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Dispatches From the Culture Wars - Hell on Earth Edition

Undocumented and indispensible; Beyond DACA; Artists in action; Black nativism; When conservative hearts bleed; Maria's thang about Serena

Ernesto Ramirez pauses as he cleans out his house that had been inundated with water after torrential rains caused widespread flooding during Hurricane and Tropical Storm Harvey on September 2, 2017 in Houston, Texas.,Joe Raedle/Getty Images. (artnet.com)

 •    All the Relief Money in the World Won't Rebuild Houston. Undocumented Workers Will. - Alexia Fernández Campbell (Vox)

 •    How DACA Pits ‘Good Immigrants’ Against Millions of Others - Joel Sati (Washington Post)

 •    In Post-Harvey Houston, Artists Can’t Look Away From the Inequalities Exposed by the Storm - John Pluecker (artnet)

 •    How Trump’s Anti-Immigrant Rhetoric Has Heightened the Barriers to a Black-Brown Coalition - Natalie Y. Moore (In These Times)

 •    Hurricane Harvey and the Stunted Moral Imagination of American Conservatism - Eric Levitz (New York Magazine)

 •    Maria Sharapova's Rivalry With Serena Williams Is In Her Head - Bim Adewunmi (BuzzFeed)


All the Relief Money in the World Won't Rebuild Houston. Undocumented Workers Will.

By Alexia Fernández Campbell
September 7, 2017
Vox

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Unauthorized immigrants were crucial to rebuilding New Orleans after Hurricane Katrina. And they are likely to be desperately needed as Texas rebuilds to clean streets, demolish buildings, and reconstruct homes and offices.

How DACA Pits ‘Good Immigrants’ Against Millions of Others

By Joel Sati
September 7, 2017
Washington Post

The policy was never an adequate solution to the nation's immigration situation, and the narrative around it has hurt immigrants.

In Post-Harvey Houston, Artists Can’t Look Away From the Inequalities Exposed by the Storm

By John Pluecker
September 6, 2017
artnet

Artists and writers are a part of communities, and if we want our communities to pay attention to our work, we have to be engaged and rooted where we live and work. Some artists jumped into boat rescue in the immediate aftermath. Many writers are penning impassioned updates on social media and online, giving reports from the Westside where the waters have yet to recede or from the working-class Southwest part of the city where recovery will surely be slow and painful.

How Trump’s Anti-Immigrant Rhetoric Has Heightened the Barriers to a Black-Brown Coalition

By Natalie Y. Moore
August 30, 2017
In These Times

The ‘taking our jobs’ myth continues to sow division in Chicago’s working class communities.

Hurricane Harvey and the Stunted Moral Imagination of American Conservatism

By Eric Levitz
September 7, 2017
New York Magazine

To stipulate that government can, and must, work to redress the harms wrought by economic inequality (including disparities in access to affordable health care) — or centuries of racial discrimination — is to indict the legitimacy of the market distribution of income and wealth. Conceding that government can, and must, redress the harms wrought by Tropical Storm Harvey requires no such indictment.
 

Maria Sharapova's Rivalry With Serena Williams Is In Her Head

By Bim Adewunmi
September 10, 2017
BuzzFeed

Sharapova's new memoir suggests that she still can't seem to accept the reality that her whiteness is not enough to compensate for her own failings.