets You ‘Discover’ People’s Bizarrely Personal Chats (June 12, via) "It’s unclear whether the users of the app are aware that their conversations with Meta’s AI are public or which users are trolling the platform after news outlets began reporting on it. The conversations are not public by default; users have to choose to share them."

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Links related to the antichrist:

1. Federal Judge Grants Class Status To Trans People In Passport Case In Massive Win (June 18) "According to preliminary conversations with expert attorneys, whether transgender people should submit a passport update request immediately depends on their risk tolerance and individual circumstances. A motion to stay the ruling could come within days. Those most likely to benefit from applying immediately are individuals with incorrect gender markers, those seeking their first passport, or those with expired documents who need to travel soon. Expedited processing may increase the likelihood of receiving a passport before any potential appellate or Supreme Court intervention."

2. FULL SPEECH: Sen. Padilla speaks on Senate floor after removal from DHS press conference (June 18) 14-minute video. "If that is what the administration is willing to do to a United States senator for having the authority to simply ask a question, imagine what they'll do to any American who dares to speak up."

3. Trump administration cuts specialized suicide prevention service for LGBTQ+ youth (June 18) "'This is devastating, to say the least,' Jaymes Black, CEO of The Trevor Project, said in a statement. The Trevor Project is one of several nonprofits administering the services. 'The administration's decision to remove a bipartisan, evidence-based service that has effectively supported a high-risk group of young people through their darkest moments is incomprehensible.'"

So, now would be a good time to donate to The Trevor Project.

4. Trump administration actions contradict MAHA rhetoric on toxic chemicals (June 18) Oh, so it turns out, when RFK said we have to reduce the amount of toxic chemicals in the environment that are harmful to children, he didn't mean it like 'let's actually fund the scientists who are doing good work studying which chemicals are harmful.' He meant it like 'here are some words that we will use as an excuse to be mean to autistic children.'

5. The ABA Declares War (June 18, via) "The American Bar Association (ABA) just dropped a massive federal lawsuit against the White House. And it’s not messing around. The lead counsel filing suit on behalf of the ABA is Susman Godfrey, one of the firms Trump targeted. The complaint names the Office of the President, but for good measure, it also names each and every high level government department along with every cabinet official."

6. Federal immigration agents asked to leave Dodger Stadium parking lot, team says (June 20) "Dozens of federal agents with their faces covered arrived in SUVs and cargo vans to a lot near the stadium’s Gate E entrance. A group of protesters carrying signs against U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement started amassing shortly after, local media reported."

7. ‘Code Adam’ (June 19) "That video shows Villareal, wearing his blue Walmart vest, approaching the agents and asking them questions. That video shows the agents mobbing him, throwing him to the ground, and hauling him away."

"The Case for Open Borders": Climate Change

Hurricane. Image source.

Here's another quote from the book "The Case for Open Borders". This is from page 126:

The United States spent eleven times more militarizing its borders than on helping poorer countries mitigate the effects of climate change. Canada, the worst offender, spent fifteen times more on border enforcement. In effect, those countries, the report concludes, are trying to build a "climate wall" to keep the effects of climate change-- displaced people-- out. Mohamed Nasheed, former president of Maldives, a country that is literally being washed away by rising seas, had a message for Western countries, as reported by writer Suketu Mehta: "You can drastically reduce your greenhouse gas emissions so that the seas do not rise so much. Or when we show up on your shores in our boats, you can let us in. Or when we show up on your shores in our boats, you can shoot us. You pick."

Opening borders, it bears repeating, is not the solution to our climate crises, but it will help mitigate some of their worst effects. Opening borders will also prompt a reevaluation of the extractive/exploitative capitalist regime that is driving the hyper-carbonization of the atmosphere, the acidification of the oceans, the kindling of the rainforests, and the general trashing of ecosystems. Ruling regimes rely on borders to paper over these egregious harms, find loopholes in protective legal systems, and leverage differentials in labor laws to maximize constant production and growth, the flip side of which is constant destruction and waste-- or, to use a scarily apt neologism: ecocide.

Blogaround

Links not related to the antichrist:

1. ‘He stole a piece of our souls’: Christian music star Michael Tait accused of sexual assault by three men (June 13) [content note: sexual assault] I posted a different link about this before, but this article is good because it gives a whole overview of the context: the culture of CCM (contemporary Christian music), DC Talk, the way we made it part of our identity to be labelled "Jesus freaks", Newsboys, Christian nationalism. I'm so mad.

Hemant Mehta also reports on this: After assault allegations, Christian music icon Michael Tait admits preying on multiple men (June 16, via) "More than a decade after its release, God’s Not Dead is still finding new ways to disappoint everyone."

Mehta talks about the gay dimension of this... which is... yeah... I know there must be conservative Christians whose takeaway from this story is "Michael Tait is gay." Completely missing the point. 

2. How Muppets Break Free from their Puppeteers (June 13, 12-minute video) This is really cool! It's about the practical effects that the were used in the Muppets movies, basically to hide the puppeteers when the characters were in a big wide-shot scene.

3. I Was A Juror On A Murder Trial (June 13) "I’ve never seen anyone say 'actually, it’s a good idea to lie to police officers because it will make the jury think you’re too stupid to commit premeditated murder,' but it did work in this case. Maybe this is the new murder meta."

4. The Moderate Case Against Trans Youth Healthcare Bans (June 13) "Even for those uncertain about the evidence behind transgender healthcare, in cases where there is ambiguity but a clear potential for benefit, decisions should be left to parents, patients, and doctors—not politicians. This is a majority opinion found in many polls."

5. Exoplanet System (June 16) From xkcd.

6. Shell Game: In China, a $14K Reward for a Turtle That May Be Extinct (June 17) "Only one Yangtze giant softshell turtle is known to exist in China. Nicknamed Susu, the turtle is at Suzhou Shangfangshan Forest Animal World, formerly known as Suzhou Zoo, in eastern China, and is believed to be over 100 years old."

