washingtonmonthly--2020-06-11--Why I Threw Away My Copy of Gone with the Wind

I threw away my copy of Gone with the Wind .
It wasn ’ t easy .
The book spent a couple of weeks sitting recycling-adjacent before I came up with the will to toss it into the bin .
I held it in my hands one last time , and I kissed the title page where my father had inscribed : “ To Beth .
Christmas 1975.
” And then I dropped it into the garbage .
I don ’ t think I ’ d ever thrown away a book before—at least , not one that was still intact @ @ @ @ @ @ @ I didn ’ t want to be responsible for one more young girl reading Gone with the Wind .
It is a pernicious book .
It is an evil book .
It weaves a spell that has perverted our national vision of slavery and warped our understanding of the Civil War and its long , vicious aftermath .
Its sugarcoated white supremacy has inflicted grievous , lasting harm on our country for generations .
Gone with the Wind is poison .
And it is more toxic because the poison is concealed within a @ @ @ @ @ @ @ prose .
Today , as our nation is galvanized by the murder of George Floyd and the national protest movement it catalyzed , some white people are taking grudging steps toward acknowledging the reality that Scarlett O ’ Hara ’ s saga is really Birth of a Nation in crinolines .
HBO Max recently announced that it is temporarily removing the movie from its streaming catalog .
But that tepid move immediately sent the movie to the top of Amazon ’ s bestseller chart , where it is described as “ a classic @ @ @ @ @ @ @ ’ s disgusting .
It ’ s wrong .
And it ’ s a disgrace to our nation .
If this seems like an over-the-top response to a romance novel , it ’ s not .
Gone with the Wind holds a central position in this nation ’ s cultural iconography .
The book has sold more than 30 million copies worldwide—and is still proudly in print almost 85 years after it was first published .
The American Film Institute ranks Gone with the Wind as the fourth best American movie of all @ @ @ @ @ @ @ , and The Godfather , and it remains the biggest theatrical movie release of all time , with more than 202 million paid admissions .
( Adjusted for inflation , it brought in more than $ 1.8 billion in ticket sales . )
In 1976 , a network television showing captured 47.5 percent of all U.S. households .
And those whopping numbers don ’ t include $ 100 million in DVD and Blu-ray sales , or the unpublished—but massive—VHS sales and Netflix viewings .
Black director , screenwriter and novelist John Ridley , @ @ @ @ @ @ @ screenplay for 12 Years a Slave , led the call for HBO Max to take the film off its roster .
In an opinion piece for the L.A. Times , he called Gone with the Wind “ its own unique problem…It is a film that , as part of the narrative of the ‘ Lost Cause , ’ romanticizes the Confederacy in a way that continues to give legitimacy to the notion that the secessionist movement was something more , or better , or more noble than what it was—a bloody insurrection to @ @ @ @ @ @ @ , sell and buy human beings .
The movie had the very best talents in Hollywood at that time working together to sentimentalize a history that never was .
And it continues to give cover to those who falsely claim that clinging to the iconography of the plantation era is a matter of ‘ heritage , not hate.
’ ” Ridley carefully noted that he is not calling for censorship ; rather , he thinks that GWTW should be reintroduced in a context that underscores its viciously skewed vision of history .
I @ @ @ @ @ @ @ the same treatment as Mein Kampf , and the movie should be considered the American cousin of Triumph of the Will .
Anybody who champions either book or movie is standing up for the cause of white supremacy and should be judged accordingly .
I first encountered Gone with the Wind when I was 11 years old .
I was spending the summer with my grandmother in Hartford , Kentucky , while my mother was in school .
It was breathlessly hot , and the town movie theater was one of the few @ @ @ @ @ @ @ when GWTW came to town for a week-long run , I wound up seeing the movie—all four hours of it—six times .
( That included the special Thursday matinee , when you could get in for six RC Cola caps . )
I was spellbound .
I was enraptured with the vision of a world filled with brave , courtly men and lovely ladies with tiny waists and spines of steel .
I longed to share in the romantic , elegant heritage of the Deep South – even though I was a Yankee @ @ @ @ @ @ @ of Lincoln .
( I remember being initially confused when Scarlett O ’ Hara made a joke about being so happy that she wouldn ’ t mind dancing with Abe Lincoln himself . )
After gulping the movie down like a supersized RC Cola , I ran to the library , found the book and read it cover-to-cover in a few heated days .
Then I read it again .
And again .
And again .
It ’ s hard to explain the allure of Gone with the Wind to the unconverted .
@ @ @ @ @ @ @ emotional punch has to do with Scarlett ’ s complicated character – a mix of adolescent swooniness and granite determination .
Scarlett is an avatar of resilience .
She singlehandedly saves her family by working in the cotton fields , and then goes on to run a thriving lumber business .
She is driven , practical , energetic , and fierce .
Oh , and she and her family and her friends own human beings in chattel slavery .
This is what makes Gone with the Wind so pernicious : The book dutifully @ @ @ @ @ @ @ fact , Scarlett ’ s beloved Ashley Wilkes engages in some pious virtue-signaling by telling Scarlett that he had actually planned to free his slaves , had the war not done it for him .
But the evil of slavery in the abstract is far overshadowed by the book ’ s sepia-toned depictions of slavery in the book ’ s internal reality ; Scarlett ’ s slaves are tied to her by the bonds of affection , and they all continue in her devoted service after the war .
Again and again , @ @ @ @ @ @ @ of slavery in the economic lives of its central characters .
In one particularly lovely passage , Scarlett and Ashley reminisce about life on the plantation before the war : The full passage beautifully evokes the “ slow-paced glamour ” of an idealized antebellum South – and it draws an opaque , green velvet curtain across the bitter forced labor required to bestow endless leisure on a small class of favored white people .
It would be enlightening to hear Gone with the Wind ’ s defenders explain their willingness to overlook the @ @ @ @ @ @ @ and threatened with rape by two men—one of them a black man “ with shoulders and chest like a gorilla , ” in Mitchell ’ s words .
Scarlett is saved in the nick of time by one of her former slaves , Big Sam , who later refers to her attacker as “ dat black baboon.
” Later that night , the local Ku Klux Klan—led by Ashley Wilkes and Scarlett ’ s husband , Frank Kennedy – head out on a lynching party to kill the men who attacked Scarlett .
@ @ @ @ @ @ @ shocked to learn that her husband is a Klan member , her exasperated sister-in-law lashes out : “ Of course , Mr. Kennedy is in the Klan and Ashley , too , and all the men we know… They are men , aren ’ t they ?
And white men and Southerners .
You should have been proud of him instead of making him sneak out as though it were something shameful and— ” This is a pivotal scene , in both the book and the movie ( although the movie does not @ @ @ @ @ @ @ It unequivocally justifies vigilantism and murder in defense of white southern womanhood .
Yet when the movie is criticized , its champions somehow fail to mention its central veneration of white supremacist violence .
So what ?
It ’ s hardly news that a book written by a southern white woman almost a century ago portrays white supremacy and slavery—and the economy built upon them – in ways that deny reality and promote a “ genteel ” myth of a world that never existed .
