thenation--2020-08-10--Julian Bond’s Life in Protest and Politics

In May of 1969 , Ebony magazine ran a profile of Julian Bond , the activist and civil rights leader who had recently been reelected to the Georgia House of Representatives .
With the United States mere weeks away from putting a man on the moon and the war in Vietnam still raging , the magazine wanted to take stock of where Black America found itself at the end of the decade .
It was a moment of both retrospection about the civil rights movement and excitement about what the future held for African American politics .
Yet Bond had @ @ @ @ @ @ @ more than a decade , and it showed .
Ebony ’ s David Llorens wrote , “ Attractive cat that he is , Julian Bond looks tired.
” 1 The profile sought to examine what it meant for a radical stalwart , struggling against a broken system from the outside , to become a politician struggling to effect change from within it .
Bond ’ s shift “ from protest to politics , ” as Bayard Rustin put it in an article earlier in the decade , was a measure of how far @ @ @ @ @ @ @ That Bond was one of the first Black people to serve in the Georgia legislature generations after Reconstruction was also a measure of how much further the nation as a whole had to go.2 After describing Bond ’ s work as a state representative , his speaking tours at colleges , and his deepening involvement in the Democratic Party as its New Deal coalition started to unravel , Llorens moved on to discuss the twin pillars of pride and ambivalence that supported Bond ’ s new role .
These were the same pillars @ @ @ @ @ @ @ of so many African Americans in the immediate aftermath of the civil rights movement .
As Llorens wrote , “ Julian Bond , as a politician , represents hope for the freedom of black people , ” but it was a hope “ entirely dependent upon the possibility that white people are capable of a humane and non-racist America.
” For Llorens , this hope was real and somewhat tangible .
But as he noted at the end of the passage , it depended on a radical change in the thought and action @ @ @ @ @ @ @ appeared far off because of a continuation of the “ backlash politics ” that had defined American political , social , cultural , and intellectual discourse ever since Reconstruction.3 That mix of felt urgency and anxious uncertainty about how much change could be made in American society would define Bond ’ s efforts for much of his career .
His time in office , like his time as an activist , would be characterized by both his hopes for greater social equality and the continuing need to fight for such change when these @ @ @ @ @ @ @ tension was central to nearly all of his writing , much of which is now collected in a new book , Race Man , edited by the historian Michael G. Long.4 Race Man captures the full output of Bond ’ s long and distinguished career , first as an activist with the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee , then as a member of the Georgia legislature ( in the House and later in the Senate ) , then as a traveling academic who taught about his experiences in the social upheavals of the ’ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ and aging lion of the civil rights movement still fighting to hold on to the ideals of his youth .
Along the way , the book also makes clear a set of themes and quandaries that have troubled so much of the history of the American left : What is lost in the movement from protest to politics ?
How can lasting change be achieved in the face of unsatisfying compromise ?
How can radicals and activists carry the torch of emancipation and equality in an age in which both major parties and @ @ @ @ @ @ @ apathetic to meaningful change and , at worst , downright hostile to it ?
5 Bond ’ s years as an activist also offer a guide through the intellectual and political history of the left in the second half of the 20th century .
As Long argues in his introduction , Bond ’ s importance to the history of the United States and the American left in particular is nearly impossible to overestimate today .
Very few Americans , he writes , “ had sought more consistently and doggedly to establish solid connections @ @ @ @ @ @ @ the many progressive movements it sometimes unpredictably inspired.
” 6 Julian Bond was born in 1940 in Nashville .
His father , Horace Mann Bond , was the first president of Fort Valley State University in Georgia and later became the first Black president of Lincoln University in Pennsylvania , both historically Black institutions .
While serving as a college president , Horace Bond participated in the intellectual ferment of the World War II and early Cold War years .
He did considerable research to support the NAACP ’ s arguments in the @ @ @ @ @ @ @ of 1954 and served as a prominent civil rights advocate during the period .
The elder Bond ’ s participation in the rarefied world of African American educators and intellectuals meant that his son was exposed to many of the leaders of Black America from an early age .
A famous image of Julian Bond as a young boy , for example , shows him side by side with the actor , singer , and activist Paul Robeson .
The photograph itself is a testament to the intergenerational links between the different civil @ @ @ @ @ @ @ exposure to the intellectual creativity and political activism of Black America would hardly shield him from the racism and violence spawned by white supremacy .
In the Jim Crow South , Bond saw racism and discrimination all around him—a radicalizing experience that never left him , even after he and his family moved to Pennsylvania when his father became the head of Lincoln University .
Bond ’ s growing politicization throughout the ’ 50s was only deepened by his years at the George School , a prep school founded by Quakers , where @ @ @ @ @ @ @ with pacifism.8 In 1957 , Bond returned to Georgia to attend Morehouse College .
Long a hotbed of Black struggle and uplift , the school helped launch his career in civil rights activism .
He met Martin Luther King Jr. in 1960 while at Morehouse , and that year he cofounded , with fellow student Lonnie King , the Committee on the Appeal for Human Rights , which eventually led to his involvement in the creation of the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee .
Bond immediately understood the significance of SNCC and the role @ @ @ @ @ @ @ civil rights movement .
The younger generation of Black Americans was ready to use new tactics to fight for the kind of social change their parents and grandparents sought in previous eras .
Reflecting on the rise of these new organizations , Bond wrote , “ The struggle for human rights is a constant fight , and one which the students do not plan to relinquish until full equality is won for all men.
” 9 Against the backdrop of African nations declaring their independence abroad and civil rights agitation growing at home @ @ @ @ @ @ @ , starting in Greensboro , N.C. Four students at North Carolina A & T , a Black college , decided to stage a sit-in , adopting the tactics of nonviolent direct action already being used by various civil rights organizations .
Word of the sit-ins spread across the South , spurring even more sit-ins as well as Bond ’ s participation in Atlanta .
“ Why don ’ t we make it happen here ?
” Lonnie King said to Bond in February 1960 .
That brief conversation , between two young men @ @ @ @ @ @ @ great moral and political issue of their age , sparked Bond ’ s lifelong service to the movement.10 Bond participated in the sit-ins in Atlanta that year and in a whirlwind series of campaigns across the South as the communications director of SNCC .
Leaving Morehouse to dedicate himself to this work full-time , Bond , like many other young Black Americans , accepted that he would have to relinquish the comforts of the college campus and risk life and limb in the fire of activism .
At this time , he began @ @ @ @ @ @ @ idea of human rights , looking beyond America ’ s shores to recognize the violence and oppression that the country inflicted on various peoples of color elsewhere—an internationalism that he would soon marry to his domestic egalitarianism.11 By the mid- ’ 60s , after five years of working with SNCC , Bond began to grow frustrated .
While he recognized the changing nature of struggle , he had always imagined SNCC as an organization that would embrace everyone , and he became worried about its increasingly separatist politics .
“ I didn ’ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ be taking , ” he recalled , especially as SNCC embraced the idea of becoming an exclusively Black organization.12 Despite Bond ’ s ambivalence about SNCC ’ s separatist turn , the organization continued to exert a major influence on his life , especially with its anti-imperialist politics in the middle of the decade .
SNCC denounced the Vietnam War , and Bond grew increasingly active in anti-war efforts .
He also began to consider running for office .
In early 1965 , Rustin made his appeal to civil rights activists to turn @ @ @ @ @ @ @ arguing that the problems they would continue to face , even after the passage of the Civil Rights and Voting Rights acts , required more than demonstrations .
By then , Bond was preparing a run for the Georgia House of Representatives , and he was joined by the many different strands of the Black freedom struggle—the mainstream civil rights movement , Black nationalists , and the growing number of African Americans active in the Democratic Party—that were also making the move.13 After his election , Bond found himself at a curious intersection @ @ @ @ @ @ @ politics when the state House refused to seat him because he had endorsed SNCC ’ s anti-war stance .
SNCC , Martin Luther King Jr. , and other activists rallied to defend Bond ’ s right to represent his constituency in Atlanta .
Eventually the Supreme Court ruled , 9–0 , in Bond v. Floyd that his right to free speech had been violated by the state House ’ s vote to deny him a seat.14 After Bond became a legislator , he found that more of his peers were following in his @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Marion Barry , and Jim Clyburn , after years in the streets demanding change , were now running for office as they sought to secure and extend the gains they had helped win .
It seemed the logical next step , even if the change that could be achieved in state legislatures sometimes appeared small compared with what could be done at the federal level .
And yet , as Llorens wrote in Ebony , that kind of work mattered as well : Basic services like streetlights , garbage removal , sewage , @ @ @ @ @ @ @ flooded basements were “ ‘ some of the things we need ’ as Julian sees it , and he takes pride in being able to use his political weight to deliver them .
‘ Those are things my constituents weren ’ t always able to get in the past , ’ he says .
Nor are most of his constituents , who…are victims of poverty , apt to forget the water removed or the street repaired.
” 15 The essays in Race Man nicely illustrate this trajectory from college activist to elected official @ @ @ @ @ @ @ 10 sections , the book traces Bond ’ s political formation throughout these periods of his life .
The problems of white supremacy , capitalism , imperialism , and misogyny were his fights throughout , even if they all changed shape .
From the struggle against Jim Crow to the battle for LGBTQ rights , he remained convinced that it was necessary to agitate on behalf of the powerless outside the halls of power , but as he got older , he became convinced one had to do it from inside them as @ @ @ @ @ @ @ for voting rights or as a politician in the Georgia legislature redrawing district boundaries , Bond insisted that only through a combination of movements and policy could social change be achieved.16 Bond ’ s essays capture the intellectual world that inspired him and that he helped inspire in turn .
