Showing posts with label party. Show all posts
Showing posts with label party. Show all posts
Saturday, April 15, 2017
Medical Self Defense and the Black Panther Party An interview with Alondra Nelson
Medical Self Defense and the Black Panther Party An interview with Alondra Nelson
Medical Self Defense and the Black Panther Party
--An interview with Alondra Nelson
By Angola 3 News
Alondra Nelson, a professor of sociology and gender studies at Columbia University, is the author of a new book released last month, entitled Body and Soul: The Black Panther Party and the Fight Against Medical Discrimination. By documenting the multifaceted health activism of the Black Panther Party (BPP) and critically assessing the BPP’s strategy and tactics in a respectful and appreciative manner, Body and Soul presents an analysis that is rare and badly needed in US colleges and universities today. In this interview, Nelson discusses how the Panthers’ legacy can both inspire and provide important strategic lessons for today’s new generation of political activists
In her book, Nelson writes that “the Party’s focus on health care was both practical and ideological.” On a practical level, the BPP provided free community health care services, including preventative education. Simultaneously, the BPP railed against the medical-industrial complex, declaring that health care was “a right and not a privilege.” Ronald “Doc” Satchel, the minister of health for the Chicago BPP, wrote in the BPP newspaper that “the medical profession within this capitalist society…is composed generally of people working for their own benefit and advancement rather than the humane aspects of medical care.” A newsletter published by the Southern California chapter argued that “poor people in general and black people in particular are not given the best care available. Our people are treated like animals, experimented on and made to wait long hours in waiting rooms."
By 1970, People’s Free Medical Clinics had become a requirement for every BPP chapter. In 1972, the BPP revised point six of the founding ten-point-platform, adding a demand for “completely free healthcare for all black and oppressed people…We believe that the government must provide, free of charge, for the people, health facilities which will not only treat our illnesses, most of which have come about as a result of our oppression, but which will also develop preventative medical programs to guarantee our future survival. We believe that mass health education and research programs must be developed to give Black and oppressed people access to advanced scientific and medical information, so we may provide ourselves with proper medical attention and care.”
While citing Martin Luther King’s 1966 declaration that “of all forms of inequality, injustice in healthcare is the most shocking and inhumane,” one chapter provides an important historical context for the BPP’s health activism by detailing what Nelson calls “the long medical civil rights movement,” that began long before the BPP. “Mobilized in response to the distinctly hazardous risks posed by segregated medical facilities, professions, societies, and schools; deficient or nonexistent healthcare services; medical maltreatment; and scientific racism, activism challenges to medical discrimination have been an important focal point for African American protest efforts and organizations. The Panthers were heirs to health activism that directly reflected tactics drawn from this tradition,” writes Nelson.
Nelson says the central focus of her scholarly work is on “the intersections of science, technology, medicine and inequality.” She has co-edited Technicolor: Race, Technology, and Everyday Life (2001) and Genetics and the Unsettled Past: The Collision of DNA, Race, and History (scheduled to be released in March, 2012). To learn more, please visit www.alondranelson.com.
Angola 3 News: In our recent interview with Billy X Jennings from It’s About Time BPP, one theme explored was how, with rare exception, the mainstream media has misrepresented the BPP. However, it seems that the even the radical and anti-capitalist media has generally underreported the health activism that is the focus if your book. How did the BPP’s health activism relate to their better-known stances against white supremacy, capitalism, and police violence?
Alondra Nelson: Yes, it’s true. The Black Panthers’ health activism has been under-reported across the ideological spectrum. Their critics obviously did not want to cast them in a positive light. And, as your question suggests, even the Party’s supporters said little about this important aspect of the BPP’s work. I think its plausible to say that many on the Right and some of us on the Left--in very different ways and for completely opposite reasons--were captivated by a vision of the Party that did not include its health politics. Depictions of African Americans working in their neighborhoods, wearing white medical coats, was unspectacular compared to images of Black radicals wearing leather jackets and carrying guns.