But here ’ s the thing : In @ @ @ @ @ @ @ I still yearn to be like Scarlett O ’ Hara .
Oh , I don ’ t mean the willfully oblivious “ belle ” whose personal fortune was extracted from the theft of labor and the threat of violent death ; that Scarlett does not exist , because the vile reality of slavery never intrudes into GWTW ’ s fictional South .
The Scarlett that I want to be is indomitable and loyal and utterly captivating .
As viewed solely within the elegantly deceptive frame created by her author , Scarlett is a @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Melanie Wilkes , and so is lovely Ellen O ’ Hara .
Even today , Margaret Mitchell ’ s tributes to the enduring strength and beauty of southern womanhood continue to echo , unbidden , in my head .
Let me stress that I fully understand the absurdity of this confession , because my reading did not stop with Margaret Mitchell .
I have read Zora Neale Hurston and Toni Morrison .
I also have read unexpurgated histories that make it unambiguously clear that the confederate states seceded over the issue of slavery @ @ @ @ @ @ @ of the antebellum South was bloody and violent and horrific , and the Confederate flag is an ugly symbol of treason and white supremacy .
Full stop .
But I did not fully understand these things when I was seduced by GWTW , and I know that there are millions and millions of white Americans who are still blinded to the ugly realities of our nation ’ s history because of GWTW ’ s pretty lies .
For too many , the face of slavery is still Hattie McDaniel , a formidable matriarchal @ @ @ @ @ @ @ – and her broad onscreen smile makes it possible for us to forget that McDaniel accepted her Oscar in a segregated hotel that forced her to sit at a side table far from her A-list costars .
As humans , we are wired for myth .
And this myth still matters , tremendously .
When Ta-Nehisi Coates writes about the need for reparations , his arguments are undermined by Margaret Mitchell ’ s anodyne depiction of soft voices singing in the slave quarters .
When activists denounce the confederate flag as a symbol @ @ @ @ @ @ @ is undermined by the movie ’ s iconic shot of the tattered Stars and Bars waving sadly over a vast field of dead and dying southern soldiers .
Even the sight of angry , contorted faces lit by tiki torches is slightly softened by our memory of Ashley Wilkes as a noble , wounded Klansman—played by Leslie Howard , a Jewish actor who was killed in 1943 when his plane was shot down by the Luftwaffe .
This myth shows no signs of losing its power over the white American imagination .
A @ @ @ @ @ @ @ the Gone with the Wind Museum in Marietta , Georgia , and spotted a 7-year-old girl raptly watching the movie on a TV screen .
The museum ’ s director looked on approvingly : “ There are all these new fans , the younger ones , and it ’ s important to them , too…They see it , and they don ’ t see the history ; they just see a good movie that has all the elements.
” That little girl is not alone ; a recent traveling exhibit of GWTW memorabilia @ @ @ @ @ @ @ and the movie currently has a 4.5-star rating on iTunes .
So what are we supposed to do ?
How can we persuade millions and millions of Americans that an ugly and painful truth is better than a beautiful and seductive lie ?
The first step must be to take it seriously .
If you roll your eyes at the thought of 21st century adults viewing our nation ’ s painful history of slavery through Scarlett-colored glasses , you are part of the problem .
To dismiss GWTW as “ just a novel @ @ @ @ @ @ @ is to close your eyes to the immense power of media—and of propaganda .
One of the movie ’ s title cards reads : “ There was a land of Cavaliers and cotton fields called the Old South .
Here in this pretty world , gallantry took its last bow .
Here was the last ever to be seen of knights and their ladies fair , of master and of slave…Look for it only in books , for it is no more than a dream remembered .
A civilization gone with the wind.
@ @ @ @ @ @ @ cold and bitter historical facts compete with such pretty prevarication—especially when the falsified view has been honored and certified with a Pulitzer Prize for literature and 10 Academy Awards ?
It also should be noted that the New York Times ’ 1937 review informed readers that “ The historical background is the chief virtue of the book ” and that “ no reader can come away without a sense of the tragedy that overcame the planting families in 1865… ” We must not trivialize this invidious myth just because it was presented in @ @ @ @ @ @ @ white people need to lead this fight .
I ’ m not saying this as a white savior wannabe ; it ’ s just that black people have been protesting the book and the movie it spawned for the better part of a century .
The book was denounced by black leaders at the time of its publication .
“ We consider this work to be a glorification of the old rotten system of slavery , propaganda for race-hatreds and bigotry , and incitement of lynching , ” members of a Pittsburgh group @ @ @ @ @ @ @ O. Selznick after he announced his plans to film the book .
When the movie debuted ( at a whites-only movie theater in Atlanta ) , African Americans picketed from coast to coast .
The Chicago Defender called the movie “ propaganda , pure propaganda , crude propaganda .
It is anti-Negro propaganda of the most vicious character .
It is un-American propaganda .
It is subversive.
” Yet the black community ’ s decades of consistent protest and denunciation have gone largely unheard .
Consider the response when a Memphis theater canceled @ @ @ @ @ @ @ supremacists rioted in Charlottesville in 2017 .
Unsurprisingly , Fox News host Todd Starnes lamented that “ our beloved film is gone with the wind — done in by a bunch of meddling , no-account thespian carpetbaggers.
” But French writer/philosopher Bernard-Henri Levy also felt called to weigh in , saying he was “ appalled ” by the theater ’ s “ alarming suppression of artistic expression.
” USA Today ’ s coverage of the controversy stressed the fury of “ the film ’ s fans , free-expression supporters and Dixie sympathizers ” @ @ @ @ @ @ @ ’ and PC-obsessed liberals they blame for the decision.
” White America ’ s veneration of GWTW has to end , now .
I know that the teenaged girls in polyester hoop skirts who serve as docents at southern house tours don ’ t realize that they ’ re taking a page from the white supremacist playbook .
But they are , and their GWTW cosplay shapes the way they think , and the way they vote , for the rest of their lives .
It is time to send Gone with the @ @ @ @ @ @ @ history , where Scarlett can rub ( her shamelessly uncovered ) shoulders with Little Black Sambo and Song of the South .
It is time for us to rip the gauze off the lens and start looking at the history of the South in the cold and unforgiving light of historic reality .
Scholars can still read and view GWTW , but as a problematic text within the context of its racism and cultural influence .
At this extraordinary moment in American history , it is time for all of us to admit @ @ @ @ @ @ @ a central role in creating our enduring culture of white supremacy .
That must end , starting right now .
Some will call this censorship .
Some will chortle at the notion that a novel or a movie abounding in flounces and hoop skirts could actually influence the body politic .
Proud southerners will take high-handed offense at the notion that their beloved Gone with the Wind is actually a powerful racist tract .
And conservatives will continue to carp at the politically correct snowflakes who refuse to view a prettified story of @ @ @ @ @ @ @ white supremacy as an “ American classic .
”

