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State-sponsored segregation

From the very party that brought you the KKK and eugenics. Richard Rothstein chats about his new book The Color of Law. The publisher blurb here. (Unusually, it’s the subtitle that is more illuminating). Jane JacobsLiberalismracismregressive leftrichard Rothsteinthe color of law

Ostrich Parasitic Syndrome

Ostrich Parasitic Syndrome, (OPS), (os’trich [-trij] par’a-sīt’ik sin’drō-mē) n. a malaise manifest as (1) conceptual- myopia/dissonance/creep and moral impairment; (2) attenuated morality of misplaced solidarité commune; (3) ossified/closed system, fundamentalist and authoritarian in character with nihilistic inclinations; (4) resentment, malevolence, ignorance, cowardice, jointly and severally, tacitly or explicitly, in the service of dissimulation (تقیة‎‎); (5) variation of “useful idiot” (Lenin), proclivity…

The soft bigotry of low expectations

“Identity and power structure” type courses are ubiquitous across universities these days. It has fed the “activism masquerading as inquiry” expansion of the university underwritten by bureaucraps, mutually reinforcing each other and attracting students who prefer to regurgitate some off-the-peg easily digestible worldview to do their “teacher’s” bidding in the absence of critical thinking and evidence-based theorizing. Now I’m…

Zionism and the Black Church

Discovering that there were African-Americans in the 1970s who were also offended at the outrageous notion that ‘Zionism is Racism’, and voiced their loud and eloquent opposition, I was comforted. I took great pride in knowing that Black leaders in the U.S. not only condemned that ‘Zionism is Racism’ lie, but stood boldly with their…

Black Jews in Africa and the Americas

I’ve been following the fascinating work of Tudor Parfitt for the past thirty or so years. He is known primarily for his television programmes broadcast on the BBC and Channel Four. I finally got to reading his book Black Jews in Africa and the Americas. In this age of crude identity politics and “cultural appropriation” fundamentalists, the…

Walker Percy and the Atticus Finch Question

I’m not at all sure that Uncle Will suffered from a tragic flaw, indeed I’m firmly of the view that he didn’t. Still, on the whole an OK (ish) article (that over-plays the Catholic card). Best be advised that for an infinitely more finessed understanding of the topic one should read Uncle Will’s (Percy) most incredibly beautiful…