Natasha Lycia Ora Bannan, 43, was president of the National Lawyers Guild
She was active in championing Puerto Rican and Colombian causes
Bannan claimed to be Latina but on Monday admitted she was white
She s the latest in a growing line of people to be revealed as having assumed a false racial identity, including Alec Baldwin s wife Hilaria
Hilaria was outed on December 21 as being a white woman from Boston, known until 2009 as Hilary, whose parents happen to live in Spain
Back in 2015, Rachel Dolezal sparked controversy and was slammed as a race faker for claiming she identified as black despite being born to white parents
China s authoritarian language is taking over Hong Kong Quartz 12/16/2020
When authoritarians speak, pay close attention.
Words, beyond their basic function of communication, signal intent and outline ways of thinking. But in an age of “alternative facts,” we know too well that words can obscure as much as they clarify. Words can also be weapons. As the sociologist Celine-Marie Pascale puts it, “Authoritarian governments weaponize language to amplify resentments, target scapegoats, and to legitimize injustice.”
In Hong Kong, as large-scale protests erupted in 2019, followed by this year’s severe crackdown spearheaded by a national security law imposed by Beijing, the government increasingly adopted the authoritarian language of the Chinese Communist Party. Previously staid pronouncements peppered with anachronisms products of its technocratic governance with roots in 150 years of British colonial rule became much more brash in tone, loudly assertive in projecting po
When authoritarians speak, pay close attention.
Words, beyond their basic function of communication, signal intent and outline ways of thinking. But in an age of “alternative facts,” we know too well that words can obscure as much as they clarify. Words can also be weapons. As the sociologist Celine-Marie Pascale puts it, “Authoritarian governments weaponize language to amplify resentments, target scapegoats, and to legitimize injustice.”
In Hong Kong, as large-scale protests erupted in 2019, followed by this year’s severe crackdown spearheaded by a national security law imposed by Beijing, the government increasingly adopted the authoritarian language of the Chinese Communist Party. Previously staid pronouncements peppered with anachronisms products of its technocratic governance with roots in 150 years of British colonial rule became much more brash in tone, loudly assertive in projecting power, and snide in their rebuttal of public criticism.