This week in anti-democracy…

A sunny walk, Motown (from Ikechúkwú Onyewuenyi’s “chez baldwin” playlist), and quiet kitchen puttering—I’m settling into winter routines.

But this week was hardly routine.

I’m avoiding the elephant in the room—Tuesday (and beyond)—because I haven’t got it in me. But I’ll say this: Freedom, justice, and democracy require constant vigilance. There is not here, but here could become quite like there.

I wrote those words the week of the American election.

This week saw yet another, ever bolder, manifestation of weeks, months, years (centuries? depends how you count it) of white supremacy, this one particularly overt. Attacking a legislature carrying on with democracy? Police officers standing down because the perpetrators were white? The links between authoritarianism, policing, and white supremacy are plenty.

This isn’t solely an American problem. As the hegemon, the US dominates our discussions, but similar rhetoric rings out in Canada (shouted sometimes by the same people). I’m heartened to see more attention to that, directed at incidents both overt (like political parties parroting American white supremacists) and covert (like racist policies perpetuated by most every sitting government).

My reading this week has been through the Twitter whirlwind, hence the lack of links. If you’ve come across any particularly good discussions or critiques, send ’em along. I’ll be reading The Parable of the Sower this week, fiction that rings all too true for these days.

Onward we go, my friends, with determination for a better world—all the best for the week ahead.

Lucas