On "Swastika Night," Segregation, and Self-Regard
I've been thinking a lot recently about this book, Swastika Night, by Katherine Burdekin, which I originally read a couple of years ago.
Inequality as Pre-existing Condition
I've been thinking recently about Trump's obvious difficulty with the democratic process.
Some Things You Might Not Know About Refugees and Asylum Seekers
I did a data visualization project on refugees and asylum seekers last year (I will not display it here because the visualization aspect was not great), and in the process I learned that I had a lot of misconceptions about what those terms mean and how the system operates.
It's all about the State: But Not in the Way You Think
I just finished reading a pretty wild book, Black Earth: The Holocaust as History and Warning, by Timothy Snyder.
Trump Suddenly Very Worried about Safety of Women and LGBTQ People: Something the Media Really Isn't Discussing
I find this fascinating (although of course also horrifying), and I haven't seen anyone on any of the mainstream media outlets paying attention to it.
The Warming-Pan Scandal; or, Fake News May Be Fake, but It Ain't New
You probably already know about the Warming Pan Scandal if you either a-are British, b-study British history, or c-like BBC documentaries. I fall into category C.
It's Beginning to Look a Lot Like Capitalism...
I just went to Barnes and Nobles to pick up last minute Christmas presents for my girlfriend (I had something already--I didn't totally forget, just needed one more thing). It's crowded today, as I guess you might expect.
Dangerous Orthodoxies: Post-Election Cautions
Hey, y'all. It's been a while since I wrote anything here.
On the History of the Word "Genocide"
For the past few days I've been meaning to sit down and write about the current fractious triangle between Black Lives Matter, progressive Jews, and the word "genocide." But last night I sat down to do some research, and it turns out I don't have to write much of anything at all--someone eminently m
Another Look: Why HB2 is bad for you even if you're not trans
With all the insanity right now surrounding the "North Carolina bathroom bill," especially given McCrory's decision to wait until after 5 pm on the day of the federal deadline and then decide to sue the federal government, it seems like a good time to write about what this bill does to those of us w
What it Means to be Part of the Establishment: Hillary is a Product of Her Environment
For all 5 of you (and that's an optimistic estimate!) who are still following this blog, I don't want to leave anyone with the impression that I think Hillary is a bad person. I don't. I do, however, think she's a product of her own bubble, as we all are.
"Just Shut Up and Vote:" Pragmatism, Tone, and the Silencing of the
American Left
So I've been following with interest, as I'm sure other Bernie supporters have, the brou-ha-ha surrounding Hillary's campaign withholding debates based on Bernie's "tone." In particular, I've been kind of surprised at how the issue of gender is playing out in online discussions--I mean, I expected t
To Other Progressives: Stop Rolling Over Before It's Over!!
I honestly have never thought of this blog as any kind of straight-up political blog, and I still don't want it to be that way permanently, but I am once again moved by the floating Zeitgeist on Facebook to say something to other progressives about the election.
On Bernie Sanders' Jewishness: He's Not Really Hiding It
So apparently in the recent Democratic debate, Bernie Sanders was asked why he never talks about being Jewish. According to the Huffington Post, this is what he said:
I am very proud to be Jewish.
On the Media Response to the Oregon Standoff: Or Why it's Not Progressive to Perpetuate False Consciousness
I know I am overdue for a post here to talk about how race and class come to intersect--I put it off not because I don't think it's important, but because I think it is important, and I've been having a hard time thinking about how to write about it in a way that's clearer than what's already out th
On Flint, Michigan: or, why white people misrecognize privilege
OK, so I've been reading about the water situation in Flint, and with all that there is about that incredibly unjust situation to be furious about, here's one thing that's really pissing me off about how people (white people in particular) are responding to this story.
Opening the Vacuum Packaging of the Holocaust: or, What Happened Last Time
I am a person who is often infuriated, but probably one of the things that infuriates me most is the use of mythologized history in an inaccurate way which (almost always) supports people in acting out of moral blindness.
(One of) the Real Myths of Rosa Parks
I've noticed that a lot of people on Facebook are, quite properly, acknowledging that today is the 60th anniversary of Rosa Parks sitting down on the bus as a stand against segregation.
Why the Holocaust Museum Seems Pretty Useless
I provide you here with a link to an article about how Donald Trump thinks we should treat Muslim refugees, as opposed to Christians.
Changing the Terms of the Debate
To continue from my previous post, the second thing I wanted to write about reading Communal Luxury is actually about the title.
On Darwin and Nature: or why everything you know about the world is flawed
I just finished reading a really insightful book, Communal Luxury, by Kristin Ross. It kind of blew my mind. It's about the Commune in Paris in 1871, an event about which I knew essentially nothing, and which is considered by many to have been the first genuine socialist working class uprising.
Who Can Commit Atrocities?
It is now the third week of the Israeli assault on Gaza, and I'm faced with the vastly less important fact that I've been trying to write this post for two weeks.
Who Can Be a Slave? Or Why We Need to Use the Holocaust Differently
So I've been sort of on hiatus from this blog for a few weeks, largely because I felt like I had to write about the Holocaust, and I didn't know how to start.
They All Look the Same to Me: Or, Do Jews Really Look White?
During probably my second year living and teaching in the South, I explained to my African American GED students that I had not celebrated Halloween as a child because I was Jewish.
The Return of Checking Your Privilege: Or, How Home Ownership Became Part of the American "Dream"
Not to belabor the point (or perhaps to belabor it, because I think it needs belaboring), but I have to return to the post WWII GI Bill this week, to talk about what is probably its second-most-famous part, the guarantee of veterans' home mortgages.
Check Your Privilege Part II: How the Jews (and Catholics) GotAffirmative Action
Tal Fortgang is not the only American Jew to believe that his ancestors made it on the strength of their "hard work" and "good values," although he may be the most well publicized right now. Nor is Paul Ryan the only American to believe this about his almost certainly Irish Catholic ancestors.
What Checking Your Privilege Should Mean
Since the publication of Princeton freshman Tal Fortgang's essay on checking (or not checking) his privilege last week, the internet has seen a firestorm of responses. Reading them (and the original essay) makes me heartsick. So I can't claim to have read them or digested them all.
Why Does Everything Need to be "Innovative"?
Unlike a lot of people, I don't like to listen to music very much. So, since my current job is one you do by sitting at a computer all day, I spend a lot of time looking for talk-show type things to listen to; podcasts, books on tape, whatever. Sometimes I listen to classes on iTunes U.
The American System in Garfield's Diner
I've recently been playing this game on my Kindle-it's one of those games where you have to serve all your customers before they leave the restaurant, give them the right kind of food, make money, etc. Like quite a few other "game" apps, it's free in that you don't have to pay to download it.
I've been really grappling with my students' reading difficulties recently. We've been getting more students with genuine learning disabilities (there's some evidence that as area graduation rates have gone up, dropout rates for students with disabilities have gone up too.