I threw away my copy of Gone with the Wind.
It wasn’t easy. The book spent a couple of weeks sitting recycling-adjacent before I came up with the will to toss it into the bin. I held it in my hands one last time, and I kissed the title page where my father had inscribed: “To Beth. Christmas 1975.” And then I dropped it into the garbage.
I don’t think I’d ever thrown away a book before—at least, not one that was still intact. But this book was different. I didn’t want to be responsible for one more young girl reading Gone with the Wind. It is a pernicious book. It is an evil book. It weaves a spell that has perverted our national vision of slavery and warped our understanding of the Civil War and its long, vicious aftermath. Its sugarcoated white supremacy has inflicted grievous, lasting harm on our country for generations. Gone with the Wind is poison. And it is more toxic because the poison is concealed within a powerful—even feminist— story told in deathlessly lyrical prose.
Today, as our nation is galvanized by the murder of George Floyd and the national protest movement it catalyzed, some white people are taking grudging steps toward acknowledging the reality that Scarlett O’Hara’s saga is really Birth of a Nation in crinolines. HBO Max recently announced that it is temporarily removing the movie from its streaming catalog. But that tepid move immediately sent the movie to the top of Amazon’s bestseller chart, where it is described as “a classic epic of the American South.”
That’s disgusting. It’s wrong. And it’s a disgrace to our nation.
If this seems like an over-the-top response to a romance novel, it’s not. Gone with the Wind holds a central position in this nation’s cultural iconography. The book has sold more than 30 million copies worldwide—and is still proudly in print almost 85 years after it was first published. The American Film Institute ranks Gone with the Wind as the fourth best American movie of all time, after Citizen Kane, Casablanca, and The Godfather, and it remains the biggest theatrical movie release of all time, with more than 202 million paid admissions. (Adjusted for inflation, it brought in more than $1.8 billion in ticket sales.) In 1976, a network television showing captured 47.5 percent of all U.S. households. And those whopping numbers don’t include $100 million in DVD and Blu-ray sales, or the unpublished—but massive—VHS sales and Netflix viewings.
Black director, screenwriter and novelist John Ridley, who won an Academy Award for adapted screenplay for 12 Years a Slave, led the call for HBO Max to take the film off its roster. In an opinion piece for the L.A. Times, he called Gone with the Wind “its own unique problem…It is a film that, as part of the narrative of the ‘Lost Cause,’ romanticizes the Confederacy in a way that continues to give legitimacy to the notion that the secessionist movement was something more, or better, or more noble than what it was—a bloody insurrection to maintain the ‘right’ to own, sell and buy human beings. The movie had the very best talents in Hollywood at that time working together to sentimentalize a history that never was. And it continues to give cover to those who falsely claim that clinging to the iconography of the plantation era is a matter of ‘heritage, not hate.’” Ridley carefully noted that he is not calling for censorship; rather, he thinks that GWTW should be reintroduced in a context that underscores its viciously skewed vision of history.
I disagree. I think the novel deserves the same treatment as Mein Kampf, and the movie should be considered the American cousin of Triumph of the Will. Anybody who champions either book or movie is standing up for the cause of white supremacy and should be judged accordingly.
I first encountered Gone with the Wind when I was 11 years old. I was spending the summer with my grandmother in Hartford, Kentucky, while my mother was in school. It was breathlessly hot, and the town movie theater was one of the few public spaces that was air-conditioned. So when GWTW came to town for a week-long run, I wound up seeing the movie—all four hours of it—six times. (That included the special Thursday matinee, when you could get in for six RC Cola caps.)
I was spellbound. I was enraptured with the vision of a world filled with brave, courtly men and lovely ladies with tiny waists and spines of steel. I longed to share in the romantic, elegant heritage of the Deep South – even though I was a Yankee girl from Illinois, the proud Land of Lincoln. (I remember being initially confused when Scarlett O’Hara made a joke about being so happy that she wouldn’t mind dancing with Abe Lincoln himself.)
After gulping the movie down like a supersized RC Cola, I ran to the library, found the book and read it cover-to-cover in a few heated days. Then I read it again. And again. And again.
It’s hard to explain the allure of Gone with the Wind to the unconverted. Much of the book’s enduring emotional punch has to do with Scarlett’s complicated character – a mix of adolescent swooniness and granite determination. Scarlett is an avatar of resilience. She singlehandedly saves her family by working in the cotton fields, and then goes on to run a thriving lumber business. She is driven, practical, energetic, and fierce.
Oh, and she and her family and her friends own human beings in chattel slavery.
This is what makes Gone with the Wind so pernicious: The book dutifully acknowledges that Slavery Was Wrong. In fact, Scarlett’s beloved Ashley Wilkes engages in some pious virtue-signaling by telling Scarlett that he had actually planned to free his slaves, had the war not done it for him. But the evil of slavery in the abstract is far overshadowed by the book’s sepia-toned depictions of slavery in the book’s internal reality; Scarlett’s slaves are tied to her by the bonds of affection, and they all continue in her devoted service after the war.
Again and again, the book glides over the fundamental importance of slavery in the economic lives of its central characters. In one particularly lovely passage, Scarlett and Ashley reminisce about life on the plantation before the war:
As he spoke, his light grip tightened on her hand and in his voice was the sad magic of old half-forgotten songs. She could hear the gay jingle of bridle bits as they rode under the dogwood trees to the Tarletons’ picnic, hear her own careless laughter, see the sun glinting on his silver-gilt hair and note the proud easy grace with which he sat his horse. There was music in his voice, the music of fiddles and banjos to which they had danced in the white house that was no more … Over it all rested a sense of security, a knowledge that tomorrow could only bring the same happiness today had brought.
The full passage beautifully evokes the “slow-paced glamour” of an idealized antebellum South – and it draws an opaque, green velvet curtain across the bitter forced labor required to bestow endless leisure on a small class of favored white people.
It would be enlightening to hear Gone with the Wind’s defenders explain their willingness to overlook the scene in which Scarlett is violently attacked and threatened with rape by two men—one of them a black man “with shoulders and chest like a gorilla,” in Mitchell’s words. Scarlett is saved in the nick of time by one of her former slaves, Big Sam, who later refers to her attacker as “dat black baboon.” Later that night, the local Ku Klux Klan—led by Ashley Wilkes and Scarlett’s husband, Frank Kennedy – head out on a lynching party to kill the men who attacked Scarlett. In the novel, when Scarlett is shocked to learn that her husband is a Klan member, her exasperated sister-in-law lashes out: “Of course, Mr. Kennedy is in the Klan and Ashley, too, and all the men we know… They are men, aren’t they? And white men and Southerners. You should have been proud of him instead of making him sneak out as though it were something shameful and—”
This is a pivotal scene, in both the book and the movie (although the movie does not mention the Klan by name). It unequivocally justifies vigilantism and murder in defense of white southern womanhood. Yet when the movie is criticized, its champions somehow fail to mention its central veneration of white supremacist violence.
So what? It’s hardly news that a book written by a southern white woman almost a century ago portrays white supremacy and slavery—and the economy built upon them – in ways that deny reality and promote a “genteel” myth of a world that never existed.
But here’s the thing: In one vestigial corner of my heart, I still yearn to be like Scarlett O’Hara. Oh, I don’t mean the willfully oblivious “belle” whose personal fortune was extracted from the theft of labor and the threat of violent death; that Scarlett does not exist, because the vile reality of slavery never intrudes into GWTW’s fictional South. The Scarlett that I want to be is indomitable and loyal and utterly captivating. As viewed solely within the elegantly deceptive frame created by her author, Scarlett is a great woman. And so is gentle Melanie Wilkes, and so is lovely Ellen O’Hara. Even today, Margaret Mitchell’s tributes to the enduring strength and beauty of southern womanhood continue to echo, unbidden, in my head.
Let me stress that I fully understand the absurdity of this confession, because my reading did not stop with Margaret Mitchell. I have read Zora Neale Hurston and Toni Morrison. I also have read unexpurgated histories that make it unambiguously clear that the confederate states seceded over the issue of slavery. So I know that the reality of the antebellum South was bloody and violent and horrific, and the Confederate flag is an ugly symbol of treason and white supremacy. Full stop.
But I did not fully understand these things when I was seduced by GWTW, and I know that there are millions and millions of white Americans who are still blinded to the ugly realities of our nation’s history because of GWTW’s pretty lies. For too many, the face of slavery is still Hattie McDaniel, a formidable matriarchal figure in a rustling red silk petticoat – and her broad onscreen smile makes it possible for us to forget that McDaniel accepted her Oscar in a segregated hotel that forced her to sit at a side table far from her A-list costars.
As humans, we are wired for myth. And this myth still matters, tremendously. When Ta-Nehisi Coates writes about the need for reparations, his arguments are undermined by Margaret Mitchell’s anodyne depiction of soft voices singing in the slave quarters. When activists denounce the confederate flag as a symbol of racism and oppression, their passion is undermined by the movie’s iconic shot of the tattered Stars and Bars waving sadly over a vast field of dead and dying southern soldiers. Even the sight of angry, contorted faces lit by tiki torches is slightly softened by our memory of Ashley Wilkes as a noble, wounded Klansman—played by Leslie Howard, a Jewish actor who was killed in 1943 when his plane was shot down by the Luftwaffe.
This myth shows no signs of losing its power over the white American imagination. A few years back, a reporter visited the Gone with the Wind Museum in Marietta, Georgia, and spotted a 7-year-old girl raptly watching the movie on a TV screen. The museum’s director looked on approvingly: “There are all these new fans, the younger ones, and it’s important to them, too…They see it, and they don’t see the history; they just see a good movie that has all the elements.” That little girl is not alone; a recent traveling exhibit of GWTW memorabilia drew hundreds of thousands of fans, and the movie currently has a 4.5-star rating on iTunes.
So what are we supposed to do? How can we persuade millions and millions of Americans that an ugly and painful truth is better than a beautiful and seductive lie?
The first step must be to take it seriously. If you roll your eyes at the thought of 21st century adults viewing our nation’s painful history of slavery through Scarlett-colored glasses, you are part of the problem. To dismiss GWTW as “just a novel” or “just a movie” is to close your eyes to the immense power of media—and of propaganda. One of the movie’s title cards reads: “There was a land of Cavaliers and cotton fields called the Old South. Here in this pretty world, gallantry took its last bow. Here was the last ever to be seen of knights and their ladies fair, of master and of slave…Look for it only in books, for it is no more than a dream remembered. A civilization gone with the wind.” How can any scholarly rendition of cold and bitter historical facts compete with such pretty prevarication—especially when the falsified view has been honored and certified with a Pulitzer Prize for literature and 10 Academy Awards? It also should be noted that the New York Times’ 1937 review informed readers that “The historical background is the chief virtue of the book” and that “no reader can come away without a sense of the tragedy that overcame the planting families in 1865…” We must not trivialize this invidious myth just because it was presented in Technicolor.
We also must realize that white people need to lead this fight. I’m not saying this as a white savior wannabe; it’s just that black people have been protesting the book and the movie it spawned for the better part of a century. The book was denounced by black leaders at the time of its publication. “We consider this work to be a glorification of the old rotten system of slavery, propaganda for race-hatreds and bigotry, and incitement of lynching,” members of a Pittsburgh group wrote in a letter to producer David O. Selznick after he announced his plans to film the book. When the movie debuted (at a whites-only movie theater in Atlanta), African Americans picketed from coast to coast. The Chicago Defender called the movie “propaganda, pure propaganda, crude propaganda. It is anti-Negro propaganda of the most vicious character. It is un-American propaganda. It is subversive.”
Yet the black community’s decades of consistent protest and denunciation have gone largely unheard. Consider the response when a Memphis theater canceled its annual screening of GWTW after white supremacists rioted in Charlottesville in 2017. Unsurprisingly, Fox News host Todd Starnes lamented that “our beloved film is gone with the wind — done in by a bunch of meddling, no-account thespian carpetbaggers.” But French writer/philosopher Bernard-Henri Levy also felt called to weigh in, saying he was “appalled” by the theater’s “alarming suppression of artistic expression.” USA Today’s coverage of the controversy stressed the fury of “the film’s fans, free-expression supporters and Dixie sympathizers” in response to “the ‘whiny’ and PC-obsessed liberals they blame for the decision.”
Enough already.
White America’s veneration of GWTW has to end, now. I know that the teenaged girls in polyester hoop skirts who serve as docents at southern house tours don’t realize that they’re taking a page from the white supremacist playbook. But they are, and their GWTW cosplay shapes the way they think, and the way they vote, for the rest of their lives.
It is time to send Gone with the Wind to the ash heaps of cultural history, where Scarlett can rub (her shamelessly uncovered) shoulders with Little Black Sambo and Song of the South. It is time for us to rip the gauze off the lens and start looking at the history of the South in the cold and unforgiving light of historic reality. Scholars can still read and view GWTW, but as a problematic text within the context of its racism and cultural influence. At this extraordinary moment in American history, it is time for all of us to admit that Gone with the Wind has played a central role in creating our enduring culture of white supremacy. That must end, starting right now.
Some will call this censorship. Some will chortle at the notion that a novel or a movie abounding in flounces and hoop skirts could actually influence the body politic. Proud southerners will take high-handed offense at the notion that their beloved Gone with the Wind is actually a powerful racist tract. And conservatives will continue to carp at the politically correct snowflakes who refuse to view a prettified story of chattel slavery, lynching, and undiluted white supremacy as an “American classic.”
Frankly my dear, I don’t give a damn.


