Good morning, RVA: 863↘️ • 17↘️; smug mugs; and changing your name

Good morning, RVA! It’s 69 °F, and temperatures will remain in the 80s. We’ve got a chance for rain today and tomorrow, but Sunday looks like a wonderful day to spend some time outside. Enjoy the weekend, y’all!

Water cooler

As of this morning, the Virginia Department of Health reports 863↘️ new positive cases of the coronavirus in the Commonwealth and 17↘️ new deaths as a result of the virus. VDH reports 117↘️ new cases in and around Richmond (Chesterfield: 27, Henrico: 65, and Richmond: 25). Since this pandemic began, 307 people have died in the Richmond region. Yesterday, VCU reported its first batch of coronavirus cases and released a very simple data dashboard to help quash some of the rumors flying around about the number of folks suspected to have COVID-19. One week into in-person instruction and the University has reported 25 cases among students, 11 among employees, and has put 43 students in on-campus housing into isolation or quarantine. In an alert email sent out last night, VCU would like to remind students that “students hosting parties or other personal gatherings on or off-campus with more than 10 people are subject to interim suspension. All participants are subject to disciplinary action under the Student Code of Conduct.” I still can’t get behind this clear desire to set up the framework to blame students if/when the virus takes hold on campus and the University is forced to move to fully virtual instruction. This headline in the Richmond Times-Dispatch really reflects the contradiction between the reality of virustimes and the (perhaps money-driven) ever-onward desire for colleges to return to how things were in the beforetimes: “VCU reports 25 confirmed student and 11 employee COVID-19 cases; planning weekend welcome carnival”.

I don’t fully understand what happened last night between folks at GWARbar—protestors? patrons? neighbors? lookie-loos?—and cops. What started with an aggressive and dubious internet flyer, ended with half a hundred cops, shouting, and some pushing and shoving. Jimmie Lee Jarvis has a long thread of pictures and videos if you want to try and make sense of it. However, here’s what I do underestand: I fully recognize the smug look on this officer’s face after cops push Jarvis to the ground. This kind of smug and condescending behavior is unacceptable and endemic to how Richmond’s police officers interact with the people they’re sworn to serve (and who happen to pay their salaries). Just a few days ago, the same exact attitude was on display down by the ICA as cops refused to wear masks, refused to socially distance, and mocked protestors by name. If literally any other city employee behaved in this way they’d be fired. If my 11-year-old gave me that gross smirk we’d be sure to have some words. Every video like this just further radicalizes everyday people against the police, and its just going to get worse until the basic, one-on-one interactions between cops and citizens improve. That’s gotta be a priority for the new chief, and, ultimately, the Mayor.

The RTD’s Mark Robinson says City Council continued the paper banning guns at protests (ORD. 2020–184) until at least September 8th. Council had concerns about enforcement, which, “having concerns” is what some of this Council does best. What I wouldn’t give for a legislative body that actually legislates! If y’all don’t want to pass ordinances, vote against them! Our culture of continuation is maddening.

Wyatt Gordon, writing for the Virginia Mercury, has a piece looking at how Richmond’s bus systems is thinking about free fares. I’ve come around on free fares over the last year or so and think that this moment—with ultra high unemployment (see below)—is probably our best shot at giving free fares a serious go. This would require additional investment from our region, either from the localities themselves or from the new regional transportation authority, so we’ll see how likely that is come budget season.

In his daily email, RPS Superintendent Kamras said trans and non-binary students can get their names changed in Google Classroom by contacting Chief of Staff Michelle Hudacsko directly ([email protected]). I appreciate this thoughtful attention to detail as all of RPS will start the year off virtually, and how your name shows up in software often precludes any chance for students to introduce themselves with the names they’re comfortable with. Erin White on Twitter says VCU students can do this, too, and has a nice, short thread on why this kind of administrative change to enterprise software is important. Additionally, UR has a way for students to update the name usedin “many internal locations throughout the University.” Also, as a parent of an initial-named child, I’d like to quote this tweet of Erin’s from back in 2018: “Plus there are the folks who use a different name than their full legal first name — either a shortened version of their first name, their initials, or their middle names. I counted - that’s about 30% of our library staff. Raise all the boats.”

Here’s your weekly VEC unemployment insurance numbers update, which includes this shocking sentence: “the number of initial claims filed from mid-March through the August 15, 2020 filing week totaled 1,104,097 or 27% of pre-pandemic, payroll employment.” 27% of the state’s payroll employment vanished in a couple of months is staggering to think about. The current numbers haven’t changed much between this week and last, but, as Ned Oliver at the Virginia Mercury reports, the state will apply to participate in Trump’s supplemental $300-per-week unemployment benefits program. I wonder if that will push a few folks to file that haven’t after the original Congressional $600-per-week benefit ran out.

This morning’s longread

The Mythology of Karen

This piece in the Atlantic about the Karen meme really drives home for me the complexity of the current moment.

To understand why the Karen debate has been so fierce and emotive, you need to understand the two separate (and opposing) traditions on which it draws: anti-racism and sexism. You also need to understand the challenge that white women as a group pose to modern activist culture. When so many online debates involve mentally awarding “privilege points” to each side of an encounter or argument to adjudicate who holds the most power, the confusing status of white women jams the signal. Are they the oppressors or the oppressed? Worse than that, what if they are using their apparent disadvantage—being a woman—as a weapon?

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