Race Archives - Page 18 of 33

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Monuments to Men

An Interview and Epilogue to Birthright Citizens: A History of Race and Rights in Antebellum America

August 29, 2018 • by Martha S. Jones

Martha S. Jones (MSJ): My first inspiration was the years I spent as a public interest lawyer. I represented poor people of color in lower Manhattan’s trial courts and rarely did those cases reach high courts or turn on constitutional questions. Still, I knew that my clients were fighting for fundamental ...

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BlacKkKlansman

Spike Lee’s answer to The Birth of a Nation

August 28, 2018 • by Mark Allan Williams

“Do the Right Thing.” “Jungle Fever.” “Malcolm X.” Now “BlacKkKlansman.” No maker of feature films in our time, or perhaps during any time, has placed so much of their work at the center of the social and political discourse as Spike Lee. His cinematic voice is political and his platform is ...

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A Call for International Solidarity

On the fight for immigrant and refugee justice

August 16, 2018 • by Elena Gagovska

About a month and a half ago I applied for an American tourist visa at the U.S. embassy in Skopje, Macedonia, because I plan on visiting my boyfriend there during fall break. Admittedly, I felt a little resentful of the process. Security guards with guns they weren’t going to use ...

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Science Fiction and the Angel of History

A review of, ‘Sorry to Bother You’

August 10, 2018 • by Benjamin Balthaser

"It was 100 years ago… by which I mean last Monday" Brooke Gladstone of NPR's On the Media sighed after Trump's performance in Helsinki. Whatever one thinks about our current president, Gladstone's sigh is the kind of thing one hears a lot these days, as the calamities and once-in-a-century happenings pile up ...

Science Fiction and the Angel of History

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Ask a Feminist

Sexual Harassment in the Age of #MeToo

August 8, 2018 • by Catherine A. MacKinnon and Durba Mitra

The following conversation was held over Skype on June 4, 2018. An edited transcript is below. Durba Mitra (DM): Today as part of Signs’Ask a Feminist series, I have the opportunity to speak about sexual harassment and the #MeToo movement with feminist legal scholar Catharine MacKinnon, a lawyer, writer, teacher, and activist who ...

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Justice Through Solidarity

Bernice Yeung’s In a Day’s Work

July 23, 2018 • by Eileen Boris

Bernice Yeung exposes the sexual harassment and rape endemic to isolated fields, offices, and homes. Despite poverty, undocumented status, and economic desperation, women farmworkers, janitors, and domestic workers have mustered the courage to overcome shame and speak out against abuse. Yeung chronicles their personal journeys. Nonetheless, it is easy to ...

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Agency, Order and Sport in the Age of Trump

Jim Thorpe, Jack Johnson, and the Sporting Middle Ground

July 18, 2018 • by Andrew McGregor

It is all connected. Trump’s racist law-and-order politics, his criticism of black athletes, his newfound pleasure in the pardon, and his desire to be loved. His recent pardon of early 20th-century boxer Jack Johnson, who had been convicted of violating the Mann Act, reveals a fraught and complicated history of race ...

Agency, Order and Sport in the Age of Trump

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When Democracy Wins

Residents of the small town of Springfield, Or., band together to end jail contract with ICE

July 10, 2018 • by Jewel Murphy

As a longtime ally but newly woke activist, I found myself sitting in the Springfield, Oregon, City Council chambers as they were getting ready to vote on whether to amend the city’s controversial contract to provide jail beds to ICE. First, a little bit of background. Springfield, with a population of ...

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Why Trump’s Battle with NFL Players Reveals His Racist View of Patriotism

Athletes have the right to express their political views

July 4, 2018 • by Peter Dreier

We can expect President Donald Trump to use the July 4 holiday as an occasion to whip up his political base by challenging the patriotism of anyone who disagrees with him. He’s been doing this ever since he announced he was running for president, but he’s reserved a particular brand of ...

Why Trump’s Battle with NFL Players Reveals His Racist View of Patriotism

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Summer Reading

Understanding – and Overcoming – Slavery’s Long Legacy of Inequality

July 1, 2018 • by Mindy Fullilove

Summer reading is mostly supposed to be light books that go with beaches and barbeques. I’m recommending three books that, while not light, will have the paradoxical effect of making you feel better about these difficult times! How can that be, you might ask. We are approaching the 400th anniversary of ...

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A Conversation on Get Out

Black Issues in Philosophy

June 25, 2018 • by Lewis Gordon and Derefe Kimarley Chevannes

Having recently viewed Jordan Peele’s award-winning Get Out (2017), political theorist Derefe Kimarley Chevannes was prompted to discuss the film with philosopher Lewis Gordon, whose writings include discussions of race in horror films and literature. DEREFE KIMARLEY CHEVANNES: Lewis, it’s a pleasure to have this discussion with you. As I begin, ...

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Antifa vs. Nazis: Where Has All The Violence Gone?

Despite warnings of precipitating a nascent civil war, antifascist violence has ended with the retreat of the far right

June 21, 2018 • by Mike Isaacson

Another weekend has passed with a little noted gathering of fascists away from public view and with minimal confrontation between them and antifa. On a small peninsula in Montgomery Bell Park in Tennessee, two white nationalist organizations: the American Freedom Party and the Council of Conservative Citizens, held a joint conference. Like many ...