Since this is my first entry of 2016, I want to begin by noting that this year marks the 10th anniversary of blogging for me here at RMWMTMBM. There have been some prolific years (2008-2010) and some lean years (2012), but I’m proud to have kept this site more or less active and, with a…
Read MoreTonight, on Facebook and Twitter, I posted that I was “praying” for Minneapolis, for Chicago, for #BlackLivesMatters, for refugees fleeing violence and seeking safety and, more generically, for anyone and everyone who loves justice, defends and protects the most vulnerable among us, who is under assault, in danger and in need of not only our supportive solidarity, but our active advocacy. This was…
Read MoreThere are certain works of art in every medium– literature, theater, photography, sculpture, film, painting, music, et al.– that somehow manage, through an impossible-to-determinately-calculate alchemical combination of human creativity, the raw materials of Nature, and some other mysterious thing we might generically point toward and say “meaning” or “truth,” to reach beyond the mere representation…
Read MoreThis is the second installment of my Reading Coates posts, offering some reflections on Ta-Nehisi Coates’ Between the World and Me in light of our summer reading group’s discussion of the same. You can read Part 1 here. Before I jump right into Chapter 2, I want to take a moment to comment upon what I…
Read MoreI organized a reading/discussion group for Ta-Nehisi Coates’ Between the World and Me a few weeks ago and thought I’d post a few thoughts here as we go along. By way of context, I’ll note that our group is small (8-10 people) and we’re a mixed bunch of (mostly, but not exclusively) academics– from Philosophy, History, Africana…
Read MoreOver the last several years, I’ve steadily increased the amount of time I spend in my moral and political philosophy courses on the theme of “digital identity.” I’ve done so in part because one important cornerstone of my pedagogical practice is to use my courses to combat digital illiteracy– the single greatest vulnerability that will…
Read MoreI do not, in principle, hate academic faculty or departmental meetings. In fact, as someone who (many of my friends have rightly dubbed) a “certifiably pathological proceduralist“– no kidding, I would voluntarily stand out on the corner and pass out Roberts Rules of Order like evangelists pass out Bible tracts– I genuinely (ahem, naively) look…
Read MoreThe disappearance of citizens displays a perversely cruel and absolute sovereignty. —Ruti Teitel, Transitional Justice (2002) I should begin by noting that I started writing what follows last week, after the publication of the New York Times story on the “1.5 Million Missing Black Men in America” but before the popular uprising in Baltimore that began Monday as…
Read MoreYesterday, my good friend, fellow music-lover and ridiculously super-smart guy, Steven Thomas (Asst Professor of English and Director of Film and Media Minor, Wagner College), published on his blog a response to and critique of my post from a couple of days ago on the Thicke/Pharrell/Gaye lawsuit (“On Blurred Lines, Pop Music, Pirates/Thieves and Memphis’ Mustang Sally”). His…
Read MoreOver the last couple of years, the practice of including “trigger warnings” on course syllabi or articulating them aloud in classes that include potentially disturbing, offensive or triggering content has become the institutional norm, if not also a requirement (as it is more or less becoming at many institutions). What detractors remain don’t really question the fundamental advisability…
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