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Trump Says Go Back, We Say Fight Back

Robin D.G. Kelley Boston Review
I am not suggesting that white racism alone explains Trump’s victory. Nor am I dismissing the white working class’s very real economic grievances. It is not a matter of disaffection versus racism or sexism versus fear. Rather, racism, class anxieties, and prevailing gender ideologies operate together, inseparably, or as Kimberlé Crenshaw would say, intersectionally.

Not a Revolution -- Yet

Mike Davis Verso
We should resist the temptation to over-interpret Trump’s election as an American Eighteenth Brumaire or 1933. Progressives who think they’ve woken up in another country should calm down, take a stiff draught, and reflect on the actual election results from the swing states.

Slavery, Democracy, and the Racialized Roots of the Electoral College

Christopher F. Petrella African American Intellectual History Society
Race and racism in the U.S. context have long served as some of the most significant guarantors of democratic structures and institutions. In short, U.S. democracy itself is a racial project whose fulcrum hinges on policies of inclusion and exclusion.

'Sanctuary Cities' Vow to Protect Immigrants From Trump Plan

Gene Johnson NBC
Leaders in Seattle, San Francisco and other so-called "sanctuary cities" say they won't change their stance on immigration despite President-elect Donald Trump's vows to withhold potentially millions of dollars in taxpayer money if they don't cooperate.

The Sellout

Reni Eddo-Lodge The Guardian
This novel by Paul Beatty won England's Man Booker Prize last month. He is the first American writer to ever win the award. Here is a review of the book.

Why this Maine town pivoted from Obama to Trump

Eric Russell Portland Press Herald
Four years ago, when Obama won re-election, he carried this town by a 67-26 percent margin. This year, Trump won 50-42 percent over Hillary Clinton. They didn’t care about Clinton’s emails or where Trump likes to grab women. They cared about their jobs. They know Trump alone can’t save the mill from closure, but they felt they knew what they’d be getting with Clinton: Four, or even eight, more years of the same.

'Sky Ladder': The Art of Cai Guo-Qiang

Robin Menken Hollywood Progressive
Ever since his workshop days in Japan, gunpowder artist, Cai Guo-Qiang, has been obsessed with creating a Ladder In The Sky, exploring ways to create a structure that could hang in the air and support a series of fuses. Each time he found a sponsor to underwrite the Ladder something fell through, Finally, as shown in the film, he decided to pay for the experiment himself, to create it in the fishing village on Huiyu Island, Gwanhzhu, where his grandmother was born.

Empire of Chaos With President Trump, Is the American Experiment Over?

Tom Engelhardt TomDispatch
In September 2002, Amr Moussa, then head of the Arab League, offered a warning I’ve never forgotten. The Bush administration’s intention to invade Iraq and topple its ruler, Saddam Hussein, was already obvious. Were they to take such a step, Moussa insisted, it would “open the gates of hell.” His prediction turned out to be anything but hyperbole -- and those gates have never again closed.

12 Coal Miners Died On This Man’s Watch in 2006. Now Trump Wants to Make Him Commerce Secretary.

Zoe Carpenter The Nation
 Ross made his money collecting “distressed assets”—failing steel and textile mills in the midwest and south, and coal mines in Appalachia. Dubbed the “The King of Bankruptcy,” Ross cut jobs, wages, pensions, and health benefits at the companies he acquired, and reaped the profits.   So much for Trump’s supposed commitment to coalfield workers.