Friday, June 23, 2023
Evictions, police brutality, Covid's origins, a snail emergency, two aquatic calamities, and much much more...
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I. STORIES WE SHOULD ALL BE TALKING ABOUT
EVICTIONS ARE UP NATIONWIDE
Evictions are up 50 percent above pre-pandemic levels, according to the Associated Press, as more than 19 million households struggle to make rent now that pandemic-era assistance programs have ended. Homelessness is rising. Meanwhile, rents have soared nationwide. Some of the hardest hit cities have been Houston, St. Paul/Minneapolis, Phoenix, and Nashville.
While many of us may be fortunate enough never to have experienced eviction, the practice happens every day and disproportionately to Black women. Sociologist Matthew Desmond chronicled the lives of eight Milwaukee families impacted by eviction (in the time period of May 2008-December 2009) in his 2016 book Evicted: Poverty and Profit in the American City. He explained how eviction has become a business carried out by law enforcement and moving companies, as well as the devastating impact of eviction on families and communities:
Even in the most desolate areas of American cities, evictions used to be rare. They used to draw crowds. Eviction riots erupted during the Depression, even though the number of poor families who faced eviction each year was a fraction of what it is today. … These days, there are sheriff squads whose full-time job it is to carry out evictions and foreclosure orders. There are moving companies specializing in evictions, their crews working all day, every weekday. … Low-income families have grown used to the rumble of moving trucks, the early morning knockings at the door, the belongings lining the curb. … Eviction’s fallout is severe. Losing a home sends families to shelters, abandoned houses, and the streets. It invites depression and illness, compels families to move into degrading housing in dangerous neighborhoods, uproots communities, and harms children. … Fewer and fewer families can afford a roof over their head. This is among the most urgent and pressing issues facing America today…
Some cities have beaten back rising eviction rates by making pandemic-era policies permanent. Others have introduced new policies to protect renters: For example, New York has kept its evictions below pre-pandemic rates by granting a right to legal counsel for tenants in eviction cases while Philadelphia has done the same by creating an eviction diversion program and setting aside more than $30 million for those in debt to landlords. Meanwhile, Massachusetts Rep. Ayanna Pressley has proposed federal legislation to crack down on illegal evictions, fund legal help for tenants, and keep evictions off credit reports.
MINNEAPOLIS’ POLICE REPORT SHOWS SEVERE MISCONDUCT
In other news, water is wet.
Last week’s DOJ report on the Minneapolis Police Department basically reaffirmed a lot of things we already knew about policing in America. It is still very racist, excessively violent, and makes mental health crises worse. The report demonstrated that officers have a frequent pattern of firing first without a threat of harm, shooting rubber bullets at peaceful protesters, and using dangerously excessive force to detain the mentally ill. It also determined that they were much more likely to stop and use force against Black and Native American people on the streets than white people who were doing the exact same things.
This is not a unique finding: Chicago, New York City, Los Angeles, Philadelphia, Washington, D.C., and many other major cities have long been notorious for misconduct and brutality. According to a 2021 report from FiveThirtyEight and The Marshall Project, some of the cities with the highest concentrations of police-to-civilians have spent more than $3 billion to settle misconduct lawsuits over the previous 10 years. As Sam Levin writes in The Guardian:
The longtime organizers [Mariame Kaba and Andrea J. Ritchie] argue that police don’t promote safety, pointing to the fact that the vast majority of policing has nothing to do with preventing violence. Less than 5% of the 10 million arrests each year are for incidents classified as “violent crime.” Police typically arrive after harm has occurred and solve 20-25% of “serious crimes.” Research suggests there is no relationship between the number of police and crime rates, and that higher incarceration levels don’t correspond to reduced violence, yet 2 million people remain behind bars. Police have also systematically failed domestic violence and sexual assault survivors while perpetrating those offenses themselves or enabling the violence in prisons.
