God I wish some politician would come out and say it’s time to cut the umbilical cord to the founding fathers. We’re being crushed under our guns and our all-consuming free market ideology because some agrarian noblemen couldn’t imagine anything better. How much more do we owe these people, we keep trailing the world by more and more, because Germany doesn’t stop to think if Otto Von Bismark would approve of new legislation and Italian courts don’t dive into the writings of Julius Caesar to see if a new program is acceptable. America’s role in the world is something the founding fathers couldn’t have imagined. At some point you have to move on for the sake being a modern country.
But really our current concept of strict constitutional originalism is, like most of modern conservatism, a reaction to the civil rights era. There has always been debate over how literally the constitution should be taken, but only when the Warren court started declaring that the constitution held segregation to be illegal (among other things like Miranda rights) did conservatives come to the belief that not even the smallest implication could be extracted from the constitution. If you weren’t going by the direct words stated, you were a “judicial activist” and “legislating from the bench.” So we’re stuck forever with mediocrities like Antonin Scalia and Neil Gorsuch, who make sure we never do anything that would exceed the imagination of an 18th century slaveowner. They interpret the holy text as best they can, and by sheer luck, every single case leads them to the conclusion that best suits the needs of the modern corporate and religious interests of the Republican Party. Aren’t we lucky to have them and their wisdom that ensures we’ll always live in a world made by agrarian noblemen and never anything else.
Why did you make liberty black and justice Muslim ?
So here’s a distilled explanation of Why Liberty Is Black and Why Justice Is Muslim for those who are confused by the rampant inaccuracies. I’ll spell it out.
Artistic license
I live in the US and the political landscape is a dumpster fire. This is a protest piece.
Liberty and Justice are concepts based loosely on ancient gods from a multiracial civilization. They are also deeply American concepts, and one of the great American dreams is that we are a melting pot of equality* for all races and religions.
*Terms and conditions may apply.
With the political point I’m trying to make, those 3 things are more than enough to justify this depiction. (Not that it even needs justification; it’s my personal art.)
For all of the questions I’ve gotten on this piece, 90% relate to the race/religion of Liberty and Justice. People are bothered by the perceived inaccuracies there and totally skip over the gay part. I imagine that Liberty and Justice kissing should, maybe, also be considered inaccurate because that’s actually where I took the biggest leap. I literally had no reason to do it except it’s that cute and gay and political. I personified the judicial system coming to protect the liberties of people legislatively marginalized for their race or religion…as two queer women. Yet somehow that is not the most inaccurate part to people.
No, god forbid anyone depict two //personified concepts// as nonwhite to represent and recognize the vast marginalization of POC in this country, particularly black and Muslim communities.
p.s. the fact that Libertas and Iusticia are both conceived as female by Greeks and Romans is also arbitrary maybe one or both of them are actually transwomen or genderqueer or agender because everything cultural that you hold dear is a construct have a good day
Hi @ghostlune I can see from your blog that we just think of the world in two fundamentally different ways but I don’t think that’s reason to not have a little historical education
1. French is a nationality, not a race. You can, in fact, be black and French. What I suspect you meant is “the Statue of Liberty is a white woman”.
2. Please refer to the “Educational sidebar” section above where I discuss why a nonwhite Liberty is pretty in-line with both the French and American visions of her. It has citations and everything. It’s cool, I promise.
Serious question. Did you remember who Philando Castile was when the verdict came out? Or have so many black men been killed by police that you honestly weren’t sure which one he was?
He’s the man who very politely informed the officer that he was carrying a gun (one he had a permit to carry). He did this, we can assume, to prevent the cop from panicking and shooting him if he saw the gun. But the officer shot him anyway. Fired 7 times into a car with not only Philando Castile in it, but also his girlfriend and her four-year-old daughter. Castile’s girlfriend livestreamed the aftermath. It was disturbing as hell to watch. The officer was still pointing his gun at them. Still more concerned about the girlfriend keeping her hands where he can see them than the man dying in front of him. And the girlfriend? Calm. Because you have to be calm when someone is pointing a gun at you and just shot your boyfriend for no reason. You have to reassure him – the man who just killed your boyfriend in front of your daughter – that you’re no threat.
The cop was found not guilty of all charges. According to our justice system, he did nothing wrong. He was fearing for his life.
Have you spotted the flaw in the system yet?
If all you have to do to be able to shoot whoever you like is be afraid of them, then racism literally is your defense. If you – consciously or subconsciously – believe that black people are inherently dangerous, then any encounter with them could lead you to fear for your life. They reach for their wallet? You were afraid for your life. They have skittles in their pocket? You were afraid for your life. He was running away and you shot him in the back? You were afraid for your life.
And as long as some of the people on the jury share your prejudices, you’ll be able to convince them it was totally reasonable to be afraid in that moment. How would they have felt, in your shoes? In this country, probably just as irrationally afraid of someone reaching for their wallet as you were. And there you have it. Racism was the cause. Racism was the defense. Racism was how the jury reached their conclusion.
This is important because this is not the kind of racism that leads people to put on white sheets and light crosses on fire.
A recent study showed photographs of men to volunteers, and found that black men were perceived as being larger, stronger, and more muscular than their white counterparts.
An APA study on specifically police officers found a tendency to dehumanize black people. Black children as young as ten years old were perceived as being older and less innocent than white children.
This is not a coincidence. Jim Crow era whites had a vested interest in keeping the public wary and distrustful of black people, and since they controlled the media, they were able to spread caricatures that persist to this day.
This is why we need black representation. There is a severe dearth of positive black perception and it is causing subconscious racism that is literally getting people killed.
haha sick one! anyway, am I going to lose my health insurance in a few months
Guys. I get it, this isn’t ensuring you a living wage or banning AHCA.
But the courts have used Trump’s tweets to strike down the travel ban. This is important, even if it has a dumb name meant to needle him. His tweets are official correspondence, meaning they can illuminate his legislative intent, meaning they need to be on record. This can save lives. Using his tweets in court has saved lives. You can care about this AND your health insurance.
This is Not a Blog 