It is ironic that our collective memory of the Panthers remains so incomplete because their health activism—from their political writing about medical issues in The Black Panthernewspaper, to their practice of DIY healthcare—exemplified the anti-racist, anti-capitalist stance for which they are known. In fact, the reality of health inequality brought the BPP’s political perspective into sharper relief because it offered stark and specific examples of how economic and racial oppression literally damaged bodies, families and communities.
As you know, the BPP was originally the Black Panther Party for Self-Defense, a name that reflected that protecting communities from police brutality was a primary motivation for the group’s founding. The BPP exposed the misuse of power whether it was at the hands of police officers or physicians. So, it’s also useful to think of the Panthers as being engaged in medical self-defense.
In Los Angeles, Party members Ericka Huggins and Elaine Brown, nursing professor Marie Branch, Dr. Terry Kupers, and others established that chapter’s People’s Free Medical Clinic. But, like all of the BPP’s health activism, this work extended beyond the clinic, including in this case, confronting police brutality. (Branch shared meeting notes with me from the 1970s from her personal archive where the formation of BPP health programs and prisoners’ protection from medical discrimination were seamlessly discussed). The LA Panthers advocated for and provided health care for incarcerated persons; some of these men and women needed medical attention because they had been abused while in police custody.
A3N: How does the story of the BPP’s health activism, as presented in your book, contribute to and challenge the traditional presentations of the BPP by both the mainstream and alternative media?
AN: Body and Soul offers an account of the BPP that moves away from the narrow confines of the so-called “culture wars,” in which the Party can only ever be a positive force or a negative element. Paying attention to the Party’s health activism calls into question the inaccurate stereotype of the activists as aimless thugs.
We also gain a different perspective on things we thought we already knew about the BPP, like the fact that the Panthers were avid followers of Fanon, Che and Mao, whose writings were required reading for all members. Through the prism of health, one can see very clearly the influence of Fanon’s dissection of colonial medicine in Algeria on the Panthers’ understanding of medical discrimination in the U.S. We can take seriously the fact that Fanon and Che were physicians as well as political thinkers. We can appreciate that Mao, who established the “barefoot doctors” lay health worker program, made available to the Party not only broad revolutionary principles, but also specific ideas about health care as political practice.
A3N: What do you think were the most successful tactics employed by the BPP as part of its health activism? Strategically speaking, what lessons from the BPP’s health activism do you think are most applicable for today’s activists to learn from?
AN: In addition to setting up their own clinics, they used legal approaches not dissimilar from the NAACP to voice their opposition to problematic biomedical research. The Party leadership realized early on that “policing the police” would not be the only method they used in their effort to topple racism and capitalism. The Panthers were pretty flexible tacticians.
One of the lessons that the BPP offers today’s activists is that they should be more loyal to the desired outcome than to the tactic. The sit-in came to be associated with the southern civil rights movement just as the mic check is now emblematic of the Occupy movement. But these groups also used other tactics: marching, occupying, sermons, etc. Social movements are dynamic phenomena; circumstances are constantly changing. So too should tactics.
One of the BPP’s more fascinating tactics was what I call, after sociologist Lily Hoffman, the “politics of knowledge.” Working in this vein, the Panthers engaged and reinterpreted scientific ideas about race and disease. They reinterpreted scientific theories about the causes of sickle cell anemia, for example, by placing the prevalence of the disease in the context of the history of the transatlantic slave trade, the medical-industrial complex and contemporary racism.
The Panthers use of this tactic—the politics of knowledge—should remind today’s activists that “framing” matters. It is important to be able to translate political arguments—health-related ones and other ones—into language, into stories really, that resonate with the broader public. The Party could be expert at this.
The Nixon administration and mainstream philanthropies would ultimately coopt the issue of sickle cell anemia. But the BPP played a key role in raising awareness about the disease and in situating it in a powerful political language that could mobilize communities.
