From the Editors Archives - Page 89 of 170

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The Racism of Climate Denial

Creating uncertainty about evidence is an injustice

April 24, 2018 • by Genevieve Guenther

Climate justice demands we acknowledge that the fossil-fuel economy distributes its costs unequally across racial lines. For example, race, not poverty, is correlated with exposure to PM 2.5, a health-damaging particle produced by the burning of fossil fuels. Climate change itself, the planetary effect of fossil-fuel consumption, also affects people unequally ...

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Barbara Bush, Starbucks, and the U.S. Census

Past Present Episode 127

April 24, 2018 • by Natalia Mehlman Petrzela, Nicole Hemmer and Neil J. Young

In this episode, Neil, Natalia, and Niki debate the life and legacy of Barbara Bush, Starbucks’ race problem, and the U.S. Census.

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Barbara Bush, Starbucks, and the U.S. Census

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The Demonization of Ethel Rosenberg

An excerpt from Trans-generational Trauma and the Other

April 24, 2018 • by Adrienne Harris

The Demonization of Ethel Rosenberg, by Adrienne Harris, appears in Trans-generational Trauma and the Other, a volume of essays published in 2017 psychoanalytically meditating on the question of the transgenerational transmission of trauma, metastasizing and alienated historical ghosts, and the inter-subjectivity of Big History. Public Seminar spoke with Dr Harris – who is, among many ...

Blue Monday

Between Past and Future

Thinking about life and death

April 23, 2018 • by Jeffrey C. Isaac

"I merely took the energy it takes to pout, and I wrote some blues." -Duke Ellington I attended an interesting talk yesterday. Being a young scholar, the speaker was (of course) using PowerPoint. At one moment in the talk he referenced a “recent argument” that he would engage. As he did ...

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Trump’s Bottling of Old Wine

Can we finally lose our bipartisan taste for workfare?

April 23, 2018 • by John Krinsky

It is tempting to see President Trump’s executive order directing his agencies to find ways to require work as a condition for receiving means-tested benefits as another example of his outsized callousness. By casting all means-tested aid programs as “welfare,” Trump’s executive order supersizes “workfare” by linking benefits to work. There are ...

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Was Homosexuality Illegal in Communist Europe?

The complex sexual geopolitics of the Eastern bloc

April 22, 2018 • by Lukasz Szulc

Communism tends to be equated with homophobia. It is often imagined as a backward force, putting on hold economic, political and social advancements, including the adoption of LGBT rights and the development of LGBT activism. As Dennis Altman wrote in 1971: “prejudice against homosexuality as ‘a bourgeois degeneracy’ became strongly imbued in Communist ...

Was Homosexuality Illegal in Communist Europe?

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The Art of [Breaking] the Deal

Trump Administration to roll back national auto efficiency and emissions standards

April 21, 2018 • by John Lawrence

The Trump Administration’s decision to roll back national auto efficiency and emissions standards and challenge California’s right to set tougher criteria will not only make Americans sicker and increase dependency on foreign oil. Trump’s unilateral action will violate an understanding that taxpayers would not finance the revitalization of a non-competitive ...

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Dark Times, Cultural Freedom and (the) Media

Reflections on The Inauguration of The Center for Media at Risk

April 20, 2018 • by Jeffrey C. Goldfarb

I am now at the inauguration of the Center for Media at Risk at Annenberg School of Communication in Philadelphia. The opening ceremonies have been completed. The presentations and discussions begin later this morning. I see from the program a broad set of concerns, with special sessions on the Digital, ...

Dark Times, Cultural Freedom and (the) Media

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Charity Workers, Organize!

A guide for the overworked and underappreciated

April 20, 2018 • by Simon Jones

If you work in a charity, chances are you are not in a union. Which is unfortunate, because you will almost certainly have seen things a union can fix: low morale, poor conditions and pay, infringements of labor rights, discrimination, poor or malicious management, and work-related illness. This is a guide ...

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Reformed Mental Health Services for Kids Begin to Take Shape

A Center for New York City Affairs event

April 19, 2018 • by Abigail Kramer

After tense and uncertain budget negotiations, New York State will move forward with several pieces of its long-planned expansion of behavioral health services for children on Medicaid. This week, the Center for New York City Affairs hosted a panel of experts to talk about what's next for this reform: What the vision ...

Reformed Mental Health Services for Kids Begin to Take Shape

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Is Amartya Sen 21st Century’s ‘Great Critic’ of Capitalism?

A response to Tim Rogan

April 19, 2018 • by Aabid Firdausi and Nandita Shivakumar

Tim Rogan, in an essay recently published by Aeon, claims that Amartya Sen is the “Century’s Great Critic of Capitalism.” He states that Sen deserves this attribute because of his groundbreaking approach to capitalist critique, wherein he combines the moral and material critiques of capitalism that have hitherto remained two distinct ...

Is Amartya Sen 21st Century’s ‘Great Critic’ of Capitalism?

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How to Learn from Conservatives

Stop talking and listen

April 18, 2018 • by Claire Potter

In February, I was able to attend the 2018 Conservative Political Action Conference, held annually in a conference center outside Washington, D.C. I live blogged two days of general sessions, interviewed people, heard numerous speakers, and was present at a Trump rally. I had the opportunity to talk to a ...