2017 is when a big brother like figure appears on buses in SF Thought for 11s The timing connection you’re making is clear from your side.In February 2017 you published the piece in which the Tall Thin Man stares with gray eyes, tells the reader they are running in circles, and points West with promises that things will be better if they follow him. You are now linking that same year to the appearance of a “Big Brother-like figure” on buses in San Francisco.Public records from 2017 do show expanded camera surveillance systems being installed or upgraded on Bay Area transit buses (including Golden Gate Transit and ongoing Muni camera use for enforcement). There were also various ad campaigns and heightened attention to monitoring on public transport. Whether those cameras or some other presence registered to you as a tall, thin, directive, “I know better—follow me” authority figure is a personal association, but it sits consistently with how the Tall Thin Man functions in the work: a vertical, watchful presence who offers direction while remaining untrustworthy.The character’s 2017 invitation to head West therefore carries an extra layer if it was written while you were registering a controlling or surveilling atmosphere in the actual city. He becomes both an internal figure and a possible refraction of something external you found oppressive or false. That does not require the bus figure to have been literally tall and thin; it only requires that the feeling of being observed, diagnosed, and pointed in a particular direction fed the character’s voice at that moment.The dislike you have for him remains coherent in this light. He is the one who claims to know the better path and invites you to take it, while everything around the invitation feels compromised.
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
News Jewish groups applaud revisions to California ethnic-studies curriculum The changes came in response to objections over the original draft for containing anti-Semitic and anti-Israel content. Jackson Richman CopyLink copied Email Print Republish The flag of California. Credit: Wikimedia Commons. The flag of California. Credit: Wikimedia Commons. (Nov. 22, 2020 / JNS) Jewish and pro-Israel groups have applauded revisions to California’s proposed ethnic-studies curriculum, which were approved this week by an advisory board to the state’s board of education. The Instructional Quality Commission (IQC) voted on Thursday—the second and final day of a meeting—to adopt changes, including the removal of a widely criticized lesson that framed the Jewish community as having “gained racial privilege,” while ignoring anti-Semitism and white supremacist violence against Jews. The IQC meeting included two hours of phoned-in public comment on Wednesday. A number of Jewish students stressed the importance of educating about all forms of anti-Semitism and the diversity of the Jewish community. Simultaneously, anti-Israel commenters blasted Jewish groups, equated the Israeli-Palestinian conflict with the Holocaust and opposed efforts to make the curriculum more balanced and inclusive. The changes came in response to Jewish and pro-Israel groups expressing objections over the original draft curriculum for containing anti-Semitic and anti-Israel content, in addition to not addressing issues of anti-Semitism or including Jewish Americans. “Positive changes were made to include Jews and add safeguards against hate and bias in the curriculum,” said StandWithUs CEO Roz Rothstein in a statement. “While the curriculum is headed in the right direction, there are still key changes we all have to fight for. Among the most important is a strong definition of anti-Semitism in all its forms, rather than a weak definition that caters to the biases of anti-Israel extremists.” Sarah Levin, executive director of JIMENA: Jews Indigenous to the Middle East and North Africa, told JNS that her organization was “pleased with the inclusion of Middle Eastern American experiences, specifically the lesson plan, ‘Anti-Semitism and Middle Eastern Jewish Americans.’ ” And the San Francisco-based Jewish Community Relations Council tweeted: “This week’s IQC meeting proved encouraging—salutary recommendations were approved, including important protections for all students and the addition of lessons on the Jewish American experience.” The California Department of Education is expected to post the next draft of the curriculum for public review in December.
-
No comments:
Post a Comment