A3N: Along with chapters focusing on the BPP’s free medical clinics and the campaign to educate the Black community about and test for Sickle Cell Anemia, another chapter focuses on the BPP’s involvement with a diverse coalition that successfully organized against the formation of the Center for the Study and Reduction of Violence at UCLA in 1973. You write that BPP felt that the Center’s “biologization of violence” line of research would ultimately “craft a narrative of Black and Latino violent pathology” that would serve to “make already marginalized populations more vulnerable to medicine as a tool of social control,” and “effect the further criminalization of social groups—black males, the incarcerated—and in turn justify calls for increased surveillance and social control.”
While writing that the defeat of the Center was a “notable triumph,” you note further that it “was somewhat of a Pyrrhic victory for Newton and his allies, as blocking resources to the center as an entity would not prevent individual researchers from pursuing other sources of support for their investigations.” With this in mind, how has biologization of violence research progressed since the 1970s? How much influence has it had on public policy?
AN: Attempts to attribute the causes of violence to biology (and closely related to this, criminality) are a very old story. In the late 19th century, the influential Italian criminologist Lombroso, claimed that new methods (e.g., phrenology) and theories (e.g., social Darwinism) showed that the tendency toward criminal behavior was inherited.
More than one hundred years later, similar ideas persist. In the 1990s, during the first Bush presidency, Louis Sullivan, the Secretary of Health and Human Services set-up a “violence initiative” to explore the biological models of social unrest in urban settings. Your readers may recall that around the same time another Bush official, referencing studies on violence among non-human primates, said that disproportionately black and brown “inner cities” were like “jungles.” (The initiative and controversial commentary around it would recall to the heated debate the Panthers were engaged in over plans to form a “violence center” at UCLA in the 1970s that may have had an especially harmful impact on black and Latino youth and men).
Recently behavioral researchers have aimed to link the presence of what has been called the “warrior gene” to violent, criminal behavior. At a time when we are learning even more about the complexities of genetic inheritance, about the epigenome and the systems biology, it simply does not make sense that one single genetic marker could have such a dramatic, determinative effect.
A3N: What role has biologization of violence research played in justifying the mass incarceration explosion that began in the 1970s, increasing the prison population from 300,000 to 2.4 million today, giving the US the highest incarceration rate and the largest total prisoner population in the world?
AN: To the extent that the longstanding efforts that I have just described have kept in circulation the fallacy that there is a definitive link between human biology and violence, theses ideas have indeed served as a justification for the expansion of the carceral system.
This is where the policy implications of the biologization of violence come to the fore: If violence is “in your genes” or “in your blood,” then one can justify policies that lock people away because these people are “lost causes.”
And, in turn, the idea that there is a innate predisposition to violence contributes to the decline of support for rehabilitation and reparative justice programs.
A3N: Since the 1970s, has the US come any closer to realizing the BPP’s public health goals? If BPP co-founder Huey P Newton were alive today, what do you think he would say about President Obama’s “Affordable Care Act?”
AN: The revised ten-point platform was prescient in capturing one side of the recent debates about widening health inequality in the U.S. and what to do about it. If I had to venture a guess, I would say that Newton and the Party would have appreciated the historic nature of what President Obama accomplished—a feat that many administrations before his had variously tried to accomplish and failed to do. Perhaps Newton would have even observed that the Affordable Care Act is a very small step in the right direction.
However, some journalists and pundits have noted the similarity between President Obama’s historic Affordable Care Act and the national insurance plan that former President Nixon backed unsuccessfully. Given the animus between the Party and Nixon, and the way this administration and its agents worked to destroy the BPP, it is hard to imagine that Newton would have been in strong support of recent healthcare reform legislation. There would have certainly been opposition to the fact that President Obama’s plan is a boon for insurance companies because the Panthers demanded, “healthcare for the people, not for profit.”
--Angola 3 News is an official project of the International Coalition to Free the Angola 3. Our website is www.angola3news.com, where we provide the latest news about the Angola 3. Additionally we are also creating our own media projects, which spotlight the issues central to the story of the Angola 3, like racism, repression, prisons, human rights, solitary confinement as torture, and more. Our articles and videos have been published by Alternet, Truthout, Counterpunch, Monthly Review, Z Magazine, Indymedia, and many others.
