It is the weekend, so we shall sing. These are the Novos Baianos on Samba da minha terra, a very old song by Dorival Caymmi. Recommended weekend reading includes two posts by Rebel Girl, on Rubén Salazar and on Labor Day. Axé.
Please read Automatic Preference on the Jena 6 situation. Highlights inlude: White students hung three hangman’s nooses from a tree near Jena High School, immediately after Black students received permission to sit under that tree. A fire at Jena High School, arson suspected, no arrests. White-initiated fistfight, no serious injuries resulted: white student charged with … More Mychal Bell
There are many more videos, all different and each as interesting as this, at Voices from the Gulf. Axé.
I Long ago someone I knew made a diagram of the graduate programs in which his wife and her friends, of whom I was one, were studying. The diagram drew and explained the parallels between these programs and the branch of the military they most resembled. The military parallel for my program was the Marines, … More On Becoming a Professor
Hurricane Katrina was two years ago today. It was also my cat’s fifth birthday. Today he is seven. He has lost two fangs in the intervening time and Louisiana has lost two fangs as well. I have lost a molar to Katrina-related family tragedy, still unresolved, but I have gained four fangs by rejecting Reeducation. … More Fangs
Via Liprap, New Orleans City Council member Shelley Midura’s letter to George W. Bush, on the occasion of his visit to new Orleans for the second anniversary of Hurricane Katrina: August 28, 2007 Dear Mr. President: Thank you for visiting New Orleans for the second anniversary of Hurricane Katrina, the worst federal levee-failure disaster in … More Shelley Midura
I Z: What are the characteristics of “Our America” in the famous essay by the same title? Student: Well, I understand that the author is referring to the multicultural, intellectual and spiritual Latin America as opposed to the industrial, utilitarian, and Anglo-Saxon United States. But when you actually read the essay this is not so … More Illuminations
In her article on the semiotics of guilt in Garro’s work, Ana Bundgard asserts that falling into guilt is transgression and rupture, a necessary evil for anyone who aspires to status as subject. By taking on the role of writer, Lelinca carries a burden of guilt that represents rupture from the paradise of the patriarchal … More Ana Bundgard
Cross posted at Seminario Permanente de Teoría y Crítica: In [a book] [a critic] distinguishes between silencing, a condition imposed from outside, and silence freely chosen. She further suggests that the latter can take two forms: using silence as a weapon or breaking silence with hipocrisy. The interplay between silencing and silence . . . … More Elena Garro
Mychal Bell is being sentenced in Jena September 20th. Color of Change is organizing a rally in support of him that day (the text of their e-mail follows). I cannot go because Thursday is a major teaching day for me, but I would otherwise. It seems they expect many people to be coming in from … More Jena, LA
coldhearted scientist وداد 