Though dedicated to egalitarian politics , he often found himself in heated debate with other elements of the left .
This was especially true in the late ’ 60s , as the hope of nonviolent civil disobedience peacefully changing American society began to @ @ @ @ @ @ @ the half-hearted War on Poverty , and the ever-present specter of white backlash .
The rise of the Black power movement offered Bond and other civil rights activists a unique challenge : They embraced many key components of this more radical turn but also struggled to find their way among its constituency , one that increasingly seemed to view the gains they had won as limited and incomplete.17 Of course , in many ways those gains were incomplete , and reading Bond ’ s response to his more radical contemporaries , one can @ @ @ @ @ @ @ their militant spirit—not to mention their ability to continue to find common cause with social movements all over the world—helped , in the long run , to solidify the reforms he and his colleagues had won .
An example of this is seen in his writings about South Africa and the growing movement to divest from the apartheid state , in which Bond sounded far more like his more radical peers .
“ There is an inseparable connection between black Africa and black America , ” he argued in 1978 while participating in @ @ @ @ @ @ @ between the United States and South Africa in Nashville .
This was not a coincidence : After all , Bond was also in pursuit of an equality far greater than the federal government was willing to offer , and the civil rights liberalism that their protest spawned was , in their view , only the beginning , not the end point .
Likewise , Bond , who hewed steadfastly to pacifism early in his public life , also began to doubt , with his more radical colleagues , its efficacy in the late @ @ @ @ @ @ @ he lauded the achievements of the sit-ins , he came to recognize the clear limits of early civil rights activism .
Indeed , that was one of the reasons he turned to electoral politics.18 Bond ’ s ambivalence about the growing radicalism of SNCC was also rooted in his desire for more concrete action .
Intimately aware of the organization ’ s internal discord , he concluded that it had become mired at times in what he called “ too much democracy ” and a lack of decision-making by its leaders .
He @ @ @ @ @ @ @ s democratic goals , but he felt that by 1967 its leadership was no longer taking responsibility for the group ’ s decisions , in terms of both immediate tactics and long-term strategies.19 One policy change in particular frustrated him : the separatism that no longer sought to build a multiracial membership in SNCC .
Bond opposed this separatism on principle as well as for practical reasons , writing in 1967 that it would lead to “ near unanimous condemnation ” and cause SNCC activists to narrow the scope of their activities , @ @ @ @ @ @ @ to trust the ‘ outside world.
’ ” For Bond , part of the lesson of the ’ 60s was that activism alone was not enough ; one had to have a programmatic plan of action for both grassroots organizing and building political power in the face of rampant white backlash.20 Henry Louis Gates Jr. and the Long Arc of Reconstruction Once in office , that was exactly what Bond attempted to do .
He wanted to find a way around the dead end that movement politics appeared to face in the late @ @ @ @ @ @ @ white liberal complacency in the early ’ 70s .
While serving in the Georgia legislature , he amassed a national reputation , and by 1972 , he began contributing serious ideas to the political ferment of that era.21 Bond participated in the discussions across the South that led to the 1972 National Black Political Convention in Gary , Ind .
His criticism of both the American left and mainstream liberalism grew more pointed as the decade progressed , when he repeatedly expressed his deep ambivalence—if not outright hostility—toward the presidential campaign and then @ @ @ @ @ @ @ .
“ Southern Baptists are fond of saying that ‘ prayer changes things , ’ ” Bond wrote .
“ Jimmy Carter ’ s religiosity has certainly had that effect on him , in fact has changed him from left to right to center so many times that converts to the Carter cause ought to take a cue from an earlier apostle , Thomas , who doubted.
” In the end , Bond was one of the few mainstream Black civil rights activists turned politicians who refused to back Carter during his 1976 @ @ @ @ @ @ @ candidacy—as well as his backing by so many prominent African Americans—was less a betrayal than a reminder of how weak the Black vote was as a bloc within or , if need be , outside the Democratic Party .
“ American politics has always been group politics , ” Bond wrote in 1977 , during the first year of Carter ’ s administration , and Black movements and politicians needed to embrace this fact and form a cohesive electoral faction.23 Bond ’ s arguments mirrored those put forth a decade earlier in the @ @ @ @ @ @ @ and the future Kwame Ture about the necessity for independent political action , now applied to electoral politics .
And he was not wrong , either .
During Reconstruction , Southern Black men formed the backbone of the Republican Party below the Mason-Dixon Line and thus wielded considerable power .
During the New Deal era , both major parties sought Black voters while carefully trying to not antagonize pro-segregation white Southerners .
In the ’ 70s , with the New Right on the rise and liberalism—as well as the broader ideas of social @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Bond believed it was more urgent than ever for Black Americans to acquire sustained political power .
“ The sooner we realize the difference between elections and governing , the better able we ’ ll be to form ourselves into a political bloc , ” he wrote.24 This came , ironically , after Bond argued in 1972 that “ coalition politics always weakens at least one partner in the coalition rather than strengthens both partners ” ( a fear Hamilton and Ture also voiced ) .
Such questions , of course , are @ @ @ @ @ @ @ direction of the Democratic Party and whether it has taken generations of Black voters for granted.25 One of the advantages of Race Man is that instead of shuffling Bond ’ s writings together by theme , Long presents them in chronological order so we can chart Bond ’ s evolution as well as his consistency .
We can see his thinking change over time on a wide variety of topics—sometimes dramatically—and while we can see the shifts in his tactics and strategies , we also see just how consistent his principles remained .
@ @ @ @ @ @ @ structure slightly overdetermines Bond ’ s changes : We lose sight of the complicated nature of the broader civil rights and Black power movements , and at times it can be difficult to situate his arguments in the context of national politics and international tumult .
From almost the outset of his career , Bond was writing from within the milieu of a Black freedom movement that inspired and was inspired by other movements in pursuit of freedom , justice , and equality elsewhere in the world.26 This is why Bond ’ s @ @ @ @ @ @ @ policy mirrored a broader awareness among Black Americans of the need to get more involved in global affairs .
It was also why there were sometimes moments of fierce friction , as displayed in the arguments Bond had in the ’ 70s with the growing environmental movement .
Pleading with its champions to look past a narrow politics of conservation and local resistance , he insisted , much like climate change activists today , that “ environmental pollution is only a symptom of the moral and political pollution at its core… .
Long @ @ @ @ @ @ @ lakes , and air of this continent , the bitter salt of slaves ’ sweat and tears soured the [ once ] fertile soil and the blood of noble red men soaked the fields and plains.
” 27 Bond ’ s insistence that the environmental movement ’ s rhetoric about a ticking “ population bomb ” was equally misguided anticipated the birth of a more diverse and robust movement that sought to think more systemically about environmental problems .
The growth of the environmental justice movement in the ’ 70s and ’ 80s—a @ @ @ @ @ @ @ movement that spawned Earth Day in 1970—ameliorated Bond ’ s fears by tapping into long-held concerns by Black Americans and others about the relationships between racism , land ownership , and environmental waste .
This more sophisticated environmentalism also drew Bond into its movement , and he got arrested in 2013 at the White House while protesting the Keystone XL pipeline alongside members of the Sierra Club and in defiance of the nation ’ s first Black president.28 Bond was likewise concerned about a growing disconnect between activists and ordinary people in the @ @ @ @ @ @ @ to a Black liberalism safely ensconced in the Democratic Party , he continued to wonder if activists had lost their way .
“ It suggests that the supposed and alleged security of the college campus is not the proper place from which to engage in social criticism of people who seldom see any book but the Bible from year to year , ” he warned , critiquing what he saw as an activism that had become too comfortable in the ivory tower , far removed from the everyday needs of working people.29 By @ @ @ @ @ @ @ 80s , Bond had become , for many Americans , an avatar of the civil rights movement and its legacy .
He lent his voice to the groundbreaking miniseries Eyes on the Prize , serving as a one-man Greek chorus for the now-iconic struggle .
He hosted an early episode of Saturday Night Live , cementing his status as a national public figure .
But there was an increasing sense that Bond had failed to live up to his early promise on the political stage and that as his celebrity grew , so @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Georgia .
In a bruising 1986 race for the US House of Representatives that pitted him against his friend and colleague from the civil rights movement John Lewis , Bond was criticized for having lost his way .
Rumors that he used drugs were whispered about in Atlanta and were blown wide open when Lewis challenged him to a drug test .
“ I love Julian like a brother , ” Lewis said in a 1990 profile of the two men in Atlanta magazine .
“ But he fumbled the ball .
He @ @ @ @ @ @ @ ’ t take advantage.
” 30 Part of what hurt Bond ’ s campaign , as The New York Times pointed out after his defeat , was the concern that his “ thousands of speaking engagements and television appearances elsewhere ” hampered his ability to be an effective voice in the Georgia Senate .
That lost him the trust and goodwill he needed to win what turned out to be his toughest—and final—political campaign .
After the election , Bond accepted teaching positions at several distinguished institutions , including Harvard and American University @ @ @ @ @ @ @ that he had failed to live up to his potential as the man who could have been the nation ’ s first Black vice president , perhaps even its first Black president .
“ I can ’ t do what other people want me to do , ” he said .
“ I ’ m absolutely content and fulfilled right now [ teaching and lecturing ] .