7. Menstrual products and rural Indian women (2016) [content note: menstruation] A post about the various ways that rural Indian women deal with their periods. This is really surprising to me, because the narrative I always heard was "women in developing countries don't have menstrual products, oh that's so terrible, can you imagine, and sometimes girls even drop out of school because they just have no way to deal with their periods." Ohhhh turns out I always just assumed that since *I* have no idea what one would do if one didn't have disposable pads, that meant that there just *is* no way to manage without disposable pads. Well that is not true.

I think there probably is some truth to the idea that not having access to period products is an issue we should care about, related to women's rights, but we have to listen to the women (and/or people who have periods) who are actually there and know what the current situation is like.

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Links related to the antichrist:

1. Photos: See No Kings protests around the country (June 14)

And: No Kings San Francisco (June 14)

Trump ‘doesn’t care about any of our founding fathers’ principles’: Mark Ruffalo joins NYC protests (June 15, 6-minute video) "Trump is trying to take our freedoms away, so we have to [be] re-reminded of what those freedoms actually are."

Photos: ‘No Kings’ Day Protests (June 14, via)

(Oh also, my husband- a Chinese guy- was really unimpressed with the military parade because it was very much amateur hour compared to China's. For what that's worth.)

2. ICE directed to pause immigration arrests at farms, hotels and restaurants, sources tell CBS News (June 14) What? I mean, this is good news if true (though obviously you can't really trust anything the MAGA government says), but like... it's like it *just occurred to him* that arresting farm workers might have an effect on other things~ surprised pikachu.

Oh wait, nevermind. No need to spend time reading that link, because: ICE walks back limits on raids targeting farms, restaurants and hotels (June 18)

3. An AIDS orphan, a pastor and his frantic search for the meds that keep her alive (June 13) "'We've been so close to truly having an AIDS-free generation of kids,' says Dr. Rachel Vreeman, chair of the Department of Global Health and Health Systems Design at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai. 'And that is completely at risk right now.'"

4. ‘How many people were arrested?’ is a lousy way to cover protests (June 12, via) "Don’t focus solely on what the police say."

5. Press group sues L.A., alleging police abuse of reporters at ICE rallies (June 16) "An Australian television correspondent was shot by a law enforcement officer with a rubber bullet during a live shot as she stood to the side of protests in downtown Los Angeles. The officer taking aim could be seen in the background as it happened."

6. How to ACTUALLY Deal with Tear Gas (June 13) "Do not panic. Move out of the area as safely as you can, ideally to higher ground because tear “gas” is actually a particulate and will fall to the ground. Do not rub your face."

7. Trump admin continues its destructive path, but groups, judges keep pushing back (June 17) "That attitude kept moving right into Monday, when the American Bar Association sued the Trump administration over Trump’s attacks on law firms and the legal profession."

Related to that: ‘My duty is to call it out’: Judge accuses Trump administration of discrimination against minorities (June 16) "'I’ve never seen a record where racial discrimination was so palpable. I’ve sat on this bench now for 40 years. I’ve never seen government racial discrimination like this,' said U.S. District Judge William Young, a Massachusetts-based jurist who took the bench in 1985."

And: After court rules against NIH, researchers wonder if their canceled grants will be restored (June 17)

8. NYC Comptroller Brad Lander arrested by federal agents at immigration court (June 17) "'I will be fine, but Edgardo is not going to be fine,' he said. 'And the rule of law is not fine and our constitutional democracy is not fine.'"

"The Case for Open Borders": Keeping only some people out

Photo from inside the library on the US-Canada border. Image source.

Here's another quote I want to share from "The Case for Open Borders". This is from pages 118-119:

Another popular defense of borders is that, as Donald Trump has repeatedly claimed, "We don't have a country without a border." Similarly, Obama White House advisor Cecilia Muñoz said that "[t]here are policy decisions to be made about who should be an immigrant, and that includes removing folks who don't qualify under the law. That's, I think, just the reality of being a nation."

But how does a closed border legitimize a country? The US border is wide open to goods, money, the well connected, and the wealthy-- so why is keeping poor people out important for maintaining a nation state? Though there are no formal financial requirements for Mexicans obtaining nonimmigrant visas to enter the United States, consular officers consider a person's finances and employment before issuing a visa, and poor people almost never get the pass.

In other words, the border is supposed to keep only some people out. Compare the triple fencing, watch towers, paramilitary Border Patrol, ground sensors, drones, and billions of dollars spent keeping people out of Southern California to the Derby Line in Vermont at the northern US border, where an opera house is literally divided down the middle between United States and Canada, where the international divide is marked by a strip of black on the floor of the town library's reading room. You aren't legally permitted to enter and remain in the United States from there, but unless you're looking down, your book-browsing could take you back and forth across an international divide without any notice.

I googled this Vermont library because it sounds cool, and it turns out that now the felon is closing access from the Canadian side, because I guess we can't have nice things.

Blogaround

Hey, all the links today are news. You may be thinking to yourself, "Does Perfect Number just go read NPR and then copy all the links to here?" Well, that's a big chunk of it, yes.

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Links not related to the antichrist:

1. Guns are the leading cause of death of kids and teens, and state laws matter (June 11)

2. Unanimous Supreme Court makes it easier to sue schools in disability cases (June 12) "'This is bigger than our family,' Aaron Tharpe, Ava's father, told NPR. Tharpe said the most important thing about the ruling is that it gives other families who don't have the resources he does, the tools to fight back."

3. EXCLUSIVE: American Security Contractor Unloads On US-Israeli ‘Gaza Humanitarian Foundation’ (June 12, via) "We all got in a line and began pushing these people out. We’re telling crying women trying to pick up food for their families that they had to go. They were looking at this food on the ground that they desperately needed, and they couldn’t take it. It was absolutely horrific."

