Racism Is a Reboot: Binging Battlestar Galactica at the End of a World
It was a new world; it was the same world.
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Posts Tagged: ferguson
The NFL and Compulsory Patriotism
A piece of cloth is not being disrespected, but many black Americans are being disrespected, and killed.
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Language Is Sensational: A Conversation with Eileen G’Sell
Eileen G’Sell discusses her debut collection, Life After Rugby, how and why she chose her book’s title, and challenging gender categories.
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The Causality Runs Both Ways: A Conversation with Joshua Clover
Joshua Clover discusses his book Riot.Strike.Riot, mediating between individual agency and structural determination, and finding hope in student action.
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There Is Simply No Time for This: Whose Streets? and Civil Rights Cinema
It is unlikely I will see the US justice system evolve toward an egalitarian ideal in my lifetime. But Whose Streets? does offer a clearly visible North Star.
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Slang and Swagger: Riffing with Jeff Chang
Jeff Chang discusses his latest book, We Gon’ Be Alright: Notes on Race and Resegregation, his work in hip-hip journalism, and the beauty and humanity of political protest.
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Binary States of America: A Letter to Obama
In the end, although I wanted you to be more like Charles Bronson or Malcolm or Luke Cage, I am very proud to have witnessed your historic presidency—the successes, and even the disappointments.
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The Rumpus Interview with Emily Raboteau
Emily Raboteau discusses her essay, “Know Your Rights!” from the collection, The Fire This Time, what she loves about motherhood, and why it’s time for White America to get uncomfortable.
...moreThe Post-Ferguson Classroom
Here is the thing: silence does not protect us; in fact it suffocates us. Marcia Chatelain, professor, author, and originator of #thefergusonsyllabus, discusses the importance of talking about race in high school and college classrooms in Lenny Letter.
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Boyz n the Hood, Chi-Raq, and America 2016
And while the faces and nomenclature between these historically discrete agents of change differ, the one governing commonality remains the same: unfettered gun ownership and correlative violence play a pivotal role.
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Baltimore, Offline
Social media’s role in all this is especially strange in that it makes people feel obligated to speak out, whether they’ve thought hard about their place in the discourse or not.
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He Doth Protest Too Much
I’ve begun to question my place in society, my place in a country that wants me to remain silent. Mostly, I question my choice to remain silent.
...morePlaces to Call Home
Rather than being shot at, my new fear would be of seeing the officers unleash violence upon a helpless body, having to watch within the confines of my approximated uniform, padded with a bullet proof vest, which would incontrovertibly claim me, identify my orientation toward the police and not the helpless body, drown me out […]
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The Saturday Rumpus Interview: Angela Flournoy
My ambition is personal. I don’t think I need to succeed so that the race can succeed.
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The Rumpus Interview with Margo Jefferson
Pulitzer Prize-winning critic Margo Jefferson talks about her new memoir, Negroland, and about growing up in an elite black community in the segregated Chicago of the 1950s and 1960s.
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The Rumpus Interview with Benjamin Percy
Benjamin Percy discusses his latest novel, The Dead Lands, why it’s all about keeping language fresh, and his dream job writing for DC Comics.
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The Rumpus Poetry Book Club Chat with Rigoberto González
The Rumpus Poetry Book Club chats with Rigoberto González about his new book Our Lady of the Crossword, cover image censorship, and the BP oil disaster.
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The Rumpus Interview with Daniel José Older
Author Daniel José Older talks about his new novel, Shadowshaper, noir influence in urban fantasy, gentrification, white privilege and the publishing industry, and why we need diverse books, now more than ever.
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It Hurts Too Much: The Emotional Reality of Trans Murders in 2015
Are you sad? I hope so. Are you angry? You need to be. We need you to share this work.
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The Rumpus Interview with LaShonda Katrice Barnett
Novelist LaShonda Katrice Barnett discusses her debut novel, Jam on the Vine, how becoming a historian taught her about plot, Muslims living in Texas in the 19th century, and the Missouri State Penitentiary, also known as “the bloodiest 47 acres in America.”
...moreReasonable Cause
The Torres family learned how Christopher died from watching the news the next day. At a press conference, the department’s chief public-safety officer said that two officers had tried to arrest Christopher at home, but, when he resisted and grabbed a gun from one of them, the officers felt that their lives were in danger. […]
...moreWriting the Invisible
The work of the writer has always been about making the invisible visible. Leslie Jamison, author of The Empathy Exams, talks to Salon about Ferguson and fear, selfies and tattoos, and what it means to be a writer in the modern world.
...moreGifts Continue Rolling in for Ferguson Library
Following the grand jury verdict in Ferguson, protests shut down local civic institutions like schools. However, the local public library continued to serve as a beacon of hope, providing area residents with access to books, Internet, and entertainment. Last week, YA author John Green sent the library signed copies of his books. And contributions to […]
...moreOutrage Laced With Vulnerability
When the grand juries failed to indict Darren Wilson or Daniel Pantaleo, they added to a lineage of injustices enacted against black people in America. Rumpus contributor Kaveh Akbar speaks to Claudia Rankine about her poetry collection Citizen, which explores the microaggressions supporting the system that let it happen: I didn’t have a directive in […]
...moreTurning to Baldwin During Tragedy
Art has to be a confession. I don’t mean a true confession in the sense of that dreary magazine. The effort, it seems to me, is: if you can examine and face your life, you can discover the terms with which you are connected to other lives, and they can discover, too, the terms with […]
...moreThis Week in Short Fiction
This week, last week, men who have taken lives are walking away unpunished, unquestioned even. We have their victims’ names: Mike Brown. Eric Garner. We have their final words: Hands up, don’t shoot. (Six shots fired.) I can’t breathe. (Repeated until his breath is forever gone.) To stand with these two men is to go […]
...moreEric Garner: A Rumpus Roundup
In July, unarmed black man Eric Garner died after he was placed in a chokehold by a white police officer, Daniel Pantaleo, on Staten Island, a suburban borough of New York City. This might sound eerily similar to the case of Michael Brown. Or similar to Akai Gurley. Or to any of the hundreds of […]
...moreHealing Words
This past week has seen an outpouring of poetry responding to the disappointment, violence, and trauma spurred by the Ferguson decision. Over at Flavorwire, Jonathon Sturgeon challenges the notion that poetry written in response to political events is somehow less legitimate than art of any other kind: Over the years, I’ve heard countless complaints about […]
...moreSo Little Has Changed
Following the grand jury decision not to indict Darren Wilson for shooting and killing Michael Brown, Edwidge Danticat reflects on the overwhelming occurrence of police brutality against people of color: Today, one might generously refer to such acts as micro-aggressions. That is, until they turn major, until they turn deadly. Until a man who is […]
...moreJohn Green Sends Books to Ferguson
Scott Bonner, the director of the Ferguson Municipal Public Library, answered questions on Reddit over the weekend and discussed the needs of the community in light of the ongoing protests. The Ferguson library has continued to function, even as schools have been closed. During the question and answer session, Bonner mentioned the popularity of young […]
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