From TNC: And I wonder if the problem of African-American History is that it so coldly and cruelly counters the American narrative. I have spent the past two decades thinking about that history and it’s ultimately made me more of a believer in the American project, not less of one. But that’s a relatively recent [...]

I have decided to spare everyone the epic, hugely pretentious “Harry Potter” analysis I spent the past couple of days penning, although it has prompted some other thoughts that I’ll be doling out in smaller portions.  One issue I included in that overlong post was my consternation at the casting of Robert Pattinson as Cedric [...]

One more for today: the NYTimes has a beautiful, moving personal essay from a Pulitzer-prize-winning reporter, coming out as an undocumented immigrant (aka illegal alien).  It made me cry in public, and the only other time that’s happened was when I broke my ankle.  I still remember the moment I found my mother’s green card, [...]

I haven’t written in a while, as things have been getting sorted out from various other formats into this shiny new centralized site.  Here are a couple things that have caught my eye:   My favorite thing that I’ve read recently is this, from the intriguing online magazine Triple Canopy.  It’s a history of debt [...]

Whenever a natural disaster strikes, a certain segment of humanity can always be counted on to respond in the worst way possible: by blaming the event on whichever quality they find most distasteful in the afflicted.  Hence Hurricane Katrina was a curse on the gays, the Haitian earthquake was a response to all that voodoo [...]

Dear playwrights, actors, directors, producers, sound board operators, ushers, stage managers, house managers, set designers, lighting designers, and concessionaires: Please.  I’m begging you.  Stop it with the blackface. You may think it’s been long enough.  You may think that all the hullaballoo is just about white liberal guilt, and you watch “30 Rock”, and Chris [...]

The Daily Show can be stale sometimes, but when it’s on point, it’s as trenchant and brilliant as ever.  I’m embedding the entire episode from Monday because it’s all worth watching (and also because the guest is from Cleveland… woot woot, C-town!!) (For some reason, I couldn’t get the embed for the full episode at [...]

Van Jones offers a concise and compelling talk about the link between environmental justice and social justice.  Absolutely worth watching.

NPR has an excellent podcast discussing Patton Oswalt’s recent essay on nerd culture in Wired.  Oswalt’s thesis is that nerd culture has been denigrated by the immediacy and widespread availability of once-difficult, more arcane pursuits (i.e.: it’s the Internet’s fault).  His essay is both well-written and deeply felt, but one issue that arises in the [...]