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Links related to the antichrist:

1. Where are the people the Trump administration has deported? (June 12) This is a good summary of a bunch of the cases we've been hearing about, though it certainly doesn't include everyone who has been deported.

2. Rep. McIver is indicted on federal charges related to tussle at immigration facility (June 11) "'The facts of this case will prove I was simply doing my job,' the representative said in a statement. She called the proceedings against her 'a brazen attempt at political intimidation.'"

3. Federal court orders resumption of legal services to separated families (June 11) "The ACLU filed a class-action lawsuit against the federal government over “Zero Tolerance” in February of 2018, arguing that separating families was unnecessary under the law and that the policy deprived migrant families of their right to due process."

4. How a shoplifting arrest in upstate NY summoned ICE and separated a family (June 11) "The case is one of several recent incidents fueling an ongoing debate about immigration among lawmakers. Should New York become a sanctuary state, following some of its biggest cities in passing a law to limit all local cooperation with immigration agents? Or should local law enforcement be compelled to contact ICE every time they cross paths with an undocumented immigrant – even people suspected of the smallest of crimes?"

5. Senator Alex Padilla handcuffed and forcibly removed from Kristi Noem’s LA press conference (June 12) "'If this is how this administration responds to a senator with a question, if this is how the DHS responds to a senator with a question, you can only imagine what they’re doing to farm workers, to cooks, to day laborers, throughout the LA community and throughout California and throughout the country,' Padilla, the son of immigrants from Mexico, told reporters. 'We will hold this administration accountable.'"

Also about LA: Some Notes on the City of Angels and the Nature of Violence (June 9) "All I've read about so far in L.A. is property damage by protestrs, while we've seen many kinds of violence and intimidation from the heavily armored and armed thugs serving the Trump Administration's war on immigrants."

6. Despite ongoing Taliban threats, the U.S. is ending some protections for Afghans (June 12) "The administration's claim that Afghan security and its economy have improved is widely disputed. The State Department strongly advises against travel to Afghanistan, 'due to civil unrest, crime, terrorism, risk of wrongful detention, kidnapping, and limited health facilities.'"

7. The GOP's massive bill would benefit the rich the most — while hitting the poor (June 12) 

8. ICE's novel strategy allows for more arrests from inside immigration courts (June 12) "Under the new approach, after their case is dismissed, immigrants are arrested again, at times before even leaving the building — as happened with Aliaksandr Bulaty. Then they're put in a process called expedited removal: a fast-track for deportation that does not guarantee the right to a day in court and comes with a five-year restriction on attempting to return to the U.S."

9. ‘Too Big a Risk’: Chinese Students Rethink the American Dream (June 13) "Lin, who was preparing to study law at the University of California, Berkeley, went straight to the U.S. visa site to try and book a visa appointment. For the next several hours, she cycled between browsers, devices, and VPN nodes, fighting her way through the overloaded visa portal. Each time she got close to booking an interview, the system crashed."

10. To my newborn son: I am absent not out of apathy, but conviction (May 11) "Like other Palestinian fathers, I was separated from you by racist regimes and distant prisons. In Palestine, this pain is part of daily life. Babies are born every day without their fathers – not because their fathers chose to leave, but because they are taken by war, by bombs, by prison cells and by the cold machinery of occupation. The grief your mother and I feel is but one drop in a sea of sorrow that Palestinian families have drowned in for generations." By Mahmoud Khalil.

When the Bible is Racist

Map of the nations in the middle east during bible times. Image source.

I recently read "Genesis for Normal People". I want to talk about what this book says about the curse of Ham.

What is the "curse of Ham," you ask? Well, you know the story of Noah's ark? Well, after Noah and his family survived the flood, after the water all receded and they were able to get out of the ark and start a new life, Noah got drunk and lay in his tent naked, and his son Ham saw him and went to tell his brothers about it. Kind of in a disrespectful, mocking way, I guess. (The other brothers, Shem and Japheth, got a sheet to cover Noah.) When Noah wakes up, he curses Ham's son Canaan- "Cursed be Canaan! The lowest of slaves will he be to his brothers." He says Canaan's descendants will be slaves to Shem's and Japheth's descendants.

That's the story of the "curse of Ham." Yeah it doesn't exactly make sense that Noah cursed Ham's son Canaan, when he was mad at Ham, but that's what the bible says.

Later in the bible, the land of Canaan is the "promised land" that God leads the Israelites into, and God commands them to kill all of the Canaanites and take their land.

Page 59 of "Genesis for Normal People" says:

The flood story is Israel's vehicle for talking about how their God is different from the gods of the other nations. It is also a vehicle for the later Israelite writer to explain why the hated Canaanites deserved everything they got, including being violently driven from their homeland so it could be given to the Israelites: they have been an accursed race since the beginning-- because Ham saw Noah's nakedness.

In other words, the book says that the story of the curse of Ham was invented for political reasons- the Canaanites were the Israelites' enemies, and so the Israelites told this story to justify the claim that the Canaanites are all bad and deserve to die. See, their ancestor Ham was weird/disrespectful/creepy that one time when he saw his father naked, and so Noah cursed Canaan, and yeah all the Canaanites are trouble.

This is racist.

Like, I hope this is obvious to everyone. You tell a story about how some group's ancestors were bad, and therefore the whole group is bad and deserves to be punished- that's racist. That's just what it is.

But hold that thought, because first I want to talk about how I viewed this story (and similar bible stories- there are many of them!) when I was evangelical and believed the bible was inerrant.

I wasn't really aware that the "logic" of stories like this was "Ham was bad, therefore all of Ham's descendants are bad and deserve to be driven from their homes and/or killed." Because, uh, that doesn't make sense. I had no idea that when we read this story, we're supposed to make a connection between the bad behavior of the ancestor and the bad behavior of the demographic group that came from that ancestor. I didn't think that way at all- that would be racist, obviously. Everyone is their own person and can make their own choices- you can't just say an entire ethnic group all has the same bad character traits. That doesn't make any sense at all.

