Published: Daily Dot (November 26, 2014) Last week, presidential historian Douglas Brinkley boldly claimed that Barack Obama’s executive order on immigration would cause him to be remembered as “a folk hero to Latino Americans.” While I can’t speak for the collective cultural memory of another ethnic group, Brinkley is right about one thing—President Obama has put himself on the right side of...
Race and Racism
Stop comparing the Ferguson riots to the O. J. case
Nov 26, 2014 | General Advice, History, mic, Race and Racism
Published: Daily Dot (November 26, 2014) The Internet has the potential to communicate empathy unlike any other form of media in history. Unfortunately, as much of the online response to the Michael Brown shooting and Ferguson riots makes clear, it can also push us in the opposite direction. In a recent article on the role of online activism in mobilizing African-Americans against racial...
3 Reasons Why Wearing Blackface Is (Almost) Never Okay
Nov 11, 2014 | Arts and Entertainment, mic, Race and Racism
Published: Daily Dot (November 11, 2014) Why can’t we get over blackface? Take the backlash against Nisha Damji, the British woman who complained about a pub owner’s use of blackface. After expressing her feelings in an online forum, Damji was greeted with online comments that ranged from lame excuses (it was an “absurdist” joke and the man’s black friend dressed up as a “black klansman”) to the...
5 Things Our Education System Needs To Start Teaching… For The Sake of America
Nov 6, 2014 | Education, Gender and Sexism, History, mic, Race and Racism
Published: Good Men Project (November 6, 2014) Matthew Rozsa wonders if the American education system is producing good citizens. As Americans wind down from the 2014 midterm elections (and, inevitably, begin preparing for the presidential contest two years hence), this question deserves special attention. In any society even ostensibly structured according to democratic principles, the...
Why Ben Stein Is A Disgrace To Nerds Everywhere
Nov 6, 2014 | General Advice, mic, President Obama, Race and Racism
Published: Daily Dot (November 6, 2014) Ben Stein’s credibility as a nerd is dead, as Stein’s recent controversial (and patently untrue) claim that President Obama is the “most racist president there has ever been in America” is evidence that he’s departed the critical thinking train. Since nerds seem to rule the world, it’s time for them to come for one of their own....
The Creator of Westboro Baptist Used to Be a Die-Hard Civil Rights Fighter – What Happened?
Mar 16, 2014 | Gay Rights and Other LGBTQIA Issues, History, mic, Race and Racism, Religion and Religious Issues
Published: mic (March 16, 2014) Reverend Fred Phelps, the founder of the notorious Westboro Baptist Church, is reportedly "on the edge of death" at a hospice in Kansas. In case your memory needs refreshing, Phelps is best known for organizing protests at the funerals of anti-LGBT hate crime victims, soldiers, and celebrities under the slogan "God Hates Fags." He also used to be a champion of...
There Are 939 Active Hate Groups in the United States. Here’s Where They Live.
Mar 7, 2014 | Extremism, mic, Original Source Salon.com, Political Ideologies, Race and Racism, Religion and Religious Issues
NFL Players Getting Fined for Racial Slurs Exposes a Massive Oversight
Feb 28, 2014 | Arts and Entertainment, History, mic, Race and Racism
Published: mic (February 28, 2014) It's the NFL off-season and while players are on vacation and there's no good excuse to get debauched on a Sunday any longer, something else is afoot — NFL rule changes. On Feb. 22, news broke that the NFL's Competition Committee is considering an automatic 15-yard penalty for use of the "n-word" on the field and presumably other racial slurs. This opens up a...
Watch As These Conservatives Recycle the World’s Worst Talking Point
Jan 21, 2014 | Conservativism, Democrats, Extremism, Gay Rights and Other LGBTQIA Issues, Gender and Sexism, mic, Political Ideologies, Political Parties, Race and Racism, Republicans
Published: mic (January 21, 2014) You'd think that conservatives, after being repeatedly humiliated for their insensitivity toward rape victims, would have learned to be careful when discussing the plight of the marginalized and oppressed. For proof that this lesson has yet to take, let's look at one of the right wing's most obnoxious, entitled, and ill-informed rhetoric motifs: comparing...
You’d Never Believe What Kind Of Economics MLK Believed In
Jan 20, 2014 | Class Issues, Economic Policy, History, mic, Race and Racism
Published: mic (January 20, 2014) If he was alive today, Martin Luther King, Jr. would not have been a Republican. In light of the frequency with which he is cited as a hero and role model, that point cannot be reiterated enough. We often hear about King's crusades to end legal segregation in the South and de facto segregation in the North, but far less attention is paid to the inextricable link...