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    Not Enough Day DrinkingMonique Judge
    8/09/17 6:22pm

    “History is written by the victors.”

    I would tweak that slightly to “History is written by the survivors.”

    Example: The native people never beat Andrew Jackson, but they survived him, so they were able to tell their story.

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      Monique JudgeNot Enough Day Drinking
      8/09/17 9:08pm

      I mean, I wanted to say “history is written by white people who will skew the truth in order to fit their agenda” but that might not fly.

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      Not Enough Day DrinkingMonique Judge
      8/09/17 9:13pm

      As someone who used to watch the History Channel regularly, I believe history today is about reality tv. Which is really the fundamental problem. Even if the history exists, no one gives a shit.

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    SHoughMonique Judge
    8/09/17 6:30pm

    Great piece.

    I commented on Michael’s piece about how Trayvon Martin radicalized me. But I have a tenuous connection to Ferguson.

    My Aunt and Uncle settled in St. Louis and raised their three kids there. Two of those kids stayed and because I was an oops baby I’m actually closer in age to the children of those cousins than the cousins themselves. I got close with one of their kids and went to visit her in the Summer of 2014.

    What shocked me about St. Louis was how segregated it was. I’d always thought of St. Louis as not really part of the midwest (I always felt that the midwest leaned more towards the North in the old saw that “in the south they’re fine with POC if they don’t get too high, in the north they’re fine with POC if they don’t get too close). But after that visit... oh yeah, they were.

    Driving to the airport when I was leaving I noticed how different the surroundings became as you got closer to the airport. My cousin’s wife acknowledged it and talked about her sister’s frustration with teaching computer science in a high school near the aiport. How it was underfunded, how there wasn’t much institutional support.

    “It’s segregated,” I said, bluntly, cutting her off.

    She stammered and sputtered to disagree.

    “Mostly black? Poor? They don’t fund it well. Schools are ‘separate but equal’? I grew up in Virginia, I know what de facto segregation looks like,” I said.

    My cousin’s wife admitted that yes, that was the case.  

    What shocked me about St. Louis was how total the segregation was. I was there four days and in the suburbs and I don’t know if I saw a POC who wasn’t working in some capacity (employed at a shopping mall, a restaurant, etc.). Any other city I’d been to you at least see one POC not in a service role.

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      ThatMixedHippieChickSHough
      8/09/17 11:58pm

      My husband is from St. Louis and each time we go there the entire experience is so bothersome. The city and suburbs are extremely segregated, the white people are nice enough but do not engage them on any topics at all below the surface- they are mostly all sorta racist all lives matter types. It seems like a city proud to be full of shitty assholes- and I’m from the Boston area and now live in Florida so I know shitty and racist.

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      Multi-grain BeardThatMixedHippieChick
      8/10/17 12:11am

      You’ve got St. Louis pegged. The real problem is, it’s not accidental. The segregation there has gone on for over a century and was and is deliberately planned.

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    Rooo sez BISH PLZMonique Judge
    8/09/17 6:58pm

    Because we are always doing the work, on a daily basis. Erasure comes in many forms; the media is just one.

    As long as I have fingers to type, a platform on which to share, and a constant, daily source of stories to tell, our history will be well written. Our history will be represented. Our history will matter.

    #SingIt

    #NothingToAdd

    #RealJournalism

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    Cali4lifeMonique Judge
    8/09/17 6:36pm

    “It is important for us to tell the stories of what happens to us in this time and to be the primary sources that define how these stories are told throughout history.”

    - Love. This.

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    Multi-grain BeardMonique Judge
    8/10/17 12:26am

    “Ferguson” means something entirely different to white and black America. For black Americans, it was one of the major launching pads for the beginning of a movement. It highlights the deliberate assault on black people as planned by those in positions of power and authority. For a whole lot of white people (I can’t just say white people, because, you know, not all of us...), Ferguson means riots, law-breakers, etc. They still see Michael Brown (and Trayvon Martin, and Philando Castile, and so on) as criminals who went up against the police heroes and lost. For those people, Black Lives Matter is bastardized to mean that black lives mean more than others. They refuse to see that white lives and blue lives have always mattered in America, and black lives haven’t.

    Shit, I don’t even know where I’m going with this. I’m frustrated. I guess all I can do is agree with your point that telling the stories that fight the misinformation, showing the human aspect of those who have been repeatedly dehumanized, and being resilient is all I can do, so I’ll be damned if I don’t do it. I’ve got to keep pointing out the same damned things over and over again to show why the problems in America are so fucking big and hope that, every once in a while, someone listens.

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