Also, it doesn't really make sense to talk about "the descendants of Ham" as a separate thing from the descendants of Shem or Japheth. The bible says the only humans who survived the flood were Noah, Noah's wife, Shem, Ham, Japheth, and their three wives. You would have to have some incest going on after that. In the universe of this bible story, all of us are descendants of Shem and Ham and Japheth.

So these origin stories for the "bad" nations in the bible were kinda lost on me. Sure, I knew that the bible said their ancestor did this or that shady thing, but I didn't think that really had any bearing on what their descendants would be like. Sure, I knew that God said the Israelites should kill all the Canaanites- and I agreed with that because I was a good evangelical and I was required to agree with it- but that was because of the Canaanites' own bad behavior, and didn't have any connection to what Ham did.

But reading "Genesis for Normal People," I'm realizing how racist these bible stories were intended to be. "Genesis for Normal People" says we should read the bible with "ancient eyes"- don't bring in our modern ideas about how it's illogical to say that a group of people is bad because their ancestor was bad, or how racism is wrong, or how the flood was a genetic bottleneck. Just read it for what the writer was trying to say to the original audience. 

Importantly, this means we shouldn't expect the bible to be true, and we shouldn't expect the bible to teach us meaningful moral lessons. If we expect those things from the bible, then we read the story of the curse of Ham with the assumptions "this story couldn't possibly be saying all the Canaanites are bad because Ham did something shady- that makes no sense" and "the bible couldn't possibly be making a racist argument here." And so we miss what the biblical writer was actually saying.

How bad is it to miss what the biblical writer was saying about the curse of Ham?

Well. Unfortunately, the curse of Ham is a big thing in the history of anti-Black racism in the US. There's a fan theory that says Black people are the descendants of Ham- and so Black people are under the curse of Ham, and they're supposed to be slaves. Really. This is a real thing that white American Christians have preached.

I never heard about that, until I was in college and started attending a racially-diverse church, and I heard a sermon that said "no, the curse of Ham does NOT mean Black people are inferior" and I had such a hard time figuring out what the pastor was even talking about. Sure, I knew the bible story, but this bible story doesn't say anything about race or skin color or Africa or anything along those lines. I didn't know that in modern times, white people used this story to claim that Black people were inferior and cursed.

It's important for white American Christians to know this history, though. To know what our ancestors did, the way they used the bible as a justification to mistreat other people. I don't mean "our ancestors did something bad, so now we should be punished"- I just said I don't believe in that- but we need to learn from this. We need to learn from what they did, to make sure we are not doing the same things.

So I didn't believe that entire populations in the bible deserved to die because their ancestor did something bad- that would be racist, of course I didn't believe in that. Instead I believed that entire populations in the bible deserved to die because they were worshiping the wrong gods, or some other such sin.

Uh, that's also kinda racist.

Ah, see this is the problem. When we read the bible, believing that it is our authority that teaches us morality- then we are unable to see the racism it promotes, even when it's right there staring us in the face. We aren't able to see that and call it out and say "hey, let's NOT treat people like this." And then we end up at the same place- the belief that sometimes an entire ethnic group deserves to die- but it doesn't register as racism because we just got there from following what the bible says, and of course the bible wouldn't be racist. Right?

Yes, we need to call it out. This story, about the curse of Ham, was written to justify Israel's hatred and violence toward the Canaanites. The message the reader is supposed to get is "the Canaanites are bad, just like their ancestor Ham was bad." Let's recognize this as racism, and say "This is wrong." The writer of the bible was wrong. And we need to learn from that, so we don't do the same thing.

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Posts about "Genesis for Normal People":

"Genesis for Normal People": Separating "what the writer meant" from "what is true" and "what it means for us"
God Made the Firmament
When the Bible is Racist
To what extent do I care what the biblical writers meant?

Related:

For the Sunday School Kids Who Never Heard About "the Curse of Ham" Or "Black Simon" 

The Bible Lied About Lot's Daughters 

This "Do Not Intermarry With Them" Stuff Hits Different Now

The Slavery We Ignore in the Book of Exodus

Blogaround

Links not related to the antichrist:

1. Walter Brueggemann, influential biblical scholar, dies at 92 (June 5, via) 

2. The Missionary Kids: Unmasking the Myths of White Evangelicalism (new book available August 19) "What do we learn about white evangelicalism from those raised by its heroes? From historian Holly Berkley Fletcher, herself a missionary kid, comes this first-of-its-kind examination of how the experiences of missionary kids illuminate broader currents in American Christianity."

!!! I really want to read this.

3. Greta Thunberg deported from Israel after its military intercepts Gaza-bound aid boat (June 10)

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Links related to the antichrist:

1. The No Kings protests are this Saturday, June 14.

And another action item: If you haven't contacted your senators yet to tell them to vote against the Republican budget bill, do that.

2. Trump administration returns migrant hastily deported to Mexico back to the US (June 4) "He has claimed that he had not been given the opportunity before his deportation to communicate his fear of being sent to Mexico and that his pleas before his removal to speak to an attorney were rejected."

3. Protesters clash with law enforcement in downtown LA. Hundreds march against Trump's immigration sweeps (June 9) "'We have to stand united against the attacks on the immigrant community because an attack on one of us is an attack on all of us,' she said."

Also: Photos: Protests continue for third day in Los Angeles (June 8) 

And: Why Trump's deployment of the National Guard to LA is unprecedented, according to a general (June 9) 

California Sues Trump for Sending National Guard Troops Into LA After ICE Protests (June 9)

After ICE raids in LA, families of those detained are desperate for answers (June 10) "Gonzalez said he tried shouting to tell his brother he was there but the chaos around them made it impossible to communicate. So he stood there, watching as his brother and several other people he knows, were handcuffed and loaded into white nondescript vans."

