So in following up the earlier post on the pathology of patriotism, I figured it might be worth re-posting links to a few additional older essays, all of which addressed this subject of “American Exceptionalism.” It is that, after all, which Rudy Giuliani and other right wingers accuse President Obama of failing to endorse (when […]
In light of the recent ventilations of Rudy Giuliani, to the effect that President Obama doesn’t “love America” like “the rest of us do” — because of the way the president has framed, among other things, the actions of ISIS and our response to it — I thought it might be worthwhile to revisit an […]
There is none so dangerous as the white American who waxes nostalgic about what he or she likes to call “the good old days.” Or, alternately, those “simpler” times, or the era of so-called “innocence” remembered from their childhoods, memorialized in a Norman Rockwell painting, or via televised re-runs of the Cleaver family, or Opie […]
Published in LIP Magazine, www.lipmagazine.org, May, 2006 Writing about the future — in this case, the future of race relations and racial inequality, but in truth about pretty much anything — is never a good idea. To prognosticate about the fate of our fractured society is to invite retrospectives however long from the time of […]
Published in The Black Commentator, www.blackcommentator.com, 6/10/04 If one needs any more evidence that whites and people of color live in two totally different places, politically and psychologically, one need only look at the visual evidence provided by the death of Ronald Reagan. More to the point, all one needs to know about this man […]
Published on ZNet, www.zmag.org, 5/13/04 Though I have little faith in his ability to detect (or even define) irony, it would be interesting to know what the President thinks about the decision to reopen the investigation into the murder of Emmett Till in Mississippi, in 1955. Especially since Mr. Bush has spent the better part […]
Published on Counterpunch.org, June 30, 2003 I don’t know why these things amaze me, but for some reason they always do. Before the ashes were even cool from the recent riots in Benton Harbor, Michigan, much of white America had decided that it knew what was behind all the mayhem; at least if the white […]
Published on ZNet, www.zmag.org, 4/16/03 It appears as if contributions are pouring in from around the world, especially the U.S. and Great Britain, to help pay for the many surgeries needed by the Iraqi boy being called (in the Western media at least), “little Ali.” Putting aside the patronizing namesake given him by his current […]
Published on ZNet, www.zmag.org, 4/03/03 I figured it would happen sooner or later. Having written several columns questioning the notion that the current war in Iraq is about “liberation” of that nation’s people, it was only a matter of time before I received an email like the one this morning. “Well smartass,” it began, indicating […]
Published as a ZNet Commentary, April 3, 2003 Well, now we know. War is not a high-tech video game, or grainy footage of bombs as seen through night-vision goggles. It’s not swiftly moving tanks, displaying their mechanical prowess across the sands of the Iraqi desert. It’s not like the war games the soldiers planned for. […]
