On responsibility, visibility

One of my favorite current essayists, Roxane Gay, has a piece up in the NYT about the recent events in a school in Columbia, South Carolina — In the wake of such indecency, there has been a vigorous public response — shock and outrage, with many people denouncing Mr. Fields’s actions. There have also been […]

On blindness

The NYT just posted a wide-ranging conversation between George Yancy and Seyla Benhabib in their The Stone blog — George Yancy.: We far too often fail to understand each other across racial divides. A “post-racial” discourse might even occlude the effort to do so. How do we create spaces for understanding the conditions of others, especially within […]

On interviews

I think I safely fall into the camp that would happily have a conversation with Terry Gross. I’d be lying if — like the Ira Glass note below — I didn’t admit to listening to her interviews to study the nuance of the art. From Susan Burton’s profile of Terry Gross in the New York Times […]

On a crisis of values

From Volker Türk’s remarks at the 133rd Assembly of the Inter-Parliamentary Union General Debate — Yet the single-most important challenge to the protection of refugees, as well as to reaping the development potential of migration more broadly comes from populist politics and uninformed public debates. They engender a climate of fear. In some countries there […]

On smuggling and securitization

In a discussion posted to Asylum Corner, Pamela DeLargy made an interesting point about smuggling and securitization — Asylum Corner: What is your opinion about the EU determination to focus on fighting the smugglers? Pamela DeLargy: The smugglers are only providing services, there is a demand for their services and they are just offering them. […]

On perpetrators and victims

Stumbled across a fascinating conversation hosted over at Foreign Policy: in discussing victims and perpetrators of genocide, Joshua Oppenheimer and David Rieff touch on film, intervention, kitsch and smugness. [note, the transcript is a reduxed version of the audio] Joshua Oppenheimer: Most nonfiction films dealing with human rights abuse tend to tell us that things are well in […]

On intersectionality

Over at The Washington Post, Kimberlé Crenshaw discusses intersectionality and action — Intersectionality was a lived reality before it became a term. Today, nearly three decades after I first put a name to the concept, the term seems to be everywhere. But if women and girls of color continue to be left in the shadows, something […]

On coolness?

The JSTORE Daily blog is a great repository of news and articles that otherwise would fall through the cracks. Via Erin Blakemore — There’s nothing as cool as academics pursuing their passions… but what happens when academics themselves lose their coolness capital? How should academics deal with being uncool? It’s a question posed by David Beer, who wonders how […]

On who lives, who dies, who tells your story

This will be an unproductive week, y’all. Why? Hamilton‘s available. (!!!!!!!) Via Alexandra Petri at The Washington Post, I don’t think many people have noticed what makes it so zeitgeisty. The reason “Hamilton” is making such a big splash is not just because it is terrific (it is) — diverse, lyrically brilliant, dense, emotional, erudite, cool. […]

On vulnerability

Emily Cousens in the Independent asks the question “Are Syrian men not innocent and vulnerable too?” — If our humanitarian sympathies are only summoned in response to children and families, then we risk dehumanising Arab men. This only helps to reinforce a history of Western misrepresentation, in which Arab men are viewed as dangerous, uncivilized, […]