4. Immigration is a Good Thing (June 9) "And so, in the spirit of Pentecost, let me just point out again that immigration is good, actually."

5. Joni Ernst's "we're all going to die" pushes MAGA's toxic Christian compassion on us all (June 4, via) "These Christians claim that true compassion comes from rejecting empathy, arguing that empathy gets in the way of speaking what they believe are "hard truths" they need to browbeat alleged sinners with. This is how the conservative Christian convinces himself it's love to deny LGBTQ people their freedom, because compelling heterosexuality will get them into heaven."

Yes, I'm really glad to see someone making the connection between conservative policies that don't care if people die, and the evangelical view of Jesus.

By the way, when Ernst said in her "apology video" that people should trust in her Lord and Savior Jesus, that is called taking the Lord's name in vain. Get His name out of your mouth.

6. RFK Jr. boots all members of the CDC's vaccine advisory committee (June 9) WTF?

And: A promising new HIV vaccine was set to start trials. Then came Trump's latest cuts (June 10)

7. Kilmar Abrego Garcia's Homecoming (June 9) "The administration’s actions here are a complete inversion of the narrative they’ve been selling. Trump claims that he’s deporting criminals, but Abrego Garcia was deported when the administration had no knowledge of a crime. Now that they’ve ostensibly found one, they’re bringing him back to the United States. This is very literally the opposite of what they say they’re doing."

8. 'People are scared': ICE agents raid facility in Omaha (June 10) "He also said he had heard that a couple of large employers with significant Latino workforces had shut down and let workers go home for the day, 'just out of abundance of caution.'"

Is Therapy About Becoming "Normal"?

A parking pass sitting on a therapist's couch, saying, "I dunno, doc, I guess I'm just always waiting for someone else to validate me." Image source.

Trying to organize my thoughts about what exactly therapy *is*.

For most of my life, I have conceptualized therapy like this: The purpose of therapy is to become normal. There are 2 types of people in the world: normal people and messed-up people. Very binary. If you find that your emotional difficulties are so bad that you start to think "maybe it's because I'm one of the messed-up people," you should get yourself to therapy real quick and get yourself fixed, to be normal. Better do it right away, before anyone notices that you're a messed-up person- because messed-up people deserve to be mocked by normal people.

(Don't take this as me being mean and judging other people- I'm talking about this because it's how I saw myself, when I was in middle school going to therapy for the first time.)

Basically, it was the idea that the world is fine just the way it is, and you should be fine with it. If you are having emotional difficulties with the state of the world, that's a *you* problem, and you need to get yourself straightened out behind closed doors so that your weirdness doesn't bother any normal people.

Sometimes I would hear people say "I used to have [some really bad psychological issue which was interfering with life]. But then I went to therapy, and now, well, I still [kind of have this problem to a lesser extent], it's not totally gone, but now it's manageable because I have learned how to [whatever they learned in therapy]." I interpreted this to mean that the goal of the therapy was that they would "become normal," ie, not have that problem at all any more, but that the therapy was only partly successful- perhaps because whatever variety of "messed-up" they are is incurable, perhaps because they didn't work hard enough in therapy to "get over it." I took it to mean that, even though the therapy didn't totally "work," they are trying to put a positive spin on it- at least they are able to handle life better than they used to, even though they're still not a "normal person."

And also, I thought therapists had inscrutable methods that clients weren't really supposed to understand- you just trust the therapist and go along with whatever they want you to do. I thought that if I knew the "big picture," if I knew the "strategy" that the therapist was using to address my issues, that would sort of "spoil" it. Like it wouldn't work if I had an understanding of the overall plan- I should simply experience it in the moment as it happens to me. 

These are the assumptions I had about what therapy is, what the purpose is- nobody ever really explicitly spelled it out like this, but that's what I thought it was.

But now I think, maybe it's more like this: There aren't "normal people" and "messed-up people." Everyone has difficulties in their life, everyone has feelings, everyone has healthy or unhealthy ways they deal with their problems and feelings. It's a spectrum, not a binary. And there could be a large variety of reasons why you might have more difficulty with something that other people do- related to your personality, experiences you've had in the past, etc- none of that means you're a "messed-up" person and you should be embarrassed- it just means that's how your own specific circumstances happened to overlap. For other people, they overlap differently. 

And therapy is about learning tools and strategies to be more emotionally healthy. Maybe other people- "normal" people- don't seem to need that, because the strategies they already have are working okay for their circumstances- but if you need more help, there's nothing wrong with that. 

It's not about becoming a "normal person." It's not about trying to get you back to this baseline of being like everybody else- NO ONE is like everyone else. It's about taking where you are as a starting point and working from there. What would be helpful to you, where you are right now? The goal is not to have the same emotional response as a "normal person" would. The goal is to manage your emotions such that you're able to live your life in a healthy way. What that looks like for you could be very different from how it looks for other people.

It's not about getting all your weirdnesses "fixed" behind closed doors so nobody ever realizes you're not "normal." It's about learning how to live in a reasonable and healthy way while still being a person who has/ had/ is susceptible to those "weirdnesses." (Because *everybody* has "weirdnesses" like that to some extent.) Maybe that means you avoid certain situations. Maybe it's about how you communicate your feelings and needs to other people. Maybe it's about being aware of your thought patterns. Etc. 

The way I see it now is, you are in charge of your own life, your own body, your own health. Therapy can be a useful tool to help you move your life in the direction that you want to go. It's not the therapist being in charge of you and telling you what to do and what's right for your life- it's you making the decisions, deciding what your own goals are, and choosing to use the therapist's services if you feel that would be helpful.

