Dispatches From the Culture Wars - April 27, 2021
- Instant Death Penalty For Protesting
- The Anti-Wokeness Gestalt
- Republicans Are Splitting
- Rumors and Lies About Antifascists
- Debate: Anti-Anti-Semitism
- Save the Classics
- Ten Black Women Making Films
- Country Music in Context
- The Minimum Wage Divide
- Stand With Ken Loach
Instant Death Penalty For Protesting
By Bess Levin
Vanity Fair
GOP lawmakers in dozens of states have introduced anti-protest bills meant to silence people speaking out for justice. Oklahoma and Iowa, inspired by Florida basically encouraging drivers to strike protesters with their cars, passed similar bills granting legal protections in certain situations for drivers who hit protesters supposedly blocking the street.
By Will Wilkinson
Model Citizen
Maybe if I can make sense of the Bari Weiss gestalt, I can finally begin to understand the moral panic about “wokeness” and “cancel culture.” So let us plunge into the unknown and proceed to parse and interrogate this New York Post column with a spirit of analytically rigorous adventure!
By Michael Warren, Manu Raju and Alex Rogers
CNN
What started as a polite discussion about small business soon turned into a heated confrontation between unusual opponents -- Republican members of the House and their party's old friends at the US Chamber of Commerce.
Rumors and Lies About Antifascists
By Kelly Weill
The Daily Beast
As racial justice protests flared across the country in summer 2020, so did conservative fears of leftist protesters. From Oregon to Virginia, social media lit up with rumors about anti-fascists (“antifa”) or Black Lives Matter participants, who were allegedly coming to terrorize small towns.
How Not to Fight Anti-Semitism By the Editors of Jewish Currents
Jewish Oppression as a Historical Metaphor By Rachel Ida Buff, Jewschool
By M.G. Piety
CounterPunch
Classics as an academic discipline is pretty racist. There’s no question that many racists have appropriated classical culture, or their imagined version of classical culture, to support their own racist agenda. The question is the extent to which this imagined version of classical culture corresponds to reality.
By Jamilah Lewis-Horton
Bust
A few present-day breakout filmmakers forge their own distinct paths. Let's all continue celebrating the abundance of Black women filmmakers making waves in a largely white-male-dominated industry by amplifying their amazing contributions to the world of film. Here are 10 Black/BIPOC women filmmakers we should all be looking out for.
By Ted Gioia
Culture Notes of an Honest Broker
We have nurtured two sharply contrasting musical cultures over thousands of years. One celebrates conciliation and the settled life of the rural world, while the other revels in the nomadic triumphs of the fierce and passionate human predator.
By Ledyard King, Charisse Jones, Paul Davidson and Michael Collins
USA TODAY
CEO pay doubled, the minimum wage stayed the same. But Americans still can't agree on a raise.
By Gavin Lewis
Arena
The McCarthyite attacks on Ken Loach have taken a prominent pro-Palestinian human rights activist out of public debate. Attacking him as an anti-Semite also seals off media references to the expropriation and oppression of Palestinians that Loach actually is talking about.