washingtonmonthly--2020-06-12--Republicans Take Some Small Steps in Defiance of Trump

Since it became clear that Donald Trump would be their nominee in the 2016 presidential race , the Republican National Committee has demonstrated that they would go all in to support him .
That has remained their position ever since then .
But in preparation for the upcoming national convention , the RNC has taken a couple of steps that appear to be in direct conflict with the Trump administration .
For example , the president announced that he didn ’ t want the convention to take place in North Carolina because the coronavirus restrictions imposed by the governor would @ @ @ @ @ @ @ by a large crowd .
Nevertheless , this is what the committee decided .
On Wednesday night , the Republican National Committee ( RNC ) voted to have a “ significantly pared down convention ” in Charlotte , North Carolina .
The plans , confirmed to Newsweek by the RNC , defy a pledge by President Donald Trump who , on May 25 , vowed to immediately move the convention elsewhere .
While the convention itself will be pared down to allow for social distancing , an “ Acceptance Session ” will be @ @ @ @ @ @ @ yet to be determined , giving Trump the opportunity to give his speech before an adoring crowd .
So that ’ s a bit of a compromise .
But recently , Johnathan Swan reported that Jared Kushner was working with the platform committee to reduce the document down to a single card that would be more like a mission statement than a policy agenda .
That isn ’ t going to happen either .
The RNC ’ s executive panel voted to make no changes to its 2016 party platform .
Not only @ @ @ @ @ @ @ efforts , Aaron Blake documented that it will be a bit awkward for Trump .
The party ’ s platform was designed to be a rebuke of President Obama ’ s tenure in the White House .
As such , it contains several planks that could be used to criticize his successor .
For example : The huge increase in the national debt demanded by and incurred during the current Administration has placed a significant burden on future generations… The current Administration has exceeded its constitutional authority , brazenly and flagrantly violated the @ @ @ @ @ @ @ America into groups and turn citizen against citizen .
Our most urgent task as a Party is to restore the American people ’ s faith in their government by electing a president who will enforce duly enacted laws , honor constitutional limits on executive authority , and return credibility to the Oval Office… The current Administration has abandoned America ’ s friends and rewarded its enemies .
While these are somewhat small acts in defiance of the president ’ s wishes , they are noteworthy because—as we know—Trump demands total loyalty at all @ @ @ @ @ @ @ against him is significant .
Adding to this is the fact that the president will not support the renaming of military bases that bear the names of Confederate generals .
But here is what happened on Wednesday .
Trump ’ s support is continuing to erode and unless something dramatic changes between now and November , he will lose the 2020 election .
We are seeing the very early signs of what will happen if that continues to be the case .

Since it became clear that Donald Trump would be their nominee in the 2016 presidential race, the Republican National Committee has demonstrated that they would go all in to support him. That has remained their position ever since then.
But in preparation for the upcoming national convention, the RNC has taken a couple of steps that appear to be in direct conflict with the Trump administration. For example, the president announced that he didn’t want the convention to take place in North Carolina because the coronavirus restrictions imposed by the governor would deny him the opportunity to be cheered by a large crowd. Nevertheless, this is what the committee decided.
On Wednesday night, the Republican National Committee (RNC) voted to have a “significantly pared down convention” in Charlotte, North Carolina. The plans, confirmed to Newsweek by the RNC, defy a pledge by President Donald Trump who, on May 25, vowed to immediately move the convention elsewhere.
While the convention itself will be pared down to allow for social distancing, an “Acceptance Session” will be held in a separate location that is yet to be determined, giving Trump the opportunity to give his speech before an adoring crowd. So that’s a bit of a compromise.
But recently, Johnathan Swan reported that Jared Kushner was working with the platform committee to reduce the document down to a single card that would be more like a mission statement than a policy agenda. That isn’t going to happen either. The RNC’s executive panel voted to make no changes to its 2016 party platform.
Not only does that shut down Kushner’s efforts, Aaron Blake documented that it will be a bit awkward for Trump. The party’s platform was designed to be a rebuke of President Obama’s tenure in the White House. As such, it contains several planks that could be used to criticize his successor. For example:
The huge increase in the national debt demanded by and incurred during the current Administration has placed a significant burden on future generations… The current Administration has exceeded its constitutional authority, brazenly and flagrantly violated the separation of powers, sought to divide America into groups and turn citizen against citizen. Our most urgent task as a Party is to restore the American people’s faith in their government by electing a president who will enforce duly enacted laws, honor constitutional limits on executive authority, and return credibility to the Oval Office… The current Administration has abandoned America’s friends and rewarded its enemies.
While these are somewhat small acts in defiance of the president’s wishes, they are noteworthy because—as we know—Trump demands total loyalty at all times. So any move that goes against him is significant.
Adding to this is the fact that the president will not support the renaming of military bases that bear the names of Confederate generals.
https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump/status/1270787975719391233
But here is what happened on Wednesday.
The Senate Armed Services Committee on Wednesday voted to require the Pentagon to rename military bases and other assets named after Confederate generals, a move that puts the Republican-led panel on a collision course with the White House.
Trump’s support is continuing to erode and unless something dramatic changes between now and November, he will lose the 2020 election. We are seeing the very early signs of what will happen if that continues to be the case.


washingtonmonthly--2020-06-12--Trump’s Solution to a Drop in the Polls: More Racism

