justice

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Columbus and Memory

October 12, 2009 in Columbus, Columbus Day, colonialism, injustice, justice, memorials, memory, racism by John | No comments

Two years ago, I posted this reflection on Columbus Day. I was prompted to the reflection in part by an ongoing tiff with the very idea of Columbus Day, the idea that we mark such a terrifying event in world history with a day of leisure. I was prompted just as much (or more) by a New York Times article on laying claim to the Columbus name…what it means to be a long descended relative, etc. On this Columbus Day, I wanted to revisit the holiday and a particular video that’s making the viral rounds. Read the rest of this entry »

Post Election, Post Racism?

November 6, 2008 in African-Americans, Barack Obama, injustice, is racism dead?, justice, post-racism, racial representation, racism, whiteness by John | 9 comments

OK, so a long election cycle is over. I wondered if the chattering class – a class to which I aspire – would have much left to say. I mean, seriously, so much has been said already. I’m of course wrong. I should have known that the big and apparently only question would be raised: will this election lead people to say that racism is over?

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Repairing, Apology

August 2, 2008 in African-Americans, Barack Obama, apology, election 2008, forgiveness, injustice, justice, memory, poverty, racial representation, racism, reparations, slavery apology by John | No comments

I’m really not enjoying the strange journey of race in the presidential election thing. I doubt many people are, save for the occasional Karl Rove, for whom it is a fabulous tactic – if you’re creative. I must admit to being surprised, though, to see the issue of reparations come up. It’s a nuanced and compelling issue, if one has the time to examine all of the folds. It’s about memory, state history, back wages, social justice, economics, the nature of representation, and so on. But that’s too much to ask. Turns out, sometimes a non-reparation actually is one.

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Fear, Hope

March 28, 2008 in African-Americans, Barack Obama, Jeremiah Wright, Martin Luther King, colorblind racism, colorblindness, election 2008, injustice, justice, memory, racial representation, racism, whiteness by John | 4 comments

Reprinted from The Public Humanist. It is always a nice thing to see Socrates made contemporary. Or at least have something to say about about contemporary things, so I’m just so pleased to see Robert Meagher write this piece about fear and hope. The range – and so the possibilities – of human emotion is one of those perennial philosophical issues. And too much evidence points to the constant presence of fear, too little presence of hope. I find a small thread of both hope and fear in the same place these days: race and all those companion emotions.

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Keeping Company

March 19, 2008 in "A More Perfect Union", African-Americans, Barack Obama, apology, colorblind racism, colorblindness, confession, forgiveness, injustice, justice, memory, racial representation, racism, whiteness by John | 6 comments

I’ll add to the huge number of editorials and blogs on Obama’s “big speech on race.” I read the transcript and watched a bit of it, but not without some regret that it had come to this moment. Why did Obama have to give this sort of speech? Who provoked it and why? But it was provoked. No going back from that. And he gave what, to my mind, was a solid and actually quite brave account of his relation to all sorts of pain. Read the rest of this entry »

Our History, A Little Bit Of Messiah

February 19, 2008 in Barack Obama, Barack Obama is the messiah, Cindy McCain, injustice, justice, messiah, messianism, poverty, racial representation, racism by John | 7 comments

Two things struck me in recent campaign commentary and “controversy.” They say a lot about how, even at a moment when we are witnessing an unthinkable, the pain of the past seems to fog our vision. Yes, I’m talking about how it is entirely possible that we will have a black president. I wonder if we’ve even begun to register how the once unthinkable is almost mundanely becoming, well, thinkable (don’t we expect a bigger soundtrack?). The moment it becomes so momentous, however, that moment is being sunk by how painful the history that makes it “a moment” actually is… Read the rest of this entry »

Uncanny Poverty

January 30, 2008 in Bush, George W. Bush, John Edwards, Reagan, capitalism, ideology, individualism, injustice, justice, meritocracy, poverty by John | 3 comments

No one following the Democratic primary will be surprised that John Edwards stepped out of the race today. It didn’t happen and certainly wasn’t just wasn’t about to happen. I find his withdrawal sad, not because I’m especially enthused about him, the Democratic party, or our particular brand of democracy, but only because he was such an uncanny presence – he talked about poverty. And this is part though not nearly enough, of the Time magazine story on his candidacy: why Edwards did not catch on… Read the rest of this entry »

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