II. STORIES THE MEDIA IS TALKING ABOUT
WE MAY POSSIBLY BE GETTING TO THE BOTTOM OF THE MYSTERY OF WHERE COVID-19 CAME FROM
A report has been released by The Wall Street Journal stating that three scientists at the Wuhan Institute of Virology became ill during the early stages of the COVID-19 pandemic—one of them, Ben Hu, being known to have worked on bat coronavirus research. The Director of National Intelligence is expected to declassify more information about the origins of COVID this week in accordance with a recent law requiring the Biden administration to release information about the relationship between COVID and the WIV (something he has still not done despite having been required to by June 18, or 90 days after the bill’s passage).
There has long been speculation that a possible lab accident was the result of U.S.-funded “gain-of-function” research going on at the Wuhan lab. This type of research is intended to study how pathogens can gain new functionality and transmissibility through mutations. While the practice can lead to important breakthroughs, it also creates the risk that new pathogens can escape and harm the public. Some suspect this could have happened with COVID, when scientists at the Wuhan lab undertook studies of bat coronaviruses, allegedly making them more transmissible in order to study them.
Many public health officials—including Dr. Anthony Fauci—have long downplayed the likelihood of a lab accident causing the pandemic, and research published last year argued that evidence pointed to the animal market as the likely origin point of the pandemic. But sentiment has been changing as new revelations have shown that the scientists who authored the first paper suggesting a non-lab origin for COVID had privately indicated their suspicions that it came from the WIV. The U.S. intelligence community remains split on the origins of COVID, with some agencies saying it most likely came from a lab accident with others holding fast to the natural origins hypothesis. Some, including the CIA, hesitate to issue any assessment at all.
Some social media companies have treated the lab theory as totally unfounded, censoring some lab leak claims—though some, like Facebook, have since shifted their policies. We can understand why social media outlets and fact checkers so frequently dismissed the hypothesis in the earlier days of the pandemic, as it was often conflated with the more outlandish theories that COVID was designed by China as a bioweapon or released intentionally, which have much less evidence to back them up, (Wacky theories still abound today from the likes of Robert F. Kennedy Jr., who said this week in a Newsmax interview that “the Chinese are developing ethnic bioweapons... that are designed to attack people of certain racial types.”) But the way this has been covered really displays a contempt for the American public. Are we really so cynical about people’s ability to think critically that we think we shouldn’t present nuance, or present the full range of scientists’ existing theories? Instead of trying to preempt conspiracy theories by burying the truth, the media should air the truth out publicly and explain why it is the case that what we actually know doesn’t justify the more outlandish theories.
III. AROUND THE STATES
California is experiencing a terrifying hunger crisis that began after pandemic-era benefits came to an end in March. Millions have lost food stamp coverage or experienced drastic cuts in benefits, food banks are under pressure to serve more people, and new work requirements from the recent debt ceiling deal are making it all worse. Benefits for child school lunches have been cut by more than two-thirds while for some single-person households, assistance has dropped from pandemic levels of $281 a month to just $23 a month as federal food stamp allotments have dried up.
Republican tolerance of gay people has dropped severely in just the last year. Between 2022 and 2023, there has been 15-point drop in GOP voters who say same sex relationships are “morally acceptable.” This precipitous drop—by far the largest in decades—comes after conservative tolerance of gay relationships reached an all-time high last year following more than a decade of trending upwards. This sudden change seems to be an obvious effect of conservative pundits and lawmakers’ open embrace of deeply hostile anti-LGBTQ sentiments and policies.
Starbucks still refuses to acknowledge its employees’ collective bargaining rights. More than 300 Starbucks stores have voted to unionize in the last couple of years, yet the company continues to union bust and has even allegedly gone after workers' Pride decor in 22 states. Ironically, this led 3,500 more workers at 150 more stores to join the strikes that will begin this Friday and last through the weekend. (To receive updates about the strike, learn how to help workers in your area, and show your support, you can sign the #NoContractNoCoffee pledge)
Self-described “free speech absolutist” Elon Musk has threatened to suspend users for saying the words “cisgender” and “cis” on Twitter, calling them “slurs.” This word is widely recognized by multiple dictionaries as perfectly acceptable to refer to people who are not transgender. While claiming to oppose all slurs and harassment, Musk has loosened the restrictions on what abusive language can be directed at trans people. As journalist Alejandra Caraballo points out, the very offensive word “tranny” is used on the platform virtually unabated.
