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Refueling, Reading, Learning

I’m taking the week off of serious blogging, or at least I’m trying to, mainly by escaping into books. I tend to read books in bunches, often matching fiction and non-fiction covering related subject matter. This week’s reading list is no exception.

Among my books is a collection of poetry by Robinson Jeffers. I picked up the collection at the recommendation of John O’Neal, a brilliant playwright of the Civil Rights Movement and one of the architects of the historic Freedom Schools. He seduced me into reading Jeffers by describing poems written about Tor House and Hawk Tower… Read more “Refueling, Reading, Learning”

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The Great Migration of the 21st Century

Ta-Nehisi Coates published an article this week that speaks to an idea I’ve been pondering lately. After finishing Isabel Wilkerson’s The Warmth of Other Suns, a brilliant historical account of the Great Migration of African Americans out of the South and into Northern and Western cities in the early through mid-late twentieth century, Coates wrote,

…What becomes clear by the end of Wilkerson’s book is that America’s response to the Great Migration was to enact a one-sided social contract. America says to its citizens, “Play by the rules, and you will enjoy the right to compete.” The black migrants did … Read more “The Great Migration of the 21st Century”

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What’s Wrong with Inclusion? The Case for Radicalism

Radical (adj.):

1. of, relating to, or proceeding from a root.

2: of or relating to the origin : fundamental.

3: marked by a considerable departure from the usual or traditional.

A few days ago, I made the argument that attacks against LGBT rights, including the right to marry, rely on a template that is as much about racism as homophobia. We should all get behind the LGBT agenda in order to strengthen democratic rights for everyone.

Having said that, however, I do have a bone to pick with pundits and political strategists who’ve been popularizing the meme that LGBT … Read more “What’s Wrong with Inclusion? The Case for Radicalism”

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A Case for Solidarity: Same Sex Marriage and the Fight for Civil Rights

The president’s support for LGBT rights, especially the oblique reference to marriage equality in his inaugural address got me thinking about the last time his “evolution” on the issue of LGBT rights got him talking about same sex marriage. On that other historic occasion, the right reacted as it always has, trying to draw a line around civil rights that excludes LGBT people.

RNC chair Reince Priebus summed things up for the opposition saying,

“I don’t think it’s a matter of civil rights. I think it’s just a matter of whether or not we’re going to adhere to something that’s … Read more “A Case for Solidarity: Same Sex Marriage and the Fight for Civil Rights”

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White Guys With Guns

All this talk lately about stockpiles of weapons and images of white men shouting at cameras about the 2nd amendment has gotten me thinking about the 1980s. I don’t mean the 1980s writ large, as in the last time that vigilante white supremacists looked like they might grow into a significant movement. I mean my 1980s, the years during which I was no longer a child but, in so many ways, not yet  an adult.

Underneath all the shouting about guns on the daily news, I sense a palpable fear of the possibility of facing what many perceive to be … Read more “White Guys With Guns”

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Book Review: To Barbara Kingsolver and Julie Otsuka After Reading You

As a nerdy gay boy growing up in a rural, working class town in the 60’s, novels were my escape route. Consider the wonder of a kid destined for a life as a laborer upon first encountering Donald J. Sobol’s Encyclopedia Brown children’s stories. Encyclopedia Brown is the hero because he’s a thinker! It opened a window on the world in a wall I didn’t even know existed.

Today, I still read, and Barbara Kingsolver is one of my favorite literary figures. Not only is she a very good writer, she’s also the founder of the PEN/Bellwether Prize for … Read more “Book Review: To Barbara Kingsolver and Julie Otsuka After Reading You”

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Django In Chains: Why Revenge Is Just For The Movies

The controversy regarding Quentin Tarantino’s Django Unchained is all over the internet. From the fight between Tarantino and Spike Lee, who refuses to see the movie because he says it’s sure to be “disrespectful of my ancestors,” to criticism of the character Broomhilda, who many say is less an attempt at a depiction of a person than a foil driving the action among the male characters.

I saw the movie. I generally seek out rather than avoid media that draws this kind of controversy because I want to know what all the fuss is about. When it comes to confrontations … Read more “Django In Chains: Why Revenge Is Just For The Movies”

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The Bigotry Factor: O’Reilly and the Manipulation of the Model Minority Myth

I generally avoid commenting on the racism and ignorance of Bill O’Reilly because my guess is that he just plays a bigot to get attention. It’s an ugly ploy. Just check out the video clip from his show I embedded below. While he rants about Asian American liberalism in Hawai’i, the footage that runs of a Waikiki street scene mainly features women in tight fitting clothes, shot from behind. It’s the kind of thing intended to make you look.

Racism for money is the worst kind of bigotry. It makes O’Reilly a tempting target, but I just don’t like to … Read more “The Bigotry Factor: O’Reilly and the Manipulation of the Model Minority Myth”

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Racism and Sexism Go Hand in Hand in Opposition to VAWA Reauthorization

In spite of being passed by a super majority of the Senate, the Republican dominated House of Representatives allowed the Violence Against Women Act (VAWA) to expire for the first time since 1994. The Act supports investigating and prosecuting violence against women. It also imposed automatic and mandatory restitution on those convicted, and allows survivors to seek civil redress in cases where prosecutors won’t take action. The expiration of the Act threatens all of this, making women more vulnerable to domestic violence, stalking, and sexual assault.

This is probably not news to you.

It’s probably also not news to you … Read more “Racism and Sexism Go Hand in Hand in Opposition to VAWA Reauthorization”

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Understanding Affirmative Action: Part 2

With apologies for the lateness of this post, I’m taking up part 2 of my attempt to make some sense of the affirmative action debate and the recent spate of accusations (often, though not exclusively, by racial conservatives like Charles Murray), that the Ivies are using anti-Asian quotas.

My main concern about this argument over quotas is that conservatives have jumped on this bandwagon to attack race conscious school admissions and some Asian Americans are falling it. But, as I pointed out in my last post, there’s a long history of struggle over race conscious college admissions in the … Read more “Understanding Affirmative Action: Part 2”