Available link for download
Wednesday, March 29, 2017
Mickey Mouse Party
Mickey Mouse Party
Jennifer Carver of Banner Events, one of my FAVORITE and truly talented party stylists, is here today with her own sons Mickey Mouse Party using our MICKEY MOUSE PARTY PRINTABLES SET. Busy with client parties, Jennifer only had two weeks to create this adorable party for her son, Max, who LOVES Mickey Mouse.
Jennifer says, "So how do you put together a last minute Mickey party? In my case, you pull out Mickey toys from your child’s toy box, leftover cloud and green butcher paper from your craft room, some tablecloths & fabric in the color scheme and raid your party goods stash!"
Find more details below about Jennifers party...
Jennifer tells us more about her party….
I wrapped a few empty boxes and Styrofoam in some fun striped wrapping paper and filled some pots with styrofoam and paper shred making cute centerpieces using the printables from Amanda’s Parties to Go that I had leftover from a previous party.
Other décor items included a colorful banner I printed and tied scrap ribbon to and some Mickey Mouse inspired letters of our last name I made after being inspired by one of Amanda’s Parties to Gos customers. They are a fun DIY project using 3-D cardboard letters from JoAnns, some spray paint, various scrapbook paper & embellishments and the printables.
There was little time to custom bake treats, let alone order any. I am so grateful to two amazing businesses who saved the day! Bella’s Bakery & Bowtique (cake pops and Oreos) and Sweets from Heaven, Outlets at Orange (candy kabobs) sent custom treats to coordinate with our theme.
Candy bars were wrapped with darling “Oh Toodles” wrappers from Amanda’s Parties To Go’s collection. Mini candy bars and Hershey Kisses were “dressed up” in fun labels and wrappers and displayed in serving dishes I already own. From my party stash, I pulled out some leftover red popcorn boxes and gave them a Mickey update with some scraps of scrapbook paper and an oval paper punch.
Our tabletop was easy to throw together. Mickey plates were made by gluing smaller black plates from The Dollar Tree to larger black plates. Each place setting included a napkin with a cute coordinating wrap, plus a drink wrapped in a cute Mickey themed beverage wrapper with a fun yellow striped straw and Mickey Mouse topper.
We used homemade cupcakes for our centerpiece embellished with some colorful printable cupcake toppers attached to sucker sticks and bright polka dot cupcake wrappers I had in my stash. Polka dot balloons helped to tie everything together. A friend of mine (thank you Kate!) found these darling Mickey Mouse cups at Target last fall. They made the perfect holder for the Mickey cake pops. Aren’t they adorable?
Because there were already so many sweet treats, we kept party favors simple. Each guest received a little bag of Mickey Mouse labeled Hershey Kisses to take home and some bubbles to play with in the backyard. The birthday boy was in heaven!
________________________
Credits:
Event Styling: Jen Carver: Banner Events
Mickey Mouse Printable Set: Amandas Parties to Go
Cake Pops & Chocolate Covered Mickey Oreos: Bellas Bakery & Bowtique
Custom Mickey Mouse Candy Kabobs: Sweets from Heaven, Outlets at Orange
Available link for download
Monday, March 27, 2017
Memo to republicans dont bother voting in 2012 Your vote only increases the chance of your party winning by 0 0001
Memo to republicans dont bother voting in 2012 Your vote only increases the chance of your party winning by 0 0001
EPA CO2 regulations would reduce global temps by only 0.0037C. Unless all the other countries cut emissions too its pointless.
This is also the reason why I never vote.
Think about it - it takes me an hour to get to the nearest polling station and another hour to get back again, costing me both time and fuel. Considering that money and effort makes a contribution to the tea party of just 0.0001% of the vote, whats the point?
Republicans will also be wise enough not to bother voting for the same reason. Democrats are of course too stupid to understand statistics and theyll flock to the polls thinking their 0.0001% will make any difference.
