In the early 1900s, the Jewish People’s Fraternal Order fought for multiracial democracy and Yiddish culture, building solidarity across ethnic and racial lines — until it was destroyed by the Red Scare. Review of From Popular Front to Cold War
It’s a confounding time to be Muslim in this country. A degree of Muslim culture I would have never thought possible when I was a kid is now imbued in the lexicon of Americans. I’m still a little shocked every time I hear non-Muslims say “inshallah.”
Poet Alison Luterman offers us lessons in neighborliness.
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The duality of Hamilton is difficult and challenging and frankly upsetting. That’s probably why Hamilton has since its Broadway debut spawned countless takes and critiques attempting to navigate its competing readings, trying to define it as either
The Democrats’ midterm triumphs in Nevada would not have been possible without Culinary Workers Union Local 226.
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.
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.'
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'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.
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