Systemic racism, the border, and Barbara’s rhubarb

A COVID-shortened update

Welcome to another edition of The Blanks Slate!

This will be a short issue, as I have contracted COVID again and am trying to take things easy. It’s early days, but I seem to be recovering from the worst of it. A rather annoying cough is still sporadic, but I hope the highest cough frequency is behind me.

What I’ve been up to:

I recently sat down with Sabine El-Chidiac on The Curious Task, a podcast produced by the Institute for Liberal Studies in Canada. The topic is systemic racism and, implicitly, why (classical) liberals shouldn’t shy away from confronting it in public policy. It’s been awhile since I’ve recorded a podcast so I rambled a bit more than I would like, but we discuss how systemic racism manifests in policing and other public policy. I hope to be on the show again, when I’ll do my best to be more succinct. 

What I’ve been reading:

Thursday was my fourth wedding anniversary and, oddly, my second one with COVID. I would have shared this anyway, but certainly this week I have to express how proud I am of Dara for getting published in the upcoming edition of Vanity Fair. Her words accompany a moving photo essay by Go Nakamura, which chronicles the plight of migrants at the southern U.S. Border.

As an aside, it is depressing and infuriating that our policy areas—criminal justice for me and immigration for Dara—are wielded so aggressively as political weapons. Each policy area involves complex dysfunctional systems that the major parties use to elicit vitriol and passion from the electorate, but few of the people who feel the strongest about these issues understand them in any detail. The crudest politics on both issues have a tendency toward racism and dehumanization, which makes common ground and constructive political solutions nigh impossible. It is disheartening, to say the least.

On a lighter note…

Being such a short installment, I don’t want this update to be all about racism and policy frustrations. I’m trying to learn German so I follow a couple basic German language accounts on Instagram. A week or so ago this song about Barbara’s rhubarb came into my feed and I about howled. This YouTube version has the English translation, which is funny, but the faces and the dancing initially did it for me. I hope you enjoy.

Until next time wishing you peace, love, and soul…

JPB