It ’ s enough for me .
I ’ m confused as to why it ’ s not enough for anyone else.
” 31 Bond remained @ @ @ @ @ @ @ rest of his life , and he continued to consider how one could be radical and yet work within the system , sounding the alarm during George W. Bush ’ s and Barack Obama ’ s presidencies on a range of issues , especially the erosion of voting rights and the need to fight for LGBTQ rights.32 It is difficult to imagine a thorough history of the American left after 1960 that doesn ’ t include Bond and the many roles he played : as a communications director for SNCC , as a @ @ @ @ @ @ @ the first president of the Southern Poverty Law Center ( a position he assumed in 1971 ) , as the voice that millions of people associated with the civil rights movement thanks to Eyes on the Prize , and as an elder statesman of the movement before his death in 2015 .
His balancing act between radicalism and reform , between movements and party politics , still speaks to the divides and the cohesiveness of the left .
Fighting for freedom in the streets , in the classrooms , and in the halls @ @ @ @ @ @ @ ’ s tool kit .
Reading his essays , we are reminded that the challenges of forging a principled yet practical path forward are nothing new—and that Bond is someone who might serve as a guide in our own uncertain times .
We can not be afraid of difficult debates or of changing tactics when necessary .
Julian Bond proved that , time and time again.33

This article appears in the August 24/31, 2020 issue.
In May of 1969, Ebony magazine ran a profile of Julian Bond, the activist and civil rights leader who had recently been reelected to the Georgia House of Representatives. With the United States mere weeks away from putting a man on the moon and the war in Vietnam still raging, the magazine wanted to take stock of where Black America found itself at the end of the decade. It was a moment of both retrospection about the civil rights movement and excitement about what the future held for African American politics. Yet Bond had been fighting for freedom and justice for more than a decade, and it showed. Ebony’s David Llorens wrote, “Attractive cat that he is, Julian Bond looks tired.”1 Books in Review Race Man: Selected Works, 1960–2015 By Julian Bond; Michael G. Long, ed. Buy this book
The profile sought to examine what it meant for a radical stalwart, struggling against a broken system from the outside, to become a politician struggling to effect change from within it. Bond’s shift “from protest to politics,” as Bayard Rustin put it in an article earlier in the decade, was a measure of how far the movement had changed Southern society. That Bond was one of the first Black people to serve in the Georgia legislature generations after Reconstruction was also a measure of how much further the nation as a whole had to go.2
After describing Bond’s work as a state representative, his speaking tours at colleges, and his deepening involvement in the Democratic Party as its New Deal coalition started to unravel, Llorens moved on to discuss the twin pillars of pride and ambivalence that supported Bond’s new role. These were the same pillars that held up the aspirations and fears of so many African Americans in the immediate aftermath of the civil rights movement. As Llorens wrote, “Julian Bond, as a politician, represents hope for the freedom of black people,” but it was a hope “entirely dependent upon the possibility that white people are capable of a humane and non-racist America.” For Llorens, this hope was real and somewhat tangible. But as he noted at the end of the passage, it depended on a radical change in the thought and action of white Americans—something that in 1969 still appeared far off because of a continuation of the “backlash politics” that had defined American political, social, cultural, and intellectual discourse ever since Reconstruction.3
That mix of felt urgency and anxious uncertainty about how much change could be made in American society would define Bond’s efforts for much of his career. His time in office, like his time as an activist, would be characterized by both his hopes for greater social equality and the continuing need to fight for such change when these hopes were too often thwarted. This tension was central to nearly all of his writing, much of which is now collected in a new book, Race Man, edited by the historian Michael G. Long.4
Race Man captures the full output of Bond’s long and distinguished career, first as an activist with the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee, then as a member of the Georgia legislature (in the House and later in the Senate), then as a traveling academic who taught about his experiences in the social upheavals of the ’60s, and finally as a writer and aging lion of the civil rights movement still fighting to hold on to the ideals of his youth. Along the way, the book also makes clear a set of themes and quandaries that have troubled so much of the history of the American left: What is lost in the movement from protest to politics? How can lasting change be achieved in the face of unsatisfying compromise? How can radicals and activists carry the torch of emancipation and equality in an age in which both major parties and many voters appear, at best, apathetic to meaningful change and, at worst, downright hostile to it?5 Popular "swipe left below to view more authors"Swipe → The Evisceration of a Public University The Evisceration of a Public University Lisa M. Corrigan The Patronizing Moralism of David Brooks The Patronizing Moralism of David Brooks Chris Lehmann “The Blind Side” Was Always Trash “The Blind Side” Was Always Trash Dave Zirin A Grim Chronicle of Trump’s Corrupt Public Life A Grim Chronicle of Trump’s Corrupt Public Life Chris Lehmann Popular "swipe left below to view more authors"Swipe → The Evisceration of a Public University The Evisceration of a Public University Lisa M. Corrigan The Patronizing Moralism of David Brooks The Patronizing Moralism of David Brooks Chris Lehmann “The Blind Side” Was Always Trash “The Blind Side” Was Always Trash Dave Zirin A Grim Chronicle of Trump’s Corrupt Public Life A Grim Chronicle of Trump’s Corrupt Public Life Chris Lehmann
Bond’s years as an activist also offer a guide through the intellectual and political history of the left in the second half of the 20th century. As Long argues in his introduction, Bond’s importance to the history of the United States and the American left in particular is nearly impossible to overestimate today. Very few Americans, he writes, “had sought more consistently and doggedly to establish solid connections between the black civil rights movement and the many progressive movements it sometimes unpredictably inspired.”6
Julian Bond was born in 1940 in Nashville. His father, Horace Mann Bond, was the first president of Fort Valley State University in Georgia and later became the first Black president of Lincoln University in Pennsylvania, both historically Black institutions. While serving as a college president, Horace Bond participated in the intellectual ferment of the World War II and early Cold War years. He did considerable research to support the NAACP’s arguments in the landmark Brown v. Board of Education case of 1954 and served as a prominent civil rights advocate during the period. The elder Bond’s participation in the rarefied world of African American educators and intellectuals meant that his son was exposed to many of the leaders of Black America from an early age. A famous image of Julian Bond as a young boy, for example, shows him side by side with the actor, singer, and activist Paul Robeson. The photograph itself is a testament to the intergenerational links between the different civil rights cohorts.7 Current Issue View our current issue
Yet Bond’s early exposure to the intellectual creativity and political activism of Black America would hardly shield him from the racism and violence spawned by white supremacy. In the Jim Crow South, Bond saw racism and discrimination all around him—a radicalizing experience that never left him, even after he and his family moved to Pennsylvania when his father became the head of Lincoln University. Bond’s growing politicization throughout the ’50s was only deepened by his years at the George School, a prep school founded by Quakers, where he began to develop his long-term fascination with pacifism.8
In 1957, Bond returned to Georgia to attend Morehouse College. Long a hotbed of Black struggle and uplift, the school helped launch his career in civil rights activism. He met Martin Luther King Jr. in 1960 while at Morehouse, and that year he cofounded, with fellow student Lonnie King, the Committee on the Appeal for Human Rights, which eventually led to his involvement in the creation of the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee. Bond immediately understood the significance of SNCC and the role that students could play in expanding the civil rights movement. The younger generation of Black Americans was ready to use new tactics to fight for the kind of social change their parents and grandparents sought in previous eras. Reflecting on the rise of these new organizations, Bond wrote, “The struggle for human rights is a constant fight, and one which the students do not plan to relinquish until full equality is won for all men.”9
Against the backdrop of African nations declaring their independence abroad and civil rights agitation growing at home, 1960 saw a wave of sit-ins, starting in Greensboro, N.C. Four students at North Carolina A&T, a Black college, decided to stage a sit-in, adopting the tactics of nonviolent direct action already being used by various civil rights organizations. Word of the sit-ins spread across the South, spurring even more sit-ins as well as Bond’s participation in Atlanta. “Why don’t we make it happen here?” Lonnie King said to Bond in February 1960. That brief conversation, between two young men who yearned to be part of the great moral and political issue of their age, sparked Bond’s lifelong service to the movement.10
Bond participated in the sit-ins in Atlanta that year and in a whirlwind series of campaigns across the South as the communications director of SNCC. Leaving Morehouse to dedicate himself to this work full-time, Bond, like many other young Black Americans, accepted that he would have to relinquish the comforts of the college campus and risk life and limb in the fire of activism. At this time, he began to think in broader terms about the idea of human rights, looking beyond America’s shores to recognize the violence and oppression that the country inflicted on various peoples of color elsewhere—an internationalism that he would soon marry to his domestic egalitarianism.11 Related Article A Starting Point for Politics Bruce Robbins
By the mid-’60s, after five years of working with SNCC, Bond began to grow frustrated. While he recognized the changing nature of struggle, he had always imagined SNCC as an organization that would embrace everyone, and he became worried about its increasingly separatist politics. “I didn’t like the direction it seemed to be taking,” he recalled, especially as SNCC embraced the idea of becoming an exclusively Black organization.12
