Writing Worth Reading
Writing Worth Reading
"I want to challenge the received wisdom about difference, diversity and multiculturalism. I want to question what we mean by diversity and contest the claim that racism and multiculturalism are concepts at opposite ends of a pole"
The play, Clybourne Park, has become a cultural fixture during the Obama presidency. It suggests that, when it comes to race in America, not much has changed over the past half-century. "It is the audacity of rage, not hope"
US reaches tipping point in transition from "mostly white baby boomer culture to globalised multi-ethnic country". What does it mean? Will older Americans balk at paying for a generation who look less like themselves?
American citizen of Palestinian descent flies to Israel, aiming to visit sister in West Bank. On landing in Tel Aviv she faces immigration. Despite best preparations, it doesn't go well. Soon she's sent to the "Arab room"
First up: European nations used to be homogenous but have become plural because of mass immigration. Er, no. To believe this requires "historical amnesia and a highly selective standard for defining what it is to be plural"
"My wife and I have been living in France for the past nine months in a city near the Mediterranean coast. But it’s not quite what you think." Welcome to Montpellier, where the worst side of French society is on display
Who is George Zimmerman? Before you dismiss him as an irrational racist vigilante, read this piece. It adds some useful background and context on the accused in the killing of Trayvon Martin
"A white woman sidled up to me, leaned in close so no one near us could hear, and said, 'I’m racist.' Many people would be repelled. I was entranced. Here was someone who could tell me first hand how the racist mind worked"
In 1791, a mass insurrection broke out among Haiti's slaves. Today it is almost forgotten, and yet it shaped history almost as deeply as the two 18th century revolutions with which we are far more familiar – those of 1776 and 1789
"Instead of 'observe and report', Zimmerman, the wannabe lawman, chose stalk and pursue. He chose confrontation over investigation, taking the law into his own hands rather than waiting for police. He, not Trayvon, is the criminal"
Martin's killing has sparked national outrage. But it is not the first criminal investigation to upset Sanford's black community, whose leaders say police have repeatedly failed to properly investigate crimes involving black victims
Reporter investigates hate crime of convicted murderer Deryl Dedmon. "What I discovered was deeper, scarier, and more complex than a single country boy gone bad or even simple, pre-civil-rights-era racism"
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"The central human right in late-capitalist society is a right to remain at a safe distance from others"
