In a piece on Africa is a Country titled “Meditation on Sandra Bland’s self-possession, The Beatles and neo-Black codes of conduct,“ anthropologist Gina Athena Ulysse reflects on Sandra Bland.
“The image of Sandra Bland I cannot get out of my head is her selfie wearing a blue Beatles t-shirt.
Besides being professional black women with spirited senses of self, I am eons older, we seem to have loving the Beatles in common.
As her story was developing across the pond, I was in Liverpool reuniting with graduate school sistahgirls who were also there to present work at conferences that focused on “TransAtlantic Dialogues on Cultural Heritage,” while I just finished performing in one on “After the Revolution: Visions and Revisions of Haiti.” We did a Beatles taxi tour during which, we ran through lyrics of most of the major hits by the fab four with a guide who took pictures of our spirited emotional responses at every major site from Ringo and John’s childhood homes to, finally the orphanage, Strawberry Fields.”
You can read the rest of the piece here.