Essays Archive - Page 44 of 131

Soccer and the Enduring Nonsense of Race

Austrian Marko Arnautović’s verbal assault on North Macedonia’s Ezgjan Alioski raises questions about race and nation in Europe’s past and present

June 21, 2021 • by Alison Frank Johnson and Emily Greble

_____ Soccer star Marko Arnautović made headlines last week, less for the goal he scored in the 89th minute of his native Austria’s European Cup game against North Macedonia than for his post-goal antics. Soccer celebrations often mix joy and aggression. But it quickly became clear to television viewers that Arnautović, criticized ...

Soccer and the Enduring Nonsense of Race

Democracy

Confederate Monuments Are Not History

Like the contemporary war on “critical race theory,” these statues of the defeated prop up white supremacy in the name of a false past

June 15, 2021 • by Claire Potter and Karen L. Cox

_____ It seemed as though monuments were suddenly in the news during Donald Trump’s presidency, but they have always been controversial. Monuments to the Confederacy were contested by African American citizens as soon as they appeared after 1865. Black citizens understood these monuments for what they were: a rallying point for ...

Politics

How ‘The Squad’ Has Caved to Corporate Power

People who want structural change in the U.S. will have to develop new channels and networks to overcome the established system

June 15, 2021 • by Leonard C. Goodman

_____ Just a few years ago, Democratic voters elected a group of progressives who promised to go to Washington, D.C., and start a political revolution. Led by Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (AOC) of New York, the “Squad” promised to take on the corporate wing of the Democratic Party and fight for programs that ...

How ‘The Squad’ Has Caved to Corporate Power

Uncategorized

Slavery Made Economic Thinking Possible

An excerpt from “Reckoning with Slavery: Gender, Kinship, and Capitalism in the Early Black Atlantic”

June 14, 2021 • by Jennifer L. Morgan

_____ In the 1640s, as a child, Elizabeth Keye found herself misidentified on an estate in Virginia. A white boy named John Keye called her “Black Besse.” Overhearing it, the overseer’s wife “checked him and said[,] Sirra you must call her Sister for shee is your Sister,” whereupon “the said John Keye ...

Politics

Democrats and Anti-Trump Conservatives Must Join Forces to Defend Democracy

But the wounds of the Reagan and Bush years have created a stark barrier to cooperation across ideological lines

June 14, 2021 • by Adam Littlestone-Luria

_____ When Mitt Romney voted to convict then-President Trump in his 2020 impeachment trial, he stepped forward as an icon of truth in a party increasingly committed to lies. Many liberals felt a keen and unexpected thrill, watching Romney, the face of the 2012 Republican Party hold back tears as he ...

Democrats and Anti-Trump Conservatives Must Join Forces to Defend Democracy

Columnists

In Defense of Democracy

From Israel to Peru, there are lots of moving pieces in the world right now

June 14, 2021 • by Heather Cox Richardson

_____ President Joe Biden is currently in England, participating in a meeting of the G7, an informal group of wealthy democracies including Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, the United Kingdom, and the United States. The participants have issued a statement reinforcing their shared commitment to “democracy, freedom, equality, the rule of ...

Columnists

How the Press Corps Severs Public Debate from the Constraints of History, Creating Space for Real Harm

To illustrate, let me draw your attention to a local story

June 14, 2021 • by John Stoehr

_____ It’s a pain in the ass, but if you dig down deep enough and for long enough, you’ll probably find at the root of any mainstream debate over “culture war” issues some kind of misrepresentation, distortion, falsehood, or lie. So much of what counts as “debate” begins and ends with ...

How the Press Corps Severs Public Debate from the Constraints of History, Creating Space for Real Harm

Columnists

A Shocking Win in Texas

One of the worst corporate boondoggle programs in the country met its end

June 14, 2021 • by Pat Garofalo

_____ The Texas legislature earned a lot of pixels in the political press recently for the quick rise and sudden demise of a bill full of voting restrictions, which was only defeated thanks to Democrats in the statehouse literally walking out in order to run out the clock on the state’s ...

Columnists

Why Isn’t Joe Manchin For the People?

Manchin appears to be blaming the person calling the fire department, rather than the arsonist, and then saying the firefighters need to work with the guys holding the gasoline cans and matches

June 8, 2021 • by Heather Cox Richardson

_____ Complaining that “the fundamental right to vote has itself become overtly politicized,” Senator Joe Manchin (D-WV) published an op-ed in the Charleston Gazette-Mail yesterday saying that he would vote against S1, the For the People Act, arguing that protecting the right to vote should “never be done in a partisan ...

Science & Technology

The Covid Lab-Leak Debate Is Destructive

We don’t need to know the origins of Covid-19 to know how pandemics start—we need to know how to contain them and why our natural world is now more lethal

June 8, 2021 • by John Ehrenreich

_____ Was the coronavirus transmitted from wild animals to humans, or was it accidentally leaked from a lab? Whatever the answer, the spirited debate over the origins of the disease is a dangerous distraction from the serious discussion we need to have: how to prevent repeats of the Covid-19 pandemic. For most ...

The Covid Lab-Leak Debate Is Destructive

Columnists

The Business PACs Are Back in Business

Surprise! One-party rule might be profitable

June 8, 2021 • by John Stoehr

_____ Roll Call reported political action committees (PACs) have restarted making contributions to members of the United States Congress. This includes the 147 Republicans who voted against certifying Electoral College votes after the militant storming of the United States Capitol. Cash to both parties mostly stopped in the weeks after the ...

Science & Technology

The Story of the Sputnik V Vaccine

Vaccine nationalism and Cold War tropes abound

June 8, 2021 • by Marek Eby

_____ A distinct time-warp quality characterizes western reactions to Russia’s Sputnik V vaccine. The international reception of the jab harkens back to the rhetoric of the Cold War, despite the fact that the COVID-19 pandemic permeates every aspect of contemporary life. But some knowledge of Russia’s past can lend nuance to ...

Essays

Soccer and the Enduring Nonsense of Race

Austrian Marko Arnautović’s verbal assault on North Macedonia’s Ezgjan Alioski raises questions about race and nation in Europe’s past and present

Confederate Monuments Are Not History

Like the contemporary war on “critical race theory,” these statues of the defeated prop up white supremacy in the name of a false past

How ‘The Squad’ Has Caved to Corporate Power

People who want structural change in the U.S. will have to develop new channels and networks to overcome the established system

Slavery Made Economic Thinking Possible

An excerpt from “Reckoning with Slavery: Gender, Kinship, and Capitalism in the Early Black Atlantic”

Democrats and Anti-Trump Conservatives Must Join Forces to Defend Democracy

But the wounds of the Reagan and Bush years have created a stark barrier to cooperation across ideological lines

In Defense of Democracy

From Israel to Peru, there are lots of moving pieces in the world right now

How the Press Corps Severs Public Debate from the Constraints of History, Creating Space for Real Harm

To illustrate, let me draw your attention to a local story

A Shocking Win in Texas

One of the worst corporate boondoggle programs in the country met its end

Why Isn’t Joe Manchin For the People?

Manchin appears to be blaming the person calling the fire department, rather than the arsonist, and then saying the firefighters need to work with the guys holding the gasoline cans and matches

The Covid Lab-Leak Debate Is Destructive

We don’t need to know the origins of Covid-19 to know how pandemics start—we need to know how to contain them and why our natural world is now more lethal

The Business PACs Are Back in Business

Surprise! One-party rule might be profitable

The Story of the Sputnik V Vaccine

Vaccine nationalism and Cold War tropes abound

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