Reparations, Leggings, and Nipsey Hussle

Past Present Episode 174

In this episode, Neil, Natalia, and Niki discuss the case for reparations, why leggings are so controversial, and the legacy of rapper Nipsey Hussle. Here are some links and references mentioned during this week’s show: Reparations for slavery have gained renewed currency among policymakers. Neil referred to Ta-Nehisi Coates’ 2014 essay, “The Case ...
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Reparations, Leggings, and Nipsey Hussle

Revisiting Ta-Nehisi Coates on White Supremacy

The Status of Hope in America

The American fear of uncertainty is one that the people living within her belly strive to terminate through pragmatism, which promises quantifiable and “progressive” results. The entire “American Dream” rests on the fundamental faith that our institutions and famous (infamous we might argue) social slogan instills into each American heart: ...
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Revisiting Ta-Nehisi Coates on White Supremacy

The Times They Are a Changin’?

The Halloween Attack in New York and the Prospects for Democracy

I hope that the global march of authoritarianism, with Donald Trump in the vanguard, is a momentary reaction that will be overwhelmed by a broad democratic front, one that rejects xenophobia, terror, irrationality and fear. But, I also know that the authoritarian turn, a radical reinvention of political culture, is ...
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Performing the Brown Man Post 11/8

The Looks of Strangers and the Gaze of Phantoms

This piece is part of the OOPS Series, "Social Interaction." I noticed him straight away. It was not the way he walked, slouched, each step an exercise in ascending and descending; like his legs were made out of the springs that vacillate bobble heads. It was not the casual style in ...
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Performing the Brown Man Post 11/8