Despite Bond’s ambivalence about SNCC’s separatist turn, the organization continued to exert a major influence on his life, especially with its anti-imperialist politics in the middle of the decade. SNCC denounced the Vietnam War, and Bond grew increasingly active in anti-war efforts. He also began to consider running for office. In early 1965, Rustin made his appeal to civil rights activists to turn “from protest to politics,” arguing that the problems they would continue to face, even after the passage of the Civil Rights and Voting Rights acts, required more than demonstrations. By then, Bond was preparing a run for the Georgia House of Representatives, and he was joined by the many different strands of the Black freedom struggle—the mainstream civil rights movement, Black nationalists, and the growing number of African Americans active in the Democratic Party—that were also making the move.13
After his election, Bond found himself at a curious intersection of local, national, and international politics when the state House refused to seat him because he had endorsed SNCC’s anti-war stance. SNCC, Martin Luther King Jr., and other activists rallied to defend Bond’s right to represent his constituency in Atlanta. Eventually the Supreme Court ruled, 9–0, in Bond v. Floyd that his right to free speech had been violated by the state House’s vote to deny him a seat.14
After Bond became a legislator, he found that more of his peers were following in his footsteps. People like John Lewis, Marion Barry, and Jim Clyburn, after years in the streets demanding change, were now running for office as they sought to secure and extend the gains they had helped win. It seemed the logical next step, even if the change that could be achieved in state legislatures sometimes appeared small compared with what could be done at the federal level. And yet, as Llorens wrote in Ebony, that kind of work mattered as well: Basic services like streetlights, garbage removal, sewage, repairing roads, and draining water from flooded basements were “‘some of the things we need’ as Julian sees it, and he takes pride in being able to use his political weight to deliver them. ‘Those are things my constituents weren’t always able to get in the past,’ he says. Nor are most of his constituents, who…are victims of poverty, apt to forget the water removed or the street repaired.”15
The essays in Race Man nicely illustrate this trajectory from college activist to elected official (and beyond). Broken into 10 sections, the book traces Bond’s political formation throughout these periods of his life. The problems of white supremacy, capitalism, imperialism, and misogyny were his fights throughout, even if they all changed shape. From the struggle against Jim Crow to the battle for LGBTQ rights, he remained convinced that it was necessary to agitate on behalf of the powerless outside the halls of power, but as he got older, he became convinced one had to do it from inside them as well. Whether as an activist struggling for voting rights or as a politician in the Georgia legislature redrawing district boundaries, Bond insisted that only through a combination of movements and policy could social change be achieved.16
Bond’s essays capture the intellectual world that inspired him and that he helped inspire in turn. Though dedicated to egalitarian politics, he often found himself in heated debate with other elements of the left. This was especially true in the late ’60s, as the hope of nonviolent civil disobedience peacefully changing American society began to buckle under the strain of Vietnam, the half-hearted War on Poverty, and the ever-present specter of white backlash. The rise of the Black power movement offered Bond and other civil rights activists a unique challenge: They embraced many key components of this more radical turn but also struggled to find their way among its constituency, one that increasingly seemed to view the gains they had won as limited and incomplete.17
Of course, in many ways those gains were incomplete, and reading Bond’s response to his more radical contemporaries, one can see that he might have missed how their militant spirit—not to mention their ability to continue to find common cause with social movements all over the world—helped, in the long run, to solidify the reforms he and his colleagues had won. An example of this is seen in his writings about South Africa and the growing movement to divest from the apartheid state, in which Bond sounded far more like his more radical peers. “There is an inseparable connection between black Africa and black America,” he argued in 1978 while participating in a protest against a Davis Cup match between the United States and South Africa in Nashville. This was not a coincidence: After all, Bond was also in pursuit of an equality far greater than the federal government was willing to offer, and the civil rights liberalism that their protest spawned was, in their view, only the beginning, not the end point. Likewise, Bond, who hewed steadfastly to pacifism early in his public life, also began to doubt, with his more radical colleagues, its efficacy in the late 1960s and early 1970s, and while he lauded the achievements of the sit-ins, he came to recognize the clear limits of early civil rights activism. Indeed, that was one of the reasons he turned to electoral politics.18
Bond’s ambivalence about the growing radicalism of SNCC was also rooted in his desire for more concrete action. Intimately aware of the organization’s internal discord, he concluded that it had become mired at times in what he called “too much democracy” and a lack of decision-making by its leaders. He did not appear to question SNCC’s democratic goals, but he felt that by 1967 its leadership was no longer taking responsibility for the group’s decisions, in terms of both immediate tactics and long-term strategies.19
One policy change in particular frustrated him: the separatism that no longer sought to build a multiracial membership in SNCC. Bond opposed this separatism on principle as well as for practical reasons, writing in 1967 that it would lead to “near unanimous condemnation” and cause SNCC activists to narrow the scope of their activities, “effectively contained by their own unwillingness to trust the ‘outside world.’” For Bond, part of the lesson of the ’60s was that activism alone was not enough; one had to have a programmatic plan of action for both grassroots organizing and building political power in the face of rampant white backlash.20 More From Robert Greene II Why the United States Needs a New Reconstruction February 22, 2023 Imani Perry’s Capacious History of the South September 21, 2022 Keeping Juneteenth Radical June 20, 2022
Once in office, that was exactly what Bond attempted to do. He wanted to find a way around the dead end that movement politics appeared to face in the late ’60s and the political weaknesses of white liberal complacency in the early ’70s. While serving in the Georgia legislature, he amassed a national reputation, and by 1972, he began contributing serious ideas to the political ferment of that era.21
Bond participated in the discussions across the South that led to the 1972 National Black Political Convention in Gary, Ind. His criticism of both the American left and mainstream liberalism grew more pointed as the decade progressed, when he repeatedly expressed his deep ambivalence—if not outright hostility—toward the presidential campaign and then presidency of former Georgia governor Jimmy Carter. “Southern Baptists are fond of saying that ‘prayer changes things,’” Bond wrote. “Jimmy Carter’s religiosity has certainly had that effect on him, in fact has changed him from left to right to center so many times that converts to the Carter cause ought to take a cue from an earlier apostle, Thomas, who doubted.” In the end, Bond was one of the few mainstream Black civil rights activists turned politicians who refused to back Carter during his 1976 run.22
For Bond, Carter’s candidacy—as well as his backing by so many prominent African Americans—was less a betrayal than a reminder of how weak the Black vote was as a bloc within or, if need be, outside the Democratic Party. “American politics has always been group politics,” Bond wrote in 1977, during the first year of Carter’s administration, and Black movements and politicians needed to embrace this fact and form a cohesive electoral faction.23
Bond’s arguments mirrored those put forth a decade earlier in the book Black Power by Charles V. Hamilton and the future Kwame Ture about the necessity for independent political action, now applied to electoral politics. And he was not wrong, either. During Reconstruction, Southern Black men formed the backbone of the Republican Party below the Mason-Dixon Line and thus wielded considerable power. During the New Deal era, both major parties sought Black voters while carefully trying to not antagonize pro-segregation white Southerners. In the ’70s, with the New Right on the rise and liberalism—as well as the broader ideas of social democracy—under threat across the Western world, Bond believed it was more urgent than ever for Black Americans to acquire sustained political power. “The sooner we realize the difference between elections and governing, the better able we’ll be to form ourselves into a political bloc,” he wrote.24
This came, ironically, after Bond argued in 1972 that “coalition politics always weakens at least one partner in the coalition rather than strengthens both partners” (a fear Hamilton and Ture also voiced). Such questions, of course, are still with us, especially concerning the direction of the Democratic Party and whether it has taken generations of Black voters for granted.25
One of the advantages of Race Man is that instead of shuffling Bond’s writings together by theme, Long presents them in chronological order so we can chart Bond’s evolution as well as his consistency. We can see his thinking change over time on a wide variety of topics—sometimes dramatically—and while we can see the shifts in his tactics and strategies, we also see just how consistent his principles remained. However, the book’s chronological structure slightly overdetermines Bond’s changes: We lose sight of the complicated nature of the broader civil rights and Black power movements, and at times it can be difficult to situate his arguments in the context of national politics and international tumult. From almost the outset of his career, Bond was writing from within the milieu of a Black freedom movement that inspired and was inspired by other movements in pursuit of freedom, justice, and equality elsewhere in the world.26
This is why Bond’s seamless movement from domestic campaigns to international policy mirrored a broader awareness among Black Americans of the need to get more involved in global affairs. It was also why there were sometimes moments of fierce friction, as displayed in the arguments Bond had in the ’70s with the growing environmental movement. Pleading with its champions to look past a narrow politics of conservation and local resistance, he insisted, much like climate change activists today, that “environmental pollution is only a symptom of the moral and political pollution at its core…. Long before industrial filth fouled the rivers, lakes, and air of this continent, the bitter salt of slaves’ sweat and tears soured the [once] fertile soil and the blood of noble red men soaked the fields and plains.”27
Bond’s insistence that the environmental movement’s rhetoric about a ticking “population bomb” was equally misguided anticipated the birth of a more diverse and robust movement that sought to think more systemically about environmental problems. The growth of the environmental justice movement in the ’70s and ’80s—a Blacker, poorer relative of the better-known movement that spawned Earth Day in 1970—ameliorated Bond’s fears by tapping into long-held concerns by Black Americans and others about the relationships between racism, land ownership, and environmental waste. This more sophisticated environmentalism also drew Bond into its movement, and he got arrested in 2013 at the White House while protesting the Keystone XL pipeline alongside members of the Sierra Club and in defiance of the nation’s first Black president.28
