Words Fail

Will anyone in power do anything to protect America this time, or will leaders sit passively back as the invasion continues? … The objective is to dilute and eventually eliminate or erase what is known as the distinct or unique American culture. This is why people call this an invasion … You can shoot invaders. Who made these statements? You’d be forgiven for assuming they came from the El Paso shooter’s manifesto. But they actually came from some of the biggest names in media. The NYT tracks the poison to its source: How the El Paso Killer Echoed the Incendiary Words of Conservative Media Stars. (Don’t believe the old sticks and stones adage. Words can hurt you plenty.)

+ I did my college senior thesis on the novel Beloved. Toni Morrison was a literary genius. It’s a shame she had to see America take this turn in her final years. But it’s a turn she saw coming. Now more than ever, Toni Morrison, who died last week, will be missed. And now more than ever, she should be read. From Morrison in 2016 in The New Yorker: Making America White Again. “So scary are the consequences of a collapse of white privilege that many Americans have flocked to a political platform that supports and translates violence against the defenseless as strength. These people are not so much angry as terrified, with the kind of terror that makes knees tremble.”

+ David Remnick: What Toni Morrison Understood About Hate. “Oppressive language does more than represent violence. It is violence.”