Tidbits - Nov. 11, 2021 - Reader Comments: Swing Voters, Virginia, Progressive Caucus, The Squad; Films and Set Workers; Spartacus at 60; Langston Hughes; Palestine and Gaza; Student Vote; Multi-Cultural Children's Books; End Blockade of Cuba; more....

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Reader Comments: Swing Voters, Virginia, Progressive Caucus, The Squad; Films and Set Workers; Spartacus at 60; Langston Hughes; Palestine and Gaza; Student Vote was substantial; Multi-Cultural Children's Books; Help End Blockade of Cuba; more....

labor

There Is Power in This Union

Michael Kazin Dissent
The Democrats’ midterm triumphs in Nevada would not have been possible without Culinary Workers Union Local 226.

books

What Is Great about Ourselves

Pankaj Mishra London Review of Books
Five books by neoliberal authors extolling glories that never were, the essayist eviscerates a state of mind that flatters a cosmopolitan liberal tolerance that has been more at home with nationalism, imperialism and even racism and a worldview that presupposes a chasm between civilized whites and uncivilized nonwhites. even accusing leftists of enabling racism by such affronts as squashing alleged dissimilar people together on buses, trains and subway cars.

books

I am French

Jeremy Harding London Review of Books
Were the mass 'We are Charlie' demonstrations in France in support of 'We are France,' in the best republican tradition or a shot against Muslim immigrants signifying that 'You are not?' Polymath Emmanuel Todd argues that the demonstrations, like much of Charlie Hebdo's satire, were not so much attacks on toxic religious ideology as broadly anti-Muslim and anti-Arab, indicating that the vaunted French secularism has lost its solidaristic component, 'equality.'

tv

Against Type

Lucy McKeon Boston Review
Popular culture may be getting more diverse in terms of gender and skin color, but it's still mostly flat in presenting diverse human qualities and differences. Few characters play against type, which makes the exceptions all the more remarkable. Part of the power of characters playing against type is simply their insistence, humorous and without qualified explanation, of their existence. In other words, like most of comedy, its power is better experienced, not explained

Leonard Nimoy: A Man Who Embraced Humanity

Sergio España; Leigh Phillips
Leonard Nimoy's passing reminds us of the spirit of wonder and discovery represented by Spock and the Star Trek series. He not only inspired millions of us to become scientists, but he inspired us to understand the importance of questioning all authority. Part of Nimoy's gift was his ability to project serene confidence and compassion for humankind at the same time that we assumed he knew the deepest secrets of the universe.

Children's Literature and Diversity

Jenny Price; Aly Seidel
Kids' books are missing the diversity of modern America. In children's books, it can be easier to find talking pandas than characters of color. Only 6 percent of children's books published in 2012 featured diverse characters.
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