The country is in chaos and Trump ’ s reelection chances are growing dimmer by the day .
He mishandled the onset of a pandemic and-even as the number of cases in many states continues to grow-wants to pretend like the whole thing never happened .
Signaling that the toll coronavirus has taken on our economy is continuing , the stock market took a deep dive on Thursday .
As if that wasn ’ t enough , the killing of George Floyd by police officers sparked a national outcry against police brutality .
So what does Trump do in the @ @ @ @ @ @ @ instincts are to ramp up the flames of racism and xenophobia .
That is basically an admission that the president knows that his ticket to the White House in 2016 was racism , so he thinks it will work once again .
We ’ re already seeing those instincts in action .
While a call has gone out to rename military bases that were named after Confederate soldiers , the president has promised that it won ’ t happen on his watch .
On a day when even Nascar recognized the mood of @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Confederate flags , Susan Glasser is right to suggest that Trump is going all-in with losers .
I know it is hard to remember all the crazy things that happen in the course of a week in Trump ’ s America , but I will try hard to remember this one : a week when I saw troops in the streets and worried about a years-long economic crisis ; a week when an untamed pandemic killed up to a thousand Americans a day ; a week when massive nationwide protests suggested that our @ @ @ @ @ @ @ actually do something about the plague of police brutality and systemic racism .
And then there was the President , who chose to spend the week refighting the Civil War—on the losing side .
On Thursday , the president travelled to Dallas , Texas where one of the events was a roundtable discussion on race and policing .
The problem is that a few key players were not invited : Dallas Police Chief U. Reneé Hall , Sheriff Marian Brown and District Attorney John Creuzot , all of whom happen to be African @ @ @ @ @ @ @ is also discussing a plan to blame one of his favorite targets for the increase in COVID-19 cases .
They ’ re floating the idea that it is all the result of travel from Mexico .
Anyone else remember when Trump tweeted this ?
Now , instead of blaming Mexico for crime , it looks like he ’ s planning to blame that country for an “ infestation ” of coronavirus .
But the most obvious move that signals Trump ’ s attempt to fan the flames of racism involves the date and @ @ @ @ @ @ @ the spread of coronavirus shut things down .
I ’ ll let Michelle Goldberg explain .
It ’ s important to keep Trump ’ s instinct for escalation in mind when considering his decision to hold his first post-shutdown rally in Tulsa , Okla. , next Friday — which is Juneteenth , the holiday that celebrates the end of American slavery .
Tulsa was the site , 99 years ago , of a white rampage in the thriving commercial district known as Black Wall Street ; with as many as 300 people killed @ @ @ @ @ @ @ incidents of racist violence in American history .
“ The president ’ s speech there on Juneteenth is a message to every black American : more of the same , ” tweeted Representative Val Demings , a Florida Democrat reported to be on Joe Biden ’ s vice-presidential shortlist .
Following the 2016 election , a lot of pundits suggested that Trump had a unique ability to tap into the mood of the country .
While I don ’ t want to rehash all that led up to his victory in the electoral @ @ @ @ @ @ @ ask those pundits what they think about that analysis now , as he demonstrates that he is completely oblivious to the mood of the country .
This is a president who actually bragged about his reliance of “ truthiness ” by saying , “ I have a gut , and my gut tells me more sometimes than anybody else ’ s brain can ever tell me.
” So I ’ m not going to credit him with any kind of grand strategy .
His instincts are racist and he projects that onto the @ @ @ @ @ @ @ once again by fanning the flames .
Is America ready to prove him wrong ?
We ’ ll see .

The country is in chaos and Trump’s reelection chances are growing dimmer by the day. He mishandled the onset of a pandemic and-even as the number of cases in many states continues to grow-wants to pretend like the whole thing never happened. Signaling that the toll coronavirus has taken on our economy is continuing, the stock market took a deep dive on Thursday. As if that wasn’t enough, the killing of George Floyd by police officers sparked a national outcry against police brutality.
So what does Trump do in the midst of all of this? His instincts are to ramp up the flames of racism and xenophobia.
The President remains convinced the racially tinged culture wars he stoked as a candidate in 2016 and throughout his presidency remain a winning strategy, people familiar with his thinking say. As polls now consistently show him trailing former Vice President Joe Biden by double digits, Trump has insisted on attempting to re-create the political formula that helped propel him to the White House.
That is basically an admission that the president knows that his ticket to the White House in 2016 was racism, so he thinks it will work once again. We’re already seeing those instincts in action.
While a call has gone out to rename military bases that were named after Confederate soldiers, the president has promised that it won’t happen on his watch.
https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump/status/1270787975719391233?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw%7Ctwcamp%5Etweetembed%7Ctwterm%5E1270787975719391233&ref_url=https%3A%2F%2Fwashingtonmonthly.com%2F2020%2F06%2F12%2Frepublicans-take-some-small-steps-in-defiance-of-trump%2F
On a day when even Nascar recognized the mood of the country by banning the use of Confederate flags, Susan Glasser is right to suggest that Trump is going all-in with losers.
I know it is hard to remember all the crazy things that happen in the course of a week in Trump’s America, but I will try hard to remember this one: a week when I saw troops in the streets and worried about a years-long economic crisis; a week when an untamed pandemic killed up to a thousand Americans a day; a week when massive nationwide protests suggested that our dysfunctional, gridlocked political system might finally actually do something about the plague of police brutality and systemic racism. And then there was the President, who chose to spend the week refighting the Civil War—on the losing side.
On Thursday, the president travelled to Dallas, Texas where one of the events was a roundtable discussion on race and policing. The problem is that a few key players were not invited: Dallas Police Chief U. Reneé Hall, Sheriff Marian Brown and District Attorney John Creuzot, all of whom happen to be African American.
The president’s team is also discussing a plan to blame one of his favorite targets for the increase in COVID-19 cases. They’re floating the idea that it is all the result of travel from Mexico. Anyone else remember when Trump tweeted this?
https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump/status/1009071403918864385
Now, instead of blaming Mexico for crime, it looks like he’s planning to blame that country for an “infestation” of coronavirus.
But the most obvious move that signals Trump’s attempt to fan the flames of racism involves the date and location of his first campaign rally since the spread of coronavirus shut things down. I’ll let Michelle Goldberg explain.
It’s important to keep Trump’s instinct for escalation in mind when considering his decision to hold his first post-shutdown rally in Tulsa, Okla., next Friday — which is Juneteenth, the holiday that celebrates the end of American slavery. Tulsa was the site, 99 years ago, of a white rampage in the thriving commercial district known as Black Wall Street; with as many as 300 people killed, it was one of the worst incidents of racist violence in American history. “The president’s speech there on Juneteenth is a message to every black American: more of the same,” tweeted Representative Val Demings, a Florida Democrat reported to be on Joe Biden’s vice-presidential shortlist.
Following the 2016 election, a lot of pundits suggested that Trump had a unique ability to tap into the mood of the country. While I don’t want to rehash all that led up to his victory in the electoral college, I’d like to ask those pundits what they think about that analysis now, as he demonstrates that he is completely oblivious to the mood of the country.
This is a president who actually bragged about his reliance of “truthiness” by saying, “I have a gut, and my gut tells me more sometimes than anybody else’s brain can ever tell me.” So I’m not going to credit him with any kind of grand strategy. His instincts are racist and he projects that onto the electorate, assuming that he can win once again by fanning the flames. Is America ready to prove him wrong? We’ll see.


washingtonmonthly--2020-06-12--The GOP’s Revealing Decision Not to Debate on a 2020 Platform

