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TW/CW police and anti-black violence
I've been following a story that more people should know about. It's about a city that bombed itself, museums, and an Ivy League anthropology course that used the bones of Black children murdered by the police in 1985
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I've been following a story that more people should know about. It's about a city that bombed itself, museums, and an Ivy League anthropology course that used the bones of Black children murdered by the police in 1985
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Philadelphia.
5:30AM May 13th, 1985.
500 police converged on 6221 Osage Avenue, where the Black activist group MOVE lived with their families.
They demand MOVE surrender
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5:30AM May 13th, 1985.
500 police converged on 6221 Osage Avenue, where the Black activist group MOVE lived with their families.
They demand MOVE surrender
2/30
When MOVE wouldn't surrender, the police deployed tear gas and water cannons, then fired over 10,000 rounds at the house â until they were out of bullets.
Allegedly, this is a response to automatic gunfire. Later, no automatic weapons in the house
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Allegedly, this is a response to automatic gunfire. Later, no automatic weapons in the house
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There are 13 people trapped in the house by the police: 7 are adults and 6 are children
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Adults: Ramona Africa, Rhonda Africa, Teresa Africa, Frank Africa, Raymond Africa, Conrad Africa, & John Africa
Children: Tree Africa (14), Delisha Africa (13), Birdie Africa (13), Little Phil Africa (12), Netta Africa (12) & Tomasa Africa (9)
of MOVE the 1980s
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Children: Tree Africa (14), Delisha Africa (13), Birdie Africa (13), Little Phil Africa (12), Netta Africa (12) & Tomasa Africa (9)
of MOVE the 1980s5/30
At 5:27pm, 12 hours after the siege began, police drop a canvas bag containing a Tovex and C4 bomb on the roof of the house
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The subsequent explosion (which I will not share footage of) immediately ignites a fire that soon engulfs 6221 Osage Avenue
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Police, now restocked with more ammunitions, proceeded to shoot at anyone trying to get out of the house, preventing them from escaping the inferno
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There is no effort to put out the fire for 90 minutes. It's deliberately left to burn. Soon, the flames spread to nearby houses
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9/30
Eleven people, six adults and five children, die in the fire. Only Ramona Africa and Birdie Africa manage to escape
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10/30
The flames continued to spread and were not brought under control until it is nearly midnight. Two blocks of a mostly Black neighbourhood are completely destroyed
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11/30
60+ homes burn, and around 250 people were suddenly homeless. An entire community decimated
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It's hard to articulate the scale of the destruction. Every time I see the photos I am speechless
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Only one person went to prison for the events of May 13th, 1985. Ramona Africa, who was the only adult to survive the fire, served seven years on "riot" charges
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Add'l TW/CW discussion of human remains
This week, new information came to light about the bombing. In 1985, remains of 1 or possibly 2 children who died in the fire were given to the @pennmuseum under the care of @UPennAnth anthropology professor Alan Mann
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This week, new information came to light about the bombing. In 1985, remains of 1 or possibly 2 children who died in the fire were given to the @pennmuseum under the care of @UPennAnth anthropology professor Alan Mann
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The remains may belong to Delisha Africa (13, in yellow) or Tree Africa (14, in red polka dots). Both Delisha and Tree's mothers are still alive and didn't know their daughters' remains were in @pennmuseum or studied by @Penn faculty
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In 2001, Alan Mann was hired by @Princeton and took the remains with him. When he retired from @PrincetonAnthro in 2016, they were sent back to @Penn
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It was revealed this past week that neither @Princeton nor @pennmuseum seemed to know where the remains were. On 4/21, @Penn spokesperson said they were "returned to the care and stewardship of Dr. Mann at Princeton University." (per @billy_penn)
18/30 https://billypenn.com/2021/04/21/move-bombing-penn-museum-bones-remains-princeton-africa/
18/30 https://billypenn.com/2021/04/21/move-bombing-penn-museum-bones-remains-princeton-africa/
But @Princeton denied having them: "no remains of the victims of the MOVE bombing are being housed at Princeton." When @CraigRMcCoy at @PhillyInquirer asked if that meant Mann had them, Princeton said they "could add nothing to the statement"
19/ https://www.inquirer.com/news/move-bombing-victim-remains-penn-philadelphia-princeton-20210421.html
19/ https://www.inquirer.com/news/move-bombing-victim-remains-penn-philadelphia-princeton-20210421.html
When @PrincetonAnthro Dept. Chair Carolyn Rouse was interviewed by @billy_penn, she said they might be in Alan Mann's lab. Mann has been retired since 2015.
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And it now seems @pennmuseum hurriedly sent them to
Alan Mann ON SUNDAY (per @mlevenson's @nytimes article), perhaps when they caught wind of forthcoming press
21/30 https://www.nytimes.com/2021/04/24/us/move-rowhouse-bombing-victim-remains.html
Alan Mann ON SUNDAY (per @mlevenson's @nytimes article), perhaps when they caught wind of forthcoming press
21/30 https://www.nytimes.com/2021/04/24/us/move-rowhouse-bombing-victim-remains.html
This disregard for the dignity of the MOVE children by @pennmuseum isn't new. Per @Edpilkington for @guardian & @billy_penn, they weren't kept in climate-controlled storage but in a cardboard box on a shelf
22/30 https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2021/apr/22/move-bombing-black-children-bones-philadelphia-princeton-pennsylvania
22/30 https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2021/apr/22/move-bombing-black-children-bones-philadelphia-princeton-pennsylvania
Then, in Feb 2019, Janet Monge, a curator at @pennmuseum, used the MOVE children's remains in a @Coursera class offered by @Princeton:
"Real Bones: Adventures in Forensic Anthropology"
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"Real Bones: Adventures in Forensic Anthropology"
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The course uses pelvis and femur fragments as props, shows photos of the remains in the rubble and describes them in graphic terms
(Iâm not going to share images of any human remains)
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(Iâm not going to share images of any human remains)
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I emailed @coursera's Chief Content Officer, Dr. Betty Vandenbosch. Someone on her team told me the course had been suspended. When I checked just now, I could still access it and watch all associated content
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https://www.coursera.org/learn/real-bones-forensic-anthropology
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https://www.coursera.org/learn/real-bones-forensic-anthropology
It's unclear where the MOVE children are now. Neither Mann or Monge have made a statement. Did @pennmuseum shipped remains to @Princeton "attn: Alan Mann" or did someone hand them to him? Why was no one able to confirm where they were last week?
