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The Dumb Prof Considers Intersectionality in the Age of Trump

 Introduction: the dumb prof takes on intersectionality

Among decent, intelligent, and respectable human beings in the United States and around the world, the occupation of Donald Trump of the American presidency is the shock that never ends. Much of this has to do with how vulgar the man is. The New York Times has religiously kept a list of the 329 (and counting) ‘people, places, and things’ that Trump has insulted since his time as a presidential candidate.[1] This list includes a diverse range of news media, nation-states, international organizations, and governmental agencies, as well as women, peoples-of-color, indigenous … Read more “The Dumb Prof Considers Intersectionality in the Age of Trump”

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A White Gay Male Faction of White Nationalism is Rising and No, That’s Not a Joke

Donna Minkowitz writes in Slate about the emergence of a white gay male alt-right/white nationalist/neo-Nazi front using camp and sex to attract recruits. As counter-intuitive as the idea of a gay white nationalist movement may be, this development is very dangerous, making the article, IMO, a must-read for all who are fearful of white nationalism.

And, by the way, the article also includes a quote from me calling for us to use compassion as a wedge to separate the leadership of this new vector of racism and male supremacy from their potential base of support. That call, I’m guessing, requires … Read more “A White Gay Male Faction of White Nationalism is Rising and No, That’s Not a Joke”

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Hearts open, fists up: the color line

Ella Baker

I was asked to share the following mashup of an essay titled “The Endurance of the Color Line” published in the journal Othering & Belonging: Expanding the Circle of Human Concern and remarks I gave as part of a public talk called “Hearts Open, Fists Up” at Central Washington University in Ellensburg, WA. I would love to hear your thoughts in the comments.

Good afternoon. How are you? Maybe it’s better to ask, are you struggling well?

This is a time of deep uncertainty, of questioning assumptions. But in many ways, it has always been that time, hasn’t it? Who … Read more “Hearts open, fists up: the color line”

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100+ Asian American & Pacific Islander Organizations Pledge to Resist Repression Under Trump Administration

Credit: Reader-submitted photos from the Women's March on Washington and satellite marches across the United States, at http://blog.angryasianman.com/

As Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders, We Will Resist

We stand at a critical juncture in world history. The election of Donald Trump as president of the United States represents a direct threat to millions of people’s safety and to the health of the planet. As Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders (AAPIs) committed to equality, inclusion, and justice, we pledge to resist any efforts by President-Elect Trump’s administration to target and exploit communities, to strip people of their fundamental rights and access to essential services, and to use rhetoric and policies that divide the American people and endanger the world.… Read more “100+ Asian American & Pacific Islander Organizations Pledge to Resist Repression Under Trump Administration”

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The Anti-Fascist Scouting Report: What The Left Can Learn From the Right

The leadership of the Christian Right has conjured what amounts to a resurrection of a wide array of threat vectors targeting LGBTQ people. They accomplished this by backing Trump’s candidacy and leading, by some accounts, more than 80% of white, self-identified evangelical voters to back him in the election. By allying themselves with Trump, evangelical right wing leaders have won a place at the table of the Trump regime and, seemingly overnight, gains of the LGBTQ movement we thought of as secure signposts of progressive change are in peril.

The cutting edge of Trump’s offensive against civil and human rights … Read more “The Anti-Fascist Scouting Report: What The Left Can Learn From the Right”

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Anti-Black Racism is Still the Fulcrum of White Supremacy

In a highly globalized society, with mass migration driving rapid change in the racial demography, both of the world and of the U.S., racial attacks and racism itself have grown much more complex, making last century understandings of the racial context less useful or even misleading. Whiteness, however, is still at the center of American culture, even as its power as a normative force is slowly eroding while it simultaneously becomes less invisible in the ways it exercises power.

Even with all of these changes, I continue to view anti-black racism as the nut of American racism. Poor black people … Read more “Anti-Black Racism is Still the Fulcrum of White Supremacy”

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Five Things LGBTQ People Can Teach Us About Survival in Trump’s America

Anti-democratic and authoritarian movements aren’t just about bigotry, but they most definitely drive down avenues of race and gender. This election showed us that with absolute sparkling clarity.

It’s time for all of us to realize that addressing sexism and racism is a we thing, not a me for you thing. And when it comes to that, LGBTQ people, especially LGBTQ people of color, have something to teach us.

Here are five of those lessons:

Number One: Visibility matters. Come out!

By answering the call to come out of the closet, LGBTQ people exploded homophobic norms. We staged a … Read more “Five Things LGBTQ People Can Teach Us About Survival in Trump’s America”

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The Next Wave: Getting Ready For Trump’s America

I’ve decided that for me, this is a time to leave nothing potentially useful unexposed, and to stop hiding behind liberalism. I mean, if this election showed us anything, liberalism is no longer the shield it used to be in the war against the political right wing. So, I figure, why bother lugging it around?

In that spirit, here’s something that started out as an email discussion with a few progressive grassroots political leaders in the Northwest. ​I wrote it in a few minutes completely on the fly before taking a couple of hours to clean it up and flesh … Read more “The Next Wave: Getting Ready For Trump’s America”

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Hearts open, fists up

I won’t lie. On Tuesday night as Donald Trump’s path to the presidency became ever clearer, I drank a bunch of bourbon, felt my ribcage tighten and my heart break. It was hard to breathe. I texted people furiously asking what we could push Obama to do in his final days in office. How would we keep people safe? Trans people, Black people, Muslims and Sikhs, undocumented people, people with criminal records, queer young people… people I love. What obstacles could we throw in Trump’s way before he takes office?

I woke up the next morning and heard from loved … Read more “Hearts open, fists up”

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Is Hillary Clinton the Anti-Christ? Only if You Believe in Demons

I’ve been seeing Facebook posts by Leftists getting the vote out for Hillary Clinton popping up. The first think I thought of as I saw them was, wow, that’s brave. Then it occurred to me that my thinking that says everything about this time in our politics. How the hell did we get to the point where committed, true-believer Left leaders making an appeal against what might be fascism, and on Facebook, a social media platform in which you “friend” people, is brave?

Anti-Clinton forces on the Left have made a lot of important points we should remember when … Read more “Is Hillary Clinton the Anti-Christ? Only if You Believe in Demons”