In ‘Of Mr. Booker T. Washington And Others’ (from The Souls of Black Folk, Bedford St. Martins, 1997, pp. 68) W. E. B. DuBois writes: This triple paradox in Mr. Washington’s position is the object of criticism by two classes of colored Americans. One class is spiritually descended from Toussaint the Savior, through Gabriel, Vesey, andContinue reading “W. E. B DuBois On The Exportation Of Domestic Pathology”
Category Archives: Politics
A Strike At CUNY: The Work Yet To Be Done
Over at CUNYstruggle.org Sean M. Kennedy strikes a sharply critical note of the CUNY Professional Staff Congress’ tactics in their ongoing struggle with CUNY, New York City, and State administrations. Kennedy takes as as his starting point, the recent civil disobedience action staged last week, and on a couple of occasions, calls for a not-ersatzContinue reading “A Strike At CUNY: The Work Yet To Be Done”
Hating On The Phrase ‘All Lawyered Up’
You’ve heard it in police procedurals on the television and the big screen. I know I heard it in The Killing and The Wire. A couple of weary beat cops or detectives, battling crime on the streets, fighting the noble War on Drugs perhaps, keeping us law-abiding citizens safe from the depredations of the big,Continue reading “Hating On The Phrase ‘All Lawyered Up’”
A Day In Gaol: Protesting Andrew Cuomo’s Attack On CUNY
Yesterday I, along with many other members of the City University of New York’s faculty and staff union, the Professional Staff Congress (PSC-CUNY) participated in a civil disobedience action outside the New York governor Andrew Cuomo’s office. Across the street from us, other members held a rally; they waved signs, chanted slogans and marched. We wereContinue reading “A Day In Gaol: Protesting Andrew Cuomo’s Attack On CUNY”
Paul Ryan’s ‘Mea Culpa’ Speech: Anatomy of Political Bad Faith
It is a truth universally acknowledged that a significant subset of the demographic consisting of American liberals and progressives and centrists are among the most gullible political subjects of all: throw them a bone or two–i.e., a substantive or purely rhetorical political concession–and they’ll immediately drop previously held convictions. The visible reaction to Paul Ryan‘sContinue reading “Paul Ryan’s ‘Mea Culpa’ Speech: Anatomy of Political Bad Faith”
Karl Jaspers On The ‘Phantom’ Public
In Man In The Modern Age (Routledge, New York, 1959), Karl Jaspers writes: The term ‘masses’ is ambiguous….If we use the word ‘masses’ as a synonym for the ‘public,’ this denotes a group of persons mentally interlinked by their common reception of certain opinions, but a group vague in its limits and its stratification, though atContinue reading “Karl Jaspers On The ‘Phantom’ Public”
No Happy Endings To This Election Season
Barack Obama was elected US president in 2008. With approximately fifty-three percent of the popular vote and a 365-173 electoral college margin over his rival, John McCain. His party, the Democrats, commanded a 235-278 majority in the US House of Representatives, and a 57-41 majority in the US Senate. Despite this electoral and popular mandate,Continue reading “No Happy Endings To This Election Season”
Kathryn Schulz’s Confused Take On The Steven Avery Case
In a rather confused take on the Steven Avery case–the subject of the Netflix documentary Making a Murderer, Kathryn Schultz of the New Yorker writes: “Making a Murderer” raises serious and credible allegations of police and prosecutorial misconduct in the trials of Steven Avery and Brendan Dassey. It also implies that that misconduct was malicious.Continue reading “Kathryn Schulz’s Confused Take On The Steven Avery Case”
GK Chesterton On Conservatism’s Necessary Changes
In Orthodoxy (Image Books, 1959) G. K. Chesterton writes: Conservatism is based upon the idea that if you leave things alone you leave them as they are. But you do not. If you leave a thing alone you leave it to a torrent of changes. If you leave a white post alone it will soon beContinue reading “GK Chesterton On Conservatism’s Necessary Changes”
An Unsettling Vision Of An Ugly Word
I’ve been reading Garry Wills‘ Certain Trumpets: The Call of Leaders (Simon and Schuster, New York, 1994; a light and entertaining read this election season) over the past couple of days–on the subway, naturally. On Monday night, as I rode back to Brooklyn from Manhattan to pick up my daughter on daycare, I came toContinue reading “An Unsettling Vision Of An Ugly Word”
Samir Chopra 