The Sociopathic President

By Alexander N. Riccio

On September 23rd, the United Nations hosted a climate summit in New York that brought together political leaders from 125 nations including U.S. President Barak Obama. The event was intended to highlight the realities of an existential crisis to the human species, but our president made it a moment to reveal his sociopathic dismissal of life instead. Continue reading “The Sociopathic President”

Why I Won’t Discourage My Students from Becoming Teachers

 

By Mark Naison

Every day, I get personal messages from teachers describing how their jobs have been turned nightmarish by tests, assessments, scripting and micromanagement and abusive treatment by administrators. Continue reading “Why I Won’t Discourage My Students from Becoming Teachers”

Justice for John Crawford: Treating Black Men as Human Beings and Not as Animals

By Chris Crass

While white people in open carry states walk around with real guns, John Crawford, a Black man, is murdered by cops for holding a toy gun in Walmart, which he picked up off the shelf. The white man who called the police has since admitted that he lied about Crawford threatening people with the gun. This video footage is damning. Where are the outcries from the NRA and all the gun rights people about this murder? Continue reading “Justice for John Crawford: Treating Black Men as Human Beings and Not as Animals”

Immigrants and the Global City

By Mark Naison

The first wave of anti-immigrant hysteria in the US took place before the Civil War and was directed at Irish Catholic immigrants. It led to the formation of the Know Nothing Party and also sparked mob attacks on Catholic institutions in many northern cities

Continue reading “Immigrants and the Global City”

Poverty and Eating Well: It’s Not So Easy

 

By Phoenix Calida

I’ve always hated the food shamers.
The people who think it’s easy for a family in poverty to eat healthy/vegan/vegetarian. The articles that talk about poor people food and then showcase recipes actual poor people can never afford. 

Continue reading “Poverty and Eating Well: It’s Not So Easy”

Are Public Schools Focal Points of Failure In a Successful Society?

 

By Mark Naison

 

Many critics of our public schools imply that public education is an ugly center of failure in a largely successful society. However, singling out public schools for failure relative to other spheres of America economic and social life, such as our banking system, housing market, and medical system does not hold up on close scrutiny. Continue reading “Are Public Schools Focal Points of Failure In a Successful Society?”

Learning from June: New Self-Love and Respect

 

By Chris Crass

“I am a feminist, and what that means to me is much the same as the meaning of the fact that I am Black: it means that I must undertake to love myself and to respect myself as though my very life depends upon self-love and self-respect.” 
– June Jordan 
Continue reading “Learning from June: New Self-Love and Respect”

Football, Violence, and the Language of Male Domination

 

By Mark Naison

Some of the best times of my youth and well into my 20’s took place on a football field. Like many young men who played the game, I needed an outlet for the violence inside me. An outlet that would bring me respect, camaraderie and the friendship of other men, a friendship that crossed racial and cultural barriers more than almost any other activity I was involved in. But though the game required skill and athletic ability,it was still about violence. and my aptitude for it for it derived from the violence implanted in me by parental beatings and scores of childhood fights. Continue reading “Football, Violence, and the Language of Male Domination”