Bond was likewise concerned about a growing disconnect between activists and ordinary people in the 1970s. As Black power gave way to a Black liberalism safely ensconced in the Democratic Party, he continued to wonder if activists had lost their way. “It suggests that the supposed and alleged security of the college campus is not the proper place from which to engage in social criticism of people who seldom see any book but the Bible from year to year,” he warned, critiquing what he saw as an activism that had become too comfortable in the ivory tower, far removed from the everyday needs of working people.29
By the late ’70s and early ’80s, Bond had become, for many Americans, an avatar of the civil rights movement and its legacy. He lent his voice to the groundbreaking miniseries Eyes on the Prize, serving as a one-man Greek chorus for the now-iconic struggle. He hosted an early episode of Saturday Night Live, cementing his status as a national public figure. But there was an increasing sense that Bond had failed to live up to his early promise on the political stage and that as his celebrity grew, so did his distance from his constituents in Georgia. In a bruising 1986 race for the US House of Representatives that pitted him against his friend and colleague from the civil rights movement John Lewis, Bond was criticized for having lost his way. Rumors that he used drugs were whispered about in Atlanta and were blown wide open when Lewis challenged him to a drug test. “I love Julian like a brother,” Lewis said in a 1990 profile of the two men in Atlanta magazine. “But he fumbled the ball. He had unbelievable opportunities. He just didn’t take advantage.”30
Part of what hurt Bond’s campaign, as The New York Times pointed out after his defeat, was the concern that his “thousands of speaking engagements and television appearances elsewhere” hampered his ability to be an effective voice in the Georgia Senate. That lost him the trust and goodwill he needed to win what turned out to be his toughest—and final—political campaign. After the election, Bond accepted teaching positions at several distinguished institutions, including Harvard and American University, and he reflected on the charge that he had failed to live up to his potential as the man who could have been the nation’s first Black vice president, perhaps even its first Black president. “I can’t do what other people want me to do,” he said. “I’m absolutely content and fulfilled right now [teaching and lecturing]. It’s enough for me. I’m confused as to why it’s not enough for anyone else.”31
Bond remained active in left political circles for the rest of his life, and he continued to consider how one could be radical and yet work within the system, sounding the alarm during George W. Bush’s and Barack Obama’s presidencies on a range of issues, especially the erosion of voting rights and the need to fight for LGBTQ rights.32
It is difficult to imagine a thorough history of the American left after 1960 that doesn’t include Bond and the many roles he played: as a communications director for SNCC, as a state legislator for 20 years, as the first president of the Southern Poverty Law Center (a position he assumed in 1971), as the voice that millions of people associated with the civil rights movement thanks to Eyes on the Prize, and as an elder statesman of the movement before his death in 2015. His balancing act between radicalism and reform, between movements and party politics, still speaks to the divides and the cohesiveness of the left. Fighting for freedom in the streets, in the classrooms, and in the halls of power was all part of Bond’s tool kit. Reading his essays, we are reminded that the challenges of forging a principled yet practical path forward are nothing new—and that Bond is someone who might serve as a guide in our own uncertain times. We cannot be afraid of difficult debates or of changing tactics when necessary. Julian Bond proved that, time and time again.33


thenation--2020-08-10--6 Superheroes Who Could Totally Save Us From Covid-19

Nobody is coming to save us from the coronavirus or the deaths the incompetent Trump administration has caused .
Ultraviolet light , bleach , and hydroxychloroquine are not cures .
Even when there is a vaccine , distributing it will take months , if not years .
In the meantime , the Republican misinformation machine has insured that a dedicated minority of Americans will resist all attempts to take basic precautions to protect the health and safety of our society .
We are doomed by our leadership and ignorance to face more cases and more deaths from this disease than @ @ @ @ @ @ @ don ’ t know about you , but I can only stare into the abyss of our reality for so long until my mind retreats into fantasy .
Nobody is coming to save us , but what if somebody could ?
Who could get us out of this mess that ’ s largely of our own making , and how ?
When I was a kid , I used to hide in comic books and sci-fi novels to avoid realities I couldn ’ t face head-on , like my parents ’ crumbling marriage @ @ @ @ @ @ @ ’ m saving season two of The Umbrella Academy for the Republican National Convention week .
The upshot of my form of “ self-care ” is that I ’ ve come up with a list of superheroes who could actually help us fight the coronavirus and set our country back on the right track .
Dr. Anthony Fauci can ’ t stop Trump from lying , but what if Fauci were bitten by a radioactive spider ?
Would that help ?
These are the questions I ask when Trump is allowed to talk @ @ @ @ @ @ @ ’ ve limited my list to six characters from the Marvel and D.C. comics universes , because the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles are just silly .
And because I am progressive , Batman and Iron Man do not make my list .
We do not need a militarized overreaction to our problems .
We do not need more punching .
Besides , we already know how Bruce Wayne or Tony Stark would react to our current crisis , because Elon Musk , Mark Zuckerberg , Jeff Bezos , and Bill Gates already exist @ @ @ @ @ @ @ t help .
Instead , they use their wealth and technical wizardry to monopolize their industries and squeeze ever higher profit margins out of their workers .
Sorry , wealthy ninjas .
This is my fantasy , and the “ due process is for wimps ” crowd is not invited .
Here are the superheroes I ’ ve been turning to in my hours of dread .
Donald Trump says we ’ re fighting an “ invisible ” virus , but that is wrong .
It ’ s not invisible ; it ’ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Ant-Man can make himself very small .
Ant-Man is one of the only superheroes who can engage Covid-19 in hand-to-hand combat .
There Are Literally No Good Options for Educating Our Kids This Fall The Lesson of the Coronavirus ?
There ’ s No One Left to Trust .
Unfortunately , each infected person contains millions of SARS-Cov-2 viruses , and Ant-Man is only one guy .
Even if he had some way of fighting them all at the same time , he could only save one person at a time .
He @ @ @ @ @ @ @ systemic problem : Deploying him is like arresting a bad police officer but doing nothing about the corrupt police force .
Again , punching isn ’ t really the answer here .
But , if we could hire Ant-Man to just protect Ruth Bader Ginsburg for a little while longer , it ’ d be worth it .
Don ’ t you wish you could put a mask on everybody you see walking around without one ?
Well , Spider-Man can do that !
Spider-Man could swing through Central Park slinging a mask @ @ @ @ @ @ @ his web-shooters .
Not only would his face-webs protect others from the virus ; they would also keep people from spouting QAnon conspiracy theories and infecting the public discourse with their ignorance .
What could be more useful right now than a hero who can block ignorance by shooting personal protective equipment from his wrists ?
Still , even Spider-Man couldn ’ t solve all our problems .
Like Ant-Man , the trouble with Spider-Man is the limited reach of his powers .
Spidey could handle Queens in a night and still be @ @ @ @ @ @ @ the morning , but saving all five boroughs might be a stretch .
He couldn ’ t help us with the entire state of Florida .
And trying to mask all of MAGA for any length of time is impossible .
We ’ re dealing with people who would be willing to shoot the web-mask off of their own mouths in the name of “ free speech.
” Jennifer Walters ’ s cousin Bruce Banner is a brilliant ( if irascible ) scientist .
If you stuck Banner in a lab , and @ @ @ @ @ @ @ he might come up with the vaccine for Covid-19 .
But then what ?
What is Banner going to do to make sure the vaccine is distributed fairly to people regardless of ability to pay ?
How is he going to shepherd his vaccine through the important FDA approval process ( which would be necessary , because nobody should take anything produced by Banner without first testing it for side effects ) ?
This job calls for a lawyer , and Walters was an ace attorney before she needed a blood transfusion from @ @ @ @ @ @ @ smashy powers .
When we do finally get a vaccine , we will need superhero lawyers fighting for the rights of people to access the vaccine , because we know that the vaccine makers will have phalanxes of lawyers trying to squeeze every cent of profit out of what will be called “ proprietary ” life-saving therapeutics .
We know Mitch McConnell will try to erect liability shields for drug manufacturers , while a rushed , mass-produced vaccine could carry deleterious effects that don ’ t show up for years .
Unlike her @ @ @ @ @ @ @ , ” she retains her intelligence and emotional control .
That ’ s a nice hedge against a 5-4 Supreme Court decision against one of her clients .
Even if Kodak , the camera company turned pharma giant , wins in court , she can still take out a factory producing substandard vaccine , if needed .
The most patriotic thing you can do right now is wear a mask .
But most of our shared national symbols were co-opted decades ago by Republicans .
Those symbols are now used to inspire fear @ @ @ @ @ @ @ that lacks empathy and is resistant to facts .
But Steve Rogers is not afraid .
Steve Rogers , an average kid from Brooklyn who took a super-soldier serum to become Captain America , fights for freedom , not white nationalism .
Rogers battles fascists ; he doesn ’ t bow to them because they happen to be in positions of authority .
The Trump administration is the antithesis of everything Rogers ever fought for .
As a soldier , Rogers ’ s superpowers are useless against the coronavirus .
And frankly , @ @ @ @ @ @ @ s war-like exceptionalism , the better .
But as a symbol , Captain America is what we need to combat the MAGA hat .
Captain America convinced Americans to buy war bonds and save their bacon grease .
Surely , he could convince at least a few Trump holdouts to wear a mask to Costco .
Tucker Carlson and the rest of the hosts at Hydra News would inevitably call Cap “ ANTIFA ” —but Rogers would simply respond , “ What ’ s wrong with being anti-fascist ?
I thought that was @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Security ’ s Chad Wolf would send a goon squad to apprehend Rogers , but it wouldn ’ t go well for the DHS , and somehow we ’ d all end up in a Civil War story line .
But Rogers would never stop trying to save us from ourselves .
