Culture
RIP Vincent Harding: A Light Shines in the Darkness
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Dr. Vincent Harding, great keeper of the Southern Freedom Movement flame, died yesterday, May 19th, 2014. He was 82 years old.
Culture
California's 'Health for All' Bill Moves Forward
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The measure would establish a state-run exchange for undocumented immigrants earning $15,000 or less a year per person to purchase health care. It would also given them access to the state-funded-only Medi-Cal program.
Politics & Society
A Reflection on Memorial Day
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On Memorial Day, as we pause in remembrance of those who have died in service in the U.S. military, I hope we also remember as well the activists dedicated to preventing wars and the individuals of conscience who refuse to give over their minds, their souls, and their bodies to armed conflict.
art
Racism Stunts Your Growth
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A new study correlates racism with reduced creative capacity. Those holding strong prejudices, such as beliefs that inferiority is an essential quality of other races, rely on “rigid, categorical thinking” that “might actually cause people to become unimaginative.” I could have told them that. Back in the 80s, I was involved in a consulting project with the South Carolina Arts Commission.The brief was to address “burnout” in small-town arts organizers, who’d tended to lose heart and retreat despite the state agency’s willingness to provide more than a modicum of funding and assistance. But “burnout” turned out to be a euphemism for banging one’s head against entrenched and often unacknowledged racism.
General News
Remembering 9/11: Is There a Right Way?
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Last week, the famed 9/11 memorial museum opened with a host of items salvaged from that fateful day in American history. About the same time, Pamela Geller’s American Freedom Defense Initiative burst onto our collective consciousness by once again using the image of the burning twin towers on Washington, D.C. buses to malign an entire religion. It seems that almost thirteen years after the terrorist attacks of 9/11, we still have an antagonistic, feral response to this defining moment in modern history. Both events have spurred protests, but thankfully not just by Muslims. Although the 9/11 memorial museum itself has remained out of controversy’s way, the accompanying seven-minute film called “The Rise of Al-Qaeda” is fast becoming a cause for concern for many New Yorkers regardless of religion. Rather than Muslims screaming themselves hoarse about Islamophobia to no avail, the film is being protested by an interfaith group as one that used specifically Islamic terminology in a way that many viewers may associate Islam with terrorism. While no-one is disputing the religion of the terrorists involved in 9/11, many feel that more should be done to differentiate between Islam as an ideology and the extremist interpretations of some Muslim groups.
Culture
The Blind Alley of J Street and Liberal American Zionism
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For several years, the J Street leadership has worked hard to create a palatable alternative to hard-line versions of what it means to be pro-Israel. But this spring, J Street’s leaders could not get the seal of approval they craved from the organized American Jewish establishment, which apparently sees little need for Zionism to acquire a more humane face.
General News
John Legend, Anthony Bourdain & Shifting Use of the 'P' Word in America
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Growing up, I rarely heard the ‘P’ word uttered in my suburban Atlanta community, and not once did I hear it spoken in my Hebrew school at our family’s conservative synagogue, where teachers spoke of “them” in quick, hushed tones. And whenever the ‘P’ word was mentioned, whether on CNN or ABC News, it was always accompanied by images of bloodied streets, of people who looked like me grieving, of extremists pointing guns toward the heavens. The message growing up in America, and in the American Jewish community, was clear: Palestinians were a people so evil as to not be named, unless appropriately malevolent images befitting such a people could be simultaneously conjured. Palestinians were not human, their existence inhumane. This is what I was taught.
Culture
He’s “Assertive,” She’s “Bossy”: The Double-Standard Language of Gender
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Language itself often reinforces sexist stereotypes. Indeed, the language we use expresses the way we experience the world around us, and the words people use in talking about the sexes reveal social attitudes that tend to maintain sexist behaviors.
Culture
Moving Away from Nationalism and Towards Liberation
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Last week the Anti-Defamation League came out with a report on anti-semitism conducted in 100 different countries, calling it “The largest survey ever of anti-semitic attitudes.” The study found that the most wide held belief is that Jews are more loyal to Israel than to the countries in which they live.
Culture
Getting Serious About the Weather
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Last week, President Obama called on weathercasters to emphasize that climate change is “a problem that is affecting Americans right now.” Nobody is better positioned to teach the public about human-made climate change than our nightly weather reporters.