By Tom Motko The Contest I wake up each morning to wrestle with the Beast. The Beast lives inside me and refuses to die. I’ve managed to weaken and sedate the Beast over the almost 65 years of my life, but the Beast never dies. Whenever I think the Beast dead, a claw pierces my heart and I know…
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By Chelsea Whitlow Shay In the 1980s, the second wave of feminisms was winding down and, while many gains for women had been made, young girls still had to adhere to a strict gender stereotype. Most young girls were given Cabbage Patch Kids, Strawberry Short Cake and Rainbow Bright to play with; all replicating the care-taking role for girls.
By Joseph Orosco In Winter of 2014, I taught a seminar on the political philosophy of Martin Luther King, Jr. The class takes a historical view of King’s work, tracing his thinking from the period of the Montgomery Bus Boycott until his final works dealing with the Vietnam War and the Poor People’s March. I asked students, at the…
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By Mark Naison When I read the statement from 19 Civil Rights organizations supporting universal testing in the nation’s public schools, I couldn’t help but recall a time in American History when an African American educator named Booker T Washington stepped forward with a plan to have character training and instruction in skilled trades supplant liberal arts education in…
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By Phoenix Calida Becoming increasingly uncomfortable with the framing of these “free speech” arguments. Free speech doesn’t include hate speech, and it doesn’t mean no consequences for words we choose to use.
By Chris Crass Martin Luther King, Jr. day is a celebration, honoring of, and re-commitment to Black Freedom struggle.
By Joseph Orosco This “heat map” shows the enormous use of the hashtag #jesuischarlie since Wednesday’s horrific attack by Al Qaeda in Yemen militants.
By Amy Petty This needs to be said. Women and girls do not use abortion as birth control. They don’t. Yes, yes, I know, every woman and her dog personally knows That Girl/Woman who does. Sorry, I don’t believe you. Even if you’re a friend, I just don’t believe you.
By Mark Naison Call me sentimental, but I long for the days when police officers would serve as volunteer coaches and community workers in poor and working class neighborhoods and get to know the young people there in a different capacity than as would be law breakers and “perps.”
By William J. Jackson I haven’t had a lot to say about Iggy Azalea because I’m not skilled in communicating on the topic of cultural appropriation. I do, however, see plenty of folks who are getting that message out and shared around quite well.
By Chris Crass Now that the NYPD slow down is further exposing how broken windows theory is both about generating city revenue from the poorest communities and isn’t necessary, the next step is massive lay offs of police to begin balancing out from the years of massive expansion of policing in NYC.