And about diagnoses- I don't think there's an "absolute truth" about whether you "have" or "don't have" various psychological conditions. Life is full of raw data, the experiences and feelings we have every day, and there's not one "correct" way to summarize that raw data into a useful model of how your brain works. But it can be helpful to put labels on this, in order to understand and communicate your feelings better, and to find useful information about what strategies have been helpful for other people. I'm thinking of labels like "autism" or "depression," based on my own experiences- but this idea that there's not an "absolute truth" and you are allowed to use a label if it's helpful for you, comes from my experiences in the queer community.

As for whether I should know the big picture, or if I'm just a helpless person that therapy happens to- well, if I see a therapist again in the future, I would definitely talk to them about their overall strategy. I want to understand how it's supposed to work, what the therapist thinks the goal is, etc. 

What do they teach in therapist school? I want to know.

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Related

I Figured Out What The 1-10 Pain Scale Is Actually About 

Doctors (part 3 of Autism & Teaching Kids to Protect Themselves)

When the Teacher Says, "Don't Look at Your Report Card"

"The Case for Open Borders": Remittances

Map showing remittances being sent between countries. Data is from 2010 and 2011. Image source.

Another quote from the book "The Case for Open Borders." From pages 74-75:

Consider, for instance, that over 40 percent of Tajikistan's GDP is based on money sent back to the country from migrants living abroad; the same is true of nearly one-third of Nepal's GDP and over 20 percent of El Salvador's. Families and sometimes entire local economies survive on remittances in many countries. And while self-sufficiency might sound more appealing or sustainable, communities have long relied on distant forays to bring back needed wealth or resources. And, in today's global market, nearly every country already sends out its corporate scouts or corporate migrants to reap riches and ship them home.

Communities establishing themselves across borders is basically the inverse of outsourcing. Companies like Ford, Nike, and Apple migrate their production facilities and send home the profits to their CEOs. If we can accept those transnational corporations, why can't we imagine other such loose and creative figurations of identity and belonging that transcend legal international divides? Perhaps it is because, as Indigenous linguist Yásnaya Elena Aguilar Gil writes, state borders "colonized even our imagination."

Blogaround

Links not related to the antichrist:

1. “They’re Ruining People’s Lives” Bans on Gender-Affirming Care for Transgender Youth in the US (June 3, via) "Parents reported traveling long distances, sometimes across multiple states, incurring costs for airfare, gas, hotels, and lost wages. Two families reported having to re-establish care twice as new bans forced them to relocate again. Families and advocates reported that insurance companies routinely deny coverage for out-of-state treatment, forcing families to bear significant financial burdens. Some families reported facing costs of up to US$4,500 every six months for medications alone. These challenges disproportionately impact low-income families and rural residents, who often lack the resources to afford regular interstate travel for care."

2. Vietnam ends its longstanding 2-child policy (June 4) Oh wow, I actually had no idea that other countries besides China had policies like that. (China's one-child policy ended in 2016.)

3. ‘I’m really scared’: Elderly and disabled Californians with more than $2,000 could lose Medi-Cal (May 29) "'It’s draconian — $2,000 is no safety net for people,' said Kim Selfon, an attorney with Bet Tzedek, a legal services organization in Los Angeles."

When I first heard that there are policies which kick disabled people off of government benefits if the amount of money in their bank account is above some threshold (not necessarily the California one, but policies like this existing in general), it sounded completely bonkers to me. I've always heard financial advice about how it's good to save your money, have an emergency fund, etc- isn't that what the "personal responsibility" Republicans are always saying?- but for disabled people, if they are able to save up their money, they get punished by losing government benefits.

4. Builder.ai collapses after revelation that its "AI" was hundreds of engineers (June 3, via) "'We were told to never mention our location or use Indian English phrases,' said a former Bangalore engineer."

5. Greta Thunberg: Silence and Inaction Is More Deadly Than Me Sailing to Gaza (June 4, via) "We cannot just sit, sit around and do nothing and watch this like live-streamed genocide unfold in front of our very eyes. So we are doing this because we are human beings who care about justice. And when our complicit governments fail to step up, it falls on us, unfortunately, to do so."

6. CCM star Michael Tait accused of sexual misconduct by multiple men, drug use: report (June 5) Holy crap, I'm really shocked about this. Back in the 90's, Tait was a member of DC Talk, a Christian band, which was my favorite band. Later he became the lead singer of the Newsboys, also a Christian band, which was my second-favorite band, so I was excited to see where that was going. 

Unfortunately, after that, the Newsboys got involved with conservative culture-war stuff- their song "God's Not Dead" was a big part of the "God's Not Dead" movies. (The movie "God's Not Dead" literally has a scene where the Newsboys are performing a concert.) And one day I happened to stumble upon a song by the Newsboys (with Tait as the lead singer) called "Guilty," which is about how if society makes it a crime to be Christian, "I wanna be guilty"- like what is this persecution fantasy crap, what on earth?

Tait also has been part of the "faith leaders" meetings with president orange. Yeah, I've been really unhappy with Tait for a long time about this stuff. Dragging the good name of DC Talk through the mud. Did not expect the drug use and sexual assault allegations though.

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Links related to the antichrist:

1. 'No Kings' protests planned against Trump military parade; see when, where (June 3) Yesssss get out there and protest. June 14.

2. Judge orders Trump admin to let those sent to CECOT challenge Alien Enemies Act removal (June 5) "The Trump administration, under Boasberg’s order, has a week to provide their proposed solution."

3. Trump issues new travel ban covering a dozen countries (June 4)

And: Trump's travel ban includes Afghanistan, where thousands await U.S. resettlement (June 5)

4. Judge blocks deportation of Boulder attacker's family (June 4) !!! Oh my goodness, ICE was going to deport the attacker's family? What is this????? If there's evidence they were involved in the attack, then bring the evidence to an actual court. There are actual laws for this! (So far I haven't heard of any such evidence.) This comes across like the MAGAs were super excited for any kind of reason to deport immigrants, whether or not it makes sense.

