On Loitering
In Charles Moore’s iconic black-and-white photograph, Coretta looks on stoically, lips parted, hands clasped in front as her husband, Martin Luther King, has his right arm bent behind his back by a police officer in a tall hat.
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Posts Tagged: Racism
The Sacred and the Profane
There is a total silence in the West on India’s culture of dissenting women in the face of severe patriarchy and authoritarianism. It doesn’t quite fit, does it, into the dichotomy carved out for Indian women by Americans and the British…
...moreA Very Non-Accidental Response to Brad Paisley
You may have noticed one or two jokes about Brad Paisley and LL Cool J’s collaboration “Accidental Racist,” partially because of every aspect of the song, but mainly because of every aspect of the song.
But Ta-Nehisi Coates puts humor aside for his response in the Atlantic, choosing instead to “seriously and directly engag[e] Brad Paisley and his stated motives for the song.” And he does it really well:
...more“Booming System” is dope.
Yellow Peril and the American Dream
We are terrified of racial guilt. But when we’re too afraid to actually deal with what’s happening in the world, to acknowledge our responsibility or what’s at stake, we will be doomed to miss the point over and over again.
...moreOn Loving the Art of a Problematic Artist
...moreIn early 2010, I came within a hair’s breadth of securing a rare interview with Morrissey myself, but he ultimately backed out. It was disappointing, because I had planned…to ask him if there was any valid reason for a black man like me not to swear off him and his music.
Liberal Arts Roundup
Private liberal arts colleges have been in the hot seat lately. Emory students rallied and protested after their school’s president, James W. Wagner wrote an article commending the 1787 three-fifths compromise. In October, the school apologized for its discrimination against Jewish dental students during the 1960s.
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Indian River
In Florida there is an Indian River that flows through a swamp in the northern half of the state. It behaves nothing like a river at all—instead it commingles with the land to make a land-water hybrid, which is what much of Florida feels like anyway.
...moreSleep Song, The Poetic Epilogue to War, Cancelled
Sleep Song, the third installment of Vijay Iyer and Mike Ladd’s poetic performances that showcase stories about soldiers of color in wars, had its Harlem Stage show cancelled because its Iraqi performers were denied visas.
At Colorlines, Seth Freed Wessler discusses the show and how “navigating the space of war does not end when war ends.
...moreThe Little Tolls and Pitfalls of Modern American Racism
Abigail Fisher, a 22-year old white girl, a graduate of LSU, just pleaded to the Supreme court that the University of Texas rejected her four years ago because of affirmative action.
UT says they’d have rejected her no matter her race; regardless, her suit might lead the Supreme Court to forbid the practice.
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I Don’t See You
When I was younger, through the grace of a small business loan, my father started his own grocery store on the East Side of Waterloo. As I grew up, I eventually learned what the West and East sides of town meant.
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Different Racisms II: On Jeremy Lin and Singular Models
I was never able to have that moment, which I realized other kids had, where the character seemed to be me. I was always aware that I was reading about other people.
...moreSikh Temple Shooting
Our thoughts are with the victims of yesterday’s tragedy in Wisconsin.
The suspect has been identified as Wade Michael Page, a 40-year old Army veteran and white supremacist. More on the man’s involvement with white-supremacy can be found here.
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Revising the Revisionists
I suffer from the primary carpet-bagging compulsion of the northern writer living in the South:
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A FAN’S NOTES, THE RUMPUS SPORTS COLUMN #43: Mohawk Mama
Perhaps you’ve seen the photograph of Italian striker Mario Balotelli embracing his mother after scoring two emphatic goals in Italy’s recent 2-1 Euro semifinal victory
...moreHow To Oppress White People
Black Girl Dangerous provides a step-by-step guide on how “reverse-racist!” people of color can continue the oppression of white people, beginning with the enslavement of white bodies and ending with the proclamation that we live in a “post-reverse-racial society” — and everything in between.
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Where Things Stand
“What It’s Like to be a Problem”
At The Nation, Melissa Harris-Perry breaks down the wider political context surrounding the Trayvon Martin killing, outlining the historical and contemporary reality in which it is “acceptable to presume the guilt” of black bodies.
“Liberal democracy—based on commitment to individual liberty and dignity—does not exist if the government legislates against particular bodies in public spaces, as it did during Jim Crow, or when it is complicit in the violent policing of those bodies by other citizens, as in the Trayvon Martin slaying.”
...moreBook Smuggling
Writers and activists are setting up an underground library in Tucson, Arizona. The librotraficante movement is an effort to expose Tucson students to the collection of books banned when the school district suspended its Mexican-American studies program.
“The word librotraficante shouldn’t exist in America…You shouldn’t have to smuggle books.”
(Via Book Bench)
...moreTrayvon Martin
“How did a kid armed with Skittles and an iced tea get gunned down by an overeager neighborhood watch captain? And why didn’t police detain shooter George Zimmerman?” Mother Jones reports.
Ta-Nehisi Coates has had ongoing coverage. “This investigation wasn’t one.
...moreRace and Redistricting
The Nation explains how the GOP is resegregating the South with its infuriating redistricting campaign.
“The GOP’s long-term goal is to enshrine a system of racially polarized voting that will make it harder for Democrats to win races on local, state, federal and presidential levels.
...more“To My Old Master”
Here’s a letter written in 1865 by an ex-enslaved man, Jourdan Anderson, in response to his former master’s request that Jourdan return to work on his farm.
“I served you faithfully for thirty-two years, and Mandy twenty years. At twenty-five dollars a month for me, and two dollars a week for Mandy, our earnings would amount to eleven thousand six hundred and eighty dollars.
...moreBest Director Boys Club
We don’t usually do lists, but when the Academy’s list of Best Director nominees is 100% dudes, an exception seems necessary. Canonball chronicles five female directors “whose direction deserved more attention this year.”
“I really hope I don’t have to do this every year.
...more“Loving v. Bigotry”
This month, the International Center of Photography is launching an exhibit of a Grey Villet’s photographs of the Lovings, the couple whose Supreme Court case overturned miscegenation laws in over a dozen states. The New York Times has a slide-show previewing the exhibit.
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When my brothers and I Hate’s Ugly Revival
“Over the last decade Hispanic immigrants have become the main focus of American hate groups. According to Heidi Beirich of the Southern Poverty Law Center, after September 11, 2001, the conservative media began discussing immigration as a national security issue, often using terms like “illegals,” “invaders,” even “potential terrorists” to describe undocumented immigrants.
...moreContinental Divide
Kurt Caswell’s memoir describes his year teaching in a place of violence, despair, doubt… and hope.
...moreThe Racist Velvet Rope
Teri Woods, a “pioneer … urban or hip-hop fiction” author, recently tried to have a party to celebrate the release of her new book Alibi in a Soho night club called Greenhouse. When she got there, she found that some white friends had made it past the velvet rope, while more than a hundred of her black guests had been turned away at the door without reason.
...moreSaturday Morning Links
Morning, everyone! Here’s some links to get you started this weekend.
Shepard Fairey admits to submitting false images to the court in his fair use lawsuit against the AP. Not good, even if his argument is that the underlying fair use theory is sound.
...moreWhitewashed Book Cover Finally Gets Some Color
Not too long ago, in a land not too far away, Australian author Justine Larbalestier’s forthcoming book about an African-American teen with a penchant for lying was whitewashed by her American publisher Bloomsbury. A situation easily imaginable in the now-unthinkable era of segregated sock hops and bus rides, Larbalestier’s book is due out next month.
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