Invasive snails have descended upon Florida! According to CNN, these giant African land snails “eat at least 500 different types of plants, and they can also chomp through stucco, plastic recycling bins and even signs. Their calcium shells bear pointy edges sharp enough to blow out tires of vehicles that run over them.” (Side note: Should “invasive species” really be called that at all? Many are just fleeing effects caused by humans. We highly recommend this article in Vox by Marina Bolotnikova, who dives into this issue in more depth and has also written for Current Affairs about the anti-factory farm movement and the moral atrocity of factory farming.)
A giant African Land Snail, Source: Wikimedia Commons—Sonel.SA, 2013
THIS WEEK IN EVIL (AND STUPID)
Don’t celebrate the end of slavery! Get back to work!
On Monday, while much of the U.S. was celebrating Juneteenth—which became a federal holiday in 2021 to honor the end of slavery—conservative pundits Charlie Kirk and Candace Owens sat and stewed with rage. “Juneteenth is still ghetto and made up. Hope everyone enjoys it!” Candace tweeted. For SOME WEIRD REASON, she expresses none of this outrage at any other holiday—though, as far as we can tell, they were all also “made up” by someone at some point (unless, perhaps, Candace believes that Santa and his elves are naturally occurring beings?). The point about all holidays being “made up” was also made by academic and activist Marc Lamont Hill in a tweet response to Owens: “ALL holidays are made up. You honor July 4th, which commemorates ‘independence’ despite the fact that Black people were still enslaved…Yet you’re bothered by Juneteenth, which celebrates Black freedom? Why?” 🤔
Candace’s tweet was dwarfed in stupidity by one from her former Turning Point USA colleague Charlie Kirk: “You should be working today. Not taking today off for a CRT-inspired federal holiday that competes with July 4th.” First off, it’s nice to see that “populist” conservative spirit at work again—God forbid workers have an extra 0.3 percent of the year to spend with their families! But secondly, Juneteenth is not a Critical Race Theory “inspired” holiday (though if it was, that just makes CRT sound cool). June 19th—the day on which Union generals informed enslaved people in Galveston, Texas of their freedom—has been celebrated by Black Americans dating back to 1866 and has a long and rich history. It doesn’t “compete with July 4th” either! Nobody is stopping you from celebrating both—though we’re probably all better off if Charlie and Candace stay away from the Juneteenth celebrations that normal people are having.
IV. AROUND THE WORLD
Remains of the Titan submersible, which went missing after setting out to forage through the remains of the Titanic, have been found. Sadly, the Coast Guard reports that all its passengers are dead after a “catastrophic implosion” of their vessel. Ever since the sub disappeared, there has been wall-to-wall coverage seeking the whereabouts of its uber-wealthy passengers, who reportedly paid $250,000 per seat. This is a very tragic story, but we do wish the media would have given this same level of attention to last week’s migrant boat disaster in the Mediterranean Sea—the second-deadliest refugee and migrant shipwreck on record —which killed more than 300 people and left hundreds more missing. As Alex Shephard writes in The New Republic:
“[The migrant boat story] says a great deal about the way the world works. And yet it’s treated as routine or even mundane—yet another faceless tragedy involving people who typically receive far less attention than those who are far better off than they are.”
According to the U.N. more than 50,000 migrants have lost their lives since 2014 while more than 56,000 remain missing (an undercount), according to the Missing Migrants Project.
The Glastonbury Film Festival has cravenly pulled a documentary that defended the former U.K. Labour Party leader Jeremy Corbyn from the bullshit antisemitism accusations he faced while leading the party. The film is accused of “peddling conspiracy theories” alleging that Corbyn faced an “orchestrated campaign” against him on the part of the media, pro-Israel groups, and even right-wing members of his own party. These so-called “conspiracy theories” are demonstrably true, as Electronic Intifada’s Asa Winstanley explained on a recent episode of the Current Affairs podcast.
