Tikkun Daily Blog Archive (https://www.tikkun.org/tikkundaily/category/culture/page/79/)
Posts about culture, the arts, the media, book reviews, movies etc.
Whenever I shift the language in my mind from personal growth to personal liberation I feel a difference, the very language freeing me from complicity with a system I believe to be ultimately destructive to all.
There have been many threads of coverage and commentary surrounding the March on Washington’s 50th anniversary, and one of them is naturally about nonviolence: the nation’s leadership had assumed that the march would turn violent, but August 28, 1963, turned out to be one of the most notably peaceful days in the history of the District of Columbia. Still, the nonviolent character of the movement that the march defined is being questioned. There has been some interesting historical revisionism surrounding Rosa Parks and other civil rights figures who, unlike Martin Luther King, were less-than devoted to nonviolence as an abiding moral principle. (For my take on that, go here.) And now comes a book that, among other provocations, makes the case that King’s struggle was arguably a violent one. The author is Benjamin Ginsberg, and his forthcoming title is The Value of Violence (Prometheus Books).
Miki’s intentions weren’t to oppress, but her black friend told her, a white woman, that that was the effect. “In earlier years I was still consumed by having my own innocence seen, and couldn’t make sufficient room for absorbing and mourning the effects of my actions, regardless of my intentions.”
Elysium is the latest in a series of American productions that show how the Information Age has become the Age of Appropriation, one in which ideas and stories exist side by side for the borrowing, the taking, and ultimately, the mixing. What it also shows is that after almost a century of imitating the West, the tables are indeed turning and Hollywood is increasingly looking east.
A Dream Detained
(after Langston Hughes)
For the Dream Defenders, occupying the Florida state capitol for Trayvon Martin and racial justice
And the #Dream9 immigrant activists, who were detained at the border and won their freedom
what happens to a dream detained? does it wilt like a rose
in the Arizona sun? does it sink into the ocean
as water fills its lungs? or does it fight to come home,
cross borders and spread hope
until it has won? this is not a weak dream
a beach margarita dream
a suburban house and two car garage dream
this is an American dream
call it Aztlán
call it the hood
call it the walled-off ghetto
of Beverly Hills
we call it home
so bring them home
bring our youth back to us
safe and breathing
with a bag of Skittles and a smile
I have a dream
that one day Martin Luther King
will not be misquoted
by Bill O’Reilly on national TV
fake colorblind fallacies
affirming misplaced actions
tell me, what is so conservative
about killing a young black boy
walking home to watch
the all-star game with his dad?
Pope Francis has been placing a great deal of emphasis on mercy and compassion. Will he also emphasize that Jews and people of other faiths, or no faith, can be just as merciful and compassionate as Christians?
In the weeks after the George Zimmerman verdict, I have appreciated much of the discussion. But some people’s comments have given me pause, and left me unsure whether these commenters truly understand the definition of Racism. Sadly, Racism, Prejudice, Discrimination, and Bigotry seem to be used a great deal as though they are interchangeable. These words are not interchangeable – they are not all synonyms for Racism. Racism has to contain an institutional and structural power dynamic. Perhaps a bit of a history lesson might be useful here.
It is stunning to realize how dismal “normal” ways of interacting are within broadcast news media – if the goal is to cultivate a meaningful and mutually respectful dialogue. Quite simply, listening and responding isn’t the media’s goal. Instead, the participants are collecting ammunition so that, as soon as the other person stops talking – or sooner, since interruptions are chronic – they can fire back, reiterating why they are right and he or she is wrong. What would happen if CNN, CBS, and other news outlets took meaningful steps to buck the system? Here are a few possibilities.
I suddenly understood what it means to be powerful in a new and different way that tied it to the present moment.
Taien Ng-Chan is a writer and multidisciplinary artist living in Montréal, Québec. Her work as an artist and scholar has taken her into territory that challenges how governments, institutions and societies ought to be.