I ’ ve already written twice about Donald Trump ’ s decision to kind of/mostly move the 2020 Republican National Convention from Charlotte , North Carolina , to Jacksonville , Florida .
In my last installment , I noted that it would be difficult to meet the president ’ s goal of having a full house for the television cameras , in part , because people can not be in two places at the same time .
The Republican Party is contractually obligated to hold its national convention in Charlotte , North Carolina , but Democratic Governor Roy Cooper would @ @ @ @ @ @ @ be lifted for the Aug. 24-27 event .
The solution , then , was to keep the convention in Charlotte in a strictly legal sense by holding all the regular business meetings there , but to find an alternative location for the speeches and pageantry… … People can ’ t simultaneously be in Charlotte holding a meeting on the Republican platform and in Jacksonville listening to Mike Pence or Melania Trump give a speech .
Trump might have to hire “ extras ” to fill the gaps .
I suppose I was a @ @ @ @ @ @ @ solution but I didn ’ t see it because I don ’ t have enough of a criminal mind .
Now , mind you , I did understand that the only reason the Republicans were keeping part of the convention in Charlotte was to provide a legal defense against reneging on their contracts .
As the Charlotte Observer reports , there will be wrangling over the decision : Ed Driggs , one of two Republicans on the Charlotte City Council , had once hoped for an exciting week-long convention that would show off @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Thursday , as news dribbled out about just how scaled-backed Charlotte ’ s piece of the convention will be , Driggs said , “ I guess I ’ m disappointed it ’ s so little.
” Now that the Republican National Committee has officially voted to move most of the convention out of Charlotte , Driggs said , “ the big question is : How do we ( the city ) deal with the contracts in place ?
Who is responsible for those ?
( The parties to the contracts ) are still @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Charlotte host committee , for example , has “ an interest in not being saddled with liabilities and expenses , ” Driggs said .
On Wednesday the committee , charged with raising almost $ 70 million for the event , said the move to another city violates contracts with the city and other local groups .
“ This decision is in clear violation of the agreements made with the City of Charlotte , the County of Mecklenburg , Charlotte Regional Visitors Authority , and the Charlotte Host Committee , ” the committee said @ @ @ @ @ @ @ the fiction that these contracts are being honored , the proceedings in Jacksonville are being called a “ celebration ” rather than a “ convention.
” Whether this will be convincing in court is for lawyers , judges , and perhaps a jury to decide , but it still doesn ’ t solve the problem of people having to be in two places at the same time .
The elegant solution was sitting right in front of my face and I couldn ’ t see it .
On Wednesday , the RNC ’ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ 2016 party platform in place , with absolutely no edits .
This will have the absurd result of leaving in place language about the president that clearly refers , in a critical manner , to Barack Obama .
It will leave harsh language about deficit spending that applies with more force to the Trump administration than its predecessor .
It will keep descriptions of the Middle East that no longer have any application , and in some cases it will pledge Trump to promises he has already kept .
It also means that @ @ @ @ @ @ @ reflect an evolution of the party or national culture over the last four years .
Of course , both moderates and social conservatives are furious .
They ’ ve both been gearing up to battle over the party platform , and now there will be no debate at all .
Yet , by eliminating the most important piece of party business , the RNC no longer has to worry that people will be in Charlotte hashing out party principles when they should be in Jacksonville adoring the president .
The Republican National Convention @ @ @ @ @ @ @ , Fla. , after it will spend just a single day in Charlotte this August , the RNC committee announced Thursday night .
It will host what the Republicans are calling a “ celebration ” of President Donald Trump ’ s re-nomination… …The convention was once expected to span four days in Charlotte — bringing in 50,000 people and pumping more than $ 150 million into the local economy .
Instead , around 336 delegates will conduct the convention ’ s official business Monday , Aug. 24 .
Then they ’ ll head @ @ @ @ @ @ @ 2,000 other delegates for three days of speeches and celebrations , a top GOP official said Thursday .
So , in order to manage the limitations of the time/space continuum , there will be no changes to the Republican platform in 2020 , and anyone who cares about the platform will just have to suck it .
This is a final confirmation that the Republican Party has become a cult that stands for nothing and exists only to fluff Donald Trump ’ s ego .
It was completely predictable but I failed to @ @ @ @ @ @ @ in the world where contracts are honored and political parties are made of up people who care about policy .

I’ve already written twice about Donald Trump’s decision to kind of/mostly move the 2020 Republican National Convention from Charlotte, North Carolina, to Jacksonville, Florida. In my last installment, I noted that it would be difficult to meet the president’s goal of having a full house for the television cameras, in part, because people cannot be in two places at the same time.
The Republican Party is contractually obligated to hold its national convention in Charlotte, North Carolina, but Democratic Governor Roy Cooper would not guarantee that state health restrictions could be lifted for the Aug. 24-27 event. The solution, then, was to keep the convention in Charlotte in a strictly legal sense by holding all the regular business meetings there, but to find an alternative location for the speeches and pageantry… … People can’t simultaneously be in Charlotte holding a meeting on the Republican platform and in Jacksonville listening to Mike Pence or Melania Trump give a speech. Trump might have to hire “extras” to fill the gaps.
I suppose I was a bit naïve. There was an obvious solution but I didn’t see it because I don’t have enough of a criminal mind.
Now, mind you, I did understand that the only reason the Republicans were keeping part of the convention in Charlotte was to provide a legal defense against reneging on their contracts. As the Charlotte Observer reports, there will be wrangling over the decision:
Ed Driggs, one of two Republicans on the Charlotte City Council, had once hoped for an exciting week-long convention that would show off his city and his party. On Thursday, as news dribbled out about just how scaled-backed Charlotte’s piece of the convention will be, Driggs said, “I guess I’m disappointed it’s so little.” Now that the Republican National Committee has officially voted to move most of the convention out of Charlotte, Driggs said, “the big question is: How do we (the city) deal with the contracts in place? Who is responsible for those? (The parties to the contracts) are still trying to work it out.” The Charlotte host committee, for example, has “an interest in not being saddled with liabilities and expenses,” Driggs said. On Wednesday the committee, charged with raising almost $70 million for the event, said the move to another city violates contracts with the city and other local groups. “This decision is in clear violation of the agreements made with the City of Charlotte, the County of Mecklenburg, Charlotte Regional Visitors Authority, and the Charlotte Host Committee,” the committee said in a statement Wednesday.
To maintain the fiction that these contracts are being honored, the proceedings in Jacksonville are being called a “celebration” rather than a “convention.” Whether this will be convincing in court is for lawyers, judges, and perhaps a jury to decide, but it still doesn’t solve the problem of people having to be in two places at the same time. The elegant solution was sitting right in front of my face and I couldn’t see it.
On Wednesday, the RNC’s executive panel voted to leave the 2016 party platform in place, with absolutely no edits. This will have the absurd result of leaving in place language about the president that clearly refers, in a critical manner, to Barack Obama. It will leave harsh language about deficit spending that applies with more force to the Trump administration than its predecessor. It will keep descriptions of the Middle East that no longer have any application, and in some cases it will pledge Trump to promises he has already kept. It also means that there will be no adjustments made to reflect an evolution of the party or national culture over the last four years.
The decision by the Wednesday means the GOP will maintain positions in the 4-year-old policy blueprint — including opposition to same-sex marriage and a nod to gay conversion therapy — and decline to stake out new positions on topics such as police reform, gender identity and third-trimester abortions.
Of course, both moderates and social conservatives are furious. They’ve both been gearing up to battle over the party platform, and now there will be no debate at all. Yet, by eliminating the most important piece of party business, the RNC no longer has to worry that people will be in Charlotte hashing out party principles when they should be in Jacksonville adoring the president.
The Republican National Convention is officially on the move to Jacksonville, Fla., after it will spend just a single day in Charlotte this August, the RNC committee announced Thursday night. It will host what the Republicans are calling a “celebration” of President Donald Trump’s re-nomination… …The convention was once expected to span four days in Charlotte — bringing in 50,000 people and pumping more than $150 million into the local economy. Instead, around 336 delegates will conduct the convention’s official business Monday, Aug. 24. Then they’ll head to Jacksonville — and join more than 2,000 other delegates for three days of speeches and celebrations, a top GOP official said Thursday.
So, in order to manage the limitations of the time/space continuum, there will be no changes to the Republican platform in 2020, and anyone who cares about the platform will just have to suck it.
This is a final confirmation that the Republican Party has become a cult that stands for nothing and exists only to fluff Donald Trump’s ego. It was completely predictable but I failed to foresee it because I was still operating in the world where contracts are honored and political parties are made of up people who care about policy.


