LENIN'S TOMB: American class self-identification
"It doesn't actually matter if it was the state or private capital who decisively formulated these conventions, but the poll question cited above is undoubtedly shaped by them. Decades of thought - or doctrine - are embedded in this simple query. It assumes that there is such a thing as a "middle class life", that it would have as its essential characteristics certain consumption patterns, and that the only real disagreement is over how important each element of consumption is. What's interesting about these results is that many respondents appear to have defied the implicit bias in the poll, and defined themselves as, say, working class when their income would give them a reasonable chance of access to all of the "necessary elements" of a "middle class life". "
Kevan Harris, "Are the Iranian Poor a Bunch of Welfare Queens?"
UC Berkeley student senate passes divestment resolution | KABOBfest
Much respect to Berkeley!
altmuslimah.com - Beauty: Part 2: Stories from You: Unlearning the obsession of fair skin
"“I often have to wonder [what] my great grandfather, who converted to Islam from Sikhism in Delhi, would [say if he were to] see all this. He broke from his family, lured by the egalitarian and authentic message of Islam. How would he feel if he knew, generations later, [that] his son would be confronted by educated, religious Muslims who are obsessed with skin color?”"
Qantara.de - A Literary Treasure from Hindu-Muslim Culture
""Hoshruba" is a fantasy epic written in 19th century Muslim India. Now Muhammad Ali Farooqi has produced the first ever translation of "Hoshruba" into any language. In this interview with Lewis Gropp he talks about this unique epic, Urdu literature, and the colonially induced Urdu-Hindi divide"
Federal Panel Finds NY Dept. of Education Discriminated Against Arabic School Principal
"ALAN LEVINE: Well, the popular conception about all this was that Debbie was the victim of a smear campaign. And she’s described that smear campaign. But she was really the victim of the Department of Education. The bigots in the community had no power to fire; the Department of Education did. They succumbed to the bigots. So that’s the significance. "
Truthdig - Israel Crackdown Puts Liberal Jews on the Spot
"“The impact of the Goldstone report is tremendous,” the Middle East scholar Norman Finkelstein said when I reached him in New York. “It marks and catalyzes the breakup of the Diaspora Jewish support for Israel because Goldstone is the classical [pro-Israel] Diaspora Jew."
...
“Israeli liberalism always had a function in Israeli society,” said Finkelstein, whose new book, “This Time We Went Too Far,” examines the Israeli attack a year ago on Gaza. “When I talk about liberals I mean people like A.B. Yehoshua, David Grossman and Amos Oz. Their function was to issue these anguished criticisms of Israel which not only extenuated Israeli crimes but exalted Israeli crimes. ‘Isn’t it beautiful, the Israeli soul, how it is anguished over what it has done.’ It is the classic case of having your cake and eating it. Not only were any crimes being committed extenuated, but they were beautiful. And now something strange happened. Along comes a Jewish liberal and he says, ‘Spare me your tears. I am only interested in the law.’ ” "Multiculturalism displaces anti-racism, upholds white supremacy. « Restructure!
"I think multiculturalism has been a very effective way of silencing anti-racist politics in this country. Multiculturalism has allowed for certain communities—people of colour—to be constructed as cultural communities. Their culture is defined in very Orientalist and colonial ways—as static, they will always be that, they have always been that. And culture has now become the only space from which people of colour can actually have participation in national political life; it’s through this discourse of multiculturalism. And what it has done very successfully is it has displaced an anti-racist discourse.
You know, I teach and I have young students of colour, they come, and they completely bought into this multiculturalism ideology. They have no language to talk about racism. They know that if they talk about racism, they will get attacked. "Ramzy Baroud, "Alternative Reading of the Al-Mabhouh Murder" (The Palestine Chronicle)
"But Palestinians – like many oppressed peoples around the world – have no right to their own narrative. Their story is negligible, if not wholly irrelevant. Israel commits the murder, Israel offers the explanation, and eventually Israel gets away with both the crime and the lie. Al-Mabhouh’s murder might eventually inspire several documentaries that highlight the murderous nature of Palestinian militants, and the unequalled brilliance of Israeli retaliation. Another Steven Spielberg’s Munich might already be in the making. The first scene of this would not be al-Mabhouh’s family forced to flee their village in Palestinian after untold butchery by Zionist militants in 1948. Instead it might show a dark-skinned, menacing Palestinian slaughtering two helpless Israeli soldiers pleading for their lives. "
Posted from Diigo. The rest of my favorite links are here.
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