Politics & Society

Ferguson Shows Failed US Policy and the Black-White Housing Gap

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On the surface, the unrest in Ferguson, Mo., was about local police using deadly force on an unarmed young man. But on a deeper level, it reflected the increasing poverty and economic decline that affects ethnic communities all over America. Despite rosy reports in the media about the end of the national foreclosure crisis and the recession that followed, all is not well in our inner cities and suburbs with largely minority populations, like Ferguson. The foreclosure crisis was hard on many Americans, but it was a disaster for communities of color, including the citizens of Ferguson.

Education

My Research Is My Therapy

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Questions about internalized oppression have been the backbone of Warren Blumenfeld research, and even before he came to consciousness of this fact, his research was his therapy, for it had challenged and continually challenges him to change and to grow.

General News

It's AIPAC's War Now

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Watch the television coverage. For three weeks the killing of children and other innocents in Gaza at the hands of the Israeli military has dominated the news. But it makes no difference to the United States government which can stop the slaughter with a few words. (Five of those words are “your $3.5 billion aid package.)

Inter-Culturalism

Forceful Penetration as Terror Tactic in Immigration Debate

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Rather than characterizing immigration and migration issues as humanitarian concerns, the anti-immigration activists connect the narratives representing immigrants and migrants to our borders to the language of disease, crime, drugs, alien and lower forms of culture and life, of invading hoards, of barbarians at the gates who if allowed to enter will destroy the glorious civilization we have established among the lesser nations of the Earth.

Inter-Culturalism

Front Door, Back Door, Economic Chasm: Not a PBS Series

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A luxury condominium complex in New York City’s Upper West Side plans to contain a door for use by wealthy residents only, and a separate door for lower-income tenants. What we are witnessing is a postmodern version of the high-walled city center of Medieval times protecting the nobility from peasants and marauding bands, and the 20th-century gated communities meant to keep out thieves and bandits. These hermetically-sealed containers, nonetheless, eventually imprison us all.

Culture

…Then I Am a Proud Socialist!

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For decades, Right-wing individuals and groups have thrown the term “socialist” in the face of their opponents as a means of discrediting their character, political ideas, policies and stances and swaying the electorate towards a conservative agenda. But some of the most successful economies combine elements of Capitalism with Socialism to create greater degrees of equity and lesser disparities between the rich, the poor, and those on the continuum in between.

Politics & Society

What It Would Take to Make America a Democracy—Reflections for July Fourth

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As the Fourth of July is celebrated across the United States – and as economic reports, our ballooning prison system, and a barrage of climatological studies, among other pieces of evidence, lead ever more people to consider whether our collective way of life is in need of a fundamental transformation – an examination of the ostensible objects of our celebration (independence and democracy) seems in order.

Politics & Society

Plutocrats and Plebeians

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A review and expansion on the ideas in Nick Hanauer’s essay, “The Pitchforks Are Coming…For Us Plutocrats,” which reflects the growing recognition that the super-rich often have difficulty getting a grip on real-life calculations in the lower ranges.

art

Pro Bono Blues

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The way work is valued is so distorted by now that the things we most need are the ones we are most reluctant to pay for. But what happens when this way of seeing work takes hold in the minds of those who could contribute to our collective stock of beauty and meaning?