This week we have witnessed a phenomenal act of social movement-making in an era when many, myself included, have wondered if meaningful change in the U.S. still possible. Some of that worry is about aging, I’m sure. As you get older and the people around you get older you are inclined to wonder if theRead More “Fascism”
Tag Archives: Cultural Criticism
How I Read “Between The World and Me”
Editors at The Atlantic invited me to review Ta-Nehisi Coates’s “Between The World and Me”. It’s a three week book club. Today marks the second week. The invitation came in on a Thursday, I think. The first review was to go live on the following Monday. I’m a few months out of grad school readingRead More “How I Read “Between The World and Me””
It Is Hard To Write While I’m Crying
It is hard to write while I am crying so this will be short. Plus, everybody else has already written All The Things. I just want to park a short reflection about Freddie Gray, Baltimore and our state of things more broadly. I spent the day yesterday arguing with, well, everybody (it felt like) aboutRead More “It Is Hard To Write While I’m Crying”
Writing About Living: My Corinthian Comments
These are not the kinds of things that academics admit to. That is why I have spent two years tied up in knots about merging my lived experiences with my data. But, even if I didn’t have years of experience working in for-profit colleges I would be closer to recent stories than most. My cousinRead More “Writing About Living: My Corinthian Comments”
Forced Context Collapse or The Right to Hide in Plain Sight
There is a whole brand of (mostly digital) journalism that culls social media content for stories. We can argue about the extent to which that is reporting as opposed to search engine optimization but it is fairly safe to say that this is a set of activities happening in the media domain. Almost from theRead More “Forced Context Collapse or The Right to Hide in Plain Sight”
When White Men Love Black Women on TV
With Olivia and Fitz and Annalise and Sam it has been noted that there’s a mainstream pop culture revolution happening in the representation of white men in relationships with black women. Has post-racial dating finally trickled down to black women? Are younger people less hung-up on race and more accepting of interracial couples in media?Read More “When White Men Love Black Women on TV”
Racists Getting Fired: The Sins of Whiteness on Social Media
Having a race is one long math equation. When you speak well and choose the right fork you can be a credit to “your race”. And so, of course, there must be actions that are a debit – a detriment – to one’s race. The list there is long. One can use profanity, wear designerRead More “Racists Getting Fired: The Sins of Whiteness on Social Media”
Riots and Reason
I truly believe that to be a good teacher, a decent writer or a perfunctory scholar one has to concede the limits of evidence, reason, and rationality. It is no wonder I believe that. Evidence, reason and rationality can rarely explain my place in this world. I know the limits even as I try to stretchRead More “Riots and Reason”
What Rhimes With Bad Cultural Analysis?
By now all of the smart people have written the smart takes on the New York Times’ television review crediting Shonda Rhimes’ with creatively manipulating the “angry black woman” stereotype. They’ve rightfully pointed out that critic Alessandra Stanley misattributes the creator of the forthcoming show How To Get Away with Murder. Rhimes herself pointed outRead More “What Rhimes With Bad Cultural Analysis?”
What Is Left to Say?
In his 1934 essay, “A Negro Nation Within a Nation”, WEB DuBois wrote: The colored people of America are coming to face the fact quite calmly that most white Americans do not like them, and are planning neither for their survival, nor for their definite future if it involves free, self-assertive modern manhood. This doesRead More “What Is Left to Say?”