He ’ d never cede bald eagles and apple pie to these people .
By this point in the pandemic , Wakanda would surely have the cure for Covid-19 .
Wakandan scientists probably started working on this hours after the World @ @ @ @ @ @ @ informed of a mysterious atypical pneumonia on December 31 , and then locked down a cure by the end of the rainy season .
I doubt there is a lung disease that Heart-Shaped Herb tea and vibranium vitamins can ’ t fix .
But we wouldn ’ t need to beg for Wakanda ’ s cure .
While T ’ Challa , Wakanda ’ s leader , would be in deep contemplation—reading philosophy and consulting the ancestors about whether to share his country ’ s resources and knowledge—Shuri , his polymath genius sister @ @ @ @ @ @ @ and tell us what to do , even without a life-saving vibranium infusion .
Shuri is , after all , a scientist and engineer before she is a superhero .
From the perspective of a scientist , the next steps to save America , while we wait for our own miracle drug , are obvious .
We need testing that can be administered easily and produce quick results .
We need testing to tell us who has been sick .
All of this could be done , right now and without resorting to @ @ @ @ @ @ @ lab resources to it .
We need contact tracing—I ’ m sure Shuri could build some kind of app to do that .
We need to identify people with pre-existing conditions and provide them with enhanced care , which again is not a question of knowledge but mere will and resources .
We need a way to bubble essential workers , while making sure that everybody else has the equipment to work or learn from home as seamlessly as possible .
One can imagine Shuri saying in disgust : “ You don ’ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ you neglect to feed them as well ?
” Every other wealthy country has figured this out .
Being a superhero leader in this moment doesn ’ t require mutant powers , after all ; it requires the ability to apply the resources your country already has to fix the problem .
You could put Shuri in a forest with a sharp rock and a rope and she ’ d roll out of it on a chariot .
Her superpower is ingenuity .
We could use some .
When I was a kid @ @ @ @ @ @ @ s power set was all that impressive .
She was strong , but not as strong as Superman .
Fast , but not as fast as the Flash .
And while Batman had something in his belt for literally every situation on Earth , all Wonder Woman had was a rinky-dink lasso .
I had to grow up and meet more Republicans before I realized the singular , amazing utility of the Lasso of Truth .
Wonder Woman could eliminate the coronavirus and most of this country ’ s other problems in a @ @ @ @ @ @ @ wait for a Donald Trump press conference , break Trump ’ s precious teleprompter , lasso the president , and let Yamiche Alcindor and April Ryan start asking questions .
The truth is the cure our sick country needs .
Just imagine : One press conference during which Donald Trump is forced to tell the truth about the virus and everything else his administration has done ; one prime-time Fox News show during which the host has to tell the truth to their audience ; one speech from Georgia Governor Brian Kemp about @ @ @ @ @ @ @ reopen schools ; one decision from John Roberts explaining the real reason he refuses to extend absentee ballot deadlines .
The thing that is killing us , more than any novel virus , is the lies .
Our leaders lie to us with impunity .
State-run media lies to us for ratings .
Employers lie to us to protect their profits , while judges lie to us to further their ideological agendas .
If everybody had to tell the truth , if we were all operating from the same shared set of facts @ @ @ @ @ @ @ and climate change and , probably , global poverty too ) .
There couldn ’ t be a more useful superpower in times of crisis than forcing people to tell the truth .
Yet nothing could be more fantastical .
We ’ ll sooner see a person who can leap tall buildings and shoot laser beams out of his eyes than we ’ ll see a person who can force people to be honest .
The consistent victory of truth over deceit is the most childish thing about comic book stories .
So @ @ @ @ @ @ @ of reality .
There is no single person with superpowers who , alone , can fix the carnage brought on us by the Trump administration .
There is no “ MacGuffin ” to drop into our story and magically resolve the plot .
No league of justice warriors is coming to save us , and nobody will avenge those who have fallen to this virus .
All we mere mortals can do is wear our masks , vote our conscience , and rage against the dying of the light .

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Nobody is coming to save us from the coronavirus or the deaths the incompetent Trump administration has caused. Ultraviolet light, bleach, and hydroxychloroquine are not cures. Even when there is a vaccine, distributing it will take months, if not years. In the meantime, the Republican misinformation machine has insured that a dedicated minority of Americans will resist all attempts to take basic precautions to protect the health and safety of our society. We are doomed by our leadership and ignorance to face more cases and more deaths from this disease than any other country on Earth.
I don’t know about you, but I can only stare into the abyss of our reality for so long until my mind retreats into fantasy. Nobody is coming to save us, but what if somebody could? Who could get us out of this mess that’s largely of our own making, and how? When I was a kid, I used to hide in comic books and sci-fi novels to avoid realities I couldn’t face head-on, like my parents’ crumbling marriage. That’s probably why I’m saving season two of The Umbrella Academy for the Republican National Convention week.
The upshot of my form of “self-care” is that I’ve come up with a list of superheroes who could actually help us fight the coronavirus and set our country back on the right track. Dr. Anthony Fauci can’t stop Trump from lying, but what if Fauci were bitten by a radioactive spider? Would that help? These are the questions I ask when Trump is allowed to talk on television without a fact-checker.
I’ve limited my list to six characters from the Marvel and D.C. comics universes, because the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles are just silly. And because I am progressive, Batman and Iron Man do not make my list. We do not need a militarized overreaction to our problems. We do not need more punching. Besides, we already know how Bruce Wayne or Tony Stark would react to our current crisis, because Elon Musk, Mark Zuckerberg, Jeff Bezos, and Bill Gates already exist in real life. They don’t help. Instead, they use their wealth and technical wizardry to monopolize their industries and squeeze ever higher profit margins out of their workers. Sorry, wealthy ninjas. This is my fantasy, and the “due process is for wimps” crowd is not invited.
Here are the superheroes I’ve been turning to in my hours of dread.
Superhero #6: Scott Lang/Ant-Man
Donald Trump says we’re fighting an “invisible” virus, but that is wrong. It’s not invisible; it’s just very, very small. Ant-Man can make himself very small. Ant-Man is one of the only superheroes who can engage Covid-19 in hand-to-hand combat. More from Mystal There Are Literally No Good Options for Educating Our Kids This Fall Elie Mystal The Lesson of the Coronavirus? There’s No One Left to Trust. Elie Mystal
Unfortunately, each infected person contains millions of SARS-Cov-2 viruses, and Ant-Man is only one guy. Even if he had some way of fighting them all at the same time, he could only save one person at a time. He’s a case-by-case solution to a systemic problem: Deploying him is like arresting a bad police officer but doing nothing about the corrupt police force. Popular "swipe left below to view more authors"Swipe → The Evisceration of a Public University The Evisceration of a Public University Lisa M. Corrigan The Patronizing Moralism of David Brooks The Patronizing Moralism of David Brooks Chris Lehmann “The Blind Side” Was Always Trash “The Blind Side” Was Always Trash Dave Zirin A Grim Chronicle of Trump’s Corrupt Public Life A Grim Chronicle of Trump’s Corrupt Public Life Chris Lehmann Popular "swipe left below to view more authors"Swipe → The Evisceration of a Public University The Evisceration of a Public University Lisa M. Corrigan The Patronizing Moralism of David Brooks The Patronizing Moralism of David Brooks Chris Lehmann “The Blind Side” Was Always Trash “The Blind Side” Was Always Trash Dave Zirin A Grim Chronicle of Trump’s Corrupt Public Life A Grim Chronicle of Trump’s Corrupt Public Life Chris Lehmann
Again, punching isn’t really the answer here. But, if we could hire Ant-Man to just protect Ruth Bader Ginsburg for a little while longer, it’d be worth it.
Superhero #5: Peter Parker/Spider-Man
Don’t you wish you could put a mask on everybody you see walking around without one? Well, Spider-Man can do that! Spider-Man could swing through Central Park slinging a mask onto every uncovered face he sees with his web-shooters. Not only would his face-webs protect others from the virus; they would also keep people from spouting QAnon conspiracy theories and infecting the public discourse with their ignorance. What could be more useful right now than a hero who can block ignorance by shooting personal protective equipment from his wrists?
Still, even Spider-Man couldn’t solve all our problems. Like Ant-Man, the trouble with Spider-Man is the limited reach of his powers. Spidey could handle Queens in a night and still be back at home for remote learning in the morning, but saving all five boroughs might be a stretch. He couldn’t help us with the entire state of Florida. And trying to mask all of MAGA for any length of time is impossible. We’re dealing with people who would be willing to shoot the web-mask off of their own mouths in the name of “free speech.”
Superhero #4: Jennifer Susan Walters/She-Hulk
Jennifer Walters’s cousin Bruce Banner is a brilliant (if irascible) scientist. If you stuck Banner in a lab, and didn’t make him angry, he might come up with the vaccine for Covid-19. But then what? What is Banner going to do to make sure the vaccine is distributed fairly to people regardless of ability to pay? How is he going to shepherd his vaccine through the important FDA approval process (which would be necessary, because nobody should take anything produced by Banner without first testing it for side effects)?
This job calls for a lawyer, and Walters was an ace attorney before she needed a blood transfusion from her cousin Banner, resulting in her smashy powers. When we do finally get a vaccine, we will need superhero lawyers fighting for the rights of people to access the vaccine, because we know that the vaccine makers will have phalanxes of lawyers trying to squeeze every cent of profit out of what will be called “proprietary” life-saving therapeutics. We know Mitch McConnell will try to erect liability shields for drug manufacturers, while a rushed, mass-produced vaccine could carry deleterious effects that don’t show up for years.