Available link for download
Wednesday, March 22, 2017
Mike V Skateboard Party HD v1 33 Mod Unlimited EXP Unlocked
Mike V Skateboard Party HD v1 33 Mod Unlimited EXP Unlocked
![Mike V: Skateboard Party HD v1.33 Mod [Unlimited EXP/ Unlocked]](https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgoaP3Aed-YJlyiPhAISEkhaPHPmlp_Kofu8NVZngWbsOtSj16UOZf5HnqrJbDvOd_5hlk_9YF1MLIdf2voC6Tsf9lQgbXgSavq30UK1mi1ryD_Ig7d7QnquKRB33HpvtF-b04n30IESDPj/s1600/unnamed5.PNG "Mike V: Skateboard Party HD v1.33 Mod [Unlimited EXP/ Unlocked]")
Complete achievements, gain experience and upgrade your skaters. Customize your outfits, shoes, board, trucks, wheels and bearings. Challenge skaters from all over the world using our online leaderboards.
XPERIA PLAY SUPPORT
Xperia Play Optimized (The first PlayStation™ Certified Android smartphone).
MOGA CONTROLLER SUPPORT
Mike V Skateboard Party is now MOGA Enhanced! Available at major US retailers and online at http://www.powera.com/moga
CAREER MODE
Complete over 25 achievements to unlock new items and locations. Gain experience to upgrade your favorite skater’s attributes to perform better and achieve higher scores.
FREE SKATE
Practice and improve your skateboarding skills without any constraints.
MASSIVE SELECTION
Select between 8 characters and customize each of them to your preference. From outfits to shoes, choose your favorite gear. A massive collection of boards, trucks, wheels and bearings are available including items from Airwalk, Powell & Peralta, Bones, Tork Trux and Iron Fist Clothing.
LEARN TO SKATE
Over 40 unique tricks to master and hundreds of combinations. Follow the tutorial to get started and progress as you go. Execute the craziest combos and trick sequences to rack up some impressive high scores, gain experience and make a name for yourself.
NEW CONTROLS
New fully customizable control system; configure your own buttons layout and adjust the opacity. Use the right or left handed control mode, select a control preset or create your own. Use the analog stick or accelerometer option as you wish. Adjust your truck tightness to change your steering sensitivity.
FEATURES
• The only HD Skateboarding game available on the market.
• New, fully customizable control system.
• Learn over 40 tricks, create hundreds of combinations.
• Massive skateboard locations to ride including a community center, motel, downtown plaza, junkyard, indoor skatepark and vert ramp.
• Customize your skater or board with tons of exclusive content including outfits, shoes, boards, trucks, wheels and bearings. Select from your favorite brands including Airwalk, Powell & Peralta, Tork Trux and Iron Fist Clothing.
• Gain experience and upgrade your skater’s attributes.
• Achievements & leaderboards.
• Share your results with your friends on Facebook or Twitter.
• Soundtrack by Conditions & Revolution Mother.
• Universal version for Android phones and tablets
•Additional charges may apply (In-app purchase) to unlock specific locations.
HIGH DEFINITION
No other skateboarding game is available in HD. Mike V: Skateboard Party includes next generation graphics specially optimized for your mobile hardware to provide you with the best skateboarding experience on Android phone or tablet.
MIN HARDWARE REQUIREMENTS
•Compatible with all Android based phones and tablets running a resolution of 800x480 or higher.