washingtonmonthly--2020-06-12--The City That Transformed Its Police Department

Across the U.S. , protesters have taken to the streets to express rage after the killing of George Floyd by a Minneapolis police officer , Derek Chauvin .
The demonstrations themselves have led to more police shows of force .
In Brooklyn , two cops rammed their New York City Police Department SUVs into a crowd of protesters .
In Philadelphia , officers sprayed tear gas at demonstrators who were penned in between a highway and a fence .
But across the Delaware River from Philadelphia in Camden , N.J. ( population 74,000 ) , officers left the riot gear @ @ @ @ @ @ @ truck to a march on May 30 .
The police department ’ s chief , Joseph Wysocki , who is white , brandished a “ Standing in Solidarity ” poster alongside residents holding “ Black Lives Matter ” signs .
That Camden was able to demonstrate peacefully without escalation looked like a sign of progress in a city that ’ s one of the country ’ s poorest and was once considered its most dangerous .
“ What we ’ re experiencing today in Camden is the result of many years of deposits @ @ @ @ @ @ @ said Scott Thomson , Camden ’ s chief of police until 2019 .
He led the city ’ s high-profile pivot to community policing from 2013 until last year and oversaw what turned out to be a steep decline in crime .
Homicides in Camden reached 67 in 2012 ; the figure for 2019 was 25 .
Over the past seven years , the department has undertaken some of the most far-reaching police reforms in the country , and its approach has been praised by former President Barack Obama .
The transformation began @ @ @ @ @ @ @ department wanted to put more officers on patrol but couldn ’ t afford to hire more , partly because of generous union contracts .
So in 2013 , the mayor and city council dissolved the local PD and signed an agreement for the county to provide shared services .
The new county force is double the size of the old one , and officers almost exclusively patrol the city .
( They were initially nonunion but have since unionized . )
Increasing the head count was a trust-building tactic , said Thomson , @ @ @ @ @ @ @ : Daily , noncrisis interactions between residents and cops went up .
Police also got de-escalation training and body cameras , and more cameras and devices to detect gunfire were installed around the city .
While many departments define “ reasonable ” force in the line of duty vaguely , Camden ’ s definition is much clearer .
The department adopted an 18-page use-of-force policy in 2019 , developed with New York University ’ s Policing Project .
The rules emphasize that de-escalation has to come first .
Deadly force—such as a chokehold @ @ @ @ @ @ @ in certain situations , once every other tactic has been exhausted .
“ It requires that force is not only reasonable and necessary , but that it ’ s proportionate , ” said Farhang Heydari , executive director of the Policing Project .
Most important , “ they ’ re requirements .
They ’ re not suggestions.
” An officer who sees a colleague violating the edict must intervene ; the department can fire any officer it finds acted out of line .
By the department ’ s account , reports of excessive @ @ @ @ @ @ @ % since 2014 .
Like most matters of policing , however , Camden ’ s success story isn ’ t that simple .
Members of the police force are now more likely to live in the suburbs than in the city of Camden , according to the local NAACP chapter .
“ Ninety percent of Camden ’ s population is minority—we have a lot of young individuals who don ’ t look like us that are getting these jobs , ” said Kevin Barfield , the chapter president .
The higher number of @ @ @ @ @ @ @ first , said Nyeema Watson , Rutgers University at Camden ’ s associate chancellor for civic engagement , who helped connect the new department to local youth in its early days .
“ You felt that this eye was on you .
It took me some time to adjust to having [ police ] cars stationed on major thoroughfares , ” she said .
“ That still raises the hair on my neck sometimes , but I know their approach is an attempt to say ‘ We ’ re here , we ’ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ report , the American Civil Liberties Union praised Camden for its reforms but noted a “ significant increase in low-level arrests and summonses.
” The department said it ’ s mindful of overpursuing petty offenses .
“ We know when we police a city that has 30 % of the residents under the poverty line , a $ 400 speeding ticket or ticket in general would be absolutely devastating financially , ” said Dan Keashen , a spokesman for the Camden County Police Department .
Community organizer Ayinde Merrill and other activists are @ @ @ @ @ @ @ for cases in which force is used .
Merrill said the May 30 march felt co-opted by police and city leaders : “ We didn ’ t feel as though the police were truly standing with us .
If you ’ re truly standing with us , come and march with us in plain clothes.
” As some activists call for cities to defund the police , Camden ’ s reforms are more incremental in nature .
“ I think the challenge is that you have 18,000 police departments ” in the U.S. @ @ @ @ @ @ @ s an industry that generally is averse to any type of change .
The only time change comes is when it ’ s compelled.
” This story originally appeared in Bloomberg Businessweek .
It is part of the SoJo Exchange of COVID-19 stories from the Solutions Journalism Network , a nonprofit organization dedicated to rigorous reporting about responses to social problems .

Across the U.S., protesters have taken to the streets to express rage after the killing of George Floyd by a Minneapolis police officer, Derek Chauvin. The demonstrations themselves have led to more police shows of force. In Brooklyn, two cops rammed their New York City Police Department SUVs into a crowd of protesters. In Philadelphia, officers sprayed tear gas at demonstrators who were penned in between a highway and a fence.
But across the Delaware River from Philadelphia in Camden, N.J. (population 74,000), officers left the riot gear at home and brought an ice cream truck to a march on May 30. The police department’s chief, Joseph Wysocki, who is white, brandished a “Standing in Solidarity” poster alongside residents holding “Black Lives Matter” signs.
That Camden was able to demonstrate peacefully without escalation looked like a sign of progress in a city that’s one of the country’s poorest and was once considered its most dangerous. “What we’re experiencing today in Camden is the result of many years of deposits in the relationship bank account,” said Scott Thomson, Camden’s chief of police until 2019. He led the city’s high-profile pivot to community policing from 2013 until last year and oversaw what turned out to be a steep decline in crime. Homicides in Camden reached 67 in 2012; the figure for 2019 was 25. Over the past seven years, the department has undertaken some of the most far-reaching police reforms in the country, and its approach has been praised by former President Barack Obama.
The transformation began after the 2012 homicide spike. The department wanted to put more officers on patrol but couldn’t afford to hire more, partly because of generous union contracts. So in 2013, the mayor and city council dissolved the local PD and signed an agreement for the county to provide shared services. The new county force is double the size of the old one, and officers almost exclusively patrol the city. (They were initially nonunion but have since unionized.) Increasing the head count was a trust-building tactic, said Thomson, who served as chief throughout the transition: Daily, noncrisis interactions between residents and cops went up. Police also got de-escalation training and body cameras, and more cameras and devices to detect gunfire were installed around the city.
While many departments define “reasonable” force in the line of duty vaguely, Camden’s definition is much clearer. The department adopted an 18-page use-of-force policy in 2019, developed with New York University’s Policing Project. The rules emphasize that de-escalation has to come first. Deadly force—such as a chokehold or firing a gun—can only be used in certain situations, once every other tactic has been exhausted. “It requires that force is not only reasonable and necessary, but that it’s proportionate,” said Farhang Heydari, executive director of the Policing Project. Most important, “they’re requirements. They’re not suggestions.”
An officer who sees a colleague violating the edict must intervene; the department can fire any officer it finds acted out of line. By the department’s account, reports of excessive force complaints in Camden have dropped 95% since 2014.
Like most matters of policing, however, Camden’s success story isn’t that simple. Members of the police force are now more likely to live in the suburbs than in the city of Camden, according to the local NAACP chapter. “Ninety percent of Camden’s population is minority—we have a lot of young individuals who don’t look like us that are getting these jobs,” said Kevin Barfield, the chapter president.
The higher number of officers on the streets was uncomfortable at first, said Nyeema Watson, Rutgers University at Camden’s associate chancellor for civic engagement, who helped connect the new department to local youth in its early days. “You felt that this eye was on you. It took me some time to adjust to having [police] cars stationed on major thoroughfares,” she said. “That still raises the hair on my neck sometimes, but I know their approach is an attempt to say ‘We’re here, we’re visible.’ ”
In a 2015 report, the American Civil Liberties Union praised Camden for its reforms but noted a “significant increase in low-level arrests and summonses.” The department said it’s mindful of overpursuing petty offenses. “We know when we police a city that has 30% of the residents under the poverty line, a $400 speeding ticket or ticket in general would be absolutely devastating financially,” said Dan Keashen, a spokesman for the Camden County Police Department.
Community organizer Ayinde Merrill and other activists are pushing to create a civilian review board for cases in which force is used. Merrill said the May 30 march felt co-opted by police and city leaders: “We didn’t feel as though the police were truly standing with us. If you’re truly standing with us, come and march with us in plain clothes.”
As some activists call for cities to defund the police, Camden’s reforms are more incremental in nature. “I think the challenge is that you have 18,000 police departments” in the U.S., said Thomson. “It’s an industry that generally is averse to any type of change. The only time change comes is when it’s compelled.”
This story originally appeared in Bloomberg Businessweek. It is part of the SoJo Exchange of COVID-19 stories from the Solutions Journalism Network, a nonprofit organization dedicated to rigorous reporting about responses to social problems.


washingtonmonthly--2020-06-13--Conservatives Made It Easier for Coronavirus to Spread

