The hope that Cornel West wrote about in Social Text in 1984 was not destined to become policy in 2008. The ones who practiced it, within and against the grain of every imposed contingency, always had a plan.
Could it be that racialized bodies who speak out of turn and engage in the renegade act of whistle blowing, especially risk feeling the cold wrath of administrative controls mangled in the terms of misconduct and professional integrity. Codes of…
On the 10th of June Colonel Muammar al-Gaddafi, leader of Libya, arrived in Rome for the first time since he ousted the monarchy in 1969. He addressed Italians saying: “you had apologised for what happened and that is what allowed me to be able to come here today”.
It must have been the most benevolent ethnic cleansing in the history of Europe. As Roma in Belfast found refuge in a leisure centre following a period of sustained racist violence in June this year, a whole range of the good and great from Stormont arrived to ask them to stay.
The purpose of this guide is to help you participate constructively in the Iranian election protests through Twitter.
On Friday, June 12 cleaning staff at London’s School of Oriental and African Studies (SOAS), employed by the company ISS, were called to an emergency staff meeting, where they were set upon by forty immigration officers and taken away for questioning.
Here in Britain, the widespread scandal of MPs fiddling their expenses looks like it’s going to play a significant role in determining voter behaviour in the European and local government elections on June 4.
Sound bites: poverty porn, slum tourism, imperialist guilt flick, post-colonial inequalities continued, Bombay’s underbelly revealed- revelled, brilliant, feel good movie, accurate portrayal, gross misrepresentation, a visual Lonely Planet guide to Mumbai, an (anti-)Indian movie, Bollywood mania. On television Boyle takes…
Slumdog Millionaire, darling of the international festival circuit and in February awarded eight Academy Awards, hit India in late January. I watched it on a sold-out Friday night during opening weekend; the movie is packing shows deep into March.
Apparently we all got carried away with Barack Obama. The excitement generated about race in the American election was, we are increasingly told, overblown. Sure, this was an important symbolic moment for black America, but our exhilaration now needs to…
Despite indications of a movement towards recession, some businesses in Ireland have continued to thrive. During the last fiscal year Bridgestock Ltd. increased its profits before tax by over 600% on an annual turnover of over 6.1 million. Bridgestock is…
Of the many strange permutations that the so-called ‘war on terror’ has thrown up perhaps none is stranger than that by which the distinctions between Left and Right which orientated Western metropolitan politics since the time of the French Revolution…
On stage at a recent gig in New York, Gil Scott-Heron complained that the designation of February as Black History Month (BHM) was just another example of black people getting short changed: having oppressed them for centuries through slavery and…
In his plenary talk at the Law and Critique Conference (2007)[1] Slavoj Žižek repeatedly asserted that liberal multiculturalism – and its ‘politically correct’ premise of respecting the other’s difference – is hegemonic. When asked questions about this position from the…
Call for Papers – Special issue of International Journal of Žižek Studies http://zizekstudies.org/
Guest Editors: Ashwani Sharma ash.disorient@gmail.com and Valerie Hill val.hill@coventry.ac.uk
The notion of race is routinely invoked in contemporary academia while at the same time its analysis is…
On the 30th of October 2007 Judith Butler gave the annual British Journal of Sociology lecture at the London School of Economics. It was called, ‘Sexual Politics: the limits of secularism, the time of coalition’.
Judith claims that the War…
The shambolic, illegal occupation of Iraq by Western powers has resulted in countless deaths (murder) of civilians.
The ‘war against terror’ is as much an info-war as it is one involving death and destruction.
Enter Wikipedia into the affray.…
I was about to comment on this US print advert for a new Intel computer chip, when after complaints of racism, Intel have apologized and pulled the offending ad.
This is Intel’s statement on their…
Before rehearsing those wonderfully myopic arguments about the internet as a space of unlimited freedoms beyond censorship, it’s worth bearing in mind the corporate nature of social networking sites like Facebook. Though you might not consider the ethics of corporate…
The failed terrorist attacks in London and Glasgow in late June were strange and shocking. They were so spectacularly inept and bodged that one has to question both whether they were intended to cause apocalyptic loss of life and their…
The upcoming Cultural Studies Now conference at the University of East London will be a major event examining the critical productivity of Cultural Studies as a discipline and political project. The conference raises a number of key issues:
‘Cultural Studies,…
Boxed In is a recent essay by Sonya Dyer under the Manifesto Club banner. It is a rather predictable critique of public funding of black arts and artists. The core of the well-versed argument is that racially targeted state funding…
Yet another post about Big Brother (BB) racism, but the last one you’ll ever need to read…
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Something unusual happened yesterday in a city built largely on the artifice of celebrity. Millionaire heiress and ‘Simple Life’ star, Paris Hilton was led screaming from an LA courtroom to an uncertain future and the possibility of actually completing her…
Anxious? Mixed Bipolar Disorder? Varicose Veins, need Botox, difficulty sleeping? Just a sample of the full page ads littering the front, middle and back pages of LA Weekly which incidentally sees itself as more Village Voice than Sunday Sport. Such…
While it is a relief to us all that the British National Party failed to make significant gains in last Thursday’s local elections in England and Scotland, it’s disturbing to find a growing acceptance of the Party amongst political commentators. Often hedging…
‘The Message’ or at least a version of the rhythm track spills out of the Buick’s windows. From my vantage point the sound leaks through from the concerns of another age. I’m sat in the car parked next to it…
If you surf the net you’ll eventually come across the buzz over the one laptop per child initiative. Simply put, it’s a scheme to make very low cost, open-source software based wireless laptops available to the children of the…
Hip-Hop has emerged as a serious area of study in the US. This article in the San Francisco Chronicle – ACADEMIC HIP-HOP? YES, YES Y’ALL by Reyhan Harmanci gives a useful overview of the rise of Hip-Hop studies in the…
This is a short article on racism and mental health in The Guardian (2 April 2007). The author succinctly argues that the continuing high levels of psychotic illness in people of African and Caribbean origin in the UK is of…
