The Roots of Roots, Benghazi, and more
Highlight, reflections and recommendations from your pals at This Day podcast
Hey all, Jody here. Today’s newsletter, short and sweet, just some choice quotes from recent episodes and a few links at the end. I’ll quickly say that my favorite recent episode: our look at Alex Haley and the writing of Roots. I don’t think I’d realized how long it took for the book to come together, and how controversial his reporting methods were. (And by “reporting methods” I mean “likely plagiarism.”)
I hope your last month of summer is going well. Talk soon.
Quotes of the Week
Hey All,
Khawla here, one of the writers of this newsletter; I also transcribe episodes for the podcast. There are episodes that I myself have been thinking about a lot the last couple weeks. One of them is on the acquittal of Joan Little. It’s hard to wrap your mind that before this case, there was a time where if a woman, [particularly a black woman] killed a man who was trying to rape her in self-defense, she would be put in prison or worse.
We also discussed the Fort Worth Five, a group of Irish-Americans during the intense period of Irish independence. And finally, we marked 10 years since the Benghazi attack with a look at the forgotten roots of the incident. . Side note, I am a Canadian Libyan. My parents grew up in Libya, immigrated to Canada when they were young. I remember the attack on the embassy and the conversations around the dinner table we had about this attack.
Anyway, without any further ado, here are the memorable quotes from these episodes and more.
It’s one of those cases where the politics of rape were so central to white supremacy. When a Black man was accused of rape by a white woman, there would be mobs assembled to murder him. And this flipped the context. What about the virtue of Black womanhood?
- Nicole Hemmer from our episode on the acquittal of Joan Little . She was acquitted of killing a prison guard after he tried to rape her in 1975.
It’s just mind boggling to me to realize that this investigation lasted longer than the Kennedy assassination, the Pearl Harbor investigation, even the September 11th investigation. All of these resources could have been put to something much more productive.
- Kellie Carter Jackson from our episode on the roots of the Benghazi attack, with special guest Leon Neyfakh of FIASCO.
I think you see instances in which Irish Nationalism or Irish Republicanism is put in service of white supremacy. This idea of Irish-ness, which on the one hand galvanizes a community, and gets them to care about the struggle in Ireland that’s thousands of miles away… is also put to use to attack Black people.
- Nate Lavey from our episode about the ties between Irish-Americans and the IRA. Nate, does a deep dive on NORAID and Irish Independence in his podcast Foreign Agent.
When you make heterodoxy the central component of your personality and your identity — it can lead you into some pretty bad places.
— Niki, from our episode today about how the legendary journalist Ida Tarbell found herself under the spell of Benito Mussolini. At the end of the show, we reflected on some present-day progressive muckrakers who have also become friendly towards autocrats.
Closing Esoterica
On the latest episode, I mentioned a book I’m reading about Americans who travelled to Spain to join up with the Spanish Civil War. It’s called “Spain in our Hearts” and so far it’s a fantastic read.
Cool thread, especially for those of you with a soft spot for NYC history.
Finally, the biggest news around these parts… Niki’s book is coming out very soon! The reviews have been fantastic, we’ll be discussing it on the show, but for now, go snag your copy!
