Air Mail: Politics

Will Some Twentysomethings Take Down Trump?

Shawn McCreesh — Sat, 20 Jun 2020 00:00:00 +0000

Fire and brimstone, tear gas and flash grenades: Donald Trump poses in front of St. John’s Episcopal Church with a book that talks about comforting the downtrodden.

Two roommates sue the president for violating their constitutional rights—simply so he could pose with a Bible

By Shawn McCreesh

On a gorgeous Monday evening outside of the White House earlier this month, Ann Dagrin’s and Radiya Buchanan’s eyes were watering and their throats were burning. It wasn’t until the next day that they learned why: Donald Trump had ordered tear gas and flash grenades be used to disperse the peaceful protest they were participating in. Once they found out that the shellacking had been ordered up simply so the commander in chief could swan over to St. John’s Episcopal Church with Ivanka and pose with a Bible that she’d stashed in her $1,540 Max Mara tote did it occur to these two protesters, who both work in education, that what their president had done was totally un-American—not to mention unconstitutional. So they decided to sue. READ ON

Multi-Player Movement

Richard Lloyd Parry — Sat, 13 Jun 2020 00:00:00 +0000

The popular Nintendo Switch game Animal Crossing was banned by the Chinese government after pro-democracy activists in Hong Kong began using the virtual world as a platform to spread their message.

How the bobbleheaded critters of Nintendo’s Animal Crossing became enemies of the Chinese state

By Richard Lloyd Parry

A video game in which players use cartoon avatars to explore an imaginary island has been blocked in China after Hong Kong democracy activists used it for virtual anti-government protests.

Animal Crossing: New Horizons on the Nintendo Switch had been available in China since last month. Now it has abruptly disappeared after becoming the forum for protesters whose mass demonstrations have been stifled by the coronavirus.

“Animal Crossing is Fast Becoming a New Way for Hong Kong Protesters to Fight for Democracy!” Joshua Wong, 23, the leader of the political party Demosisto, wrote on Twitter. “The #Covid_19 pandemic has halted public demonstrations, so protesters are taking their cause to #AnimalCrossing.” READ ON

Red Summer

Carol Anderson — Sat, 6 Jun 2020 00:00:00 +0000

Woodrow Wilson’s attorney general, A. Mitchell Palmer, deployed the state militia to quell the violence on the South Side of Chicago during the 1919 race riots.

A century ago, another U.S. president and his top cop turned a blind eye to violence against black Americans

By Carol Anderson

In 1919, as soldiers returned from the first world war, many white Americans saw African American men in military uniforms for the first time. That sight, and the challenge it posed to the political, social and economic order, was deeply threatening to them. Groups of armed white men hunted down and slaughtered hundreds of black Americans across the country. The wave of lynchings and race riots came to be known as the Red Summer.

The black community did its best to fight back, without protection from the state. In some cases, police actively participated in the lynchings. The US READ ON