Unknown, “Painting of Queen Nefertari” (ca. 1298–1235 BCE)
Unknown, “Painting of Queen Nefertari” (ca. 1298–1235 BCE) Read More »
The Supposed Towson University White Student Union
Over the past two weeks, I have received questions from many people concerning the supposed White Student Union at Towson University. This is a delicate matter for me personally, for reasons I will explain. But it demands attention for numerous reasons, including the widespread and inaccurate reporting by the press. So I will address the matter here, while necessarily omitting certain details, as ethical and professional concerns demand.
The Supposed Towson University White Student Union Read More »
Len Jenshel, “World Trade Center, New York” (1979)
Len Jenshel, “World Trade Center, New York” (1979)
Len Jenshel, “World Trade Center, New York” (1979) Read More »
Corrupting Civil Rights: Sham Colleges, Loan Usury, and Soda
The beverage industry has been lavishing money upon civil rights organizations. And two of the biggest, the New York chapter of the N.A.A.C.P. and the Hispanic Federation, repaid the favor by filing an amicus brief supporting the beverage industry’s successful challenge to NYC’s new law regulating sugary beverages.
This was a particularly stunning revelation because if Mississippi is geographic ground zero for obesity in the United States, then African Americans and Latin@s are the demographic poster children.
Corrupting Civil Rights: Sham Colleges, Loan Usury, and Soda Read More »
Family Feud
Less than an hour apart, similar in size and population, and connected by I-95 and a tangled overgrowth of suburbs, Baltimore and Washington, D.C. are very much alike. The mid-Atlantic’s kissin’ cousins share everything from beautiful row home architecture to a painful history of Jim Crow segregation.
But the wealthier parts of D.C. have grown uppity of late, and you can blame Uncle Sam.
In Memoriam: Alvin Lee
When Chuck Berry, Keith Richards, Bob Dylan, or Paul McCartney dies, it’s gonna be in the news for weeks. And rightly so. They are true icons of that wheezing American art form called Rock n Roll. Alvin Lee died a couple of days ago, and that doesn’t deserve anywhere near the amount of attention from the wider public that greater luminaries will and have received. But I’m happy to see that he has gotten more notice than I would have otherwise expected. Here’s why. My entire teen years were spent in the 1980s. I know others had different experiences, but for me this was an aesthetic and sexual disaster of major proportions. And what’s worse, all I had to do was slightly turn my head to see remnants of the wide-lapeled sex, drugs, and rock-n-roll lifestyle that were worn like badges of honor by the friends’ older siblings. But to turn thirteen in 1980? This meant you were destined for a Reaganesque decade of AIDS, Just Say No, shitty synth-pop, and the most horrid hair and clothing stylings every fashioned by humans.
In Memoriam: Alvin Lee Read More »
The Snowless Snow Day
I awoke this morning to find scattered patches of snow on the ground and small droplets of water drizzling down from the sky. By mid-morning the snow was gone, washed away by the patter of rain. Nevertheless, before anyone’s 6:00 A.M. alarm clock could go off, the college where I work had sent official notice: it was closing for the entire day. It’s now nearly 3:00 P.M. Most of the days’ classes would have already ended, and there is still no snow on the ground. [Update: Essentially there was no snow] We live in a panic culture. Blame could be assigned to myriad causes: competitive media frenzies; gross litigiousness; a loss of machismo with the decline in blue collar labor; an infantilizing obsession with safety; a general softening in the world’s wealthiest nation. But whatever the reasons, there’s really no denying that American culture is now quick to push the panic button. Freaking out has become a national pasttime, and as the propensity for worrying grows, the scale of problems that beset us becomes more and more irrelevant. Increasingly fretful public reactions to minor inconveniences like holiday traffic and maybe half a foot of snow mirror the public reactions to real traumas like school shootings and economic downturns.
The Snowless Snow Day Read More »