The Wrath of Kwan

Afro Samurai by Iruko Art

Get the Afro Samurai series here

The Negro Motorist Green Book was a series of annual guides for African-American drivers and holiday-makers who wanted to know where they could find gas-stations, restaurants and hotels that would serve them and which “sunset towns” they should avoid on pain of violence from corrupt, racist law-enforcement.

The Green Books have taken on a new cultural relevance; they play a central role in Matt Ruff’s outstanding anti-racist Lovecraftian tale Lovecraft Country (which is being adapted by Jordan “Get Out” Peele for the small screen).

In late 2017, Jan Miles released the The Post Racial Negro Green Book, an unexpected bestseller that catalogs police killings, violence and harassment; businesses that racially profile black customers; and places where white people publicly abuse black people with impunity.

Miles created her Green Book as a way of coping with an onslaught of news about racist violence and discrimination; rather than being a passive observer of the news, she did something to process it (this is how I deal with the news, too – Boing Boing is both a public notebook and a personal way of reflecting on the news rather than letting it get on top of me).

She calls it “a snapshot of contemporary racism in America.”

It’s timely: the NAACP just released its first-ever travel advisories, warning black people to avoid both Mississippi and American Airlines.

As states pass a wave of laws barred non-neutral ISPs from providing services to state agencies, more than 100 US mayors have pledged to disqualify non-neutral ISPs from getting city contracts as well.

You can email your mayor to get them to join the pledge. Participating cities include NYC, PDX, Austin, San Antonio, KC, San Francisco, Baltimore, San Jose, Minneapolis, Stockton, Newark, Jersey City, Sioux City, SLO, Cambridge Mass, Akron, Rochester, Chapel Hill, Ithaca, Boise, Fargo, Richmond (VA), East Lansing, Albuquerque, Sheboygan, Birmingham (AL), Long Beach, and many, many more.