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MOVE, however, is very clear about what should happen next and how you can support them
Sign the petition http://bit.ly/justiceforMOVE
RSVP for rally https://fb.me/e/4YsKJRSZm
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Sign the petition http://bit.ly/justiceforMOVE
RSVP for rally https://fb.me/e/4YsKJRSZm
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And to @Princeton ( @PrincetonAnthro), @Penn ( @UPennAnth), and @pennmuseum: the bones that have been passed back and forth between your institutions don't belong in an anthropology collection or museum
The MOVE children are not props. They're people.
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The MOVE children are not props. They're people.
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All or focus should be on justice for the MOVE family (looking at you, @PrincetonAnthro, and the excuses you made to @PhillyInquirer)
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There's a lot to unpack about the objectification of Black bodies, the violation of the sacred, the violence of the academy, the racism in so many museums and more. Reading others' thoughts have informed my thinking, so I will link to them below
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. @MxAbdulAliy's opinion piece in the @PhillyInquirer, which was the first thing I read (h/t @GeorgeAumoithe) https://www.inquirer.com/opinion/commentary/penn-museum-reparations-repatriation-move-bombing-20210421.html
. @Mkassutto's article in @billy_penn linked above (h/t @hthompsn). It was the only other article besides @MxAbdulAliy's on the MOVE children's remains at the time and was very helpful. Yesterday she did a piece for @NPR https://www.npr.org/2021/04/23/990187353/bones-of-children-killed-in-move-bombing-shuttled-from-lab-to-lab-for-decades
. @bae_lay's article was the first and perhaps the only so far that looks at how the news about MOVE's children is impacting the Penn community https://billypenn.com/2021/04/23/move-remains-penn-museum-princeton-students-apology/
. @artcrimeprof summed up my feelings pretty well https://twitter.com/artcrimeprof/status/1384979422575566853
When I first read them, @LaCharles88's thoughts stopped me in my tracks. I bookmarked and returned to them many times over several days https://twitter.com/LaCharles88/status/1385227004879024129
. @drvholden's closer look at Janet Monge's quote really changed the way I saw its historical context https://twitter.com/drvholden/status/1385617250896519172
. @AntheaButler's thread elucidates the connections between the treatment of MOVE's children, the Morton collection of craniums at @pennmuseum, the perpetuation of 19th-century race science, white Christianity, and the dehumanization of Black people https://twitter.com/AntheaButler/status/1385027869152272388
. @richardkevans shows the news about the MOVE children is part of a pattern. After the bombing, victims' were left to decompose in the city morgue for 6 months. MOVE had to go to court to bury bodies of John Africa & Frank Africa https://twitter.com/richardkevans/status/1385222245052821504
Adding @RobertSkvarla's thread on @Penn's history of scientific experimentation on Black people in Philadelphia. I was unaware of most of this https://twitter.com/RobertSkvarla/status/1385234616727097344
See @Dr_C_Thompson's thoughts on the objectification of bodies in museum space and her entreaty to "consider what lessons you are really teaching when you teach with such remains." https://twitter.com/Dr_C_Thompson/status/1385011085879746566
A disturbing anecdote from @BenForWard3 about @pennmuseum. I have no doubt, given the multiple accounts of the unethical and dehumanizing practices, that more will come to light as scrutiny intensifies https://twitter.com/BenForWard3/status/1386428142445686784
A great point by @williamcson. As content is shared about the MOVE children's remains, notice where images are "affirming the knowable (black objecthood) and disguising the untold (black human being)." (quoting @demonicground)
1/4 https://twitter.com/williamcson/status/1387147990998061064
1/4 https://twitter.com/williamcson/status/1387147990998061064
. @demonicground's 2014 article "Mathematics Black Life" has changed the way I think, talk & write about trauma, and the imperative to "foster a commitment to acknowledging violence and undoing its persistent frame, rather than simply analytically reprising violence."
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The images of Tree & Delisha Africa's remains reminded me of Sadiya Hartman's words: "She did have a name & a life that exceeded the frame in which she was captured." What frame do these images perpetuate? Should we perpetuate it?
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(h/t @sahaley's https://www.aaihs.org/intimate-historical-practice/ )
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(h/t @sahaley's https://www.aaihs.org/intimate-historical-practice/ )
Adding @MargaretSanfor's thoughts on the use of images of the MOVE children's remains. It is a different lens than @williamcson's, and points to how journalists might learn from the thinking done elsewhere about the violence images can represent
1/2 https://twitter.com/MargaretSanfor/status/1387427228074528770
1/2 https://twitter.com/MargaretSanfor/status/1387427228074528770
. @MargaretSanfor also mentions NAGPRA, gesturing at a connection others have been making between white settler-colonialism's violent, racist treatment of Indigenous Peoples & the MOVE children's remains. See @KimTallBear tweet https://twitter.com/KimTallBear/status/1385986218597392388
