Alexandra Schwartz’s short, informative essay in the New Yorker—well, the title almost says it all: “The Tree of Life Shooting and the Return of Anti-Semitism to American Life.” Almost, but not quite. Please read it. Why? To glimpse the seemingly evergreen historical uses of antisemitism if you didn’t grow up like me, constantly reminded by the absence of ancestors and the words of those around you that we are always in jeopardy, that we live here on sufferance, on a provisional tolerance that can always be withdrawn.
Politics & Society
Teaching Racism and the Law at UCLA and Masaryk University
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Paul Von Blum reflects on his experience teaching a course on racism and the law at universities in the United States and the Czech Republic––a class both necessary and timely because “[a]ny discussion about American racism requires an analysis of its institutional foundations.”
Culture
Belonging Cuts Like A Knife
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I’ve heard it said that belonging sounds kind of soft, but to me, it’s a knife that cuts straight to the heart of our collective challenge. How do we cultivate a society that embodies the right to belong, that offers full cultural citizenship: justice and love, equity and compassion, the right to feel at home in one’s community, to feel safe in one’s school? To belong. It’s not clear whether school shooter Nikolas Cruz actually trained with the white nationalist militia Republic of Florida (the group’s leader claimed Cruz, then said he’d mistaken him for someone else. But Cruz had been aligned for years with white supremacist views, according to a high school classmate and others: “He would always talk about how he felt whites were a bit higher than everyone,” Charo said.
Politics & Society
What to do, when they play during the Star Spangled Banner
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Heard about NFL players taking a knee in protest during the National Anthem? Ron Seigel would like to suggest an alternative: displaying signs that emphasize “Liberty and Justice for ALL.”
Non-Violent Communication (NVC)
Nonviolence in the Face of Hatred
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The practice of nonviolence begins, for real, precisely when our actions, words, or thoughts are not aligning with our commitment. Because, as I finally understood recently, our capacity often lags behind our commitment.
Culture
Discrimination Against Black Workers
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Los Angeles Black Worker Center (LABWC) and National Employment Law Project (NELP) demonstrates the need for California to explore expanded anti-employment discrimination to better protect workers in the era of Trump.
Politics & Society
A Surprising Realization in America
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But whatever happens in the next Presidential election, it seems very hopeful to me that Trump might have made it possible for African-Americans and progressive white people to come together and feel ever more comfortable with one another.
General News
Moving from Fault to Cause: Looking for Systemic Solutions to White Supremacy
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What’s most pressing for me is to hold in the foreground two realities simultaneously. One is the red alert danger of erupting violence leading to serious harm to people who are already vulnerable… The other is the commitment to humanize everyone, including the brutalizers.
Culture
More Charlottesville's To Come – UNLESS!
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However, unless we want to wake up at age 90 witnessing more of the same we must take a new and deeper look at this endless tension, anger, and hatred by too many whites toward too many non-white people.
Politics & Society
Nazis, Jews, and African Americans at Charlottesville
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But the urgency of the political moment also makes a specific demand of Jewish-Americans: let us continue to earn the wrath of the alt-right by standing on the side of justice for all.
Culture
Oh Crap! I’m Triggered Again, Part One
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Holding steady when the ground is moving is normally part of my stock-in-trade.People often ask me for something to help put their own fears into perspective. Usually I am willing and able to oblige. Mostly I try my best to see the bigger picture, and mostly that effort pays off. But not now. I was staying more or less centered until a few days ago when something caught me off-guard. In the middle of a conference call, I got a text message carrying information that turned out not to be true, that the Barcelona terrorist who mowed down 13 lives like grass had been heading for a kosher restaurant on Las Ramblas, hard by the assassin’s abandoned car.