Whats New
Important fixes and improvements
![Mike V: Skateboard Party HD v1.33 Mod [Unlimited EXP/ Unlocked]](https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhASBnEjNohBbZqacec0qBxmg20hvZqTZUuwlZGWLI3sPIZpOMBfII6uZXiZcwMhcEmRj048wshSXZl4zNgjrJFL_Mybz18fJLfrzLLBx1HcYlVl0GJU84xjqo9jYbTGe4zOsVzOgyNXe7b/s1600/1.webp "Mike V: Skateboard Party HD v1.33 Mod [Unlimited EXP/ Unlocked]")
Whats in Mod:
- Unlimited EXP
- All Skateboards, Trucks and Wheels Unlocked
- All Characters and Outfits Unlocked
- All Location Unlocked
- All Achievements Unlocked
- 100% Game Progress
Require 2.3 and Up & File Size 50 MB
GOOGLE PLAY
Download Mike V: Skateboard Party HD v1.33 Mod [Unlimited EXP/ Unlocked] APK
Available link for download
Sunday, January 29, 2017
Mickey Mouse Disney Carnival Party
Mickey Mouse Disney Carnival Party
Sometimes waiting patiently to reveal photos is the hardest part of being in the party business. (Can you tell patience might just not be my best quality?) After the party ran on the Hostess With the Mostess Blog a few days ago, I can now reveal these fabulous photos to my readers, too.
My oh so talented friend, Kate Petronis of And Everything Sweet, wanted to celebrate her daughters birthday with all things Disney and came to me for a little printable help. As you can see from the photos below, Kate is such a whiz at parties, Im not so sure she needs ANY help at all! This girl has more talent.... see that cake? A 7 TIER TOPSY TURVY CAKE representing each of her daughters favorite Disney characters. And the cake is just the beginning... with this DISNEY PARTY CARNIVAL, Kate pulled out all the stops.... games, prizes, a princess and YES, even Mickey himself showed up to wish little Olivia a very happy birthday!
-E.jpg)
-E.jpg)
-E.jpg)
-E.jpg)
-E.jpg)
-E.jpg)
Kate tells us about the details:
I threw a Disney Carnival themed party for my precious little 3 year old baby girl. She loves all the Mickey and Friends characters and anything princess, so when it came to planning her party I knew just what the theme would be… Disney Carnival! Mickey Mouse (Played by my husband!) and Cinderella both came to entertain and wish Olivia a Happy Birthday. I set up carnival games for the kids to play and win prizes (that they could pick out from the prize table). When the princess came she sang, painted faces, made balloon animals and even did a magic show. It was amazing. The party was so colorful, non stop fun and amazing to watch all the children’s eyes fill with wonder as the characters came out.
All the children were asked to come dressed as their favorite disney character and of course they all came as princesses. There was one boy in attendance… bless his heart. He was not too happy with the princess portion of the party, but she did a great job including him, even made him a sword.
I had soo much fun putting together the prizes table! Amanda from Amandas Parties To Go helped with the printables (the Mickey Mouse Clubhouse inspired set found here). I found most of my prizes at Walmart in the Valentines day clearance and used her printables to make them fit the theme of Mickey and Friends. I also purchased bubbles and frisbees from the Dollar Tree and embellished with printables as well. It all came together so nicely and made a big impact. Prizes included candy bars, little Disney figurines, frisbees, disk shooters, yo yo’s, sand molds, bubbles and gum balls.
Everything on the dessert table was made by myself. It was filled with chocolate and vanilla cupcakes, cake pops & a 7 tier topsy turvy Mickey and Friends cake. WHEW! This one nearly killed me! I love love love how colorful and crazy it is.
– Desserts: And Everything Sweet
– Printables: Amandas Parties To Go
– Photography:Kate Petronis
– Photo Editing: Amanda Parker
– Princess: CopyCats for Kids
– Princess: CopyCats for Kids
– Online paper (for water wraps, bubble wraps, candy bars, etc): OnlineLabels.com
_____________________________________
I sometimes link to: Under the Table and Dreaming, Lil Luna, Craftomaniac, Tater Tots and Jello, Skip to my Lou, Blue Cricket Design, Someday Crafts, Somewhat Simple, Tidy Mom, Romantic Home, Shabby Nest, Finding Fabulous, The Girl Creative, Be Different Act Normal,Todays Creative Blog, Tip Junkie, C.R.A.F.T., Tea Rose Home, Beyond the Picket Fence, Mad in Crafts, Sugar Bee Crafts, Whipperberry, Sassy Sites, Between Naps on the Porch
Available link for download
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)