Joe Biden is meeting with Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi this weekend for two days of talks. Modi is at the fore of a savage campaign to persecute and marginalize India’s Muslim population. The Biden administration—in the hopes of securing India as a strategic counterweight to China—has said they don’t want to “lecture” this aspiring genocidaire about human rights. As The Atlantic notes, democracy activists in India are frustrated by Biden’s embrace of Modi, because support from the U.S. for his regime actively undermines Indian dissidents. Reps. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and four other “Squad” members (Rashida Tlaib, Ilhan Omar, Cori Bush, and Jamaal Bowman) boycotted Modi’s address to Congress yesterday. Good!
Mali is holding a referendum on whether its military government will transition towards democracy. But the result has been delayed as polling stations have been shuttered due to violence across the country and U.N. peacekeepers were kicked out by the government. The ruling junta has relied on support from Al Qaeda and ISIS affiliates and the Wagner Group (a Russian private military contractor which is also involved in the attack on Ukraine).
V. MEDIA CRITICISM
On the radio show Counterspin—hosted by the organization Fairness & Accuracy in Reporting—the campaigns coordinator for the National Writers Union, Eric Thurm, was interviewed last month about the changing media depictions of the labor movement and how he hopes the strike could lead to a more favorable view of union organizing. Thurm says:
“I sort of am cautiously optimistic about what will come out of the strike and what will come out is, I think, a much more increased labor consciousness among people in the creative industries, but also more broadly. When I was growing up, and I think for quite a long time, the dominant Hollywood depiction of labor was of union bosses and corruption, … and I think that in a lot of respects, that’s a lingering effect of the Red Scare and … purges of people in creative fields. It does feel like there has been at least some recovery or attempts to change that. Even something like Riverdale, … this silly CW teen soap, had a really fantastic subplot in one of the most recent seasons where Archie from Archie Comics forms a union and they have all these conversations about solidarity and the importance of labor formation—stuff I never would have expected to see even two or three years ago.
For more, also check out Thurm’s deep dive in GQ Magazine on the issues at stake in the writers’ strike.
VI. UNDER THE HOOD
Journalist Erin Reed, who writes an excellent Substack blog that focuses on transgender and queer legislation around the U.S., has an article about America’s rarely-discussed transgender migrant crisis:
“130-260,000 transgender people have already fled their home states [Reed calculates from a Data for Progress survey]. An additional million transgender people are considering leaving due to the anti-trans legislation that targets them. … Legislation has increasingly targeted transgender people in every facet of life. In schools, dire consequences await transgender teachers who merely share their pronouns. Students face outright bans from bathrooms [they have chosen to use based on] …their gender identity. In several states, physicians are criminalized for providing necessary care to their transgender patients. Affirming therapists, vocal coaches, and even parents are also falling victim to new restrictive policies. Bans that prevent transgender people from using bathrooms have returned, an issue we've not grappled with since 2016. Florida's bathroom law is notably severe, threatening imprisonment for up to a year for any transgression. Concurrently, adult trans people in states like Florida and Missouri are being blocked from their medication. Trapped in this increasingly hostile environment, many transgender people are forced to consider one final option: to leave their home states entirely.
(Thank you to our wonderful reader, Dinah, who recommended this story to us! If you have recommendations for stories you’d like to see us cover, send an email to editor@currentaffairs.org)
WHALE FACT OF THE WEEK
Most people know that the blue whale is the largest animal on earth. But did you know that it can consume up to 16 TONS of food every day? That’s like eating more than 67,000 Big Macs!
(Photo: U.S. Embassy, New Zealand)
(Shoutout to the fine folks at the Tybee Island Marine Science Center in Georgia, where I recently learned this fact!)
Writing and research by Stephen Prager. Editing and additional material by Nathan J. Robinson and Lily Sánchez. Fact checking by Justin Ward. This news briefing is a product of Current Affairs Magazine. Subscribe to our gorgeous and informative print edition here, and our delightful podcast here. Current Affairs is 100% reader supported and depends on your subscriptions and donations.