5. Debunking the South African “White Genocide” Nonsense (May 29) "This is going to shock you, but it turns out that that’s a lie, too!"

6. In recorded calls, reports of overcrowding and lack of food at ICE detention centers (June 6) "J. is one of the many family members of detainees who called NPR to report their loved ones not receiving meals or getting rotten food. Detainees who NPR spoke to over the phone confirmed this, and many said they'd had to sleep on the floor for weeks."

7. ICE agents detain at least 10 immigrants as elected officials try to block officers in the South Loop (June 5) "'Then, in a Gestapo fashion, 50 agents or so walked down the street, stood right here in front of the driveway, then aggressively came through, knocked me down, assaulted me and other community members here today, then pulled out weapons and also pulled out their sticks, pushing some of us, punching some of us to get through to this driveway,' Quezada said, adding that he was pushed three times by ICE agents."

Blocking them, trying to stand in their way- it does help. Keep doing this.

And: ICE raids grow tense as protesters confront immigration agents (June 6)

8. Months after detaining 47 people accused of being Tren de Aragua in Austin, authorities offer no evidence of gang ties (June 4) "'We all started shouting that there were babies — ‘Babies, there’s babies,’' recounted a 30-year-old Venezuelan man, who said he was at the house to celebrate the birthdays of his son, who turned 5, and his best friend, who turned 28."

9. Kilmar Abrego Garcia, wrongly deported to El Salvador, is back in the U.S. to face smuggling charges (June 6) Wow! This is good news, but I don't know what to make of these new criminal charges against him. Does the government have evidence for these charges? If there's actual evidence, why wasn't that mentioned before? Very strange. 

"The Case for Loving" (kids' book about Loving vs Virginia)

Book cover for "The Case for Loving"

I got this book for my kids: The Case for Loving: The Fight for Interracial Marriage by Selina Alko. It is a picture book which tells the story of the US Supreme Court case Loving vs Virginia, which legalized interracial marriage.

I'm really into this because I'm white and my husband is Chinese. We got legally married in China so I guess the specifics of US marriage law didn't directly affect us- but still, this is important history that is relevant to my life and my kids' lives, and I want to teach them about it.

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Turns out I really didn't know much about the Loving vs Virginia case

So, in history class in high school, I learned that Loving vs Virginia was the big important Supreme Court case where interracial marriage was officially legalized. But as I read this book to my son, I realized I didn't know any of these other details. I didn't really know anything about it at all.

Some fun facts which I learned from this book:

• Richard Loving and Mildred Jeter lived in Virginia, where they could not get legally married- but interracial marriage *was* legal in Washington DC, so they went there to get legally married. I did not know that different states had different laws about this.
• After they returned to Virginia, they were caught "cohabitating" and put in jail. They ended up moving back to Washington DC because of this. I did not know people were really getting put in jail for this back then.
• Richard Loving's statement that his lawyers read to the Supreme Court: "Tell the Court I love my wife, and it is just unfair that I can't live with her in Virginia." Love this.

But I guess the biggest thing I learned from this book is that the arguments for banning interracial marriage were about "preserving the purity of the white race." I don't remember learning in high school that that was the reasoning behind these laws. In high school, when we learned about the Civil Rights Movement, I kind of got the impression that the reason white people didn't want black people to have equal rights was just some vague "racism" and not liking black people. Just ... as if white people back then were just mean for no reason, and I can't relate to them at all, and they were so obviously wrong. I think we do a big disservice when we portray history in this way, as if we don't have any of those problems now. In reality, white people who opposed the Civil Rights Movement weren't one-dimensional caricatures saying "let's be mean to black people for no reason." No, they made arguments that many people back then felt were convincing- for example, this argument about "preserving the purity of the white race." 

And there are right-wing people *now* saying things like "we have to preserve the purity of the white race." People talking about the "great replacement" conspiracy theory, talking about immigrants with "bad genes" coming into the US, etc. Banning abortion, to force white women to have more babies. We need to realize that the racism of the white people who opposed the Civil Rights Movement 60 years ago isn't really that different from racism we have today. We need to learn from this history, so we don't buy into the same racist arguments that they did 60 years ago.

(Okay, and one more cool thing about the book, on the last page it has a photo of the Loving family, which allowed me to tell my son "this is a true story from history.")

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I guess I talked to my son about race

So recently after I read this book to my son, we had this conversation:

me: I like this book because me and your dad are different races.

him: Why are you different races?

me: I'm white and your dad is Chinese. ... Did you notice that?

him: Yes

Oh good, he noticed that.

I always thought it was weird that parents feel awkward about talking to their kids about race, but now I get why it feels awkward: Because on one level, it's so obvious, everyone can see that I'm white and my husband is Chinese. But on another level, people's ideas about what it *means*, and the history of atrocities committed because of race- all of that is very complicated, how do you even begin to talk to kids about that? I think having books like this helps a lot, because you don't have to figure out what to say, you can just read the book.

But yeah, my son is living his life as a mixed-race person and I want him to be able to talk about it. I've noticed that when he's with me, and we're out and about in Shanghai, Chinese people always ask him, "Do you speak Chinese?" But when he's with my husband and I'm not there, they don't ask that, they just go ahead and talk to him in Chinese.

