Race and Racism

Colorado teen kills self as sign of Nazi allegiance: “I have crippling depression but I shall cure it by killing Jews”

Oct 17, 2016 | Conservativism, Elections, Elections - Presidential (2016), Extremism, Jewish Experiences, Political Ideologies, Race and Racism

Published: Salon (October 17, 2016) The suicide of a Colorado teenager has been linked to a Nazi-themed Facebook group that the young man apparently led. The teenager apparently believed that killing himself would “show his allegiance to the Nazi Party and the killing of Jewish people,” according to local law enforcement officials. The theory stems from a message he wrote shortly...

Interview with Franchesca Ramsey: Yes, Trump supporters are deplorable!

Oct 4, 2016 | Arts and Entertainment, Elections, Elections - Presidential (2016), mic, Race and Racism

Published: The Good Men Project (October 4, 2016) A brief thought on the kind of person – well, let’s be honest here, the millions of people – who may wind up electing Donald Trump as the next American president. Unflattering things have already been said about them, and deservedly so, because their behavior is frankly deplorable. But let’s start this article on a happier note. Last week I had...

Mike Pence, a heartbeat away from the presidency? Now that’s frightening

Sep 22, 2016 | Conservativism, Elections, Elections - Presidential (2016), Extremism, Gay Rights and Other LGBTQIA Issues, Gender and Sexism, mic, Political Ideologies, Political Parties, Race and Racism, Republicans

Published: Salon (September 22, 2016) Why isn’t Mike Pence a major issue in this campaign? In any other election, Pence would be to a Republican presidential nominee what Sarah Palin was to John McCain back in 2008 — that is, an extreme right-winger whose presence on the ticket is widely regarded as a liability. Of course, this is the year in which the GOP tapped Donald Trump to be its...

Jews must speak out against Islamophobia: Standing with our Muslim brothers and sisters is critical

Sep 14, 2016 | Jewish Experiences, mic, Race and Racism, Religion and Religious Issues

Published: Salon (September 14, 2016) When news first broke earlier this week that a mosque in Orlando had been set on fire, presumably because it had been attended by Omar Mateen, the man who in June shot 49 people to death at the nightclub Pulse, I immediately thought of Alaa Basatneh. Three weeks earlier I’d interviewed the Syrian-American journalist and activist and had been struck by her...

The online trial of Nate Parker

Aug 25, 2016 | Arts and Entertainment, Gender and Sexism, mic, Race and Racism, Scandals

Published: The Daily Dot (August 25, 2016) Is it OK to separate the moral flaws of an artist from the quality of their art? The answer is yes—so long as you understand the consequences. It’s become an American trending topic that we can’t ignore across our Facebook feeds. When we find out that Mel Gibson said anti-Semitic things, and Michael Richards used the N-word, or that Johnny Depp is...

Generation Trump

Aug 17, 2016 | Elections, Elections - Presidential (2016), Immigration, Race and Racism

Published: Salon (August 17, 2016) To understand precisely how Donald Trump’s presidential campaign has changed America, one need only look at a new pair of surveys. In April the Southern Poverty Law Center discovered that the Trump campaign has triggered an unprecedented wave of bigoted bullying in American schools: More than two-thirds of the teachers surveyed have had immigrant, Latino and...

From Gamergate to “Ghostbusters” to Suicide Squad: The Problem of Fan Entitlement

Aug 9, 2016 | Animals and Animal Rights, Gender and Sexism, Internet Culture, mic, Millennials, Race and Racism

Published: Salon (August 9, 2016) It’s easy to roll your eyes at the “Suicide Squad” petition. In case you’ve been lucky enough to miss the news, fans of the new movie “Suicide Squad” have created an online movement to shut down aggregation site Rotten Tomatoes for posting predominantly negative reviews of their beloved film. Cue the inevitable jokes about how nerds need to get a life. Is it...

Will Smith is right (I think)

Aug 9, 2016 | Arts and Entertainment, Elections, Elections - Presidential (2016), Race and Racism

Published: The Good Men Project (August 9, 2016) Before I get to why Will Smith is probably right, let’s dispense with why his hysterical right-wing critics are definitely wrong. At a press event in Dubai, Smith tried to find a silver lining to the dark cloud that is Donald Trump’s presidential campaign. “As painful as it is to hear Donald Trump talk and as embarrassing as it is as an American...

The Moral Case for Hillary Clinton

Jul 31, 2016 | Economic Policy, Elections, Elections - Presidential (2016), Immigration, mic, Race and Racism

Published: Salon (July 31, 2016), The Good Men Project (July 26, 2016) “What would it take for you to vote for a third-party candidate?” This question was posed to me by a good friend who, after supporting Barack Obama in the 2008 presidential campaign, became so disenchanted with the political process that he backed Libertarian candidate Gary Johnson in 2012 (not surprisingly, he plans on doing...

Trump isn’t Goldwater… He might win.

Jun 28, 2016 | Conservativism, Elections, Elections - Presidential (2016), Extremism, Gender and Sexism, Immigration, mic, Political Ideologies, Political Parties, Race and Racism, Republicans

Published: Salon (July 2, 2016), The Good Men Project (June 28, 2016) Back in March, I observed that Donald Trump had transformed the Republican Party in a similar way as Barry Goldwater. For those of you unfamiliar with the reference, Goldwater was a plucky arch-conservative Senator from Arizona who defied the GOP establishment by winning their party's presidential nomination in 1964. Although...

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