March 2012
9 posts
Joel Olson, 1967-2012 →
Mourning the Loss of a Colleague, Comrade, and Friend
We are deeply saddened by the loss of esteemed activist, writer, scholar, and NCV Contributor Joel Olson, who passed away while on sabbatical in Europe.
Joel was Associate Professor in the Department of Politics and International Affairs at Northern Arizona University in Flagstaff, Arizona, where he specialized in political theory. A noted...
White Picket Fences, White Innocence →
[N]ational security meant protecting white homes and white property values. Open carry and stand your ground laws merely reinforce this regime by giving white citizens carte blanche to police the “dangerous” racial other. Fifty-seven years after Emmett Till was lynched in the name of white womanhood, the murder of Trayvon Martin…is yet another testament to the terror of white picket...
Racially-Approved American Murder: They Kill... →
Florida and lots of other states in recent years have noted that too many Black people are getting away with life, and need to be stopped, so they crafted legislation that would allow white fear to trump Black rights to breath air. In such jurisdictions, evocation of white fear now provides the same justification for summary murder as claims of rape of white women did for mob lynchings, back in...
When predominantly white “activist” types converge on public space downtown, it’s called Occupy Baltimore (@occupybaltimore), and it’s allowed to continue relatively unmolested by the state for many months. When predominantly black “non-activists” converge on that same space, it’s a “chaotic” “mob” and is met with the full force of...
“To call #GeorgeZimmerman a monster is too easy. And it lets everyone off the...”
– Son of Baldwin, for #TrayvonMartin (via sonofbaldwin)
Two Visions of ‘Black’ Evil, One White Gaze:... →
While Trayvon Martin is the farthest thing from Joseph Kony, the fear they cause, the criminality within the dominant imagination, and their presumed threats to civilization leads to similar treatment irrespective of their polar existences. If this wasn’t the case, maybe we could see a nationwide push to bring about justice for Martin. In this transformative world, financial contributions would...