Oh, and also, the book mentioned slavery, and my son already knows what that is because he watches this Chinese cartoon from the 90's called 海尔兄弟 (Haier Brothers), which was sponsored by a real-life refrigerator company in China, it's about these 2 boys (who are the actual mascots of this fridge company) and they are brothers, but one of them is Chinese and the other one is German, and actually they are androids and not people, also they only wear underwear, and they travel around with 3 humans (who wear normal clothes)- an old man, a boy, and a girl, and the old man is not actually anyone's grandfather, I have no idea how he's related to any of the other characters, and they are all time travelers who travel to different places and times, to teach kids about science and history. This cartoon goes so hard, there are episodes about Africans being kidnapped and put on ships and sold into slavery. My husband has a lot of nostalgic feelings about this cartoon so that's why he wants our son to watch it. I don't quite get it and I wonder if the entire thing is an ad for a refrigerator somehow. It probably sounds bonkers from my description here, but it is a real thing, here is the theme song, enjoy.

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Conclusion

This is a good book for kids in an interracial family. Also good if you want your kids to learn more about US history and the Civil Rights Movement. 

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Related

Raising Mixed Race (a book for parents of mixed-race Asian kids)

"I Want a Popsicle" (a bilingual book for Asian children, about feelings) 

"America: A Patriotic Primer" (Kids' Book Review)

"The Case for Open Borders": There's nothing you can do to prevent it

A raft completely packed full of people, crossing the Mediterranean Sea. Image source.

I want to share another quote from "The Case for Open Borders." This is from page 61:

For every person dying in the Mediterranean, often declared the deadliest migrant crossing zone in the world, another two people, according to United Nations figures, are dying in the desert on their way to the Mediterranean. "There is nothing you can do to prevent it. It's too strong," Giuseppe Loprete, an International Organization for Migration (IOM) official who worked for years in the Sahel region, told me about migration in the region. "It's not even a calculation," Loprete said. "People have to leave."

Blogaround

Links not related to the antichrist:

1. Find out why your health insurer denied your claim. (via) "ProPublica’s Claim File Helper lets you customize a letter requesting the notes and documents your insurer used when deciding to deny you coverage. Get your claim file before submitting an appeal."

2. Israel kills 32 Palestinians waiting for food at US-backed Gaza aid sites (June 2, via) "Condemning the attacks, the Government Media Office described the GHF distribution sites as 'mass death traps, not humanitarian relief points'."

3. Ultramarathon runner breastfeeds her baby 3 times on her way to a surprise win (May 30) Wow! Good for her!

4. MIT class president barred from graduation after speaking out on Gaza (June 2)

The speech is very good! Watch it here: MIT Class President Megha Vemuri’s Viral Graduation Speech on Israel’s Genocide in Gaza (May 30) 

5. Penn & Teller’s Entropy: ‘The Weirdest Trick We’ve Ever Done’ | Penn & Teller: Fool Us | The CW (February 22) This is fun, I like this.

6. How six months in the West Bank undid a lifetime of Zionist indoctrination (May 30, via) "Through All That’s Left, I began traveling regularly to the West Bank with a perspective wholly different from my 18-year-old self. I joined Palestinian farmers in their fields, accompanied shepherds grazing their flocks, attended protests against Israeli state violence, and eventually spent nights — then weeks, then months — in Palestinian villages. As part of protective presence activism, my fellow activists and I documented settler attacks and military incursions, hoping our privileged status in the eyes of the state might deter violence."

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Links related to the antichrist:

1. This:

Image shows 2 photos: Kermit the Frog and Trump. Image text: "Here we have a photo of a commencement address being given by a puppet controlled by someone else... and a photo of Kermit the Frog giving a commencement address." Image source.

Wait, Kermit the Frog gave a commencement speech? Apparently yes! Kermit the Frog delivers commencement speech to University of Maryland graduates (May 23)

2. The Compassion of Strangers (June 1) "Witness what happened in San Diego outside the popular Buona Forchetta restaurant in South Park. When I.C.E. showed up in its vans to detain workers—not criminals, but workers—the community did not stand idly by. They began to fill the streets, block vehicles, and were eventually dispersed with flash bangs."

3. Trump Administration Knew Vast Majority of Venezuelans Sent to Salvadoran Prison Had Not Been Convicted of U.S. Crimes (May 30) "President Donald Trump and his aides have branded the Venezuelans as 'rapists,' 'savages,' 'monsters' and 'the worst of the worst.' When multiple news organizations disputed those assertions with reporting that showed many of the deportees did not have criminal records, the administration doubled down."

4. Make America ChatGPT again: Experts say AI was used to create RFK Jr health report that cited false studies (May 30) "Analysis conducted by The Post found that at least 21 links in the original version of the report to scientific studies or articles were dead."

5. SCOTUS allows the Trump admin to end legal status for another half-million people (May 31) "'[S]omehow, the Court has now apparently determined … that it is in the public’s interest to have the lives of half a million migrants unravel all around us before the courts decide their legal claims,' [Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson] wrote."

6. The Trump administration is making the country less safe for domestic violence victims (May 30) "Funding pauses, cuts, firings and information purges have destabilized the infrastructure that helps victims of abuse. At the same time, federal teams dedicated to preventing sexual violence are being decimated. Departments in charge of administering grants that fund shelters for those fleeing assault have been deemed 'duplicative, DEI or simply unnecessary.'"

You know how MAGAs are saying all these things about how we need to stop trans people from using the bathroom, because we care oh so much about preventing violence against women? Well, no, the MAGA government does NOT care about protecting women. (I don't make any claims about the average Republican voter, perhaps on some level the average voter *does* want to protect women from domestic violence. I'm just talking about what we can see the government is doing.) They are making cuts to the programs that actually help. Their talk about "protecting women" is actually just about scoring points in a culture war.

7. US judge rules prisons must provide gender-affirming care for trans people (June 3) "Even if it had extensively studied the issue before deciding to stop gender-affirming care, the decision might still violate the US constitution’s eighth amendment’s protections against “cruel and unusual” punishment, Lamberth wrote."

8. Impact Metrics Dashboard (via) A website that estimates the number of deaths due to USAID cuts. Current estimate is that over 300.000 people have died. (Some background information about where this page came from: Tracking Anticipated Deaths from USAID Funding Cuts)