#oppressive language

WARNING: THE LETTER BELOW CONTAINS OPPRESSIVE LANGUAGE

This letter was found in Vel Phillips’ personal papers. Phillips was a common council member who first introduced open housing legislation to Milwaukee in 1962 and introduced it annually until it passed in 1968.

Notice how the person expressed their strong (and antiquated) opinions about anti-discrimination laws and didn’t bother to sign the letter except to call themselves “South Sider”.

In the finding aid, one can find an explanation of the variety of correspondence collected in the Vel Phillips papers. There are several boxes of correspondence and some of the folders have the label “opposition mail” though some researchers may consider the letters blatantly hate mail.

“This label “opposition mail” is not meant to minimize the racist nature of some of the correspondence, but rather to provide a generic term for the inclusion of all letters opposed to fair housing. This better reflects the way Phillips had organized the letters prior to accessioning.”

The fight for open housing in Milwaukee is covered in many collections at the UWM Archives. The finding aid for Phillips’ paper collection can be found here: 

[ image one is screenshot of twitter with text by CUPE 3903 Rank and File that says, “@debbie_jamieson is the kind of talent that York’s BoG attracts. Just your run of the mill, casual racist who supports Doug Ford. #draintheBoG #yorku #yorkustrike” The tweet by Debbie Jamieson says, “why can you not release the race of this suspect! I work at York U and this is very scary!” 

Catherine McDonald tweeted, “Race is usually left out when there is no definite description at 5:30 it is still very dark out.” Debbie also tweeted, “But the victim was still able to identify approximate age with thick eyebrows, but still not race? hmmmm?” 

Another tweet by Debbie Jamieson says, “Rob is looking down and giving you a high five Doug! Look out Kathleen Wynn, we have a new man in town!” Another tweet is her saying, “I pray to God that the TPS find this guy soon!” in response to a Toronto police tweet about a black man wanted by the police. ] 

“Karmah Dudin, a political-science undergrad student and member of Students for CUPE 3903, a student-led group that supports the strikers, said the students have been occupying the Senate chambers since 5:30 p.m. Thursday night.”

They’ve recently been asked to leave but are continuing the occupy the senate chambers in solidarity with striking workers. 

controlling language (? & intent/command)

contrasts with