Unlike her cousin, when Walters “hulks up,” she retains her intelligence and emotional control. That’s a nice hedge against a 5-4 Supreme Court decision against one of her clients. Even if Kodak, the camera company turned pharma giant, wins in court, she can still take out a factory producing substandard vaccine, if needed.
Superhero #3: Steven Rogers/Captain America
The most patriotic thing you can do right now is wear a mask. But most of our shared national symbols were co-opted decades ago by Republicans. Those symbols are now used to inspire fear, xenophobia, and a myopic individualism that lacks empathy and is resistant to facts.
But Steve Rogers is not afraid. Steve Rogers, an average kid from Brooklyn who took a super-soldier serum to become Captain America, fights for freedom, not white nationalism. Rogers battles fascists; he doesn’t bow to them because they happen to be in positions of authority. The Trump administration is the antithesis of everything Rogers ever fought for.
As a soldier, Rogers’s superpowers are useless against the coronavirus. And frankly, the fewer jingoistic appeals to America’s war-like exceptionalism, the better. But as a symbol, Captain America is what we need to combat the MAGA hat. Captain America convinced Americans to buy war bonds and save their bacon grease. Surely, he could convince at least a few Trump holdouts to wear a mask to Costco.
Tucker Carlson and the rest of the hosts at Hydra News would inevitably call Cap “ANTIFA”—but Rogers would simply respond, “What’s wrong with being anti-fascist? I thought that was the point.” The Department of Homeland Security’s Chad Wolf would send a goon squad to apprehend Rogers, but it wouldn’t go well for the DHS, and somehow we’d all end up in a Civil War story line. But Rogers would never stop trying to save us from ourselves. He’d never cede bald eagles and apple pie to these people.
Superheroes #2: Shuri/Aja-Adanna
By this point in the pandemic, Wakanda would surely have the cure for Covid-19. Wakandan scientists probably started working on this hours after the World Health Organization’s China outpost was informed of a mysterious atypical pneumonia on December 31, and then locked down a cure by the end of the rainy season. I doubt there is a lung disease that Heart-Shaped Herb tea and vibranium vitamins can’t fix. Current Issue View our current issue
But we wouldn’t need to beg for Wakanda’s cure. While T’Challa, Wakanda’s leader, would be in deep contemplation—reading philosophy and consulting the ancestors about whether to share his country’s resources and knowledge—Shuri, his polymath genius sister, would just pop up on Instagram and tell us what to do, even without a life-saving vibranium infusion.
Shuri is, after all, a scientist and engineer before she is a superhero. From the perspective of a scientist, the next steps to save America, while we wait for our own miracle drug, are obvious. We need testing that can be administered easily and produce quick results. We need testing to tell us who has been sick. All of this could be done, right now and without resorting to magic herbs, if we committed the lab resources to it.
We need contact tracing—I’m sure Shuri could build some kind of app to do that. We need to identify people with pre-existing conditions and provide them with enhanced care, which again is not a question of knowledge but mere will and resources. We need a way to bubble essential workers, while making sure that everybody else has the equipment to work or learn from home as seamlessly as possible. One can imagine Shuri saying in disgust: “You don’t give your children laptops? Do you neglect to feed them as well?”
Every other wealthy country has figured this out. Being a superhero leader in this moment doesn’t require mutant powers, after all; it requires the ability to apply the resources your country already has to fix the problem.
You could put Shuri in a forest with a sharp rock and a rope and she’d roll out of it on a chariot. Her superpower is ingenuity. We could use some.
Superhero #1: Diana Prince/Wonder Woman
When I was a kid, I never thought Wonder Woman’s power set was all that impressive. She was strong, but not as strong as Superman. Fast, but not as fast as the Flash. And while Batman had something in his belt for literally every situation on Earth, all Wonder Woman had was a rinky-dink lasso.
I had to grow up and meet more Republicans before I realized the singular, amazing utility of the Lasso of Truth.
Wonder Woman could eliminate the coronavirus and most of this country’s other problems in a day. She would just have to wait for a Donald Trump press conference, break Trump’s precious teleprompter, lasso the president, and let Yamiche Alcindor and April Ryan start asking questions. The truth is the cure our sick country needs.
Just imagine: One press conference during which Donald Trump is forced to tell the truth about the virus and everything else his administration has done; one prime-time Fox News show during which the host has to tell the truth to their audience; one speech from Georgia Governor Brian Kemp about whether it’s really safe to reopen schools; one decision from John Roberts explaining the real reason he refuses to extend absentee ballot deadlines.
The thing that is killing us, more than any novel virus, is the lies. Our leaders lie to us with impunity. State-run media lies to us for ratings. Employers lie to us to protect their profits, while judges lie to us to further their ideological agendas. If everybody had to tell the truth, if we were all operating from the same shared set of facts, we could lick the coronavirus (and climate change and, probably, global poverty too).
There couldn’t be a more useful superpower in times of crisis than forcing people to tell the truth. Yet nothing could be more fantastical. We’ll sooner see a person who can leap tall buildings and shoot laser beams out of his eyes than we’ll see a person who can force people to be honest. The consistent victory of truth over deceit is the most childish thing about comic book stories.
So it’s back to the abyss of reality. There is no single person with superpowers who, alone, can fix the carnage brought on us by the Trump administration. There is no “MacGuffin” to drop into our story and magically resolve the plot.
No league of justice warriors is coming to save us, and nobody will avenge those who have fallen to this virus. All we mere mortals can do is wear our masks, vote our conscience, and rage against the dying of the light.


thenation--2020-08-10--Ilhan Omar Faces a Primary Tuesday Because She Speaks Truth to Power

Trust Representative Ilhan Omar to introduce a piece of legislation that cuts straight to the heart of the matter .
While other officials in Washington are arguing about where to find resources to address the mounting challenges posed by the coronavirus pandemic and mass unemployment , the Minnesota Democrat has stepped up with the Make Billionaires Pay Act .
Introduced last week in cooperation with her frequent ally Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders , the proposal would impose a 60 percent tax on the gains in wealth accumulated by billionaires as the country has been reeling from Covid-19 .
“ It @ @ @ @ @ @ @ suffering of working families as the pandemic ravages the economy and kills thousands of Americans every day , ” declared Omar .
“ For far too long , the richest 0.001 % of America , have avoided paying their fair share in taxes .
This bill will go a long way towards addressing our nation ’ s massive wealth inequality and finally guaranteeing healthcare as a human right .
Nothing could be more important in the midst of a global pandemic than ensuring quality healthcare for every American.
” The boldness of the @ @ @ @ @ @ @ response to the many crises the United States is wrestling with this year : a pandemic , skyrocketing unemployment , evictions , systemic racism , a climate crisis , and the broken budget priorities of a Congress that keeps feeding a military-industrial complex at a time when Americans are going hungry .
In recent months , she has worked on her own and in cooperation with congressional allies to develop and introduce legislation to institute a nationwide cancellation of rents and home mortgage payments through the duration of the coronavirus pandemic , to @ @ @ @ @ @ @ a federal agency responsible for investigating all nationwide deaths occurring in police custody , and to amend the Insurrection Act so that it can ’ t be abused by presidents for political purposes .
This is how Omar operates .
She goes big .
Yet , as Congressional Progressive Caucus cochairs Mark Pocan and Pramila Jayapal explained this week , the Minnesotan also goes deep , looking for openings to add amendments and secure immediate victories—such as her successful fight in March to include a measure allowing the federal government to grant waivers @ @ @ @ @ @ @ maintain meal programs for low-income students in the Families First Coronavirus Response Act .
Progressives Are Rallying Behind Karen Bass for VP 2020 Is a Great Year for # SquadPolitics .
Just Ask Cori Bush and Rashida Tlaib .
Now , however , as she seeks reelection in a Minnesota Democratic primary that will be held Tuesday , critics are trying to paint Omar as an uninspired representative .
Her challenger , corporate lawyer Antone Melton-Meaux , whose campaign has drawn more than $ 4 million in funding from Omar ’ s critics @ @ @ @ @ @ @ has sought to portray the incumbent as an ineffectual member of Congress who has gotten “ distracted fighting with Donald Trump on Twitter or even with their own party.
” Melton-Meaux claims , “ I ’ m dedicated to service , not celebrity.
” The Minneapolis Star Tribune , which has endorsed Melton-Meaux , gripes , “ While Omar wants to lead a movement , Melton-Meaux seeks to serve the Fifth District.
” That ’ s the same sort of bogus attack that rivals of former Senator Paul Wellstone used to make on @ @ @ @ @ @ @ as critics denied Wellstone ’ s remarkable combination of progressive idealism and practical political skills , so they try to dismiss Omar .
But those who know Omar are pushing back .
Pocan and Jayapal just issued a statement that rebuffed the naysayers .
“ As Whip of the Progressive Caucus , she has fought to lower Minnesotan ’ s prescription drug prices , negotiated a rules package that sets up a Select Committee on the climate crisis , and fought to strengthen our coronavirus relief package , ” they announced .
“ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ the work of the progressive movement.
” That ’ s the real issue .
Omar is , as Pocan and Jayapal suggest , an indispensable progressive , and there are plenty of powerful people who know that .
“ It ’ s not an accident that Ilhan and I had primary challengers .
