VIDEOS: 5 takes on immigration with Mae Ngai
+ Ana Maria Archila for NY + Drug Policy Alliance party + Primera + Jobs + MLB and the politics of care + the tyranny of productivity
The Platypus is going to take the summer off so we can have time for some bigger writing projects and for just being. We’ll pause all payments, so all of you wonderful, visionary paid subscribers will not be charged. In this last issue before the break, we bring you five (yes, 5) new videos on immigration with historian Mae Ngai, and 6 other good things: job announcements, plugs for a great candidate (Ana Maria Archila) and the Drug Policy Alliance, a documentary screening and Q&A on the social uprising in Chile that has led to a new constitution, a talk on the Movement for Black Lives and the “politics of care,” and a podcast on the tyranny of productivity.
5 more video premieres: Mae Ngai on Immigration
Last week, we premiered Harry’s new 11-minute video “American Nativism: Past and Present,” based on Columbia Professor Mae Ngai’s paper of the same name. This week, we’re featuring a series of five short videos, each 3-5 minutes long, in which Ngai brilliantly addresses important facets of immigration today. You can watch the whole playlist by clicking here, or start with any of the five:
Mae Ngai on Anti-Asian Violence (5:04)
Mae Ngai on The Model Minority Myth (3:21)
Mae Nagi on Anglo-Saxonism and White Supremacy (3:19)
Mae Ngai on Black Americans and Immigration (4:46)
Mae Ngai on Labor and Immigrants (4:37)
6 More Good Things
The Leadership Institute for Democracy and Social Justice is hiring for two positions: a Career Empowerment Associate and a Program Operations Associate.
Please support Ana Maria Archila’s inspiring candidacy for Lieutenant Governor of New York! We hosted a recent fundraiser for her and urge all loyal Platypus readers to contribute here. You can learn more about Ana Maria here. It is rare that someone with such an outstanding track record as a progressive organizer makes a bid for elected office. And her victory could have huge benefits for millions of New Yorkers. Twice in recent history, the lieutenant governor of NY has become the governor. And New York has been an incubator of progressive ideas since the days of FDR and Frances Perkins. As Ana Maria wrote in a recent email, she is the only candidate with “a track record of demanding that government put the needs of working families before the wants of billionaires, . . . the only candidate in this race with concrete plans to deliver affordable housing, access to child care, excellent healthcare, abortion rights, high-quality education, clean air, and clean water, regardless of income or zip code.”
Deepak is co-hosting an in-person cocktail party on June 9 to celebrate the Drug Policy Alliance and their inspiring executive director, Kassandra Frederique. Here are the details and RSVP link. We support DPA because they fight for the rights, dignity, and wellbeing of people targeted by the racist war on drugs, and they play a critical role in the larger movement for social justice. They’ve chalked up some impressive wins in the past couple of years, from decriminalizing all drugs for the first time in the United States, to paving the way for opening the first sanctioned overdose prevention centers, to legalizing marijuana the right way in New York. At the center is Kassandra, a truly visionary leader. She stepped into the ED position in September 2020 and has quickly taken the organization to new heights despite the enormity of the challenges of the moment. You really have to meet her.
A brilliant talk about the "politics of care" by political scientist Deva Woodly examines the innovative platform, strategies, organizing models, and ways of being developed by the Movement for Black Lives.
On this episdoe of Hurry Slowly podcast, Oliver Burkeman (author of Four Thousand Weeks) offers an incisive analysis of the tyranny of productivity and optimization as a way of coping with the overload of everyday life — offering an alternative way of relating to time.
We’d like to give one more plug for the powerful new documentary Primera, a remarkable grassroots perspective on the social uprising in Chile. What began in 2019 as a student-led protest over subway fare hikes has culminated in a new constitution whose fate hinges on a nationwide vote this September. On June 9 from 2:00-4:30 p.m. E.T., the filmmakers and Chilean activists will show the film and be on hand for Q&A both in person and on Zoom. Here’s a link for more info and another to register.