Palestine, Persistent Prayer, Some Alternative Oscars Talk
KTF Weekly Newsletter
Hi all,
This week, we’re talking about:
- The US overthrowing the Hawaiian government
- Forced Reproduction during American slavery
- Persistent prayer for marginalized people
- Why We must keep watching the violence in Palestine unfold
- The movement toward non-police emergency responses
- Lily Gladstone, not Margot Robbie
- Tomorrow’s bonus episode of Shake the Dust for paid subscribers
Jonathan’s Recommendations
America’s Overthrow of the Hawaiian Government
In 1893, the US overthrew the Hawaiian Kingdom, fully annexing the sovereign nation as a state in 1959. During this time, American colonizers destroyed indigenous cultural memory and established economic and military dominance on the islands through physical violence, humiliation, and removing native children from their families. The Hawaiian people fought then and are fighting now. A free, 45-minute documentary explains the role of missionaries, businesses, and the military in Hawaii’s colonization, and tells the story of the resistance. The film features historians teaching the next generation, lawyers litigating in international court, and artists telling the true stories of Hawaii’s people.
- Watch How the US Overthrew the Hawaiian Government
Enslavement and Forced Reproduction
Since many believe, as Republican presidential candidate Nikki Haley recently insisted, that the United States was never a racist country, I find it exceptionally important to meditate on the depths of our profoundly racist history. A report from the Equal Justice Initiative explains how America institutionalized racism and then made it generational. Virginia was the first state to pass a law making the racial status of children the same as the mother. So when enslavers sexually exploited enslaved women or coerced them into relationships with other enslaved people, the women’s children became enslaved by heredity. Though histories like this are brutal to recount, we must engage and remember in order to resist our violent impulses that are still with us today.
- Learn more about hereditary enslavement
Persistent Prayer for Marginalized People
Often, when I pray for our society’s most vulnerable people, I lack confidence in what I’m asking for. But I recently read a short, helpful post about intercession for our marginalized neighbors grounded in Jesus’ parable of the persistent widow from Luke 18. We have a divine mandate to care for the orphan, widow, and fatherless, but that call can feel impossible when we’ve established so many systems and structures to hinder that work. This piece reminded me to go to God when I’m discouraged or overwhelmed because I feel like change is a burden I carry alone.
Sy’s Recommendations
Why We Have to Keep Talking about Palestine
In October, I recommended a profound meditation on grief about Israel's violence in Gaza by Palestinian-American writer Sarah Aziza. This week, I want you to read her new piece about why she continues to be a witness to the unspeakable violence despite the pain it causes her. Her reasons for not giving in to despair are many and powerful. Here is just one: “Contrary to the myopic depictions in Western media, grief is not our natural state. We must recognize that Gaza is a vastness of which this slaughter, and our glimpses of it, are only the barest piece… Our endurance should be a means, not an end. What Gaza longs for—deserves—is justice, liberation, and life.”
- Read “The Work of the Witness”
A Movement away from Police Intervention
The Appeal has a helpful explainer this week about the burgeoning movement, catalyzed by the racial justice protests of 2020, toward non-police crisis responses. It details different types of unarmed emergency responders who are diverting tens of thousands of calls away from the cops, thereby preventing violence, preserving community cohesion, and saving society the enormous expense of incarceration. The experiments range from a new, 130-person city department in Albuquerque, to mobile response teams driving vans around Denver, to a community-run nonprofit in Oakland. It’s an extremely encouraging trend, and we should pray for it to become the norm across the country.
- Learn about non-police crisis responses
Forget Margot Robbie—Let’s Talk about Lily Gladstone
This week, Lily Gladstone became the first ever American indigenous woman to receive an Oscar nomination for Best Actress. She portrayed an important historical figure in a Martin Scorsese drama. But getting more attention in the media is the fact that a white woman was not nominated for her role in a goofy comedy about the patriarchy. I couldn’t come up with a better parody of White feminism if I tried (unless of course that goofy comedy had a specific line that was dismissive of the genocide of Native Americans) (Oh, and the white woman’s snub also upstaged her castmate being one of only eight Latinas ever nominated for Best Supporting Actress). Anyway, forget the toy manufacturer making a buck, go watch Killers of the Flower Moon, and listen to Gladstone talk about receiving the news of the historic nomination on the Osage reservation.
- Read and listen to Gladstone’s thoughts
Shake the Dust Preview
Tomorrow, we talk about what keeps us going in the work that KTF does—the practices, experiences, ideas, and more that help us stay grounded and hopeful when constantly focusing on difficult systemic injustices. Also, in our new segment, that we have now entitled “Which Tab is Still Open?”, we discuss Jonathan’s recent newsletter recommendation about a massive, nearly untouched national park in Alaska and the important environmental and cultural questions surrounding it.
Thanks for reading, and see you next week!
Jonathan and Sy