While COVID-19 can be deadly for anyone , it is especially dangerous when it hits people with preexisting conditions .
People with diabetes , hypertension , and kidney disease are far more likely to suffer serious complications from the illness than healthy peers .
In New York , roughly ninety percent of people who died from COVID-19 had a chronic condition .
As a result , the coronavirus has disproportionately killed the poor and people of color , who are exposed to more dangerous work environments , can not afford health care , and lack access to nutritious food .
@ @ @ @ @ @ @ , policymakers will have to tackle many related challenges , from structural racism to a broken medical system .
But one of the most overlooked obstacles to creating a healthier America is preemption : where one level of government restricts or eliminates a lower level of government ’ s authority over a certain issue .
For decades , progressive municipalities have tried to pass laws that better protect the health of residents .
But with increasing frequency , red states seeking to rein in blue cities have stopped them from doing so .
@ @ @ @ @ @ @ is far more vulnerable to COVID-19 than it otherwise might be .
Traditionally , preemption was viewed as a politically neutral doctrine of federalism , used to resolve inter-governmental disagreements .
But in the 1980s , as tobacco taxes and smoke-free ordinances popped up in cities all over the country , the tobaccoindustry began pushing states to outlaw these regulations , oftenproactively .
The strategy worked , and other industry groups caught on quickly .
Since the Tea Party-infused GOP swept the 2010 midterms , the party has overridden a range of citywide @ @ @ @ @ @ @ .
Take paid sick leave .
Cities that mandate paid sick time are better equipped to stem transmission of COVID-19 and ease the financial burden for at-risk workers .
Unfortunately , today , more than 40 percent of workers live in states where local paid sick time ordinanceshave been preempted .
Twenty years ago , that percentage was zero .
Nearly all of these states passed their laws while under Republican control .
Since COVID-19 hit , Congress has passed legislation designed to make more Americans eligible for paid sick leave .
But @ @ @ @ @ @ @ small businesses , and almost all large businesses , don ’ t have to provide paid time off .
Meanwhile , one poll showed that 80 percent of Republican voters nationwide actually favored paid sick leave laws .
COVID-19 has exposed the lack of protections for gig workers and independent contractors .
Their vulnerability has also been exacerbated by state preemption .
In the last five years , 44 states have banned local regulations of transportation network systems , which ( among other things ) precludes cities from requiring that Uber and Lyft @ @ @ @ @ @ @ .
Both ride-share titans eventually offered up to 14 days of paid sick leaveto drivers who contract coronavirus or are quarantined by a public health agency .
But the announcement came too late for many , and advocacy groups are understandably skeptical the benefit will be extended post-crisis .
The U.S. has also seen a rise in state action against local ordinances proven to curb diabetes , obesity , and respiratory problems .
Consider soda taxes .
Since Berkeley , California passed the nation ’ s first local tax on sugar-sweetened beverages six @ @ @ @ @ @ @ has been pushing for local soda taxes to disincentivize unhealthy consumption choices .
These laws were also designed to bring in funds that would help improve the health of groups particularly impacted by chronic conditions , such as predominantly black and Hispanic communities .
Berkeley ’ s law was considered a success , and was soon emulated by other California cities , as well as Boulder , Chicago , and Philadelphia .
But in response , large beverage companies mobilized to stop these laws from spreading .
Now four states—California , Arizona , @ @ @ @ @ @ @ .
Beyond soda taxes , eight states have preemption laws that limit local control over other aspects of nutrition , such as portion sizes and promotional games and toys .
According to Grassroots Change and Preemption Watch , these laws resulted from aggressive , costly lobbying efforts by food and beverage industry groups to limit local control over nutrition and food policy .
Ten states prohibit localities from regulating e-cigarettes .
It ’ s no surprise , then , that research links modern preemption laws to lower life expectancy .
Jennifer Karas Montez @ @ @ @ @ @ @ found that the difference in life expectancy between Mississippi , where the government has consistently preempted local health-boosting measures , and New York , which hasn ’ t , grew from 1.6 years in 1980 to 5.5 years in 2018 .
Montez suggests that state preemption laws , in conjunction with deregulation and devolution initiatives , can help explain the divergence .
In the wake of COVID-19 , the GOP ( which has long falsely claimed to be the party of place-based decentralized control ) is singing the praises of local rule .
@ @ @ @ @ @ @ Missouri , and Georgia , and others are loudly deferring to cities and counties on many decisions related to pandemic response ( while simultaneously begging the federal government to hand down clear directives and aid ) .
When Texas Governor Greg Abbott called for a localized , patchwork response to coronavirus , state preemption expert and Columbia law professor Richard Briffault said that he “ neary fell out of his chair.
” In some cases , it ’ s too late to repair the damage states have done to their citizen ’ s @ @ @ @ @ @ @ s not too late to protect their residents in the future .
States that have aggressively preempted progressive local legislation should see this crisis as an opportunity to restore functional relationships between state and local governments , and to recognize cities as essential laboratories of innovation , before the next crisis comes .

While COVID-19 can be deadly for anyone, it is especially dangerous when it hits people with preexisting conditions. People with diabetes, hypertension, and kidney disease are far more likely to suffer serious complications from the illness than healthy peers. In New York, roughly ninety percent of people who died from COVID-19 had a chronic condition. As a result, the coronavirus has disproportionately killed the poor and people of color, who are exposed to more dangerous work environments, cannot afford health care, and lack access to nutritious food.
In the fight to improve public health, policymakers will have to tackle many related challenges, from structural racism to a broken medical system. But one of the most overlooked obstacles to creating a healthier America is preemption: where one level of government restricts or eliminates a lower level of government’s authority over a certain issue. For decades, progressive municipalities have tried to pass laws that better protect the health of residents. But with increasing frequency, red states seeking to rein in blue cities have stopped them from doing so. As a result, much of America is far more vulnerable to COVID-19 than it otherwise might be.
Traditionally, preemption was viewed as a politically neutral doctrine of federalism, used to resolve inter-governmental disagreements. But in the 1980s, as tobacco taxes and smoke-free ordinances popped up in cities all over the country, the tobaccoindustry began pushing states to outlaw these regulations, oftenproactively. The strategy worked, and other industry groups caught on quickly. Since the Tea Party-infused GOP swept the 2010 midterms, the party has overridden a range of citywide decisions aimed to improve health and well-being.
Take paid sick leave. Cities that mandate paid sick time are better equipped to stem transmission of COVID-19 and ease the financial burden for at-risk workers. Unfortunately, today,more than 40 percent of workers live in states where local paid sick time ordinanceshave been preempted. Twenty years ago, that percentage was zero. Nearly all of these states passed their laws while under Republican control. Since COVID-19 hit, Congress has passed legislation designed to make more Americans eligible for paid sick leave. But it includes sweeping exemptions that mean many small businesses, and almost all large businesses, don’t have to provide paid time off. Meanwhile, one poll showed that 80 percent of Republican voters nationwide actually favored paid sick leave laws.
COVID-19 has exposed the lack of protections for gig workers and independent contractors. Their vulnerability has also been exacerbated by state preemption. In the last five years, 44 states have banned local regulations of transportation network systems, which (among other things) precludes cities from requiring that Uber and Lyft provide health and unemployment benefits to drivers. Both ride-share titans eventually offered up to 14 days of paid sick leaveto drivers who contract coronavirus or are quarantined by a public health agency. But the announcement came too late for many, and advocacy groups are understandably skeptical the benefit will be extended post-crisis.
The U.S. has also seen a rise in state action against local ordinances proven to curb diabetes, obesity, and respiratory problems. Consider soda taxes. Since Berkeley, California passed the nation’s first local tax on sugar-sweetened beverages six years ago, the public health community has been pushing for local soda taxes to disincentivize unhealthy consumption choices. These laws were also designed to bring in funds that would help improve the health of groups particularly impacted by chronic conditions, such as predominantly black and Hispanic communities. Berkeley’s law was considered a success, and was soon emulated by other California cities, as well as Boulder, Chicago, and Philadelphia. But in response, large beverage companies mobilized to stop these laws from spreading. Now four states—California, Arizona, Michigan, and Washington—bar local soda taxes.
Beyond soda taxes, eight states have preemption laws that limit local control over other aspects of nutrition, such as portion sizes and promotional games and toys. According to Grassroots Change and Preemption Watch, these laws resulted from aggressive, costly lobbying efforts by food and beverage industry groups to limit local control over nutrition and food policy. Ten states prohibit localities from regulating e-cigarettes.
It’s no surprise, then, that research links modern preemption laws to lower life expectancy. Jennifer Karas Montez, a sociologist at Syracuse University, found that the difference in life expectancy between Mississippi, where the government has consistently preempted local health-boosting measures, and New York, which hasn’t, grew from 1.6 years in 1980 to 5.5 years in 2018. Montez suggests that state preemption laws, in conjunction with deregulation and devolution initiatives, can help explain the divergence.
In the wake of COVID-19, the GOP (which has long falsely claimed to be the party of place-based decentralized control) is singing the praises of local rule. Republican governors in Florida, Texas, Missouri, and Georgia, and others are loudly deferring to cities and counties on many decisions related to pandemic response (while simultaneously begging the federal government to hand down clear directives and aid). When Texas Governor Greg Abbott called for a localized, patchwork response to coronavirus, state preemption expert and Columbia law professor Richard Briffault said that he “neary fell out of his chair.”
In some cases, it’s too late to repair the damage states have done to their citizen’s health through preemption. But it’s not too late to protect their residents in the future. States that have aggressively preempted progressive local legislation should see this crisis as an opportunity to restore functional relationships between state and local governments, and to recognize cities as essential laboratories of innovation, before the next crisis comes.