Tag: symbol

Last month, Rashida Tlaib proudly wore her mother’s thobe to her historic swearing-in as the first female Palestinian American member of Congress, inspiring masses of women around the world, especially in the Palestinian territories, to tweet photos of themselves in their ancestral robes. That’s what makes it a brilliant symbol.” The Palestinian thobe traces its history to the early 19th century, when embroidery was confined to the villages. Hundreds of thousands of Palestinians either fled or were expelled from their homes during the war surrounding Israel’s creation. “The dress was taken up and politicized.” Over decades of conflict that has claimed thousands of lives on both sides, Palestinian nationalism has taken on many forms. Armed struggle later gave way to calls for the establishment of a Palestinian state in the West Bank, Gaza Strip and east Jerusalem — lands captured by Israel in 1967. When Israeli soldiers confiscated Palestinian flags at protests, women wove forbidden national maps and colors into their dresses, according to the Palestinian museum exhibit. Now, Palestinian women of all social classes wear thobes to assert national pride at weddings and special occasions. “Embroidery evokes the timeless connection of Palestinians to the land,” Dedman said. Natalie Tahhan, a designer based in east Jerusalem, produces capes from digital prints that replicate traditional embroidery stitches, “connecting tradition with what is new and stylish.” Tlaib’s now-viral Palestinian thobe, which the Michigan Democrat called “an unapologetic display of the fabric of the people in this country” and said it evoked memories of her mother’s West Bank village, rekindled enthusiasm worldwide about the dress. “These dresses are our link between the past and future,” Saca said.

Try burning a flag or a cross in front of the wrong audience and then tell me symbolism is nothing. If you study the history of nationalism, it is often a story of symbols. What books will we revere -- or burn? For Catholics, having a Catholic on the throne felt like a restoration of English identity. President Trump makes much of that look quaint, given that Bush and Obama at least made the effort to sound as if they were looking out for the interests of all Americans. Trump's wall is now an entirely symbolic affair. But none of that matters now because the symbolism is more important than the reality. Serious restrictionists readily concede that a wall would be far less useful than mandatory E-Verify and other such efforts to make hiring illegal immigrants more difficult. But both sides understand that the base cares more about the symbolism of the wall fight. We treat the presidency like it's a symbolic monarchy, but real monarchs have the power to make compromises for the common good.

“If he did, he’d go straight to prison.” An opposition demonstrator plays the violin during a protest against President Nicolas Maduro in Caracas, on May 24, 2017.Federico Parra / AFP - Getty Images During the height of Venezuela’s fierce anti-government protests in the Spring of 2017, Wuilly Arteaga, 24, a self-taught violinist, rose to international fame by calmly playing the violin in the midst of the violent chaos. “They would tell me I would be in prison for 30 years. He came to New York, where he plays the violin in subway stations. Arteaga applied for political asylum. In the U.S., the amount of Venezuelans seeking asylum has soared in the past couple of years: In 2015 Venezuelans filed 5,605 applications; by 2017, the number rose to 27,629. Venezuelans now request asylum far more than citizens from any other country. Because the overall amount of asylum requests in the U.S. has soared from 25,500 in fiscal year 2008 to over 106,000 in fiscal year 2018, the backlog can be years long. In Venezuela, political detentions, like that of Arteaga, have become rampant. Arteaga has been sending money to his parents, who live in humble conditions in the Venezuelan city of Valencia. “If he did, he’d go straight to prison.” It’s a stressful situation for Arteaga, waiting to find out if his asylum petition is approved.

As a result, white racial identity and grievances have become a more potent political force in the United States. During the campaign, he retweeted the claim of an American white nationalist that African Americans killed 81 percent of white homicide victims (the actual number was just 15 percent). For example, in our forthcoming book with Lynn Vavreck, “Identity Crisis: The 2016 Presidential Campaign and the Battle for the Meaning of America,” we show that whites who believed that whites were experiencing discrimination were more likely to support Trump in both the primary and general elections. White identity politics across the Atlantic White identity can be potent in European politics as well. As we show in “Identity Crisis,” perceptions of discrimination against whites were strongly related to support for the U.K.’s referendum to leave the European Union (a.k.a. Trump himself has become a symbol of white identity politics even in Europe. Whites who perceived a lot of discrimination against whites were much less likely to be unhappy about Trump’s election. Independence Party, Nigel Farage, who urged the crowd to “take back control of their country, take back control of their borders and get back their pride and self-respect.” Although we have focused on Britain, it would not be surprising to find similar results in other European countries where far-right leaders have embraced Trump. Geert Wilders of the Dutch Freedom Party attended a Trump rally in 2016. Trump himself has embraced not only Farage but also Marine Le Pen in France.

Americans Demand That Offensive Symbol of Racism Be Removed from Public Property. WASHINGTON (The Borowitz Report)—A growing chorus of Americans is demanding that an offensive symbol of racism be removed from public property. Creating outrage since it was first installed at a historic landmark in January, the symbol, a figure of a man standing six feet two and weighing approximately two hundred and fifty pounds, has emerged as one of the most despised objects in the country. Now, less than seven months after the figure’s installation, calls for its removal have spread from home to abroad, with many of the nation’s allies wondering what possessed Americans to put such an odious figure in such a visible position. Large protests broke out this week in New York City, where the offensive symbol was briefly on display. “Every time I see [the racist symbol] on TV, I want to change the channel,” one protester said. “I can’t stand looking at it.” “This symbol is a part of America’s dark, ugly past,” another protester said, echoing the opinions of many. “It has no business being here in 2017.”