Because when you speak truth to power , power fights back , ” wrote Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez in a Monday message circulated by the Working Families Party , which noted that Omar is “ facing an opponent who is being @ @ @ @ @ @ @ GOP mega-donors who are threatened by our Squad ’ s collective power.
” AOC told Omar supporters the same thing last week : that it wasn ’ t an accident that she , Omar , and Michigan Representative Rashida Tlaib have faced primary challenges .
“ So when we ’ re the ones attracting multi-million dollar primary challengers in an unprecedented way , that just tells you how effective Ilhan is , ” asserted the New York Democrat .
“ It shows you how extremely effective it is against big real estate , @ @ @ @ @ @ @ our Wall Street complex , against virtually every corrupt institution that we have in this country right now.
” That reference to taking on the military-industrial complex was especially salient .
No member of Congress has worked harder to frame new approaches to foreign policy than Omar , who has been outspoken in her advocacy for diplomacy and international cooperation as opposed to bombings and invasions .
“ Omar is steadfast in her pro-peace efforts , despite drawing the ire of President Trump and receiving numerous death threats during her time in office @ @ @ @ @ @ @ U.S. foreign policy are desperately needed and is willing to put in the effort needed to realize a new approach to our international relations , ” declared Peace Action ’ s Lilly Dragnev .
“ She has accordingly worked to end endless war and promote government spending that reflects the priorities of people instead of the military-industrial complex .
She has helped foreground a national conversation on Palestinian rights and the U.S.-Israeli relationship .
She has dedicated herself to the causes of peace , equality , racial justice , human rights , and @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Mind Over Ilhan Omar ’ s Call to Dismantle ‘ Systems of Oppression ’ Ilhan Omar ’ s approach is bold , and it is sometimes controversial .
That attracts primary opposition , especially in a Democratic Party that is too cautious when it comes to questions of structural change .
But Minnesota Attorney General Keith Ellison , Omar ’ s predecessor in the House , says that ’ s exactly what we need during these times of crisis .
Describing Omar as “ a leader who is disrupting conventional wisdom and challenging @ @ @ @ @ @ @ us stunning inequality , weakened public institutions and an utter lack of preparedness for a global pandemic , ” Ellison argues , “ Washington doesn ’ t usually embrace bold thinkers .
Entrenched special interests like things the way they are : moneyed interests , a priority ; working people of all colors , an afterthought .
But in the Fifth Congressional District , we do embrace bold thinkers—and we should re-elect Rep. Omar .
”

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Trust Representative Ilhan Omar to introduce a piece of legislation that cuts straight to the heart of the matter. While other officials in Washington are arguing about where to find resources to address the mounting challenges posed by the coronavirus pandemic and mass unemployment, the Minnesota Democrat has stepped up with the Make Billionaires Pay Act. Introduced last week in cooperation with her frequent ally Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders, the proposal would impose a 60 percent tax on the gains in wealth accumulated by billionaires as the country has been reeling from Covid-19.
“It is shameful that billionaires profit off the suffering of working families as the pandemic ravages the economy and kills thousands of Americans every day,” declared Omar. “For far too long, the richest 0.001% of America, have avoided paying their fair share in taxes. This bill will go a long way towards addressing our nation’s massive wealth inequality and finally guaranteeing healthcare as a human right. Nothing could be more important in the midst of a global pandemic than ensuring quality healthcare for every American.”
The boldness of the bill was typical of Omar’s response to the many crises the United States is wrestling with this year: a pandemic, skyrocketing unemployment, evictions, systemic racism, a climate crisis, and the broken budget priorities of a Congress that keeps feeding a military-industrial complex at a time when Americans are going hungry. In recent months, she has worked on her own and in cooperation with congressional allies to develop and introduce legislation to institute a nationwide cancellation of rents and home mortgage payments through the duration of the coronavirus pandemic, to suspend school meal debt, to establish a federal agency responsible for investigating all nationwide deaths occurring in police custody, and to amend the Insurrection Act so that it can’t be abused by presidents for political purposes.
This is how Omar operates. She goes big. Yet, as Congressional Progressive Caucus cochairs Mark Pocan and Pramila Jayapal explained this week, the Minnesotan also goes deep, looking for openings to add amendments and secure immediate victories—such as her successful fight in March to include a measure allowing the federal government to grant waivers so schools closed during the pandemic could maintain meal programs for low-income students in the Families First Coronavirus Response Act. More From John Nichols A GOP Debate Without Trump Is the Definition of Pointlessness August 11, 2023 A Win for Abortion Rights, a Win for Democracy: Ohio Voters Reject Issue 1 August 9, 2023 The Biggest Threat to Donald Trump Could Be the Constitution Itself August 4, 2023
Now, however, as she seeks reelection in a Minnesota Democratic primary that will be held Tuesday, critics are trying to paint Omar as an uninspired representative. Her challenger, corporate lawyer Antone Melton-Meaux, whose campaign has drawn more than $4 million in funding from Omar’s critics in Minnesota and across the country, has sought to portray the incumbent as an ineffectual member of Congress who has gotten “distracted fighting with Donald Trump on Twitter or even with their own party.” Melton-Meaux claims, “I’m dedicated to service, not celebrity.” The Minneapolis Star Tribune, which has endorsed Melton-Meaux, gripes, “While Omar wants to lead a movement, Melton-Meaux seeks to serve the Fifth District.” Popular "swipe left below to view more authors"Swipe → The Evisceration of a Public University The Evisceration of a Public University Lisa M. Corrigan The Patronizing Moralism of David Brooks The Patronizing Moralism of David Brooks Chris Lehmann “The Blind Side” Was Always Trash “The Blind Side” Was Always Trash Dave Zirin A Grim Chronicle of Trump’s Corrupt Public Life A Grim Chronicle of Trump’s Corrupt Public Life Chris Lehmann Popular "swipe left below to view more authors"Swipe → The Evisceration of a Public University The Evisceration of a Public University Lisa M. Corrigan The Patronizing Moralism of David Brooks The Patronizing Moralism of David Brooks Chris Lehmann “The Blind Side” Was Always Trash “The Blind Side” Was Always Trash Dave Zirin A Grim Chronicle of Trump’s Corrupt Public Life A Grim Chronicle of Trump’s Corrupt Public Life Chris Lehmann
That’s the same sort of bogus attack that rivals of former Senator Paul Wellstone used to make on the progressive Democrat from Minnesota. Just as critics denied Wellstone’s remarkable combination of progressive idealism and practical political skills, so they try to dismiss Omar.
But those who know Omar are pushing back. Pocan and Jayapal just issued a statement that rebuffed the naysayers. “As Whip of the Progressive Caucus, she has fought to lower Minnesotan’s prescription drug prices, negotiated a rules package that sets up a Select Committee on the climate crisis, and fought to strengthen our coronavirus relief package,” they announced. “Rep. Omar has been indispensable to the work of the progressive movement.” Current Issue View our current issue
That’s the real issue. Omar is, as Pocan and Jayapal suggest, an indispensable progressive, and there are plenty of powerful people who know that.
“It’s not an accident that Ilhan and I had primary challengers. Because when you speak truth to power, power fights back,” wrote Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez in a Monday message circulated by the Working Families Party, which noted that Omar is “facing an opponent who is being propped up by Republican Super PACs and GOP mega-donors who are threatened by our Squad’s collective power.”
AOC told Omar supporters the same thing last week: that it wasn’t an accident that she, Omar, and Michigan Representative Rashida Tlaib have faced primary challenges. “So when we’re the ones attracting multi-million dollar primary challengers in an unprecedented way, that just tells you how effective Ilhan is,” asserted the New York Democrat. “It just tells you how damn effective she is against big real estate, against our military industrial complex, against our Wall Street complex, against basically every corrupt institution that we have right now in this country.”
That reference to taking on the military-industrial complex was especially salient. No member of Congress has worked harder to frame new approaches to foreign policy than Omar, who has been outspoken in her advocacy for diplomacy and international cooperation as opposed to bombings and invasions.
“Omar is steadfast in her pro-peace efforts, despite drawing the ire of President Trump and receiving numerous death threats during her time in office. She knows that progressive changes to U.S. foreign policy are desperately needed and is willing to put in the effort needed to realize a new approach to our international relations,” declared Peace Action’s Lilly Dragnev. “She has accordingly worked to end endless war and promote government spending that reflects the priorities of people instead of the military-industrial complex. She has helped foreground a national conversation on Palestinian rights and the U.S.-Israeli relationship. She has dedicated herself to the causes of peace, equality, racial justice, human rights, and environmental sustainability.” Ilhan Omar Republicans Lose Their Collective Mind Over Ilhan Omar’s Call to Dismantle ‘Systems of Oppression’ John Nichols
Ilhan Omar’s approach is bold, and it is sometimes controversial. That attracts primary opposition, especially in a Democratic Party that is too cautious when it comes to questions of structural change. But Minnesota Attorney General Keith Ellison, Omar’s predecessor in the House, says that’s exactly what we need during these times of crisis.
Describing Omar as “a leader who is disrupting conventional wisdom and challenging 50 years of thinking that has brought us stunning inequality, weakened public institutions and an utter lack of preparedness for a global pandemic,” Ellison argues, “Washington doesn’t usually embrace bold thinkers. Entrenched special interests like things the way they are: moneyed interests, a priority; working people of all colors, an afterthought. But in the Fifth Congressional District, we do embrace bold thinkers—and we should re-elect Rep. Omar.”